The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1868-07-28 00:00:00

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HARVEST operations base been actively serried on
daring the past week. The wheat crop is excellent. Oa
Sunday rain fell which greatly refreshed the parched
earth.

Tan Lan Blom Or POOL,—Out of respect to tho
late rector the church of St. James has 'been 'deeply
draped in black cloth. By the wish of the late rector
no funeral sermon IFSII preached.
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THE Comma Eiscrio'sr.— We are all at present in the
dark respecting the grand event to come off in
November. The general opinion seems to be that Mr.
H. D. Seymour will not again offer himself, but that
Mr. Waring will be. candidate for re-election. This
gentleman's unpopularity in regard to railway matter.
will, however, go much against him, and should he be
the only Liberal candidate, and • good man should
present himself on the Conservative side, the latter
would stand fair to win. Moreover, as the new con.
stituency will be almost three times as large again as
the oil one, there is no knowing what changes in political
sentiment will be imported with the new element.

SKINNER-STRUM CHAPEL—On Sunday evening the
annual sermons in aid of the Sunday schools of the
above chapel was preached by the Hey. C. E. Conder,
1E5., of Leeds, who WM formerly pastor of the Inde-
pendent chapel, Poole. He selected for his test these
words, "Thou art the man," which he very beautifully
showed was meant to be taken individually by every
person present, all having a personal interest in the
matter, for all must give an account of himself here-
after. The present condition of the schools, both in
number and financially, is highly satisfactory. There
are 237 boys, 114 girls. and 90 infant. in the school,
making a total of 561. The average attendance is 337.
To teach those children there are 21 male and 29 female
teachers, with an average attendance of 38. During
service the scholars sang in a very creditable manner
several hymns. A collection was made at the close of
the sermon, which amounted to nearly 1:13.

Ties EATS CIFISROII or MURDIR —The remarks of
Mr. Justice Mellor in his charge to the grand jury on
the conduct of our superintendent of police in the late
case of drowning, have attracted a good deal of atten•
tion. In reference ta the duties of police officers, we
have been requested to publish the following extract
from • charge delisereil by the late Lord Chief Justice
Denman—the last, we believe, delivered by that eminent
Judge—at the Somerset lent Arises :—" He thought
it right also to observe that the police were frequently
very improperly censured for putting questions to
prisoners. The presumption of the law was, that every
man was innocent till he was proved to b, guilty; but
the course pursued with parties in custody seemed to
presume their guilt. Undoubtedly, any inquisitorial
proceedings, or any fraud or falsehood on the part of
the police, was highly to be deprecated ; but he thought
that. on taking parties into custody, questions might
properly be asked of them which would tend either to
establish their innocence or guilt." We may also mention
that at the Dorset Midsummer Assizes a year or two
ago, in the case of two men who were convicted of high-
way robbery with violence, Mr. Justice Blackburn held
that a conversation which took place between Superin-
tenfent Gifford and the prisoners was admissible, and
he refused to reject it. Now police officers are not
banisters, and in the face of such contrary dealings, by
differentlJudges, the rightidischarge of their duties must
be • difficult task.