The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-06-12 00:00:00

NOTES 01 THE WEEK.

L—We Warm° now for the first clash
al arms on the continent, and no other result of
Law Pending disputes is expected. The Italian
psopie me eager for the fray, and the Prussian
zing NW= 111111OUS to provoke reprisals by send-
ing his troops to mistime the joint occupation of
Holstein. We use the antithesis of "people"
and "king" advisedly, for while war in one case
will undoubtedly be • popular enterprise. in the
other it will be • mere development of dynastic
ambition. WO have read • story of the Prussian
women throwing themselves before the engine of
a train in the frantic endeavour to prevent the
departure of their cooscript husbands for the
army. How diAerent this front the aanduot of

the Italian women, who are stimulating their
male relative, to battle, and who have subscribed
funds to purchase 25.000 red shirt., which are
DOW being manufactured in London for the
Italian volunteers. Such a contrast as this
sufficiently shows the real state of things. War
in respect to Italy will be the irrepressible
outburst of national enthusiasm; but as regards
Prueisia it will be only the result of the dark and
tortuous policy of a Minister and his King.
Despite Count Bismarck's attempt to make the
worse appear the better reason, in his despatch
to the Prussian representatives abroad, published
on Saturday, and his strained efforts to throw
the onus of war upon Austria, Europe will
recognise who has been the agressor throughout.

ll—The interest in the Reform Bill is
evaporating, for it now appears certain that it is
out merely for • trial trip this session, and not
for an actual voyage. Ministers are now merely
making a reconnaisance enforce preparatory to •
great battle next year. There is positively not
time remaining to push the measure through the
Commons, not to mention the Lords, But the
Government will gain something if they got the
Lower House to commit itself in Committee to
the details of the franchise clauses. They will
thus prepare
th the way, as it has not yet been pre-
r, for e pawing of a measure next session.
That
was • clever ruse of the Opposition to pro-
pose the consideration of the Redistribution
' scheme first, for it is so full of detail, and could
have absorbed so much time in discussion, that
the more important franchise clauses would have
had little chance of consideration this year, if the
clauses had been taken in the proposed order.
And, talking of ruses, we may just allude to two
recent ones to show how a minority can avail
itself of stratagem. While the debate on Capt.
Hayter's motion was pending, Mr. Bonham
Carter had lost his seat by acceptance of office.
Of courts, he sought re-election, and would no
doubt have been returned without opposition,
only the Conservatives walled to shut him out
from the division by prolonging his state of
interregnum. They did this by setting up a
mock candidate, and demanding a poll for the
mere sake of delay ; but as theee was no division
on Captain Hayter's resolution after all, this
little game had no result but to increase the
expenses of the election. The other ruse to
which we refer occurred on Wednesday in last
week. On Wednesday the Commons like school-
boys, have a half a holiday (as they have • whole
one on Saturday). To secure this treat, they
meet at two instead of four, and it is a standing
order that all business in progress at • quarter
to six shall be adjourned. Advantage is often
taken of this rule to postpone measures by talking
against time, and this Mr. Cavendish Dentin&
did on the Fellows of Colleges Declaration Bill,
which now stands adjourned to the 11th July, as
good a result for its opponents as putting it off
to the formal "this day six months." There is
no stage which offers so good a field for stratagem
as Committee of the whole House, because there
every detail of a measure can be made the subject
of prolonged discussion and factious obstruction
or postponement; and any one who knows any-
thing of the inner working of Parliament must
recognize the impracticability, in fate of •
determined Opposition, to get the Reform Bill
through even this stage in the few remaining
available Government days, despite the frantic
pushlngs behind of the Radical daily papers.
111. —The suspension of the Agra and
Alasterman's Bank, if it has not revived our
financial panic, has spread groat distrust among
the commercial community. If such concerns as
this and Overend, Gurney and Co., find it
expedient to suspend, what must be the state of
some of the new finance companies 1 Indeed,
our ordinary deposit banks are beginning to be
suspected by tradesmen, and this distrust may
bring upon some of these establishments the very
ruin apprehended. It is satisfactory, however,
to be informed that the depositors in the two
concerns mentioned above are likely to be repaid
in full. Where so many millions sterling are at
stake, this announcement is of the highest
importsace. But the shareholders must suffer
heavily. The paid up capital in each case bears
so small a proportion to the amount of the
deposits, that what with the losses by the sudden
suspension of business, the expensee of liquidation,
and the payment of interest upon millions of
money during that process, the shareholders
must think themselves fortunate if their salvage
from the wreck amounts to more than 10 per
cent, of the paid up capital. The temporary
inconvenience and distress caused by the sus-
pension of the Agra Bank must be very wide
'plead, and we shall not be able to estimate it
accurately until the arrival of the next mail
from India, where the European residents had
such extensive dealings with this concern.