The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-12 00:00:00

SUMMARY OF LATE NEWS.

WE regret to learn from the Indian news-
papers that the horrible famine which has
been devastating the north-west provinces
for some t past still continues. !Inman
beings are said to be dying at the rate of
four or live hundred a day; nor is the deso-
lation confined to the vast tract or country
between Lticknow and Lahore. The popu-
lation of the native State of Travauoore, in
the south of India, urn reduced to equal
extremities by the drought which had dried
up the fruits of the earth. Almost incredi-
ble as is the statement, we find it published
in the Calcutta papers that titers are sell-
ing their children as slaves at sixpenee each,
in order that they may have wherewithal to
purchase food for a day. This is almost as
horrible as the inciden't recorded during the
siege of liergin-op-Zoom, where such was the
misery of the belengured inhabitants, that
famishing parents sold their daughters to the
soldiers of the garrison. Nor is &mine thn.
only svourge. Small-pox, in its most viru-
lent form, has made its appearance in some
of the tinnishing districts. It is. however.
gratifying to find that the attitude assumed
by the Anglo-Indian community in this dire
juncture is in the highest degree benevolent
and charitable. Relief Committees have been
liwinetl, and the most active measures have
been resorted to in raising funds fur tiding
over the emergency.

The verdict' of the jury in the relverton
marriage ease has given universal satistliction.
There is, no doubt, in the minds of all honest
folks a natural leaning towards a woman who
comes forward to claim the vindication of
her outraged honour ; and we are for from
wishing that such generous sympathies
should ever cease to be a characteristic of
humanity. The multitudes who thronged
the Dublin Court of Common Pleas, may
have Leen moved in a great degree to enthu-
siasm by the beauty, the accomplishments,
and the modest dignity of Mrs. Ye'venom but
no such influences have been brought to bear
upon the thousands of men and women iii
England who rejoice at the establishment of
her defrauded rights. Unquestionably she was
imprudent; but hers was an imprudence
which suspects no evil, trying others by the
standard of her own fidelity. Pure herselt.
she fancied all others were free from guile.
tier letters show that she had formed a warm
attachment for Captain Yelverton; but they
also give evidence of the dignity of her senti-
ments and the innoceiwe of her affection.
But, admitting freely her lack of discretion,
had she any rett;ion to suppose that the man,
who twice went through with her the cere-
mony of marriage, was only carrying out an
elaborate!" contrived and fiendish scheme,
leaving for himself a loop-hole for escape as
soon as katiety took the place of passion.
Ile may iissert it, but we decline to take his
evidence; for we must not forget that he
was playing for a mighty stake. The question
at issue before the Dublin jury was not
whether he owed some £2OO, but whether he
had been guilty of the crime of bigamy. In
the hope of clamping punishment as a felon.
he branded himself as a scoundrel. The
brazen audacity with which he stood up in
the wilues box and imputed tu himself the

concoction and execution of a detestable plot
against the virtue of a confiding woman—
the calm deliberation with which he narrated
a mass of filthy details were thingA happily
phenomenal. and so uttorly milky,.
render them impGssible. The War Wive.
we find, has suspended Major Yelverton in
military duties until the result of further
legal proceedings be known ; but it may well
be asked what is the meaning of such suspen-
sion ? Has he not by his own aeeuttnt
proved himself a disgrace to his proh.ssion,
to his country, and to manhood ? Further
legal proceedings can only decide in which
of the two lights he is henceforth legally to
be viewed—a felon or a villain.

