The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-06-04 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, JUNE 4, 1861.

HONESTE AUDAS.

The news from America possesses unusua
interest. Actually at the border of the grea
war territories there is a degree of uncertainty—
inclining, perhaps, slightly to the mouth—but
looking at the great war map we ace the two
sides gradually dividing more and more clearly
away from each other; and every succeeding
mail brings intelligence of a nearer approach to
open hostilities. The intelligence that Lord
John Russell had declared that the Provisional
Government of the Confederate States must be
regarded as a "belligerent" authority, has
naturally caused great sensation at Washington.
The Northern mind had not calculated on any
such contingency. The Lincoln government
thought that by declaring the Southern Con-
federate Government no government—by refu-
sing to it the position of a belligerent—it would
be able to treat the Southern privateers as
pirates. Only one thing was needed—the con-
currence of foreign Powers in that interpretation
of public law. In the South Lord John
Russell's statement will be hailed as a victory.
Whether the Northern Government will carry
out its threat of breaking off all diplomatic
relations with England remains to be seen, but
we have a very strong impression that it will
think twice upon the subject before it resolves to
act once. Hitherto the attitude of England has
been perfectly neutral, and neutral it will
remain ; and if the Washington Government does
carry out its threats, the statesmen and men of
business the North will unquestionably curse
the administrative incapacity of those who cut
them off from intercourse with a neutral but
friendly ally, their best customer.
We are the greatest cotton consumers in the
world. Three or four millions of our popula-
tion are as directly dependent for existence on
its arrival here in its raw state, as if it was their
meat and drink; nor is there hardly a landed
estate in the country, little as our landowners
may think it, that would not go down in value
if the woolly harvest of the tropics were to
cease. Hitherto we have allowed our
whole supply to devolve upon one country,
though there were a dozen ready to become com-
petitors. Our manufacturers are world-renowned
for sagacity and enterprise, yet strange to say,
they have spent their whole time in weaving
cotton and bestowed scarcely a thought upon the
sources whence it might be obtained; and now
the utmost exertions may be too late to prevent
at least its partial interruption. There is, how-
ever, encouragement to exertion in the facts
stated by the Dukeof Newcastle, the othernight,
is reply to Lord Brougham The Colonial
Minister confirms the statement of the great
advocate of the negro race that cotton of the
finest sort can be grown at a highly remunera-
tive rate in • colony that now lacks nothing
but a sufficiency of negro labour. The Jamaica
Legislature having consented to the application ,
of the Encurnbeied Estates Act, the soil need no
longer be closed against capital and enterprise, and
coloured men may theinselvesbecome proprietors
or tenants of land, and find in the profitable
production of cotton, that stimulus to exertion
which sugar cultivation has received from the
system of peasant holdings. Latest advises from
J 414114614 state that the influential classes are

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giving much atention to the subject, and it is con- I
fidently anticipated they will be able to supply,
within the next twelve months, the estimated
deficiency from America. if such be the case, it
will be a gain not oi.ly to Great Britain and her
colony, but to humanity; for it will do more to
abolish slavery, than all the armies of the
North.

