228 THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 
[Arni 4, 
service the working men are,and how essential and 
ositively necessary their arms are to overcome all 
diffeulties, both civil, military, commercial, and agri- 
cultural. We should not class them as mere machines 
to be used or abused as occasion may require. We 
should not grudge them fair wages, by which they can 
regain the strength they waste in our service ; and we 
should not forget that money expended in labour brings 
in a high per centage. It is too much the custom to 
grind down the hedger and diteher to the lowest frac- 
tion, taking advantage of an overstocked human market; 
but this is false economy and bad policy. If a horse is 
not properly fed, he cannot do his work as it ought to 
be done, neither can a human being! This fact ap- 
pears to be ack ledged as to the quadrupeds ; on 
farm they are generally in better case than the bipeds. 
Putting the screw on is exceedingly injudicious; it de- 
stroys all neighbourly feeling aud makes the servant 
denounce his master as a tyrant, and the master deem 
his mana slave. Although individuals living in differ- 
ent stations are not required to associate intimately 
together, which would be contrary to the desire of all 
parties, yet a kindness should exist amongst those who 
are dependent upon each other, irrespective of the 
sordid love of gold. But, on the contrary, I ask, is it 
not a common thing to hear the horrid expression of 
* the scum of the earth” applied to the lower orders 
of our brethren, made like ourselves in the image of our 
Maker. May we not, in a great measure, trace the de- 
prayed condition of the poor and ignorant to the neglect 
of both their moral and physical state, by those who 
are richer and better informed. Do the merchants and 
fact e k th lves the following ques- 
tion? Have we, to the best of our power and ability, 
thought of the comforts and religious instruction of 
those to whom we are indebted for our wealth and lux- 
uries. Do the landowners ponder on the opportunities 
they daily throw away in worshipping ambition, rather 
than in promoting the happiness of their people. Therich 
man often views his poorer neighbour too much in the light 
of a mechanical contrivance to carry out his schemes, 
taking little account of the moral responsibility attached 
to him as a master. It should be recollected that 
simply giving a man employment which is to turn to 
the profit of the capitalist is merely putting money out 
to exorbitant interest. The one party obtaining a bare 
existence, and the other enriching himself, and living 
upon the fat of the land. Wages will rise or fall ac- 
cording as there is a want or a superabundance of able- 
bodied men in the market, but it does not always follow 
that the articles they produce vary im the same man- 
ner. ‘Therefore advantage should not be taken of low- 
ering wages to'the starving point. Then, again, the 
labourer has to contend with the weather. Suppose he 
receives in an agricultural district 12s. per week. It 
may be remarked, “ Oh, these are capital wages!” so 
they are, if they continued all the year round ; but what 
is the man to do if it rains, snows, or freezes? He is 
ebliged to stop work, and the supply ceases ; and how 
many bad days have we in our changeable climate out 
of the 310 on which a labourer toils? subtract them, 
and we shall find even at the best wages there will not 
be much for a family to live on for a twelvemonth, 
allowing the head to be in constant occupation, weather 
permitting: what must the case be where only 7s. or 
8s. per week are received. The labourers’ cottages are 
generally small, inconvenient, and out of repair, not 
admitting of sufficient accommodation to allow a sepa- 
ration of the sexes in a large family ; in cases of 
fever or other contagious disease, the consequences 
are fearful. Where men, women, and children are 
huddled together, it cannot be imagined that their con- 
duct will be very circumspect, or that they ean live 
entertaining much respect for each other. Common 
humanity and decency call loudly! upon landlords, and 
p ing small lodging-h. for husbandmen, 
to examine well into the state of this description of pro- 
perty, and eause alterations and additions to be made 
more in character with their own habitations ; I mean 
that the working man, his wife, and children, should 
not be crammed together like pigs in a sty. I feel con- 
vinced that many noblemen and gentlemen are little 
Sontíetíts. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY or ENGLAND. 
A Monraty Councrt was held at the Society’s House, 
in Hanover-square, on Wednesday last: present, Tros. 
