The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-12-30 00:00:00

A RSTRCBPEOT.

The year 1873 ia fast hastening to Its close,
and the sharp line which separates the old from
the new year In the commercial, social, and
religious world naturally suggests retrospection
in all our relations. The business of the past 12
months is now summed up. AU its promises
and disappointments, its keen rivalries and rests
less activities hays given their result. In no
ease probably does the review afford unalloyed
pleasure ; It la the lot of but very ter te have
unmixed success, the large majority having to
lament a long tale of warm anticipations toilful-
filled, bright prospects overshadowed with doubt
or shrouded In failure, eager lontngs unsatisfied,
while those whose aspirations have been most
largely fulfilled find anew the truth of the maxim
—" Man never Is, but always to it blest."
Socially the family circle and the more extended
relations of friendship have their sulneled joy
and morrow. Friends come and go. Death, or
removal, or, worst of all, change, makes sad
blanks amongst the familiar faces of only • year
ago; and, as individuals in many oases, we regard
life, and its duties and aspirations, from an
altogether different standpoint to that which
twelve months since commended itself to our
judgement. What appeared then the sum of
happiness may now be esteemed but an unworthy
Issue, or if attained prove only delnalve. At
sner a time as this what is it that can alone give
.atlafa.tlonl It is the conviction that we have
each fought a good fight in the world arouud us
—that duty has been faithfully fulfilled, that
opportunities of doing good to our n ighbonrs
have been readily embraced, that loth by our
words and our works we have " bred our life"
hotionrably and us. fully. May the personal
I mental review which each ono of us naturally
makes at this time, give to our own hearts and
consciences a satisfactory result! In our last
issue fur the year 1873 we may be excused offer-
ing a few words of a personal character. For
many years ow this journal has been published
week by week throughout the county, dealing
I with the multifarious topics of general and look]
interest which time reveals. In regard to nearly
every subject of suffinent Importance to occupy
a newspaper there are wide differences Of opinion,
but we trust that our anxious impartiality and
earnest desire for right and justice have com-
manded us to even such readers as may have
dissented from some of our ooniclusions, for di-
vergencies of thought candidly and f a irl ir expressed
are not incompatible with the existence of mutual
teepees and the heartiest good feeling : indeed,
the full consideration of "the other aide of the
question" is the surest way of arriving at • just
conclusion and establishing • reasonable belief.
Politically we have not allied ourselves with
these who hod that "Whatever is is right," and
regard any change as destructive • neither have
we given adherence to the restless spirits who
think all things old incumbrances, and to whom
novelty is the highest excellence. We are the
advocates of steady progress on the old lines of
the constitution, believing that our monarchical
form of government affords surer guarantees of
liberty and prosperity than any other under the
I sun, and that revolutionary changes of whatever
kind are contrary to the genius of the British
nation and bode ill for its welfare. In ecclesiastical
affairs we strenuously maintain the old-fashioned
time-honoured Evangelical intercalation of the
Prayer Book, convinced that new-fangled
glosses of ritualism and sacerdetallam are contrary
to the fair meaning of the articles and formularies
and lack the warrant of Holy Scripture. In
municipal matters we have always deprecated
political bias, and sought in every way to
advance the dignity and extend the usefulness I
of our local Parliament. Till within the last
two months we have never had • difference of
any moment with • single individual ; but Mr.
Alderman Lock has taken offence at some
remarks we made in our issue of the 14th ult,
respecting the late election of Mayor at Dor-
chester, though we had not the slightest inten-
tion or desire to say anything disparaging of
him in either his personal or officinal capacity, and
, totally disclaim any such imputation. More than
this we are not in • position to say at the
present time. In regard to social subjects the
county has been agitated during the peat year
with what is commonly known as the "labour
question." A National Agricultural Labourers
Union haa been established on the basis of the
Tradas Unions which have existed for many
years In the large manufacturing centres.
Beginning in Warwickshire the movement woo
extended to Dorset, delegates being sent here
from the former county, owing we suppose to the
popular notion in distant parts of the country
that the agricultural labourers were worst paid
in Dorset of all the shires of England, the
. . . .

