The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-12 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1861.

HONEST'S AUDAI.

SUMMARY OF LATE NEWS.

Ws regret to learn from the Indian news-
papers that the horrible famine which has
been devastating the north-west provinces
for some time past still continues. Human
beings are said to be dying at the rate of
four or five hundred a day; nor is the deso-
lation confined to the vast tract of country
between Luckuow and Lahore. The popu-
lation of the native State of Travanoore, in
the south of India, are reduced to equal
extremities by the drought which had dried
up the fruits of the earth. Almost incredi-
ble as is the statement, we find it published
in the Calcutta papers that mothers are sell-
ing their children as slaves at sixpence each,
in order that they may have wherewithal to
purchase food for a day. This is almost as
horrible as the incident recorded during the
siege of Bergin-op-Zoom, where such was the
misery of the beleagured inhabitants, that
famishing parents sold their daughters to the
soldiers of the garrison. Nor is famine the
only scourge. Small-pox, in its most viru-
lent form, has made its appearance in some
of the famishing districts. It is, however,
gratifying to find that the attitude assumed
by the Anglo-Indian community in this dire
juncture is in the highest degree benevolent
and charitable. Relief Committees have been
formed, and the most active measures have
been resorted to in raising funds for tiding
over the emergency.
The verdict of the jury in the Yelverton
marriage case has given universal satisfaction.
There is, no doubt, in the minds of all honest
folks a natural leaning towards a woman who
comes forward to claim the vindication of
her outraged honour; and we are far from
wishing that such generous sympathies
should ever cease to be a charactenstic of
humanity. The multitudes who thronged
the Dublin Court of Common Pleas, may
have been moved in a great degree to enthu-
siasm by the beauty, the accomplishments,
and the modest dignity of Mrs. Yelverton; but
no such influences have been brought to bear
upon the thousands of men and women in
England who rejoice at the establishment of
her defrauded rights. Unquestionably she was
imprudent; but hers was an imprudence
which suspects no evil, trying others by the
standard of her own fidelity. Pure herself,
she fancied all others were free from guile.
Her letters show that she had formed a warm
attachment for Captain Yelverton; but they
also give evidence of the dignity of her senti-
ments and the innoceim of her affection.
But, admitting freely her lack of discretion,
had she any reason to suppose that the man,
who twice went through with her the cere-
mony of marriage, was only carrying out an
elaborately contrived and fiendish scheme,
leaving for himself a loop-hole for escape as
soon as satiety took the place of passion.
He may assert it, but we decline to take his
evidence; for we must not forget that he
was playing for a mighty stake. The question
at issue before the Dublin jury was not
whether he owed some £2OO, but whether he
had been guilty of the crime of bigamy. In
the hope of escaping punishment as a felon.
he branded himself as a scoundrel. The
brazen audacity with which he stand in
the witness hex and imputed to the

concoction and execution of a detestable plot
against the virtue of a confiding woman—
the calm deliberation with which he narrated
a mass of filthy details were things happily
phenomenal, and so utterly repulsive as to
render them impossible. The War Office,
we find, has suspended Major Yelverton in
military duties until the result of further
legal proceedings be known; but it may well
be asked what is the meaning of such suspen-
sion ? Ilas he not by his own account
proved himself a disgrace to his profession,
to his country, and to manhood ? Further
legal proceedings can only decide in which
of the two lights he is henceforth legally to
be viewed—a felon or a villain.