Raymonp Barker, Esq. in the chair; Sir John V. B. 
Johnstone, Bart, M.P. ; S. Bennett, Esq.; T. W. 
Bramston, Esq., M.P.; W. R. Browne, Esq.; J. F. 
Burke, Esq. ; Col. Challoner ; F. C. Cherry, Esq. ; 
J. Evelyn Denison, Esq. M.P.; H. Gibbs, Esq.; 
B. T. B. Gibbs, Esq.; S. Grantham, Esq.; C. Hill- 
yard, Esq.; W. Fisher Hobbs, Esq.; W. H. Hyett, 
Esq. ; S. Jonas, Esq.; J. Kinder, Esq. ; F. Pym, Esq. ; 
J. A. Ransome, Esq.; Prof. Sewell ; H. S, Thompson, 
Esq. ; G. Wilbraham, Esq. ; and G. H. Ramsay, Esq. 
The following new members were elected :— 
Greenfield, James, Brynderwyn, Usk, Monmouthshire 
Johnson, T. C., Notton, Wakefield, Yorkshire 
Lamothe, Frederick J. D., Ramsey, Isle of Man 
"Moor, J., Ackworth, Wakefield 
Crosby, John, Kirk-by-Thore, Appleby, Westmoreland 
y ¢ Borough, Yorkshire 
Maughan, William, Harewood, Yorkshire 
Hannam, John, North Deighton, Wetherby, Yorkshire 
Firth, John, jun., Wentworth, Rotherham 
Darby, George, Maskelye, Warbleton, Sussex 
The names of 12 candidates for election at the next 
meeting were then read., 
Frvances.—The Report of the Finance Committee 
was read and adopted ; from which it appeared that, at 
the end of the month just ended, the amount of stock 
invested in the public funds, in the names of the Trus- 
tees of the Society, stood at 70007., and the current 
cash-balance in the hands of the Society’s bankers, at 
1598/.— Colonel CHALLONER also laid before the Council 
the official return on. the annual income of the Society, 
for which he had moved at a previous meeting. 
Prize Essay.—Mr. Pusey, M.P., chairman of the 
Journal Committee, transmitted to the Council the 
motto of the Essay on the “Drainage of Running 
Sands,” to which the judges had awarded the Society's 
prize of 10/. for the best essay in that class; and the 
a|sealed motto-paper being opened by the Chairman in 
presence of the Council, it was ascertained that the 
author of the winning essay in question was Mr. Wil- 
liam Linton, ‘of Sheriff-Hutton, near York, who was 
declared by the Council to be the successful competitor 
for that prize. 
NEWCASTLE AuTHORITIES.— The agreement between 
f N +], T 
the Mayor and j) o p 'yne 
and the Royal Agricultural Society of England, in re- 
ference to the arrangements for the ensuing country 
meeting of the Society to be held at that place in the 
middle of July next, was received from Messrs, Clarke, 
Fynmore, and Fladgate, the solicitors of the Society ; 
and having been read to the Council, and signed by the 
Chairman, the Great Seal of the Society was affixed 
to the document in the presence of the Council, and 
the Secretary authorised to complete the agreement by 
the addition of his signature in the name and on be- 
half of the Society, agreeably with the terms of the 
Charter. 
NewcastLe Lectures anD DrscussioNs. —Mr, THomP- 
son then moved, agreeably with the notice he had 
given at the previous Council, for the appointment of 
i to make g or lectures and 
discussions on agricultural subjects at the ensuing 
meeting at Newcastle. He stated that one of the main 
reasons that had induced him to make this motion was 
his convietion that, although the Society had been very 
successful in bringing together first-rate exhibitions of 
stock and implements, it had not yet succeeded in pro- 
ducing a free interchange of opinion amongst practical 
men, or anything approaching to adequate discussion 
on the disputed questions in agriculture—one of the 
principal arguments used to justify the laying out of so 
large a sum annually in premiums at the Show, having 
been that such outlay was absolutely necessary to induce 
practical men to assemble from distant parts of the 
country, and that when so assembled, they. would as- 
suredly both impart and receive benefit from inter- 
ication and di ion with each other. Mr. 
