The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-10-15 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

A large proportion of the speeches winch have
been delivered by public men at agricultural
gtth 'rings during the current autumn vacation
have been remarkable for one particular feature
—the absence of everything savouring of politi-
cal sectarianism. In most instances the speeches
of Liberals runflit just as well have emanated
from Conservatives, and those of Conservative
parentage would not have had an alien sound
from the lips of a Liberal. The cause of this is
self-evident. On all subjects of vital importance
there is now scarcely the shadow of a shade of
difference of opinion among men whose opinions
are of sufficient importance to demand attention.
The Toryism of former days is virtually de-
funct. It is true we see it occasionally writhing,
raging, and foaming in the "leading articles"
of antiquated journals— of which the Dorset i
Chronicle is a type—and in speeches delivered
by such men as the Rev. Prebendary Fane, who
talks about making political capital out of the
new educational minute. It is also manifested
in such shallow-pated men as Councillor Thomp-
son and Alderman Leven's)), of Weymouth ; but
no sensible man pays the smallest attention to
it. It has become to be treated as • species of
harmless lunacy, rather amusing than otherwise,
were it not that it implies a deprivation of
mental power, which instinctively evokes pity
and commiseration. Conservatism, as recently
expounded by such men as Sir E. Lytton
Bulwer and Lord Stanley ; and Liberalism, as
represented by Earl Russell, are in all essential
points identical. We do not say that party
shibboleths will be entirely destroyed. It is tin-
possible for all men to see eye to eye on every
subject. We shall continue to have parties as
we have had them in the past ; but one thing is
evident—no government could exist for a single
session unless its policy were progressive.

The particular; which have been elicited re-
specting the late Lord Forth who committed
suicide at Gloucester a few days since, are pain-
fully illustrative of a "Rake's progress." The
deceased nobleman seems to have devoted his
life, and all its capacities, to the performance
of pre-eminently ignoble deeds. He was born
at Naples, in 1836, and in 1853 was appointed
an eusigucy in the 42nd Regiment, whicu, how-
ever, he left on the following year, in conse-
quence of not relishing "the ponip and circum-
stance of glorious war," or, rather, the peril in
the Crimea. In 1855 he married the eldest
daughter of the Hon. Adolphus Capel, niece of
the Earl of Essex. The sad eventful history of
their marriage life was told, the Vicomiteas her-
self being the narrator, to Sir Cresawell Cress-
well early in the present year. Lady Forth
petitioned for a dissolution of her marriage OD
account of Lord Forth's adultery and cruelty ;
' but the application was resisted by the Queen's
Proctor on the ground of collusion and the adul-
tery of the Indy herself. It appeared from the
evidence of Lady Forth, and that of her mother,
that during the three years they lived together,
their daily life, from the day
,after their mar-
riage, was one of drunkennoss and brutality on
the part of the husband towards his wife, her
slaters, brothers, and even his own child, an
infant. During the whole of that time he
appears not to have contributed one farthing
towards his own maintenance, but was sup-
ported by his wife's father and mother, and at
last he became so outrageous that they parted
company, and Lady Forth never saw him after.
wards. Some time after his departure, Lady
Forth formed an acquaintance with a Mr.
Deering, and visited the United States with
him; and it was on the ground of this intimacy
that a die:million of marriage was refused.
Nor was the lady who has been living with Lord
Forth, and who died with him, a wit less sad.
She was the only daughter and heiress of a gen-
tleman of property, and. 1.1. magistrate for the
county. of Hereford, residing near Leominster.
When about 20 she was seduced by the scion of
a "noble house," and had two children, which
are now with her father. Subsequently she
appeared to have become penitent, and after •
time was married to a man named Lloyd, by
yule aka bad two more children, who us sloe

living with her father. Lloyd was in debt, and ,
having married a rich heiress, was 1311 Ca by 1
creditors and found his way into the Queen's I
Bench, where Lord Forth had also "a local habi-
tation and a name." Mrs. Lloyd visited her
husband in the Bench, and an intimacy sprung
up between her and Lord Forth; and on his
*liberation they joined company, and lived
together ever after that. At the inquest the
surgeon said her death was attributable to
natural Musts, apart from her recent confine-
ment—those natural causes, it is said, being
intemperance. She was only 28 years of age.
Her remains have been deposited in the family
vault at Leominster, and Earl Perth directed
that Lord Forth should be "decently interred"
at Gloucester. Such is the brief tale of their
lives. It is a sad one, and points its own
moral.

-----
The failure of the potato crop in the West of
Ireland is exciting great alarm. At a meeting
held at Kilmoree a few days since, a memorial
was agreed to, to be sent to the Lord Lieutenant,
for the Government to grant, without delay,
public works for the people, by which they may
be enabled to purchase food to keep them from
perishing of starvation. That the Lord Lieu-
tenant will do everything in his power to avert
so dire a calamity, no one who knows his cha-
racter can have the slightest doubt; but it is
impossible to look at all the facts bearing upon
the food question on the Continent, as well as in
our own country, without being profoundly im-
pressed with the debt of gratitude we owe to the
Dispodier of all things, for giving so rich a
harvest as that which his just been gathered in.
We learn by telegram that the perpetrator of
the diabolical outrage on a young lady in Dub-
lin as recorded in our columns last week, has
beCui apprehended, and that the evidence against
him is remarkably clear. It is greatly to the
credit of the Dublin ctibmini that they have used
every exertion in their power to trace out the
villain and bring him to justice.
The tone and fueling at New York towards
this country is as amusingly silly and childlike
as ever. A few days since the Herald, the
mouthpiece of the Washington Government,
led d threate,— -4 England