The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-07-13 00:00:00

LATEST NEWS.

REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE.
The grain trade has maimed a firmer tone at Mark
Lane to-day. Wheat has reached an advatwei.of. _
the
—.—
qr., and the top price of town made flotuer.d
quotation now being as. the qr. n moo is who'll NOTES OF THE WEEK.
The Prince of Wes's visit to India is esti-
al doe to the lea favourable weather.
It does not appear that any actual damage bag ?teen
.
sustained by the growing crops, anti if existingosPrreP_ mated to cost £l42,ooo—that is, R. 52,000 to take
alone be dissipated by a duration of brilh 0
ant e
al probability trade would return to its previownpneac.rf his Royal Highness and his suite across the sea
state. The present in, however, a very critical pen _ VO,OOO on land, and £60.,
of her
y1)1 e,ri: M-sPecaajrse s°tthnyaa'
juirus
tinnodwoutetzolylely. expenses. The
pr.
Ginodyiearnmiltai el
In Government
determined by the weather. n
othnaltanwil"lale
lartimaemas supply and
dlanthteyeenarusr"en:" There in
• butt.likaseliyt
ashildallthat a special vote
In madly in the hands of weatthy growers, it is no
shall be taken for his Ito' yell Highness's personal
to come forwent with affairs in their present uncertain
expenses, Sir W. Anderson be'
condition ; and; an probability. net a sinall;portion will
be held over until after harvest. The quantity of wheat
now on is ahout five million three hundred and audit the b being appointed to
fifty tleir"::: quarters. Spring earn has been quiet. to . accounts, but the accounts themselves
Oats Is. lower. be considered strictly confidential. The
illiifeounlnty,tofotrhowchuesntomins
P,lainfnmenddlian,lid,tt:liaine,aremaPnrt!stnahteelelemigriint,it;sttia)credi-nii7
not;
manadnytaNkeattiohnsem,4
where there are at least ninety reigning Sover-
eigns, this custom must be costly, for unless the
presents are worthy of England and the Prince
we had better make none at all. However, if
the Government thinks £60,000 enough to cover
these presents and all the it relents of six months'
travel, the House of Commons has nothing to
do but to vote that amount, wish the Prince
pleasant voyage and tour, and a safe return
I home. His Royal Highness leaves England in
October in the Serapis, with tho Osborne in
attendance, and the Indian fleet is to rendezvous
at Bombay to give "that pomp and circumstance
to the visit which becomes the heir of one who
is still the Sovereign of the Seas."
A valuable impulse to Sunday school teaching
has been given by the formation of branches of
the London Siinday School Institute in various
parts of this county, and the meeting at Broad-
wey un Thursday illustrates the wonderful
advance that has been made since Raikes,
of Gloucester, first received the inspiration
which led him to collect children together for
Bible reading on Sundays. The Education
Act, under which School Boards have been
established in considerable numbers in this
country, although not yet throughout it, has
stirred up the denominationalists everywhere to
more earnest efforts for inculating on Sundays
that religious teaching which is increasingly
excluded—whether rightly or wrongly we need
not now inquire—from the ordinary course of
day school instruction;_ and the Sunday School
Institute promotes the adoption of the best method
of teaching, by its agents giving before bodies
of teachers model lessons, issuing a literature of
its own with the same object, and gathering
together those engaged in the work of Sunday
schools for friendly intercourse and mutual
advice. At the Broad wey meeting& "model lesson"
was founded on the sunshine that irradiated
the beautiful grounds where the meeting was
held, and which acquired special significance
front the dark clouds and frequent showers
which but a short time before had threatened
altogether to prevent their gathering. Such a
lesson was undoubtedly far-fetched, and might
accord with Deistic, even materialistic, teaching;
and exception was taken to it on the ground
that it failed to set forth the orthodox faith as
to the Second Person in the Trinity. But the
question was hardly worth discussing, for we
may be sure that very few Sunday school
teachers would follow the line of instruction
indicated. As a rule their efforts are less ambi-
tious, to say nothing of their abilities; and if
they can illustrate the subject of the lesson
topographically and historically, recall with any
vividness its scene, and enforce a practical
application which may be helpful in our
common daily life, they have surely done well,
and as much as can be expected from untrained
voluntary teachers. In this view the Broadwey
lesson seems of small value, and perhaps that is
so ; but it seems to show that the varied objects
of nature, and not alone the Bible, may at
fitting times be usefully adopted to lead to
Nature's God ;" and when we consider how un-
appreciative most of us are of "all the blessings
of this life," at any rate in so far as regards
thankfulness to their Author, and a constant
realization of His presence, these natural
