466 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



I beg a space in your Gazelle this week to show what appears 

 to me (with all due respect to the magistrates) the hardship 

 of the above cases, if the convictions were legal — the anomaly 

 of the law, if applicable to these cases— and, moreover, to 

 doubt the jurisdiction of the magistrates to apply the above 

 act against a portable steam engine. 



I will first raise the question of, whether the above cases 

 were subject to a fine under the Act 5th and 6th William IV. ? 

 It appears that Mr. Lyne was convicted for ''having erected 

 a steam thrashing machine ;" now did Mr. Lyue erect that 

 machine, or was it the manufacturer that was the guilty party ? 

 There is no doubt Mr. Lyue used it ; but was he liable to a 

 penalty under the above act for drawing a porfaile engine and 

 machine to a rick or barn within twenty five yards of a public 

 highway, and using it for thrashing ? 



I think it possible that the justices who have acted on the 

 cases referred to are not aware of the fact that at the time the 

 Act of the 5th and 6th William IV. was passed, nor diiring 

 his Majesty's lifetime, was there a single portable engine in 

 existence. The first that made its appearance was at the 

 Liverpool Shon', about seventeen years ago ; and it is self- 

 evident that the act then only applied to ^xed engines, 

 ERECTED in buildings, with chimneys buill for the purpose; 

 and it was similar to the act for preventing windmills from 

 being built within a certain distance from the highway ; and 

 the law could not then have contemplated the construction of 

 portable engines, and therefore I think the question might 

 fairly be raised, if the magistrates have any jurisdiction to con- 

 vict, under that act, for the use of thera ? 



But, in the second place, assuming that they were correct 

 in their decision, I beg to offer a few words on the anomaly 

 of the law with respect to portable-engines. I have three 

 steam-engines of my own, and I have made them all locomo- 

 tive. One of my engines has travelled not less than one 

 hundred and sixty miles on her Majesty's highway ; the second 

 haa moved over 100 miles of the same, and the third has 

 rejoiced in moving about my own parish ! Now the law, 

 which if it can be strained to make it apply to thrashing 

 machines, can have nothing to do with my locomotive engines, 

 seeing I do not stop to erect a machine, but have the 

 liberty — like the rest of her Majesty's subjects — to make use 

 of her highwaj's for transit : and I am by no means the first 

 \f ho has set the example; the authorities at Woolwich dock- 

 yard having done the same thing with DoydelVs Traction 

 Engine ! ! ! 



Now, if the law really does apply to portable steam-engines 

 driving thrashing machines within 25 yards of the public high- 

 way, it means this : — That of ^ths of the barns in England 

 the owners will be liable to the penalty of £5 per day if they 

 dare to use any of the thousands of steam-engines that have 

 been purchased, at a vast expense, for the purpose. Again, 

 the farmers in making their ricks at harvest will be liable to 

 the same penalty, unless they place those ricks 26 yards from 



the highway which are now placed close to the road for the 

 facility of transit, but which must hereafter be put in the field, 

 and the land cultivated around : thus making the owner to go 

 over the cultivated land to get at his ricks, which of itself is 

 quite sufficient to condemn the whole affair in the eyes of 

 every sensible man. 



But let me ask what is the motive for bringing these cases 

 before the magistrates on the supposed idea that it is an 

 infringement of the law ? 



I have been told that some gentlemen consider it is danger- 

 ous to horses passing by ; but if so, what would they think of 

 meeting any locomotive engines on the road, where, I main- 

 tain, they have a right ; and where we have passed hundreds 

 of horses, and never met with but one restive one ; the greater 

 part of them taking no notice of the engine at all ? 



We are just arrived, too, at the period when a large portion 

 of the soil of Great Britain is about to be cultivated by the 

 steam-engine ; and I ask, where is the law, and where are the 

 magistrates who will put such an one in force (when the farmer 

 is made to compete with the free imports of other countries) 

 as to prevent him from the advantage of steam power ? And 

 yet if it can be applied in the one case, reason says it ought 

 to be in the other ; and if so it would put a veto on farm-work 

 altogether, as in cultivating the fields the engine must go along 

 the headlands. 



I see that orders were given at Marlborough to the police to 

 bring all cases of the like sort before the bench. But I would 

 respectfully suggest to the magistrates to ascertain if they 

 have any jurisdiction in the ease; and moreover to consider 

 the effect (if they have the power) of putting such a law in 

 practice ; as I am satisfied of this, that every practical man 

 in the agricultural, the manufacturing, and the commer- 

 cial interest will join in an application to Parliament for its 

 repeal. 



In these days of steam, when the agricultural interest is just 

 coming from the rear in which it has always been kept for 

 want of that power in a portable shape, I cannot but think it 

 most injudicious to attempt to throw such an obstacle in the 

 way of agricultural improvement, as this act would be, if legally 

 applicable to portable steam engines, and strictly carried out ; 

 more especially as the only reason given appears to be, that 

 horses will be afraid to pass it ; at the same time they have 

 to pass the railway trains, and often have to wait at the gates 

 whilst the engines are passing by. There is no doubt they will 

 have to pass many an engine on the road, and the sooner they 

 are broken into it the better. 



I trust, therefore, that you, and the press generally through 

 your journal, will take the matter up and raise the question, 

 if portable steam engines are subject to the said penalty under 

 the 4th and 5th of William IV. cap. 50, and if so, let us unite 

 our exertions to get the same repealed. 



I remain, sir, yours faithfully, 



Baydon, 15th Nov., 1838. J. A. Williams. 



SOCIAL SCIENCE— AGRICULTURE. 



SiK,— A great deal is just at present, with much ju8tice> 

 being said about the progress in scientific and general know- 

 ledge already made, and still making, by the classes whose 

 pursuits are not agricultural. Will you permit me space for 

 s^me notice of the great advance in agricultural knowledge 

 aad practice wliich is now so evident in every class at all coii- 

 nelcd with agriculture? 



Not many years since, as the rule, a landed proprietor was 

 simply the recipient of rent from his possessions, himself pos- 

 sessed of very little knowledge of the details by which this 

 rent was created. The landlord of a ho'-t of tenants, the cul- 

 tivation of (he land was to him a certain thing of the plough, 

 the barn, and the fold, in the hands of a certain man paying 

 rent for the land he tilled, adding a great amount of outward 



