The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-05-13 00:00:00

Dant Conutti &pøø.

TUESDAY, MAY 13, 1873.

NOTES OP THE WEEK.

Her Majesty held a drawing-room on Thurs-
day, which independently of its numerous
attendanos, was one of the most brilliant on
Court record. The presentations numbered
about three hundred and fifty. From this county
the following were presented : Viscount Portman,
on elevation to the peerage, by Mr. Gladstone ;
Mr. H. B. Middleton, of the Queen's Own
Dorset Yeomanry Cavalry, by the Provost of
Bton, and Mrs. H. B. Middleton by her mother,
Mrs. Goodford. On Friday the Queen visited
the International Vskibitloo, saw a practical
illustration in the School of Cookery, and tasted
and. omelet, of which the Royal party explained
entire approbation.
Aooord.lng to the Observer, the general also-
non will, barring unkeissen oon be
held next spring. Parliament will meet as tar' ual
in February for a short sorsion. The Estimates
will be peened, and then Parliament will be dis-
solved, to re-aseemble as soon after Raster as
poesible.
Mr.
fondly

tion

litansfeld's Local Taxation Bills con-
,/ oak touch the trine* of • lure rub-
ject : but, it is evident the Government do not
intend taking the line indicated last year by
Slr Lopes. Of the three Bills the first
will exemptions from liability to rating,
the second designs • uniform system of valua-
tion and ainessunent, and the third originates •
consolidated rate. The local rates in 1871
amounted to within a trifle of £10,000,000, but
out of this a large portion was optional, and
yielded a direct equivalent, so that £17,400-000
was the real amount of local taxes to be dis-
cussed. As to exemptions, the Government
draw the line at churches and chapels. Ragged
and Sunday schools now are not to be exempt,
and MUM, woods, and plantations are to be
rated. The local taxation conflict has thus oom-
ssenced. The Saturday Re 16410 considers the
removal of exemptions, which is the principal
abject or Mr. tkochen's Bin, although it will
operate injorionsly to certain kinds of property,
cannot he reasonably resisted in principle. ' The
Bullionisl thinks the original proposition of Sir
Homey Lopes, to eliminate from local liability
the charges aeronomy for the support of those
branches of local expenditure more fully coming
under the head of public service, far preferable
to the cumbrous and inadequate proposal of Mr.
Stansfeld. The former was • bold, comprehen-
sive, and logical demand. It has been met by a
timid and scanty mustily, which, whilst possess-
ing certain elements of reform, is, after all, but a
very insufficient sequel to the weighty debate
and clearly expressed opinion of the House upon
which it professes to have been built.
Bath and Gloucester both sent Liberals to
Parliament at the lost general election, and by re-
spectable majorities. Vacancies occurring in both
constituencies, they have now sent Conservatives
instead ; and Lord Chelsea and Mr. Wait were wel-
comed in the House with hearty Conservative
cheers. It *may be that those elections have
some significance as to party prospects generally,
but the local details of the contests mast not be
overlooked. At Bath the candidates were
premed both by the Peemissive Bill agitators
and by the publicans. Lord Chelsea took a
decided line, and said that he would vote
against the Permissive Bill, 'and pointed oat
that if he was returned on the Tuesday he might
be in tame to vote spinet it in the House of
Commons on the Wednesday, which he actually
did, so that he was naturally the publicans' men.
Mr. March, on the other hand, declared that, if
elected, be would neither vote for the Bill nor
against it. This lost him the publicans without
gaining him the Permissive Bill agitators, and
he WU 260 in • minority at the poll. At
Gloucester again the great beer interest was
also a powerful factor in the issue. On the eve
of the polling day Mr. Wait had the satisfaction
of aoooumang the receipt of a resolution at
which the pub ' had unanimously arrived, to
the effect that of the two candidates they pro-
nounced hint to be the more favourable to the
interests of the trek and would therefore all
vote for him. The publicans have in short.
shown by these elections that they can do much
more to affect the result of an election than their
opponents, and that they mean to do all they
OWL
