The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-05-28 00:00:00

Arid lionnttExpres.

TUESDAY, MAY 284 1872.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

After the trials which she has gone through,
Her Niajesty may well be congratulated by all
loyal Aubjects on having attained, on Friday
her fifty-third birthday in better heAlfh
than she has enjoyed for yesra pia. But why
in the world should the celebration of the birth-
day be held a week after the event I True, this
is a leas exceptional course than the ono adopted
a year or two ago, when the anniversary was
celebrated loins days be/ore its recurrence. But
the holding of Royal birthdays seems as mys-
terious as the so-called breakfaste at Buckingham
Palace and Windsor Castle, lasting from four to
seven p.m. The Prussiams, as a oomparatively
simple and primitive people, we notice, did not
wait for the official birthday of our Queen, but
celebrated the anniversary on Friday by a state
dinner at Perlin.

The Prince and Princess of Wales remain in
Paris. They have visited the Exhibition of
Pictures in the Champs Elysdes, and on Friday
night the Prince went to the theatre. The
Princess wiui, however, too much fatigued by her
rapid journey from Switzerland to accompany
him.

As the gloom of the natural and that of the
political skies wore coincident, so the clearing-up
of each seems to have come contemporaneously,
for at length we learn that the supple-
mentary article of the Washington treaty is
adopted as a settlement of that vexed question
of the indirect claims. The Ministay will there-
fore meet Parliament in a stronger position than
when tt.e House adjourned for the Whitsuntide
recess—with what was then only • sanguine
antic pition become • gratifying reality. With
this American affair off the mind of Parliament,
legislation may go on apace, and we mg have •
reasonably good crop of measures instead of the
very scanty growth of last year. The only thing
which now causes anxiety in Ministerial ranks
1., what will the Lords do with the Ballot Bill?
If they reject it, not only will so much labour
of the Government and the Commons be lost,
but there must be • dissolution at the end of
the session, with a general election following,
that the country may be able to tell the Peers
its mind. If there be s dissolution, there will
be a chance of making • hustings question (tise
hustings then not having been abolished, as they
would be by the Ballot Bill) of that awkward
subject of denominational education in Ireland,
which Mr. Fawcett finds it impracticable now to
bring on for discussion.
An Agricultural Labourers' Union has been
formed in the West of England, under the aus-
pietas of Lord Edmond Fitsmaurioe, M. P. for
Calue ; and Canon Girdlestone, in shaking hands
with the peasantry on Whit-Monday, advised
them one and all to put down their names and
pay their subscriptions as the only way of pro-
tecting themselves, of securing higher wages,
less work, better cottages, and the females. The
first meeting of this Western Union took place
under an elm tree on the green of a Wiltshire
village close by Bowood. It WBA presided over
by Lord Lanadowne's brother, and the speeches
of the men were of the stereotyped order—com-
plaints that they were " screwed down too hard,"
that they were paid only ICIs or l2s a week, and
that this, after payment of rent and • substorip-
tioa or two to a clothing and benefit society,
only loaves lfd or 2d a head par day all round
In a family of six or eight children. The popular
idea with the Wiltshire peasantry seems to be
'a bit of land," instead of higher wages or lees
work, although, of coarse, they are quite willing
to take all three; and Lord Edmond Fitsmaurioe
is anxious to see the farmers and men meeting
together and talking over the meteor quietly.
The question was Nought up for discussion
at the meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society
on Wednesday, but the general opinion was
against dealing with a topic "bearing so closely
upon politics,', and the meeting was therefore
kept strictly to the business of the sesociation.
The Royal meets this year at Cardiff, with Sir
Watkin Wynn as president; and at Hull next
year, with Lord Cathcart in the chair.
A cold May, according to the old proverb, is
good for corn but bad for hay; and May, so far,
has been four or five degrees colder this year
than it has been known to be for fifty years, but
the farmers all over the country are elighinli for
• few days of bright blue sky and drying wins*
instead of rain and frost and north-easters. The
country looks fresh and green enough to the eye,
and here the wheat plant generally in vigorous,
although the potatoes are in many pert. frost-