At the annual meeting of the Church
Missionary Society, held at the Guildhall, in
this town, last week, one of the speakers,
alluding to the falling off in the income of the
Society last year, Attributed the circumstance
partially to our recent commercial treaty with ,
France. By this the speaker inferred, although I
he did not state it, that that treaty bad been
injurious to this country in its results. We are
are aware that such is the statement put forth
and circulated by the Tory press, and on that
authority the rev. gentleman no doubt ventured
the assertion; but what are the facts. A few
weeks since, Mr. John Vance, one of the Tory
members for Dublin, moved for a return of our
exports to France for the two years endiug
March 31st, 1860 and 1861. This return has
now been printed, but the public may rest
assured that Tory prints will not make known
the result. It is a singularly instructive
document of four pages, and is calculated to
make those who so confidently predicted that
the policy of the present Government would be
fraught with moet ruinous consequences to
England, open wide their eyes with astonish-
ment. The value of English goods exported to
France during the year ending March 31, 1860,
was #10,631,226 sterling. In the following year,
although the new duties did not come into
operation till half the year had elapsed, the
value had risen to £14,442,214, or fifty per
cent. ! A trade which takes such a forward
bound as this in half a year augurs well for the
future, and cannot but give the country even
I greater confidence than heretofore in Mr Glad-
stone's financial policy.
The judgment of the Court of Queen's TICTICh,
in the case of the Queen e. Boyce, shuts uP
another loophole invented for tho briber by
astute pleaders in the Temple. Mr. Boyes was
a Beverley, who took a leading part
in promoting the election of one of the candi-
date., and employed golden arguments with
divers voters so successfully that the candi-
date was returned, and for a brief space occupied
an inglorious seat in the House of Commons.
A scrutiny by a committee discovered the pro-
cess of distribution, and the unseating of the
member followed as a matter of course. But
Sir Richard Itothel Rled a criminal information
against Mr. Boyea, who was put upon his trial.
A witness named Ponger was called to prove the
receipt of money, and the receipt being an
offence against the law, the pardon of the
Queen was put into the hands of the witness in
exoneration of the offence he was about to con-
fess. Mr. Ponger became conscientious, and it
was urged that although tho Queen's prerogative
exempted him from legal consequences, yet it
was by no means a protection agailat an im
peachueent of the House of Commons, and so he
claimed the privilege of a witness who is not
bound to criminate himself. But Mr. Baron
Martin and common sense prevailed; the
question was put and answered ; and Mr.
Reyes was convicted of the offence of bribery.
By a very old Statute of William 111. it is
enacted that no pardon granted under the Great
Seal shall be pleadable to an impeachment by
the Commons in Parliament," and Mr. Ponger
—although his name has never been heard in
that august assembly—professed to believe him-
self ot sufficient importance to be marked out
for the honours of this difficult, tedious, expen-
sive, and, in our day, almost impossible process.
Of course everybody well knew that the pretence
was got up simply to protect the briber; but the
device has failed, and we owe the failure to the
enlightened equity of the Queen's Bench, the
judges of which in a luminous judgment, have
laid down the law as it is to be understood by
men of common sense. The privilege of the
witness not to answer is gone when he accepts
the Queen's pardon ; and the very remote con-
tingency of impeachment, not being calculated
to raise reasonable fear in the mind of a witness,
is not to leave a loophole through which a default
in justice may creep. So Mr. Boyes's convic-
tion is not to be stopped by a nolle prose-qui, but
he is to be called up for judgment in the ordi-
nary way, and perhaps the next time we hear of
him will be when he is sentenced for bribery to
imrrisonment in the common gaol of felons and
_insolvent debtors.

