The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-01-27 00:00:00

II o t ro ant Vials.

"•:U :--

Another attempt is being made to compel obedience
to law by an officer of the church. Mr. Mackonochie,
in defiance of the Dean of Arches, goes on with his
Ritualist practices, and yet new and expensive suits
have to be instituted with the shadow of • hope to
compel him to obedience. If this beneficed servant
of an endowed Church cannot be compelled either to
obey or to disgorge what he has received as pay for
work improperly performed, besides being struck out
of his position until he is obedient, of what possible
use is the law If a servant wast.ed his master's time
he would be dismissed; if he were disobedient after
watning he would be emit off without a "character,"
and it is some such short and sharp means of proceed-
ing that is wanted in dealing with recalcitrant priests.
And why Mr. Martin or any other person or associa-
tion should be put to the odium and cost of wearisome
law actions, no one can judge, except those who
conclude that ecclesiastical law, of all the varieties, is
for the benefit of the lawyets, and that there is little
hope of its being simplified and made effective because
that would be a danger to the craft.

Charity, which coven a multitude of sine, seems to
be the cover pulled over their deeds by the Metro-
politan Board of Works. Cattle afflicted with
plenro-pneumonia are slaughtered by them, and the
flesh sold to the poor. Cheap and nasty as the stuff
may be, the Board has saved the ratepayers of London
0113 by selling it. This rather qualifies the "charity"
of the Baird of Works, and shows that a little filthy
lucre is no more despised by them than the filthy
meat. But another question will occur at once to
country meat dealers. If the meat which they send
up to London may be condemned by the Londoners
as unfit for food, and be afterwards sold for the benefit
of the ratepayen, it will be very important to know
how and by whom the power of condemnation is
exercised. It will be poor consolation to a dealer who
has lost his meat, and in addition been fined by a
Londoner, to bear that condemned meat "saves" the
ratepayers of London E 333. At present the charity
of the Board of Works seems to be rather of that
nature that costa theta nothing, but which may be
easily dispensed at someone else expense.

Crossing in Dorchester are few and useless, so few
and so bad that the Surveyor promos:a to take them
up, and crack for road metal, when the roads are
repaired. True, that opposite Mr. Bishop's, in High-
street, is a delusion and a snare, being buried under
mud, the other near Mr. Steele's is almost as bad.
Hut to destroy crossings without providing others
would be as wise as to crack up the pavement on the
south side of High East-street, without Laying down
more. In Weymouth some wiseacre proposed to do
away with crossings, and the nuisance became so great
that more new ones had to be laid down, at great
expense. So in Dorchester the need is not of less
crossings, but of more and newer ones, as any one who
tried to cross the mad-breadths called our streets must
have felt, as he tried in vain to keep his shoes in a
presentable state.
Well I as to that pavement of the lower part of High.
street, south side, very little labour would be wanted
to make it small enough for modern road-makers; the
fractions of flagstones might almost be cast out at once,
according to the custom of present-day Macadam, to
be ground up gradually under the wheels of farmers'
traps.

Dorchester people may object that I have sometimes
dwelt too much upon dirt; but, remembering the burden
which is threatened by anysiew attempt to mend our
drainage, the Local Board should bestir themselves in
these dirty times on behalf of cleanliness. Much
illness may be prevented by sweeping and cleaning,
and if we are to escape a repeated burden like that
which seems imminent at Weymouth, the town must
be made tidy and trim, and every effort put forth to
show a clean bill of health.

Ratepayers' interests, and the interested purveyors,
engineers, and nontwectors, are not always alike, and
every inhabitant who harbours • nuisance helps, as far
as he can, a dirty date of things which may result
in the borough being burdened with another debt of
£lO,OOO or £20,000.
What ought less to deserve the name of "muck "
than gravel? In Weymouth we have abundance of
good, sound, clean-washed seabeach gravel, at a
nominal expense, yet the authorities seem to despise
thine homely because they are cheap, and at
considerable cost, go farther and fare worse. Our
own Esplanade, which had for dozens of years been
kept tidy and clean with Weymouth gravel, was the
first to be meddled witkend being plastered with a
mixture of angular stondltnd clay, was tapped by an
Alderman's stick and declared to be "like china," till
the first steady shower left it a dismal swamp, on which
no visitor would walk. Now it is some fancy article
from Jersey that is favoured with the municipal
money, and being spread in Chapelhay is discovered to
be "muck." Mr. Wallis, who would be a capital job.
killer at our Council table if he were not as extreme in
his language, prefixed an uncomplimentary adjective
to the "muck," and weakened his protest. Now Mr.
Wallis ought to know that the lower regions are more
likely to be gravelled with Town Council minute books
than with Jersey "muck," for they are said to be
paved with resolutions not carried out. Therefore we
protest against Mr. Wallis's adjective ; but we applaud
his kicking of the gravel. The Surveyor declares the
" gravel " made a bad path when laid upon chalk.
Why, then, in the interests of clean shoes, was it ever
put there? There is too much running about for
expenses at Weymouth, and if the members of the
Council who don't use violent adjectives won't look
after the public puree and the public's clean boots,
why, our thanks must be givens to Mr. Wallis when-
ever he " gravels " a bit of "muck."

Healthy with an occasional bad smell, is the
character of Weymouth and now it is proposed to spend
E 25,000 more on the drainage not to touch the
question of the sm Th ell. e Board of Weymouth
must take care, or over& ruined and deserted town will by
and bye be written the epitaph—" I was well; I would
be better; and het e I am—Where? Why, smothered
between the Mixen and the Backwater, with nothing
to live and work for but to pay absentee landlords and
useless rates.

Although great engineers may deopise such simple
palliatives as dredging and making ornamental islands,
creating deep channels and beautiful gardens, yet we
remind them it was a very ancient and sucoessful
operation to gather the waters together into one place,
and let the dry land appear.

Health at Weymouth is excellent, and the Back-
water smell is the only offence. Whatever then is the
use of manuring the seaweed under the Nothe, and
creating in Newton's Core a smell like that from the
Backwater flats? Should the Council spend £25,000
to do that, we opine that Hats will be found elsewhere
than in the " Radipole lake," while if they enlarge
Swannery Island, the broad areas of highiy-cultivated
watercress may be continually encroached on, we may
have a respectable aviary of our own for more than
cormorante, and by and bye may be realised that vision
of a whilom councillor,—the Municipal body may go
swan-hopping up the widened and deepened channel,
and have a banquet at the Hassocks, with a
_plump
cygnet an the principal dish at the feast. Yet! don't
recommend that with the cheese and celery of the last
course should be brought in the locally-grown water-
cress.

What a noble New Year's gift to the Hospital was
Mr. Edwards's, M.P. £200! One gets tired of hearing
that Mr. Edwards " must be made of money," but we
cannot repeat too often that he has beyond most men,
and specially beyond most rich men, a large and good
heart. Ur. Edwards, beyond the pearl of great
price, seems to wish no riches when he dim—may the
time be long distant—but he has from everywhere in
Weymouth the blessing of him that was ready to
perish ; they invoke for him that treasure above all
others, thus described—