The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-07-07 00:00:00

Bowl Conuttl Exigen.

TUESDAY, JULY T. 1E74.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Government is carrying matters with a high
hand with regard to the business of the House
of Commons. Morning sittings have commenced,
and they will now be oontinued until the close
of the session. Mr. Disraeli did not take the
sense of the House on the question, but simply
announced that the House would "meet at two
o'clock to-morrow '(Friday last). The Govern-
ment now will have ample time at their disposal.
An effort will be made, therefore, to push the
business, so that the prorogation may not be
delayed to any unreasonably late period, and,
indeed, there is now a prospect of Parliament
being up the first week SaAugust. There is one
measure, however, which will demand a great
deal of time for its consideration—the Arch-
bishop's Bill, or the Church Bill, as it is com-
monly called. This will be most vigorously dis-
cussed in the Commons, and opinion will run
very high upon it. There is considerable doubt
whether the Home Secretary's Bill on Trades-
Unions and Combinations will be introduced at
all this session. In reply to a question put the
other evening by Sir W Harcourt, Mr. Cross
said that the commission on the subject had not
yet concluded its labours, and that he must wait
for its report. There will really be no time,
therefore, to carry a Bill on this subject, even if
the report were speedily to appear, and this can-
not be depended upon. Home Rule has been
got rid of for the present. That energetic
section of the Irish members who call themselves
Home Rulers cannot say they have had unfair
treatment. Thera has been a great deal of Irish
eloquence in tho House of Commons lately, and
Irishmen have had a large share of the debating.
It was quite refreshing, however, to find that
some of the smartest speeches against Home Rule
came from Irishmen—notably that of The
O'Donoghue. Mr. Disraeli's speech at the clews
of the debate was the best he has made this
sedition. We have now done with Home Rule
till next session, and the immense majority
against Mr. Butt's resolution-458 to 6l—ought
to have a calming effect on Ireland. The Home
Rule agitators had now better turn their atten-
tion to a more feasible project. Considering
how the Government was supported by Whigs
and Liberals and Radicals of every degree in
resisting Mr. Butt's motion, it is not astonishing
that the Irish Secretary should be in a good
humour, and have his little joke about the
matter, as when he said on Friday evening, in
accepting an amendment to the Intoxicating
Liquors (Ireland) Bill, that "he was glad to
make any reasonable concession that mightmake
the government of Ireland more pleasant."
"it is proposed that to the Imperial Parlia-
ment shall be left the maintenance of our
relations with foreign powers, the ability to
proclaim peace or to declare war, the govern-
ment of the finances, the army and navy, and
all matters relating to the defence and security
of the Empire. To the Imperial Parliament
also will be left the arrangement of general
trade regulations, the control of the expenditure,
of supplies for Imixirial purposes, the charge of
the public debt, and the power of regulating the
Civil list. The Irish Parliament, on the other
hand, will look after Irish Education, Irish
agriculture, trade, and manufactures, the public
works in Ireland, the courts of justice, the
magistracy, railways, post-office, grand juries,
and any other detail of Irish national life.', Such
was the clearest definition of Home Rule given
during the whole course of the late debate, and
the descripti is that of Mr. McCarthy, the
member for Mallow, and the ablest exponent of
the movement from a philosophical point of
view in the House.

The Lords have taken the Licensing Bill in
hand, intending to 11131 it apparently in the
form in which the Commons have sent it up to
them. Lord Aberdare was candid enough to
admit that the Bill contained some useful amend-
ments ,A his own Act; but he could not under-
stand why this and that had been done, and
went through most of the clauses of the measure
to show that we could have done very well
without it. In the end the Bill was read a
second tune.

Tho John Ball has reason to toidieve that an
application for a reform of Convocation will be
favourably received by her Majesty's Govern-
ment.

Mr. Hoskin has been triumphantly retnnied
for the borough id Launceston, but by a much
smaller majority than was obtained five ths
ago, though the rabbits might have had some-
thing to do with that. The present majority is
184; in February it was 237.
The Count do • Chambord has addressed
another inanifesW to the French nation, and
illustrates the old charge against the Bourbons
that "they learn nothing and forget nothing."
The Count du Chambord cannot forget that his
birth has made him the King of France, and lie ;
will not learn that his birth is recognised by
only a small minority of the nation as a title to
that kingship. He is ready to confer upon
France liberty. He offers, indeed, in this
manifesto a system of Parliamentary Govern-
ment fair to see and decidedly better in its
appearance than any France has enjoyed. But
France must take it from his hands; must take
it as a kind of emanation of and from his divine
right. "France has need of Royalty, and my
birth has made me your King." In his October
declaration, the Comte retracted nothing of his
oft-reiterated views, and he retracts nothing
now. Yet, in the face of modern ideas, he
denies that his polisty is at variance with the
aspirations of the countsy. The House of
France, says he, is sincerely and loyally recon-
ciled, and he calls upon Frenchmen to rally
confidently behind it. The country has suffered
enough, but with the return of her venerable
Royalty would come prosperity, security,
dignity, and grandeur. The task is a laborious
one, but with God's help " we " shall be able to
accomplish it.