• According to the census lately published
in the United States, it appears that the ag-
gregate population—slaves as well as free men
—including of course, the inhabitants of the
States who have seceded, amounts to very
nearly thirty-two millions, being an increase
of nme-and-a-half millions upon the previous
census. The slaves number nearly four
millions, being 800,0(X) more than in 1850—
this increase alone representing the whole of
the slaves who were emancipated in British
West Indies, a quarter of a century or more
ago. The rate of inerease in the free States
is much greater than in the slave—the ratio,
as far as the free population is concerned,
being -41 per cent. in the one, against :12 in
the other. The inerease in the free States
has taken place chiefly in the middle and
and Western States, the vast prairies in the
latter absorbing no small portion of the
foreiln e: migration. The slaves have in-
creased only at the rate of 221 per cent.
, We rejoice to find that in Maryland and
Delware slavery is fast (lying out. It is
worthy of remark that in the aveeding States
the slave population numbers 2;157,077,
while the free population— including both
whites and free blacks amounto to
2,702.016. or not quite 400,000 more. These
figures strikingly illustrate one great
diii-
cuelty with which the Southern Confederacy
may hereafter have to grapple.
The garrisons of Messina and Civitella del
Troia() have yet given no indication of a
‘lt illingness to make terms. It is now
strongly affirmed, from many sources, that
expreso directions from Francis 11. have
enjoined the commanders of the place to
prolong the defence at any coat. An attempt
was made some dare since to take by assault
the citadel of Civitella del Tronto, which is
perched like an eyry" upon a steep bill.
The Piedinontese eventually succeeded in
planting ladders, but, under the incessant
tiring of the garrison, were obliged to retire.
Regular siege works nit' now being opened.
Cialdini has completed his preparations for
the attack upon tlw Messina garrison, which
'is far less formidable as regards its position.
The Wiwi:ride of the citadel has been notified
and all foreign vessels have left, with the
exeeptiiin of those of England and America.
The English captains are said to have declared
their intenti 111 l to remain in order to protect
the property of their countrymen.
Lord Adolphus Vane Tempest. an eccen-
tric scion of nobility, was placed before. Mr.
Beadon, the sitting magistrate at the Marl-
borough police court on 'Wednesday last, on
a charge of disorderly conduct in Coventry.
street. On his way to the Court be nearly
kicked out the back of the cab used fur his
conveyance. Ile appeared before the Court
in shameful disorder, and his first proceed-
ing was to state that he was a member of the
!louse of Commons. On Mr. Bendou's tel-
ling him that he was not aware of that fact,
he informed his worship that he, the magis-
trate, was a liar, lie was very anxious that
the reporters should put it down that he was
M. P. for North Durham, and flail publicity
has accordingly been given of the edifying
fltet. It seems that he had been fortunate in
some transactions with the betting fraternity,
and, titillating in the centre of the road in the
midst of a crowd of cabs and broughams, in
a state of phrensy bordering on homey, gave
, vent to his exultation by Hinging cigars and
money to the mob collected around him.
When remonstrated with by the police he
spat in their faces, and continuing to abuse
them. and obstructing the thoroughfare, they
ultimately took him into custody, and with
difficulty conveyed him to the police station
in Vine-street. Before the magistrate,
the conduct of the noble defendant was
dim equally peculiar nature. Ile stamped
his feet on the table ; he interrupted the
clerk ; he repeatedly interrupted the magis-
trate ; he sang songs from popular operas ;
remarked that he bad once been fined five
shillings; expressed his opinion that it was •
MI illegal thing to take up a member of par-
liament ; and altogether conducted himself
in so outrageously violent a manner, that the
worthy magistrate was evidently puzzled to
know what to do wilh him. In his discretion
Mr. Brandon orderM Lord Adolphus Vane
Tempest to find two sureties in £5OO each to
appear before hint that (lay week ; and bail
not being forthcoming, and Lord Adolpus's
(drer of his own security in £l,OOO being, for
obvious reasons, declined, be was taken, still
singing and whistling, to the cells below ;
whence, later in the evening the gaolers of
court conveyed hint to the House of
Detention, where he remained until a medical
attendant ordered him to be handed over to
his relations, in order to be placed in confine-
ment in a private lunatic asylum.

Lord Normanby, on Tuesday night, in the
House of Lords, moved for the appointment of
a select committee to inquire into the circum-
stances which attended the appointment and
resignation of Mr. Turnbull in the Record Office.
rho motion was framed an as to do as much
harm us possible to Lord Pahuerston, and im-
plied, in short, to a want of confidence in the
Ministry. It seems that Mr. Turnbull had been
appointed by Lord John Russell, on the recom-
mendation of the Master of the Rolls, to make a
calendar, or brief extracts of the contents of the
recoWs in the State Paper Office. The appoint-
ment was also duly ratified by the Lords of the
Treasury. Now, it is quite evident that the
Master of the Rolls committed a great error in
recommending the appointment. The foreign
State Papers are the private correspondence of
the Crown and its Ministers and agents, and
Thu