■Hi 



>■'&•■>-*• 



■ 



Wlio 



H 



ru 



near 



ap 



»hted description to which "Bastinado" 



This, however, in not immediately and directly 



" a r nresent remarks : it is to anot 



would direct the 



mis, nowevw, ^ «"« — J 7 , ,, ' 



the Bnbiect of our present remarks : it is to another 



■lies in 



agriculto 





ation 



edness which will render the mercantile re 

 everywhere beneficial. It is certainly one 01 tne 

 most efficient and economical machines for this pur- 

 pose that we have anywhere seen. Gentlemen 

 come from all quarters, and after examination of its 

 parts and its processes, they are astonished that so 

 little is known of this machine— that aa instrument 

 so thoroughly adapted for the very important pur- 

 poses it is intended to serve, should not be more 

 fully and constantly employed. Only supply this 

 machine with an amount of the raw material on 

 which it is designed to operate, in some measure 

 proportioned to the powers and means which it 

 possesses, and the land would very soon be covered 

 with intelligent landowners and intelligent farmers, 

 and the mercantile relation between the two would 

 produce nothing but good to either. We are sure 

 we cannot better employ the leading section of our 

 Paper in this, the last Number for another year, than 

 by once more calling attention to the Royal Agricul- 

 tural College at Cirencester — the machine to which 

 we refer. 



Having lately been over the college, and the farm 

 connected with it, it is with perfect confidence that 

 we can speak of their present condition ; and we say 

 that, considering, on the one side, the efficiency of 

 every department w r ithin this institution, and on the 

 other, the 100/. premium which in hundreds and 

 thousands of instances is paid in this country and in 

 Scotland for the mere privilege of a year's residence 

 on a farm, it is shameful that an educational appa- 

 ratus so perfect should in any degree lack employ- 

 ment, ignorance of its existence must be the main 

 cause of the still comparatively small, though gra- 

 dually increasing, number of students on its roll. 

 If so, we shall endeavour to remove this ignorance, 

 so far as our own readers are concerned ; and other 

 journals ought, for mere patriotism, to do the same. 

 No doubt the many changes which during past 



We 



decline 



and the only chance of relief for the farmer ; apart plore the apathy 

 from that, " farm high, drain deep, and cultivate' 

 better" — the constant exhortation to which Mr. 

 Mathews refers with such indignant scorn 

 an increased market value of the goods he sells, or 

 in a diminished market value of the goods he buys. 

 Now the country will not permit any attempt at an 

 artificially high price of agricultural produce, and so 

 Mr. Mathews is unavoidably driven to a reduced 

 market value of land as the only hope of its culti- 

 vators. Well ! but if so, why does he crow with 

 such triumphant sarcasm over those who, in the face 

 of falling prices, have thrown up their farms. Does 

 he not see that a single act of that kind, so 

 far as influence upon the market value of land 

 is concerned, must be worth any quantity of 

 talk ? Let 10,000 men follow his own example, 

 and make speeches full of sarcasm and complaint, 

 and we shall have things just as they are. Let 

 10,000 men follow the example he derides, arid 

 farmers would begin to lift up their heads again ; for 

 we believe that land is in general too highly rented, 

 and 10,000 farms seeking tenants would bring 

 it down. We make no apology for the personal 

 character of these remarks, for Mr. Mathews has 

 himself exhibited no consideration for the trifle, as 

 he doubtless considers it, of professional reputation 

 in others ; and we venture therefore to submit to 

 him individually, that acting is more influential 



our 



ability (from whatever cause it WSSft 

 to check It, or the unfortunate eirel?3! f 



„ >yjx Ulic uiiiurtunate circum^or, 4 r 



rules 



Hk 



, „ -- —~» "wc w watcii everv «. m 7 "* 

 to keep the hand upon the pnl Ji^^M 



" exten d the P erio ( u e f n * , 



wtt 



prolong our existence and 



prosperity. * — ^ w ^ 



There are, however, peculiar rhv>m»^ 

 distinguish us from all 'oLr nations ZtSv] *** 

 due watchfulness, may tend to the connm I *' 

 prosperity. We have a happy coistSST* " «• 

 growth of ages, continu^L^Z' ^ il^ 

 improving, a humane amelioration of our law! , h * 

 care of and regard to the welfare of the poor*; J* "** 

 a purer working out of the principles of ^2?^ 

 W its truth has never yet been fully devE I ^ 

 these and many other matters we differ from " fc 



than speaking, and that if he were to throw up his 

 farm because of the ruin he foresees, then though he 

 ceased his complaint, he would be heard more in- 

 fluentially than he ever yet has been ; the gain to 

 the tenant farmers from his act in that one particular, 

 would go very far indeed towards making up to them 

 for the loss of his tongue. 



years have taken place in the management of the 

 Agricultural College have been one cause of its 

 comparative inactivity ; but the present staff of 

 professors and office-bearers is beginning to exert its 

 influence, and the number of students is increasing • 

 it ought to be overflowing, for the constant employ! 

