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THE CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 

 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



Of all the unions which have yet been established for national pur- 

 poses — whether in defence of our liberties, our rights, or our interests — 

 not one has yet presented an aspect more formidable, or better calcu- 

 lated, if ably and judiciously conducted, to work out some great good 

 for the suffering millions, than the Central Agricultural Society of 

 Great Britain and Ireland. 



The objects being to collect the scattered forces of the Laned Inte- 

 rest into one powerful body — to give efficiency to the Local Agricultu- 

 ral Association, by correspondence with the central board in London, 

 partly represented by deputies from the former, and by the united in- 

 fluence of the whole to obtain, for tlie first time, a full, free, and unre- 

 stricted inquiry, in both Houses of Parliament, into all the causes of 

 ao-ricultural distress, whether it be the cuiTency, or tithes, the want of 

 poor laws for Ireland, or an equalization of the poor-rates in England, 

 or any other local burden. 



In connection with these objects, the " Agriculturist's Journal," — 

 (see advertisement) — has been established, under the patronage of the 

 central society, but at the sole risk and responsibility cf the two hono- 

 rary secretaries; not only that it may serve as an organ for communi- 

 cating weekly, to every district of the country, the proceedings of the 

 society, but also, by a total abstinence from party politics, and an inde- 

 pendence of the conflicting struggles of Whigs, Tories, Conservatives, 

 or Radicals, it may, by its neutrality, cause the agriculturists to be re- 

 spected by all parties ; making the farmers that which in reality they 

 are, too influential to be neglected, too numerous to be bribed, too intel- 

 ligent to be cajoled, and too importunate to have any longer a deaf ear 

 turned to their prayers for redress. 



With these views and principles, the Central Society has gained 

 rapidly in public estimation. It has only been established a few weeks ; 

 fifty Local Agricultural Associations in different parts of the kingdom, 

 have already declared their adhesion ; many others are now forming 

 for the purpose of joining ; and more than four hundred Noblemen, 

 Baronets, Members of Parliament, Land-owners, and Fund-owners, 

 Potestants and Catholics, Whigs, Tories, and Radicals, comprising, in 

 fact, every shade and hue of politics. Religion and interest are here 

 found cordially associated, and sitting at the same board, determined not 

 to be again humbugged by false principles of legislation, for the accumu- 

 lation and not the diffusion of wealth, by ignorance or blindness, but to 

 reveal what ought ne^ er to have been concealed by honest men, — namely, 

 the 7-eal cause of that intolerable Agricultural distress, which cannot be 

 much longer endured without endangering the monarchy itself, and in- 

 volving the whole empire in one terrible convulsion ! 



With a view to avert this dreadful calamity, and to discover not only 

 the real cause of such insupportable evils, but some adequate remedy for 

 them, hitherto so repeatedly denied by Parliament, sub-committees have 



