The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-03-05 00:00:00

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS

DDRCHESTER, TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 1861.

HONESTS A UDA X.

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The Austrian Cabinet has announced a
policy which, if carried out with frankness
and honesty. may. even in this eleventh hour,
prove its salvation. It is announced that
their former constitutions are restored to
Hungary. Croatia, Slavonia, and Transo-
- ; while a Parliamentary Government,
not very dissimilar to our own, is to be
granted to the entire empire. There is to be
a House of Nobles, of which the majority
will owe their seats to inheritance, though
there will also be some life members; a Lower
House, of which the members are to be
elected by a constituency bearing very nearly
the same proportion to the entire population
of the State that our own electors bear to
the number of the inhabitants of these
islands. The two Houses are to form the
Heichsrath the Parliament, in fact—to
which, as to our own Parliament is to be per-
init,ed the power of, and the initiative in,
legislation, with the arrangement of the
budget and of taxation. The reality of these
plwers and its independent exercise of them
to be secured by the publicity of its sittings.
while the consent of the Emperor, like that of
our own Sovereign, will of course be required
to give a measure that has been passed by the
Iteichsrath, the force of law. Such a scheme
of Government will leave its subjects little to
desire, and certainly, if fairly carried out, no
cause for discontent, much less for revolt.
If to these concessions the freedom of the
press should only be added, the subjects of
the Emperor of Austria will soon be as free ,
as ourselves.

The authors of "The Essays and Reviews"
are, at the present time, the observed of all
observers. They are discussed in pamphlets,
sermons, newspapers, and in the streets.
The income-tax and Mr. Gladstone are cut
into the shadow. Neither the Reform Bill
nor the Church-rate question has a chance of
successful competitorship with this new
theology. Platforms and pupate ring with
discussions of their dogmas. Your friend
takes you by the button, and asks your
opinion of the " Essays." The interest
aA akened will bear to be compared with that
of the Papal Aggression ten years ago. And.
to crown the controversy, a battalion of
Bishops have opened fire from the Episcopal
Bench. and Exeter, and Oxford, and London,
and Durham, are found in the same phalanx,
pouring shot and shell into the " Essays
and Reviews." But what is the secret of
this extraordinary popularity ? Had the
writers been laymen, like Tom Payne, or
Voltaire, or ROIIBBMII, their productions
would barely have commanded a publisher.
and assuredly would have raised up no
antagonist of mark, much less disturbed the
..luinbers of the episcopacy. It is not then
this assault on the leading doctrines of
Christianity, as embodied in the Anglican
articles, and upheld by the various denomi-
I nations of Dissenters, but the men that
make it, which has startled the public. The
Bishops have published a round-robin.
strongly coudemning the Essays, and- have
brought them into tee-fold greater notoriety
than they possessed before. The subject has
been largely discussed during the past week
in Convocation, but no decisive course of
action has been adopted. Were mutiny to
break out on board a war ship, or in a regi-
ment, would the officers be satisfied with
simply making a strong remonstrance ? It
is a strange sign of the times that clergymen
of England should now adopt what the Ger-
mut divines have tried and are tired of.
Strauss, B.mer, slid Paulus are almost for-
gotten names. It is strange that they should
be reproduced by Temple, Williams, Powell,
and Jowett. But truth has gained the day
in Germany. It will nut be beaten' in
England.. •

The Church-rat question may be regarded
as the great question of the week in the
House of Commons. Sir J. Trelawny, who
on Wednesday afternoon asked the House
to read his Bill a second time, of course
opened the ball. He is one of those men
who say very uncompromising things, and do
thorough-going things in a way to which no
exception can be taken, so that his oppo-
nents consider him to be a very moderate man
at heart. Lord Fermoy, who seconded the
motion was equally mild and inoffensive.
Sir W. Heatheote, a capital specimen of an
English country gentleman, who, whether in
attack or defence is always fair and above-
board, moved that the Bill be read that day
six months. He was seconded by Mr.
Puke in a clever speech, and thus far the
lighting was in foils. Mr. Gladstone painted
the non-applicability of the voluntary system
in remote country parishes in bright and har-
monius colouring. Even the supporters of
the Bill could not deny
.the plausibility
of his arguments, and the opponents thought
they had never heard anything more
convincing and unanswerable. Mr. Bright.
who was never an admirer of the Church of
England, drew a picture of the Establishment
from a Nonconformist point of view, in which
he dexterously put all his own objections
into the mouth of some imaginary Noncon-
formist. The "Essay. and Reviews" were
brought forward by him to wound the ,