bitten ; but in Warwickshire, in Norfolk, and
Linoolashire, the what plant looks yellow,
sickly, and spiry. The natural rank of all thli
Is that the price of wheat, and with wheat the
price of the quartern loaf, ie rising, and promises
to go still higher before the new plants are in
bloom. This rise le quite aa marked in America
as it is here with us, and all over Europe the
markets are rising, the stocks of lour are short,
and the prospect of • rich and abundant harvest
not a whit brighter than they ere with us.
Oata and barley look very well, and the grass
crop promises to be good,in this part of the
country at least. The farmers upon Salisbury
Plain are at work with the scythe already; and
a few days of bright sunshine and drying winds
will be equal to • remistion of the Malt-tax for
the year as a matter of La. d. In the Eastern
Counties everything depends upon the weather
of the next few days, for, as NU. Medd says, as
May leaves the crops there so harvest finds
them; sad at the present the crops do not look ,
as anyone can wish to see them in August.
if the Harvest should turn out bad this year,
all aorta of provisions will be at famine prices;
and, even as it is, the Registrar-General Is
taking fright at the price of butchers' meat, and
suggesting that instead of eating beef as we do
now, we should live on rice, vermicelli, and
Ohio. "Beef," he says, "wee never dearer in
the London market than it is ow.n and the
price of mutton is higher even than that of beef.
The first 1. 48 per cent. higher to-day than it
was in the year 1852, and the wood 46 per
cent.; and the increase in the retail price is
probably 55 or 60 per cent, in both New This
no doubt may be explained in more ways than
one; but it is an ugly fact, explain It as you
will—by the depreciation in the value of money,
by the cattle plague, or by the increase of popu-
lation, and with that of an increased demand for
food; and the Registrar-General suggests that
we should eat lam and waste leas meat than we
are in the habit , of doing, especially at public
dinners. If people will only give up lamb and
veal for this year, or eat it a little more sparingly
than they generally do, and eke out fresh meat
with • case of Australian mutton now and then,
we may keep prices at least within • shilling a
pound for • year or two longer. We may by
then, perhaps, see fresh legs and shoulders of
Australian mutton in the market.
The exile at Chisselherst has
,just protested
vigorously against the verdict of the commis-
sion on the capitulation of Sedan. The ex-
Emperor, if he does not altogether justify him-
self in the eyes of the world in regard to that
unfortunate event, will certainly gain credit for
the magninimity with which he takes the sole
responsibility of the capitulation upon himself
as effected "in the exercise of h sovereign
power." Napoleon still appeals to the nation
against its supposed representatives, and the
recent demonstestivenees of bonacerhsts in the
Ainembly promises that the psrly will make a
hard. struggle for power whenever the National
Assembly thinks proper to dissolve itself, and let
the nation decide on its future foe= of Govern-
ment„ What with prospective intestine troubles
and the preparations to retrieve her military
diameters, France promises to be rather an im-
plement place of sojourn, and Napoleon will
probably find more comfort and security at
Chiselhuret

Rumours of further complicatkine with the
Papal authority reach us from Germany. It Is
reported that, by order of the Pope, sentence of
excommunication will be pronounced on the
military chaplain, Herr Luennemann, In cue he
continues to celebrate Divine Service for the
garrison in the military church of 13t. Pantslam,
the use of which has been granted by the Govern-
ment to the Old Oath°lios.

Carlist reverses repeat themselves with weari-
some iteration in the Spanish telegram bat the
Insurrection is dying hard. A bend o(000 cut
the telegragph wires at Villafranoa, sad the ed.
yawed guard of General Markus axhanged
shots with another band o(800, commanded by
Canso. In Navarre there are thliugs of a detach-
ment 1,000 strong; but it is iakintly added
that to swell its ranks men had to be premed Into
the service, and the 'miaow were reported as
very dispirited.
Marshal Serrano has boon entrusted by the
King of Spain with the formation ot a new
Ministry.
After eight hours' secret debate. the American
Senate recommended that the Supplementary
Article to the Washington Treaty sbnuld be
whiled. The motion was carried b 742 votes
opini 9, twenty amass simighig boa Tol

keg. The " New York World" and" Herald" both
write in severe terms against the deckiou arrived
at by the Souste.