200 



HE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



to communicate to the Society any information he could 

 afford relating to the temperature of the Island of Jersey, 

 its physical character, and population, native and 

 resident. 



M. Carl Loeffier transmitted a work on the " Breeding 

 of Poultry in Germany," and Mrs. Eliza Acton a copy 

 of her "English Bread Book;" and several foreign 

 societies their current transactions. 



Farm-yard Skwage. — Mr. G. Rochfort Clarke, 

 of Chesterton Lodge, Bicester, Oxfordshire, transmitted 

 the following suggestions : 



" I wish to bring the following observatioua oa the subject 

 of sewerage, under the consideration of the Council of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society. Tbe subject ha« already attracted 

 their attention ; but, coinidering that the modern plan of con- 

 ducting all sewage iuto brooks and rivers is causing an enor- 

 mous loss of manure, and is, at the same time, polluting the 

 waters of all parts of the kingdom at a rapidly increasing rate, 

 it appears to me that the time has come when the subject 

 should be made a more distiuct and prominent branch of the 

 Society's operations. The collecting and applying of sewage 

 suitable for manure, and the preservation ot the purity of 

 water in brooks, rivers, wells, and ponds, may be advan- 

 tageously treated of in essays, accompanied bj' experiments, 

 and followed by prizes, and in the following order : — The 

 amount and value of the manure which is lost to the agricul- 

 turist : then the ill-construction of cesspools, and the difficulty 

 of emptying thera. 2. The amount aud value of the manure 

 which is lost to the agriculturist by the modern plan of con- 

 ductiug the sewage into streams and rivers. 3. The effect of 

 different kinds of water on health, growth, fattening, and 

 length of life of cattle. 4. The effect of sewage, when intro- 

 duced into water, on the health, growth, fattening, aud 

 length of life of cattle. The following, amongst other prizes, 

 might be offered : — 1. For essays treating of the above sub- 

 jects generally. 2. For the best mode of constructing cess- 



pools, both for privies and as receptacles for sewage from 

 drains, farm-yards, &c-, whether of separate houses or villages, 

 aud lor intercepting the sewage passing through existing 

 sewers. 3. For the best contrivances for emptying cesspools 

 and ponds, as regards both liquid and solid matter, with a 

 view to its use for agricultural purposes. 4. For the best 

 method of disposing of the materials when emptied cut, 

 whether in combinstiou with other solid substances, or with 

 water, or otherwise. 5. For the best i>lau of collecting the 

 sewage of villages and town?, and of delivering the same to 

 the agriculturist on equitable terms ; keeping in view the 

 health, convenience, aud advantage of all parties, and their mu- 

 tual co-operation, and their fair, rateable contribution towards 

 the labour and expense of the operations." 



Professor Simonds, in recommending that this commu- 

 nication should be referred to the Journal Committee, 

 expressed his deep sense of the importance of the sub- 

 ject to which it related, and his assurance that many of 

 the vital energies of breeding stock were seriously in- 

 jured by their drinking polluted water. 

 Adjourned to February 16. 



Weekly Couxcil, Feb. 16. — Present: Mr. Ray- 

 mond Barker, V.P., in the Chair; Hon. W. G. 

 Cavendish, M.P. ; Mr. Alcock, MP.; Mr. Berners ; 

 Mr. Camps ; Mr. W. Devas ; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs ; 

 Col. MacDouall; Mr. Slaney, M.P. ; Mr. Simpson; 

 Mr. Bullock Webster ; and Mr. Maitland Wilson. A 

 letter was read from Mr. G. J.Neal,on his mode of cul- 

 tivating the turnip crop ; and from Mr. W. Rutherford, 

 offering to communicate a plan he had found successful 

 in the management of his potato crop. 



Adjourned to Feb. 23. 



FREE LABOUR IN 185< 



Everything we put our hand to is doomed to change. 

 No human work is so comprehensive as to be suited to 

 all time. No human design is so perfect as not to 

 need amendment. Decay is a seed implanted in all 

 our institutions ; and though wc are taught thus the 

 passing character of all our plans, we seem to cling to 

 them as infallible. 



We are not pleased that our children grow beyond 

 our control ; we strive to maintain a parental power 

 over our colonies at the hazard of fatal ruptures ; we 

 deem it heresy to pronounce those institutions and laws 

 which have served our ancestors inapplicable to our 

 own times. This firm decision, that " what is to be, 

 is" — this deep-rooted attachment to old friends — this 

 reverence for the past, is fraught with its peculiar 

 value ; a value that perhaps dominates over its incon- 

 veniences. A people that clings tenaciously to the 

 precedents of antiquity is not very liable to those 

 violent irruptions which ever accompany the adoption 

 of changes for which the nation is not prepared. The 

 movement of reform must commence individually, 

 approving its jiLsticc to every man's conscience before 

 it can assert its power collectively ; and so by the time 

 tho people are at one with regard to the defective prac- 

 tice, they are prepared intelligently to adopt its amend- 



ment- It is a satisfactory circumstance, that a very 

 large majority must be united to demand a change in 

 our laws, before such a change can be effected ; and the 

 difficulty in obtaining the change will always be the 

 best guarantee that the change demanded is sincerely 

 and inevitably needed. 



There are, however, certain laws that oppress some 

 classes that have not power sufficient to make known 

 their wrongs in such a way as to excite public opinion 

 to one of those majestic demonstrations which achieve 

 a victory and become historical. In such cases we 

 should recognize an injustice, and seek to remedy it 

 without awaiting the clarion demand of a determined 

 multitude. 



Now the Lawof Settlement is one of those institutions 

 which, out of the utter change of circumstances from 

 which it arose, should cease. Having served its 

 turn — having performed its evil and its good, and now 

 having none but an injurious effect, it should be 

 amended. The last twenty years have unsettled tho 

 whole population of these isles, and settled thom anew 

 over the surface of this habitable globe. The emigrant 

 ships and the railways have performed the work of 

 hundreds of thousands of ** orders of removal " at less 

 expense of fecliug.s and money both to paupers and rate- 



