The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-06-10 00:00:00

THE LONDON WEEKLY PRESS.

I.I.GIBLATION AT A STANDSTILL.

It is in the nature of things that the last days of a Libe-
ral Government should be tame, and the last days of •
'Conservative Government exciting, says the tialwrciey
Review ; for when • Liberal Government is approaching
the en.l of its power it is falling because the public is too
quiet and peaceful, and when the same thing happen. to
a Conservative Government it falls because the public is
too eager and excited to allow of its prn•pering. Since
Easter the present Government has had an opportunity
of showing Low very tame public life can be when a Liberal
Government i. in office, pretending to do little and doing
less, and yet fully answering the call. of public sentiment. The
Government makes no way with legislation. The Judiceture
Bill has got through the House .1 Lortls, and this is literally
all that can be said. Lord Cairns, the arbiter of Lord
Selburne's fate, has damned the Land Transfer Bills with
mill appn,val, and consigned them to the limbo of a Select
Committee in June. The measures of the Government
with regard to Local Taxation are only the beginning of a
beginning, and excite no interest, if they provoke no very
violent opposition. As to the other measures of the
!Government, where are they ? The Attorncy-General's
Jury Bill appears to be running aground 011 the shoals
of local taxation; and thtre is as yet no sign of his
proniised measure fur codifying the law of evidence,
or of the 1411 to amend the Education Act. The
Ministry carries on happily aud easily as if it were in the
Ist of a perpetual Long Vacation. and could sit fot
end-
1,,. bouts by the 11C1111110re, having given direction. that 110
lettrf, should be forwarded to its uthlress. Its opponents
are only too happy to enioy their Long Vacation also.
They scarcely ever attack it, have nothing .1 their own to
1401 wee, and no remarks to make about anything. The
strength to resist doing bad work goes along with the
weiikiiens to do good work; and the House of Commons,
whether putting its extinguisher on crotchets, or
coquetting with the Rating Bill, or giving a fitful support
to small Ministerial proposals, is equally aiming at that
which it feels to be its one appropriate goal, the end of the
Session.

Though the active jourt of the Session is nearly over. the
E.rawincr remarks, there is hardly anything te be said in
review of the work alone in it. Perhaps this listlessness of
our politician. is not to be wondered at. The present
ut has already lived too long. and but little fur-
ther work is to he looked for front it. It may possibly live
thruti,;ll another 'cajun, but that is hardly likely, and is
certainly vcry undesirable. We hope most heartily that
the present sultry weather will issue in a storm
of some sort which will render it necessary for
Mr. Gladstone to appeal to the country, and
in that way allow the national thought to be
represented, whatever that thought may be, and whoever
may by its vxpotis tit. It is just possible that Mr. Glad-
stone during the recess n,.‘y find some Sew rallying cry
th.vt will satisfy all sections of Liberals, and the adoption
of which will really MAIO, to the well-being of the
11.1tiOil. If so, it will he well that he should obtain
a new lease of office, and, seeing how scarce good
statesmen are, evra those Radicals who trust him
least may he able to follow hint with pleasure. But
if not, if the best he CAI 110 is SO line upon Whig
traditions anal time-serving concession, to Tories and
Radicals in turns, the sooner ho is got rid of the
better.

BANK FATE I.F DISCOLNT.

