WHO ARE THE FRIENDS OF THE FARMER? 



Mr. Jacob Wilson, in response to the toast of " The Agricultural 

 Interest," at a dinner held to celebrate the return of the Hon. Guy 

 Dawnay for the North Riding, expressed his thanks for the compliment 

 of having his name associated with so important and comprehensive a 

 toast, and proceeded as follows : I have no reason to doubt that the 

 recent election in this division was fought out otherwise than on the 

 broad lines of Conservatism and Liberalism, though at one time I 

 confess that this normal arrangement appeared likely to be upset 

 by a novel electioneering element of a most disturbing and revolu- 

 tionary character. You will readily perceive that I allude to 



THE farmers' alliance, 



an organisation which, in piscatorial language, may be described 

 as a most alluring bait, which, in the hands of an astute angler 

 like Mr. Gladstone, may be employed with the most deadly results. 

 This bait was designed in Dublin, manufactured in Birmingham, 

 and introduced to the public on the banks of the T^liames. In 

 clear water, with a cloudless sky, and a bright sun, no angler of 

 experience would ever dream of attempting to fish with such tackle, for 

 he must well laiow that even the youngest and most inexperienced 

 " fry," would at once detect the Brummagem tinsel, and thus discover 

 its artificial, hollow, and unreal composition, and would have none 

 of it. But when the waters are disturbed by some exciting cause, 

 when the sky is clouded, and the sun obscured, then the wily 

 angler knows that his opportunity has arrived, and he dexterously 

 drops the bait into a likely pool, where the younger fry rush at 

 it open-mouthed, and swallow it without consideration to their 

 ultimate destruction. Others also at first eagerly rise at it, but on 

 reflection some of the more cautious repent in time and diso-oro-e 

 it ; whilst the older and more experienced pass it by as some- 

 thing to be avoided. Now, gentlemen, in a company like the 

 present, you will, I know, readily be able to apply this simile to 

 the agricultural position, for when agriculture is prosperous, and 

 when our seed times and harvests come and go with regularity, 

 then Mr. Gladstone and his followers well know that it would 

 be useless to attempt to make political capital out of the agri- 

 cultural interest. But when, on the other hand, agriculture 

 is suffering, as it is at present, from a series of bad harvests, 

 unfavourable seasons, and an unwarrantable number of diseases 

 among our flocks and herds, all combining, unfortunately, to produce 



