Vol. III.— No. 60.] 
Saturday, February 18, 1854. 
[Price Qcl . 
The Fox-Hdnti b’s Dream, after a Pantomime and a Kidney Supper with a Friend- Drawn by II. K. Browne. 
AGRICULTURAL TALK. 
T HE Law of Settlement, so long discussed at farmers’ 
clubs and farmers’ meetings, lias at length received 
the attention of the Government in a practical shape. 
The bill introduced by Mr. Baines, the parliamentary 
secretary of the Poor Law Board, will be a considerable 
step toward abating evils which have long acted most 
injuriously on both the employer and the labourer. There 
are parishes in which no labourers are permitted to reside, 
where poor-rates have been reduced by pulling down every 
cottage likely to give a labourer a settlement on every 
occasion that one became vacant. There are, consequently, 
other parishes which support in destitution, and lodge during 
employment, the labourers, their neighbours employ. There 
are, consequently, farms where the labourers have to walk 
three, four, and live miles to their work, thus losing each day, 
on the road, a valuable amount of time and energy. There 
are cottages, in parishes where the pulling-down system has 
prevailed, where the families of labourers are crowded 
together in a manner at once indecent and unhealthy. And 
there are estates where the landlord, acting under the 
pressure of his neighbours, forbears to build much- needed 
cottages, lest he should thereby create settlements, and 
introduce parochial charges previously unknown. 
It is the interest of the landowner and cultivator of the 
soil that labourers should be healthy, intelligent, and moral, 
and that every day they should be as near their work as 
possible. But such a condition is impossible if peasantry 
are driven into distant towns or villages, or crowded 
together in unhealthy hovels. The temptation to clear 
estates aod make “ close parishes ” will be, to a certain ex- 
i tent, removed by Mr. Baines’s bill, which enlurges settle- 
ments from parishes to unions, separates great towns from 
! rural districts, and makes other changes in the same direction, 
| to which we shall more fully allude when the printed bill is 
|i before us. In the mean time, as this is essentially a prac- 
jWhical agricultural question, it is to be hoped that the repre- 
Jnsentatives of the agricultural interest in both houses 
will bring their experience to bear upon the measure. 
Labourers are not likely to be too plentiful in the ensuing 
years ; and, to suggest no higher motive, it is the interest 
of all employers to have them of as high a quality as 
possible. 
The Corn Averages, regulating the tithe rent charge, 
occupied the attention of the London Farmers’ Club at their 
last monthly meeting, which was the most numerous that has 
been held for many years, deputations attending from various 
parts of the country. The subject was introduced by Mr. 
Pain, secretary of the Winchester Farmers, and there 
were no dissentients from the views of the many speakers. 
In fact is undeniable that the averages are taken in a 
manner which does not fairly represent the current price of 
grain. 
So far all went smoothly, but the result of the deputation 
to Mr. Cardwell at the Board of Trade the following day 
was by no means so satisfactory to many of the supporters 
of the movement. In fact it turned out exactly as we pre- 
dicted some time since. The President of the Board of 
Trade treated the question as part of a much-needed system 
for collecting agricultural statistics ; and when one of the 
deputation, with the assent of most of those present, sug- 
gested a compulsory return of grain sold and purchased, 
such return to be enforced by a penalty, Mr. Cardwell 
accepted the proposal as an argument to be used, when 
required, in favour of a general compulsory system of 
statistics. And this is the only rational view that can be 
taken of the question. It i3 not worth while to alter at all 
unless we make our agricultural statistics complete. For 
our own parts we have never doubted that farmers are the 
class who would be most advantaged by a correct annual 
return of agricultural produce ; that it would prevent them 
from prematurely sacrificing their crops and stock, guard 
against ignorant panics, and afford useful information as to 
the produce most likely to be in demand ; but there are 
among farmers, and there were among the deputation, 
gentlemen opposed to any system which should make public 
the condition of agricultural produce. Such gentlemen are 
in a dilemma. They want an alteration in the mode of 
taking the corn averages, for the purpose of making those 
averages lower, and they oppose the collection of complete 
agricultural statistics, lest their publication should check 
panics and prevent high prices. Such inconsistency cannot 
be-successful. 
The Hop-growers of Kent are in a fix of tho same 
kind. At a meeting of the growers of Mid Konf, held the 
other day, a memorial was read which had been signed by 
upwards of a thousand hop-gvowers in the weald of Kent 
and Sussex, in favour of commuting the present excise duty 
for a duty of 3 2. an acre. The memorialists despair of ob- 
taining a total repeal of the excise, and therefore endeavour 
to get rid of the exciseman by a rent charge— to be levied at 
nothing the first year; 12. 10s. the second year; and 32 
for future years, as long as hops are grown. 
The growers of Mid Kent rejected the memorial by a 
large majority, on the ground that any movement was likely 
to endanger the customs duty on foreign hops of 21 . 5s. a 
cwt. ; and that they would sooner endure tho present excise 
than afford an opening for a reduction of the duty on foreign 
hops. 
After this candid statement of the cause of opposition to 
change, which was plainly put by Mr. Masters Smith, M.P., 
we may consider the excise on hops doomed ; but whether 
the acreage duty will be 32. or 52. remains to be seen. At 
present the duty acts as a protection to the growers of the 
best kinds against inferior hops. 
In the present aspect of affairs we cannot expect to have 
any reduction of taxation, but it may be made more fair and 
less annoying. 
The New Cattle-market, in Copenhagen Fields, will, 
it is to be hoped, among other advantages, put an end to the 
Monday’s market and Sunday cattle driving. The change 
to Tuesday has the unanimous support of the graziors in all 
the principal counties, and the cause has been vigorously 
taken up by the present Lord Mayor. 
Mr. Lawes’ paper, of eighty pages (with a diagram), in 
the last number of the Royal Agricultural Society’s Journal, 
deserves the attentive study of those who have sufficient 