Thompson, however, need scarcely ask whether this 
expectation had been realised. In the Show-yard, or 
at the trial of impl: the little ion that 
took place was, he believed, chiefly carried on acci- 
dentally, and between such parties only as were locally 
known to each other, from the circumstance of their 
having come to attend the meeting from the same 
county, or even from the same neighbourhood ; 
whereas, he conceived, the object of the Society was to 
induce persons living at a distance from one another to 
practise different systems, and to compare their respec- 
tive opinions, so that those who could satisfactorily 
show their practice to be the best, might induce others 
to follow their example, while they, on the other hand, 
might themselves be led to abandon such parts of their 
own system as could not rationally be defended against 
the advocates of other views. The arrangements 
which had already been made with a view to the 
attainment of that object, and the methods tried by 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England and other 
associations to render them successful, had been of 
three kinds, namely, 1. Lectures; 2. Discussions after 
dinner or breakfast (as practised by the Highland and 
Yorkshire Societies) ; 3. Sections: in the system 
followed by the British Association, where each of the 
great branches of science has a/separate lecture-room 
allotted to it, in which papers approved of by a com- 
mittee of selection are read, and followed by discussion. 
The plan first mentioned, that of giving lectures, though 
very useful in imparting to many the information pos- 
sessed by the lecturer, was in Mr. Thompson’s opinion, 
utterly inefficient in the equally important object of 
eliciting truth by the conflict of opinion and the com- 
parison of facts: in other words, that discussion led to 
the acquisition of knowledge,—lectures to the diffusion 
of that already acquired. Attempts, he was aware, 
had been made to combine these advantages, by means 
of a discussion after the lecture, but in all cases that 
had come to his knowledge, that object had been de- 
feated by the length of the lecture ; the attention was 
fatigued by listening for an hour or even more ; and 
with the exception of a few brief questions to the 
lecturer, the audience were {found unwilling to recom- 
mence the subject. The second plan, that of discus- 
sions at table, though found to answer in cases where 
the numbers were limited to a moderate amount, would, 
he feared, be found impracticable on a large scale. 
The inconvenience of providing breakfast or dinner for 
a large and uncertain number of guests, and the diffi- 
culty of carrying ona discussion in a room large enough 
to accommodate 400 or 500 persons at table, were, he 
thought, sufficient objections to such an arrangement, 
The method followed by the British Association seemed 
best adapted to attain the object in view ; and with some 
modifications, he thought the advantages of lectures 
might be combined with those resulting from the read- 
ing of papers and discussion, He considered that it 
would be one main point to have the lectures short, and 
to have it clearly understood that such lectures should 
be only the opening of the subject and commencement 
of the business of the meeting. These, however, he 
regarded as matters of detail only, which he would 
willingly leave to the committee ; his main object was 
to obtain the sanction of the Council to the principle 
for which he ded, and the appoi of a 
committee for the purpose of working it out in its prac- 
tical details. The following committee on this subject, 
agreeably with Mr. Thompson’s motion, was then 
appointed, with instructions to report to the Council at 
the next monthly meeting, on the 6th of May ; namely : 
Lord Portman, President, Henry Handley, Esq. 
Duke of Richmond. W. H. Hyett, Esq. 
Lord Braybrooke. G. Kimberley, Esq. 
Hon. R. H. Clive, M ©. E. Lefroy, Esq. 
P. 
Sir Charles Lemon, Bart., M.P.| W. Miles, Esq., M.P. 
/. B. Johnstone,| Philip Pusey, Esq., M.P. 
art., M.P. H. 8. Thompson, Esq. 
J. F. Burke, Esq. W. Youatt, Esq. 
J, W. Childers, Esq., M.P. 
The Council resolved that Mr. Pusey should be re- 
quested to accept the office of Chairman of the Com- 
mittee. 
