The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-02-25 00:00:00

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Univereal interest has been manifested during the
pest week in the health of the Earl of Derby, and it
affords unmixed elitists:Mimi to know at the poment
time that the noble Premier 11 .0 far issiured as to
be able to duckserge some of the doties of his official
peahen. The serious relapse which bit lordship
suffered on Monday, so that his life seemed to he
bound to him ooly by a thread, which might be
broken at any momeet, led the Ti 71144, with singular
Infelicity, to publish on the following morning a
quasi obituary notice of the Prime Minister, for in
that article he was spoken of throughout in the peat
tense, as one who mu and did, but for whom being
and doing in the future were out of the question.
Nobody can find an moue for mob an attempt
journalistically to bury alive Lord Derby, and the Proms
generally of all shades of polities has sevsroly
reprobated it. A humorous suggestion of the
Specialise, however, half reconciles on to the indecent
bake manifested by the boding journal to dissect an
interesting subject. Our contemporary observes that
" Lord Derby bow to recover apparently almost
from the moment when the Tines remitted him to
the pest. We do not knew whether Dr. Miller, who
was sent for to Knowsley, is anything of a
But he had been, and, counting on
CrloDttit's brilliant comhativenese of nature, bad
sommuniested to him privately that the Tiniest had
written his epitaph and invoked pesos on his memoir,
the recovery of his high-spirited patient would be
completely accounted for. Lord Derby would have
rallied ell his forces to Welly kis premature biographer."
Whether this he the true explanation of the
noble Premier's amendomet or not, it is • good story.
But this article in the Pities, discounting Lord
Derby's loss, is the mood within the last fortnight
designed apparently to ensure the retirement of the
Prime Minister from his responsible office. We do
not know what interest the leading journal can have
in • reconstruction of the Ministry through a
mum in the Premiership ; bat it seems too evident
that the wish was tether to the thought of hie with-
drawal from public life, and that the Times has not
serepled to offend the deepest sympathies of our
ocaunos human mature for We purpose of familiaris-
ing the mind of the public with theidea of a change
in the Premiership. But the conductors of the
leading jeering have oveneet the mark, andlby the
method they have adopted, • keen and universal
Wilk desire has 0••• suited that Lord Derby mar
be comp latag motored and long ornitinnethe devoted
leader &his perty,aad the brightest ornament of the
Hones of Peers. It is for himself aloes to determine the
time of his withdrawal Irmo pablic life: and we
consider, until he has himself announced it, that all
speculations as to his probable sammeor are alike
ungracious and uncalled for.

The proordings of Parliament ban only attracted
• moderate amount of attention, and they are tams
earmegt, when compared with the hot work of last
seenian, or the eseiting campaign which is antic&
prod for 1669. The Peen ban assembrd on eaoh
of the oral eveninp, but they bare had little to
do, and the absence of Lord Derby haa robbed ti.
eon &hetes in the Upper Bones of any interest
that might otherwise lan attached to than. Two
imuortant messures have been disowned in the HOMO
of tommoui, viz., the Scotch Reform Bill sad Mr.
Gladstone' Compulsory Church Rake Abolition
Bill, and the conciliatory and deferential policy of
the Ministry is roped to than both eneminges us
in the belief that the lout of the middle-01re
Parliaments will pam without any scenes of violent
party sorb, and be distingaieed by wise and
orsatioul legislation. The Reform Bill offered to
I. similar in principle to the Kegler
eseasure, and, so far, of eons*, the Howe roar
well rare meth objection to it, siker the dean= of
lir semen ; but • proposal to duster several of the
burghs is • readers of a ursine drapprond r
regards England, and it, am well as the
contemplated °riparian of the grasps, pro-
voked strong antagonism on the part of the
Baotob reembers; while re more important question
of the erne from whore the seven additional MIS
the Kerne requires ere to be obrieed, elicited an
oneqeivocal o demostion from Mr. Monona and
others, and ills weil-known that on this port ties
az-Lord Advocate is at one with Mr. Gladstone and
the pest body of the Liberal party. Mr. Dineen
expremed surprise at the hoatilit, whir the Govern-
arab rams imoosalsrad, awl iaOlasSed