The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-11-06 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

I.•••-FORZIGN JOURNALS have been flying
some strange commis within the last week
or two. lint, we are told very gravely
that Prussia and Russia had come to an
agreement by, which the former was to have
the left bank of the Vistula on condition
that Russia should be at liberty to seize
Eastern Galicia from Austria, and to work
her own sweet will on the Eastern question. A
variation of the same story appeared in another
foreign paper, according to which Prussia
was to have Continental Denmark, and the
Danish islands were to be united to Sweden
and Norway under a Russian protectorate,
free action on the Eastern question being,
of course, also reserved to Russia. A day
or two after, we were just as seriously in-
formed (this time by the correspondent of an
English newspaper) that Prussia bad deter-
mined to go to war against Russia, and had
prepared the plan of a campaign which would
infallibly open next spring. What would be
Prussia's special object for such a course,
however, we are not told, though something
like a hint was thown out that she intended
generously to re-establish the kingdom of
Poland under her own protection! And
now we have another story—that Prussia
and Russia have formed an alliance to seize
upon the Polish and German territories of
Austria, Prussia being upheld against France
in extending her sovereignty over South
Germany, and Russia having the inevitable
permission to Mallow up European Turkey. 1
These inventions amuse us; but they are not
believed by any well-informed person. Russia
is known to be thoroughly unprepared for
war, being in a critical condition financially,
socially, and as regards her military organi-
zation. On the other band, Prussia cannot
want to be embarrassed with more Polish or 1
Danish subjects in her German Confedera-
tion • while the South German States seem
quietly gravitating to her of their own accord.
As for Austria's German territories, surely
Prussia would not have evacuated them the
other day if she very strongly Coveted them.
ll.—Mr. BRIOnT IN DUBLIN WAS expected
to come out strongly on the Church Esta-
blishment and the Land Question, and on the
latter he has given us a little more to talk I
about than we bargained for. Is it necessary'
to state that men of all opinion. scout the
hon. gentleman's proposition for the enforced
purchase by Government of the estates of ,
absentee landlords for the purpose of re-
selling them to their tenant occupiers ? To 1
practical men, such a plan_presents no feasible B
features. But then Mr. right is not a prac-
tieal man in politics. He is an excellent
declaimer on anuses: but whenever he iiban-
dons this role to construct definite measures
of Reform, he commits himself. Labourers
busy demolishing the old houses preparaH
tory to the London viaduct improvements,
might just as well be called upon to construct
the plans for the new viaduct, as ' we might
expect Mr. Bright to propound any definite
and practicable scheme of politics?'
Reform.
He is a very useful man in demolishing
old rubbish, and he would be more useful ,
still if be did not so often confound venera-
ble and valuable antiquities with rubbish;
but as for building up anything, it is not
the man's forte at all. It is curious but
characteristic, that in attacking the land-
owners of Ireland, Mr. Bright has singled
out for special animadversion as absentees
several noblemen who are conspicuous for
the improvements they have effected on their
estates in the interests of the tenants and
peasantry upon them. but who would make
such improvements if the soil were trans-
ferred to numerous small farmer proprietors?
The question of Reform has been eclipsed for
the moment in the discussion of Mr. Bright's
Irish orations; but still we cannot lose sight
of the fact that whatever the member for
Birmingham talks about, his special object in
visiting Ireland is to initiate Reform *ca-
tion there • and if he succeeds persuading
Irishmen that a new Reform Bill will prove
ultimately a panacea for all their grievances,
no doubt the English and Scotch agitations
will be supplemented by numerous Irish

demonstrations, which will make the passing
of a moderate messy,* still more difficult.
That such a measure will be introduced by
Lord Derby's Government next session is
now thoroughly understood, although the
n feelers" put forward by the Liberal Press
have not succeeded in extracting any declar.
ation of such intention from the noble Lord's
followers. It is significant, however, that
nearly all the Conservative members who
have lately been indulging in extra-Parlia-
mentary utterances, have acknowledged the
necessity of "settling the question ;" and ,
Mr.Sturt, one of the members for Dorsetshire,
declared at the Shaftesbury agricultural
dinner last week, not only that he nished to
see the question settled, but confessed that
"if nothing were done, he saw in the future
a danger impending." When tbe rank and
file of the Conservative party talk in this
style, their leaders must see the necessity for
action. And accordingly Mr. Bolt, the new
Attorney-General, has announced in his
address that there will be a Reform Bill.

lII.—Ma WaLcu, the registrar of the
Bankruptcy Court at Leeds, is once more
brought into public notice—this time as a
bankrupt in his own court! It will be re-
-membered that a cri ninal prosecution is
hanging over this gentleman for his share in
the diereditable transactions which cansed
Lord Westbury's downfull. He was to have
been suspended from his functions as registrar
in bankruptcy until the trial had come off;
but tee late Lord Chancellor found that he
had no legal power to suspend him, and Mr.
Welch had not the grace to resign his post.
With a grave criminal charge hanging over
him, he has continued to discharge a judicial'
office, while his trial has been postponed from I
term to term on some pretest or other.
Meanwhile, the Leeds registrar laboured
under pecuniary embarassmenta, and became
for some six weeks a prisoner for debt in
York Castle, until Monday in last week,
when he was adjudicated ft bankrupt in his
own court on his own petition. Since then
Ihe has again mounted the judicial bench, ass
bankruptcy judge! Surely this is too scan-
dalous a proceeding to pass unquestioned.
IV.—Tnz Star and the Pall Ilan Gazette
had a pretty quarrel last Week. The latter
journal published an analytical table of this
electoral corruption existing at Lancaster,
giving the numbers of each class of the com-
munity on the register, the numbers proved
to have been bribed, and the per-centage of
such corrupt electors in each class. The per,
oentages are thus given—of the higher classes
7 per cent. were bribed; of clerks, trades-
men, ctc., 11 per cent. ; of innkeepers, 35;
of small shopkeepers, 37; of farmers, 60; of
artisans, 76; of small farmers, 80; of
labourers, 89. The farmers cut a bad figure
here, but this is explained by the fact that
they are freemen living within seven miles of
Lancaster. Among the other classes, the
gradation appears what one might have ex-
pected. The Star even, in commenting on
these figures, admitted that " poor men" are,
on the whole, more likely to take bribes than
rich men ;" and though the Star qualified
this assertion by saying, that if the poor
were immoral for taking bribes, the
rich were as bad for giving them, the
Pall Mall pounced upon the admission
quoted as an acknowledgment of the truth
of Mr. Lowe's celebrated assertion about
corruption being found at the bottom of the
social scale. The next day the Star attempted
unsuccessfully to wriggle out of its admis-
sion; but in the evening the Pall Mall
pinned it to the sentence quoted above.
Here the matter rests, for there have been
no further allusions to it in the Star.