The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-07-09 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DORCHISEITER, TIJESDAN, JULY 9, 1861,

other parts of the country, for the purpose of
self-improvement, and especially on this occasion
to profit by the great advantages which the plains
of.
.Curreigh present as a school for practical
military instruction. My time will be chiefly
occupied in this pursuit; but I am most anxious
to acquire a more full acquaintance with the
material and industrial sources of Ireland, and
yield to no one in my sense of their importance
and in earnest desire for their increase and de-
velopment." It is full time that all distinctions,
which separate English and Irish interests and
hearts should be fairly put aside and abandoned.
Therefore wit are especially glad to find that the
Prince of Wales has met with a reception in
Dublin such as would have greeted him in any
English city—genial, loyal, enthusiastic, without
evanescent frenzy—but without chill, reserve,
or dissent of any kind.
On Wednesday last a blow was aimed at
another of the bulwarks of our ancient constitu-
tion. The audacious blow did not come this
time from Ireland, nor from those " revolution-
ists" who sit below the gangway. We are almost
afraid to mention the name of the traitor, lest
some of our gmndmammas should go into hys-
terics. It is well known that grand juries are
as old as the time of King Ethelrei—the time
when the Saxon swine-herds lived among
oak trees and fed their most constant and
profitable companions upon acorns. And yet,
horror of horrors! Mr. Walpole, that sound
old Conservative lawyer—one of the very mem-
bers of the Commons House of Parliament
whom the Dorset Chronicle is continually para-
ding before the world as preserving the Consti-
tution intact, in opposition to the revolutionary
tendencies of the Liberals, actually proposes to
do away—so far, at least, as the Metropolitan
district is concerned—with this remnant of anti-
quity. It is true, Mr. Walpole says, he loves
the old Grand Jury system, and that in the
country he thinks it is as hale and as vigorous
as it was in the time of the Saxon Kings; but
in London, he insists, that it has been found to
work mischievously for the last 20 years, having
no other effect than to be the extortioner's
opportunity and the "thieves' last chance."
But can Mr. Walpole guarantee that when the
wedge has been introduced to the destruction of
20 Grand Juries in and around the city of
London, that it will not subsequently be
extended to the provinces also? Surely the
mania for change must be strong when we see
one of thaw few whom we bad always looked
upon as belonging to the antiquated school of
politics, aim so deadly an assault on the con-
stitutional forms that have been handed down to
us through so many generations. Who will say,
after this, that Mr. Walpole's pockets are not
stuffed with Reform Bills and his head with
Reform notions; or that Mr. Disraeli will
not some day come forward as an advocate of
the ballot and universal auffrage ? We confess
that we do not feel so much honor at the mea-
sure as Mr. Hunt professed when, in opposing
the Bill, he intimated that it was only by reason
of the wholesome terror excited by Grand
Juries that Cardinal Wiseman was not at the
time of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill hanged by
"a venal jadge ;" but what will Mrs. Grundy
of the Chronicle say at this defection of one of
those Conservative statesmen whom she has
hitherto delighted to honour.

THE " DORSET VHRONICLE" AND THE
DORSET QUARTER SESSIONS.

