The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-12-08 00:00:00

Arset enuut4 Expreos.

TUBSDAY, DECEMBER 8. 1874.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

- - - -- ---
It is now announced that the Queen will leave
Windsor Castle for Osborne on the 17th, to
spend the Christmas. A month or so there,
Mid for Majesty will doubtless return to
Windsor for a longer sojourn, to be followod by
Ia visit to Balmoral as tho spring advances.

. -
Political friends and opponents of Mr. Disraeli
will bo glad to hear that the right hon. gentle-
man had sufficiently recovered from his late
attack of gout to be able to leave London for
Bournemouth on Friday morning. It must be
vexatious to the Premier that, after he has
spent a robust manhood in working his way to
the most eminent political official position, ho
should now have so painful a disorder as gout
come to interfere with his capacity for work ;
but there is one consolation, that he thus enters
into a fellowship of suffering with such high-
born statesmen as the late Lord Derby, Lord
Palmerston, and Lord Russell. Gout is so
aristocratic a disease, and so common among
statesmen, that it is almost a distinction to
suffer from it. But it is to be hoped Mr.
Disraeli will have passed through his ordeal
entirely before Parliament meets.

-
The Prince of Wales was enthroned as Grand
Mager of the English Freemasons on Wednes-
day. The ceremony is said to have been par-
ticularly brilliant. It is 84 yeara since a Prince
off Wales sat on the Masonic Throne; and as his
Royal Highness has always shown himself a good
working Mason, we have no doubt he will make
himself popular with tho order as Grand Master.
The Prince is, it is said, about to pay a visit to
the Marquis of Ripon at Studeley Castle, a
necessity probably on the assumption of the
Grand Mastership.
Thu Revenue is flourishing. The receipts for
the first eight months of the year are within
I:200 of the receipts of the corresponding period
of 1873, in spite of all the Chancellor of the
Exchequer's remissions in April, and if the
Customs, Excise, and Incomo-tax yield as much
in excess of the estimates for the rest of the
year as they have yielded so far, Sir Stafford
riorthcote will find himself in pa:session of
£1,500,000 more than he has been anticipating.
This is a very satisfactory fact to all of us, for
trade has not been as flourishing for the past six
months as we had a right to expect it from the
superabundance of capital, and just has trade
began to revive the French and German Govern-
ment came into our Money Market and swept
the boards clean of all the bullion that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had left after the
payment of the dividends, raising the Rate of
Discount up to 5 per cent. to 6 per cent., and
checking business by threatening to force the
' Bank minimum up to 7 percent.

The Tunes in a leader on Tenant Right says:—
It is plain we have still to strike a fair balance
between the contlici.ing claim; of use and owner-
ship. They are two distinct values, and have both
strong claims to preservation. It may be fully
admitted that no land ought to be in that legal
state which hinders its proper care and cultiva-
tion, and that if it is in that state some remedy
ought to be devised. Fur glebe land the remedy
is obvious. There ought to be none at all. It is
a bad sort of endowment —bad for all sides.

Much the same may be said for some other life
tenancies. Whore they cannot be changed or
commuted, there will be continued demand for
more security to the cultivator. Such a demand
is only too likely to bo exaggerated, even if it
loads to no worse results. But if in all these
questions there bo only the old English wish for
Justice between man and man, there is no diffi-
culty beyond the reach of ordinary legislation.
Lord Carnarvon has authorised the Governor
of the Gold Coast (Mr. Strachan) to inaugurate
his rule by abolishing every species of slavery
on the coast, including even the custom by
which a native, when in debt, places himself in
pawn to his creditor. "The Queen is deter-
mined to put a stop at once to the buying and
selling of slaves, either within or without
the Protectorate, in any shape, degree, or form,
and she will allow no person to be taken as a
pawn for debt." This was the form in which
the decision was communicated to the chiefs. It
took them by surprise, of course, and they asked
for time to talk it over ; but Mr. Strachan
' refused even this. "When the Queen speaks in
this way it is not a matter for palaver (said the
Governor), or question, or doubt, but she
expects obedience and assent." That is final.
Sir Henry Barkly, too, has been solving one of
the permanent difficulties of Government at the
Cape by annexing Griqualaud, and thus making
the frontiers of Cape Colony said Natal con-
terminous. Griqualand has been an embarrass.
taunt to us for years. It is now British, and the
difficulty disappears, or, rather, takes the form
of an annuity of £l,OOO a year to Captain Kok.