The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-01-05 00:00:00

Vorset eountti Expreu.

TUESDAY. JANUARY 5. 18Th.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Mr. Disraeli's stay at Bournemouth has been
re-invigorating, and the Premier expects to be
able to take his seat at the Cabinet Council on
January 12th. With the new year a revival of
trade is anticipated. The next move in the '
Bank rate of discount is confidently expected to
be a downward one; and emit in the money
market may be taken as the signal for improved
trade returns. Meanwhile the Chancellor of
the Exchequer has no reason to regret the
rather sanguine view he took of the revenue.
It is early to speculate upon a Budget surplus,
but one of at least a million and a half may be
expected. Sir Stafford Northcote calculated on
a reduction of revenue in the year of three
millions and a half upon the returns of the last
financial year. Nine months have passed, and
the reduction is so far about a million. In
other words the growth of revenue bids fair to
make up for reduction of taxation, as it has
done for many years. It is futile yet to conjec-
ture the political prospects of the year. The
Liberals are leaving all preparations for business
to the Cabinet. Local Goverrunent, Land
Tenure, and Sanitary Acts, are said to be in
I progress. Lord Elcho, it is thought, will not
have thu help of tho Government with his
Corporfition of London Reform Bill. But
ecclesiastical questions are sure to come to the
front again, and Mr. Disraeli will possibly have
the opportunity of doing that which his oppo-
nents forecast for him disestablishing the
Church. Historical precedents favour the
notion. The Tory Government that took office
in 1841 pledged to the maintenance of protec-
tion repealed the Corn Laws in 1846. The
Tory Government that came into office in 1866,
upon the defeat of the Whig Bill for the reduc-
tion of the Borough franchise to £7, conceded
household suffrage. Who then, it is argued,
shall say what the present Government may not
do before them is another appeal to the country?
They have been sent into power to secure reli-
gious education, and their antecedents point to
the probability of their ending by disestablish.
ing the Church. Continental prospects are
brightened by the friendly intercourse of all
the Powers, and by fresh proofs of confidence
placed in the German Chancellor. France can
but improve on the history of the year; Spain
can hardly do woise. She has begun with
another revolution, and accepted the proclama-
tion of Isabella's son—King Alphonse Xll—
with equanimity. But this seems to have no
effect on the Carlists. A characteristic incident
of the new reign is, that the first act of the
youthful Sovereign was to send a telegram to
the Pope asking for his blessing, and promising
devotion to the Holy See. If Turkey really
merits still to be called "the sick man," its
financial prospects are brighter than they have
There 111 nothing specially to note in the
'NI of liusais and Austria, except that the
• of the Imperial eagles is marked, and
tnendship preparations of the former
the great min. 4istely menace Europe.
Power do not Mune, „Limo show receipts
The annual revenue .47 in the year
C 76,505,790, against £77,712, arcrease of
ending December 31, 1873, a net the
£1,206,887. Customs show a decrease
year of £1,:347,000 ; stamps, of £14,000; pro-
perty and income tax, of £1,365,*. and
Crown lands, of £9,000. The items which show
increases are —Excise £866,000 ; land tax and
house duty, £81,000; poet-office £.218,000 ;
telegraph service, £128,800; and miscellaneous,
£294,313. These increases being substracted
from the decreases, leave the net decrease in the
revenue for the twelve months, as compared with
the twelve months ending 31st December, 1873,
at the sum of £1,206,887.

A singular question touching electoral reform
has come up for discussion in Canada. Mr.
Bethune, a soniowhat conspicuous Canadian
politician, has introducod into the local Legis-
lature of Ontario a Bill to provide for compulsory
voting, and, though the author of the measure
did not profess to look for its immediate accept-
anis), it was read a second time without opposi-
tion, and it principle so far adopted by the
Ontario Legislature. Mr. Bethune argued that,
"though the Ballot Bill had done much to put
down bribery, bribery was still possible, as all a
candidate had to do was to bribe a certain num-
ber of voters to koep sway, but this form of
bribery would be put down by making voting
compulsory. He did not Consider it a hardship
that a voter should be compelled to exercise his
franchise once in four or tive years. In England
only eighty-five per cent of voters polled their
votes, in New York seventy-one, and in Canada
seventy-two per cent." It is noteworthy that
some of the leading politicians in the Ontario
Legislature acknowledged that the principle of
Mr. Bethune' argument could not be impugned.