THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



61 



the Shorthoru sales, and Ibo barren beasts palmed off 

 to establish the breed in other countries ! But Mr. 

 Sidney, declaiming against over-feeding in Hanover 

 Square, is in much the same position as Mr. Barford 

 in Baker Street, protesting against a still more ap- 

 parent iniquity, in clipping and trimming sheep into 

 shape. The veriest " outsider" by this knows how 

 true are such charges, and how common such prac- 

 tices; but directors and committee-men, in council 

 assembled, will have nothing to do with them, simply, 

 we are afraid, from having already had far too much 

 to do with such "goings on." It is thus that men 

 like Mr. Sidney may do good. 



" The River Reform" meeting, as Mr. Algernon 

 Clarke has christened it, was tolerably well at- 

 tended, and especially benefited by the services of 

 a capital chairman in Lord Romney, and as efficient 

 a secretary in Sir Hem-y Vavasour. Sir John 

 Shelley, too, with his practical experience of " the 

 House, " offered some opportune advice as to 

 how the movement should be managed. The con- 

 ference resulted in the appointment of a committee, 

 which met on the Saturday, and determined to see 

 the Home Secretary, with the intention of asking the 

 Government to bring in a comprehensive measure 

 on the subject. Some half-a-dozen names or so 

 were, in the first instance, offered to the meeting as 

 the constituents of this committee, from which the 

 name of Mr. Algernon Clarke, who has written 

 more and is, practically, better acquainted with 

 the subject than anyone now alive, was carefully 

 left out ; and the whole thing began to look like 

 " a job " for puffing some "distinguished person- 



age," who would seem, however, to be very 

 well able to do this for himself. Of course some- 

 body rose at once to add the name so curiously 

 omitted, and a -few others were subsequently let 

 in ; but there is a too palpable egotism and absurd 

 assumption of authority exercised in a certain 

 quarter, that will have to be continually resisted. 

 Nothing so injures a movement like this as anyone 

 with impudence or arrogance enough, being allowed to 

 make a trade out of our common cause ; and the en- 

 deavour does not start so warmly as to suflTer from 

 being " over-laid" in this way. There is no doubt 

 but that the Government might easily carry a Bill iu 

 the ensuing session, combining the features of that of 

 Lord Carlisle's introduced in 1852, with Mr. Ker 

 Seymour's, of 1854. Such a measure would meet the 

 immediate wants of would-be-drained estates as well 

 as enable the majority of proprietors in adistrict anxious 

 for improvement, to compel the minority to assist. 

 At the same time, it is essential that a Government 

 inquiry should be made into the present state and 

 management of our rivers, and the general drainage of 

 the kingdom. A companion investigation might be 

 entered on over the manifold deficiencies in existing 

 Acts of Parliament, with a view to the framing of 

 some future enactment to improve the drainage of the 

 country, and to deal with mills, water-rights, and 

 other " vested interests," without the burden of local 

 bills. 



Our own special Reports of all the meetings re- 

 ferred to will be found in our pages ; together with a 

 careful estimate of the Show, our own Prize- lists, 

 and other information of an exclusive character. 



SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE AND IMPLEMENT SHOW. 



For some weeks past large placards have been visible 

 in the metropolis advertising all whom it may concern 

 of the approaching cattle show. On the Monday many 

 omnibus proprietors hoisted the flag of the Durham ox, 

 and their vehicles sailed up Oxford-street under its sig- 

 nificant and well-understood colours, while cabbies 

 kept a bright and early look-out at the terminus or in 

 the street for any customer who might confirm their 

 traditional notions of that class of portly gentlemen 

 usually known as rus i?j urbe. 



It is well that the proposition of John Duke of Bed- 

 ford, made in 1821, was not agreed to by the members 

 of the club. That nobleman urged the breaking-up of the 

 club because ' ' the markets of the metropolis and through- 

 out the kingdom are abundantly supplied, the best and 

 more profitable breeds of cattle and sheep have been 

 brought into notice, and have made rapid and extraor- 

 dinary progress in the estimation of the breeder and 

 grazier." The Duke, in conformity with this opinion — 

 that the ends for which the club was associated were 

 answered— withdrew his name from the subscription list. 

 The withdrawal of such liberal support and so distin- 

 guished a presidency had the effect of aroosmg the energy 



of those members who remained, and who, in opposition 

 to the great Duke, cherished the conviction that the 

 ends of the club were much more extensive than he 

 imagined, and, so long as there remained cattle to im- 

 prove, and farmers to improve them, never would be 

 accomplished. The success of the club under the en- 

 lightened presidency of Earl Spencer and the Duke of 

 Richmond, and the clever secretarial management of 

 Mr. Brandreth Gibbs and his brother, whom he suc- 

 ceeded, shows clearly enough that his Grace of Bedford 

 mistook the dawn for the full daylight, and wished us 

 to be contented with a few rare specimens of bovine ex- 

 cellence ; whereas the real object of the society has been 

 to make the exceptional excellence of that day the rule 

 of ours. Some few only in the Duke's time were 

 aroused to the importance of breeding, to the heritage 

 of good qualities ; whereas now every tenant-farmer 

 knows that it costs no more to have a well-bred animal 

 than a bad one — nay, that the first expense of obtaining 

 the good breed is swiftly and amply repaid in its early 

 maturity and fattening properties. Not a man novir, 

 however small his tenanoy, but looks for the traits of 

 blood, ia whatever breed be may with to lelect from, 



