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TJic Country Gentle man's Magazine 



the labouring class begin to understand the 

 value of economy and the desirability of 

 making some provision for what they call the 

 " rainy day." It is to be hoped, as they 

 better understand their true interests, they 

 will, instead of benefit clubs, in which they 

 are so often robbed and deluded, be more 

 and more disposed to avail themselves of the 

 simple official machinery now made so ac- 

 ceptable. Benefit societies held at public- 

 houses frequently bring with them the evils 

 of intoxication, waste of money, and destruc- 

 tion of family happiness. There can be no 

 doubt that on the whole public morals are 

 improving. The Secretary of State declared 

 emphatically at the International Prison 

 Congress that, whether from the progress of 

 education, the increase of national prosperity, 

 or the greater demand and better reward for 

 labour, there has been a considerable dimi- 

 nution of crimes, notwithstanding a progres- 

 sive increase in the population. It is true 

 that statistics fail us on a very large portion 



of the social field. Take the case of intem- 

 perance. We can follow some of the mis- 

 chief it produces. It might be possible to 

 form an approximative estimate of the num- 

 ber of those who frequent publichouses, and 

 the proportion among them who indulge in 

 drinking to excess; but who can penetrate 

 into private homes, and state how much there 

 is of social and how much of solitary 

 inebriety ? Who can pourtray the mischiefs 

 and miseries which the abstraction of money 

 for the purposes of drink has caused in the 

 diminution of the supplies of the comforts 

 and luxuries, to say nothing of the necessaries 

 of life ; what innocent pleasures might not 

 have been enjoyed; what instructive books 

 might not have been read ; what becoming 

 garments, instead of disgraceful rags, might 

 not have been worn ; what wholesome food 

 and drink instead of pestilent poison ; what 

 happy, well-ordered homes, instead of offen- 

 sive hovels, broken furniture, foul beds, and 

 all the attendants of wretchedness and woe ! 



AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURISTS. 



By Mr G. A. Dean.* 



I WILL call your attention first of all to 

 the present high prices of beef and 

 mutton ; and then to some other matters in 

 which we are all more or less interested. 

 Among " towns' folks " an impression prevails 

 that the high prices of meat are caused by 

 the restrictive Acts in force respecting the 

 importation into this country of foreign 

 cattle and sheep — that these Acts were 

 passed to protect the interests of home 

 breeders — and that if the waste lands of the 

 kingdom were brought into cultivation, and 

 appropriated to the breeding of cattle and 

 sheep, there would be no necessity for foreign 

 importations. Now you all know that the 

 present high price of meat is caused by the 



* Delivered before the Great Eccleston Agricultural 

 Society. 



scarcity of it — also that supply and demand 

 always regulate price — and that neither the 

 present high price, nor any price which the 

 general public would pay for beef and 

 mutton would recoup stock-breeders and 

 feeders for the excessively heavy losses 

 which they have sustained from diseases in 

 their stock, and those they are sustaining at 

 this time. It is reported that in 1865 and 

 1866, 278,439 head of cattle were attacked 

 by disease in England, Scotland, and Wales, 

 thus showing how important it is to prevent 

 diseased foreign animals from being allowed 

 to roam at large in this country. Contagious 

 diseases imported into this country by 

 foreign animals are no doubt generated by 

 the use of bad and improper food while 

 driving them to shipping ports, augmented 

 by the chills they sustain while being thus 