Church. They contained ninny broad and
general views which he adwired. but some
of them were infidel in their tendency and
had been condemned by all the Bishops.
The house could not see what connection
there was between the " Essays and Reviews"
and church-rates, and he was called to order. '
Mr. Disraeli made oue or two good points.
Mr. Bright, he said, had talked of our owing
our greatest political liberties to the Puritans.
and their descendants, the English Nont•en-
formists. "No doubt there were many
respectable people among the Noncon-
timuists. but the liberties of England were
older than the Nonconformists." This was
loudly cheered. So was the passage about
the " Essays and Reviews." He, like many
others, had read them and had found in them
' a great deal he knew before. It was said
the writers were clergymen of the Church
of England. Well, there had been many
ministers of that Church who had before
written books inconsistent with her doctrines.
Those books had been read. had been talked
about. and had been forgotten, while the
Church of England still remained. Lord John
Russell's speech 'night be divided into three
11 parts. One-third that of a man who found
! good reasons for voting against Sir John
Trelawnv, one-third that of a man who had
not made up his mind how he would vote.
and the remai ll ill g third that of a mau who
I was devoted to an advocacy of the bill. At
length the noble Lord came to the conclusion
that the most statesman-like course to adopt
was to vote in favour of the measure. It was
now 5 o'clock, Sir John Trelawny replied,
the Speaker put the question, and the House
divided. All the Cabinet Ministers, except
Mr. tHadstone, went into the lobby with the
Ayes, mid all the ex-Ministers present, except
Lord Stanley, went into the lobby with the
Noes. Thus was Lord Stanley a set-off
against the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
A curious trial has within the past week
been brought under the consideration of the
Irish Court of Common Pleas. The point
involved in this suit of Thelwalle v. the Hon.
Major Yelverton is a very simple one. Au
action has been brought against Major
Yelverton for the maintenance of a lady
averred in the plaintiff's plea to be the
defendant's wife. and the defendant repudiates
the claim on the allegation that the lady is
not his wife. The point for decision is this—
was there a legal marriage between Teresa
Longworth and William Charles Yelverton
on the 15th August, 1837, when a marriage
ceremony took place between them in the
Roman Catholic Chapel of Killowen, Ireland,
by the Rev. Mr. Mooney, the Roman
Catholic priest of the parish celebrating
the marriage? There is no dispute as to the
fact of the ceremony taking place; and it'
both parties were, at the time, Roman
Catluilics, the marriage was valid, legal, and
binding. Teresa Longworth was educated
as a Roman Catholic, and never professed
any other religion; and so far as she is
concerned the marriage is legal and binding.
But then, how stands the case with Major
Yelverton ? It is stated on the part of the
plaintiff, that previous to the defendant's
marriage he professed himself to be a Rowan
Catholic—that sonic of his family were
Protestants and some Roman Catholics, and
that he belonged to the latter. On the other
hand it has been maintained that he never
was a Roman Catholic; that his alleged %life
kneu him to be a Protestant, and had so
stated in confession to the parish priest—an
allegation, however, which she positively
denied upon her oath, when cross-examined!
on this most material point. This is the
point ou which the whole question hinges;
for the law of the land is, that if at the time •
of the marriage by a Roman Catholic priest,
Major Yelverton was a Protestant, and
known as such, then, so far as he is concerned, !
the marriage is a nullity—lt is not binding !
in law—and the woman who went through a !
marriage ceremony with him is no more than '
his concubine, and consequently he is not
bound for her maintenance, nor is he liable
to be prosecuted for bigamy for marrying a !
second time. No doubt the young lath•
considered the marriage binding, and it
would have been so, according to the law of
Scotland, if, when at Edinburgh, Major
Yelverton had simply stated, ih the presence
of two witnesses that he and Teresa Long-
worth were husband and wife—and she had
signified her assent to the declaration—
instead of taking the trouble of reading "the
marriage ceremony" from the "Book of
thiamin Prayer.' The trial in Dublin
certainly illustrates the necessity for an !
amendment in the marriage law. Why not
enforce in all parts of the Empire the
Registration Law of England, which—unless
married according to the rites and ceremonies
of the Established Church—renders an
attendance before the Registrar of persons
about to enter into the connubial state an
indispensable requisite to insure its validity
and legality ?

At the Bank there is a good demand for
diwouut, partly owing to the requirements
tor the 4th. In the general market there is
less pressure. Consols 91! to } for money,
and 92i for the 10th of April.