The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette. — 1862-04-22 (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS  DORCHESTER, TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1862.  THE WEYMOUTH CORPORATION.  When the Venerable Bede became bl,.nd in his old age he preached to a heap of stones, imagining he was in a church and thinking he had the ear of a congregation ; and the chronicler goes on to state that the stones were so much affected that they cried out "Amen, Venerable Bede, Amen." When anything very flagrant occurs, or something peculiarly and unutterably dreadful happens, it is not unusual to hear exclamations of surprise that the stones don't cry out. We wonder very much that the broken and sunken stones, miscalled "pavements," in the streets under the jurisdiction of the Weymouth corporation, do not attract the attention and strong indignation of the passers-by at this time. At the Town Council meeting, held on Wednesday, memorials were read from the inhabitants of several localities, calling the attention of the Board to the disgraceful state of the streets in the immediate neighbourhood of their residences ; but if memorials were sent from the inhabitants of every street where a similar grievance exists, where is there a spot throughout the whole extent of the town whence a memorial would not emanate I With the exception of those belonging to the turnpike trust, the roads in Weymouth may in truth be said to be a disgrace to civilisation. Did Alderman Devenish speak ironically when he congratulated the Mayor on the present financial position of the Board of Health I We remember the time when it was regarded as the highest piece of good luck that I could befal a man, to find "a potful of money." Fortune, it was supposed, had no greater gift in store for her best favourite than the sudden discovery of ready-made wealth. Happy contingencies of this kind rarely occur now-a-days ; but fortunately, with a slight difference as to details, such a slice of good fortune has fallen in the way of the town and port of Weymouth and Melcombe Regis. Fortunate Weymouth! It is now in possession of "a potful of money !" During the six months Mr. Hare has held the office of Chief Magistrate he has saved for the town no leas a sum than £500! We sincerely hope it wont turn out a "mare's nest." By what power of alchemy has he been able to obtain so much gold ? When Lord Derby again takes the reins of Government—it wont be this year —we would strongly advise him to make our modern Aladdin his Chancellor of Exchequer. Gladstone and Disraeli, and all previous Finance Ministers, even should they not commit suicide through vexation at their own stupidity, would from very shame withdraw themselves from public life, and seek to hide their diminished heads in some quiet nook of the earth's surface far from the eyes of man. What a valuable acquisition would he be to President Lincoln just now! If be could only be induced to wave his magic wand over the Federal States, the millions of dollars of debt that has been incurred by waging a fratricidal war against the Secessionists, would instantly be converted into so much superfluous cash! For ourselves, we are perfectly content that the Mayor should receive the congratulations of Mr. Alderman Devenish and his brethren in the Council at his clap-trap financial statement. Our surprise is, not that he should have saved £sooout of the proceeds of two tenpenny rates, but that seeing so little has been done in the town, he should have been able, even with the assistance of the town surveyor, to spend so large a sum as £1,530. We are aware that the road in East Parade has been "mended "—save the mark l—with mud and cinders; but with the exception of the lighting of the town, and this little bit of engineering skill, where are we to look for 1.50 worth of benefit the town has derived from all that has been done since the 9th of November last? We have it on the highest authority that there is such • thing as giving and yet increasing, of a withholding that tends to poverty, and this principle holds true in the management of roads as in other matters. It is false economy to allow them to wear down into deep ruts, forming mud-puddles that render them in wet weather well nigh impassible, and exhaling effluvia that poisons the air and generates fever. But almost every question brought before the