686 
THE GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. . 
[Serr. 30, 
party on board from Cowes, was near enough to see the 
accident, and sent her boats to take off the passengers. 
The steamer’s forefoot was knocked off, with other 
damage, but she has since been got off; fortunately the 
wind was off the shore. 
Knutsford—A meeting of the farmers, labourers, 
electors, and other inhabitants of North Cheshire, was 
held here on Monday, to hear addresses from Messrs. 
Cobden and Bright, as a deputation from the Anti-Corn- 
law League, on “the operation of the corn-laws upon 
tenant farmers and farm-labourers.’? About ten days’ 
notice had been given of the meeting, and invitations by 
placard and circular had been given to every farmer, 
labourer, and indeed, to every elector and person connected 
with agriculture in this division of the county. Mr. E. D. 
Davenport, of Capesthorpe, took the chair, who opened 
the proceedings by advocating a small fixed duty, to 
decrease at stated periods, and finally to cease in two or 
three years. Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden then addressed 
the meeting at great length in favour of a total and imme- 
diate repeal. Mr. Cobden read a copy of a Cheshire 
farmer’s lease, which had been put into his hand, and said, 
with such leases he did not wonder at bad farming. in 
the first place, it reserved ‘‘ all game, fish, and rabbits.” 
Then the farmer was ‘‘ not to have in tillage, in any one 
year, more than one fifth part of the premises—summer 
work and potato ground included ; the potato ground not 
to exceed one statute acre. He was not to take more than 
three crops at one tillage, nor without once sufficiently 
marling or liming the land while under the said course of 
Crops: not to fresh plough, pave, or burn any part of the 
premises, nor to break up any of the ancient meadow land, 
nor to use any soot as manure, nor to sow any vetches, 
nor to mow more than once in any one year, nor to sow 
any wheat or rye on the brush, nor without a summer 
fallow ; nor to sow any hemp or flax, nor to break up or 
mow any pasture land (except the meadow and bone- 
dusted land), in rotation and due course, and lay the same 
down with good clover and hay grass seeds at the end of 
each tillage, when after once mowing, the same is to be 
considered as pasture, to embrace a stock. To imbarn or 
stack and consume on the premises all the hay, fodder, 
straw, and not to expend all the manure (except such as 
is used for rotation as aforesaid), arising from or to be 
gathered from the premises or the meadow land, or on the 
grass land last laid down only.’? Now what would be said 
to the manufacturer who should take a millon such terms, 
binding him to use the old machinery without improve- 
ment? Ifthis were to be done, the manufacturers would 
soon be in the condition of the farmers. He concluded by 
reading a calculation of the expenditure on a Cheshire 
farm, the produce of which brought in 535/., and of which 
he said 360/, was swallowed up for rent alone. Mr. Henry 
Swinborne, of Knutsford, then moved the following reso- 
lution, which was carried unanimously :—‘* That in the 
opinion of this meeting the principles of free-trade are in 
accordance with the laws of nature, and conducive to the 
welfare of mankind; and taat all laws which interfere with 
the free intercourse of nations, under the pretence of pro- 
tection to the agricultural, colonial, or manufacturing 
interests, ought to be forthwith abolished.” 
Lancaster.—On Saturday, Messrs, Cobden and Bright 
visited this city to address the agriculturists on the effects 
of the Corn Laws. Although a market-day was chosen 
for the convenience of the farmers, scarcely any agricultu- 
rists attended, the bulk of the meeting being people 
belonging to the factories. Mr. R. Bateman, an extensive 
landowner, presided. Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden 
addressed the meeting in favour of free trade, after which 
it was resolyed unanimously—‘ That it is the opinion of 
this meeting that the principles of free trade are in accord- 
ance with the laws of nature, and conducive to the welfare 
of mankind; and all laws which interfere with the free 
intercourse of nations, under pretence of protection to the 
corn or manufacturing interests, ought to be promptly 
abolished.”” Upon the motion of Mr. Livesey, of Preston, 
a vote of thanks was given to Messrs. Cobden and Bright, 
for their addresses, and their kindness in coming to address 
the farmers of North Lancashire. 