The Tory Members of the Commons House
of Parliament dispersed for the IYhitsuritide
holidays with the gloomiest prospects. Relying
ou URI declaration of Lord Derby at the Lord
Mayor's dinner a short time since that those
who railed under him as their chief might defeat
the Ministry any day they chose, they had
tried the experiment and had most signally
failed. Beaten by a decisive majority on
the question of the paper duty repeal in a very
full House, little short of the most maddening
desperation was necessary to induce the Conser-
vatives to tempt their fate again. To re-open
the subject by a defeated ininority—to appeal
from the vote of the House one week to the
vote of the same House another week was a
precedent fraught with so great an evil that,
one would suppose, no party could possibly be
guilty of, however eager that party might be
for place and pay. To thus break through the
common usages of Parliament and of civilized
society, required one endowed with courage of
no ordinary character. Where was such a man
to be found I The Disraelitea had long wan-
dered In the wilderness of Opposition, and were
eagerly desiring to partake of the grapes of
Fachol. Was there no one to lead them to
the land flowing with milk and honey 1 In their
extremity the Dorset Chronicle informs us,
"Dorset came to the rescue !" A Joshua was
found in the person of Mr. Ker Seyruer, who
by means of a petition against the reveal of
the paper duty from Lyme Regis, obtained a
l'isgah view" of the promised laud. Far more
clever than Moses of old, who trusted to the
reports of others, Mr. Ker Seymer resolved to
be his own spy, and accordingly embraced the
opportunity afforded him by the Whitsuntide
recess of visiting Weymouth, where, according
, to the opinion of our contemporary, is concen-
trated the political wisdom of the whole nation.
I Whilst there, he witnessed the manceuvres of
the Queen's Own Yeomanry Cavalry, attended
two for three halls; perhaps danced with some
of the Dorsetshire yeomen's wives and daugh-
ter.; got a glimpse of the effigy of George 111.
' cut in the chalk clitf as ha walked along the
promenade ; saw Porland in the distance ; and
found out that the people had a strong objec-
tion to cheap paper. The river Jordan had
been bridged over by the Galway subsidy,
and all that was n was the blowing
of A ram's horn by the member
in the shape of an amendment in committee on
the motion for the repeal of the paper duty.
Government would immediately fall like the
walls of Jericho, and the land so long seen from
afar by the Disraelites with glistening, longing
eyes, would become an easy possession. Alas !
for the short-sightedness of erring humanity, how
often is the cup of pleasure dashed from the
hand, just as we are about to grasp it! In a
house of nearly bOO members, a majority of 15
saved the government from defeat, and the
Commons from disgrace and dissolution.

The Conversatives have indeed earned for
themselves a name the most discreditable in
connection with the late struggle, led on by
Mr. Ker Seymer, to oust the Government. It
is notorious that they fully calculated to defeat
the Ministry—not because any new light had
been, or could be, thrown on the paper duty
question, but because a number of Irish members
were offended at the annulling of the Galway
contract, and were willing to reverse their former
votes to revenge themselves on the Ministry
who had annulled it. It would be premature to
enter into the merits of the case just now, as the
subject will be brought before the House of Com-
mons unless the parties implicated should be so
ashamed of the whole job as to be urawilling
to revive it any more. Suffice it to say that at
the last election, the Derby Government, to
secure Irish votes, entered into a contract with
the Galway Steam Packet for the conveyance of
the American mails, by giving a subsidy of
£78,000 of the public money. This contract has
often justly been called "The worst conceived
of political jobs, and the worst imagined of poli-
tical delusions." The company wholly failed in
their engagement. and Lord Palmerstone WAS
not only justified in annulling the contract but
Was bound to do so. It might be a somewhat
Hibernian way of revenging themselves upon
the Government for terminating the mail con-
tract to vote against the paper duty, but Irish
members do not seem to wish themselves to be
coma !area in a very dignified light. There might ,
be some little excuse for the Opposition leaders '
looking on the contract with something like
parential partiality, but their agreeing to co-
operate with the Irish members on the paper
question with the distinct understanding that if
they unitedly succeeded in turning out the
Ministry, they would renew the contraet, waa a

jobbing mancenvre which it is impossible to too
severely condemn.