There is a vitality in error and prejudice which
remind us that the worm will move and wriggle,
even when lacerated and trodden under foot. It is
impossible to convince those who cannot be brought
to reason calmly bn any question, who live only in
the heated atmosphere of their self-opinionated views
and raging zeal, and are " blasted" not by "excess
of light," but by the lurid glare of their own fiery
bigotry. They cant but they will not recant. They
will not listen to the voice of the charmer, charm he
never so wisely—and they fly from argument as from
plague or pestilence. They go on from one sophism
to another, and we
"Destroy his web of sophistry—in vain ;
The creature's at his dirty work again."
Not a week payees, but these lines of Pope are speci-
ally applicable to the Dorset County Chronicle. It
scatters error broadcast, and bigotry, animosity, and
" all uncharitableness" against all who 'do not belong
to its own "crabbed, crooked, and confined" school
of antiquated Toryism. It launches "the thunder.
bolta of invective" against the opponents of popery,.
and brands Liberals in politics as revolutionists. It
can never believe it possible for any good to come
out of Nazareth. But the rancour it neekly puts ,
forth in its leading columns has ceased to be effec-
tive. With the present enlightened state of public
opinion, with the spread of education, and the steady
advance of a cheap and unfettered press, there is
little to fear from its intolerance. It is rather, in.
deed, an object of derision than of hate; and, not
having the talent to conceal the bigotry of a narrow
mind, its accusations may be regarded as eulogies,
its enmity as a benefit, and its attacks as a positive
service.
If ever the C'hronicle had an opportunity afforded
it of speaking "graciously" of one who cannot on
all occasions see "eye to eye" with the party of
which it professes itself to be the advocate, it was
on Tuesday last when Lord Portman was unanimously
elected chairman of our Quarter Sessions. That our
contemporary could congratulate the county on its
choice in "graceful" diction, was not to be ex-
pected. Its utter disregard of the rules of syntax,
so glaringly manifest in all its articles which are not
"supplied," have been so often exposed, that the
public have long since ceased to expect to find any
comments it may makc approaching medioc-
rity. But although the Chroni:le is not capable
always of putting the "right word in the right
place," one might reasonably have expected, that, in
dilating on the sessional proceedings of last week,
"the legitimate press" would, at any rate, have
Limed at something like logical consistency in its
arguments, divested of Acrimony. But even this it
was incapable of. The precious production headed
"The double appointment," is above criticism ; and
were it not, we should have neither time nor incli-
nation fully to discuss its demerits. Many a charity
wheel boy could trove, from the first twelve lines
of that article, that our contemporary knows nothing
of the tenses of verbs, nor the relation which words
' bear to each other in a sentence. "There may have
, been a time" says the Chronicle, "wbenwenever could
have believed it." Believed what? Why that it could
"gracefully and graciously congratulate the county
of Dorset on the elevation of Lord Portman to the
r chairmanship of the Quarter Sessions." And why?
Because, as the Chronicle implies, Lord Portman
has turned Tory

_
" For old experience cloth attain
To something of prophetic vein."
Where the Chronicle derived its information that
Lord Portman had changed his political principles,
we are at a loss to divine. But our contemporf
cannot accept his Lordship's accession to its own
ranks without sonic sarcastic remarks shout " Back-
stairs influence and covert intrigues," although it
assures us that, at the present moment Lord
Portman "steeds by no means identified with
cabinet policy." Our contemporary than con-
demns the away of party spirit in our " higher-caste
courts of Quarter Sessions," and yet exults in the
fact that Lis lordship's liberalism will be
counterbalanced by the conservatism of Mr. Moyer,
who was at the same time chosen deputy chairman.
The Chronicle, however, is evidently, after all, ill at
I ease about his lordship's " constitutional" priociplek
for notwithstanding it had professed its ability to
congratulate the county of Dorset " without
unbending its political sentiments," simply
because Lord Portman had changed his
politick it promises to "trust" to his lord-
ship's "justice, wisdom, moderation, and tole-
rance," in the discharge of his duties, and that in
such case, it will, on its part, "submerge" all "per-
sonal and political feeling, and extraneous bias," and
be " proud to lick nowledge his usefulness." Now this is
certainly very condescending, and an act of great
grace which we trust his lordship will duly appreci-
ate. The Chronicle shares" unfeignedly in the satis-
faction crested by Lord P,Artman's appointment to the
chair," but says" his lordship can scarcely be said to
be alone in the new appointment," because Mr.
Floyer has been chosen to the deputy chair. Now
this is logical reasoning with a vengeance! As well
might we say that Sir William Atherton's appoint-
ment to the office of Attorney-General was a
" double appointment" because Mr. Bounden
Palmer was appointed Solicitor-General. Thu idea
is ridiculous. tut ridiculous as the idea is, the
" double appointment" converts the Chronicle's
"on feigned natisfacti i" into' com plate gratification. "
With regard to Mr. Floyer's appointment, we have
nothing to say. He is opposed to our views on many
political questions, but this has nothing to do with
his qualification or disqualification for the office of