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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



clients' title-deeds, some little vigilance may be really 

 requisite. Wlien flourishing Companies are paying an 

 unprecedented per cent., by the simple process of 

 taking the dividend out of the capital ; and when in- 

 solvent Companies, like unwelcome guests, are still 

 continuing to make their " calls" for the working ex- 

 penses, it may behove the too-gentle public to bestir 

 himself. And he does so with a vengeance. He con- 

 siders the Directors as certainly no better than they 

 should be. He would like very much to know what 

 the Chairman does for his money ? And, whether the 

 policeman at the corner of the street has had proper in- 

 structions to keep his eye on the Treasurer ? He does not 

 quite see why he should not be a President or a Mana- 

 ger himself, and so eventually moves that the fees and 

 salaries of everybody be diminished until he comes into 

 office. In a word, it is his right to find fault if he so 

 chooses, and he will be unworthy the name of an 

 Englishman, or the claim of a shareholder should he 

 neglect to exercise so glorious a privilege. 



In plain truth, the thing may be easily over-done. 

 The fair fame and good uses of many a public body 

 have been frittered away, ere now, by a factious oppo- 

 sition, that fancied it alone was independent, simply 

 because it was always in a minority. In too many of 

 such cases personal pique and jealousy have been the 

 actual motives; while a "public duty" has, of course, 

 figured as the stalking-horse. Wholesome agitation 

 has degenerated .into the most direct and bitterest 

 enmity. Self-constituted patriots are seen to be the 

 fiercest of partizans, while their ill-directed efforts too 

 generally but injure that body they would profess to 

 save. The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 

 land threatened to come to this. No one can have studied 

 its history for the last year or so, without seeing 

 that ill-feeling and dissatisfaction were continually en- 

 couraged in certain quarters. The most trivial matters 

 were seized upon, in order to create further differences 

 and difficulties. Some gentlemen went so far on their 

 dignity, and would seem to have been deprived of so 

 much of it, as to have really had very little left. 

 Everything that could be misconstrued into telling 

 against the Society was subject to this acceptable in- 

 terpretation. The best of management was cavilled 

 at. The undoubted success of meetings was questioned. 

 Hundreds and tens of hundreds of members who were 

 of one way of thinking were "just" a clique and 

 coterie, and the ten or twelve gentlemen who thought 

 the other way the representative wisdom of Scotland. 

 Anonymous assailants were singularly bold in the 

 charges they advanced, and proportionately careful as 

 to not standing any further answerable for them. 

 Chaos and disruption were clearly the watchwords of 

 such a rally, and under these encouraging auspices the 

 Highland Society promised to go to the bad as fast as 

 it could. 



Fortunately for one of the oldest agricultural Insti- 

 tutions we have, there has of late been a palpable 

 re-action. So lo'.'.g as reform and improvement were 

 kept to their legitimate objects it is not too much to 

 say that the majority have fairly gone with 

 these endeavours. But it has been more and 

 more impossible to disguise the something beyond this, 

 and the good sense of the Society has at length stepped 

 in to its own rescue. Thehalf-yearly meeting was held 

 at Edinburgh on Wednesday, Jan. 18. It was no such 

 a general gathering as that of our own English Society 

 in Hanover-square, when some i'oify or fifty may be 

 closely counted up. But " the Museum was densely 

 crowded in every part, and there could not have been 

 fewer than three hundred members present, including 

 the leading proprietors and agriculturists of the Lo- 

 thians and the adjoining counties." The business com- 



menced with the election of upwards of a hundred and 

 fifty new members. So auspicious an opening was not 

 seriously interfered with. There was altogether a good 

 tone about the Meeting. The majority were evidently 

 determined not to encourage petty squabbles or per- 

 sonal antipathies. The re-election of the Directors 

 and the office-bearers proceeded calmly enough ; 

 but, on the abstract of accounts being put in, Sir 

 John Forbes went at once to the expenses of the 

 official establishment, or, in other words, at the 

 Secretary. Curiously enough, Sir John, it appears, 

 was for many years Treasurer to the Society, and 

 one of those who settled what the salary of the 

 Secretary should be previous to the present holder of 

 that office being appointed to it. After all, this is but 

 five hundred a year, not such " a great deal more than 

 the Secretary of the English Society got." In fact 

 Mr. Hudson was receiving five hundred at the time 

 of his decease. Nothing, under the circumstances 

 which have lately occurred in Hanover-square, 

 could have been more unfortunate than any com- 

 parison with how the Secretary got on there ; 

 and yet Mr. Hunter referred to a letter in the 

 Times of Tuesday, that went to this very point. 

 Being strictly one-sided, and clearly written to injure 

 one man, this letter was of course anonymous, and it 

 is only extraordinary how in such a guise it could ever 

 have been admitted into any public journal. As the 

 Duke of Buccleuch well said : " It would have been 

 much better if the person signing himself ' A Scottish 

 Farmer' had given his name, or publicly avowed that 

 these were his opinions and sentiments, which would 

 have given some weight to what he stated, instead of 

 giving this stab from behind under an anonymous sig- 

 nature. All he could say was that he could not wish 

 to have the friendship or acquaintance of any man 

 who had not the manliness publicly to state his 

 opinions." The meeting did not evidently believe 

 in the self-dubbed " Scottish Farmer's" alias, and 

 even when backed by Sir John Forbes and Mr. 

 Hunter, his purpose came to nothing. The endea- 

 vour to disparage the success of the Edinburgh 

 Show had as untimely a fate. As usual we were 

 present, and we may quote the opinion we re- 

 corded of it at the time : — " Never, perhaps, has such 

 an occasion passed off sa well, or with so much general 

 satisfaction. The business of the week was not marred 

 by a single mischance or dispute, and a certain desire 

 to march with the spirit of the times was clearly ob- 

 servable." In honest truth the Highland Society 

 never stood so well as it does at present. It has now 

 annual meeiings — in place of biennial or triennial — year 

 by year better in tbeir arrangement and stronger sup- 

 ported. The agriculturists of Scotland, as was proved 

 by the Statistics Collection, make themselves almost 

 to a man answerable for its prosperity and proper in- 

 fluence. It has a far larger capital than any other 

 Association of the kind ; an amount of means, in fact, 

 that might be more actively dealt with. The Direction 

 is clearly evincing a desire to improve and extend. 

 Almost habitual practices and proceedings have al- 

 ready been amended, and there is every promise of yet 

 further advancement. In the face of this there is still 

 an uni-air spirit of hostility displayed that can be traced, 

 we fear, to nothing better than petty jealousy and dis- 

 appointment. There are members of the Society would 

 li'?e nothing so well as to " put down" the Edinburgh 

 Show as a failure. We repeat, that it was in every 

 way one of the mosiit successful that has ever yet been 

 celebrated. 



We shall have, however, to quote ourselves still 

 further, on this meeting. If not marred by a single 

 dispute, it resulted in two or three objections, one 