DORCHF-STER PITCHED CORN MARKET, Saturday, I
June Ist.—The attendance at the corn exchange
was not large, and the tone of the trade firm. but not
active. There was a liberal show of • heat, with but
little business done. Spring corns and other articles
remained alined stationary at late rates.
BAKER AND ENSOK'S REPOSITORY 5A1.08.-011
Saturday last, 12S head of stock and 1.200 sheep
were offered, and nearly the whole were sold. Beef
' was in good demand at from 12e. to 13s. per score,
mutton 74d. to Sd. per lb, and lambs at from 245.
to 291. each. Trade in stock sheep was dull. Fat
calvesthcalized from .e 3 to .C 5 10s. each; heifers with
calves £l2 to £l5. There was a very large atteud-
once of dealers and butchers from a distance, and a
large quantity of the stock went to London, Ports-
mouth, and Southampton. In little less than four
hours, 242 lots were disposed of, and a number of
horses, carriages, &c., at the Repository wore sold in
the afternoon. Useful cart horses and harness horses
were in demand and sold at good prices.
CONORIGATIONAL.—The Rev. Joseph Fox, RA.,
late of Barnet, has accepted a cordial and unanimous
invitation to the pastorate of the Congregational
Church at Dorchester.
EAST F6RDINOTON.—On Sunday morning last
about 50 members a the 3rd Dorset (Dorchester)
Rifle Corps, marched in procession to Ferdington
Church, under the commiuel of Ensign Devenieh,
and Sergeant-Major Newman, to pay • last tribute
i of respect ti their deceased comrade, Mr. Abram
Taylor. The vicar, the [ley. H. Moule, officiated on
the occasi ~,, , and delivered a very impressive ser-
mon from the 13th verse of the 4th chapter of the
let Epistle of St. John,—" Hereby know we that
we dwell in Him and H, in us, by the spirit which
He Lath given us." In the course of his remark's, the
rev, gentleman said that he understood it hail been
expected he was that morning to improve the death
of one of their late comrades--a volunteer in the
title owns. lie was very much gratified at seeing
them present on that occasion, hut his aim would be
then, as on all occasions, especially to point out to
them the way of eternal life, that life which they in
sure and certain hope had of those who died in the
Lord, and which eternal life was commenced in this
world by the iudwelling of the H 8 irit. On
ogielorav
whatever occasion, ehether in tne. services
Sunday after Sunday, in that che or, as ou tha•
occasion, when many lad met in respect to a decease t
comrade, his great aim would be to preach thd
Gospel by pointing out the way of eternal life. Thie
was the one great object of their meeting togethers
They would mitice that many passages of ecriptur •
had the same meaninfi—thus "Believing on Christ,e
"Coming to Christ, and "Dwelling in Christ,"
had the same mewling as WWI contained in the words
of the text. The gift of eternal life was a free gift
—imparted in this world; it was a present salvation
—a
salvation for ever, and it was at the peril of our
souls if we neglected it now. There were many eho
acknowledged the necessity of being religious, but
they never were in real earnest to have this in-
dwelling of the Spirit. He entreated them under
the circumstances in which they were then placed—
their departed comrade speaking to them as it were
from the grave—not to resist the influences of the
Holy Spirit. After enlarging upon this part of his
subject, the preacher most affectionately urged all of
them to believe on Christ to come—to Bins; but to
take care that they came ie the right way—with
the scriptures for their guide; to study the whole
of the scriptures- -nut merely one part to the casting
aside of the others. Of what use would a volunteer
be without his rifle? or without beteg able to use it?
And be could not be a true volunteer for Christ who
did rudest) the scriptures—which the Apostle said
WAS the "Sword of the Spirit." What would he said
of a volunteer who rebelled against the orders of his
commander? And what could be said of the pro-
fessing Christian who did not obey the commands of
his Heavenly Captain. In conclusion, he said he
fully believed they did not come to that place merely
to pass a kind of compliment to their departed com•
panion, but to join sincerely in the services of the
church, and with a desire to profit by the preaching
of the gospel. Ile respected the men who had come
forward in this movement, to defend their native
land, especially as at the time volunteer associations
were first formed, he believed they were absolutely
necessary; but at the same time he prayed them not
to make this an occasion to neglect the higher duties
which they owed to God; but while being faithful
men in this their service to their country, to seek to
lei devoted followers of Jesus Christ, and concluded
his discourse by imploring upon them the divine
blessing.—There was, besides the Volunteers, the
staff of the Dorset Militia and a large congregation
present. At theclose the volunteers marched ba:k
to the town, and were then dismissed.
Mete. &memo.— SOWS members or our rifle
corps met on Thursday last, at Maiden Castle, for
the purpose of shooting for some sweepstakes got up
among themselves. The fleet prize was shot for at a
distance of 200 and 400 yards, and was won by
Private Hogg, who scored 12 points, whilst Sergeant
Gregory carried off the second prize with 11 points.
The next prize was shot for at a distance of .0.)0
yards, with five rounds. Sergeants Gregory aid
Turner made six points each, but in 'hooting off the
tie. Sergeant Gregory won with a centre. Sergeant
Turner making an outer. We believe this is con-
sidered to be fleet-rate shooting, and we can only say
that our corps seem to possess a spirit of emulation
which cannot be seen to so great an extent in other
corps, and we have no doubt that at some future
time our corps will be distinguished for its "crack'
shots.

