The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-02-04 00:00:00

Drat Conutti

TUESDAY. FEBRUiRY 4. lit&

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Parliament will assemble on the 6th inst., and
will be opened by Commission. Her Majesty
has decided not to take part in the oeremonial,
on amount of her .health having suffered some-
what from the reoeut fluctuations of weather.
Irish University Education, it is said, will be the
chief measure of the Government, and that Mr.
Disraeli will offer to it determined opposition.
weil-informed. Liberal contemporary has no
belief "that any other measure of first-rate
importance is at present contemplated in the
councils of the Cahinet, and although tho question
of Local Taxation will be brought before Pulls-
merit," does 'not believe that it will undertake
the reconstruotion of county government, as
many have supposed would be the case." The
same authority adds :—" We firmly believe
there is no ground for the impression which hie
gone widely abroad that the Government intend
to deal fully with the Land Question. There
will be amendment bills, law reform, and as
Important bill from Mr. Stansfeld with reference
to sanitary reform. We understand that the
estimates are generally prepared. Those relating
to the Army stow a smell reduction, owing to •
slight decrease in the number of men sod of
the estimates for stores and works. Those for
the Navy, on the other baud, exhibit an increase
owing, we believe, to • groat extent, to the
increased oodt of stores, while the estimates for
the Civil Service and Inland Revenue are
weighted by certain increases of salary."
Mr. Gladstone has repliet to a memorial
adopted by • meeting of miners in Durham, in
which the "unsatisfactory character" of the
household suffrage in boroughs was alleged as a
reason for simplifying the whole matter by grant-
ing manhood suffrage. The Premier says "that
he is aware of the serious difficulties which the
last Parliament eucountered in the definition of
• house, and that he feels the gravity of the
oonsiderations connected with the question of
household franchise, which Parliament will
doubtless weigh with care whenever the subject
again conies under notice."
Earl Russell advocates the repeal of the 211th
clause of the Education Bill, the election of
School Boards ,n all plums, and the universal
enforcement of compulsion,and hopes the Govern-
ment will introduce the necessary measured' to
airry these reforms.
The Lord Mayor of London proposes to enter-
tain the whole of the Mayors of every corporate
town in &gland and Wales at a banquet on
Wednesday, March 26. Mr. Gladstone has
accepted an invitation to be present on the
occasion, and the otter members of the Ministry.
will also be invited.
The Tines has reason to believe that the Shah
of Persia, during his visit to Great Britain, will
be entertained at Buckingham Palace, and that
• vote will be presented to the House of Commons
for the necessary expenses of receiving and
entertaining him.
The Birmingham Post has reason to believe
that the acquisition of the railways by the State
is now seriously engaging the attention of the
Government, and that an investigation is in
progress—conducted by • member of the
Cabinet, in conjunction with one of our ablest
permanent officials—to collect the information
necessary to enable the Government in come to
• conclusion as to the opportunity and the terms
of purchase. It is not improbable. we are told,
that • beginning may be made next year with
the Irish railways, and our information leads us
to believe that, if this negotiation proves at all
satisfactory, it will probably be followed by the
larger operation involved in the acquisition of
the English lines. Of course we are not in a
position to say how far the project is yet
developed; but we are assured that the initial
steps of inquiry and calculation are being
taken.

A London correspondent believes that the
new Lord Chancellor has determined to bring
in a Bill for extending the jurisdiction of County
Courts, and to 1101110 extent reorgauising them.
be directors of the Bank of England have
reduced the rate of discount from 4 per cent.
to which it wAs lowered on the 23rd ult., to
3}. The change is owing to the rapid accumu-
lation of resources, which results from the influx
of revenue, and the falling due of unusually
large amounts of bills.
Dr. Hostel proved hi. alibi. The Bow-street

magistrate discharged him
.on
.Thureday after-

noon " witaout a slain on his character." it is
Plain now that there was not a tittle of evidence
against Dr. llessel that would bear the test of
criticism, and that the police might in half an
hour's inquiry at Kroll's hotel have convinced
themselves that such evidence as there was
against Dr. Hassel was not worth a second
thought. A cruel wrong has been done to an
innocent man, and the police and their witnesses
have so compromised themselves by their
blunder that after this it will be simply ha-
poseible to cpnvict any one of the crime if the
case is to be based upon their statements alone.
. . .

