The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-10-08 00:00:00

nonitt emit' Express.

TUE'SDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1872.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The judicial bench is tho leading theme of
public interest this week. Lord liatherley's
long.expected retirement from the office of Lord
Chancellor is officially announoed, failing sight
rendering his resignation imperative. It has
probably been delayed until the completion of
Sir Roundel! Palmer's work at Geneva ; for Sir
Bounden, and no other man, has been designated
for the high post from the time that he gave
place to Lord Hatherley from conscientious
objections to the Cabinet's Irish Caurch policy.
Lord it atherley hu not supplemented his carreer
, on the Bench by any etrikiug achievements as
Lord Chancellor. The eminent qualifications of
Sir Roundel! Palmer, his known views upon law
; reform, and his moderate counsels as a politican,
render his accession to the woolsack an event of
considerable political significanoe. The rumors
respecting the retirement of the Lord Chief
Justice and the elevation of Sir John Coleridge
in hia place have been revived by the reported
Indisposition of Sir Alexander Cockburn, the
consequence of hie arduous and protracted labours
at Geneva. Meanwhile, another vacancy has
; been caused on the Bench by the lamentable
: suicide of Mr. Justice Willes—an act so utterly
out of keeping with his character and expressed
ideas that it was undoubtedly the reeult of
temporary insanity. The deepest commiseration ,
has been evinced for the sufferings which dui-
turbed the balance of the unhappy Judge's mind
to such an extent as to goad him to self-destruc •
tion ; but, as is only natural, speculation he.
already coinmenced respecting ha successor.
The name of Mr. Henry James is spoken ef by
some, and others, who would not approve the
sudden advancement of Sir John Coleridge to
the Lord Chief Juaticeship of ngland, consider
his claim for promotion concurrently with Sir
Rounded Palmer, ought to be satisfied with
the vacant judgeship in the Court of Common
Pleas.

_
Sir Charles Dilke has been. iecturing to a
Glasgow audience on " claim legislation," which
he described to mean "the legislation of the
ruling class, which was partly • land-owning
class and partly • mill-owning class, and very
generally • dilettante class, or • clam too fine
for its work." The Government is a cumber-
some Republic, administered by "land-owners
through inconvenient and obsolete fictions."
The Premier is "the humble slave of • fluctuat-
ing majority of " mill-owners or land-owners."
A Radical Government is proved to be worthless
from the fact that, although one has been in
office for four years, it has not yet touched "the
rooted feudalism of county government." The
Monarchy is also cumbersome, and 'likely to
become, as all fictions at some time of their
exietence will become, dangerous." He declared
that in our Parliament '' poor are never heard,"
and that he could name offices which are pure
sinecures, and to which fresh appointments had
been made within a year, with a public state-
ment to Parliament that there were duties to
perform, and • private admission that this is not
the case." As samples of injurious class legials-
tion ho mentioned the rejection of the Birming-
ham Sewage Bill,the payment of Governor Eyre's
law expenses, and the Parka Bill. Casting his
despairing glance over the wide wade of corrupt
interests and political profligacy, Sir Charles
discerns only oue gleam of hope. "U," he says,
"improvement is to come, it must lse from
below." All classes except the lowest ha ye been
tried and fou,d wanting. There is still the
peasantry and the residuum of the towns to whom
votes might be given ; and that is the only
practical remedy be col suggest.
A Disestablishment Conference Lis been held
at Birmingham, and Mr. Allan declared his
conviction that the muse of 'dime stablishment
only needs to be properly placed before the
Liberal party to excite all the enthu slum which
Is wanted to ensure its success. Those who urge
it forward are disinterested, for 1 ;hey seek no
denominational advantage. Their o bject is only,
as he expresses it, "to lift the spii itual element
of society into a higher place," that. of religious
equality."
The revenue returns for the list six months
of the financial year—that is to say, from March
31st to September 30th—tell of in overflowing
Exchequer, the result of great genoral prosperity.
The jot increase on the income for the correa-
pondffig period of last year is no less than
£2,353,341. Under every head, except Crown
Lands, Stamps, and Miscellaueoua, there is a
marked improvement. Customs e how an increase
of £300,000; Excise an increase of £1,393,000;
and Property Tax an increase of £718,000. If
we take the twelve months ended September
30th, the comparison yields still name striking
results. The amount collected in that period
was £77,061,655, or £5,777,459 in mem. of the
revenue for Ib7l.