Doitorr AND Somrl:SET AR3OcIATED INISTITVTZII.
—The annual exaniinati.n of the students canie off
at Taunton on Friday last, and it is with no small
degree of pleasure we state that the students sent
from Dorchugter have carried off more prizes than
those of any other town, they having won more than
ballot all the prizes given. It will be remembered
that last year the students from this town came back
with two first.class prizes, but this year no lean than
four fiat and throe second class prizes have been won
by them. The first French prize of £1 10s, was
won by Henry Davis, as was also the first prize for
English grammar, for which he received £l, and six
volumes f " Lailnier's Museum of Science and Art,"
bound in calf, each volume having the medallion of
the society. Samuel Fippard, also from this town,
succeeded in carrying off two lint-class prises, the
first for History, for which £.l WAS given in money,
and " Crumweil's Letters and Speeches," in three
volumes, and the first for Bookkeeping, the prize for
which was 11. Three second class prises wore won
by Stephen Baker in English Grammar, Arithmetic,
and Geography, the prize for each subject being 10s.
and &certificate. In Dictation, for which &separate
prize was not given, out of five student' who were
correct, three of them came from Dorchester. These
examinations, unlike those in connection with the
two universities, are intended for young men whose
time is occupied 'luring the day by their trades, and
who attend the Ames at the Institutes and Mutual
Improvement Societies in the evening, and it is only
necessary for us to state that at our Institute nearly
all the subjects for which prizes were given can be
studied fur the small sum of Id per week. We
must congratulate the students from this town on
the success they have made, and we hope that others
will be influenced by their example to come forward
and form the classes at our Institute.

NIILITI.I ST•I7 SUITIR. —A supper was given to
the staff of this reginieut on Friday evening last, at
the Duke of Wellington Inn, when a pleasant even-
ing was spent, under the presidency of Sergeant-
Major Collins. .

ACCIDENT.—On Monday morning an accident
occurred to a young man named John Bartlett. at
Longbury. He was driving three horses attached to
a wagon in a field, when both the middle and shaft
horses fell upon him and very badly fractured both
his legs. He was conveyed to the County Hospital
where he is still lying.
AN UNNATURAL If UPWARD AND FATIIER.-011
Monday William C'ucks was charged before Major-
l'ieneral Michell, by Jamul Roberts, assistant over.
seer of Evershot, for leaving his wife and family
chargeable to the pariah. The defendant had been
ejected from A cottage at Alutock, and his furniture
taken from Lim for rent. He then ran away,
leaving his wife and family under a hedge, where
they remained tall prosecutor took them to the
Union. Defendant was committed for • month's
hard labour.

liRLKs..—Jo/mn 'lizard, baker, and John
Awry, sawyer, both residing at Fordington. t. (le
charged before John Engler and Robert Davis, &qrs.,
no Monday, by P.S. Itarrett, with being drunk and
fighting in High East Street a ith their clothes off.
about 1.3 o'clock on Saturday night. They were each
fined sa. and fis. 6d. costa.

SALISBURY MUSICAL FESTIVAL---It Will be seen
by reference to our report of Dm Salisbury musical
festival on Thursday last that the choir consisted of
710 voices, besides the clergy. Of these, it will be
interesting to know, 14 were from Saints,
Dorchester, the remainder chiefly from the upper
portion of the county.