]04 ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OP ENGLAND. 
Council were due to the noble duke for attending the Council to 
give so complete a statement of his views ; but his Grace would 
doubtless admit that he had painted his picture in the darkest 
possible colours. With regard to the proposal to hold an inter¬ 
national show, Mr. Wilson reminded the Council that on the 
occasion of the Society's last exhibition in London, when the late 
Prince Consort was President, it was international, and it was 
therefore considered desirable to make the coming exhibition in¬ 
ternational, especially as they had the honour of having the 
Prince of Wales as President. He did not think that English 
agriculturists had anything to fear from foreign competition, but 
he thought that both Englishmen and foreigners might learn a 
great deal from an International Agricultural Exhibition. The 
whole question was, no doubt, of greater value to the consumer 
than to the producer of meat, and it was this view which induced 
the Mansion House Committee to offer the very handsome prizes 
for foreign stock and produce shown in the prize list, and other¬ 
wise to make the character of the show international. During 
the whole of the time when the subject was receiving the anxious 
consideration of the Stock Prizes Committee it was understood 
that precautions of a very stringent character would have to be 
taken, and foreign agricultural societies had already been warned 
of the fact. He could not sit down without alluding to the 
charge of inconsistency brought against the Council of the 
Society, because the importation of specially selected animals for 
exhibition had always been contemplated by the Government; 
and when the Council asked his Grace and the Government to 
bring in some measure to prevent diseases being introduced into 
the country, it had in its eye the scum of foreign animals which 
were imported in the ordinary course of trade from week to week 
in vessels reeking with disease, and not animals specially selected 
for exhibition, in specially chartered steamers. He begged to 
move the following resolution :—“ That the Privy Council be 
respectfully requested to inform the Society, as far as possible, 
under what conditions and regulations foreign animals from dif¬ 
ferent countries will be allowed to be exhibited in the Society's 
show-yard next year, in the event of the countries from which 
the animals are sent being declared free from disease at the time 
when animals are exposed.’' 
The Hon . W. Eger ton thought the Council should be satisfied 
with his Grace's explanation, and the only thing they could do 
was to furnish the foreigner with particulars of all the regulations 
which might be enacted. 
Colonel Kingscote seconded Mr. Wilson's proposition. The 
offer of prizes for foreign animals had not emanated from the 
Society, but from the Mansion House Committee, whose views 
