The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-10-06 00:00:00

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NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The courts for the revision of the county and
borough voting list, have now for the most part
been held, and in only a few places with
any political strife. So far as the county
is concerned, the Overseers manage entirely as
they judge to be right, and in almost every
district the Revising Barrister has simply had
to make the few alterations in the lists caused
by deaths, removals, and new comers. We
believe some years ago for one or two registra-
tions attention was given to the matter, but
whether the work was too expensive, or the
probabilities of its being of service were too
remote, after that brief time the organisation
lapsed, and the revision is now as dull and
decorous as an elderly barrister and a dozen
parish officers can make it. Dorset is singularly
complacent as to its representation in Parliament.
No doubt the present contentment aria* from
the satisfactory manner, for the most part, in
which the three gentlemen who fill its seats in
the House of Commons represent the feelings of
the constituency; but whenever a change in the
representation of the county does take place,
the state of the register will be a profound mys-
tery to all in its bearings on party politics. At
Poole and Shaftesbury, of course, keen interest
was manifested in the revision, but in both cases
the two parties differ most materially as to the
meths. It would seem, however, that some
slight advantage has been gained in these two
boroughs by the Conservatives. At the same
time, statistics of this kind must be received
with very great reserve. Electors are often
ticketed yellow or blue upon very slight evidence,
and when another election C0111(11 round, some
"burning question" may have meantime arisen
which has obliterated old distinctions and re-
modelled the conditions of the contest. At
Weymouth a novel state of things was presented,
from which sanguine minds may augur a not
distant political milenuium in that hitherto
lively borough. The legal gentlemen, who have
hitherto supported or opposed a claimant or a
person objected to according to his known or
supposed political predilections, were partizans
no more—at least they did not appear in such
guise. But, acting in the liberal spirit and
large-hearted disinterestedness Which is so dis-
tinguishing a trait in the character of the senior
member for the borough, gave their help to any
voter in difficulties that liked to ask for such
assistance. Yet there may be wisdom in such
magmenlinity ; for we can readily imagine that
many a rate-payer, assailed with legal acumen
and pertinacity when seeking to establish his
right to the franchise, will not regard with
favour hereafter the person who opposed him, or
the cause he represents, while the offer of help
or the absence of epposition will at any rate
disarm prejudice, and may render an easy-going
and unopinionated voter more amenable to bland-
ishment when an election contest occurs. We
are glad to note this abeyance of political parti-
zanship, and hope that the spirit evinced in the
registration court will be carried into every
other public department in the borough. Good-
will and kindness are better than hatred and
oppieition, and the example now set by Wey-
mouth deserves to be largely imitated. At
Wareham the Liberals seem to be thoroughly
disheartened, and they made no appearance in
the registration court. We hear of fabulous
Conservative gains, which would go far to make,
with the majority of ha at the last election, all
save very few others on the Conservative side.
But Wareham is a borough with a peculiar
history, a peculiar representative, and a peculiar
electoral list. Whatever may be its will, the
hon. member who dote the constituency the
honour to represent it, seldom appears in the
House of Commons, and he is chiefly known as
an eccentric but kind-hearted country gentle-
man, with a penchant to have M. P. engraved
on his coffin, and whom the inhabitants of the
borough are pleased to humour. May his
shadow never grow less! May his next election
speech be as racy and elegant as in the old days,
and may we be there to hear it! On the whole
the registrations have been very quiet, and
where the fight was hottest the legal gentlemen
engaged were so gi .4-tempered that the revisions
concluded with mutual compliments between
Revising Barrister and Solicitors.
The divisional licensing meetings throughout
the county of Dorsett have only added one new
"spirit house" to the tradd in the county, and
that got confirmation on Saturday only by the
becii,s id the opponents to the license. The
favoured house is situated at G lanville's
Wootton, in which parish there was already. a
fully licensed innkeeper. He, it was said,
initiated a memorial to the Come magistrates
declaring one house of the kind sufficient, and
got sonic of the inhabitants to sign it. The four
Justices at Petty Sessions that day, headed by the
Lord Digby, after examining the inemornel and
hearing the chief petitioner, granted the license,
but when it came for confirmation, Capt. Glyn, '
of the Cern° petty sessional division, but absent
when the question was decided, was oppos.ed to
the additional license. At a previousmeeting of
the coo 1111 l Rime Mr. Glyn took up a position on
the subject of declaring Beet Regis a "populous
place " which led to the opinion that he objected
to anyextension of licenses. And in this is:stance
it was intimated that local knowledge made him
averse from the proposed addition. Out of this
arose s. !petition of considerable importance.
Are Justices aamented in acting upon private
information, which is not disclosed to the person
affected, in regard to hanesing ? The Court,
when it was first started, declared in the affirma-
tive ; but, subsequently, the Chairman confined
himself to ruling that the allegations of the
memorial, received from the clerk to the justices,
through the Clerk of the Peace, were properly
Won: them. This MMUS tn be the safe course.
In criminal cases oral Low uetions are only
received under special eircumidancee, while hear-
say is altogether rejected ; and, it is difficult to
sou why a public:di should be treated worse than
a robber. if once magistrates abandon the
safe rule of not accepting anything in evidence
but what is stated of a vntsiess's own knowledge,
and when the person affected has an opportunity
of eliciting an explanati 1111 l the door is opened
for all kinds of ear-wigging and animosity and
English liberty, as Mr. Howard suggested, would
be in real danger. But the Glanville's Wootton
uptdiaud got his license confirmed, for notice,
according to the rules adopted, had not been
given, and the cure mitteo,ou the technicalground,
treated the application as unopposed.
For several weeks it has iecn rumoured at
Weymouth and Portland, that Roupell, the ex-
M.P. for Lunbeth, was likely to be Metaled
trona the convict prison, and some bold picker-
up of sato for the London papers ventured to
declare the cried as determined upon. The
statement has elicited a total denial of any
intended release of the taama.t. It mama that
Roupell has been imprisoned for tware years, at
the cud of which tuna a life-convict's case under
the old rule may be considered with a view to
his liberation or otherwise, but now it is said
to be not improbable that he 'may be required to
serve three years more, oreveneight yearsbefore
he gets release. A ticket-of-leave, it is said,
Roupell would not accept, but only * free
pardon, of the likelihood of his getting irtneb
each one may judge for himself. Possibly, if