 ment of such an institution to the full extent of its 

 power is a matter of national importance. The 

 college is presided over by a gentleman admirably 

 qualified for the superintendence of an educational 

 •institution; the several departments are in the 

 hands of most excellent teachers ; Prof. Voelcker 

 is well known as a chemist, and especially as an 

 agncu tural chemist, by his performances in the 

 laboratory of Prof. Johnston, and by his late con- 

 tributions to agricultural literature: thee several 

 branches of natural history are efficiently taught ; 

 the different departments of agricultural engineer- 

 ing form the subject of special instruction ; kctures 



to ZhnT17n SCl T e f Ve delivered ^ a gentleman, 

 to whose skill in this department the admirable con- 

 dition of the museum bears testimony; and that 



!»n t PraC K e ° f ^ ri , culture is well taught, the 



farm 



pre- 

 tink's 



rui fi! 1 ener S? tlc i"<*"<>seiiieui is ample proof. 



the town 6 o f CC p S10n ° f , a m J eedn ^ of agriculturists in 

 P E tf V.1 Ciren <*ster during a past year, Mr. 



SeuLnt Z T?' w ° f the m0st ener S eti < and 

 to aSIC"^ *™« ™ the neighbourhood, 



The 



find nfTv s * ^" en cester audien. 

 feet 21 hlt T ° f sarcastic criti cism on 



^ dv l Ca \ e / or Improvement » himself. 



lent on the 

 lately been 

 e ; but we 

 hat sub- 

 s is now 



among the tonic* nnn ,„ t i . ^""*g« irom 



are glad to "know k *h« *avour. This we 



recommend an^wio m av Tl "^ "^J 

 means of agricdwil? 7 .- ™<l™™g after the 



that the AgSS <S T' t0 UikB ifc as a P roof 

 they decide* C ° liege deserves a visit before 



referred to at first The 1 \ me / Cantile rektio " 

 J™t named^Kether i4S eC V- f **' M "hkws, 

 "the poor labourer h o oks ^r t S o ft relati onship- 



™V n our turn, have a ricft \l T •/ SU PP ort > and 

 landing » z n t lf7 e J "S^to assistance from the 



EMIGRATION AND THE POTATO. 

 It has been said that a tree shall be known by its 

 fruit. The prosperous state of Ireland for years and 

 years past, of one-third of the homestead of the British 

 dominions, of all that can alone be depended on as the 

 integer of the British crown, proclaims with trumpet 

 tongue, the fulness and efficiency of all governments to 

 which she has been submitted. I was wrong to question 

 it. It had escaped me that every accident has been 

 wisely foreseen, and as wisely provided for; every remedy 

 promptly and judiciously applied, every measure well 

 timed ; that, with the fixed stability of Mede and Persian 

 law, so well has the collective wisdom of the state been 

 applied that further change has been uncalled for, and 

 inadmissible; that the wise laws of our fathers have 

 been carried out by the wiser laws of their sons ; 

 hat the fabrics they built have been strengthened and 

 secured by the conservative hands of their children, till 

 nothing more is required than to discover the best mode 

 of perpetuating the blessed fruits of our wonderful 

 economy; and it has been found. With a benevolence and 

 liberality truly astonishing, at the cost of all that is dear to 

 us, our bones, our sinews, and our blood, we are to enrich, 

 and strengthen, and ennoble the vast western continent, 

 not our own share of it, with the descendants of the 

 Celt, the brave and hardy Highlanders of Scotland, and 

 the intelligent, spirited, and grateful sons of Ireland 

 —grateful of British rule -who go forth to spread their 

 satisfaction, to renew and add intensity, and extend 

 more widely from the shores of the Atlantic to those of 

 the Pacific, those kindly feelings which the fire and 

 sword enkindled in a struggle for independence; 

 to give power, and strength, and numbers, and to bring 

 on with redoubled speed that period when America 

 shall add to the will the ability to command and control 

 us. But it is the immutable law of creation, and it is 

 vain to attempt to contravene, it. Nations, like men 

 grow old and succumb to those of younger birth. 



Now this may all be very generous, but is it very'politic ? 

 With a population thinned down to the mere numbers 

 necessary, with the aid of machinery, for ordinary pro- 

 duction,^ what position shall we be placed when comes 

 the tug of war when convulsed Europe in all her tempest 

 of revolution shall roll her.democratic waves upon us • 

 or should continental freedom lie prostrate at the feet 

 of absolutism and young, rising, ambitious Russia, freed 



fiTtM? 8 ? , em P^' ment ** ^r arms, pour on us the 

 lull tide of her force, our Indian empire invaded and 

 our homes defiled i How shall we deplore the wide 

 waste of depopulation, the destruction of those humble 

 homes from which our armies in the days of our 

 strength, when we withstood the world in arms, were 



I 



of bygone nations, and in this difference afford* X 

 best founded hopes that our march of prosnerih ^ ^ 

 further extended than theirs. P roB Pwity may 1* 



But to return to Ireland. I am free to arWf n. 