According to the census lately published
in the United States, it appears that the ag-
gregate population—slaves as well as free men
—including of course, the inhabitants of the
States who have seceded, amounts to very
nearly thirty-two millions, being an increase
of nine-and-a-half millions upon the previous
census. The slaves number nearly four
millions, being 800,000 more than in 1850—
this increase alone representing the whole of
the slaves who were emancipated in British
West Indies, a quarter of a century or more
ago. The rate of increase in the free States
is much greater than in the slave—the ratio,
as far as the free population is concerned,
being 41 per cent. in the one, against 32 in
the other. The increase in the free States
has taken place chiefly in the middle and
and Western States, the vast prairies in the
latter absorbing no small portion of the
foreign emigration. The slaves have in-
creased only at the rate of 221 per cent.
We rejoice to find that in Maryland and
Delware slavery is fast dying out. It is
worthy of remark that in the seceding States
the slave population numbers 2,357,677,
while the free population— including both
whites and free blacks amounts to
2,702,946, or not quite 400,000 more. These
figures strikingly illustrate one great diffi-
culty with which the Southern Confederacy
may hereafter have to grapple.

The garrisons of Messina and Civitella del
'Pronto have yet given no indication of a
willingness to make terms. It is now
strongly affirmed, from many sources, that
express directions from Francis 11. have
enjoined the commanders of the place to
prolong the defence at any cost. An attempt
was made some days since to take by assault
the citadel of Civitella del Tronto, which is
perched "like an eyry" upon a steep hill.
The Piedmontese eventually succeeded in
planting ladders, but, under the incessant
firing of the garrison, were obliged to retire.
Regular siege works are now being opened.
Cialdiui has completed his preparations for
the attack upon the Messina garrison, which
is far less formidable as regards its position.
The blockade of the citadel has been notified
and all foreign vessels have left, with the
exception of those of England and America.
The English captains are said to have declared
their intention to remain in order to protect
the property of their countrymen.
Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest, an eccen-
tric scion of nobility, was placed before Mr.
I3eadon, the sitting magistrate at the Marl-
borough police court on Wednesday last, on
a charge of disorderly conduct in Coventry-
street. On his way to the Court he nearly
kicked out the back of the cab used for his
conveyance. He appeared before the Court
in shameful disorder, and his first proceed-
ing was to state that he was a member of the
house of Commons. On Mr. Beadou's tel-
ling him that he was not aware of that fact,
he informed his worship that he, the magis-
trate, was a liar. He was very anxious that
the reporters should put it down that he was
M. P. for North Durham, and full publicity
has accordingly been given of the edifying
fact. It seems that he had been fortunate in
some transactions with the betting fraternity,
and, standing in the centre of the road in the
midst of a crowd of cabs and broughams, in
a state of phrensy bordering on lunacy, gave
vent to his exultation by flinging cigars and
money to the mob collected arouud him.
When remonstrated with by the police he
spat in their faces, and continuing to abuse
them, and obstructing the thoroughfare they
ultimately took him into custody, and with
difficulty conveyed him to the police station
in Vine-street. Before the magistrate,
the conduct of the noble defendant was
of an equally peculiar nature. He stamped
his feet on the table; he interrupted the
clerk ; he repeatedly interrupted the magis-
trate; he sang songs from popular operas;
remarked that he bad once been fined five
shillings; expressed his opinion that it was
an illegal thing to take up a member of par-
liament; and altogether conducted himself
in so outrageously violent a manner, that the
worthy magistrate was evidently puzzled to
know what to do with him. In his discretion
Mr. Brandon ordered Lord Adolphus Vane
Tempest to find two sureties in MO each to
appear before him that day week; and bail
not being forthcoming, and Lord Adolpue's
offer of his own security in .£l,OOO being, for
obvious reasons, declined, he was taken, still
singing and whistling, to the cells below;
whence, later in the evening the gaolers of
the court conveyed him to the House of
Detention, where he remained until a medical
attendant ordered him to be handed over to
his relations, in order to be placed in confine-
ment in a private lunatic asylum.

