The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-07-14 00:00:00

Pond &twig Exprtoo.

TUDIDAY, JULY 11. 1871

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

There is a rumour that Parliament will be
prorogued on Thursday, the 6th of August, but
rather more probable is it that the business
will be well advanced by that day, that there
will be a hard night's work on Friday-Saturday,
if the collocation may be allowed, and that a
morning sitting will be held on Saturday for the
formal winding-up. Hon. members will grumble
consumedly if the prorogation is driven off till
Tuesday, the llth, and before that day, at any
rate, it is generally believed Parliament will be
prorogued. Private members will now have no
mercy, and gentlemen with crotchets must post-
pone them to a more convenient season. The
House of Commons has no appetite for earthing
but serious business, and apparently desires as
little as possible of even this. Her Majesty's
faithful Con:mums are in truth becoming wearied
of their labours, and they counted themselves
out on Friday night with great gusto.
The last appointment to a Welsh Bishopric is
in accordance with the demands of those who
insist—and such a view is not very remarkable
—that a Bishop should be able to speak the
language of the country in which he ofiiciatos.
Archdeacon Basil Jones who has been appointed
to the Bishopric of St. David's, is a Welshman
of Welshmen, that is to say, he speaks Weigh.
His appointment makes vacancies in the Arch-
deaconry of Cleveland, the Canonry of York,
and the Rectory of Biahopthorpe.
The Parliamentary event of the week has been
the debate on the Public Worship Bill, and Mr.
Gladatone's earnest and laboured defence of the
Ritualists. After that speech, says the
Rennoincr, Mr. Gladstone has become an impos-
sible leader of the Liberal party. They may
find him of magnificent use when the time shall
come for the disestablishment of the English
Church; but they can trust him no more, for
between his own creed and that of real Liberal-
ism ho has unveiled an abyss which nothing can
bridge.
It has often been predicted that his High Church
symmithies and creed, his leeninj on sacerdotalism„ his
pauionate admiration for the ascetic side of life, and lack
of that mealy scorn for priestly fictiotu which is the
intellectual ' note" of modern life, would some day bring
him into direct collision with his followers—end that day
has come

iiiie--gaunlay Review anticipates that tho Gov-
ernment will get the present Bill out of the
way by promising for next session the Bill which
Mr. Hardy sketched out, viz., • Bill to simplify
and expedite the procedure in all the old
Church Courts, to sweep away the cumbrous
and unpopular Church Discipline Act, and
impartially to bring every kind of clerical offence
within the scope of the same reformed tribunals.
The Spectatoe calls the Primate's measure •
tricky Bill. Our contemporary is as heartily
opposed to the grimace, gesticulation, man-
millinery, and unseasonable foppery of the party
against which this Bill is really aimed, as any
Englishmen well can be. But let us fight that
party above-board. Notwithstanding the Act
of Uniformity, variety has been the custom for
centuries; and if we are really going to adapt
the custom to the law instead of the law to the
custom, we had better disestablish and disendow
at once, for no Church could survive such an
experiment. The Times, in a second article on
the ex-Premier's speech, is still severe upon
han. Unable to see his way to disestablish the
Church or to secure it from disestablishruent, he
takes the third course, and proposes what would
lead to a complete disintegration of the Church,
and to the entire substitution of the congrega-
tional idea for the episcopal and the national.
. . . . . . . .

Tho select cominiitee appointed to inquire into
the operation of the Adulteration of Fo(xl Act,
1872, after holding fourteen sittings and examin-
ing fifty-two witnesses, have rendered their
report. Respecting tea, it appears that since
the report of 185 G certain grossly prepared teas
have been imported from China, some largely
mixed with exhausted leaves and ferruginous
sand, and others much too highly faced or
coloured ; the ingredienta used for colouring
being chiefly Prussian blue or indigo, powdered
gypsum, and turmeric; but tho total amount of
such teas haa been small, and is kept in check
mainly by the low price of pure teas. The import
of green teas has recently fallen considerably, in
consequence, it is stated, of the operations of
the Act. Facing tea after the duty is paid was,
prior to the Act of 1872, practisedato a small
extent in this country; but whottMl• in China
mr at home, the evidence is conclusive that in
colouring tea no deleterious matter is used to
such an extent as to be absolutely injurious to
health ; at the same time facing may be employed
to conceal tea of a bad quality. The committee
have reason to believe that very little adultera-
tion of tea is practised in this country. Milk,
says the report, has been vastly improved by the
Act of 1872. Thu "cow with the iron tail" has
much less to do with it than she had, and the
worst present form of fraud is the abetraction of
the cream. It is recommended that the sale of
skimmed ini& for the genuine article should be
regarded as a punishable offence. At the same
time the Commissioners point out that milk
differs in quality, even when drawn from the
same cow, and they deprecate any "hard and
fast line" being drawn which would be unfair to
the honest dairyman. Of British butter they
give a tolerably good character; too much water
and salt are the main sins of the buttersuan ;
while, as to the foreign artificial butters, "made
chiefly from the fat of animals," the report
advises that they should be permitted to be sold
—bus not as "beater." Bread is pretty pure,
except for alum, which, unhappily, ih small
quantities, is very hard to detect. As to the
mustard that is half flour, and the cocoa which
is two-thirds fat and sugar, the Commissioners
would again allow of such mixtures, so long as
they called themselves by the limper name of
" compounds," and bore a label to that effect.
And with regard to corn-flour, the report states
that important evidence was given by eminent
medical and chemical authorities as to its purity
and useful dietetic qualities. The committee is
convinced that the manufacture is quite legiti-
mate, and that like arrowroot, sago, and other
starch foods, corn-flour is perfectly wholesome;
but they advise that it should not in any case be
given to infants without a considerable admix-
ture of milk. The general opinion of the com-
mittee as the result of their investigation is that
in the matter of adulteration the public are
cheated rather than poisoned.
The comet, which is now the observed of all
observers, is the most brilliant visitor we have
had since IDonati's, and although it will not be
on view longer than a week more, it is promis-
ing to disappear below the horizon in a shower
of shooting stars which may be worth sitting up
to see. Its tail measures about four millions of
nub.; but although this sounds a great deal it
'means very little. The particles representing
the tail might all be put into a lady s thimble,
and the total weight of the °onset, tail and all,
is said to amount to only four pounds.