The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-09-09 00:00:00

Dust Countq (Brines.

TUI3DAY, 81PT111181111 9, 1871

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

Mr. Lowe's speech at the feast of the Sheffield
Cutlers has been the political topic of the past
few days, and has given rise to considerable
comment. The right hon. gentleman admitted
the waning popularity of the Ministry, and
ascribed it not to any felling-off in Ministerial
performanoes, but to the ingratitude of the people
and their weariness of geeing the same men
always in the same place ; but now that the
cards have been shuffled, he looks for • revival
of popularity. This way of accounting for
Ministerial changes, and for several importaat
secesaions from the Gladstone Cabinets may be
all very well in an after-dinner speech, but people
will hardly accept Mr. Lowe's post-prandial inti-
mation that there have been DO motives of policy
in the changes made. For instance, in reference
to his own absolute refusal to entertain the repre-
sentations of the trades-union deputation
respecting the carpenters imprisoned for con-
spiring to assault an objectionable fellow-work-
man, it is surmised that • firmer policy is to be
adopted at the Home t ffioe towards our
" Irreconcilahlee," and that Colonel Henderson's
exuberant sympathy with Hyde Park demon-
strations will be checked, lost trades-unionism,
now that it has entered upon the political sphere,
should become as powerful therein as in its own
appropriate social sphere. However, the right
hot:. gentleman's review of the financial successes
of the Gladstone administration, is effective.
Taking office with • balance of half • million on
the wrong side of the account, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer has met the increased prices from
which every household is suffering and new ex-
penditure to the amount of more than two
millions for Education, the Abolition of Purchase
in the Army, Health, &c, while he has remitted
to the taxpayers £12,000,000 a year indeed of
spending it, diminished the National debt
£16,000,000, paid off the American fine, and
strengthened the Army by about 14,000 men,
without borrowing • sixpence or Imposing • fresh
tax on anyone. These are results of Liberal
Government which appeal with peculiar force to
Englishmen; and, as Mr. Lowe says for the
Ministry, "It is &small matter for us whether we
retain power or not ; it is for you to consider
whether it Is • small matter for you.'
The Standard's announcement that "Abolltices
of the income Tax" is to be the cry of the
ministry, the Manchester Geordie* denounces as
preposterous ; but hints that the Premier Is likely
to deal with Schedule D; and adds:—" A close
distinction should be drawn between incomes
derived from • fixed capital and incomes of
which the sources may generally be described as
precarious. This, we believe, would meet the
whole difficulty. If a landowner or • bolder of
Consols or other solid securities is required to pay
3d. In the pound, why not fix the rite for the
professional man at say one half of that amount'!"
In conclusion, the writer states :—" Mr.
Gladstone's plans, if we can assume that he has
the subject under consideration, will probably
be found to have taken some such direction as
this. Such a scheme would certainly go far to
make • popular Budget, especially if it were
accompanied by some provisions ensuring • leis
vexatious mode of assessment and collection than
that now in force,"
There is still much talk about the education
difficulty. Mr. Bright is looked to by the
secularists and radical Dissenters to solve the
difficulty. Mr. Dale, of Birmingham, the sun-'
cessor and contrast to the well-known Noncon-
formist divine. John Angel James, writes in the
Contemporary scorning cioniptomise ; and Mr.
Morley, on behalf of the secularists, is similarly
demonstrative in the Fortnightly. Meanwhile,
the Dale party have given a new phase to the
contest by starting • fund for the religious
education of School Board children. This would
080 M to be adding to the religious difficulty, and
making confusion worse confounded. They are
proposing to hire the School Board rooms and
pay for them for the purpose of imparting
religious instruction by competent teachers.
1 he rumour of Ministerial changes has lately
become fainter, though it may perhaps be
revived when Mr. Bright's mysterious silence is
broken. Probable reports are always to be dis-
trusted, because external evidence of fitness or
expediency sufficiently explains there origin.
I Paradoxes which occur constantly in real life
become incredible when they are not verified by
experience. From the proposition that Mr.
Ayrton is misplaced in a sinecure post, and Mr.
Monsell in an office of important business, care-
less reasonen easily pass to the inference that
, the Postmaster-Generalship is about to be
vacated, and to be filled by the present Judge-
Advocate. Mr. Lowe is extremely likely to give
offence to various persons as Home Secretary;
but it by no means follows that he is about to
be transferred to the India Offioe, The Govern-
ment would gain by the transformation of Mr.
Bouverie from a troublesome critic into a useful
colleague; and, sooner or later, Mr. Harcourt's
not dissimilar claims will be recognised by an
offer of place • but there is no reason to believe
that Mr. Gladstone meditates for the moment
any considerable changes. According to •
recent rumour, the Attorney-General was about
to be raised to the Bench and to • peerage, and
I the Law Offices were to be occupied by Mr.
Henry James and Mr. Watkins Williams, It
nappens that there is at present no judicial
vacancy; and, although one of the Barons
of the Exchequer is likely to retire, Sir
John Coleridge could scarcely accept • pukine
judgeship; nor would the peerage be, accord-
ing to precedent, • suitable appendage to such
an appointment. It would be far more con-
venient, in anticipation of the changes to be
effected under the Judicature Bill, to place an
Equity lawyer on the Common Law Bench; and
the Lord Chancellor would probably make the
appointment without reference to political con-
siderations. The most important and most
interesting of public rumours consists in the
negative statement that the dissolution of
Parliament will be postponed until next year.
The Government has no motive, in the present
temper of the constituencies for trying • leap in
the dark ; and the postponement of an appeal to
them is a definite, though temporary, advan-
tage to all parties.
Every now and again some observer of events
compiles a list of electoral results for the en-
lightenment of society. Here is one, showing at
• glance Conservative and Liberal gains since
the general election in 1868, All these elections
have not, of course, been decided by the Ballot;
but the majority have, and we get as a tota
twenty-eight seats won by Conservatives from
Liberals, and eight seats won by Liberals from
Conservatives—

