The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-04-27 00:00:00

THE PREMIERSHIP.

With a deep sense of relief we congratulate the sub-
jects of Her Majesty on having got rid of one who
seemed on the road to become an Eastern Grand Vizier
Instead of an English Premier, and that we now live
without doubt under a limited monarchy. Indepen-
dence, or rather, inter-dependence, has taken a great
boon I, and some of the Conservative organs must be
congratulated on being no longer trprumelled by the
attractions of mere party supremacy. The Standard,
for instance, speaks out thus plainly as to the new
Premier :

" even if Mr. Gladstone were as full of treavone and con-
spiracies against ever•ythina and everybody as some of his
bitter opponents foolishly believe him to be, we should
still hold that in ofßce he would be infinitely less likely to
do harm than out of it. Bat were Lord Hartington to
become the head of the new Cabinst. the public would not
draw very hopeful auguries as to its career.
" It Is idle to ga on urging that Mr. Gladstone is an
aMtator, and that he has said some very extraordinary
t kinm which now lie u obstacles in his path. The Liberal
party enJoy the advantage of his popularity, his copious-
of speech, his magnificent vigour of invective, and his
lucidity of exposition. They ought to accept without
demur whatever drawbacks attach to his exosesive
Impetuosity, to his indium/ma and to his errors of Jude-
um.'f

-7"Y:he country would like to know where it is, and how
It stands' and this cannot be done unless Mr. Gladstone
becomes Prime Minister. It was he who won the victory.
To put him aside for any other man would be to rob the
victory of all value and all stanidcanos."
More importance may perhaps be attached to the
conalstent advocacy by the Daily N,ass of Mr.
Gladstone's Premiership ; but Englishmen—and the
Mere!, heartily welcome them all to unite—want to
make sure of the beat man for the interests of true
liberty, the most determined, the most consistent,
and if used be, the fiercest opponent of Imperialism.
Let tie be thankful that a raUc of the Dark = .Agee, ire of Nero, Caligula, Nellegabalus,
and Sedan, is getting buried with other filthy

old hones, and that only figil Tories non talk al
" the Empire." The United om wa as nts P 051&
the man who is set against o &ray and dead-wit
against despotism, who is in favour of aristocracy and
freedom, who wants to see the Turkish Parliament
' governing at Constantinople, who will distrust and
resist Russia to the death till she keeps within her ova
bounds and is governed by her people, who will mike
honest common cause with all free and self-governed
nations, and who will borrow no tinsel fashions from
, proud invaders of the highest rights. The United
Kingdom wants the best man to ensure that payment
Ishall not be given without senior, and that power
shall not be held where it does not bless. It want& a
man who recognises no veined interest in evil, and will
consent to no compensation for lessened power to do evil,
except that the evil be punished by having to make
what compensation it can for the ill It has
done. It wants a man who will study how the great
myriads of India may be able to bring their voice to
hear On the management of their own affairs, and to
abolish a title which their fellowaublects of the
United Kingdom would not endure at home. II •
test be wanted as to who is the man, let it be this—
Granville, Hartington, or Gladstone, who first will
, move in the Parliament, and can suocessfully support it
Iwith all the strength of his friends, to abolish the title
" Indice Imperatrix "—let him be the Premier whose
I tenure of Ace shall endure.

OUR RURAL BOROUGHS.
Tlii Hotfoot of succeeding In the return of Mr.
Guest, the member for Wareham, is given by the
Grawervatives to Bere Regis, formerly Mr. Drax's
stronghold. Mr. Guest gave much credit to Curie, to
it is satisfactory to think that petty boroughs may
s ifely be saved from extinction by having their
boundarieo widely enlarged. Theramt-rural boroughs
of Shaftesbury, of Christchurch ma-Bournemouth,
and Wareham-cout-Bere-cues-Corf it will be remem-
bered were the only ones in our e district to oust the
Imperialists, while in the purely urban boroughs
Liberalism struggled desperataly,and was often beaten.
Though violence in some parts showed that many new
electors have still much to learn about extending to
others that freedom they craft for themselves, yet
that the rural mind is getting awakened seems amply
prove,l, and we may learn before long what effsct these
experientsw will have on the prop wition to assimilate
the county ad bur nigh franchise.