The Blandford and Wimbourne Telegram. — 1886-05-14 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

COUNOILLORS.—At a meeting of the West Derby (Liverpool) Local Board last night, Dr. Fitzpatrick took exception to the assessment of the sewage farm, and said that it should be appealed against.--Mr. Crosby remarked that Dr. Fitzpatrick was needlessly occupying the time of the Board. Mr. Crosby was proceeding to remark the great respect lie bore to Dr. Fitzpatrick, when the gentleman referred to rose and said he despised Mr, Crosby's respect. Mr. Lister said that he was unworthy of it.—Dr. Fitzpatrick retorted that he despised Mr. Lister also.—Mr. Lister : Nothing could be mere despicable than you, sir.—Dr. Fitzpatrick : The vice-chairman (Mr. Lister) is sitting there grinning like a Cheshire cat.—Mr. Lister further described Dr. Fitzpatrick as a humbug, and as being incapable of knowing a gentleman adieu he saw one.— Mr, Crosby added that the doctor was a perfect nuisance. The Chairman ultimately obtained a hearing after a very noisy scene, and after Dr. Fitzpatrick had passed other strictures upon the minutes he sat down, and the proceedings referred to were confirmed. A very sad case of suicide has occurred at Cribin, in South Wales, of a young gentleman named John Jones. He was formerly assistant-master at Llanybyther Grammar School, but was compelled to resign a fortnight ago on account of bad health. He then accepted a ministerial engagement at the Unitarian Chaplel, Cribin, but went away without notice. Two days afterwards he was discovered hanging from a tree in a field near his home. Deceased was a young man of much promise, having taken scholarships at the Presbyterian College, Carmarthen, and at Aberyst w ith College. We live in strange times. Everything seems turned topsy-turvy. We have the London Liberal "dailies," which have in the past used oceans of printing ink in praising Mr. Gladstone, belabouring him every morning and evening in terms such as they have never applied to Lord Salisbury, and rarely even to the late LOrd Beaconsfield. We have the Caucus turning its back on its creator. We have Tories soberly applauding Mr. Chamberlain. We have Mr. Bright amongst those who, according to the last manifesto, are upon The side of Class. We have the Irish Loyalists declaring their contingent intention :of waging war upon the Queen out of sheer devotion to her Majesty, and above all we have the ;perplexing conundrum to solve—" Which is the Liberal party, and who are the Seceders ?" One is tempted to try to adapt the old Jacobite toast to the circumstances :  ..... God bless the Whigs, our glorious leaders God bless—no harm in blessing—the Seceders. But which Seceder is, and which is Whig, God bless us all, it's very hard to twig. The Queen is indeed emerging from her long eclipse of a quarter of a century. With almcst equal state and grandeur to that which accompanied the opming of the first " Great Exhibition" she has presided over the inauguration of the latest "Little" Exhibition, interesting for its name of " Indian and Colonial." Thirtyfive years have elapsed since Paxton's unique Palace of Glass was unveiled—more than a third of a century. The French Empire has come and gone. Many revolutions have passed over Europe and its map has been almost remodelled. Germany and Italy have been cailed into existence as first class Powers and the Turkish Empire in Europe has almost become a vanishing quantity. But the Queen is still to the front, and able to preside with dignity at ceremonies like that of Tuesday last. In spite of all caution, the Greeks seem obstinately intent upon challenging Turkey and defying the Great Powers. These people of a petty Melt! State, and quite a minor nationality, talk about ! their national susceptibilities, prestige, and honour, as if such things were to be upheld in face of overpowering circumstances and overwhelming force. There is no honour in attacking what we cannot hope to defeat, and no dishcnour in submitting to the irresistible. If Greece had been thrPatened and assailed from without, one could admire her resistance to the bitter end. But no exterior party has interfere I with her, and no peril has menaced her. She has ,imply become jealous of what she chooses to deem the aggrandisement of a not immediate neighbour, has put forward inadinissable claims on her own account, and has worked herself up into a fever of spurious patriotism on account of these claims. All through she has been warned against these ambitious aspirations ; and now she pretends that her honour is involved in maintaining her own unjustifiable pretentions. After disregarding the friendly advice of the great Powers, she has rashly defied their jaint demands that ehesheuld UiIgQUtiIS  her attitude of provocation. After protracted forbearance which seems only to have encouraged Greek obstinacy, the Powers have at last withdrawn their diplomatic representatives from Athens as a preparatory step to the execution of effective measures ef coercion ; but the only answer Greece has made is to increase her preparations for an unprovoked war upon Turkey. It seems nothing short of insanity for a little nation, while at the least her ports are threatened with international blockade, to challenge a powerful neighbour to the fight on her land frontier; and this not to defend the national territory and independence, but to satisfy national ambition, or rather the i barren honour supposed to be involved n maintaining this. It should be thoroughly appreciated that Greece, which is an independent State is the creation of Europe, has assumed an aggressive attitude towards a neighbour that would justify the latter in strong measures of resentment, if Europe did not undertake to see her righted, and deprecate hostile retaliation. Greece, in her bluster about her own honour, forgets that the honour of the Powers is pledged to the Porte whose hands they have tied. The question now is simply whether Turkey shall be allowed to exercise her international right of resenting military aggression or whether the Powers shall apply less :sanguinary, but not less effective, measures of coercion. This is the whole question, we say, unless Greece is infatuated enough to complicate it by madly provoking fierce hostility on one side, while disciplinary coercion is being exercised against her upon the other.