Leeds.—The local papers state that while Mr. O’Con- 
nor recommends Dr. M‘Douall as a fi€ and proper person 
to be a member of Parliament, Mr. Hill says that “Dr, 
M‘Douall should hang himself on the first tree that pre- 
sents itself, as he is an idle demagogue, who by his fire- 
brand speeches puts the necks of his dupes into a halter, 
while he keeps himself out of danger.’’ his difference 
of opinion as to Dr. M‘Douall’s merits has caused a 
rupture between Mr. O’Connor, the proprietor, and Mr, 
Hill, the editor, of the Northern Star, which has ended 
in the dismissal of the latter. 
Leicester.—Last week two of the metropolitan police 
apprehended at Waltham fair, near Melton Mowbray, a 
horsedealer, named John Britton, charged with committing 
a highway-robbery, accompanied by violence. It appears 
that about 16 years since, a robbery was committed on a 
farmer returning from market at Wells, in Somersetshire, 
when such violence was used, that he was left for dead, 
Several blows having been inflicted, and his mouth stuffed 
with clay. After some time a gipsy named Burton was 
apprehended, convicted as one of the parties implicated, 
and executed. From that time till about three weeks since 
no clue was obtained to the other parties, when the 
prisoner being in London, was recognised by a Somerset- 
shire man, now one of the metropolitan police, as “ Gipsy 
” 
Jack,” one of the parties suspected. A communication 
was made to the authoriti 
orities at Wells, and the prisoner 
On being seized he said, 
a mother man you want, named 
Burton,”’ the name of the man who was executed. Upon 
searching his person, 100/. in bank notes were found, and 
several sovereigns, besides a large string of horses. After 
the necessary forms had been gone through, he was con- 
veyed by railway to London, on his way to Wells. Much 
astonishment prevailed in Leicester on the arrival of the 
prisoner, who had been known and respected in his line 
of business for 16 years, in the course of which he had 
accumulated a respectab'e competency. Last year he had 
a contract with Government to supply the army with a 
large draught of horses, and there was no suspicion in 
the neighbourhood that he had at any time formed 
improper connexions. 
Liverpool.—The proprietors of the Bank of Liverpool 
recently held their 12th annual meeting. The net profits 
were stated to be 56,000/., out of which it was proposed to 
pay the income-tax, and a dividend of 10 per cent. This 
would leave a balance to be added to the reserved fund of 
upwards of 5,0002. The bankers of Liverpool have signed 
an undertaking to close their establishments on Saturdays 
at one o’clock, instead of on Fridays as heretofore.— Some 
alarm has been excited by the sudden disappearance 
from the Adelphi Hotel, in this town, of Mr. Dyce Sombre, 
anative of the East Indies, who married the daughter of 
Lord St. Vincent, and was lately pronounced insane by a 
Court of Lunacy. About ten’ days ago Mr. Sombre 
arrived in Liverpool from London, accompanied by a 
physician and three servants, and put up at the Adelphi 
Hotel. The object of his visit was change of air and 
scene. It appears that about four o’clock on Thursday 
morning, he came down stairs in his night-dress, opened 
the hall-door, and went out. He has not since been 
heard of. It is supposed that he took with him a consi- 
derable sum of money, and that he has fallen into the 
hands of thieves, who are keeping him locked up until 
his gold has been exhausted. 
Muidstone.—A corporal of the 58th Regiment, named 
Henry Donelly, was accidentally shot in Brompton bar- 
racks on Saturday, while at his dinner, by another corporal, 
named Thomas Lawrie. The deceased had, on his return 
from Maidstone gaol with’a prisoner, forgotten to draw the 
charge in his musket, and on Lawrie entering the barrack- 
room, he took it up, not thinking it was loaded,when it went 
off and shot him. The two corporals were intimate friends, 
and the jury at the inquest being satisfied that it was an 
accident, returned a verdict to that effect. 
Margate.—The competition among the steamers from 
London to Margate has been so great, that some of them 
have begun to carry passengers for one shilling each, 
which is not sufficient to pay the pier dues for landing 
and embarking; two shillings each is charged for the 
return voyage. It is expected that the fares each way will 
be only sixpence next week, and the owner of two of the 
boats has threatened to carry people from London to 
Margate for nothing. 
