The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-02-18 00:00:00

Duet entnitg (Expo.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1878.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Her Majesty, it is annoanoed, will leave
Osborne to-day for Windsor Castle; and It is
expected that subsequently, at some date not
yet fixed, the Qu.sn will reside for a few days at
Buckingham Palace.

Official notioe haa been glven.that from Sun-
day the Court goea Into mourning for the late
limpreas-Dowager of Austria, the mourning to
be changed on the 2nd, and to cease on the 9th
of Harsh.

It has been reported that the Prince and
Princess of Wales would this year attend
Punchestown rams, but the Mornwsg Post has
authority for stating that there his never been
any question of their Royal Highnesses going to
Ireland this year. That being so of course the
statement that Lord Clonnedl would be the host
of the royal visitors is equally untrue, and,
owing to • recent domestic affliction he has
never contemplated having • party this spring.
Before the end of the present 1111.00, t is
rumoured, the Howe of Commons will be asked
for an additional grant for the Prince of Wales.

---
The Lord CcanosHor has revealed to the
House of Lords his proposition for establishing
Supreme Court of Judicature, and a High
Court of Appeal. The scheme Is a massive one,
and embraces the suggestions of many legal
authorities which have long been under Con-
sideration.

Mr. Gladstone has announced the third gram*
scheme of his Administration for the emancipa-
tion of Ireland from all that it has been supposed
to endure under • dearth of • 'ye
patronage. By the University Ed on Bill
d is offered secular university education.
university, as apart from any college. is to
be endowed with grander proportions as an
Institution—that is, as far as it is possible to
give wider scope, a more comprehensive charter,
to a university that will be shorn of any
theological study, and is to have no chain of
moral and metaphysical philoaciphy, nor even of
modern history, lest there should be fatal risks
affecting rights of conscience. The newly pro-
posed University of Dublin will embrace all the
colleges of the land, itself being purely
unsectarian, and its governing body, so it is
designed, absolutely free from any ecclesiastical
influenoe. Mr. Gladstone deaigns the appro-
priation of funds for the University from the
surplus moneys of the Disestablished Church,
and the religious difficulty in respect of Trinity
College is provided for by placing the Theological
Faculty of the College under the control of that
new organisation, the Governing Body of the
Disestablished Church of Ireland.

The newspapers write very cautiously respect-
ing the Irish University Bill, and, with few
exceptions, accord the measures only a qualified
approval. The Tinier congratulates the Govern-
ment on having introduoed a Bill defensible on
its merits, instead of vainly attempting to
handicap Irish denominations against each other.
The Saturday Review admits that fault may be
found with the way in which this or that
difficulty his got over, but it will not be easy, it
thinks, to point out a difficulty which has not
been foreseen. The Ezamiser remarks that
"after the experiment of the Queen's University
and the Queen's Colleges, which have failed so
signally, it is a pity that any new and costly
experiment should be tried without so me
assuranoe of II10101111." It appears to the
Examiner that, in spite of his elaborate speech,
Mr. Gladstone himself has not much hope of
any better result from his new University, or,
if he hopes that, he can hardly hope that it will
peas the ordeal of Parliament. The Econoniirt,
more sanguine, considers that in the main con-
ception Mr. Gladatone's Bill is perfect, but that
in many of the details it will require amend-
ment. The Spectator writes in much the same
way. It believes that on the whole, the
Government has dealt.with a very delicate and
difficult problem in a just and very skilful
and comprehensive spirit. Still its hope of the
swami of the mewinge lies in the distant future.
The Echo, which is not often chosen as a
mouth-piece for official communications, has
reason to believe that it is the intention of the
Government to support the second reading of
Mr. G. 0. Trevelyan's Bill for the assicnils tion
of the county and borough franchise, w hich
stands for the 19th March. "But (adcis the
Echo) it is hardly probable that the Bill will
pass beyond that stage during the pri sent
session."

A trial for slander, Clayton v. Jones, an sing
out of game cards on the Great Western Rail-
way, has been one of the topics of the week, but
it ill chiefly notiosable for the revelations it
afforded of the characters and occupations of a
"gentleman" and a magistrate. As to the
latter we wonder what special qualification' a
young man, twenty-three years of age, who, by
his own admission, passes his time In gambling
on railways, at the dubs, on the rase-course,
boxing with professional pugilista, and visiting
the night houses of the Haymarket, possessed to
be placed on the oommon of the pears I And
will he be allowed to remain • magistrate, or
will the commission that Lord Hatherley gave
him be rescinded? The case terminated as un-
satisfactorily se have the trials in connection with
the Galway election prosecutions. In both oases
the jury could not agree—a convenient way
apparently, especially in Ireland when trying •
pnest, of getting out of a difficult duty. In the
cards OW it 1. not of grays consequence, at any
rate to the public, that a verdict should be
given ; but in the ease of the Galway prosecutions
It is an important failure of justice.

