The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1875-05-25 00:00:00

Dorset Conutti exiiress.

TIIVIDAY. MAY $4, 1875.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.
A rumour is revived that Mr. Disraeli intends
at the close of the session to resign his place in
the Cabinet and authority as leader of the
Conservative party.
The Earl of Cadogan has succeeded the Earl
of Pembroke as under-Secretary of State for
War. His lordship is thirty-four years of age.
As Viscount Chelsea he was elected M.P. for
Bath in one of the numerous contests which
took place in that city during 1873. He had
not sat more than a month when his father's
death caused his removal to the Upper House.
For several years it has been desired by the
agricultural interest that there should be pro-
vided in England, as there is in France Russia,
and other countries, a Minister of Agriculture.
With "farmers' friends' in power, it wu
anticipated that this seemingly simple concession
would soon be granted; but, on Friday night,
when the suggestion was made, the Premier
quietly put it aside with the awe-inspiring
admonition that in discussing the arrangements
of political office we are dealing with " the
official hierarchy of an ancient country." Mr.
Forster, the Liberal ex-Minister, favoured the

proposal, and effectively pointed to the anomaly
which places the arrangements for the protection
of our cattle aainst imported diseases under the
care of the Education Council. Its absurdity is
obvious, but Mr. Disraeli offers no amendment.
Breconshire election may be taken to indicate
that farmers are beginning to lose faith in the
present (;overument, and the return of a few
Liberals by counties in place of supporters of
the present Ministry would no doubt quicken
Mr. Dllisraels apprehension of the needs of the

country party.
No subject conniumds corresponding attention
to that of the comfit of the Britisl. army.
In the House of Coiuin.ns Lord Elcho has
elaborately criticised our system of recruiting,
demanding that we should have "a real not a
Paper army—a reality, not a sham." The
debate led to no other result than a repetition
of the statements which have been frequently
made of late, that the army is Ims and lesa chosen
by the better dim of men, and that the means
suggested to recruit liner soldiers are thoroughly
distasteful to the nation.

The force to take part in the stunmer
inanteuvrts will consist of eight regiments of
cavalry, twelvtA batteries of artillery, and
twenty-eight regimenta of infantry, with a pro-
portion of the Royal Engineers, and detach-
ments id the Royal Engineer Train and Army
Service Corp.. There will be two army corps,
each of which will have two divisions. The
whole of the troops will assemble at the Camp
before the end of June, and the manoeuvres will
commence on June 1 and terminate on the 31at
with a grand march past. It may be stated as a
remarkable fact that an Artillery officer is to
have c land of 0110 of the "Corp. d'Armee,"
...

the first tune such a distinction has been con-
ferred upon an officer of the Royal Artillery.
The general commanding the Western Dis-
trict purposes, under the sanction of the War
Office, to encamp the whole of the troops in the
district on Dartmoor for ten days, with a view
to mauieuvres and drill. It is strongly felt by
the officers of the Plymouth garrison, as well as
by civilians in the district, that the autumn
margeuvres of 1873 did not give Dartmoor a fair
trial, as its unequalled advantages for such a
purpose were nullified by a rainfall in excess of
any experienced for the previous ten years.
The result of the polling for the county of
Brecon was declared on Friday, when it was
officially made known that Mr. Fuller Maitland,
the Liberal candidate, hail secured 1,710 votes;
and Mr. Howe! Gwyn. who stood in the Conser-
vative interest, 1,607 thus giving a Liberal
majority id 103. This is one of the most
remarkable Liberal successes at a bye election
which has been recorded for many years. From
the passing of the Reform Act of 1832 until the
accession of Mr. Godfrey Morgan to the peerage
a month ago, the county was represented by an
unbroken list of Tory members. There had
up to the dissolution of Parliament in 1874,
when Mr. Maitland was defeated, no contest
since the general election which followed the
accession of her Majesty to the throne in the
summer of 1837 when Major Holford, the
Liberal candidate, polled less than half the
number of votes given to his Conservative
opponent, Colonel Wood. The Doily News says
in Breconshire the tenants have distinctly
asserted their political independence of their
landlords. They have given effect by their
votes to their views on the Land, Game, and :
Church questions. Mr. Parry's spirited letter '
has doubtless contributed to this result; and
the Breconshire Election will probably have a
corresponding effect OR tenant fanners not only
in the Principality, but throughout the United
Kingdom.
Thousands of people are entering into the
spirit of the Arctic Expedition who would not
have been thought likely to be informed upon
the matter at all ; and Captain blares, who is
without doubt the right man in the right place
at the head of the Expedition, has to tell, at
the Portsmouth banquet given to him and his
brother officers that not only are the Alert and
the Discovery invaded by an immense number of
visitors from all parts, but presents are rolling
in of all kinds, from rounds of beef and Christ-
mas puddings to pianos and hurdy-gurdys.
Capt. Nares goes out in the belief that "success
seems certain." What we shall gain by success
is a mercenary question that it would not be
well perhaps to press. " The objects in view,"
says Mr. Clemente Markham, "are the discovery
of the condition of land and sea within the
unknown area, and the investigation of all the
phenomena in that region in the various
branches of science." Whether the game will
be worth the candle may be disputed, and
British taxpayers may not like the expenses of
the expedition, but now that it is on the eve of
starting let us at all events wish the explorers a
successful expedition and a safe return.
Eight months ago London was shaken out of 1
its slumbers by the terriffic explosion of the
barge Tilbury on the Regent's Canal, and it has
now been decided, very happily for the sufferers,
that the Grand Junction Canal Company is
liable for the damage done. All the sympathies,
of the public are with the tenants of demolished
houses. Companies have no friends, and the
case is black against this one, for greater
indifference to public safety was never known.
There are unhappily a considerable number of
unsettled disputes between employers and
employed, just now, in various parts of the
country. The labour market is troubled either
by strikes or lock-outs among the colliers of
South \Vales and Warwickshire, the iron-workers
of South Wales, the tailors of South Wales, the
boot-makers of Pontypool, the cutlers and smiths
of Sheffield, the masons of Buxton, the joiners
of Greenock, the plumbers of Dundee, and the
tobacco-pipe maken of Glasgow. Some of these
are very important industries, and especially
may South Wales be condoled with on her
unfortunate position. With so twiny disputes
between capital and labour still unarranged, is
it not a thousand pities that we have not a
Board of Arbitration permanently established—
half composed of employers and half of workmen
—with a view of settling these quarrels. Hun-
dreds of trade disputes are settled in France in
this way by the euneeile ,k prod' h.oilinces. Why
should they always manage thi.ao things better
111 France f Lord Aberdeen calculates that the
South Wales strike hag caused a loss to workmen
in wages of £3,000,000 ; while the loss to capital,
he Rays, is incalculable. The difference now
remaining between masters and men is as to a
reduction in wages of 10 or 15 per cent.
The Manchester Unity of Oddlellows may be
congratulated upon the circumstances under
which their Annual Movable Committee has
been held at Newport. Unquestionably this is
the largest and most prosperous benefit society
in the world. It has about half-a-million of
members, and its reserve capital is rising up
rapidly towards four millions sterling. This is a
noble example of thrift and mutual assistance
—and without disparaging Foresters, Shepherds,
Druids, or any other orders, doing good in their
various ways, it is clear that this is a society
that undoubtedly merits the full confidence of
working-men, and which can put them above the
risk of pauperism. In Dorset both Oddfellows
and Foresters are numerous, and we commend
these societies to the notice of all who are not
already associated with a friendly society.