Norwich.—The local papers state that Norwich Cathe- 
dral has this week assumed a new appearance, its spire 
being converted into an observatory, for the purposes 
of the trigonometrical survey, now making throughout the 
kingdom, by order of the Board of Ordnance. A party of 
sappers and miners has arrived, and have’ commenced 
their works, by carrying a scaffolding up to the top of the 
spire, from whence they will take their observations. Tbe 
weather-cock is taken down, and its place will, for the 
present, be supplied by the instruments used in the survey, 
Oaford.—The Rev. Mr. Newman, one of the editors 
of ‘Tracts for the Times,” has tendered his resignation 
of the vicarage of St. Mary’s, Oxford, together with 
other preferments he holds, to the bishop. Since the 
publication of Tract XC., Mr. Newman, it is said, has 
been subject to much annoyance from the University, and 
the heads of the respective colleges have exerted them- 
selves in prevailing upon the young men under their 
charge not to attend Mr. Newman’s sermons. Other 
reasons are said to have induced the rev. gentleman to 
resign his benefice, but the one mentioned is stated to be 
the principal.—The Rev. James Norris, B.D., late Fellow 
of Corpus Christi College, and President elect, was ad- 
mitted and installed on the 21st with the accustomed 
ceremonies into the presidentship of that society, vacant 
by the death of the Rev. Dr. Bridges. 
Portsmouth.—The three pilots engaged to conduct back 
to Tréport the French steamers which formed part of 
her Majesty’s convoy from the shores of France were 
agreeably surprised, on their return to Portsmouth on 
Wednesday week, by being presented with an order to 
draw on the French Consul for sums which may be re- 
garded as munificent remuneration for services of a com- 
paratively trifling nature. The first was authorised to 
receive 24/., the second 23/., and the third 212. 
Ware.—In consequence of the resolution agreed upon 
at the last vestry meeting, to quit the church immediately 
after the reading of the Nicene creed, a number of persons 
from Hertford and other places attended Ware church on 
Sunday last, for the purpose of witnessing the scene. 
Many of the usual attendants were absent, and their 
places occupied by persons unconnected with the parish. 
At the appointed time, just as the curate was proceeding 
to the pulpit, about 100 persons, comprising a large pro- 
portion of the most influential inhabitants of the town, 
quietly rose from their seats and quitted the church. 
The strangers remained in their seats, so that a tolerably 
numerous auditory was left. No allusion was made in 
the sermon to the existing differences. 
Wetherby.—The annual meeting of the Wetherby Agri- 
cultural Society took place in that town on Wednesday 
week. The show of stock, of all kinds, was the largest and 
finest that has been seen since the establishment of 
the society in 1840. The annual dinner of the society 
took place as usual in the Castle Garth, where a spacious 
pavilion had been erected. The Earl of Harewood, Pre- 
sident of the Society, took the chair. After the usual 
toasts, Mr. Lane Fox returned thanks for the Vice Pre- 
sident, and subsequently for the successful candidates. 
Mr. Dent proposed *‘*The Agricultural Servants and 
Labourers.’’ He wished to draw attention to this the last 
link in the chain of rural life, still not the least important, 
the agricultural labourers. They were the basis of all those 
things of which they had heard to-day. It was a most 
gratifying thing in rural life to see a well-ordered popu- 
lation, and to think that the proprietor of the land 
regarded himself as the head of the community, and 
endeavoured to draw the link closer and closer between the 
labourer and the employer. He knew from experience 
that during the last winter the privations and sufferings 
of the honest industrious labourer were very great: and 
as these periods of distress were constantly recurring, it 
was the duty of both occupier and proprietor to render 
whatever assistance was in their power, either by improve. 
