The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1859-04-05 00:00:00

atiltsbirt.

Dzvizes.—TAt Columbia Mission.—Au interest-
ing meeting was held in the Townhall, on Wednes.
day evening, for the purpose of hearing from the
newly•appoulted Bishop of Columbia the object
embraced in the important mission upon which he
it about to enter; and Moo to aid him in his endea-
vours to evangelise the vast colony to which his
efforts will in future be directed. The chair was
taken by the Mayor, and there were also present the
rector of Devizes and many of the clergy. The
attendance au tolerably good and the collection at
the door amounted to os. dd.
_ . .

- -
Tcovramnog. -The funeral of the late Thomas
Clark, Esq., for many years one of Her Majesty's
Justices of the Peace for this county, whose death
took place on the 16th nit, after a short illness took
place on Thursday week at the cemetery. Several
hundreds of the tradesmen and principal manufactu•
rers of the town evinced their regard for the departed
by attending the funeral. The procession was a very
long one, and several thousand of people lined the
roads and the cemetery. The &nazi service was
reed very impresavds the Bev. M. 8. Berry, air

sistot by the Rev. J. L. Porter. and as the corpse I
was born to tit.: vault, a funeral hymn was sung,
communcing—" Hear what the voice twin Heaven
proclaims," hal by Messrs. W. Oder and F. 1).
Stevens, which produced a striking effect,. The
whole of the shops in the town were closed the
greater part of the day ; in the ovoung a muffled
peal was rung on the bells of the parish church ; and
On Sunday morning, an impressive scru 1111 l was
pr,ached by the Rev. J. L. Porter, (rum the 14th
chapter of John 14 verse.

SwiNuou.—PeUy Sessions, Thursday. -- (Before
David Archer, atel George Alexander, Esqrs., and
the Hoe. Gales Daubeny.)—Solomon Hole was
brought up on remand from Monday, charged with
feloniously slaying Imes Minal, at Stratton St.
Margaret. The prisoner, it appeared, went into a
publie•house late at night on the lan:ceding iatunlay,
and tenni for some beer. The Luellen' refused to
serve him. He struck the 'landlord, and the lin.
sneer was put out of the house. When out in the
road the prisoner and another man were lighting,
and James Nlinal was standing some distance off, not
at all interfering with the tight ; and on partite
interfering and stopping it, the prisoner went up to
James Mina' and struck him a severe blow under
the jaw, which appeared to lift Mina' off the ground,
and he fell, as witness described it, " like a calf hit
down." When he was picked up he was found to
be insensible. He was taken to his house, and died
the following day. The deceased teas& quiet, annul%
fensive man, and not accustomed to frequent pube
lac home*. The prisouer, who is a powerful man,
and worked on the railway, was committed fur trial
on a charge of manslaughter. A coroner's inquest
was held on the body on Tuesday, when the jury
returned a verdict of manslaughter against the
amused.