It is too soon a. yet to judge whether this last
rise in the Bank rate .4 discount will be enough
or nut, the ~, declares. The exchanges are
better as we write. and it is possible that it
may be effectual. N..thing but actual experience can in
these cases decide for certain. Ac we remarked last week,
the world is very bare .4 gold. One large sum is locked
up in the Bank of France. A statement has indeed been
made that the /lank of Francs will joy a part of the last
p yment of the indemnity in gold if the French Finance
kliaiister Co wishes it. But no part of the payment just
slue appears to have been so paid ; and the next payment
is not due till July. Any relief to the money market
therefore which is thus to arise must be postponed
till next week. We doubt whether 7 per cent,
will be enough to fill the Bank. It is, indeed,
asked whether any rate will be enough or. at
least, how do we know that it will be enough and the
only answer is an appeal to experience. We have always
before found that when the Rank raised its rate as high as
a certain point, money seemed to come rapidly and almost
by magic. No doubt on former occasions there were not
all the difficulties which there now are. There was not
then the irreat " lock op in the colfers of the Bank of
France or in the hands of the German Government. But
then on those occasions we got money not from the Bank
of France or front other large storm only, but from so
great • number of quarters that it was difficult to specify
them. When the necessary rate of interest was reached,
money from the most miscellaneous sources, and in the
most dstached portions, i ~,,,, ediatelp CAM!. And flit re is
no reason why this should not be the case now, but every
reason why it should.

HOW To ENTICHTAIN THE SHAH.

Any receptions the shah may receive will be taken as
honours paid to his position in the world ; hut, she
.Srectab.r observes, to make an impression, we must show
him something which will bring to his mind the idea of a
limitless reservoir of pewee, and for ibis we bane hut .one
device. If the shah may hut ride from some point of the
river through the City to Buckingham Palace, with the
Prince .4 Nt ales by his Fide. and Londen wailer a strong
hint to turn out as it turned out for the Princesson her mar-
riage—a few more t;uards would be 'rented, or the n.ughs
might make a rush for the Shah's diamonds- he will go back
statistiol that Deglawl is irresistible. The British Capital
is alone stronger than his empire. There, collected before
his eyes, is the recruiting dep4 from which endless armies
of the terrible soldiers whom he fears can be drawn; there
is the massed force with which it is useless to struggle,
and which obeys • few niotinted guards. There is nothing
in its way so awesome as London in the streets, nothing
which so strikes the (oriental mind. To found a ii;;;lity
capital is the ambition of all Asiatic Kings. and London is
the capital such as 110 man has seen. If beyond thin there
is a wish to give the Shah an entertainment—something
special, peculiar, awl piquant- the mean. are readily
at hand. Surpass the continental dinners. Set
custom aside, lot the India House and the Foreip
Office unite, secure the Crystal Palace, ballet, fireworks
and all, for a night, realise sunlight by illumination, in-
vite every geese, spend in flowers. awl produce for one
evening. scene from the "Arabian Nights." Let no one
stance hut the profecdunal performers, or the Shah will
fed that curious sentiment of contempt with which a
true Oriental always regards dancing, but let this be his
reception for the whole aristocracy of England. Ile will
see it scene such as the world has nut to show, and retain
an impression of magnificence such as neither Buckingham
Palace nor the Guildhall is likely to inspire.

UMW.% KM AND EMPLOYED.

Reviewing the speecha delivered at the Hyde Park De-
monstration with regard to the Chipping Norton scandal
and the working of the Criminal Law Amendment and
Wasters and Servants Acts, the Npe.infor concludes :—We
ace, then. no remedy for what the labourer. complain 44,
except the repeal of the penal c._uses of the Criminal Law
Amendment Act, with the substitution of a severe statut-
able punishment for rattening, and the most carvfial super-
vision by the Home Office over unjust sentence. The
Chipping Norton magistrates who, either from ignorance
or incapacity, have misused their power. should be re-
moved from the bench. In all other like cases,
there thould be the most careful revision of the sen-
tences paucl in the case of trade I Imputes, both by
the press and by the Home Office. But it is simply mien.
tial that there should be a severer penalty than any pecw
nisi"- fine for breach of contract in 'bad cases, and it is inc.
citable that a great many more labourers than employers
•are likely to suffer these penalties. All that can be done
is to see, as far as possible, that the discretion of the ma•
gietrates le wisely used. To reduce the penalty in all cams
to a fine would he to put the employers of labour so corn•
pletely at the missy of combinations of labourers that
capitalists would no longer trust their capital in industrial
evterprises in this country ; and the result of that would
be even more fatal to the elsa• of labourers than to the
clam of employers.

