The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-05-18 00:00:00

Dorset Conutti exiiress.

TUIRDAY, MAY: 18. 145.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

There has been great gaiety of late in the
metropolis. The Royal family have been much
about, and the attendances at Court very
numerous. Her Majesty has now gone to Balmoral
to enjoy in its perfection the spring air and sun-
shine. The country never looked more charm-
ing. The chestnut& are in full blown, and
loveliest tints of green are inviting all lovers of
sylvan scenes to make the most of Whitsuntide.
The safety with which the members of the Royal
family have travelled in all parts of the world
has often been remarked upon. But the
Princess of Wales and her children had a
narrow escape from injury in running down to
Windsor to take farewell of the Queen. Some
mischievous boy dung a stone at the train with a
catapult, which made a hole in one of the thick
plate-glass windows, though fortunately no one
was injured.
It is startling to hear of the re-arrest of
O'Connor, who some time ago was apprehended
for presenting a pistol to the Queen in one hand
and a petition for the release of the Fenian pri-
soners in the other. It is strange that the news
reaches its only now considering that the young
lunatic was arrested on the sth inst., on the
occasion of the Queen's Drawing Room. It
now appears that he ought to have been in the
first instance placed in a lunatic asylum
"during Lier Majesty's pleasure," but instead
, of this he was sentenced only to a year's imprison-
; ment, awl after that he wits sent to Australia,
I whence he has sent letters to this country which
have clearly shown that he was of unsound
; d. It is a consolation to think that he is
I now safe at Ilanwell.

Members of Parliament are having their I
Whitsun holiday, and the work of the session
thus far is being reckoned. There is, however,
very little to tell of measures passed. The ,
Mamie rol ascribes the tardy progress of th G overn-
inent Bills, to the disorganised Opposition, hut
the Daily Nora says, of course, nothing
good is to be expected of these Tories.
" We know all that the Session can do in the
way of legislation, and we know that it will
not be much. It may, and in all probability will
fail to accomplish even the modest programme of
work which it has still before it. But it can do
so little in any case, and that which the Govern-
ment propose to do is of so vague and indecisive
a character that whether this thing be dune and
that left undone, or both be done, or neither,
will hardly have much effect on the history of
1875 as a year of Parliamentary labour." Per-
sonalities and questions of privilege have
absorbed a great deal of time, but there will be
serious work after the holidays. We expect a
lively time when the Agricultural Holdings Bill
is discussed in the Commons, for, undoubtedly,
the permissive principle will be severely criticised
and the details of the measure afford ample scope
for damaging amendments.
The Claimant is passing away—in a rapid
consumption, he fears. Ho has fallen away a
hundred and forty pounds since he has been fed
on Dartmoor diet. This is one of a number of
new troubles which Mr. Whalley industriously
brings before Parliament, only to get them dis-
missed by a word or two from the Home
Secretary. The public are glad to find that there
is such a thing as prison discipline, so that people
who, through perjury and imposture, try to rob
their neighbours, need not comfort themselves
with the belief that all their little comforts, and
especially their portliness, will be secure, even if
liberty should be sacrificed. There are people
so very much bored by the Claimant's ridiculous
friends—Mr. Whalley and others—that they
would hardly be sorry to hear that the Claimant
had not only perceptibly reduced in size, but
vanished altogether.
The air has been full of rumours of a fresh
rupture between France and Germany, which the
improbabilities of the case did not dissipate
until a heavy depreciation of public securities
had taken place. 'Fhen, almost immediately, the
mediums through which these rumours were cir-
culated were loud in talk about the Continental
"scare." There was something in all this com-
motion however; and of that everyone was
convinced when Mr. Bourke, the Linder-
Secretary for Foreign Affairs—a statesman of the
tyke of Lord Derby, who well weighs his words
—announced in Parliament that satisfactory
assurances hall 174131 received from Berlin, and
that there was no further need for anxiety.
, Gutting at the foundation LA these rumours
means getting at the bottom of Prince liisinarck's
diplomatic schemes, which is a very dittic.iilt
thing to do.