The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-03-22 00:00:00

IR isccllancous.

Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston abstained
from voting on the motion for the abolition of church-
rates. Lord Stanley voted for the MCC/111.1 reading of Sir
John Trelawny's Hill, and Sir John Pakington against it.
. . . .

In Bradford district the stocks have again coma into
daily use.
M. Alexandre Dumas has arrived at Marieilles,
returning from his long travels in Russia and the East.
Mr. Henley has arrived at Trinity Bay, with his elec.
trimst instruments, in order to experanentalixe upon the
Atlantic cable. . . .

Five frigates are to he sheathed in iron so m to make
thew aliot-proof. The contract fur one is just con-
cluded. . _ _

The gendarmes arrested at Cagliari, a few days ago, •
notorious bandit, named Vasa de Agius, who is accused
of having committed more than seventy murders.
Lochard house, Dunbar, one of the seats of Sir John
Warrender, was destroyed by fire on Friday week. The
loss is estimated at between 00,000 and £io,ooo.

The commission charged with' the erestiot: of a mag-
nificent church in Madrid, in honour of the Immaculate
'onception, has decided on inviting the architects of all
Europe to send in designs.
Out of 9,WAI elms which three years ago adorned the
Champs Ely..6ei, in Park, :OW are dead, and
2,000 in a dying state. Cpwards of 800 are stated to
have perished by gas exhalations.
The Rev. Edward l'arry, for many years the private
secretary and domestic chaplain of the late and the
present Bishop of Ism. lon, has just been rewarded with
the living of Acton. Middlesex, the value of which is
between 1900 and £l.lol a year.
Two hundred of the Greenwich pensioners attended
Drury Lane Theatre on Pride/ evening, to hear the
opera of " and Susan, and to see the panto-
mime. They were admitted gratuitously; and Mr.
Wheatley, do, Greenwich omnibus proprietor, gave lois
omnibuses free of charge.
The Affghan chief, Sid Dyk Khan, who has been at
Constantinople for two years WI a refugee from Vanolahsr,
has left for Alexandria on board the Silistria, with a
suite of twenty-four persons. He intends proceeding
thence to England.
A surveying expedition of the Royal Engineers is to
proceed to Montenegro, for the purpose of making an
necurate survey of the boundary line to Constantinople.
Another expedition of the Royal Engineers is to survey
the Turkish and Persian boundary line. This expedition
ill likely tube absent from England three years.
Sonic combustible material was dropped into the letter-
box at the Devonpurt Post-office a few nights ago, and
nearly caused the destruction of the establishment. As
it was thirty or forty letters were totally destroyed and
about fifty partially burnt.
A clergyman in the county of Durham lately con-
cluded morning service with the following words :
" Wetherell, next Friday is my tithe-day, and those who
bring the tithes on that day shall be rewarded with a
gmkl lIIIIIIer ; but those who do not may depend upon
receiving a county-court NU 111111 l /11.1
William Hall, &bailiff, took possession of a labourer's
goods under a distress for rent. Whilst in poowsion. lie
indulgtsl hiusself with some elderherry-wine lie found in
the house. For this freeJmu he was committ.4.4 for
trial, awl, being convicted of the tlieft at the Worcester-
shire sessions, lie was;sentenced to twelve months' hard
labour.
A curious discovery has just been made in the
archieves of the City of London—a new fact about
Chaucer. In the reign of Edward 111, a lease was
granted to Geoffrey Chaucer./ a room above one of the
city gates— A hlgate and of the premises adjoi ll ill g,
The poet was the lessee, in the east of London, of a room
like that over Temple liar, and of • house adjoining,
like that of Messrs. Child.
The late Ur. Commissioner Phillips left personal pro-
perty to the value tof £11.0,000. It is left to his wife
absolutely, with the eweption of a gold smitfditatk, a
gololet, and a travelling-case, formerly belonging to the
Emperor Napoleon, which lie leaves to his Null, W. it.
Phillips, of the &tat India Company.
Tile Isle of Purim is now in possession of a subal-
terns guard of English soldiers. The English many
years ago temporarily uccupie I Perim and then aban-
doned it. It would appear that from that time until
! the re-occupation, the island bad never been visited, for
some buildings left by theiEnglisli were found in precisely
the same state as when they were abandoned.
! There is an anecdote circulating anent laird Brougham,
that lie was met leaving the house by a brother
peer, who had two very beautiful girls on his arms.
"Sorry to see you leaving," was the remark, "as these
young ladies came expressly to hear you speak." Lord
I Brougham, al A preux chevalier of the old school, de-
' eared that they should not be disamooiated—returned
to the House, and, asking some question on foreigu poli-
tics, was smiled off by Lord Melbourne, who was unpre-
pared ; whereupon was delivered one of his Lordship's
most memorable philippics, that shook the very founda-
tion of the Ministry ; and all this, says the narrator of
the annecdote, to please • pair of pretty women, who
took the compliment the same as they would a box at
the Opera or a whitebait dinner.