It is now clear 'that the Murillo wu the

yawl that ran down the North(teat. That
steamer, instead of staying at Lisbon, as
expected, received instructions off the bar and
went on to Cadiz where she put in on Wednes-
day fresh painted, with her starboard bow in
black and red to the water-line, and with
Indentations near the anchor davit port bow,
but with no other outward signs of clanuw.
This extraordinary action on the part of the
captain (Cascaes) may be explained by the fact
that the Murillo, if seized in Portugal, might
be tried by English law, and that she cannot be
tried by this law in • Spanish port. Of course
in the end the truth must come out, and with •
reward of £2OO lying in the hands of the English
consul, it is impossible that the truth can be
kept back very long, even if by this measure
the captain and owners escape the legal °ones-
' (pence* of their act. We have yet to hear
Captain Cascaca's amount of the collision; but
as tbe facts stand at present, it is hard to see
how he is to clear himself of the blame of sinking
the Notthlieet by his bad steerage, and next of
the inhumanity of leaving his victims to sink or
swim as beet they could, in order to save the
. .

owners a few Paltry pounds and his own
certificate. The rule of law is plain enough.
Where a ship is lost through the want of due
diligence or skill on both aides, the loss must be
apportioned equitably between the owners, and
if Capt. Cameo can prove negligence on the part
of Captain Knowles conducing to this catas-
trophe, the be. of the Northfiset and of her
, cargo must be borne in part by her owners and
in part by ths owners of the Murillo. But if
the fault is wholly the Spaniard's, the owners of
the Murillo must make good every shilling lost
through the sinking of the Northeast. This is
the law as it Is laid down by Lord Stowell; but
according to M'Oullock, the 26th and 29th of
Victoria, chapter 63, limits the liabilities of the
owners of the Murillo, even upon the worst
hypothesis, to an aggregate amount of £l5 for
each ton of the ship's tonnage. Considering.
however, that the Nortlifieet is registered at 850
tons, even this limitation leaves a large margin
for the Court of Inquiry. While every one in
the country is moved by the recital of the dis-
aster, it is time that responsibility for collision
at sat should be better defined.
Mr. Kale-Jackson Is anticipating the yield
of next year's harvest. At present, according
to his estimate, only 26 per cent, of our wheat
lands remain unsown, although this 25 per oe .t.
takes In some of the best wheat-growing clay
soils; and we must, therefore, look to America
and to Russia next year, as well as this, to make
good the deficiency. Toe deficiency this year is
one of the largest ever known—about twelve
million quarters ; but every bushel of this has
been made good, at a cost to the country of about
thirty millions sterling, and the consequence is ,
that the average price of wheat to-day is only a
trifle higher than it was a year ago, lthough
special kinds, of course—Kentish and Beattie,
for instance—are 5.9. or 69. a quarter higher.
Our stocks,however, to-day,are very low—lower
by 250,000 quarters than they were in 1870 and
1871, and unless America can send us more than
she is booked for—that is, a million and a half
of quarters—or the English wheat turns out
better than anyone at present believes that it
will, we mast expect to see the price of wheat
4s. or ss. a quarter higher than it is to-day before
next August.
The Chiaelhurst manifesto, which we not4d
week ago on the authority of the Daily Telegraph,
turns out to be an imposition. Prince Napoleon
refuses to accept the political guardianship of
the Prince Imperial, intends to return to France,
and to claim his rights as a_French oitirem, to

,
I accept the tioverniiieut of M. Thiars as a pro.
visional Government, and to act independently,
leaving the Empress and her friends to take the
course which they think best in the interests of
the Prince Imperial. This is the policy which it
has been supposed all along that Plon-Plon
would adopt, with an eye to a seat in the
Assembly, perhaps to the Presidency, and dine
that to the highest post of all; and this is Row

announced in all but plain terms simultaneously
with the statement that the long talked of fusion
of Henry V. and the Orleans Princes a an
accomplished fact,
The Qoasn of Spain has done more to blißlit
the hopes of the Bourbons, by presenting her
lord with a son and heir, than all the Spanish
marshals are likely to do by breaking up bands
of insurgents in Calalonia. The Prince is to
take the name of his father, and with a Prince
of Astoria. born in the Palace of the Escurial,
the Spaniards will soon forget the son of 'lsbell.,
and Spain may learn to do without the Bo,irb,ul
as well as France. Perhaps next to this, the
most interesting incident in foreign politica is a
speech of Prince Bismarck's, oxplainiug why he
retired from the prasideicy of the Prussian
Cabinet. Rumours had been spread that he
resigned because his policy had received a check,
and the inference was drawn that a policy to
which he was more or lees opposed would be
henceforth pursued by the Cabinet. His reply is,
that he resigned, not because he had received any
check, but because he was overworked, and he
stated positively his belief that no change would
be made in the policy of the Cabinet, and his
resolution to resign office altogether if any
important change were made. He has put at
the head of the Cabinet a man in whom he
thoroughly confides, who will carry out his
policy, and who would as instantly resign as he
himself would resign if any essential point of
his policy were contravened. What he has freed
himself from is the onerous task, whiob he
confesses he has found most trying to his nerves,
of teaching his colleagues one by one what he
wishes them to do.