The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-05-27 00:00:00

THE DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS AND AGRICULTURAL GAZFITTE, TUESDAY, MAY 271873.
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'Arai egunt4 Expren.

TIIIISDAY, KAY-27 1873.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.
Her Majesty the Queen completed her 54th
year on Saturday. At Balmoral Castle, where
the Queen is residing, the Crathie church choir
assembled early in the morning under the matte
windows, and sang a number of Scotch songs and
the National Anthem. The ancient event of
"trooping the colours" took place in the morn-
ing at the Horse Guards. It was witnessed by
the Princess of Wales and three of her ohildren.
H.R.H. the Prince of Wales returned to Marl-
borough House from the continent on Monday.
Our sailor Prince presided o 3 Friday at the
annual meeting of the Shipwrecked Marines'
goology. Sendai was the 27th birthday of her
Royal Highness Princess Christian.
Parliamentary affairs continue to be dull, with
only occasional exceptions, although the Govern-
ment is endeavouring to pass some very impor-
tant measures. Mr. Stansfeld's Local Taxation
Bills and the Lord Chancellor's Judicature Bill
and Land Transfer Bill are really measures of
the first Importance; but there is nothing ex-
citing about them, as in the MSG of the Irish
University Bill or the Ballot Bill of limit session.
nor are rival factions vividly interested in them,
as in the case of the Permissive Bill. No doubt
the present Parliament may do good work in
passing such dry but useful measures as the
three first-mentioned; but that does not prevent
the public from finding the daily debates some-
what wearisome and looking forward with in-
terest to the contest' on various questions
which will be fought out for the first time by
means of the ballot at the coming general oleo-
tion—ooming, as most people expect, in the
autumn.

In regard to the Laud Transfer Bill, Lord
Cairns made a suggestion of great value. As it
is a measure that will furnish the basis for
bargains of the highest importance, and much
evil might be done if any vicious principle were
to be lodged in tangled phraseology, for
compacts would be made before the law could be
amended, he proposed that the Government
should repeat an experiment which was tried
withngual nooses forty years ago in the case of
the Fines and Recoveries Act. The Bill was
placed in the hands of an eminent lawyer, who
made each clause the subject of prolonged and
special attention, until he framed a masterpiece
of legislation. The practical result his been re-
markable. So clear Is the Act, so free is it from
ambiguity, that, although it is applied every day,
the judicial decisions to which it haa led might,
says Lord Cairns, be counted on the fingers
almost of a single hand. Why then, be asked.
Mould not the Land Transfer Bill be held over
until next Session, and meanwhile be handed to
o e or two eminent conveyancers, who should
be instructed, not indeed to alter any of lie prin.
(Spiel, but to give complete logical coherency to
all the clauses, and to mike the expressions
perfectly clear The Lord Chancellor did not
at mos swept the proposition, but he said that
he might act upon it if he should not be able to
pass the Bill this Session; and, as there Is very
little chance of his doing so, it is probiSle that
the opportunity for editorial revision will come.
Mr. Manifold's Bill for Uniformity of Valua-
tion classes rateable property 11111 follows :-1.
Houses or buildings without land othsr than
gardens, where the gross value is under £lO
maximum rate pf deduction to be one-fourth.
2. Hommand buildings without land other than
gardens and pleasure-grounds valued therewith
for inhabited house duty, where the grass value
is £2O and under £4O maximum deduction to
be one-fifih. 3. The like, where the uross vane
is £4O or upwards, maximum deduction one-
sixth. 4. Buildings without land which are
not liable to inhabited house duty and are of a
mei value of A:2O and under £4O maximum
deduction one-fifth. 5. The like, of a gross
value of £4O and upwards, maximum deduction
one-sixth. 6. Land with buildings not homier,
ene.tentb. 7. Land with buildings, one-twentieth.
8. Mills and manufactorie., one-third. The
following are all placed together, viz. t—Brick-
yards ; mines and quarries; rights of fishing,
fowling, shooting, and sporting; tithe., and
tithe rent-charge; railways, canals, docks, tolls,
waterworks, and gas works; and rateable here-
dittnienta not included in the foregoing climes ;
and the maximum rate of deductions for all
these is to be determined in each case according
to the circumitannes and the general principles
of law, as amended by this bill. The maximum
rates of deductions above prescribed are also
not to apply to houses or buildings let out in
separate tenements ; the rate in such ewes is to
be determined by the Amassment Committee,
after notice to the ampler or the proposed
amount, with liberty to him
.to object. The
maximum rate of deduction in any clam may he
exceeded in MOS where it is insuffinent to
include extraordinary expenditure required to
maintain banks for protection against the
encroachment of water.
In the orton-Tichberne trial the evidence of
fresh witnesses bronght from Australia and
South America gives au entirely new interest to
this remarkable use. The Goveranteot are
sparing nothing in the prosecution, as witnesses
have acknowledged that sures of five hundred
and six hundred pounds have been promised them
for coming to Ragland. The most erophatia
testimony has been offered that the defendaat
Arthur Orton—evidence which the crose-examin-
atlou of witnesses has not sumeeded in shaking.
The mins so long anoicipated has actually
comma in Frame. M. Thiers is no longer
President, and what may fairly be ogled •
Military Dictatorship has beau establialied by the
assumption of the Presidents, of the Republic by
Marshal MscMshon.

Among the changes for which Europe Is
preparing is the demise of the Pope. His illness
111 at length admitted to be serious. The pro-
testion of the Vatican, in the event of the Pop's
death, is the question of the hour at Rome ; and
it seems that political ooasiderations are still to
influence the election of the Supreme Pontiff,
The Voce Della Virile, a Roman Clerical organ
says that the next Pops must be an Italiai;
because the Pope is by right sovereign of an Italian
State, and should be of the nationality of his
subjects. The journal anticipates the restitution
el the papol territory by the Italians themselves,
unless tbey ye alienated in feeling by the
election of 'a forsigoar by the Sacred College to
the Pontifical dignity, rocs, it would seem, the
Papacy cannot be separated from political ques-
tions at Rome, and the dignity must still *bap;
b• an Italian.