The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-12-31 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

WIRCHESTER, TUESDAY, DECEMBER3I, 1861.

THE OLD AND THE NEW YEAR.
Another year has rolled into the Great Gulf.
What has been the moral of the last twelve.
months? That of every Christmas the world
has seen since the star in the east pointed
out the cradle in Bethlehem. This earth grows
older, but it does not change. The surface
darkens or brightens under health or sickness,
peace or war, barbarism or civilisation, famine
or plenty ; but the seasons, the zones, the variety
of human nature, remain the same as they were.
The poor man dies, and no notice is taken of the
event except by his immediate relatives ; the
great man dies, and all la hushed for • day, and
the hum of business and the round of pleasures
go on again as they did before.
'I he kaleidoscope of the past year, strangely
mingles together events of the most diversified
character—grief and joy both for the rich and the
poor, the blest and the miserable of the earth.
The mourning habiliments in which all are clad
speak but too plainly the fact that "Death his
COMO in at our windows, and has entered our
palaces." The "Grim Mearenger " has gathered
in a golden harvest. Abroad two crowned heads
have fallen by his lean huger.; at home he has
filled the cup of bitterness of our beloved
Sovereign to the brim. In the early part of the
year her breast was filled with sorrow through
the loss of her mother, and now her protector,
her counselor, her loved-one " libth low."
Mother and husband both are gone, and the
widowed Queen is left alone with her young
children, at a time when the counsels of those
whose voices are for ever hushed, are, perhaps,
most needed. Who shall give Her M•tjesty at a
tints the nation is at issue with a powerful
antagonist, that soand, unselfish advice, which
her late Consort at all times afforded her I
May He who "pulleth down Kings and settoth
up whoui He will," guide Iler Majesty aright,
counsel our coune.4llors, and teach our senators
wisdom.

But there are other names, conspicuous for
the last time upon the muster roll of 1861,
which we may not soon forget. Lord Herbert of
Lea, whose honest amid zealous services are
gratefully scheme lodged now that he is no MOM
stands promineutly on this list ; and next to him,
Lord Campbull—the honest, upright judge—who
fought his way up from the ranks of the people
to the hi4hest position possible for a subject to
attain. Since the new year's bells were rung,
too, Sir James Graham, who possessed a will, a
daring, and an eloquence, that at one time pro-
mised to carry him to the highest honours the
country has in her gift—has gone to his last
home. Nor is tl.is all. Thomas Buncombe, the
elect of Finsbury, has been gathered to
his fathers ; while at Florence, the husband
of Elizabeth Barrett Browning weeps over the
remains of the noblest female poet of her day.
Italy, too. has had to mourn the loss of the
Patriotic Carour ; and the sincerity with which
she mourned his death, shows how greatly he
was valued.

Nor is death the only calamity with which
nations have been visited. A decado ago the
advent of the Milennium was by some sanguine
niinds anticipated. because international frater-
nity was proclaimed from a temple of universal
industry in Hyde-Park. Two were in Europe,
three in Asia, and one now raging on the other
side of the Atlantic, are the bloody commentary
of that Samaritan text. Our planet still revolves
lii an atmosohere of strife, of ambition, of
passion, and of jealousy. Russia is battling wit.
the new spirit of freedom that has quickened
throughout her broad empire ; Anstiht is watch-
ing Hungary and Venetia; Garibaldi, from his
island home, bids his countrymen wait his signal
with their arias by their sides ; the Pope is
uneasy at Rome; France is grave with financial
difficulties ; and England is asking the question
"What will be the reselt of the affair of the
Treutl We enter upon the new year, unhappily,
with no small amount of inis,iving as to the
probable future. What that future will be, a
few more days, perhaps, will tell, and therefore
we will not speculate ; in the meantime let us
pray that peace way not be disturbed, and that
we may not be called upon to vindicate the
honour of our flag by deeds of blood.
From the dark, we cheerfully turn to the bright
side of the dying year; for this, too, like all its
predecessors, has had its sunshine as well as its
stormy days ; its days of rejoicing as well as its
days of sadness and sorrow. There are some
people who can see no god in anything that
does not accord with their own selfish pre-con-
ceived ideas. No one of late years, perhaps, has
had more obloquy heaped upon his head by the
Tory press than Mr. Gladstone, who with the
help of Mr. Milner Gibson and the agitation
from without, was enabled to carry through
Parliament the Paper Duty Repeal. We are
only beziniiing to feel the result of this free trade
in paper, but we leave it to the public to judge
of the truthfulness of the Dorset Chronicle that
" untaxed .paper will produce a coarse, vulgar,
and licentious press." If this degradation of the
press prove the result of Mr. Gladstone's measure.
we wouhi say " By all means let the paper duty
be reimposed ; " but if not, we would as
earnestly exhort the public to be careful how
hey receive the prophetic inspirations of the
" cid Lay" in future. During tb.