The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-07-21 00:00:00

Cantti Exprea

TUESDAY. JULY 21, 1874.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Retreating from an untenable position is
supposed to be good generalship under adverse
circumstances, though a man does not receive .
very much approbation for these tactics of nail-
fortune; and perhaps Mr. Gladstone will not
get much credit for throwing up his resolutions,
and retiring upon his main line of resistance to
' the Public Worship Bill. Yet it was the course
of prudence and propriety. The right hon.
gentleman found that his resolutions were dis-
tasteful to the majority of the Liberal party,
and that perhaps not fifty, peradventure not
thirty, would have followed him into the lobby
had he moved them, and therefore it would have
been simply a waste of time to have occupied the
House with their discussion. Mr. Gladstone's
judgment is that the Church of England can
only continue by comprehension, and as an
experienced statesman his opinion is not to be
lightly regarded, although it would seem from
the course of the debates in the House of
Commons that the Protestantism of the country
was never more intense than at the present
mcnuent. The emphatic declaration of the
Premier that the Public Worship Bill is a
measure "to put down Ritualiani " was cheered
vociferously, and there seems every proba-
bility that the Bill will this session
become law. The Ex:miner says—" This
Bill is really the beginning of another fight
between the priests and the laity : between the
priests, who rule by right of superstition,
addressed to the weakest creatures of both
sexes, and the laity, who rule by virtue of hard
facts, expressed in Acts of Parliament. The
debate of Wednesday amounts to a declaration,
that incomparably the most valuable era of
English history is the era of the Reformation;
that incomparably the most valuable element
of the English Church is her Protestantism, or,
in other words, her testimony against the pre-
tensions of the priests; and that, if the
Establishment cannot exist without killing the
Protestant growths of the Anglican religion, the
Establishment must go. We believe that the
Establishment must 5o in any case. We believe
that even the Archbishops' Bill cannot save it
from the deadly solvent of Liberal ideas; and
, that measure will, we suspect, more quickly
make it fall a prey to the most potent of dis-
integrating agencies. But at the same time we
cannot but agree with the estimate that the
House of Commons puts on the value of the
Protestantism which, m spite of Convocation, in
spite of Laud, and in spite of a hundred
Romanising bishops, is still the essence of the
English Established religion."
The Endowed Schools Bill is a total reversion
of the principle laid down by the last Parlia-
ment, for it distinctly rules that all endowments
are to be applied according to "the express
terms of the religious instrument of foundation."
If the will of the founder enjoins the attendance
of the scholars at religious worship of any par-
ticular church, sect, or denomination; if it says
that they shall be members of such a body; if
it decrees that the masters or the principal
master shall be chosen within the same sectarian
limits; if it directs that the governing body
shall be selected from within the same boundaries
—all these instructions shall be regarded as
final. The sweeping effect of that rule will be
seen if we look at the 450 grammar schools
which were founded between 1534, when Eng-
land first broke with Rome and 1662, when the
Act of Uniformity was passed, and the Church
was cast into the present shape. But during
those years Puritans and Episcopalians hold
benefices in the Church, yet were as different as
the High Churchmen of to-day from the Inde-
pendents; and, during the Commonwealth, the
Episcopal Church was suppressed, and most of
the livings belonged to Presbyterians or
Independents. Yet in all such cases the edu-
cational benefactions are to be held to be the
property of the existing Establishment. Already
many of these schools have been thrown open
to the whole nation without distinction of sect;
but now they are to be shut against all Rave
members of the Established Church. The Bill
is the boldest measure yet put forward by the
Conservatives, and if carried it will alter the
whole system on which these endownseuta have
lately been applied.
The British dominions are to be extended by the
saueaation of Fiji, the results of which will be to
replace anarchy with settled government, create a new
" \Vest Indies" in the Pacific, give us an excellent
mail-station between Austialasia and California, and
put an end to the wicked "blackbirdiug " business.
Fiji Kingdom consists of seventy-two islands contaio-
ing an area of 4,450,000 acres, out of which about
3,000,00 d are untenanted, five-sixths of which are
cultivable. The whole native population is estimated
at teo,soo, with 20,000 wild mountaineers ; but 3co
drilled indigenous police, under white officers, are
stated to be enough for purposes of order The
phantom governmeat, set up under Kakombau, is
bankrupt and impotent ; Lad the white and brown
population equally long for the hoistiag of H M's flag.
I'he "King of the Cannibal Island:" only wants a
pension and a new ship; the chiefs ask certain
assurances about their food, mats, and oil; and good
houses in Sydney arc ready to advance money to the
planters, for sugar-growing and crushing mills, the
moment that aaneution is declared As a crown
colony, Fiji will become, the Commissioners think,
very prosperous ; its soil is fertile, its climate good,
its scenery magnificent
Replying to a letter on the temperance question,
the Right Hon. John Bright strongly recommends
the religious community to endeavour to form public
opinion on the subject, and expresses his belief that
Parliauseut can do nothing in the matter until this
course shall have been adopted.
It is said that Mr. Gladstone, having been told by
a member of the late Cabinet !hat his speech of
Thursday would injure his positioa as leader of the
Liberal party, replied that he scarcely hoped to lead
the Liberals again. To this is added, that the
reported conversation has created quite a sensation in
the Liberal Clubs.
'f lie astronomers resent the idea that the comet has
or can have anything to do with the weather; hut it
is a notable coincidence, if it is nothing else, that this
last spell of hot weather should have come upon us
concurrently with Senor Cogea's comet, that we have
had no rain worth talking about since this cornet has
been in the sky, and that there is no apparent pros-
pect of it till the comet has disappeared below the
horizon. But if it should turn out that the comet
consists a carbonic oxide gas, everything is explained,
for carbonic taisle, it is said, is capable of holding
I,Soo times as much heat as atmospheric air; and as
the tail of the comet spreads at lost in an arc of which
ten millions of miles is the diameter. Lc large a heated
body of gas must necessarily greatly affect us- These
speculations are perhaps all moonshine; but we are
MI id. tea with comets, and we may find, one of these
days, as we foand in '6l, that we are living at present
in the tail cia comet.