object lessons may serve to direct the minds of
the young in a useful channel. But, obviously,
this kind of teaching must he very exceptional,
and beyond a possible widening of the range if
a Sunday school teacher's illustrations, Mr.
Fleet's model boson does not seem to us to be
of any special value to the generality of Sunday
school teachers.
For many years the General School at Bridport
has been one of the most, if not indeed the most
A STEAM Eft STRUCK BY A WHALE. ' successful in the Wist of England; and boys,
The Omani steanier Scythia. which arrived at Queens- who received their only education within its
town on Satenlay, was atrnek hy a whale when about
three miles (nee Roehe's Points and one Made of her walls are now spread throngl t the Queen's
propeller was hroken off. Several of the Passengers ills- dominions, and not a few of them are honourably
tinedy saw a wish twelve feet lone in the body of the filling situations of which their humble origin in-
(Heated no promise of attainment. There are no
doubt heaven-born geniuses in Bridport as in
other places, but the master has not met with
many of them; his boys have been mostly ordinary
English lads, with a desire for "getting on,
cirdinary aptituae for learning, a fair amount
of perseverance, and a wholesome realization
of the fact that as they were not "born with
silver spoons in their mouths" they must
strive for themselves. lit such as these he
has awakened the Divine thirst for knowledge,
he has wisely guided them to its Pierian springs,
and there they have gained wisdom and strength
to fight the battle of life successfully. Years
roll on, boys come for a few years to school
and go out into the world, to be succeeded by
others, and for the master there is the same dull
round ; yet to him it must be a great joy to
hear now and again of the little urchin he first
taught to read being a Comumissioner in India,
a merchant in London, a man who is making
his mark in one position or another. Education
is a marvellous lever when rightly applied. We
are glad to find that similar SUCCLIIB attends the
girls' department of the same school. The meeting,
which we elsewhere report, shows that notwithstanding
increased accommodation and improvement in other
schools, the General School retains the favour of
parents ; and that it does so worthily is proved by
the large Government grants earned. Unfortunately
the subscriptions and school pence do not keep pace
with them, and, under the rules of the Education
Derartinent, the managers lose the excess earned over
the contributions. It is to be hoped that the friends
of education in Bridport will prevent this from hap-
pening again, as it is discouraging to a mistress and
entails a loss on all concerned.
Those who travelled by the four o'clock train
from Portland on Thursday afternoon were no
doubt all unconscious that they had their lives
seriously jeoparised by the freak of a 12-year
old boy of Wyke. He is described as having a
"malignant squint, and his conduct indicates a
strange inclination to maliciousness of which the
" squint " may be the physical manifestation
or perhaps his visual obliquity implies a natural
deterioration of which this impishness is the
necessary outcome. However, that question is
too abstruse. The little urchin, had wandered
by the able of the railway, and, as we may
imagine, playing with the stones so plentifully
scattered about, found how hard they were to
break, and as a train passed him, the thought
came that he should like to see the engine
crunch them up. Impelled by impish curiosity
the lad took 15 atones, largo and small, and
placed them on one of the rails about two feet
apart; and then he waited to see what would
happen. Happily Sergeant Roper and a con-
stable were walking along the line to Port-
land and prevented the possibly disastrous issue
of his experiment. They noticed that the lad
made off in a hurry, and, going up to the spot,
they found the stones as we have described.
The sergeant fetched the lad back, and he
admitted that he had put the stones there "to)
see the engine crack 'em." That was his innocent
explanation; but the running away indicates
that he had some dim idea at least that he had
been doing wrong. Of course the law presumes
guilty intention ; but in the ease of a child like this
the law is mostly an ass: he could not know the fright-
ful consequences which would have followed had the
stones remained there and jerked the train off the line.
lie had probably flattened buttons, and crumples' up
nails and other boyish trophies by putting them there
before, and the stones he only expected to produce a
bigger crunching and a greater display of the power
of the engine. " The law presumes intent ; happily
it: administrators arc merciful. An undue liking for
experiments, when applied to railway trains, must be
repressed ; and probably no better tleterment could
be ailininisteml than the birching this boy was ordered
to suffer on Saturday; and we may hope it will prove
a salutary warning to all whom it may concern.
The Board of Trade returns June a for J h
_ ow a