Roration or Districrs.—The Report of the Com- 
mittee on the Rotation of Districts for the Country 
Meetings of the Society having been read, Colonel 
CHALLONER, in the absence of Mr. Pusey, brought for- 
ward the motion of which Mr. Pusey had given notice 
at the last Monthly Council, on the inexpediency of 
holding a Country Meeting in the South-Wales District, 
in the year 1847, as originally intended by the Council, 
on account of the contiguity of that district to the one 
in which the meeting of last year was held at Shrews- 
bury, and of the total absence of that railway com- 
munication between South-Wales and the English coun- 
ties, which the Council now regard as essentially con- 
nected with the success of the meeting, and the advan- 
tages to be derived from it by the farmers of the distriet. 
This motion having beeu seconded by Mr. S. BENNETT, 
was unanimously agreed to. 
Country Mrrting or 1847.— That portion of the 
Report of the Rotation of Districts’ Committee refer- 
ring to the meeting of 1847, was then adopted ; the 
schedule in reference to the districts proposed for the 
eight subsequent years being left for consideration at 
the next monthly meeting. 
The district for the Country Meeting of 1847 was 
then declared to be that comprised by the counties of 
Northampton, Huntingdon, Bedford, Hertford, Oxford, 
Warwick, Berks, and Buckingham ; and the Secretary 
was directed by the Council to communicate a state- 
ment of this circumstance to the authorities in each of 
the cities and corporate towns throughout the district. 
The Council also resolved, that the President should be 
requested to summon a Special Council for Wednesday, 
the 22d inst., at 1 o'clock, for the purpose of receiving 
memorials from the authorities of such cities or corpo- 
rate towns in the district as were desirous that the 
Council should select one of their respective loealities 
as the place of holding the Country Meeting of next 
year; and of referring the documents so received, with 
such instructions as the Council may decide, to a Com- 
mittee forthe inspection of the various sites proposed 
for the occasion by the authorities of the pecti 
cities or towns making such application to the Council, 
by the date of that Special Meeting: the Committee to 
consist of the following gentlemen— 
Earl Spencer W. R. Browne, Esq. 
J. V. Shelley, Esq. i 
T. Raymond Barker, Esq. 
S. Druce, Esq. 
The final decision of the question of the partieular place 
of the Meeting for 1847 being left, agreeably with the 
bye-laws, to the Monthly Council, on the 6th of March. 
Przuxo-PNEUMONIA.—Prof. SEwrLL, at the request 
of the Council, reported on a communication received 
from Mr. Murray Blacker, in Suffolk, on the subject of 
he preval: of the pl T ia amongst cattle. 
Prof. Sewell and Mr. Simonds (Lecturer on Cattle 
Pathology at the Royal Veterinary College), had fully 
idered that ication, were of opinion 
that the cases alluded to by Mr. Blacker as originating 
from the introduction among his stock of two newly- 
purchased cows, one of which became affected in one 
month and the other in two months after their purchase, 
were not the result of infection ; for had infection taken 
place the attack would, in their opinion, have taken 
place in a few days. Prof. Sewell referred to the 
opinion he had stated on former occasions, that this dis- 
order generally yields to early depletion, when recourse 
is had to that measure in due time. 
r. D. Ropertson’s letter “On the conditions under 
which it would be most desirable that the prize of the 
Society for thorough-bred Stallions should be“offered,” 
was ordered to be reserved forj consideration until 
December, when the prizes for next year would be 
taken into consideration and decided. 
Mr. Aanew, of Manchester, presented to the Council 
a framed impression of one of the first-class proofs‘of 
his engraving after the painting of the “ Country 
Meeting” of the Society, for which the Council ordered 
their best thanks to be returned. 
r. Browne called the attention of the Council to 
sound new Potatoes grown by Mr. Fuller, M.P., in 
B. T. B. Gibbs, y OF 
Humphrey Gibbs, Esq. 
= 
Sussex, from diseased Potatoes planted in frames. 
Mr. Horzaxp, of Dumbleton Hall, presented copies of 
the form of lease proposed by a committee of the Vale of 
Evesham Agricultural Association. 
The Council then adjourned, over the Easter Recess, 
| to Wednesday, the 22d of April. 
