The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-01-09 00:00:00

norset &until bias.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 9, Mt

NoTES OF THE WKEEC.

T. Prince of Wales has passel II very quiet
week, and is making satisfactory progress
towards convalescence. The local pain and
feverishness in the hip have subsided. The
Prince's appetite is good, and his strength daily
improving. Sir James Paget and Sir William
Jenner have left Sandringham. Dr. Gull and
Dr. Lowo remain in attendance, and at noon on
Monday issued tha following gratifying an-
nouncement ;

" 11.1i.11. the Parini of Wales goes on tsv,,urably le
all respects. C,onralesoenee being a tar established,
no bulletin will now be issued anti! Saturday next."
Happily, through all this anxious time, the
Queen has been in excellent health.
The past week brought us shocks of earth-
quake, fearful thunderstorms, and a hurricane
with mow and hail. Meanwhile there is • re-
markable absence of oommodoo—polltically,
socially, religiously. Whatever indications there
may be of turbance of the present order of
things, they denote no immediate agitation.
Changes, movements, are talked of, but pro-
spectively. There is a mild indifference just now,
and even the threatened licensed victuallers are
quiet, though there is ample evidence of the
truth of the allegation that every institution of
the country is being in tum put on its trial—'
challenged and summoned to render an account!
—the parish, the corporation. the school, the I
c the university, the privileged profess-
ions, the army and navy, the Civil Departments,
the Church Matablishment, the House of Lords,
the peerage, and all titles of honour, last of all
the Crown itself we are reminded have been thus,
one after another, brought to the bar of public)
opinion. In the present week or so them Is but
• suspension of the crucial test that is being so
realousiy applied. The Crown has very soon
paired through the ordeal, and the verdict has
I been given with a unanimity that must have
electrified the Chelsea baronet and his few
friends. Parliament will have the most perfect
opportunity this year, judging from preeent
ap-
pearances, it ever had of useful legislation. b
1 Mr. Grant Duff, we should not detire to be un-
derstood to say that there are no bigus of possible
continental diaruptisn. It would require great
boldness of speech to hazard the opinion that we
are entering up.ea • time of settled
_peace in
Europe. Still, we have no immediate indications
that continental politics will divert Parliament
from the fullest consideration of home questions,
and there are moral and religious questions de-
manding before all others gave consideration.
The Cabinet must most distinctly stand upon
ill trial in this matter in the approaching session
of Parliament.

It is gratifying to find that the Chancellor of
the Exchequer will be found to have .C 2,000,000
to the good when he brings up his Budget. We
must not reckon our golden egg, to* early,
though there is just the probability that two-
pence may be taken off the boom. tax—that is
A:3,000,000 from direot taxation, although the,,
will be the maximum sum of A:1,200,000 to
provide next year for army purchase abolition,
and there may be Atabama claims. Certainly,
so far the prospects are remarkably good. The
receipts Mr. Lowe estimated to be, with the two-
pence extra Income tax, V 2,595,000, are now,
at the ohne of nine months, unmated to reach
at bait £14.700,000. All items of revenue but
two, Taxes and Poet Offioe, are huger than
during the same period of last year. There will
be a serious outcry if the income tax is not
reduced to fourpeuee. Indeed, one gentleman
—Mr. St. Swithin Williams, ,of Oxford—has
addressed the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and
in terms which, if not the most becoming, are at
least unmistakable, has refused to pay. Treating
Mr. Lowe as a highwayman or burglar, he
resolve, to withstand him to the utmost With
perfectly unitel action Mr. Williams thinks the
Chancellor of the Exehequer might be defeated,
for he says, •` You can take our tables and
chairs, but they will be of no use to you if we
wi;l HA buy them back." This is only a mad
sort of expression of an opposition to a sixpenny
interne tax in time of peace that will be as over-
whelming as the match-tax opposition in another
year.

It is said that Lord Cairas, as chairman of the
Judiestare Commission, has signed • report
recommending that the number of County Court
judges should be reduced to 30. The noble and
learned lord possibly considers that he will thus
diminish a nuisanoe, and lessen the amount of
bad or at least doubtful law. Truth to say our
County Court judges have not a very high repu-
tation in the profession.
Is Prince Arthur to be made Duel It waa
long since stated that when he arrived at maturity
he wee to have an Irish title, lie became of age
on the lit of May last, but the dukedom which
would please Hibernia so much seems to have
fallen into abeyance.

Ihi new Lectionary rime into operation on
New Year's day. Many c ergy hare intimated
their intention of adopting the new table, and
aome have already roinmenced. But other
clergymen decline to make any change, and the
old lectionary or table of lemons Ls quite legal
till the 31st December, 1878.

With reference to rummus as ki the election
of a successor to the present Speaker, it is
authoritatively stated that the nomination of
Mr. Brand will receive the support of the
Goverument.

If the Bcho be correctly informed the Wes-
leyan body has resolTed to offer, through its
leaders, au unoompronusing iveistanoe to denomi-
national State-skied education in Ireland. Our
contemporary says that the President of the
Connexion has made known to the premier that
he may rely" on the " united and determined
opposition" of the Methodists to any Baum,
which may embody the views of the Romish
hierarchy.
The continental horizon is fair and promising.
France, it ia true, ill least sanguine, but in con-
trast with her prospects at the beginning of 1871
It is all hope. Germany is in the full poreardon
of oonsoli&ted unity, and—if we may trust her
oraclee--cogitingeg to reap the blessings of peace,
proclaiming to all the world that to her the pro-
ceeds of the war, after the indemnity credit, is
a net loam to Gummy, exoe?t alone hi the Pre-

sped of future unity and freedom from war's
alarms. The New Tear is full of promise to
Italy, and though the latest visitor to Rome, Mr.
Spurgeon, brings, as might have been expected,
a very curious and unappreciative report of the
Eternal City, it has not worn so glorious an
aspect to the Italians through many a long year.
Of Russia, Austria, and Turkey, it may be
sufficient that we do not know of anything to
cloud their prospects, and Spain, in the mast of
political complications, is making rapid progress.
In the West, in the far Nast, and In all our
colonies there is no anxiety, and, in fact, in the
words of a contemporary—" there can be no
better wish for the New Year than it should
realise its promises. With external peso* and
Internal quiet, we ought to do welL"