The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-06-23 00:00:00

SIISL

Vorott enuuttl Expreoo.
TURFMAN', JUNE 23, lea
NOTES OF THE WEEK.

--
The Prime Minister has sounded the war cry
of the Constitutional party in the election struggle
next November- The Merchant Taylors' ball was
the men, of this deliverance, and the ocomion •
banquet to Her Majesty's Ministers. Mr. Disraeli
gave forth a telling party manifesto which will be
echoed and mastered through the country daring
the next five mouths. Recounting with pardonable
istu3-ieduist, thbeeint=
Ifriertehign=rryy
rhetoric,
the Govern.
owe it to the friendly offioss of the ministry that
France has not yet crossed the Rhine, or Russia
made a dash on Oonseantinople—that, in short, the
peace of Europe hee bees maintained; and, he
modestly added, this excellent state of things had
not been attained without "even peril', although
society may not always have been conscious of
them." Rut their home administration had been
equally_ hoist with difficulties, and alike successful.
The Kt**, 1..4 fr.... 5 &own llP•oi...imo, restored the
eornmercual credit of the ornustry, improved the con.
claire of the army, strengthened the marine—all this,
without adding to the taxation of the people, save on
account ef the Abyssinian expedition, and for that
espenditure we had this compensation—it was the
most complete warlike sumo= on record, and had
elevated the military character of England through-
out the world. dna is the Prime Minister's glowing
retuned of what the Government have achieved
amidst unparalleled difficulties, and be intimates that
they will do equally well in the future if the general
election does but send to the Home of Commons
enough Ministerial supporters to keep Mr. Disraeli
in power. It Is about this the Premier is anxious,
and he" recognises the hand of Providence in the ,
send dispensation," v.e , that the new constituencies
"will be called upon as thsir fleet duty to decide
whether they will sustain or whether they will subvert
the Constitution of their ornantry." In presence of
this daager, he raises the cry of "The church is in
danger, " "The sacred union of Church and State
is threatened," "Our opponents seek to divorce the
exercise of authority from the principle of religion,'
"The Sapremery of the Soverign is assailed," "Th.
principles of the Reformation are endangered," "Civil
and religious liberty is imperilled." Them declarations
of impending woe are sufficiently startling, but when
we are told that all then troubles are to oome upon
us as the consequenoe of disestablishing the Irish
Church, we cannot but feel souse degree of credulity,
and the thought crosses out minds that the coming
election has stimulated Mr. Disraelee brilliant
imagination in this regard, especially when we
remember that only • few weeks ago his desire for
the maintenance of " dm principles of the Reforma-
tion" allowed him to conceive • project for endoiiing
the Roman Catholic Church to Ireland. Nor do we see
that the diseetabliahment of an "alien" church in the
sister isle, necessarily involves the severance of
Church and State in this country—we believe it is
far more likely to result from that departure from
"the principles of the Reformation" which the Church
of England now manifests to so great an extent;
and, to our minds, more remote still will be the
influence of the disestablishment of the Irish Church
—if the new Parliameat should so resolve—touching
the Queen's supremacy ; while the cause of
religious liberty "not only in the United Kingdom
but on the European Continent" would seem
rather to be promoted than hindered by such an act.
These, however, are the warnings which the Prime
Minister has given, and he appeals to a grateful and
generous people, by the happy results the Govern-
ment have achieved under great difficulties, by the
remembrance of their admirable administrative
abilities, by the impending woe to this country
should they be ousted from the Treasury Bench,
that they will return to the House of Commons in
the autumn sufficient Constitutional representatives
to keep the Disraeli Ministry in office.

att.. Muir essri.l....as lopohobiug oil the Irish
Reform Bill, our representatives evidently thought
they deserved a holiday, and sooordingly took one
on Friday evening, the House of Commons having
been counted out in ten minutes after the Speaker
took the chair. Other people may not bee° satisfied
with the Irish Bill, as passed, as are the legislators
themselves, sines the work on the credit of which
they have taken a little rest has been principally got
rid of by the very convenient process of shelving all
the difficult parts. The Reform Bill for the hater
island may indeed be said to consist of a rather
unimportant extension of the borough franchise,
which will admit a few thousand persons into the
oonatitnencies. However, such as it is, the Bill is
pared, and Parliament is brought another con-
siderable step nearer dissolution. There is now
every prospect that not only Mil Bribery Bills, but
the Telegraph Bill and some other measures, which
it would be a pity to postponed will be got through
in time for the prorogation to take place on or
before the 20th of July—in time for a abort autumn
einnion.

The verdict of the jury in the cam of Risk Allah
against the Daily Telegraph was inevitable. The
£20,000 damages claimed by the Boy was, of course,
oat of the question ; but, tinder the circum-
stances, we should not have been astonished
if the jury had reckoned the injury he had
received at 0,000. t The payment of £960, how-
ever, is scarcely severe enough to serve as • caution
to the Telegraph proprietors, though it may tea
sufficient warning to minor journals who are disposed
to imitate the recklessness of Jupiter Junior •
and perhaps the wigging that the unfortunat
correspondent, who wrote the letters will
get, will make parsons in his position
a little more careful for the future how they write of
private reputations under a cloud. Risk Allah's
action against the Standard. which was by no means
so culpable as the Telegraph, had a different termi-
nation. The jury gave • verdict for the defendants,
on the ground that the apology inserted in that
paper was a full and ample one.
There was a grateful change in the weather on
Friday night. The sultry beat continuing for •
lengthened period had induced a large amount of
electricity in the atmosphere, and this was dissipated
by • smart thunderstorm, accompanied by a
plenteous rain fall, and we have since experienced
the bountiful moisture of genial rains. The pro-
longed fineness of the weather had begun to make
the meadows loss their greenness, the fields were
ripening for harvest before the grain WWI matured,
the root crops were threatened with failure, and the
very springs were getting low. We have been enjoy-
ing • continental summer, but grumbling as Eng-
lishmen will, that it brings with it • continental
Madame°. Not that as much harm has been done
as the outcry for rain would indicate, for on the
dearer eels it. own is independent of it. and in
shallower depths of earth it will only loss • little
in weight and fulness. But the rain seems now to
be coming, and to hew the rich drops pattering on
the leaves, to see the thirsty fields drink in the
bounty of the clouds, to catch the perfume of their
gratitude as it is breathed forth upon the freshened
air, to feel the reviving influence which makes each
blade of gram lift up its head, and the whole
wearied landscape laugh with joy, M • pleasure for
which we cannot be too thankful to the all-bounteous
Giver of good.