The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1873-01-21 00:00:00

Acid Condi eXiittls.

TUESDAY. JANUAEY 21. lit&

NOTES OF THE WEEK.

The Government, by an Order in Conned, are
about to put into effect provisions of the
Exchequer and Audit Departments Acts, 1E66,
by which the national accounts will be made out
in a clearer and more detailed form, and the
work of those few useful Members of Parlia-
ment who constitute themselves special critics
of the national expenditure will be facilitated,
This reform can hardly fail to have an economi-
cal tendency, and it seems strange that the pro-
visions of an Act nearly seven years old should
not have been enforced before, However,
" bettter late than never" with any genuine
reform,

Since the Educational Conference at Bristol
on the 15th, it has become increasingly felt that
the Government must propose some modifica-
tions in the English Education Act having an
undenominational tendency. The common plat-
form now adopted by various Liberal party
cannot fail to stimulate the Government to
action; and this action must be of • kind in
which Mr. Forster cannot partake. No surprise,
therefore, would be felt if the rumours regard-
ing that right hon. gentleman's resignation were
shortly verified. His adherence to the denomi-
national principle is well known, and it is under-
stood that he stands fast by his own Act in the
matter of primary education. It is not unlikely
that an Education Act Amendment Bill may be
the'crucial measure of the session, and that it may
involve an appeal to the country in the autumn.
Writing respecting the Parliamentary pro-
gramme for the coming session, the London
correspondent of the Leeds Mercury says the
Local Taxation Bill is ready to be placed in the
hands of the draughtsman, and it is expected to
be drawn" before the assembling of Parliament.
It has now been definitely decided that it will
form the first measure in the Ministerial pro-
gramme, and take precedence of all others.
University Education will mune next is order.
The principles of this Bill will be the disendow-
ment of Trinity College, Dublin, and the estab-
lishment of that institution on the footing of the
London University. It. professors will form •
mere governing body, whose sole object will be
the granting of degrees.
Sir George Honyman's apppointment as the
successor to Mr. Justice Byles is the third which
has been made in the Court of Common Pleas
within fifteen months, Mr. Justice Grove having
succeeded Sir Montague Smith on his promotion
to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
in the autumn of 1871, and Mr. Justice Den-
man having taken the place of the late Sir J.
S. Willes • short time prior to the opening of
the last Michaelmas Term. In the Court of I
Queen's Bench, within the same period, Mr.
Joshes Quain and Mr. Justice Archibald have I
taken their seats, the former in the room of the
late Sir George Hayes, and the latter as the I
successor of Sir James Hannon, now the Judge I
of the Probate and Divorce Court. In the I
Court of Exchequer the only change has been
the replacing of Sir W. F. Channell by Mr. I
Baron Pollock,
The prospects of the party in favour of the
disestablishment of the English church have just
been reviewed by their chief agitator—Mr.
Wall, M.P. for Bradford. He eaid he was not
at all discouraged by the result of the debate on
his disestablehment motion of last session,
'because he was perfectly sure that there was •
amend tendency of mind in this country, guided'
and overruled by a higher power, which would
most certainly effectuate the great object they
had in view—the liberation of religion from state
patronage and control." Referring to the work
of next session, Mr. Miall said that if the
Premier carried out in public that which he had
spoken In private on the Irish University ques-
tion, the 'forthcoming measure would be
characterised to the full by religious equality."
As • further step towards the millenium ot
,' equality" he added "household suffrage mut;
be given to the comities."
For many months past we have been felicita-
ting ourselves on the national prosperity, and
enjoying the sunny prospect of all sorts of
remission of taxation in April including a part,if
not the whole, of schedule D of the Income
Tax. But Mr. Lowe not only said he could not
do without the Melt Tax, though he conclusively
proved it could not fairly be maintained, but
announced that there will be no large surplus
stall! It has always been known that the pay-
ment of the American damages under the
Geneva Award would absorb the whole or the
greater put of the surplus either of this year or
of the next; and it may be inferred from Mr.
Lowe's announcement that he has applied the
current surplus in the ordinary course to the
reduction of the National Debt, and thattbe whole
amount of damages will appear in the Budget as
a part of the estimated expenditure for 1873-
1874. It would certainly have been in the
power of the Government to apply, with or
without the express sanction of Parliament, the
excess of the current revenue to the discharge
pf an obligation which is as much a debt as if it
had formed& part of the Consolidated Annuities.
It has been known since the middle of September
that the payment of the damages would be due
in July; and when so considerable a charge was
imposed on the national capital, the reduction
of the ordinary debt might perhaps have been
suspended. If it had happened that the payment
had become due a few months sooner, there
would have been a surplus of three millions.
Now it goes to relieve posterity, whom we
should have preferred to trust would be better
able to pay it themselves than we are just at
this time.

