AND THE VETERINARIAN. 57 
portionate to his heavy burdens.” This was a theme which 
came so nearly home to the business and bosom of his auditors, 
that it could not fail of making the impression which the speaker 
desired. In vain some moderate and intelligent men entreated 
that the meeting would not rashly oppose an insuperable obstacle 
to the accomplishment of their wishes ; the proposition was 
carried by an immense majority — the milder spirits, with the 
exception of two or three, not exposing themselves to derision 
by any useless expression of dissent ; and then the meeting se- 
parated. 
The committee, however, on the following day did all in their 
power to repair the error committed ; for they resolved unani- 
mously, and published the resolution extensively, “ that the ob- 
jects of the Central Agricultural Society are exclusively national; 
devoted to no theoretical purposes, but formed solely with a view 
to procure the co-operation of the owners and occupiers of land 
in every practical measure which can afford relief in the present 
distressed state of the agriculturist, and also with a view to the 
improvement of every branch of practical agriculture.” 
The farmers of Great Britain, the owners and the occupiers of 
land in so many districts, having thus formed an indissoluble bond 
of union — for indissoluble it must be if the fundamental princi- 
ple adopted by the committee is strictly adhered to — possess a 
moral influence almost irresistible. Their first object, the relief 
of present distress, will, to a considerable extent, in a direct 
manner, be effected. No ministry will dare to trifle with the just 
demands of the united power of that class of society with which 
the resources and the prosperity of the kingdom are, more than 
with any other, vitally connected. And in an indirect manner, 
by the diffusion of practical agricultural knowledge; and when 
all the discoveries of chemistry, and all the improvements in 
science generally, are brought to bear upon the business of the 
agriculturist ; when cheaper and more secure means of raising 
the produce are adopted ; when the produce itself is improved in 
quality and increased in quantity ; when it is placed more be- 
yond the occasionally mischievous influence of a thousand foes 
to animal and vegetable life — in an indirect way, we say, the 
VOL. IX. 1 
