The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-12-18 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

L—Has MAJ &STY THE Qr. ESN has
found another opportunity of expressing
those tender parental emotions which not for
the first time have been found to actuate her
breast towards her subjects in calamity or
distress. The moment the Queen learned of
the enormous lees of fe at the Oaks Colliery,
Sir Thomas Biddulph was commissioned to
make inquiries into the facts, which was done
by telegraph, and the message of her
Majesty's private secretary was on Thursday
night transmitted to the Chairman of the
Barnsley Bench of Magistrates. Seldom,
however, has royal sympathy been evoked by
more dire disaster. Nor does the Barnsley
catastrophe stand alone; a smaller eiplosioii
elsewhere immediately followed it, occasion-
ing serious ink', although unattended by
loss of life, and closely upon that a third at
Harecastle, North Staffordsh;re, where
rlmost 150 persons perished, The Oaks
explosion itself was not sibgle, but a series
of terrific explosions involving the deaths of
almost six hundred miners —one of the most
terrible calamities that has ever overtaken
that intrepid clams of our population on whose
havirdous and adventurous enterprise we are
at this cold season so entirely dependlint for '
ereati w comforts. But we do not require
to ask of those who sit beside the cheerful
hearths in every English home to think of
'this. The trighlfel and appalling evils of
such an occv Term irresistibly present
themselves to everyone that sees a spout or
jet of gas blow off from the coal upon his fire,
and the most obtuse can understand that the
poor ni'ler hazards his 'le and the welfare
and happiness of his familytoy working
amidst an atmosphere composedof these
explosive elements, in order that the ordinary
and daily routine of our domestic life may be
carried on. What renders the claims of the
sufferers on or charitable consideration still
more urgent is this, that during the recent
co"iery strikes in the north, so many labour-
ing .nen from our southern counties have for
the last nine months been induced to proceed
to these very districts by the prospects of
employment sad high wages held out to them,
and are many of them, no doubt, involved in
this extensive affliction. The families of such
men are usually numerous, poor, and helpless,
and the appeal to the public purse should be
unease ed accortUng to their necessities ; we
have, however, no fear of the result. Not
only has the personal interest already mai i-
fested by the Queen, set the example of ju t
and considerate attention to the relief of the
sufferers, but the machinery of the London
Maniaim House is likewise operation, and,
as in the days of the cotton fard le, an ample
"Mansion house Fund" dedicated to the
purpose,and no doubt admirably administered,
Pi be seen pouring in from all quarters of
the country and of the world.

IL—Tit x SHIT BEI ELD CLUB CATTLE
81101 V at Islington shiits the scene from
death to Ffe, yet even there we saw a
wretched Fttle boy run over and crushed by
a cab wheel at the door. In time fur the
" private view" on Monday, we also saw the
prize animals brought out and arranged
against each other in competition for the
coo. The Devon looked handsome, but
wanted site although posaessed of proportion.
Mr. Walter Farthing's two Short-horns
would have looked better apart than thus
placed side by side; they were full of
character and kindly development, but from
their inequalities detracted the one from the
otl•er when brought into direct contreat.
As it was, the Morayshire Crose-beed that
did carry off the coveted cup was one-half a
Shorthorn. As for the Herefords, their
adherents remarked "there are six Shorthorn
judges out of eight upon them, and how can
the Herefords have a chance F' Indeed, it
is perfectly true that it is impossbile for a
Shorthorn judge of stock to appreciate a
Hereford. lie handles her skin, and shakes
h;s head because he finds it thick, and says
"Not mellow to the touch, there can be no
quality there!" No*, the Hereford judge,
would take the thick soft skin as one of the
first and beet testa of Hereford quality.
He leeks at the head and instead of the Kay
head and fine horn of the stock ith which
he is most conversant, he finds the heavy
loutish head and countenance of the Hereford
aggravated by the lumpish white face and
the thick coarse "middle horn," and he
holds the animal to be anything rather than
the tj pe of a prize beast. This is all a mis-
take and leads to constant disappointment
and it were better the animals were not
brought into competition at all, since there
are scarcely any common grounds forjudging
bete ixt them. The sheep have never been
surpassed as a show; and the pigs, always
the most popular section of the live stock
department, literally outdid themselves—our
neighbour, Mr. John Coate, of Hammoon,
Blandford, pushing aside all the special
breeds, even the last new thing out "the
improved Warinington," and carrying off
with his pigs of "any breed" the cup and
breeders' medal for the best pigs in the hall.
There is but one drawback to the gratifying
fact of a meeting haviog at last been held, at
which the great attraction of cattle was not
omitted "by particular desire," as, in a certain
representation of the play of Hamlet, the
principal character was left out; and that is
the alarming increase during the week in the
number of cattle plague cases, taken along
with the discovery that in this season of dear
hay, we are actually importing into Norfolk,
without scruple, hay from the cattle plague
districts of thinned, where the disease is
now raging.
_

lII.L-U;;DIUt Tilt CoMmTITCTILIN, se admini
tered by George Potter and James Itemise—not
the Ministers of the Crown—but those of the
sovereign people, we get at last a glimpse of the
legislature of the future. A meeting of delegates
was held on Friday evening in London, at
which after scolding everyone who did not
attend the resent Trades' prcaresion, "landing
the polioe, who withell "promised aid !" at the

Beaufort House Grounds, and claiming even
"special damages I" from the lessee of the sh-
buruharn krouuds for refusing the use of those
grounds for the purposes of the meeting—it was
resolved to make a..angements for the trades'
unionists of the manufaJturing districts to march
NI to 1.00i).10i1 on a keen day to hold a
National Mau Meeting ! I Not content, there-
fore a ith the 'rrimies' Dernoustration which so
lately and fruitlessly frightened London froin
its propriety, wilco it need have done nothing of
thu kind, ben% exactly as iiieffecdve as that of
"Thu King A t,pelb With ke Inuum..d of Lis wee"
*Le
"First marched up the bin—nod then marched down
again."
The agitators, therefore, intend holding a mass
meeting of workiug men dragged from their
work and their wages all over the provinces, and
brought up to London, we can only guess what
to do ; and that is to ac i: as country lambs in
influeneiug the deliberations of Parliament at
the opening of the Session. But if Reform or
any other Bills, (and the thing once successful
would not stop at Reform) if these measures are
to be passed in this say, what would be the use
of passing any measure of reform or any exten-
sion of the franchise at all I Would it not
answer the purpose quite as well when any-
thing whatever was particularly wanted, to call •
mass meeting and settle the matter outside
This is • new and diinplo method of Government,
whleli plainly shows we can do without the
British Constitution, which no doubt Messrs.
Bright, Beale', and Potter, have long suspected
to be a worthless piece of iucumbraooe.