ments in draining, or works of the like sort, which he was 
convinced would not only repay the occupier for the 
capital employed, but would afford labour, and conse- 
quently money, to the labourer. And he was satisfied that 
if this was more attended to, it would be productive of 
great advantage to the three classes of the community— 
the proprietor, the tenant, and the labourer. He recom- 
mended greater attention to the construction of the 
dwellings of the labourers, so as to secure the greatest 
comfort of which they were susceptible, and also in afford- 
ing them small plots of land for cultivation. How far this 
latter point should be carried out was an open question; 
he did not know whether they should have a greater 
quantity than a rood or half an acre, or whether every 
cottager should be enabled to keep a cow; these were 
matters that experience would determine ; but to improve 
their condition was to strengthen the hands of the farmers 
in every point of view. Improvements were going on 
apace in the manufacturing districts ; Jet them take care 
not to leave the agricultural labourer in the back-ground. 
They wanted their minds enlarged ; and he thought there 
were some small farmers who were also in need of improve- 
ment. Many of them kept their sons at home, who, not 
having had the means of observation and experience else- 
where, follow in their steps, and do not make that advance- 
ment in the cultivation of the soil that they ought to do. 
The toast was drank with three times three, after which 
Mr. Ferrand, M.P., said thatas an humble labourer in the 
cause of agricultural and manufacturing Jabour in this 
country, he had been requested by the committee to reply 
to the toast which had just been drank ; and on behalf of 
the labourers of this country he would beg to retura thanks 
for the Christian, the English, the old English speech 
which they had just now heard uttered by Mr. Dent ; for 
they might depend upon it that unless the labourers were 
kept happy, peaceable, contented, and prosperous, England 
must soon sink into oblivion, destitution, and misery. It 
was from labour that all capital had sprung ; it was to 
labour that they were indebted, from the highest to the 
lowest, for every: blessing which they enjoyed. And he 
was sorry to say that amidst the comforts and blessings 
which Providence had showered down upon them, they 
were too apt, as a people and a nation, to forget the 
labourers of the country. God had declared that man 
should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow, and 
he had allotted to those around them, and to others in 
stations like them, the means of bringing that labour into 
active existence; and he felt convinced that although the 
labourers themselves were not now present to plead their 
cause, he had no occasion to make any strenuous appeal 
to their charitable feelings for the adequate exercise of 
those charities which were alike honourable to the rich, 
and merciful and kind to the poor. He cared not whether 
the manufacturing or the agricultural labourer was in dis- 
tress ; they were both our fellow-countrymen, and they 
had asacred public duty to perform towards them; if 
they did not wish to see this country the most degraded 
upon earth, they must save them from want. How was 
that to be done? They knew that continuing to reduce 
wages to the lowest level was not the way ; they all knew 
that to enable the working-classes of this country to be, 
as usual, a happy, moral, contented people in the land, 
they must rescue them from their present degradation by 
some great effort. He must tell them that there was not 
an hour to spare; the emergency was more frightful than 
many now calculated upon. Hunger would break through 
stone. walls, and the people of this country had borne their 
sufferings with a degree of forbearance and Christian 
humility which was unparalleled in the history of the 
world. He wished not to use one expression which was 
unfair towards their employers, but, having been deputed 
to reply to this toast, he had no desire to shrink from 
performing the duty. Mr. Ferrand went on to enlarge 
upon the duty which devolved upon landed proprietors, 
as the stewards of the property committed to their carey 
of taking care of the poor of the land; and he spoke at 
some length upon the advantages afforded by the allot- 
ment system, and commended to public attention the late 
report of the Commons’ committee on that subject. 
Whitehaven.—aA collision has taken place between the 
colliers who have struck in Lord Lonsdale’s collieries and 
those who were willing to work on the conditions laid 
down. On Thursday week, Lord Lonsdale’s agent applied 
to the magistrates for protection, the result of which was 
a despatch to Carlisle for military assistance. A company 
of the 82d Highlanders immediately marched into White- 
hayen Castle, and numerous workmen were sworn in as 
special constables. The leading rioters have been appre- 
hended and committed for trial. 
Windsor.—On Saturday morning Prince Albert, accom- 
panied by Prince Hohenlohe Langenbourg and Mr. G- 
E. Anson, shot over the Royal preserves near Flemish 
Farm, in the Great Park. The birds were very numerous, 