 looking alone to individual interests, from Irish 1'** 

 tion under existing circumstances, almost every o£" 

 tion has been removed. The tears of his relatives £ 

 friends no longer accompany the parting emigrant, he no 

 longer goes from his home, for it has ceased to Z J 

 Ireland ; but he proceeds to provide a home for thcZ 

 whom he is compelled to leave behind in the lost land of 

 his love, where they expect to find the prosperity that it' 

 is vain to look for in Ireland, and where they will find ^ 

 those associations that constitute a home. It is not 

 then for the Irish people, as they are, thatl'complainof 

 emigration, but I deplore the circumstances that have 

 brought on so frightful an evulsion of every feelin^ S 

 country and of home. ° 



I deeply regret that absence of foresight, that igno- 

 rance of conditions, or that want of ability to provide 

 which has tended so much to augment the predisposition 

 to emigrate— it is an advice to the young huntsman 

 when shaken from the saddle to regain it with as little 

 delay as possible — when, by a severe dispensation of 

 Providence, the working capital of so large a portion of 

 the empire had been destroyed (for it was not the mere 

 loss of a crop that gave sustenance to near three-fourths 

 of the people, as some have weakly thought, but the 

 annihilation of all means of future employment, that 

 left utterly prostrate every employer in the country), 

 it had been wise to restore the equilibrium with as little 

 delay as possible, at any cost ; it is lamentable there 

 was not sufficient talent in the council of the nation to 

 discover the means, and moral courage to use them. 



To remove a blot from the page of our humanity 

 20 millions of public money was not thought too much, 

 but the re-establishmeut of a third part of the empire 

 was not entitled to such consideration ; we were satis- 

 fied with limiting our views to the administration of 

 food to the starving people, and that though largely, ye 

 perhaps necessarily so parsimoniously supplied, that 

 it left a million of corses on the land ; and this is to be 

 said of an empire on which the sun never sets, and whose 

 navy floats on every sea, commanding the resources a 

 the world. 



"But emigration has been the resource of every 

 people where the population has become greater thai! 

 the means of subsistence " Except in tribes of wandering 



'O 



passage 



other 



Arabs, and in the single instano 

 sons of Israel into the land of Egypt, botli sacreuaiiu 

 profane history is very barren in such evidences;! 

 find it not in the eruptions of the Huns and otii 

 barbarous nations. The occupation of South America 

 was not the consequence of an excels of population 

 in a country from which the Moors had josl 

 been expelled, and which to this day is moss 

 thinly inhabited. That of North America is « 

 little to be attributed to excessive population m a 

 country thinned by the Wars of the Roses, and in rm 

 premiums were given on the exportation of ^ er S r 

 Nor is the emigration of Ireland at this moment pw- 

 ending because « the population has hecm % SV ^L 

 than the means of subsistence," for she is sU,i ^Vj 

 large exporter of food and is capable of far e ^jj| 

 her present productiveness When her P°P cl ^ etell $ 

 not amount to two millions, she was not more coijjP ^ 

 to their support ; to what amount, then, is itr e( l 

 reduce it ? e t er 



Prostrated by the hand of Heaven, helpless oi ^ 

 own hand, Ireland had and has every claim o ^ 

 sympathies of all mankind ; is it manly, is it r n \ l ± 

 British yeoman to meet her calamities with J^^ tQ f 



Highlander and the active child of mrt^^^^^ ^petker 



landlo 

 has a righ 



they 



* For furthe 



meats— or to 



*»**. receive 



— iuai Wl vame of his goods w 

 M_^^s the trfelo^tri 



ne 



qulnes will, no 



1 Jin* f WiU T igr t tl ° n St °P With thcse ? Ha <* i* not 

 began from the shores of more happy, or, as we were 



end of the wedge has been introduced ; can we say how 

 which ar n 6 ^T ? • TLe Same sUl aSS0 -^ 



England, or on that of the United Kingdom 



on her 



feet 



that she 



side of 



may stand by*^ 



again, 

 England, adding to her wealth and her 

 as she erst did in the fields of faxn f e, ^di- 



to 



her 



glory ; to raise 

 tion, which has 



in 



her from 

 made her a 





™„ ™ w. .» k , prosperity anywhere but 



."" "' are > ha ve only to become sirens enon-h to 



«« ^JSSX 1 "Eft Sf-*-i - *. 



the 

 blot 

 to 



abism 

 and a 



bring her 

 glorious a» 



shame ofl 

 from * 



gelW 



the escutcheon of England ; 

 maudlin state of scarce being to a 

 her side. , n coa- 



ls she to be twitted with the various ana e ^ 

 tradictory views, which in her desperation she e ^ 

 of the modes of relief, when these, f rom t ^ ^ 

 numbers, show the necessity of her case, alH - j oB a # 

 right to entertain this glorious variety oi °^ ? 

 every matter is a proud privilege of Engli*" 1 '$$£ 

 I should have been happy long ago to see ^ 

 the Belgian svstem. for which the Irishman, 



** 