presents
India tit

MARK LANE.—Tnis DAY.
Whest closell at an advance of fully One Shilling. Top
prier of town-made flour advanced Three Shillings. Oats,
iixiwnee lower on the week. Other grain without change.

METROPOLITAN CATTLE.—Tms DAY.
About 4,000 beasts on offer, including about 1,1400
foreign. Trade quiet. Prices drooping. Inferior, 44. to
5i.; prime, 6s. to lb. 4d. About 20,000 sheep and lambs.
Trade quiet. Inferior. Is. iid. to ss. ; prime, 6a to 7s.
Top price for lambs, is. fid. Calves and pigs unaltered.
At Deptford about III) German beasts.

Co nsiderable falling off in both importa and
exports, but not to so great an extent as had
been anticipated. During June the total exports
were 5 per cent. less than they were in the
corresponding month of last year, and in about
the same proportion lower than in 1873. The
decline on the half-year is somewhat greater,
being 61, per cent. below the six months of 1874,
and 121 per cent. lower than in 1873. Imports
show a decline of over two millions sterling, or
about 6 per cent ; but there is an increase of
nearly AR much compared
.g features with the imports of
June, 1873, TWO gratifying
return
are an in in
crease the port an
gr
ex
cz of
oidr
a stoppage of the lam:stunt glutting oi

Eastern
.markets,
;
0- which, carried on at nnre-
Voroet egallhi crpresr
munerattve prices, has led to several of the late
disastrous failures.
TULSDAY. JULY 13, 1K73, ' A machine has been invented by Mr. W. A.
Gibbs, of Gillwell-park, near Chingford, Essex,
by which freshly-cut grass may be immediately
dried and stacked. A portable stove, issurnioun-
ted by a fan, which is driven by a belt from
a three-horse power portable steam-engine ;
the fan draws all the heated air and gases from
the coke tire, together with a volume of warmed
air, which passim through a chamber surround-
ing the inner chamber of the stove, and blows
the hot current, at a temperature of 400 deg.
Fahrenheit or inure, into the drier. This resem-
bles in general shape a straw elevator; the hot
air issues through two slit apertures for the
entire length of the machine, and the hay
is kept continually stirred and lightened up
over the hot blast by a number of small iron
stirrers cleverly contrived to imitate the action
of forks worked by hand. Wet hay is by this
means converted at once into a thoroughly dry
condition for the stack; spoilt and musty hay is
dried into hay of fair apparent quality and
pleasant fragrance • and freshly-cut grass, satu-
rated with rain, is dried into hay of first-class
colour. The total expense, Mr. Gibbs calculates,
does not exceed 7s. or Bs. a ton. The prime
cost of the apparatus is, we gather, about £l6O
—a rather heavy sum, but perhaps several
neighbouring farmers might club together and
buy one apparatus between them. A large
money 'oasis annually suffered in harvesting the
hay crop, because of the wet weather which
some time or other, and in some part of the
country or another, is sure to overtake the
haysel, and the value of an invention which can
prevent this loss may be estimated when we
remember that there are nine million acres of
hay annually cut, of a total value of nearly
£50,000,000.
Mr. Disraeli, we regret to learn, is far from well.
He has occasional attacks of gout, which cause hint
considerable pain, and render him disinclined for
business- Sometimes his seat in thc post of honour,
to the right of Mr. Speaker, is vacant for several
hours together, and now and then for the entire
evening. The Conservative leader appears weary and
worn, and it is his appearance, no doubt, rather than
any ah,olute fact, that has given rise to the rumour
that at the close of the Session he will retire into
private life. possibly in the tranquil shades and among
the venerable associations of the House of Lords.
Mr. Gladstone was erroneously stated to have left
the House of Commons just before the division on the
motion for the second reading of the Household
Franchise in Counties Bill. The Marquis of Harting-
ton spoke in favour of the measure in the abstract,
maintained that the present time is not suitable for it,
and left the House without voting on the question,
and it Was stated that Mr. Gladstone went out in
company with the Marquis. The division list, how-
ever, shows that the Ex-Premier did not do this, and
it is said Mr. Gladstone was much vexed and indig-
nant at the course which the Marquis adopted.
Captain Tyler's official return to the Board of
Trade relative to the railway casualties of the last
year is full of suggestive items. There were in 1874
on the railways of the United Kingdom 1,424 persons
killed and 5,041 injured. Out of these 738 killed and
' 2,815 injured were railway men! The facts speak
for themselves. The number of killed and wounded
excepds, indeed, the losses of many great battle.!
And yet our railway directors, in this matter, shirk
their responsibilities, and will not admit without
pressure that the families of killed or injured have any
claim upon them.