Lord Normauby, on Tuesday night, in the
House of Lords, moved for the appointment of
a select committee to inquire into the circum-
stances which attended the appointment and
resignation of Mr. Turnbull in the Record Office.
The motion was framed so as to do as much
harm as possible to Lord Palmerston, and im-
plied, in short, to a want of confidence in the
Ministry. It seems that Mr. Turnbull had been
appointed by Lord John Russell, on the recom-
mendation of the Master of the Rolls, to make a
calendar, or brief extracts of the contents of the
records in the State Paper Office. The appoint-
ment was also duly ratified by the Lords of the
Treasury. Now, it is quite evident that the
Master of the Rolls committed a great error in
recommending the appointment. The foreign
State Papers are the private correspondence of
the Crown and its Ministers and agents, and
other documents of • similar character. The
documents are exceedingly numerous, commenc-
ing nearly with the beginning of the 16th cen-
tury, and contain the most valuable information
of our national history. They are, of all others,
the most deeply important for clearing up the
history of the great struggle for religious and
civil liberty, which lasted with so much violence
during the 16th and 17th centuries, and in which
England and Englighinen acted so prominent a
part. In fact, the papers contain the defence
and justification of the Reformation. But the
State Paper Office was difficult of access, and the
historian could not make use of the papers with-
out a laborious search, involving great loss of
time, while a great part of them, and often those
of most importance, are very difficult to read,
except by adepts in pantograph. The value of
these calendars, whereby any one interested iu
the history of any particular period could learn
sufficient of tho information contained in the
documents for ordinary purposes, cannot be
denied ; but this utility depended entirely on
the character and competency of those who were ,
employed to compile them. To misunderstand
or misrepresent a statement might be disastrous
to the truth of historical writings. Mr. Turnbull
is a gentleman who first became a violent Pusey-
ite, and passed thence into a still more violent
Roman Catholic; he has made himself known
unnecessarily, as a man possessed of a sort of
rabid zeal against Protestantism, which Lord
Palmerston has justly termed "fanaticism,"
declaring that he "would rather be damned as a
Papist than be saved as a Protestant ;" express-
ing extreme admiration of the Jesuits, defending
the character of Babiugton and Guy Fawkes,
and justifying the plans for the murder of Pro-
testant monarchs, lie probably did all this
honestly, but does not this circumstance render
I totally incompetent for the peculiar task in
which be was employed by the Master of the
Rolls If some injudicious person had recom-
mended a zealous Protestant to the place of
keeper to the Papal archives at Rome, would
16117 OM feel surprised if the Papal Govoistiment

rejected the recommendation I We think that
Lord Palmerston, in accepting Mr. Turnbull's
resignation of the office, treated the matter liko a
limn of souse, and that the Lords, in rejecting
the appointment of a Committee, deserve our
gratitude.
The House of Commons has triumphantly
vindicated the Italian policy of Lord John
Russell. It was the object of Mr. Hennessy,
who led on the Pope's brass band, accompanied
Sir G. Bowyer, and Mr. John Arthur Roebuck,
to call attention to the active interference of her
Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
in promoting Piedniontose policy," and to " the
effect of that policy in Italy." Here was a two-
fold purpose. If tho allegation could be made
, out, even those who approved of the policy thus
promoted could not withhold their censure upon
that interference, in consistency with their pro-
fersion of neutrality. But Mr. Hennessy sup-
ported his accusation by only vague and unau-
thenticated evidence, and his allegation was of
the most inconclusive description. Mr. Layard
replied to the accusation in a crushing speech;
Mr. Edwin Jamestook up the popular view with
courage and effect; and Sir Robert Peel, who
was in one of his lucky moods, completely riddled
and tore to rags the impeachment founded only
on censorious gossip. But Mr. CHadstone gave
the Brass Band a superb philippic. His speech
wiui perfect as an argument, as an appeal, as a
rebuke ; and it might have been imagined that
Brazen Head himself or an unfrocked priest with
a bought indulgence in his pocket, would hare
winced under the castigation. "Rather might
an honest man," said Mr. Gladstone, be immured
in a casemate, with bullets kissing and shells
bursting around him, than stand up in a free
assembly and eulogise the expelled despot of
Naples,' whose cruelty and guilt he depictedin
language so cogent and powerful that all Europe
will remember, all Italy bless, and all civilized
mankind approve.