LIBEIULISX IN lIUNCE,

vpis !.iberals see no reason to despair of their cause in
!begj,.l situation which has been created by the late
etsj,;iros the Examiner, and their organs state
boldly their opinion, that the conviction that the Republic
I. the only form of settled government possible in France
has become toe MOW in the minds of the French
, people to be destroyed hy any sudden change of ad-
vninistration. They explain to their electors that
to • overthrow the Government is opt to overthrow a Re-
idd, be, and recommend everywhere taanguillity and obe-
dient to the laws. IS is certainly a good thing for the
iteinihi:•ii that there axe three Monarchical beetles* in the
Aw„,od) • instead of one Monarchical party. The bend
which for the present keeps these three sections together
most e„ntn. 41y be loosened. There are plenty of rumours
afloat ,drend,, discord in the Cabinet, and of probable
changes of St ;sten. Ruh of them Slonareissgal sec-
preventing the foundation
twin, which hail Mte,met M
of a lasting Republk eimalY Interested to Preventing
the foundation of the virneular Dlottaechy desired by the
other two . and, as th wovisional system minuet be pro-
longed indefinitely, the.ti %mph of the reactionary party
Is not as fatal to the Tweet 'eel" of Lab.eal Ocverneleut
in France as some hale feared. M Premature to earme
any opinion ae to the duration X Malion's presidency,
is
but the general feeling in the coun ley Wit it Is not like l y
to :ast long.

RAILWAY AMALGAM.%) IUL
The Joint Committee of the Lon!. i. ad C°'."...aa
Iji
rejected, says the Spectator, the first great. San of amalga-
mation, that of the London and North-Wes 4111. and l-aa•
cashire and Yorkshire Railway Companies. ne reasons
are given, but it Is believed the Committee are 'Planed to
the ultimate result of all these plans, which no. 4 he ah•
sondion by tha State. We I ether regret the failure of t." Bill,
Bill,
as the brat great amalgamations would have been in the h edit,
and the consequent rage of the manufacturers, tormented to
death by lii4ll prices, preferences, and dew ll'eedafor eikl7
Loods, would have greatly aim hi!..! the inevitable end.
There is no hurry, however. Wo shall one day have •
Parlimilent which will deal with thew oligarchies in a diffe-
rent spirit, will pay them their contract prim plus 10
per cent. for forced sale and leave them to ramble as
they like. Ilreat oligare'lnes are in no danger hew* tro
they are in the stay of statesmen, but the first great seed
for tasation or loan will settle their fate very quickly.
Mr t.ladstone could "stump private enterptise le
ways out of existence in a month.

Viaitors to Gresnawieh, it appears, will not be deprived
of all their privileges as to admission to the grounds and
terraces of the Royal Naval Hospital. At a meeting of
the Vestry of Greenwich a letter was read from
the Lords of the Adniiralty, in answir to a
protest made by the Vestry against the proposed
conversion of the Painted Hall of the Hospital into
a iliniug-room, and the exclusion of the polilk from
certain walks in the ground'. Their lordships, whilst not
committing themselves to anything definite about the
Painted Hall, stated that they had no wish to exclude the
public from any portion of the grounds or butlthtig when
their premises would not interfere with the business of the
•College.

Tto-elenate :ism given notice that the next matriculation
*lamination in connection with the University of London
Will he held at Burlington 11.31%e on llloiolay, the 30th
b.t. and on the same lay there *ill he provinci:il mind.
Ilations at Owen's College, Alanclitater ; queen's College,
Birmingham. St. Cutlibert's Ashew ; and VULVA'S College,
LiverpooL
The district email:kitten of the Charity Organisation
liocttizn hisve dealt with 1,385 team (exclusive of 1,466 an.
from vagrant& and homeless persons) during the
E411:e5 week, ending Saturday, )by 41, 1671 Of these 456
ems &maimed. 421 were referred 49 kpl
_and chari_,_tabi.
agent:tea, and 508 were unlined by MS% Mani, =your
and In oVaw ways