NIAILLBOROUGII. Led err by Dr. Winslow. —The
largest company which has lately aasetuldeil in our
Townhall, attended the lecture of this gentleman, on
Friday evening week—indeed, it was found necessary
to close the doors in order to prevent further admis-
sion. The subject, "Cromwell and his Times,"
appeared greatly to interest the audience, opening
up, as it did to many, much that was new, as well as
facts of historical interest in the life of the no doubt
much over-hutted as well as under-rated Protector.
The chair was occupied by Mr. L 11. Wood, who
introduesd the Hey. Doctor, who commenced by
observing that it was a divine ordination that cer-
tain epochs of human history should be marked by
1 what Milton terms "resurrections of reputation ;"
I and next pointed out that distance afforded them a
better opportunity of reviewing the character of
1 Cromwell and his age. Perhaps no individual in
history presented a more perfect type of his age—a
more full embodiment of the elements then afloat—
than he. He was created for his times, and he was
created by his times. After referring to the lowly
origin of Cromwell, and observing that true genius
and real greatness have oftener being engrafted upon
humble descent than upon high birth, the lecturer
briefly narrated Cromwell's education at Huntingdon
Free School, and subsequently at Lincoln's Inn, and
his marriage with the daughter of Sir James
Boucher—the woman whose sweet and generous
nature, whose exalted pity and unfaltering affec-
tion, exerted an influence so transfortuing, and
threw a radiance so mellowing upon all the subse-
quent events of a life unparalleled in human history.
No historian had yet been able to trace his
first religious exercises to their immediate cause.
But religion became with him not a mune, but a
thing; not a sentiment, but a principle; nut a no-
tion, but a reality. For religion and religious liberty
he exchanged the soft attractions of his peaceful home
for the conflicts and dangers of public life. And
whether his eloquence guided the deliberations of
the Senate, or his sword waved in advance of his
victorious cohorts on the battle field,—whether he
made or unmade parliaments, proclaimed evir or of-
fered peace,—the advancement of pure and undefiled
religion, the wide world over, was the goal of his
ambition and the polestar of his life. Having pointed
out the duplicity of Charles and the various steps
which he took towards the re-introduction of popery,
and noticed the stern pretest of Cromwell to the re-
establishment of that system in England, the lecturer
briefly reviewed the state of affairs which ensued
between the Parliament and the King. He added—
anti now we approach that event in Cromwell's his-
tory around which its darkest shadows have been
supposed to gather. No event in that remarkable
career has been mere eagerly siezed upon by his ene-
mies, or has formed so great a stumblingblock to
many of his friends, as the death of Charles. Let it
be remarked that it was an extraordinary era of the
world's history, when Cromwell came forward with
resistless energy, and in a spirit which no one deniers
was at the time intent on securing his country's
rights and welfare. The hour had conic when bounds
must be set to the arbitary power of the sovereign;
the welfare of England, the growth of freedom, and
the good of the human race demanded that Charles
should be resisted. Cromwell's generous proffer of
mediation between the Parliament and the throne
was rejected. The die was cast. In the overruling
providence of a just and holy God, tbe time of retri-
bution had come. Dr. Winslow, however contended
than the King's death was a master and fatal error on
the part of the Puritans. But he defended Cromwell
from the charge wade against him by some historians
of being the chief of regicides and a despot. The
remaining portion of the lecture was devoted to an
analysis of the character of Cromwell. No candid
or reflecting mind (the lecturer observed) would deny
that there entered deeply into his composition the
element of real greatness. In his usual habits of
thought and actiuu, he was high-minded, generous,
and humane. No stain of avarice or ordinary mean-
ness rests on his name. Without the accomplish-
ments, he had all the open manliness of Ciesar ; and
this, perhaps, as much as his wonderful ability, gave
hini his ascendancy over others. The Protestautism
of Cromwell cannot be placed in a position too
prominent, or in a light too strong. Hatred, deep,
unrelenting, unmitigated hatred of Popery seemed
an essential and inseparable element of his being.
Nor was this a political only, but a strong religious
feeling; love to Christ and his pure thane' formed
the root of his antipathy. It is in the light of his
strong antipathy to Popery that his advent on Ire-
land must be contemplated. As a set off to his
apparent severity, let it be remembered that he
never laid wig() to a town, or attacked a citadel, to
which he did not first offer peace on condition of
surrender. His love of religious liberty, and his
sympathy with the oppressed of all lands, must to
the latest generation endear his name to every
Christian and to every patrotic heart. He had his
failures and his flaws, and none better knew or more
deeply deplored them than himaslf. Nor Was his reli-
gion Guiltless. Most sincere it undoubtedly was; and
yet, under strong currents of temptation, it some-
times ran into the vieonary and the self-delusive. But
he never appears like an open hyprocrite ; and if
in the momenta of unguardednem he was betrayed
into the deception of others, he was always himself
the first victim of the iruposture.—The Rev. Doctor
proceeded to refer to the scene of Cromwell's death,
and concluded with an eloquent peroration, resuming
his seat amidst loud applause. At the close, the thanks
of the meeting, on the proposition of Mr. J. F. Pin-
ninger, were tendered to Mr. Stiles, as being instru• 1
mental in procuring the services of Dr. Winslow.