THE DORCHESTER TOWN COUNCIL.
Ws do not believe it possible to lay • ghost.
Ingenious children of the altar have heretofore
boasted of exorcism, but anon we find the old
apparition extant, and, as Lord PALMERSTON
once said of that-um, "in good condition."
We believe the Cock-lane ghost is still to be
seen'if the proper Dr. Joussorre will only look
for him. Years ago the public believed
despotism in England to be dead and hermeti-
cally burned; when lo! the Dorchester Corpo-
ration walk the "once familiar form" into the
Council Chamber. That "perturbed spirit"
has again "revisited the glimpses of the moon"
—and the moon only for reasons of lunar con-
geniality—making a communication to the
Hamlets who were elected•hy the ratepayers of
the county town of Dorset to represent their
interests in Municipal matters in an open, fair,
and honourable manner. It is greatly to be
regretted that Mr Howirr, or Mr. Drcuma, or
some other critic of these visitants had not an
opportunity of being resent when the Dor-
chester ghost make its "last appearance."
They would have exhibited it to the public
gaze in its true colouring. Their description
of the monster would, undoubtedly, to men
living in the nineteenth century, have read
like some romance of former times; but,
stranger than fiction is this visitant from the
nether world of despotism, which has been made
to auume the shape of closed doors at the
Council meetings. The inhabitants of Dor-
chester are burdened with local taxation to an
almost intolerable degree, but if any question
arises more than ordinarily affecting their
interests, they must, forsooth, be kept in igno-
rance of all that is going on. At the last
meeting of the Council, when the subject rela-
ting to the liabilities of the trustees to the
estate of the late Mr. DODSON was brought for-
ward, the reporters, who are the representatives
of the public, were ordered to withdraw. The
phantom which haunted the imagination of the
Mayor, was the fear of publicity! "The
reasons," he said, "for making the discussion
private was that the interests of the town might
be secured !" Admirable logic! Do the Mayor
and the few satellites that hover around him
suppose that they only are the repositories of
legal lore, and that when they die wisdom will
die with them? Is it come to this, that none
but Dorchester Councilmen know anything
about law or equity? Or do they intend "for
the interests of the town" to take some under-
hand advantage, or perpetrate some daring
deed of darkness that will not stand the test
of day? Is Bourbonism -driven out of Italy—
to find a quiet resting place in Dorchester?
Let not the Council apply the "flattering unc-
tion to their souls" that we for a single moment
wish to impugn their acts—they impugn them-
selves. We simply put into words what their
acts imply; and we do say that they savour a
trifle too much of what Jemuss would term
"egregious egotism." It hes of late become
one of their distinguishing traits, that they seek
to wrap their public conduct in a dark fold,
and to enshroud their erratic mountebankiam in
mystery.
But why this mystery, where all ought to be
open and above board Or why court darkness
when everything should be open as the day
Have not the ratepayers an undoubted right to
know whether or not those whom they elect to
carry on the affairs of the town for them are
doing their duty? Have these sages of the star
Chamber any right to start off full tilt into a
Chancery suit, without giving those who pay
the taxes an opportunity of judging whether
they ought not to protest against so reckless
and expensive • course of procedure When
Mr. STANTON brought forward the question of
liabilities of the trustees to Mr. DODSON'S estate,
the Towe CLERK stated that under his contract
Mr. DODSON was liable to make good all surface
damages he might commit in laying down the
mains. Mr. STANTON truly remarked that, such
being the case, he was unquestionably liable to
make good the surface of many of the roads that
he had cut up and completely destroyed, and to
pay the compensation for growing crops which
various parties had demanded of the Council,
and which the Board had paid. The TOWN
CLarte replied that that Board was no doubt
liable to the parties who had sustained damages
for compensation in the first instance, and that
the Board must recover the Ices from the estate.
Mr. STANTON moved that the trustees should be
called on to pay up the amount due from them in
reference to this matter, but it was ruled that
the CLREK should, in the first instance, make his
report. As we understand the case these are
simply the facts. What the report of the CLERK
to the last meeting of the Board was, and what
steps the Council resolved to take in the matter,
or whether' indeed, the members determined to
make the trustees a present of the amount due
from them to the town we are, at a matter of course,
left utterly in the dark. Perhaps the Council
chuckle over the fact that they possessed the
shrewdness and precaution to exclude the press.
Let them enjoy their self-gratulations. We have
no desire from any private reason to penetrate
the "secrets of the prison house," but on behalf
of the public we must protest against the con-
tinuance of a system abhorrent to the feelings
of a free and enlightened people, and which
cannot be tolerated but where despotism reigns
supreme. How is it that we now so seldom see
the more respectable members of the Council
and Aldermen present at the Council Board?
Is it that they refuse to submit to despotism,
and prefer to keep away altogether to kneeling
down to the idol which a few of the members
so devoutly worship? Undoubtedly they possess
good reasons for refusing to become the eiders
and abettors of acts which the Council fear to
make public. But it will soon become neces-
sary, if matters continue as they have of late
gone on, for the ratepayers to take up the
question. If they do not, by and by the rack
and the thumb screw will be called into requisi-
tion; and if Judge Jefferies-ism is not enacted
over again in the borough of Dorchester, it will
not be from want of the will but of the oppor-
tunity. Despotism and mystery are twin
sisters; mystery always begets suspicion; and
suspicion, cruelty. Happily the lash and the
halter are placed beyond the reach of despotism
in the present day, but let the ratepayers look
well to their pocketa.