Mr. Odger has taken leas than nothing by his
motion against the 'Figaro, and has moreover
made an exhibition of himself under the hands
or rather the tongue of the Attorney-General.
The jury would not give the democratic shoe-
maker and agitator even the nominal farthing
damages, and by their verdict for the defend-
ant they have saddled Mr. Odger with the ooete
on both sides. Not a few blankets or counter-
panes would have to be raffled to pay the
lawyer's bills, and even when the wets are
taxed, it will still tax the pockets of Mr.
Odger's admirers to subeciel'oe for their payment.
If that course be adopted, 'which we suppose will
be the case. Of counts, Figaro will crow
immensely over the result, and there will be no
putting up with the airs of the impudent print
for some weeks to come.

The able way in which Mr. Plimsoll, M.P.,
has put before the public) the unsatisfactory con-
dition of our mercantile marine, haa probably
conduced to the announcement that the Govern-
ment are prepared to reoominend the appoint-
ment of • Royal commission to inquire into the
practice of employing unseaworthy ships and
overloading.

The current number of the Quarterly Review
eoutains an article om "he Exhaustion of the
Boil of Great Britain," from which we quota the
following remarkable atatistios of the coomon-
tion by Englishmen of foreign and home-grown
00111 : -

Average number of Average number of
the ventilation the poculetion
maintained maintained by the
by ferns* whew in growth ef the
*soh year at Unita kingdom In
Sr Mahali per head. myth year at
six bushels per bead.
1811 800,000 16,100.000
1821 ... 600,000 18,800,000
1831 ... 706,003 21,850,000
1811 1,200,000 24,280,000
1851 ... ... 3,930,000 ...... 2.1,255,000
, 1861 ... 6 706,000 21,600,000
1871 ... 11,061,000 10,278.030
If the numbers approach one another at the
same rate, we shall, in ten or a dozen years, be
importing as much corn as we grow—for the
' amount of our own export. is comparatively
' small.
All the hopes that were centered in the new
I sewage companies as the saviours of our great
towns sad rivers are misplaced. Never did the
sewage problem present • more knotty appear-
ance. Look at Richmond, just a type of hundreds
of other places. Some time ago a thorough
system of drainage into the Thamei was ordered,
to take the place of oseepoole a ad stagnant
ditches. A debt of £30,000 was ini mend. Now
comes an order from the Governs sent to atop
draining into the river, with £lOO • day penalty
for Richmond to pay while the drainage is not
diverted. What is to be done lt len look to
the sewage companies, but they do not answer.
Experimental sewage-farina turn out to be
failures. The companies Are getting _out of their
contracts by paying fines and livineon the loss.
Indeed, some rather pretty revel 'time are the
result of • committee of investigati.oa in the case
of one of these companies, and the chief business
' of that company—the Phosphate Sewage Com-
pany—is proved to have been not drainage but
transferring and r•traneferring tames. A. to
selling wage as manure, they had only got
aricnJ se
thirty tone since the tarmation of the
company in May, 1871. It is Wow the direetom

and promoters had nursed • grand French con-
Cellioll for which £250,000 was to be paid;
as might have been expected, judjing by the
nooses of the oompany's operations here, this
toll tigough, and the committee of investigation
In their report say—" Whether the agreement
wee ever intended to be land Ms, or merely •
device for the purpose of raising the company's
ihare• to • fictitious Price, is • question which
we leave to the judgment of each shareholder."
When will it be recognised that in Mr. Motile*
Dry Earth System there is the only true solution
of the difficulty, and means be devised for
making it everywhere practicable?

Tke lad plums in the history of the Alabama
dams is curious if it is not edifying. "We
love," says the Tines " been condeuused to pay
something like three millions and a quarter
sterling on account of the losses inflicted by five
of the Oonfederat• cruisers, for the sots of
which we have been held responsible, and it now
appears that the real losses suffered by individual
Americans through their depredations will
barely exceed two millions, and that the balance
will be netted by the American Treasury."
We have one Monarchy lam and one Republic
more In Europe now than last week. The Duke
of Acute has abdicated; the throne of Spain is
to remain vacant; and the Republic bee been
proclaimed by an overwhelming majority of both
the Senate and the Dints,.

A sensation has been created in Prcunia by an
exposure of alleged extensive frauds on the pert
of Herr Wagner, other officials, and some
prominent no , in the disposal of railway
concessions. Count Ton Komi, the President,
anxious at first to stifle inquiry, has been obliged,
in deference to public opinion, to promise a
speedy and aeseehiag inquhy into the allegations.