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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



With the political effects of the two systems we have 

 nothing- to do ; but we may observe that there is no evi- 

 dence to show that the aggregation of land in Eng- 

 land has ever been attended with a diminution of secu- 

 rity to the crown or the monarchy ; that the large land- 

 holders of this country do not exhibit at least as much 

 respect for the laws, loyalty to the sovereign, and attach- 

 ment to the institutions of the country, as any nation in 

 Europe. A celebrated Frenchman who visited England 

 for the first time during the Great Exhibition of 1851, 

 could not help expressing his astonishment and per- 

 plexity at the social and political state of our population. 

 " Our institutions," said he, " are far more perfect, and 

 better adapted to the preservation of public order than 

 yours ; and yet, with soldiers and gendarmes for ever at 

 your elbow, we can scarcely maintain peace ; whilst here, 

 in England, you may walk miles in the most perfect 

 security, without meeting a soldier and scarcely a police- 

 man ; your Queen walks amongst her subjects without 

 her Guards, and with only a civil attendant or two ; and 

 property to the amount of millions, viewed by tens of 

 thousands daily in this Crystal Palace of yours, is in- 

 trusted to the safe keeping of a few officers in blue, who 

 are found perfectly competent to preserve it from de- 

 predation ! I cannot understand this 1" 



Just so. No foreigner, upon a prima facie view of 

 society here, can understand us. But a deeper insight 

 into our system will show that Englishmen respect the 

 laws because they help to make them ; I hey uphold the 

 monarchy because it is limited; they love the sovereign, 

 because, whilst all powerful to do good, she is powerless to 

 do evil ; and they respect the institutions of the country 



because they possess the power themselves of remodel- 

 ling them when found defective or corrupt ; and all this 

 is effected without political convulsion, or, scarcely, 

 excitement, because the inherent strength of the consti- 

 tution renders it unnecessary. Under such a system all 

 industrial interests are safe, and especially those of agri- 

 culture. Left to his own unfettered efforts, with no 

 official interference to either prevent or promote them, 

 the husbandman labours in perfect security, with the 

 certainty that he is under the protection of just laws, 

 and free from the vexatious interference of governmental 

 edicts and fiscal impertinence. 



Long may he thus labour, and reap the fruits of his 

 labour ! We want no changes but those which will free 

 the land from those last vestiges of feudalism, the law of 

 entail, and the laws for the protection of vermin called 

 game. We have not denounced this system because 

 there is but one opinion upon it amongst rational men, 

 namely, that the men Vifho feed the game ought to have 

 the privilege of eating it or destroying it. When, there- 

 fore, these relics of a barbarous age are destroyed, the 

 land of England will have attained its just position as a 

 commercial property, transferable at the will of the 

 owner, and subject to the same claims as other property. 

 Whilst the tenant-occupier will no longer see the fruits ■ 

 of his labour devoured under his eyes, to enable his 

 landlord to enjoy the savage pleasures (! !) of a battue; 

 a pastime as opposed to common sense as it is to com- 

 mon humanity, to say nothing of the pi'evious injustice 

 to the farmer who is compelled to feed the game. Both 

 these systems are doomed, and it is only a question of 

 time that upholds them. 



SHROPSHIRE SHEEP. 



The diaposition of the Koyal Agricultural Society to recog- 

 nize more generally the different breeds of sheep in England, 

 aa recently evinced by instituting a prize at the last meeting 

 for any ahort-v/oolled sheep not Southdown, has already had a 

 beueficisl tendancy, inasmuch as it has been the means of 

 bringing more immediately before the piiblio a breed which 

 even now is but partially kuo*u, and which but a very few 

 years ago was in utter obscurity. The original Shropihire 

 sheep can be traced to the Long Mynd and the other adjacent 

 mouutains in Mid-Shropshire, and iu its improved staie may 

 be thus described. A small, but wide and well-formed, head, 

 with a good countenance ; a daik-grey and somewhat peckled 

 face, with a whitening tendency towards the eara; somewhat 

 erect and thick set m the neck; short, bat symmetrically fine, 

 in the leg; broad in the shoulder, with a very deep, full, and 

 well-developed brisket ; rather long, and particularly broad and 

 level in the back, with ribj well covered, and ol a rounded 

 tendency ; low iu the flank, with eiceedingly heavy hind- 

 quarters, and a leg very thick, round, and low. The average 

 weight at sixteen months would he about 20 lbs. or 22 Iba. per 

 quarter; and a good flock would average from Gibs, to 8 lbs. 

 per fleece. Their original mountain breeding has stamped 

 them with a remarkable hardihood of constitution. They will 

 thrive and do well even upon land of a sterile nature, while in 

 more generous districts the rapidity of their growth, and their 

 early and natural teudeucy to fatten, are most extraordinary. 



Thickly depastured iu the undulating districts of their native 

 county they are ever a source of ready profit to their owners, 

 who, beginning now generally to understand their superiority, 

 tend them with the greatest skill, care, and management. 

 Hence this sheep, hitherto so little known, is now taking its 

 proper place, and the few real Shropshire breeders who have 

 been so indefatigable and untiring in their efforts to produce a 

 perfect animal, have at length bsen rewarded, by obtaining for 

 them a name and a first-class position among the sheep of this 

 country. They possess, to a singular degree, that quality and 

 symmetry which have made the Southdowus so famoua ; but 

 are much larger in scale, earlier at maturity, and heavier iu 

 thsir wool -cutting propeitiea. They cannot CTinpate with the 

 Hampshire downs for size, but when weighed against their 

 large- antagonists, the compact and well-developed points of 

 the Shrop render the apparent disparity in size amply com- 

 pensated for by the actual weight, while in fineness of quality 

 they are very far their superiors. It will be remembered that 

 at the last Royal meeting, the Hampshire down No. 722 took 

 the first special prize awarded to its class ; and, being eligible 

 to compete also in the class " Short- wooUed sheep not qualified 

 to compete as Southdowus," was shown against the Shrop- 

 shires, and, with the others exhibited, were defeated by Messrs. 

 Adney and M&irc, two well-known county breeder?, wh ) carried 

 off two first and one second prize from this class. Mr. Adney'a 

 shearling was afterwards let to the Earl of Aylesford for 65 



