THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



299 



necessary sales just before that day to meet those duties. 

 By a species of universal conspiracy among buyers, 

 prices are invariably run down when the inevitable 

 hour approaches. The English hop planter finds him- 

 self taxed at both ends : first by the payment of the 

 duty, and then by the reduction of price. The foreigner 

 can bond, and sell when he likes ; not so the English- 

 man, who must pay his duty on the very day. It is 

 true, Chancellors of the Exchequer have granted post- 

 ponements — nay, jnore, they have encouraged and 

 ofTered thcui. The bait has been swallowed. The 

 planter is lured on from one precarious season to another 

 precarious season — always to the gain of the Ministerial 

 excheiiuer, very seldom to that of his own. He has to 

 contend with the great insect family — the flea, the fly, 

 the louse; with "honey-dew," "black smut," and 

 possibly, and too frequently, with final blight. 



We wish to bring forward nothing but facts — 

 to advance nothing but demonstrative deductions, 

 otherwise wo might point to that which other 

 nations and other times have experienced from un- 

 just and injudicious taxation. We might point 

 to the taxes anc' the auuoying and vexatious re- 



strictions on the peasantry of France just before 

 the great Revolution, which swept away throne, altar, 

 castle, and mansion, making the whole laud an Acel- 

 dama of blood — kingless, godless, lawless, and almost 

 uninhabitable? We might point to the period in our 

 own annals when ship money was sought to bo enforced, 

 and resisted because it was arbitrary and unconstitu- 

 tional, bringing a king to the block and a dynasty 

 shortly afterwards to perpetual exile. Happily our 

 Sovereign can never be aftV-cted by what premiers or 

 Parliaments can do or undo : she can neither promote 

 nor prevent improper taxation : nevertheless let our 

 lawgivers pause and ponder — there is such a thing as 

 " passive resistance" to unjust and cruel taxation. 

 Men may see their property seized and their families 

 beggared for a little while, but a whole district cannot 

 be sold up at once, and the time may como when "passive 

 resistance" may spread its infectious power. And 

 then, as it was too late for a king, who demanrled ship 

 money, to save his head, it may become too late for a 

 British minister, who demands hop duty, to preserve 

 his place or his prestige. 



AGRICULTURAL SOCIETI ES— THEI R ADVANTAGES AND ABUSES, 



It is but an ungrateful business for a man to have to 

 talk about himself. If it be in praise of his own doings, 

 people naturally enough look on such a recommenda- 

 tion with some suspicion ; or if in delicate disparage- 

 ment, the world may be ready enough to take him at 

 his word, and admit it is all too true. For choice he had, 

 perhaps, better talk to himself. Let him have every now 

 and then inward commune as to how he is gomg on — 

 what he may do to improve — how he may enlarge his 

 sphere of action — and by what means he may do the 

 best for himself and his family. If under his own roof, 

 there will be no great harm should he get into the 

 track of thinking aloud on such matters, as his wife, 

 his children, and his servants are almost equally con- 

 cerned in the subject of his cogitations. They may, 

 indeed, put in a word or two with advantage, and the 

 soliloquy so merge into a domestic discussion. 



The case of Paterfamilias may have been taken as 

 something of a prototype. At any rate, there are 

 whole bodies who of late have devoted their proceedings 

 to such somewhat egotistical topics. The Oxford 

 Farmers' Club have just gone into the amalga- 

 mation of agricultural societies. Are there advan- 

 tages to bo gained by their continuance ? and so 

 on — the subject being introduced by Mi-. Cother, of 

 Middle Aston, who was himself first and foremost in 

 promoting the amalgamation of the Oxford and Ban- 

 bury Societies. But a few days earlier, at a meeting 

 down in Cheshire, of the Over Agricultural Society, 

 Mr. Button, of Stauthorne Hall, read a paper on 

 " Agricultural Societies — their advantages and abuses, 

 with some suggestions as to their improvement." At 

 the first-named of these gatherings, Mr. Cother con- 

 cluded by proposing the following rather open-handed 

 resolution, which was carried : "That in the opinion 

 of this meeting the amalgamation of the societies in this 

 and the adjoining counties for the exhibition of stock 

 would not only tend to give additional effect to such 

 exhibitions, but would also increase competition, be a 

 benefit to the producer and consumer, and thereby to 

 the whole community." Neither the opening nor the 

 subsequent debate offered anything very definite ; but 

 it would seem that the union of two of the county as- 

 Bociations has been so successful as to warrant a more 



thorough identity of interests. But even this exten- 

 sion need not be limited to Oxfordshire. If read it 

 aright, the discussion must be regarded as something 

 of a " feeler" towards the establishment of that Sum- 

 mer Show in the Midlands, of which every now and 

 then there is a threat. 



The men of Cheshire came far more resolutely to the 

 point, and Mr. Button dwelt effectively on the abuses 

 too long associated with the conduct of these Exhibi- 

 tions. Our readers well know what in our opinion has 

 long been one of the most heinous of such offences, and 

 it is thus that Mr. Button addresses himself to the 

 same charge: — "Another abuse connected with agri- 

 cultural societies is the practice of getting up animals 

 for mere purposes of show. This has become such a 

 monstrous abuse, that it is attracting unusual atten- 

 tion, and bids fair to receive an effectual check. 

 The Royal Agricultural Society has done much mis- 

 chief in this respect, inasmuch as it has not unfre- 

 quently awarded premiums to animals as breeding 

 stock, which every man of common sense would 

 say was the last thing the animal was fit for in 

 the state it then was. Fat animals of any kind should 

 never be allowed to compete for premiums offered 

 for|store cattle. And in exhibitions for fat stock, in 

 my opinion no premiums ought to be given to animals 

 so fed as to be unwholesome or wasteful as food for 

 man." And then the speaker proceeds to refer to the 

 able letters of Mr. Carr " that appeared during the 

 past year in the Mark Lane Express," while he does 

 us the honour to quote largely from our recent leading 

 article on this gross abuse. But it is not merely to 

 echo our own opinions or facts that we call attention 

 to Mr. Button and his paper, but rather to show how 

 far his own experience of his own local institutions 

 may support what we have advanced. Let us 

 cull a few of these more modern instances :— 

 " Not a few of the bulls exhibited in the various 

 Cheshire shows are quite unfit for breeding purposes ; 

 many of them are kept for the mere purposes of show, 

 and it not uufrequently happens that the successful 

 competitor in the show-yard passes, at the close of the 

 time for exhibition, at once to the butcher. In Cheshire 

 we have not fallen into the moustrous plan of giving 



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