The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-09-22 00:00:00

Borott eountl Exintoo.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, nu
NOTES OY TEM WEEK.

The revisione et the electoral registers, whieh
usually give incesion merely for partisan squabbles,
have this year been of great interest to Ni. general
public, on amount of the novel questions to be solved
in connection with Ni. franchise. Of them the one
which has Perhaps presented the most difficulty is
the apparently simple question, what is • lodger
Many persons who thought they belonged to this
category have by this time been rudely undeceived.
Young gentlemen ii at home with their papa and
mamma, and so (by papu) to pay •
oontribution to housekeeping expenses:Mt
fruitlessly aspired to the electoral dignity, while on
the other hand, pethons renting parts of houses from
non-resident landlords have been told that they were
householders, not lodgers, end should claim to be
separately rated. But the great question of all has
been, not what is a lodger?_ but what is • "dear
annual value of £10." There la no doubt whatever
that Parliament meant something quite different
from not by "anima valuer bat as it did not my
whit it meant, the revising banisters, after vainly
trying to extraot the "dear annual value" out of •
given net, have fallen book on the simple Heidi-
onatio rule, that •
"The worth of anything
Is just as min* as it will bring."
Thus Ni. "value" of apartments is takes to be what
they will fetch in rent But in Bristol it has been
decided that £lO • year mud be paid quarterly, and
not weekly, to give a qualification—a decision op-
posed to all those arrived at elsewhere. In short, it
is very evident that the lodger franchise is on • very
unsatisfactory basis, and that something must be
done to improve it.
The claims of Mr. Mill's protigies, the "men" of
the female sex, have been urged with 11X411eng I
pertiosoly, but most of the revising barristers have !
been ungallant enough to strike out the names of
these "persons' oven when not objected to, and at
Leeds the Linger went so far as to tine a lady ten
shillings for having preferred and insisted on what
he called a frivolous claim. Still, here and there, • I
few female names have been allowed to papa and
the owners of these names will doubtleen record their
votes, though, of coarse, those votes would be worth-
less in can of • scrutiny. We don't know whether
the country ia prepared for female suffrage; bat if
it is, we had better adopt it openly and avowedly,
and not come to it by trickery and stratagem.
The question of admitting peers to the freathlte lea
difficult one, it being not very dear whether they
are entitled to vote or not The renal banisters
are divided in opinion on the matter, an doubtless
it will be soon settled by an appeal to the superior
court But the question is not of very great im-
portance, as peers are not anywhere so numerous as
to have much effect on an election. Among other
questions that have arisen during the registrations
was the mime one, whether the £l2 householders
of Great Yarmouth, who will be disfranchised as
borough voters oiler the present Parliament, were
now entitled to be registered as County voters
Here, as in more general questions, the
decision was • rational rather than a tech-
nice! one, and men will not be die.
franchised through the shortcomings of an act of
Parliament On the whole, the revisions, though
effected after • rough and ready fashion, appear to
be conducted with fairness and liberality, and we
do not know that justice would be done by • more
precise system.
The prorogation of Convocation to November 27th.,
following that of Parliament to the 26th, =amt. a I
thought. This apology for • Church Parliament '
which follows the career of the State Legislature like
a pale shadow, will be dissolved a day or, two after
the House of Commons, and the clergy of the
province of Canterbury (which means about three-
fourths of England) will 4,411 the bother of electing
new representative.. What for? Cannot Convoca-
tion be utilized in preparing church laws for the
emotion of rsrliauslest, sad weedd Li ove be Teal if
next session it devoted its earned attention to
Ritualism? Thom enthusiasts for ecclesiastical
ievivals ore certainly turning the minds of many
zealous Protestants against • church which has no
means of correcting such exosesee. With such an
excrescence as Ritualism fastened on it, the Church
of England will fight an unequal battle if ever it
oomes to struggle for its existence as an establish-
ment, and the best friends of the church would be
;led to see Convocation employed in pruning away
this eXcleleeeoe.
The report of the Royal Commission on the Irish
Church, which has been awaited with so much
anxiety, was published on Saturday. The Com-
nussii sere propose to reduce the bishoprios by four,
abolishing those of Meath, Edmore, ICillalos, and
Cutlet Their proposals also comprehend • mar-
wig mot of dioceees. The total revenues of the
Irish Church are returned se little over £600,000,
Ike rent-charge amounting to £320,000. It is also
recommended that all deans, except eight, should be
removed; but that two archdeacons should be
retained for each diocese. The Royal Commissioner,
the extension of enlarged powers to the ,
propose
Ecclesiastical Commissioners and the vesting in them I
of all surplus revenues for the purpowe of providing I
adequate endowment for populous rah's.
terrible accident at Aberge appears to have
unnerved the railway servants on the Chester and
Holyhead line, if we may judge from the fact that
two accidents have just occurred to the Irish mall,
though fortunately neither of them proved fatal.
Meanwhile, the prosecution of the ition-master at
Liandulaa, who was not implicated in the verdict of
the coroner's jorheill goes on before Ni.
and it appears likely that the accused
com-
mitted to take his trial for manslaughter. It is not
likely, however, that both he and the breaks:nen of
the goods train will be found guilty of producing
the mine soddent by distinct and separate displays
of negligenoe. The success of one prosecution will
probably prevent the other from being carried oat;
but anyhow, it is may to see what doubt and
diffioulty surrounds the matter, and as easy to con-
clude that the safety of railway travellers will never
be insured by such prosecutions. What we want is
in entire change in the system of signalling so as to
render collisions practically impossible. -
War rumours come thickly from France, but it
seems they are only canards raised by certain Paris
journals to amuse their readers in diem dull times.
A report was current on Friday that the French
Government, in order to show that it really
entertains • desire to maintain peace, will reduce its
army by forty or sixty thousand men.
The insurrection in Spain, which has so long been
Impending, has at length broken out. At the time
Queen Labelle was engaged in an interview with the
Emperor of the French, the whole Spanish feet
declared against her Government, and the General/
Lundy azdad to the Canary islands, by a singoLr
coincidence, arrived the some day at Cadiz in •
trading stearner. Previous to their lauding the
garrison of Cadiz made • pronsinciamento in favour
of the insurrections's. Marshal the Duke de la
Torre has placed himself at the head of Ni. move.
meat, and has declared that it is direct:4 against the
reigning dynasty. It is rumoured that Gemmel
Prim, with his idaH, has embarkad from London
with the intention of lending on the Whistles
shore. Several towns, we learn have raised the Beg
of insurrection. Troops have been despatched spinet
be insurgent.