The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-12-23 00:00:00

Poroet Conntti Exprtn.

TIIIIIIIDAY, DXlllllllllt 24 lit&

NOTES OP THE WEEK.

As usual, the Queen has loft Windsor for
Osborne to keep Christmas, and It is an Bei gated the
return from Osborne will be to the metropolitan
palace. For the Grit time since her melancholy
bereavement, Her Majesty is both to open Par-
liament and read her own speech, if her health
permit. At present the Queen Is in fairly good
health, so that we may hope for the fulfilment of
there anticipationm, and it is also expected that
the return to public life will be accompanied by
a residence of the Court in London for • oonsi-
datable portion of the fashionable season.
The Ohs rrer states that the Duke of Edin-
burgh, according to present arrangements, will
leave england on the 30th, en route for Russia.
His Royal Highness is expected to arrive at
Peteraburgh on the 4th of January.
It is reported that Mr. Hibbert, M.P. for
Oldham, will snowed the late Mr. Winterbotham
as Under-Secretary for the Home Department,
PIO will be replaced as Under-secretary to the
Poor Law Board by the Earl of Morley.
Your new Peers are announced. Mr. Monsell,
the late Postmseter-Oeneral, as Lord Hotly of
Tervoe, in the county of Limerick, Sir J. W.
blonervitr, I ord Justice Clerk of Scotland,as Lord
Moncreitl of Tulliebole, Kinrosahlre, the Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of fknitmon Pleas as
Baron Cokridge, of I Htery St. Mary, Devonshire,
and the lion. K G. 0. Howard, heir-presump-
tive to the Earldom of Carlisle, created Lord
LAUler too, of Lamerton, Cumberland.

A Lancashire clergyman, the Rev. Mr. Read,
rector of St. George's, Hyde, wailed Mr. John
Bright for calling the poor working men—mean-
ing by poor, the very poor—the "residuum" of
society. Mr. Bright responded in • letter in
wLich ho declared that this" slanderous" and
singularly ignorant" "hot partisan priest" Is id
perverted his meaning, advised him to keep to
his pulpit, where be could not be contradicted,
and recommended that his parishioners should
pray for him. A member of a Cabinet should
clearly be very badly used indeed to venture
upon so unusual an attack upon an obscure
"partisan priest" The passage to which refer-
enee was made Os a striking one. It is from •
speech delivered in Parliament on Mardi 26,
1871, reported in "Hansard," but omitted from
Mr. Bright's republished speeches. He declared
that there was • small class that did not deserve
the franchise bemuse they had no independence
whatever; that there is no class so much in-
terested in having that small clam excluded as
the intelligent and honest working-man. " I
call this class," mid Mr. Bright, "the residuum
which there is in almost every constituency, of
aimed hopeless poverty and depot:armor." Mr.
Read has retorted in a letter in which he speaks
of the right hon. gentleman's "senile railing/.
The Railway News says that twelve of the
largest claims upon the Government arising out
of the purchase of the telegraphs have been sub-
mitted to arbitration. The latest Parliamentary
returns show that the sum paid for taking over
the telegraphs was nearly £6,000,000. It Is pro-
bable that when the whole of the claims are
disposed of the oast to the country will not be
far short of £10,000,000 or £12,000,000.
The Federation of Employen is regarded as
an event of the highest slgnthcanc., and the new
combination has been thoroughly canvassed. It
Is evident that II the whole body of employees
undertake to render one another mutual aid
complicated embarrassments will arise. It is
scarcely possible that lanceshire eotton-aphiners
should be able to form a judgment of the merits
of a dispute in the mineral badness of Northam
beriaed or Wales. The institution of a general
, association of masters will draw closer the federal
I relations which already exist amoag the different
Trade Unions; and it Is possible that a strike
might be organized at Manchester in support of
a demand for higher wages at the ether end of
the kingdom. lo a certain extent the workmen
are justified in the assertion that organized
union is more necessary to thernsalvas than to the
employers. In ordinary times capitalists engaged
within the same district in any kind of bushier
agree among themselves on matters of prices and
of wages, althou.h they have little power to
control dissentients who my have special
Interests of their own. It is unnecessary, and
perhaps uudersirable, to substitute a permanent
combinatiou for temporary arr .ngemeata which
are habitu Ally made as occasion arises. & general
' federation of employers will to formidable in
appearance, while it is not certaiu that it will be
found praotioalty efficient. The c.hjeota which
are s..id to be oontemplated by the eromoters of
the sceeme are too vague to justify • formal
I organisation. The prop sal to fight working-men
with their own weapons is little beLter toau •
64nre of speech, unload' its mean. that a common
fund 14 to be raised by oontzlbutiou to support
employers in look-outs and In resistance to
strikes ; and yet it would be neither just nor
possible that a general b.Aly or council of
capitalists should judge of the merits of every
dispute as to wages or hours of work which may
occur in any special trade However, the
Feder.tion proposea other objecta more praotio-
able and legitimate. Au important part of its
work wili be watching the progress of legislative
meseures such as the f Mowing, which aro now
before Parliament, supported by the loaders of
Trades Unions :—The repeal of the Criminal Law
Amendment Act, the repeal of all penal Laws
affecting workmen, the Conspiracy Law Amend-
ment Bill, the revision of the Muter and Servant
Aar, the prionsotion of the Papered of Wages
Bill, the promotion of the Ileloopensatioo to
Workmen's Bill, and the promotion of the
Factories Nine Hours Bill.

Replying to the circular of the Itosrd of Trade
respecting accidents, Sir Daniel Gooch, of the
Great Western, and Mr. E. I'. Ellis, of the Mid-
land, have now made the dehnoe of their
companies, and in both caste It amount' to pretty
much the same thiag. Mr. Chichester Fat-teems.'
statements are questioned and his recommends.
Bons are repudiated. Both chairmen declare that
accidents are decreasing in proportion to tr affio,
and that all practicable precautions are already
taken for the safety of the lives of passengers.
Each official attempts to prove his case by
quoting statistics of his own railway ; but the
public will not much care to go into these figures.
What they will want to know is, if first one
railway company and then another repudiates
liability for exams of accidents, where do these
accidents really occur 1 Whatever may have
been the case in 1872, there can be no doubt that
during the past few months we have had an
extraordinary and frightful number of accidents;
and publio ophilos will require it. Board of
Trade not to be satisfied with the general denials
of railway chairmen.
Another vitnde haa happened In the
l'ichborne awn The Court was to have
adjourned on Friday afternoon until the next
Monday week, but Dr. Kenealy was too W to
attend on Friday; so, after • little discussion
the adjournment had to be effected at ones.
But either Dr. liecesly or some one else will
have to go on pleading the defendant's oafs on
the 291h,and the defence is to be closed In a week
from that time. This gives In some idea how
long the speech of Mr. Hawkins in reply, and that
of the Lord Chief Justice fa summing up are
likely to lest—probably nearer • week than •
fortnight each. So we may have the verdict early
In February.