THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



335 



MARCH MEETINGS. 



Town has been very full ; but it would not have 

 been safe to trust altogether to appearances for what 

 was going on. There were martial-looking gentlemen 

 hurrying to and fro, yet with the most peaceful and 

 unanimous of intents. From morning till night they 

 were bowing and dining and dancing, and all on the 

 best possible terms with themselves and each other. 

 There was nothing mure terrible here than the appalling 

 appearance of some very fancy uniform, or the heavy 

 tramp of u veteran ritlenian. The belligerent spirit 

 was far more carefully clothed. It took the garb of 

 peaceful country-gentlemen and well-to-do agricul- 

 turists. It turned its back alike on St. James's Pal.ice 

 and St. James's llall, and, hailing a Hansom, went 

 at once for Hanover-square. The long gun was dis- 

 carded, the smart sabre thrown aside, and the warrior 

 prepared himself for battle with nothing better than 

 an amendment or a counter proposition. In a word, 

 while her Majesty wasrcceivingher dutiful Volunteers, 

 on the same day, and at just about the same hour, the 

 President of the Royal Agricultural Society was having 

 audience with his not very dutiful counsellors. On the 

 self-same evening when the gallant officers were about 

 to show their gallantry in another wny, and were 

 smiling and posturing to their partners in Covent 

 (iarden, the respectable Members of the Society of 

 Arts and their friends wore all but shaking their fists 

 in each other's faces, and calling one another the most 

 uncomplimentary of names, at a pleasant little Meet- 

 ing they had convened over the agreeable subject of 

 Town-sewage. 



11 :ippily for the Royal Agricultural Society the offi- 

 cial proceedings of its Council are this month allowed 

 to tell something of their own story. Nay ! more 

 than this, a committee has been appointed to consider 

 *' whether any and what changes should be made in 

 the present mode of reporting the business trans- 

 acted at the Weekly and Monthly Meetings, both for the 

 use of the Society and for communication to the public 

 journals." There is a vast improvement already, as 

 any one will see, who chooses to compare the March 

 report in our columns of this day with that of the pre- 

 ceding month. Not that the present one even tells 

 quite the whole of the story. Of course the great 

 business was the appointment of an editor for the 

 Journal, and of course everybody knew Mr. Frere 

 would be i-ecommended. The published proceedings 

 go on to say, " The Committee had no hesitation 

 in recommending Mr. Philip Howard Frere as a 

 gentleman in every respect fitted to perform the duties 

 of editor to the Society. Mr. Frere was therefore duly 

 appointed to the office." This would ail seem to read 

 pleasantly enough, but the matter was anything but so 

 summarily disposed of. In the first place the Journal 

 Committee had to explain who Mr. Frere was. The 

 answer is that this gentleman is the Bursar of Down- 

 ing College, Cambridge ; that he has always had a 

 taste for agriculture, and that he unites with this some 

 practical knowledge of its details, as well as, from his 

 position, a certain experience in the management of 

 landed property. The University education and resi- 

 dence were manifestly held to be a stronghold in his fa- 

 vour. The meeting generally, however, was anything 

 but unanimous, and after some warm discustiou, Mr. 

 Hudson, of Castle Acre, i)roposed Mr. J. C. Morton as 

 the most fitting person for their Editor, and Mr, 

 Edward Pope seconded the nomination. But ou the 



President putting the original recommendation, it was 

 declared carried, and, as the report then runs on, 

 "Mr. Frere was therefore duly appointed to the of- 

 office." Then there is another o: the lew matters iu 

 which the general body of Members may be sup- 

 posed to take some interest — that of the dinner in the 

 Show week. It is well known that the local authorities 

 at Canterbury are very desirous there should be one, 

 and that the more practical members of the Council are 

 also of this way of thinking. A motion was accord- 

 ingly made on Wednesday to revive the dinner, 

 and the proposal was pushed on to a division when 

 it was lost by one vote. We feel bound to give 

 these further particulars. Surely the world has 

 a right to know that another man was put into 

 nomination against the new Editor, and that a pro- 

 posal to have a dinner at Canterbury was brought 

 forward ? But both these propositions emanated from 

 practical agriculturists. Why, then, the silence with 

 which they are treated ? 



The great attraction at the Society of Arts was not so 

 much the subject of sewage, as Mr. Mechi's promised 

 explanation of how he clearshis six or,Pas now put, seven 

 hundred a year by Tiptree. The world is to unravel 

 this from what he calls " Mr. Alderman Mechi's 

 Agricultural Catechism," and that we give in another 

 place. Curiously enough, he read but little of this 

 at the meeting. We shall not weary our readers 

 with the whole of his paper, or the subsequent discus- 

 sion, one of the worst conducted we ever witnessed. 

 When Mr. Mechi sat down, a gentleman arose, who, 

 it turned out. Was engaged in getting up .'ome Sewage 

 Conveyance Company, and who went on reading "stale 

 and unprofitable" extracts of where sewage had been 

 applied, until his audience fairly lost their patience, 

 and insisted onj his refraining. Then Mr. Halkett, 

 much to his surprise, found himself elevated into a 

 co-equal authority with Mr. Lawes,on the strength of a 

 long letter he sent us a month or so since. Mr. Mechi fa- 

 voured the company with a tolerably good extract from 

 this in his opening address; but to the consternation 

 of everybody Mr. Halkett himself subsequently " took 

 up the wondrous tale," and went on bodily to read 

 his own letter from a printed copy he had iu his hand. 

 This had precisely the contrary effect to reading the 

 Riot Act. It did not disperse the people, but it mads 

 them more noisy and angry than ever. Tlie old spirite 

 of Telfer and Kennedy were exhumed again, only 

 to be more utterly demolished ; and, although 

 chemists do not seem as yet to have discovered it, 

 there must be surely some very belligerent properties in 

 the composition of town sewage. The meeting got 

 from worse to worse. Contradictions and personalities 

 became more and more dii-ect and offensive ; and 

 through all this hubbub and mystification we looked 

 in vain for the solution of that which brought us there 

 — " How Mr. Mechi clears his £700 a-year by Tip- 

 tree?" We leave our readers to solve it, if they can, 

 by the Alderman's catechism. 



This was the constantly-recurring topic of the 

 week, and there is no disguising the fact that it is 

 everywhere conceived to be a mistake. It is commonly 

 concluded that Mr. Mechi has only deceived himself. 

 At the meeting of the committee i)f the Farmers' 

 Club, on Monday, a letter was read, suggesting that 

 the committee should " ask Mr. Mechi to give his 

 balance-sheet." And at the Society of Arts Mr, 



