The Express.
London, England, 1847-06-30 00:00:00

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

THIS DAY, Four o'Clock.
The Overland Mail, which reached town yesterday,
arrived somewhat in anticipation of the usual date.
In the ordinary course of things it would have been
die to-morrow; for, though it was fixed to leave
Bombay on the 20th May, instead of the let inst., the
usual date of the despatch, a protracted passage is
always to be calculated upon at this season of the year.
In consequence of the force of the south-west men-
soon, which prevails more particularly from May
to September, vessels from Bombay during those months
mast run to the south before they can bear up for
the mouth of the Red Sea. In this way it always
happens that the mail steamers are retarded in
making the passage from Bombay. Frequently they
are driven back to the port of departure ; but, in
almost every case, the average length of the voyage
is extended by some nine or ten days. To obviate
such delay, this last mail was dispatched sooner than
usual; but, as the monsoon had hardly reached
16 height,. the passage was a somewhat favourable
one. During the next four months there would be
but one mail a month forwarded from Bombay, viz., on
the 19th of June, 19th of July, 27th of Auguat,and let
October ; the second monthly mail commencing on the
15th of the latter month. There will, however, be
two mails monthly from Calcutta and Madras as usual;
one coming by way of Bombay, and the other direct
by the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Com-
pany. The last mail reached Suez on the 12th inst.,
in the Victoria, together with the following pas-
sengers :
Mrs. linechke and infant; Mrs. J. Buchanan and three
children; Mrs. Anderson and three children • Mr. A. H.
Huschke, Mr. J. Buchanan, Captain J. Bedford, Major
Whilie, C.B. Bombay Artillery Mr. A. Blackburn, Major
Gordon, Goth, Rifles ; Mr. F. Cole, Mr. R. Strong, Ensign
D. L. ll'Dongall Gleig, Bombay Artillery; Veterinary Sur-
-I=nBst-ust fil'egbef—UtaelTi .13,12.11kua DedabhmrP

Dweviddrielt ifeetrder bunko foroestit brief
description of the means intended to be taken Jo the
recovery of the steamer Great Britain 7,
Yesterday (Friday) we paid a visit to the Great Britain,
for the purpose of witnessing personally the operations which
are in progress to raise her, previous to being floated off.
The arrengemenis are certainly very ingenious, but cannot
be clearly described to those who have not seen them. On
each side of the vessel Ire driven upon their ends into the
sand, until they reach the solisl rock, a number of
large logs of timber, in an inclined position. Near the
top of two of these logs is to be a box or ease, filled
with sand, weighing about fifty tons. Upon the top of
each log is a sheave of iron, in • groove in which runs a rope
which communicates with the boxes and with the vessel.
The boxes are supported by large chain cables, and their ob-
ject is to raise the vessel, for, according to the principles of
mechanism, as they sink the ship rises. There are to be 20
of these boxes, ten on each side of the vessel. Eight of them
are at present in the position intended ter them, and in pro •
cess of being filled; the rest will soon be completed. The
greater number will be placed towards the ship's bow, whirr
she is deeper in the sand, nearly to the depth of four feet two
inches, and fewer towards the stern, where she is not so
deep. The ship had been sunk seven feet, but by means of
lightening, that is, pumping out the water, and placing
stones underneath, she has been raised to her present posi-
tion. She is now Perfectly water-tight. Mr. Bremner, the
eminent engineer, is constantly on board, superintending the
operations. All is expected to be ready for the final effort
by the end of the next month A government steamer is
expected to be present on that occasion, lending her
assistance.

ELECTORAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND.
IMLSETSIIIRE.
This county, which appears to possess the felicity of a
climate of extraordinary healthfulness, is bounded on the
north by Wilti; on the north-west by Somersetshire; on the
east by Hants; and on the west by Devonshire—the English
channel bathing its coact line on the south. Its greatest
length, measured from east to west, is found in a line drawn
from Ardenholt, near Fordingbridge, Hamr shire, to the
western extremity of that detached portion of Dorsetshire,
which is included within the boundaries of Devon, beingfrom
o 7 to 5S miles. Its breadth, north to south, varies consider-
ably. Its extreme extent, in this direction, is from a point
at which the river Stour enters the British channel to Port-
land Bill, or Point ; about 40 mile.. At its eastern extremity
the breadth of this shire, where it adjoins Hants, is not more
than 16 miles. Its area, as laid down in Arrowsmith's large
map, and calculated in the population returns for England
and Wales, is about 1,006 square miles, or 643,840
acres. The population diffused over this surface is
but twenty. In 1831 it was equivalent to about 158 inhabi-
tants to the square mile. Indeed, sato both actual amount and
relative density of population, Dorsetahire is much below
the averageof E9glish counties. The nine remark implied
to ifs diameutioica It is divided into five grand divisions,
which, from considerations of municipal convenience and
the, accommodation of particular jurisdictions, have been
more than once subdivided into very small hundreds, some
of them so small as not to comprise more than two or three
villages in each. The grand divisions alluded to above are
Blandford, Bridport, Dorchester, Sheston, and Sherborne,
I Of the subdivisions it is sufficient to remark, here, that they
contain 248 parishes, and thirteen market-towns, whereof
Dorchester, one of its parliamentary boroughs, is also the
county town. It has no city. And—which is of much
more importance, and must have operated greatly to retard
the growth of sea general prosperity—it has no canal,. Its
paucity of rivers has always much required the artificial
alleviation of such aids to inland navigation. The principal
riven of the county are the " Stour," and the " Frame.
Dorsetshire possesses in Poole,
.Lyme Regis, and Bridport
some of the beat and most commodious harbours on our
southern coasts. Weymouth-bay is also a convenient road-
stead for shipping; and though Wareham has lost its former
celebrity and importance through the general decrease of its
depth, it is still for many purposes, and for vessels of mode-
rate tonnage, a pleasant and commodious harbour. Great
part of the surface of Dorsetshire, about 60,000 acres pro-
bably, is occupied by a continuous succession of wastes, com-
mon, and heather land, extending almost in a straight belt
from Hants far into the interior. But the south-western
vallies, stretching down from this belt to the sea-shore, are
abundantly rich and fertile. Its more northern districts, too,
beyond the great central range of chalk by which the county
isintersected, are admirably cultivated. It has some few
manufactures of flannels and cloths, and it produces and ex•
ports some iron. But it is essentially an agricultural county
(being 17th on the list of English agricultural counties),
notwithstanding its somewhat extensive property in ship-
ping and the trade of its ports. It raises heavy crops of
wheat, barley, sanfoin, hemp, and flax. Its flocks of sheep
are enormous ; more than a million of these valuable ani-
mals are depastured on its beautiful grass lands, which cover
more than three-fifths of its entire surface, or upwards
of 300,000 acres. Whilst sheep swarm upon its downs,
the fine pastures more inland raise herds of large
horned cattle and many draught horses. Though this
county has fine fisheries, and a very fair proportion of
our mercantile marine, and is thus rich in many elements of
productiveness, it has of late attained a most unenviable
celebrity by reason of the depressed conditinn of its labouring
poor. Yet it is hardly possible to cite half a dozen instances
in which the rate for the relief of the poor has more signally
diminished in the later of file decennial periods, as compared
with their amount in the former—allowance being made for
the aggregate increase of the population at the same intervals.
In 1801, the population was 115,319 ; the amount of poor-
rate, 185,1071. In 1811, population 124,593; pour-rate,
193,8281. In 1821, population 141,499 ; poor-rate, 85,6471.
In 1831, population 159,292; poor rate, 90,6671. In 1841,
population 174,743 ; poor-rate, 80,0971. In forty years,
therefore, the population had increased, comparing 1841
with 1801. by 52 per cent. ; the poor.rate had diminished
131 per cent.
In 1831 there were, in Dorietshire, 29,307 inhabited
houses, 1,200 uninhabited, 310 building; and of 33,614
families, 14,601 were exclusively engaged in agriculture and
its occupations, 10,106 in manufactures, handicrafts, and
trades, 8,907 in all other ways not enumerated under these
heads.
The share which Dorsetshire formerly possessed of the
. representation of the whole kingdom in the imperial parlia-
ment certainly much exceeded any pretensions it could
prefer to such a distinction, on grounds either of its own
specific, or of its local, importance. It sent, before the Reform
Bill, 20 members into the House of Commons ; a number
exceeding its present quota, notwithstanding that one addi-
tional member has been given to the county. The boroughs
of Lyme Regis, Shaftesbury, and Wareham (that now
together send hut three) then elected six. The now wholly
disfranchised borough of Corfe Castle sent two ; the united
boroughs of Metcombe Regis and Weymouth sent four in-
stead of two ; and the boroughs of Bridport, Dorehestcr, and
Poole two each, as they do now. These, with the two
knights of the shire, made an aggregate exceeding the whole
body at present returned for ell Dorsetshire (14) by six.
The parliamentary history of this county is far Ices et mark-
able than that of almost any one of its nine boroughs (now
but eight). Yet Dorsetshire has undoubtedly sent member*
to parliament from atime at least coeval with the first returns
made in the reign of Edward I. At the time of the discus-
sions on the Reform Bill, it was generally considered that
this county had retained a tolerable share of iudependence in
its elections. Such a fact would seem to be compatible with
the large but multiplied proprietors of the county, whose
properties are very extensive in it ; and among whom, there-
fore, a paramount or predominant interest is not always easy
to be maintained, even where, by a favourable concatenation
of circumstances, it has been once achieved. Lord Portman,
probably, wo.dd stand in the position most likely to occupy
such an ascendancy. But the old county families of Brown
(of Frampton), Start (of Brownsea Castle), Weld (of Lul-
worth Castle), the Drax Grosvenors, the Morton Pitt. the
Trenchards, the Banker's, e., the Earl of Eh storouel:, the
Earl of Shaftesbury, the Chutes, the Earl of Digby, Lord
Rivers, the Charing, and others, would not resign the
" control of the county " without a severe struggle fur the
supremacy.
There is one remarkable entry on the journals of the house
under date of May 21, 1677—a petition of Delius Browne,
Esq.. complaining of a double return made by the High
Sheriff for this county. " Resolved—That such election, and
the return thereon, ore void ; because the High Sheriff did
not execute nor obey his writ . • and because he left divers
freeholders unpolled : and that he returned two per-
sons when he should have returned but one, and signi-
fied his return to be the agreement of the parties, rather
than his own judgment, according to right and law."
This is the only entry we find involving any rule