If only the temperance party would be tem-
perate, if only they could be brought to sae that
Intoxication ia not less dangerous when produced
by • fixed idea than when brought about by
coarser means, what might not be acoomplishe d
in the interests of sobriety? Their suomes
attained by purely moral means has been won-
derful; but what have they to expect from Sir
Wilfrid Lawson's Permissive Bill? In the first
place it would be entirely inoperative in those
neighbourhoods where the disease it is intended
to cure is most rampant. Unless two-thirds of
the ratepayers were, not merely teetotallers, but
so fanatically teetotallers that they desired to
enforce their views on their neighbours isohns
pokes, it would not be put in force. But if the
means at present at the dispose' of total abstain-
ers are sufficieat to enable them to convert
two-thirds, why not go on and convert the
remaining third? Why should the engine that
has proved itself so powerful be discarded, when
the battle in more than half won, in favour of a
device which has been proved ineffectual else-
where, and the very threat to use which is doing
more than anything else to bring the temperance
cause into disrepute
What sort of stuff finds its wayyooosaionally
under the name of tea into the English market
is illustrated by the tale D. Lethe unfolds to
the City Commissioners of Sewers. These
gentlemen are 'apparently interested in the dis-
posal of rubbish of all kinds : but not many stories
could be more deserving of their attention than
this. One thousand boxes of a certain tea, sold
as "Extra fine new dessoas Maynne gun-
powder
lireen tee, ex Sarpedon steamship from
Centon, was found to contain from 40 to 43
per cent, of iron filings, and 19 per cent, of
silica In the form of fine sand. And this was
not all. The same tea was thickly covered with
• green pigment, and when infused in boiling
water it produced "a very turbid solution.
offensive to the amen and I/11111100W1 to the taste."
Another little lot, aggregating 1,150,000 lbs.,
Dr. Letheby found to be exhausted and putrid
leaven recovered front a wreck, and utterly unfit
for human consumption. It had been re-dried
and re-packed in old chests.
The Marquis of Lorne has written to the
Archbishop of Canterbury to the effect that,
as a vast number of livings of the English Ohuroh
do not exceed in value £l5O per annum, and
many do not exceed £lOO, the Princess Louise
(his wife) and himself are anxious to assist in
establishing a fund so that no incumbent of any
living belonging to the Church of Ragland shall
have less than £2OO • year. The proposal has
been laid before the Bishops, and the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury writes in reply that such
an effort as the Marquis proposes would not
only be likely to remedy many exiting cases of
hardship, but might confer great benefits on the
°mutual, in all future time. Hs reminds the
Marquis that any benefactions thus raised would
be supplemented from the Common Fund of the
Ecclesiastical Commission, and he feels sure
that the bishop. would be ready to afford every
assistance in their power to any central com-
mittee which may be appointed. It is time some-
thing were done.
The great Westminster trial that is engrossing
the energies of three of our judges, and throw-
ing lots of other judicial and legal work into
arrear, has been nothing more during the past
week than • "penny reading" on • large scale,
only the monotony of the reader's voice and
absence of selection plates the dramatic interest
far below what an audience who had paid that
magic fee would expect to be entertained with.
The Bank rate was advanced on Saturday
from 44 to 6 per cent., owing to the large with-
drawal of gold and the rise in the value of
money on the Continent. The change—the
second in the °ourse of the week—caused an

operate

almost general decline in the Stock MI; kits,
We learn from the Standard that a conference
of the leading employers of skilled operatives,
and embracing the "captaiss of industry," not
only of England and Wales, but of Ireland and
Scotland, has met in London to adopt minium
for mutual protection and defence. The assembly
Included every d.partin.nt of production, the
masters of 1,020,000 men, and 14 membeis of
the House of Commons. What took place we
are not told, more than that steps were taken
to thwart the future siovements of trade
societies.