importvet payments in kind being 'forgetter'.
However, the agitators from Warwickshire came
to the eastern pert of Dorset, and held meetings
in all the viliages stimulating the farm labourers
to band themalves toitetfiet with view Le exert
premure on their employers to raise their wages.
At the °utast the movement was regarded
incredulously, but ere long it gained such
coherence and strength as challenged public
attention. From an early phase of the agita-
tion we have kept our readers informed of the
statements and aims of the more prominent of
Its le xiers ; and, althou li, this was at first
distasteful to some, we believe all are now con-
vinecd that the piblieity we have given to the
movement has shorn it of some of its worst evils.
Much bitterness has been repressed ; villifioation
of employers has been checked; random mis-
statements have been limited, by the fact that
their utterances were reported, and if they passed
fair I ioense would be promptly refuted. More than
one inconsiderate speaker has experienesd this;
while employers by the same publicity obtained
knowledge of the progress and objects of the
Union. The consequence has been a minimum
of ill-will and inoosvenlence on either aide; and
while the labourers credit the Union with
obtaining for them a rife of 2s. or 3s. • week in
wages, employers attribute the advance to the
universal increase in the pries of all oommodi.
ties labour included, aid, in regard to migration
andemigration, whkdi has been from Dorset it is
said to the number of about GOO, it has in no
way made labour scarce, for during the past
season we have never known so many labourers
seeking emphyment, but the removal. have
simply taken avay surplus workers whom
farmers have afore employed without any
&pedal need for their raviolis, rather than see
ilem in idleness and dependent on the poor ratan
for subsistence, rh. Labourers Union is --

Hoemeg P.m insotom Monday. —Before tho Minor (Mr.
G. J. U. Gregory), end Mr. IL Deveeish.
Jams* ilartaws, atom 2111111011, tom Leone, was brought
up for befog drunk god disorderly in High Vlest-street, on
liatuiday uight. P.C. Gould apprehended dtleednet.—He was
hoed 10e. inoludlog own —lnfindeut It now moths tor Mr.
Ormsby, sculpt,r, and be an snot for and asked It he would
pay the One Ha end he did not know the non start hod
Mau employing ho. et es. ed. a day, se thn he I 11C4 to
have mated lodging in the lock-op on Saturday liot
he wee Ulm many utter nen of hie clam no on.. as he got a
little money, he went sod got drum, Mr. Granby said he
would pay the MN nest Saturday It the man went to work sod
earned H. Ha was well cunneeted, end wee • good tantrum.
Gelemlent promind to go to work et once. nod the Henn
VINO WIWI tlia. !Amu for psyneut empailkal. If• awl advisol
uow that he chaoro wee gives him, to ;salami hiuwell well for
U.. future

.11r. Grigg, the laudlortl of the Uruet Wisteria Hotel, wee
rental an extra hour fur Tuesday ereoung, on the occasion of
the euuuel supper of the Um/ Weatern employees et Dor-
chester.

NSW WALEYAN CHAPEL AT DOROHJEWUHL

The Weelase. if Derobeator hod • high day on Fri-
day, IXoriaber 26, when they made soother effort to
Wee funds towards the enables if their sew chapel,
to be eammeneed early In the nee year, sod
whit& will b. anoted Is tiouth-atnet, opposite the Post
001. e. The day. proondiuge commenced with • wirmea,
preached in the afternoon, by the Her. ff. Kaden, a
Portland, who took for his text the 2od verse el thia 51A
Woha, and In an impressive address pointed out how
many mercies God poured out on his sooleat pawl%
and went OU to show that still Hot. seeempliablag His
dines plans. He argued that Christ was barn in swab
, • lowly place sa the shepherd village Bethlehem border
to beeoine allied to us, and be eiminstuted with grief,
and went ow to inchoate the pewee sod majesty of
Chrin's ruling. If, end the preaoher, He bee I. omigner
His enemies U. sits expecting, till they ere made Hie
' foritetool,bat If He hoe to newt We people He thee Irons
His throoo In order that He might sloop to help Litenn
He showed bow Cbrbit ruled in days of old, how He rand
' when the Assyrian hosts were slain, sad is lee same way
He ruin now—He will attend Hie people wins In
danger, if they will only pet Ask trust to Hiss, and we
(alb lin promise that "so one shell be .blie to Plug:Lug:
CUL of my hands." lie dwelt at length on the pen
of Christ, and argued that had at not been for this
we slight sow have boon dwelling is idolatry, 1.
conclusion he appealed earueetly to his Inerare who
bad not yee yielded to Christ's rule to give over
serving sin sad Hann, for by annenderiag to Ulnae
sane, they would be ow the right eicie, tate side that
would be run to win, for we are soured that wader
this mighty ruler ell °Weeks will be eenieved,. burbles
throws clews, sad to the nod or onto 1111 b• wtsd
airy to boson lad I. &FYI wilt* oid tie provoker,