The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-03-29 00:00:00

SALISBURY.

BANK or Ariern.u.sst•.—A fleeting of the Bank
of A ostralamie took place last week, Mr. 0. Farrer in
the chair, when the report, announcing a dividend
and bonus at the rote of 20 per cent. per annum,
free of Mown:dux, VMS adopteil: It as observed,
with reference to the competition to which this
establishment has been subjected. that on its first
starting there were only two local banks, and that
there are now eight. The bank has been compelled
most unwillingly to adopt the practice of allowins
interest oil deposits. The introduction of this
system caused a iliminution in the profits of last year,
which would otherwise have been larger than on any
previous occasion. In Sew South Wales the prac.
tice has been abolished, and • hope is entertained
that it will also came in Victoria. in commenting

on the finece,s of the new Victoria loan the cLairfflan
laid some stress on the neeesNity,: in effecting an
operation of this nature, of having the countenance
of the Stock Exchange. The report states that the
accounts " Exhibit a somewhat diminished profit
consequent on the commereal tlepression during the
year, the increased competition in banking, and the
continuance of the prictice of paying interest on
deposits ;" and it adds :—" The Directors, nevertheo
less, think that the proprietors will agree with them
in regarding the profit reahred on the year's trans-
actions, under these circumstances, a subject for
congratulation, and they are happy to feel that, it
justifies them in c.tntinuing the next dividend and
bones at April at the present rates. No event of
importance has taken place in the colonies since the
last meeting; and the general prosperity continued
, unstated. The Directors have the phaisure to report
that the first portion of the Victoria Loan, an ((((( nting
: to X 1,000,0011, has been disposed of upon terms
which will douldlials prove satisfactory to the colony ;
while the price it maintains in the market affords the
' best proof of the estimation in which the credit of
the colonv is held, and the confidence entertained in
its good faith and prole:ray. The Directors have to
announce that they have declared a thvidend and
bonus, at the rate together, of 20 per cent. per au I
free of income-tax.

