The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-05-26 00:00:00

lOorott &until &pm

TUESDAY, NAY' 26, 1968.
NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Will Mr. Di/re*li advise the Queen to abdicate?
was the extraordinary question
given notioe of by
Mr. Reardon, 11. P. for Athlone, on Friday night,
and the shouts of indignant execration which this
impertinence elicited, will be re-echoed throughout
the country. To imagine the King's death" is
tresson, we know, and to propose the Sovereign's
abdication in plain term can be little better. If
anybody but Mr. Reardon had made such a proposi-
tion, Parliamentary and popular indignation would
have been much greater and more listing; but this
gentleman, in consideration of the position he has
awumed, is allowed very considerable license. As
monarchs of old used to have their "fool.," who
were &Hewed greater latitude of speech than the
highest baron or bishop, so the House of Commons
has geweregy enjoyed the services of a volunteer
down, whose fuoctions are to enliven the tedium of
serious business by occasional sallies of fun or folly,
end OD occasions to speak out bluntly when other
people are looking for the proper words in which to
clothe their thoughts. Fergus O'Connor held this
position till the poor fellow's folly developed into
lunacy; and the late Colonel Sibthorpe was a most
efficient Parliamentary clown; but at late years, as
Bernal Osborne has manifestly been growing too
staid and either for an office which he promised to fill
in • superior manner, and as it has become manifest
that Wludley would not obey the invitation to
"sing," which used to be so often addressed
to him, the House of Commons was getting
badly off for • "foot" till Reardon reared his head
with the cap and bells upon it. However, the
new occupant of this respectable position requires
some training before he will become • site and
efficient "fool." He must be made to learn that,
though fools may rush in where angels fear to
tread, there are some subjects tabooed even to fools.
Thu honourable gentleman must adopt • "method
in his madman" if he does not wish to make himself
intolerable.

On the evening of Mr. Rearden's folly, Mr.
Gladstone pressed his Suspensory Bill to a mond
reading, and thus turned the critical corner in his
present attack upon the Irish Church. From the
remark' made by the leader of the Oppoeition, it
is pretty clear that he contemplates the probable
rejection of his bill by the House of Lord.; and few
can doubt that this will be the fate of the measure
if it should get into the hands of the peers this
session; end so will end the first act in the drama
of lrish Clinrch die-establishment, Mr. Gladstone
excusing himself for expending the public time on
apparently lost labour by reminding the House of
Commons that the wooer it begins to knock at the
door of the Lords the sooner it will be let in ; and
no doubt he is right in this, the Peers, like the man
in the parable, having been often moved by repeated
importunity where the motive of friendship would
not have been sufficient. _ .

—.— ---
In the present unsettled state of things in Parlia-
ment there can be no hesitation in saying, without
in the least endorsing Mr. Rearden's presumptuous
folly, that the shampoo of the Queen may be moon.
venient in a political sense; though, as has been
very justly observed, no one could have foreseen the
votes which were given in the House of Commons on
the evening of the very day that Her Majesty started
for Sootland. But while the Prince and Princess of
Wales continue to make themselves so popnlar in
social affairs, there is no fear of any want of loyalty
growing up among us. Never perhaps were a young
royal couple more beloved by all classes of • nation ;
and never, perhaps, did persons so situated work
harder to deserve the popularity they enj .y. A
new instanoe of the Prince's willingness to "make
himself generally useful" is shown in his acceptance
of the (Ace of President of the Royal Agricultural
Society, at the annual meeting of which association
in July, the good people of the ancient borough of
Leicester will have the opportunity of giving • loyal
reception to their future King. If the Prince goes
on in his present course, there will be few districts
in the United Kingdom, in which he will not be
personally known by the time that, in the order of
nature, he will probably be called to sit upon the
throne of the British empire.
The decision of Vice-Chancellor Giffard in the
case of Lyon e. Home, decreeing the restitution of
the £60,000 obtained from the plaintiff while she
was under " hallucination or undue influence,"
will give satisfaction to everybody, we should
imagine except the defendant and • few of his
spiritualist friends. However, the came may be not
settled yet. Mr. Home will probably appeal, and
in the event of another adverse decision,may possibly
carry his case into the Hones of Lords, as he has
apparently nothing to lose in the matter, and
would have everything to gain by a reversal of the
recent decision.