Speaking at Hitchin on Friday, Mr. H. R.
Brand, the Liberal member for Hertfordshire,
referred to the subject of Local Taxation,
remarking that it was said to be unequal and
unjust, inasmuch as the rates fell upon one
description of property only. He said
It was a difficult problem sow real and personal
property could be made to 000 tribute alike to local
burdens. He thought that lOtial bodies ought not to be
mere machine. for carrying out the idem of a °antral
authority. Ownere had ow" no dirtel interest In keep-
ing down expenditure, because they did not ex=
urtil the activation of a contract, how far low
bad increased. The proper remedy was, labia opinion,
to plaice half the berden on the owner' and half on the
ocioupier, and to make the Imperial fends bear the
charge of the pollee and the maintenance of lunatics.
No chums would be complete, however, unless the
oontrol of county rates were placed in the holds of the
looal ratepayers—Omar, hear).
On the Land question, he maid—
He thought that tenauts at the end of.thefr csocupe.
lion should receive oompeneatton for unexhamted
improvements:— (cheers) except In the case of
lease., under srhieh oompAcsatioc should be limited
to improvements made within a certain period prior to
the clam of the tenancy.
On the someday the Liberal member for West
Cornwall, Mr. A. P. Vivian, speaking at Truro
Agricultural Exchange, also referred to the
subject of Tenant Right. He mid—
is:l.sta should receive eompeimetioe for unexhausted
improvements. It would encourage them to cultivate
their laud towards the end if their term tit., mom as
they did at the commencement; and the oommunity at
large would thus gain by the Mamas* in the product of
the land which most follow. "Tenure at will" was not
a eatiefeetory condition on which to hold land. Teimats
thould have protcotios modal% the depredetions of
ground game, nod compensation for permanent improve-
ments, sueh m drainage, buildings, end reedamotion of
waste lands. It was the true pulley of every far seeing
landowner to encourage in every way tho investment of
capital ou his isoil, and • fair settlement of the tenant
right qa•-tion would do munch to bring this about.
Chelsea is the chosen home of Radicalism,
and Its members have been addressing their
constituents. Sir Henry Hpare "touched
lightly on several topics." " You could not
answer argument by a joke," he informed his
admirers. " but the Income-tax was the only
tax of which a man wished he paid a larger pro-
portion ; yet it was inquisitorial and vexation',"
he Game Laws he wished to see largely modi-
fied, but he did not want to see birds extermin-
ated. Sir Charles Dilke was of course more
"talons, lie was opposed both to dir,ct and
indirect taxation, as most of us az., but we
don't see how the Ooverriment of the ouou:ry
is to be carried on without it. He waked all
indirect taxes of every kind to be removed, and
at the same time he was dead against the Income
Tax. On the other hand, he was for reducing
the public expenditure, principally by giving up
Gibraltar, which he declared would save the
country • million a year. Radicals of this stamp
will not do much harm to any one.
Except • furnace here and there in the Aber-
dare Valley, and the thud of the engines which
are kept going to pump the water from the
mines, there is not a single sign of work to be met
with in the iron and coal Sella of South Wales.
" Arbitration " the masters refuse on the ground
that they are the sole judges of the profits at
which they can carry on their works, and of
the wages that they can afford to pay. although
they are still willing to throw open their ordsr...
books to convince the men that in &eking
them to acicept • reduction or ten per cent.
they were only asking them to accept • roduc•
tion which wss forced upon them by • fall
in the price citron. Mr. Orawshay, the "Iron
king," has even published an explanation to

show that with wages at their old level he could
not make rails ot less than £9 • ton,
and that these rails, when made, only left
him • net profit of 2g cd, per ton. " Night
out of too of my men are," he adds, "opposed to
the strike,but are intimidated by the Unionist' ;°
and even if all the iron-workers are willing to
return to work, they cannot as long as the
colliers hold out. 'I he oollien represent only
about a sixth of the 60,000 men out on strike;
but 7 000 or 8,000 of these belong to the Untie.
are drawing 10g. or l2r. a week from the Union
funds, and can thus afford to play. But for
these colliers the strike might be brought to an
end to-morrow —world be, perhaps; but the
colliers control the ironworkers, and the Union
controls the colliers. But the latest intelligence
gives hopes of an early resumption of work. The
°onion in the several districts have began taking
a ballot on the question of resuming work on
the terms proposed, and so far the men are
wisely all for doing so.

The Imperialist; are how recognising the
Prince Imperial se Napoleon IV. Of comae,
till the Prince attains his majority the
Rmpress will act as Regent of the phantom
heritage, to Which this interesting cadet at
Woolwich has been called all of • sudden.