Lear Si:m.lcm ar Sr. Tiiiio.‘,e 4 11cm mm. —flu
Wednesday evening last, the Rev. .I. 11. L. l*ameron,
rector of Bockhorn Weston. Dorset, preached from
2 Tim. i. 16. 17. Is -" The Lord give mercy unto
the house of thiesiplionis : for he oft refreshed me,
and was not ashamed of my chain : but when he
was in P u. lie sought me out very diligently, and
found tue. The Lord grant unto him that he inaY
thel 'tierce the Lord in that ilay : maul in h.uw
many things lie tensl unto me at Ephesus thou
knowest very well ;" the suii.ject loving And which
11l i l iistrztions our merciful Lord will hereafter re.
ward. On Friday, the Rev. T. li. Tooke, preached
from 21,,,,. iii. 14. 15 : —" But continue thou in the
things w hich thee hut learned and ha st been assured
of, knowing of whom thou bast learned them ; and
that fro... a c:iilul thou hast known the holy scriptures
which are able to make thee a i.e unto salvation
through faith which is ii. christ.lesus ;" the suojeet
being--The Christian also awalems and keeps up a
deep interest in all that concerus the education of
children, by Ow glowing 0 ght of the esliacati.iii
which our Lord reccivel from His Mussel Virgin
Mother. On Wednesday, Match NI, the Rev. Pre-
centor fleatlicuite will preach from John xvii. 20, 21,
--" Neither pniy I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word ; that
they all may be one ; as thou. Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be sate in us : that the
world may believe that thou hut sent me ;" the sub-
ject being —As our Lori included all the children of
Adam in his purposes of mercy, so the Christian's
heart reaches forth to all men, and finding in Foreign
Nlimions a claim all lint equal to that of the notlie
Misaions, tries to satisfy it as in other ways so Vela.
ally by seeking to help forward the fulfilment of the
Prayer which our Lord offered up in the words of the
text. --On Friday, April I, the Rev. Prebendary
Popham will preach from Hebrews xii. 3, 4 :—For
consider him that endured such contruliction of sin'
nen against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in
your hi, ye have not resisted unto blood, striving
against sin ;" the subject being-11e rinds too in this
Prayer of our Lord (John evil. 20, 21)a very power.
ful motive to strive against sin.
SALISIIURY I.ITEICAUV AND SeIENTIFIC faster*.
Tios..—On Thursday last the members of the Lite.
rnry and Scientific Institution listened to a most in.
teresting and instructive lecture by Mr. E. I'. Ste-
vens, of this city, on the " Curiosities of Silk and the
Silkworm." It has seldom fallen to our lot to listen
to a lecturer evincing both such deep research, and
so intimate an acqu.sintanee with many of the so'
called bypitlis of literature ; mnileed, from the
marked attention of the audience, it was clearly evi•
dent that they fully appreciated the eloquent and
skilful iieinner in which the lecturer treated his sub-
ject. After alluding to the many erroneous views
held 11 the ancients as to the nature and prituary
source of silk, the lecturer described the two princi•
pal route. by which silk found its way westward
from Scrim (the present Chinese empire, the people
of which were anciently called •• 'rho Sem") to the
European markets; incidentally alludesl to the story
of Jason and the golden fleece; and shewel that al.
though, weight for weight, silk at that time was
equal in value to gold, yet from the colour of Chinese
silk being white, it Was highly improleible that the
fleece would have been called golden, however appro.
priate the term silvern might have been. fle thought
it much more probable that the Argonautic expeuli•
tiou was purely a niereuitile one, and that the much
disputed golden fleece was simply a peculiarly fine
breed of sheep, the colour of whose wool was of a
dark amber tint, which the tratlersobtained from the
Corasi, a nation inhabiting that tract of land inime-
iliately in the vicinity of the ancient city of Colchis.
Ile then alluded to the high price of silk, and to silk
being sold in Rome weight for weight with gold
stating that among the wanton prodigalities of the
profligate Ileliogabalus it is recorded that be wore a
holoserieum, or a garment maule 'lithely of silk ;
and that the more prudent Enspeor Aurelian not
only lauessel no silken gartneets himself, but when
his wile • to snow her a single shawl of •
purple silk, be is stated by Voliecus
have refused her earnest request. After giv•
jiag the well-known story of the into.. .auction of the
ailkwornis. eggs into Constantinople, a. ii. 552, by
two Persian monks, in their bellow cane pilgrims'
staves, and traeing the spread of the silkworm to
Creece, which for the l'uullowing tam years was Ow
seat of tho silk tnele iii Eon pc. he mentioned (Ica
in 1147. Roger first invaded tirtsvc. and that lost
contest with carrying If 0 Is.. the spoils of Thebes.
.ttliens, and Corinth, he forcibly settled a number
of captive silk weavers at Palermo, and thus intro.
duce! the silk matinfuture nit. Siete. From thew.:
it apt rail to Italy, France, Stein. :mil other countries.
Mr. Stephens then gave a short aceoulit of the early
use of silk in Faiglaiel, awl al., of the attempts made
at a later period to stop the excessive 11/10 Of silk ill
tllOl country•—xlich As the sumptuary law luaus! in
1554. by whidi, whosoever should wear silk in uur
mem his hat, bonnet. girdle, scabbard, hose. shoes,
or spar leather, was liable to be imprisoned three
this and to forfeit £.lO. Ile next allude! to the
rare use of silk stocking,. in England amid Scotland,
and related an anecdote of James I. ouf Scotland, who
before lie received the English Anileimailor, 011 1/11i.
occasion, is recorded to have berroweil a pair of silk
stockings from a subject --the Earl of .Nlar ; " for
sure," said he " you will not that your king should
aPPeftr a scrub before strangers." After ()mania
from Sloow'A Chronic!, the account Of the •• NeW
Yeare*s 4;ift " presented to Queen Elilalsetli by
Mistress :Montagu of a pair of black silk knit stock•
ings, which ',leaned her "Majestic " so ninch that
lieumforth she said " she would secar no more cloth
stockings," he spoke of the introduction of silk
throwing into England by Jolot Loathe iii 170, who
is said to have fallen a victim to Italian revenge, aunt
to have died at the early age of 29. fren the elleas
of 'mem'. The lecturer then touched upon the causes
of the recent failure in the continental silk crop.
and endeavoured to show that while Ow yield of
silk WU much minced in quantity from injuilicioua
treatment of the 'berry tree that still greater
injury was caused by want of cleanliness, which pro-
duced a disease called muscanlinc, or calemetto, by
which the bilk worms were killed in vast
numbers. It was a mistake, the lecturer said,
to suppose that the silkworm wu the only insect
which produced silk ; A very large proportion of Ow
insect world 'produced More or less, although fr
venom; ci rennet:ince' these silks cannot be procured at
reasonalily low prices, or in sufficient al lance to
render them available for the purpiews of the manii.
futurer : as example, he described the Tweet" and
Arrinuly silkworms, the two varieties found in South
.tinerica, the silky investusent of the eggs of spiders,
the small glist g cocoons of the Ichneumon fly,
and the hung tough byssus of the Piniut, a large
weals,. shellfish ; rand quoted T.:ruffian— " Nor
was it enough to comb and sow the materials for a
tunic. It was necuiary also to fish for one's dread ;
for iteccea are obtained from the sea where shells of
extraordinary size are furnished with tufts of mosey
hair." The lecturer concluded with a few remarks
on the mulberry tree, amiilet the warmly cermet
approlsati.ni of his hearers. The Rev. Sulelean Eyre,
in an appropriate speed', proposed a vote of thanks
sessions. LOul
ti,ttisi:unuistru:Nitilir:.r:igS.
11,.tse;h7iaeui
with fully More Mich interesting lectures. Mr.
of the results of his
ait lecture, would la. very
happy to doss; again ; but lie wished it clearly to
be isuilersteel that he diul not desire to etand alone.
bet others come forward and communicate AU' the
CO 11111 l on weal any inter-sting tart Widnes in connesi..ll
with the varimni Imam:lies of industry with which
they were individually connected, for he Was
'"'ucliiing might be raid eVIII 1111 the most commiiii•
Place mug.. Ili. thought it would gee:illy add to
the welld f
f -.113 Illetitution if men. lecturer's
0/11111 00 1110 frlllll Salisbury end the immediate
licighim'url""l ; there would be 1111 additional local
interval att:wheil to any such lectures. This would
Ho way interfere w ilii the prim:tie, of having good
lecturers from A ; sit 010 111111 W titllo it woubl
Plat', tlme institlition on a firmer hosia if it could lie
made inulepeudent of extraneous hell.. We are NIPPY
to learn that time Literary and Scientific Institution
is now mit of debt ; and we sincerely trust that it
will continuo to merit that extensive comfort which
it deserves.