The increaee. of the rate of inter set to 5 per
cent.—the third rile within • fo.Anight--will
check speculation, and, in checking speculation,
of course, check manufacture. c f all sorts,
nnouucementa of failures reach us every day.
The East India trado is in • notori oualy risky
state; and the iron tririe is now drooping, the
markets dull, rind the prices on the tall. The
margin of profit is said to be too low- for much
of a ; but of course if the iroum asters are
brought to a standstill coal must come lown, and
with coil the wages of the miners.
A railway cAlaiou on the Caledorata a railway,
17 miles north of Cinisle, haa caused tiae death
of a dozen passengers and mutilated ms .ny more.
An express tram f.0..0 London wait wo hours
later, and it ran into • mineral train itr process
of shunting. It must be &stunted i :hat the
departure of the exi,rersfiorn Carlisle ras tele-
graphed from that or fro,u some into] 'mediate
station, and it is stated that the signals announced
that the line was perfectly clear. This Is just
what we should expect, and what in fact happens
eve,y day on all the railways of the luandom.
i The time allowed for shunting s out doirn to
the lined point, and it is taken for granter I that
everything will go on all right, Ass gt 'naval
rule, no doubt, ev does, eomeho w or
other, happen all rigeg.thlo mistakes are
or they are corrected in time ;but then it is an
• chance, and tho question is whether the
way Companies are entitled to expose .their
paessengere to the risks of such a happy-go It .oky
system.
The agricultural labourer Is the stock subj et
of talk fur M. l's. in the rooms. 'l'o work is fa
under the rules of a Trade Union—at any re to
is it is carried on by the builders—would :be
trying work, but to work it without men is In t-
possible, and the questoa arises how LI tl
quarrel to be compromised What the met
want, Sir John Pakington lays, is bettor educe.
tie; bettor houses, and better ford, Or, as ibis

men put it themselves at their interview with
the Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, higher
wages, • good cottage and garden, and a plot of
land to to till in their spare hours; and if the
farmers mean to keep themselves clear of the
Union they will meet and agree among them
selves how to deal with these demands. The
latest utterance is by Lord Derby, but he gives
but little positive counsel. He does not dis-
courage emigration, but he says emigrants
mostly have a rough time of it. Migration, he
thinks, requires no artificial stimulus. Co-opera-
tion can affard the labourer no help. But he
plainly inclines to such remedies as piece-work.
discriminated payments, "the laws of demand
and supply," and competition. In other words,
he favours the existing system, modified by
generous landlords and judicious farmers. On
the Game Laws question, Earl Derby thinks that
if they were abolished farmers would suffer more
loss from trepsassers than from grouud or winged
' game. On the other great rural question—
Tenant Right—Lord Derby occupies a similarly
open position. He has the advantage of seeing
both sides; and if the landowners' view is more
strongly impressed on him, that is natural. lie
gives in at once on the subject of leases; he
admits that there may be just tenant claims ;
he sees that it is the landlord's interest not to
I check investments in the soil; he acknowledges
that the yearly occupier has stronger claims than
the lessee. Prohably nothing more is needed as
a starting-point in a controversy which must be
fought out elsewhere.
In Spain, the Palace of the Escurial, perhaps
the most splendid palace in the world, built by
Philip the Second in 1563, and filled from the
roof to the cellars with gems of art, rare books
and M.S.S., has been struck by lightning and
narrowly escaped the fats, which Canterbury
Cathedral was threatened with six weeks ago.
In France, Gambetta has been fluttering the
Royalists of Versailles, and oven it is said M.
Thiers, with • fiery Republican speech at Gre-
noble, and all France has been thrilled by the
spectacle of 100,000 Alsatians throwing up their
homesteads, their farm, and their vineyards,
rather than become Germans, and crossing the
frontier to cast in their lot with Frenchmen with
all their burden of toil, of humiliation, and
sorrow.