00111111TATWI Gana, 28. —Batb. ffrrooo, Colches-
ter, Dumfries mminty, Durham city, Galway county,
Olasso• University, Oloumater, Greeswisb, Hereford
eity, Isle of Wight, Londonderry atty. Newry, North
Notts, Oldham, Plymouth, Zest Staffordshire, limn
Surrey, West Surrey, Shrewsbury, Southwark, Stafford,
Skits. 'bury, Taamortta, Truro, Wareham ; Took, West
Wain, N. Divides; York, West Riding, 8. Division.
Linunat. Sauk & —Loodoo, Brum, Bswdlirt,
Brideenortb, Norwich, Dublin, Nottirgbasa,
bridge.

If Mr. Uwe may boast of his MOM@ in the
last four years with the nation's millions, what
may not M. Thiers do 1 The largest war debt
ever contracted has been paid to the last franc.
Two amounts of forty million pounds each have
been paid earlier than was stipulated, one
eighteen months and the other six months
earhes , and the whole debt—two hundred million
pounds sterling—ls discharged. France will
have heavy work to get over the debt incurred
by the payment, and there are grave appear-
ances that the
.rilgizne of economy is not main-
tained by the existing Government.
Spain has held quite • conspicuous place in
the last few days, the sensational event of the
week being an achievement by Admiral Velvet-
top at Cartagena, delivering the British fleet and
all oonoerned from a very awkward predicament
in dealing with the recently captured frigates.
It is • matter of congratulation that the British
squadron has got away from the Cartagena
forts and ironclad, without • shot being fired,
and haa safely moored the frigates Vittoria and
Almanza, at Gibraltar, these to await adjudica-
tion.

In the dearth of political news, much notice ham
been taken of the pilgrimage be Pasay-le-Monial.
It certainly is not surprising that the Roman
Catholic Institutions of Great Britain should
muster five or six hundred delegates—priests,
college students, and nuns—to go on an scour-
siod to France, with a view to perpetuating the
belief in the miracle said to have been wrought
on a peasant girl two hundred years age. 'lb.
greatest alarmista about Romanist innovations
need not be diaturbed about this.
The Tiohborne trial coounoes, and if Dr. Kenealy
has not more witnesses to cell than those who
were examined upon the other side (some 200),
we may expect to see the evidence coacluded by
the end of the present month. If that should
be the OW, some arrangement will probably be
made to apportion the next tow oe five weeks

amongst the leading counsel on sack aide for
their second speeches sad the Beach for the
summing up, as the Lord Chief Justice has said
that the trial must be concluded, if possible,
before next term—that is, early in November.
If all goes well, the case can hardly be over
before then, so that we have yet two months of
it to mite. When the verdict comes, which ever
side it may be (supposing the jury to agree), we
shall doubtless have a perfect hurricane of exulta-
tion and indignation from opposite parties, and
that once exhausted, it is to be hoped the
" Tiohborne," will be relegated to history..
Till this year we have been able to outwit the
ironmseters of Pennsylvania in all the American
markets even in spite of the high protective
tariff by which Congress has done its beat and
worst to keep out English good. but the recent
rise in the price of coal and labour has done
what the Pennsylvanian lronmasten could never
have done foe themselsee even with the tariff at
their backs, and now the Ametimin markets are
all closed against us. What has happened in
the United States is happening all over the
world; and on the continent French, Germans,
and Belgians are all pressing us closer then they
have ever pressed Ili before, improving their
machinery, economising in all their processes.
improving the training of their men, and
adopting all the newest suggestions that science
has to offer. And now China la spoken of aa a
competitor. In Cline labour is cheap and
plentiful, cheaper and more plentiful than It is is
any other part of the wond, The myriads of
workers, if deficient in creative genius, are
remarkable for their aptitude and Imitative skill,
and above all, there are vast bade of opal and
masses of iron ore close to the populous centres
of the country. Here we have the elements of
successful competition present and combined,
and nothing is needed but the will to set them
in motion, and perhaps we might have added the
capital and the skill to turn them to the best
account. But capital knows nothing of geog-
raphy. It flows, like water, all around the
world, in search of investment and wherever
there is a prospect of employment there it will
be found, and English capitalists like Mr.
Mundella, if they once take it into their beads
to set up manufectories on the banks of toe
Yellow River, instead of setting them up in
Saxony, will not be long before they find English-
men to train their Chinese hands, even if the
Chinese themselves do not anticipate us.