56 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ment, have sti'uck off a great many names from their 

 list, who would not, or could not, be made to pay up ; 

 and that in really good members — practical farmers 

 and others of a similar character — the Society was never 

 so strong as it is at present. Again, the only auditor 

 present declared that the accounts could not be better 

 or more clearly kept. We have heard the same over 

 and over again from very many quarters, and we believe 

 that in this respect Mr. Hudson and the .Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society might challenge any jiublic body in 

 the kingdom. Then, the country meetings do no good, 

 but only raise a little temporary excitement ! We 

 fearlessly assert that if anything has tended to the ad- 

 vance of agriculture it has been tliese country meetings 

 of the Society. And as to a little temporaiy excite- 

 ment, it is well known that the effect of such a visit is 

 never forgotten. The climax to all this came in a pro- 

 position bodily put, that all meetings for the future 

 should be held in London ! If any man wished to de- 

 stroy the good of which such a society is really suscep- 

 tible, he could name no other so suicidal a proceeding. 

 Still, in some minor matters let the Council take heed. 

 For instance, let the Professors hand in their lectures 

 for publication immediately on their being delivered : 

 allow the Press to repoit the proceedings of the weekly 

 meetings although we by no means pledge ourselves 

 to record all that is said on these occasions. The fact 

 is, and there is no denying it, that some people go here 

 merely to advertise themselves. They even find fault in 

 the furtherance of so laudable an object. Let us never 

 forget what Mr. Aclantl said at Salisbury, when a very 

 similar exhibition to what was witnessed on Friday took 

 place: — "The Council should be careful tonoticewhence 

 complaints really emanated. They were too often, with 

 some people, but the excuse to make for themselves a 

 little jyetty importance, or to indulge in the oppor- 

 tunity of delivering a fine speech." How true all this is, 

 many who were present at the meeting here will need 

 not to be told. Let those who Mere absent picture a 

 man without position or any authority as to what is 

 going on, self-electing himself patron of the proceed- 

 ings — greeting every sentence he approved of with an 

 isolated " Hear, hear," and smirkingand nodding atevery 

 speaker, lord or commoner, who got up. Assurance, no 



doubt, is a very fine thing, but surely it has some limit. 

 Again we say with Mr. Acland, let the Council be 

 careful to see from what quarter these complaints 

 come. 



The other meetings included one on the Thursday 

 at the Freemasons' Tavern, when Mr. Halkett lec- 

 tured on his new process of ploughing by steam. 

 We shall return to the subject at some length 

 hereafter, and to the pamphlet he has just issued 

 — the fourth or fifth during the week on things agri- 

 cultural. On the Wednesday evening, clasliing as usual 

 with the Smithfield dinner, the Society of Arts an- 

 nounced the reading of a paper " On the progress of 

 the agricultural implement trade during the last twenty 

 years." Fortunately, as it would appear, we were 

 prevented, for the reason just given, from hearing this 

 effusion. Our contemporary. The Gardeners' Chro- 

 nicle, in manifestly a most charitable spirit, declares it 

 to have been " a rather tedious account, deficient in 

 point and interest." We have since had an oj^portunity 

 of seeing the paper in the Society's "Journal." It 

 seems to us to be a clumsy attempt to puff" certain 

 manufacturers, and as awkward a one to ignore others. 

 So palpable was this, that a member rose on the first op- 

 portunity, to protest at the unfairness of such a course, 

 and to name firms which had been excluded in so ex- 

 traordinary manner from notice. Mr. Caird the 

 chairman oi the evening, at once stopped this, as out of 

 order ! But, in doing so, the honourable Member for 

 Dartmouth must have surely forgotten the first duty 

 for which a chairman is elected at all — to see and ensure 

 fair-play. 



Further than this, we can leave the prize lists and 

 such reports as are worth giving, to speak for them- 

 selves. As a whole, the week's result must be regarded 

 as a most encouraging one for agriculture. AH th 

 Institutions devoted to her cause are doing well, for tiio 

 farmers themselves are taking more and more interest 

 in them. In such hands would we cheerfully trust 

 them. What is chiefiy to be feai'ed and guarded against 

 is the interference of empirics and charlatans — whose 

 only object is to create disaffection, and float them- 

 selves upon the troubled waters they may have raised. 

 With Mr. Acland we say, once more, beware of them ! 



REVIEW.— MR. GIBBS' HISTORY OF THE SMITHFIELD CLUB. 



Very nicely timed to the occasion, and in fulfilment 

 of a promise made some time since, Mr. Brandreth 

 Gibbs gives us his liistory of the Club. It is very well 

 done. Thei-e is no attempt at fine writing; but with 

 the best taste the author strings the facts before him 

 together in plain wholesome English. It is, in fact, 

 just the style for such work. The value of the essaj', 

 moreover, is made to depend essentially upon matter 

 which Mr. Gibbs found at his command in the chro- 

 nicles of the Club. From this he extracts and con- 

 denses with much judgmcntj while from the same 

 source he is enabled to compile several sets of tables 

 that will always have a value in the way of reference, 

 and an interest for those at all tuken with the pursuit 

 upon which they turn. It is satisfactory to feel that 

 this history could not have been in better hands. 



Without in any way attempting to follow iMr. Gibbs 

 throu-h the succession of eventful changes that have 

 characterized the progress of the Smithfield Club, we 

 may still avail ourselves of a few points that at such a 

 season must be more than usually acceptable. In the 

 first place, then, as to its oi'igin : — 



" The national society now known as the Smithfield Club 

 was instituted under the title of the ' Smithfield Cattle and 

 Sheep Society,' Dec. 17tli, 1798. Mr. J. Wilkes, of Measham, 

 Derbyshire, the founder, and several other well-known agricul- 

 turists, assembled for its formation on that day, being the 

 great Smithfield market-day before Christmas. The late 

 Francis Duke of Bedford occupied the chair. There were also 

 present. Lord Somerville, John iSennet, the Earl of Wiuchel- 

 sea, John Weatcar, Richard Astley, John EUmnn, Arthur 

 Young, and twenty one others. Later in the same day eight 

 more members, including Sir Joseph Banks, were added." 



In some twenty years from this time the Club was 

 supposed to have accomplished all it had aimed at 

 achieving. Arthur Young had not only resigned the 

 secretaryship, but had withdrawn entirely from the Club. 

 The support of the country had not been afforded or con- 

 tinned to that extent the members expected. According- 

 ly, in December, 1821, the Duke of Bedford, the then 

 chief patron and prop of the Club, not only retired, but 

 at the same time discuutinued the handsome sum he had 

 for years been in the habit of giving in premiums. 

 His Grace's letter in announcing this determination is 



