The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-07-22 00:00:00

nowt &until etpren.

TUESDAY, JULY 22. 1873.
,
NOTES OF THE WEEK.
Her Majesty and the Court Sr. at Os 'torn&
On Friday the Queen gave her assent to the
betrothal of the Duke of Eilluburgh and the
Grand Duchess of Romig, and the o.intract
matrimony" is announced in the Gazette. It
was time, says the TileeS, that the Duke of EVlL-
burgh ceased to offer an exoeption to the good
example set by his brother and sister,.' He Is
twenty-nine years old, and in the full vigour of
a not undistinguished career. As a seaman he
starts with an advantage in appealing to the
goodwill of Englishmen, and his services in the
navy have won for him credit and confidence.
He inherits some of his father's artistic talent,
and is capable of adorning his position as well
as of fulfilling Its duties. It must be regarded
at an omen of his future prosperity that, in
addition to all these advantages, he has now had
the good fortune to win the heart of • Princess
who holds • position second to none other in
Europe. The only danahter of the Emperor of
Russia is a bride to whose hand any Sovereign
might have been proud to aspire. It must not,
Indeed, be forgotten that the Prime is the her
presumptive to a German Principality, and se
Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha he will some day
take rank among those minor potentates of Ger-
many—no longer, since 1866, an indioniminate
crowd—whom relations with the Russian Court
have been so constant end intimate. But in
the eyes not merely of Ragland, but of the
world, his German dignity will be secondary to
his rank as an English Prince, and it is to g-
land, not to the German Duchy, that he brings !
the Russian Princess. His bride may be assured
of • hearty welcome to our shores. From all
we learn of the character of the Grand Duchies
we have reason to rejoice that the Queen's second
son has found a contort who will be at once the
charm and the guide of his life.
l here is no popular Interest in what Parlia-
ment is doing at present. A more important
measure than the Judiciture Bill could warmly
be imagined, and yet the general public take not
the slightest notice of it. The Government
may be successful over this measure, as over the
Education Act Amendment Bill or the Rating
Bill; but the amount of credit they will obtain
for palming any of theme measures will not be
large. The fact appears to be that the constant
hue and cry about a general election has put
Parliament out of joint, and wealtall have no great
amount of interest in polities until • new Home
has been elected. at we have lately seen of
Parliamentary debates have had in them as
! little life as is well conceivable. Still it is most
probable there will be another session of this
Parliament. The !loused Commons is obediently
pasting G yvernment Bills in the dog days, and
the consequence will be that its existence will be
prolonged for another year.
The Judicature Bill has passed through
Committee, shorn of its new clauses which
embraced Scotch and Irish appeals. Mr Glad-
stone did net venture to dare the peers to •
recommittal, and selected to defend the Lower
House against Lord Cairns and Blackstone, to
rely upon the score of precedents he cited in
support of the clause., and then to withdraw
them, taking the opinion of the leading journal
that it was better to make sure of an incomplete
Bill than to risk a complete one. Mr. Forster
has also made a clearing up speech about the
new Education Bill, and in a division was in a
majority of 243 to 72. He give. up the
proposal that school fees should be paid for in-
d*ut parents by the guardians instead of the
! School Boards; and the notorious 25th clause
of the former Act stands as it did. The educa-
tion of the children of outdoor paupers is, by
the extension of an old Act called the Denison
Act, to be made compulsory; and that is the
sum and substance of the new Education Bill,
If, then, the Nonoonformiste are bent upon their
resolve to bring forward the question of educe-
tion and the clergy at every election, the coast is
quite clear for them to do so; but it will be
against the entreaties which have been uttered
at Liberal gatherings—in particular at the
demonstration last week at Diattinglam—to
preserve unity and exercise forbears's*, as the
aole chance at the next general election.
The Observer states that Parliament will be
! prorogued the first week in August. This will
not allow muck time for the Lords to revise any
, Bills that may be sent .to them. The Rating,
Elementary iiducatioe, Mershant Shipping, arid
Endowed Schools Bills have to pass the House
of Lords; and the Judicature Bill. as amended,
trill furnish some employment to the Upper
Hour. There are also the final votes of Supply.
the Crown Property Bill, and the Indian Bu*it
to be disposed of.
Several of the.Corimittees of the House have
delivered in their reports, which, it must be
admitted, are more or leas disappointments.
' The inquiry about our horse supply km led to
I very little. We are assured that the cam is ea/ ,
! so bad sews. sumested; but that the expoete•
! tion dazing the Franeo-Prussian war was con-
siderable; that it is Dot eery anwe to take any
fresh step. The report is the mai sepply tells
us nothing, and recommends nothing. The
committee on public amounts has mildly passed
over Mr. Scadamore's irregularities in connisetim
with the Poet Office and telegraphs. The
Zanctier Steam-packet Committee have con-
eluded thole bigotry, and are considerbog their
report.
If we had not tree elready celled a nation of
shopkeepers, we might em 7 well have been
called a natim of publics alMers, pg of testi-
monial-givers and receivers. Almost otirYbody
gets • testimonial nowadays, one c/ the Watt
recipients being Mr. Miall. M.P., who wee
ontertained at the Crystal Palace on Friday, and
presented with a pretty little pone of ten
thousand Onto, for his Anti-State Church
slate
; uleasleg to learn that tO "certain re-
vised doom! imilyisns by Mr. "(or the
new Lew court, ezve at last taken a definite
shape. The contract dea4 beini e
terearedm:
and when that is signed the work.'-
/lately commenced. We learn from uici
feel that the contract amount is about £710.00u,
and that it has been derided to execute the
masonry in Portland stone, the fittings and
ceilings in oak.
his certainly a carious discovery to find that
the City of Washington was wreaked because the
cargo of iron and steel affected the working of
the compass. Positive proofs of this have been
produced by the officers of the ship now it is too
late. In future, similar shipments will probably
be doled with more care, or, in remembrance of
the fate of the lumen steamship, allowance will
be made forth° seductive properties of the cargo.
It is quite a theme for the moralist—a secret is-
/mince within the vessel, stealthily drawing it
froin its oouree to s rocky bar that was believed
to be far distant.
One can perfectly understand the suitability of
a military pageant in Prossth. There arrives a
notable visitor. What should be shown him 1
Well, first and foremast, the victorious army.
You see, illustrious Persian, it was with them
that we whipped the French at Woerth at MGM,
at Sedan, at Paris. All very natural and im-
pressive. But bow is it that the French had the
assurance to hold grand reviews of their
troops, and prate about the magnificent army of
Paris, and the Shah's admiration of it I One
might expect Marshal MaoMahon and the French
generals to steadily renounce the pomps and
vanities of army shows until the prowess of the
troops had been re-established. These grand
reviews 'imply invite people to admit that the
French can play at soldiers, and no one would
want to say anything so severe if the vanquished
nation could only accept its new position with •
little for what is seemly. It is surely
nothing nut vainglory for the French to expect
visitors to admire their" magnificent army!'
within so short • time of its release from the
prison *amps at Berlin.