DOReIIISTRR PITCHED CORN NIARIERT, Saturday,
March 902.—A very large attendance of millers and
dealer.; and in the wheat trade there was more
disposition to make purchases, and with a small
supply of home grown we quote prices from Is. to
2s. advance, and had it not been for a very liberal
supply of foreign, wheat would have been still more
in request. In the barley trade we noticed great
depression, and many second class samples were
°tiered at from sa. to Bs. per quarter lower than they
were about three weeks since. Seeds were more
plentiful, and could be bought on quite as easy
terms as last week.
Douctlyrreit SRPORITORY SALL—The usual cattle
markets are now quite eclipsed by these repository
sales; the former attract a few jobbers .4 little nide,
and the latter call together the great dealers, sales-
men, and butchers, not only of the locality, but of
the country. On Saturday last the competition for
the fat beef was very great, and higher prices had to
be laid. With sheep the trade was equally good,

and although the supply was very large, nothing
worthy of the name of good mutton was passed over
without a good and spirited bidding. The usual '
demand for fat calves, barrenners, and cows and
calves. Too much praise cannot be given to Messrs.
Itiker and Elinor for the manner in which these sales
are advertised, which results in bringing down
dealers not only from the Metropolis, but from all
Parts.
OFFICIAL. —The Commissioners of Inland Revenue
have issued instructions to their various officers to
the effect that all persons retailing table beer,
without being licensed for such purpose, will subject
themselves to a penalty of £2O.
F4TAL ACCIDENT. CORONER'S INQUEST. On
Friday last an inquest was held at the Red Lion
lan, Winfrith, before H. Lock, Esq. deputy
coroner, on the body of a young man, named Grant,
who met his death under the following csirenm-
stances :—On the previous day the deceased was out
on the farm of his grandfather. About one o'clock
in tho afternoon he was returning with his uncle,
who just before arriving home, left the deceased a
short distance behind on the road. The former had
not been in the stable long before he was called to
maid the deceased, who was found by the elder Mr.
Grant, lying on the road with blood flowing from
his mouth. Some water and vinegar was procured
to wash his face, but he never spoke and shortly
afterwards expired. It is supposed that the
accident was caused by his endeavouring to open •
I gate whilst mi horseback, and that in the attempt
! he overbalanced himself, and fell over the gate.
I The jury returned a verdict of "Accidental Death."