The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1872-10-29 00:00:00

NOT OF TEI WIFX.

'lb. past week will not give us a elisertal
summary. It has been omit famously wet dall,
and nasty out of doors. People stop in and get
snappish, or go out and catch influenza. The
Bank rate of dlsoount has been firm at six per
cent,
rethreatening seven • and there lain im-
pedon abroad that thre per cent is a mush
mare resoinable and convenient rate. Public
securities have been flat, and it is always so
just when one is obliged to sell. The air has
also been thick with aoraidimts and with
revolting crimes. and the newspapers
•riedirsli soieted in harping upon such tepids as
flogging garotters, the African slave braille, the
new Oomatercial Treaty, and " boarding out*
—a term nine-tenths of the people have not
even yet learnt to samosiate with workhouse
arrangements. Noe are half the Gauen of
our deprendon yet told. There was a beliel that
we had an Invulnerable ironclad fleet, and we
have been soberly informed that both Runk
and Peoria are in advance of us—that supe-
riority Iles not in a fled, but in the grow*
power of individual ship, and that we Sr.
alithee behind. We are also taught this
yore to look and smile at the admits of
Russia upon !Chive, and to take note that the
Spanish Parliament has been urged our. again
to negotiate for the surrender of Gibraltar. To
all this has to be added the disagreeable die-
02:2m...that we have been beaten in the
arbitration. The German
ha=ad against us In favour of the United
States, and a generous New York paper charges
us with diplomatic intrigue to fainty the treaty.
The week ham been, as we Messed, not • eheer.
ful one.

Her ifejeety the Quote, with Priam Letati
and Prillolllol Beatrice, atteoded by the
and pntleineo of the Court, is expected to
arrive at Windsor Castle about November 17.
The grand corridor of the Castle, which was built
in the reign of George 111., has been painted
and re-decorated, this being only the second
Urn, the gallery has undergone thorough
embellishment.

The Queen hes eddreseed an autograph letter
to UN gad of Shaftesbury, expressive of hot
deep and touching synipathy with him in the
loon he has sustained by the death of the
countern.

The Prince and Princess of Wales have been
on a three days' visit to the Earl of hylsefoed, at
Paokington Hall, near Coventry; but the
wretched weather greatly marred their plea-
sure.

The 'adverse judgment to Great Britain in the
San Juan arbitrstion, leaves us without any
outlet of our own from NW mainland south of
Vancouver's Island, and it supplies the United
States with an island which is a sort alley to
Britian Columbia. The navigation of the
ohanel Is by the Treaty of 1568 free and open
to both parties, and ft will remain so until the
day whisk, of °ours*, we hope may never come,
when the United States may desire to shut us
' in. But if ever they have the wish they will
now have the power. The Americans were prin-
cipally impelled to insist on their claim to the
San Juan group because these islands will afford
to an American fleet •poet of great advantage
In case of. war with 'ftglaM. They avowed
this to be their motive, and ea it has been
decided the islands belong to them, it is quite
right that they should make any use of them
they plans, however annoying to is. But it is
one tang to own this, and another thing to con-
ceal regret that we have one more difficulty
added to the innumerable diflicalties of our
Empire. We have undertaken to guard British
Columbia, and the Americana have now. group
of islands which command the across to our
remote colony. We can only try ass nation to
do our best, but on: best becomes every day
more dielcult to do.

Mr. B. that. Chief Constructor of the
British blavy, hes lebustiened his mind con-
cerning the British fleet. He la of muse no
mean authority, and after his vidt to the
Rummies and other Oontinental dookyards, his
report cannot be disregarded, though he
have formed an extreme opinion of our
condition. Put briefly, what he says
I. this. Our stroegest ship La point of armour
I the Devastation, which was an immeshes
Woe°. on the Bercalss, its next rival. As ships
of the future we have the Fury, the progress of
which has been suspended for two years, and
the Bwprb, of widish not even the keel has been
laid. But the ampere is Wall already sorparned
In power even by countries that have no
European hiteresisol moment to protest. "Half-
•-dosen foreign Powers we surrounding us with
treing,more Powerful, both ending and sou-
th= eves the most powerful of our
own own." This is the gist of Mr. Reed's
staternent, and he points out with whet truth
that our danger Ik. in two scnoan. Elting
several of these Powers may combine against
or. and thee we should haws to Am several ships
superior in strength to any we poems, or we
Would be dealing with one of these Power., and
then we should find ourselves, not perhaps
endangered, bat deprived of the consequences
of our accustomed maritime superiority by the
presence of oae or two ship, that we 'mid not
rival. Russia, for irainpic, has • ship, the
Peter As Greet, se to which Mr. Reed dheinetly
says that, although it might not be capable al
going any great distance from Russian pod". Pet
It is so superior to anything we hay • that, if we
were at war with Russia, we could not venture
into Russian waters, or prevent Russian men-of.
war getting out of waters in which we have
hitherto wondered we could pen them up as
primmer'. Of course, his statemente have ban
questioned, and it is evident Me Reed has
played the part of candid friend anti told in
the worst: but it la, after all, evident we must
Btu keep on lavishing millions on our navy, as
we shall let our power to rule the waves slip from

—The suggested surrender of the "Key oy the
Msditeeranean " may be dhpand of in the
epigram—Spain is too week. and Gibraltar too
strong, for ua to drew of it.
The nave that Reeds is attending to site&
the Khan of Khiva dimes our thoNibla to our
Indian Lapin. The Khan of Kblva is no
doubt a petty despot who fully deserves to be
punished. Re ham given Ramie as much
provocation am the Emperor Theodore gave or
and probably more. Wien they have conquered
the Khan Me Russians will be guided solely by
a consideration of their owe interosta in deciding
whelk& they should or should not annex the
conquered territory. They are fully " mob
*nutted to annex it se we were to annex the
territory of the Sikhs. Nee do we for a moment
question that Kith's • and Olest subtlamtod