The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-05-04 00:00:00

loud &Uhl elllttss.

DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, MAY 4, Ma

Parliament was opened on Thursday, with very 1'
little ceremony, by commission. Mr. Brand was
re-elected speaker, on the motion of Sir Thomas Ac.
land.
Mr. Gladstone means business and financial business
in particular, for he has selected the residence of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in Downing-street, in
preference to that of the First Lord of the Treasury.
Dr. J. A. llessey, archdeacon of Middlesex, is not
afraid for the Church of England; he admits the Lib-
eral chiefs are either personally attached to the Church,
or confess it is doing incalculable good, and no
statesman ever wantonly assails such an institution or
tears it up by the roots.
Lord Hartington is said to have stated that bringing
about • better state of things in Turkey will be one of
the Cabinet's chief tasks.
Sir Massey Lopes, M.P., advocates the repeal of
the malt tax.
Mr. Lowe is to be Viscount Sherbrook, and the
Master of the Rolls will be proposed as his successor
to represent London University.
Sir W. V. Harcourt, the new Home Secretary, is
threatened with an unusual opposition at Oxford, by
the Conservative, Mr. Hall.
Twelve new lifeboats have been placed on danger-
ous points of the British coast, during the past year ;
but the R. N. Lifeboat Institution had to expend
£36,546, while its receipts were only ‘30,125. Dor-
setshire received one of thc new boats ; the claim of
the Institution on us is therefore increased.
Abdul Rahman is "first favorite" for Afghanistan.
He has written to Shcrpur, saying he is ready to sub.
nut to the English, that, although lie has rc,iiled lung
in Russia, he has had no aid front the Russians, and
he is confident thc people ss ill wJv,iiiie !

WHAT DO WE HOPE FOR?
Now that the country has unmistakably clec'ared
In favour of giving the Liberals another tai el, awl Mr.
Gladstone has gained another lease of power, let us
enquire what we expect t vet by the glorious victory.
First of all, the downisll of tricks and shams, of the
wretched and disingenuotis policyth it strove to live not
by straightforward work, but by "dishing the Whip,"
will be • distinct gain. Real Conservatism will not
be misrepresented by Radicalism that has turned its
oast and has nothing of steadiness ae.d soberness in
it, only the recklessness of the renegade. Liberals
will know their opponents. and will recognise the
reasonableness of being steadied and ballasted by a
fair and honest Opposition, even if it should render
• L.
not quite so swift as the party of progress
desire. But advance will be steady, and within the
boundaries of our weldbalanced Constitution. Jingo
violence by real democrats will not join hands with
Imperialism to uphold the false, to juggle, and shuffle,
to deny secret treaties, and then reveal them without
• blush; alike will nut be deluded, foes irritated, and
friends disgusted. One great gain we hope for is the
reappearance of Her Majesty's Opposition, performing
Its duties as steadily as the Centripetal Force or the
Attraction of Gravitation. But we look also for
positive advanos, as well as intelligible check, for
steady onward force, as well as rightly-trimmed
ballast. The Land Question may well receive some
answer; for registration of title may render unnecessary
costly search into ancient sheepskins, the transfer of
land may, we hope, be made more easy, and solicitors
find their account In smaller profits, bet more numer•
oua ones, resulting from the greater facilities for
selling land in small lots at something like its real
value, unloaded by additions which make the poor
man pay several times as much as he ought. The
farmer may next be relieved of those pretty little
vermin, the ground game, by their being made the
property of those who feed them. The poor will have
more advantages; and fewer temptations, and we hope
that the capital of the investor may be more and
more diverted from wasteful outlays. We do not
look for the disestablishment of the Church of England,
but for more (airplay to be extended to other de-
nominations, and we expect to know what is the
voice and teaching of the State, and fur what the
reeennes enjoyed by the Church are pail. The
farmer may reasonably expect more attention to his
oomplaints with regard to the corn returns, and if he
can show that he has grown lessor worse corn, he will
demand not to be the only sufferer while he pays
tithes to the full am ,unt of his supposed returns
instead of his real profits. And he will expect
security for his outlay on his farm as far as it can be
given by Piet law, l'he peasantry will expect that
their dwellings and their gardens shall be made as
much bettrr as can be, by devotion of larger breadths
of public land fur pe.mauts' and minions' homes. And
of these and many more expectations perhaps half
will be fouLd impossible to realise; but the main
object will have ben sifectel, the attentbo of out
legislators will be directed more to "the greatest
happiness of the tricatrat number," and leas to the
aggrandisement of those who have already their full
are of good things. In the nation's finance we
expect, I c 'ruse, retrenchment sad ref, t•rn,
and tt this ea l we earnestly elide," mad pray
for the biessinp, f pesas and of a prosperous sumuisr.
In Ireland the abnormal growth of Hume Rotarian
may be checked by the coneciouriness that if any party
will give a fair hearing to Irish demands, the Liberal
party will do so, and that the reat statesman who has
dared so much obloquy in th 3 effort to do jurtice will
do all he fairly may to pa sly Iretand and remove the
MINA of her complaints. Be, it t'rere Is any queatiou
as to the maintenance of the United Kingdom, the
presence among the victorious English Liberals of such
Mal as Mr. Montagu diem.% turned out from Irish
meats brcause they would not pander to the disunion
party, will be a guarantee that nothing will be allows 1
to lessen the authority of our Linii•ed Monarchy over
all the British Islands. Our colonies amid India ought
hardly to be named in the same category; yet we may
be assured that in all the just claims of the native
races will be maintained, and the Liberal Government
will discourage greedy encroachments, and wars which
leave not even the barren solace of glory, but only sow
the seeds fora harvest of vengeance, when they that take
the sword shall perish by the sword. Foreign aisles
will not be overlooke I, and already we hear that the
oppressed peoples under Turkey will have the hand of
England stretched out to raise them on the rile hand
from the foul tyranny of the Porte. and on the other
to save them from, in despair, casting themselves into
the grip of the Bear. With our brethren in the United
States, we may look for a cordiel understanding, a heal-
ing up of the little irritations that are always liable to
endanger peace among cousins, and such • reunion
among the different branches of the English-speaking
and liberty-loving race, as shall be a better guarantee
against the encroachments of despotism than all the
treaties and titles that tyrants or their admirers ever
framed.