The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-10-26 00:00:00

lurat Count 4 fixpren.

TUITSDAY. OCIVBSit la. 1875.

NOTES OF TUE WEEK.
Mr. Gladstone has written to a friend in
Glasgow a kind of (ufliisiiaiqlie denying three
things which no one for a moment supposed he
had done, but managing at the same time to let
out a little fact which he wished to be an open
iocret__viz., his authorship of an article in the
New Cur la Quarterly on the Church and state
. . . _

question in Italy. Mr. Gladstone is lying by,
as all the world knows, till soma first-class
question shall start up in this country, and
clearly the question of the future is the relation
of church and State. He is keeping himself in
training for this, and therefore his view of the
settlement effected in Italy is an indication of
how he thinks the question should ultimately be
dealt with in this country.
It is a remark of Burke that the secret of
political prophecy lies in finding out what the
ruling young men are thinking. Now Mr.
Gladstone is past the age when he can be con-
sidered a rising young man ; but he has a future,
which is more than can be said for the merely
Conservative statesman whose only ambition is
to keep things as they are. We may gather,
then, from his views on the rights of the people
to elect their parish priests in Italy that he
has some dream of a Church of the people in
this country not unlike the Swiss and German.
To Disestablishinent pure and simple he is
opposed, as most statesmen are who see the
working of so-called Free Churches in Belgium,
Italy, and Ireland. But he would have no
objection to call the people in to choose their
own pastors, and thus erect the popular veto as
a sort of barrier against priestcraft. This may
not go down to the roots of the question, but it
is a step in the right direction, and might, after
all, make the National Church what it is not at
present—a People's Church.
That the decision in respect to the collision
between the Alberta and the Mistletoe in the
&dont was in some respects an unjust one is an
item in the popular creed, and will doubtle4s
remain so. It is very unfortunate therefore
that individual injustice is contemplated in the
CHBO of George Iliscock, the steward of the
Mistletoe. He WY seriously injured, was laid
up in the Hasler Hospital, and, though he has
now been discharged, it is said that he will not
have the use of his wrist for about a year. He
has a wife and six children depending on him,
and his only income now is his sick pay from a
Friendly Society. He states that Government
have offered him .E 75 on condition of his binding
himself to make no further claim, but he demurs
to this as he considers himself entitled to a
pension of £l2 a year for his service in the
Naval Reserve. And he appears to be quite
right. We understand that this is not the only
case of the kind. Considering the way in which
the Mistletoe was run down, the Admiralty
ought certainly to be generous towards the
victims of the
Sir Charles Wheatatone, whose death occurred
in the past week, will ever be associated with
one of the greatest and most fruitful of dis-
coveries in this inventive century—the electric
telegraph. For although, America, France, and
Germany claim part of the honour of its dis-
ouvery, there is little doubt but that it was
Professor Wheatstone who scientifically laid the
foundation of our present telegraph system. In
183.5 Wheatstone was one of the jurors at the
Paris International Exhibition, and was made
a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and in 1868
he was knighted by the Queen. On June :Pi,
1813, liu was elected Foreign Associate of the
French Academy of Sciences, to fill the place
vacant by the death of Baron Liebig. lie had
preNionsly received from the French Society for
the encouragement of National Industry the
first medal of Ampere, which is awarded every
six years for what is considered the most im-
portant application of science to industry. He
was engaged in useful inventions up to the tiine
of his death. He was born in Gloucester 73

years ago.
The death of Dean Hook at the ago of 77 is
also announced. He was educated at Winchester
and at Christ Church, Oxford, wbere he gradu-
ated in 1821. In the saute year he was ordained,
and became curate to his father at Whippilighain.
In 1824 or 1823 he moved to Birmingham and
thence to the vicarage of Holy Trinity,
Coventry, which he held from 1829 to 1837,
when he was appointed vicar of Leeds. This
living he held until 1839 when he was nominated
Dean of Chichester by Lord Derby. In 1817
Dr. Hook was appointed chaplain to George IV.
and he has coot ed in that office under George
IV. and Queen Victoria. During Dr. Hook's
incumbency of twenty-two years at Leeds
twenty-one now churches, thirty-two parsonages,
and more than sixty schools were erected in the
parish, and the parish church was rebuilt at a
cost of £40,000. In 1862 Dr. Houk was elected
a fellow of the Royal Society,
Though Canon Birch has long been the most
active member of the Ripon Chapter, he is not
likely to succeed Dr. McNeil° in the Deanery,
as acceptance of that post would involve giving
up a living worth about £2,300 a year. It is
understood that Mr. Gathorne Hardy is using
his influence on behalf of Mr. Burgon, vicar of
St. Marys, Oxford. The names of Mr. Ryle
and Mr. Elliot, of Bournemouth, who is a special
favourite with Lord Cairns, are also mentioned.
The two vacant deaneries are not the only
pieces of church prefermeut in the hands of the
Ministry which are exercising the clergy. The
vicarage of Windsor which Canon Ellison has
resigned is in the gift of Lord Cairns, but it is
rumoured that very great influence is being used
to get the post for a clergyman whom the Chan-
cellor certainly would not select spontaneously.
The gentleman is the Rev. W. Bliss, a minor
canon of Windsor, and who, greatly to the
surprise of people who are not courtiers, was
lately made chaplain to the Queen. He has
taught the Princess Christian music, and is now
teaching her children, and Her Royal Highness
is understood to be urging his appointment to
the vicarage of Windsor, though he is a man of
no theological or pastoral renown.
The telegrams from China mention a fact
which, in circumstances which only a fortnight
ago seemed too probable, 'ailed have proved of
great importance. The name is given of a British
ship which has arrived at Shanghai with sixty-
tons of Henry-Martini ammunition, shipped in
London as merchandise, for the Chinese Govern-
ment. The story is that the ammunition has
been landed, and that an inquiry into the
matter has been set on foot by Mr. Wade. We
solicit the attention of Prince Bismarck and the
German Cabinet to this piece of news. They will
!earn from it that if our traders are generally
disposed to turn an honest penny by the exporta-
tion of arms to any foreign belligerent, they do
in in no partial or narrow British spirit. They
;re just as ready to supply arms to a nation on
the verge of war with their own native land.
The negotiations between the Groat Western
and Bristol and Exeter Railway Companies
have resulted in an arrangement for the absorp-
tion of the latter undertaking by its neighbour
and ancient ally. The proprietors of the Bristol
and Exeter line are to receive 6 per cent, per
annum for ilia next seven years, and afterwards
61 per cent. in perpetuity. That the bargain is
regarded as highly favourable to them seems
proved by the fact that the shares, which were
quoted at lid three weeks ago have since been
sold at 143.