THE VETERINARIAN , APRIL 1 , 1«:3(». 
No quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat.— Cicano. 
The two last have been important months as it regards the 
veterinary surgeon, and those with whose interests he ought to 
be identified. On the 8th of February, a committee of the 
House of Commons was appointed — unfettered, unrestricted in 
the slightest degree — to inquire into the existence, the extent, 
the cause, and the remedy of agricultural distress. It is true 
that the leader of the House of Commons gave no hope that 
‘‘the distress which now pressed upon the agriculturist could be 
suddenly or effectually removed by any legislative interference of 
parliament;” but when he has left the inquiry into the matter 
as free as air, and expressed his wish that “ the question should 
be fairly sifted,” and deliberately pledged himself that, “ if there 
were any practical means by which agriculture could be improved, 
it would be the duty of parliament to adopt them,” the agricul- 
turist needs not to abandon himself to utter despair. 
On the 12th, the second meeting of the Central Agricultural 
Association was held. It was even more numerously attended than 
the first, and delegates from no fewer than 58 country agricultural 
associations were present. Universal satisfaction was expressed 
at the promise by government of an impartial inquiry into the 
causes of agricultural depression, and there was a deep feeling 
that all practicable redress could not be refused without injustice 
or delayed without danger pervaded the whole assembly. 
If the language of the speakers generally was somewhat 
strong, their own interest in the affair, and the appalling instances 
of distress which crowded upon their view, whatever part of the 
country they inhabited, would form a sufficient excuse. This 
was no time for “ sweet words, low crooked curtsies, and base 
spaniel fawning.” It could not, however, be denied, that there 
was a violence of manner— a studied obtrusion of demands that 
never could be granted — an ill-concealed irreconcilable ill-feeling 
towards those whose impartial consideration they besought — a 
hint, a threat of possible convulsion and revolution — a studied 
adoption of measures which must unavoidably lead to the defeat 
of their professed object, which alarmed the considerate, and 
excited the suspicion that much more was meant by some of the 
speakers than met the ear. 
On the 18th of March the general committee of the society 
met in order to report progress, and to take into consideration 
the measures of government then under discussion in parliament, 
