The Press. — London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

TH E Pft_gS 8, OCIOI3Ett 16, 1858. --- We all know how the education of the children of the peasantry of this country has received a great and sensible influence from the speeches which have been made and the suggestions which have been thrown out at meetings of this kind• Bat so much has been said on that subject, and so certainly do I think the progress of education in its common and hackneyed sense to be secured in the country, that I will dwell no longer upon it further than to say that I hope in our seal and our endeavours to promote the edu cation of the intellect we shall not altogether lose sight of the education of the bodies of the children of the labouring classes. I attach such importance to the manly and athletic games and pastimes which have heretofore cha racterized all classes of our English community that I would say to all men, however wise, however stupid, how ever rich, however old, stimulate and foster every manly and athletic game, commencing from marbles and ascending up to fox hunting, and if there be anything above and beyond fox hunting, then teach the labouring classes that. Tend them religiously, and from the lowest and the humblest, up to the maturest and the highest a our national sports and pastimes, let us endeavour to pro mote them one and all. I say this because I have noticed with pain and concern a heresy, as it seems to me, growing up and spreading in this country, the up shot of which will be that England will be divided into two great classes—those who spin and those who study. It is to promote some such consummation as this that we find that admirable speaker and sterling member of Parlia ment, Mr. Bright, recommending emigration to the whisky drinking, joint-stock bat.k•breaking people of Glasgow; and we have the Times, the great organ, as it used to be called, of public opinion in England, warning all the noblemen of England out of the hunting field. As many present know, I am no great rider, and do not profess to give much time or attention to hunting, but this I do know, that I never jog home after a day's hunting without feeling that I have seen or heard something which has added somewhat to my small stock of knowledge, and without rejoicing as a politician—of course i do not use the term in a party sense—in the existence of that manly and invigorating pastime. Then, gentlemen, say I, long may there be a race of yeomen in England who, like my friends the Guys of Hatton, the Vinceuts of Bottesford, or the Blends of Marlborough, can carry off the prize in the cattle ahowyard, and the brush at the head of the hunt. On the political future, the noble lord observed : The future, of course, is dark, but at the same time it is more than probable that. the question most likely to interest an agricultural assemblage in the next session of Parlia ment will be the much discussed question of Parliamentary Reform. Upon that question, of course, my lips are sealed, and I can only say Rust by one of those curious turns of the wheel which mechanizes modern politics it seems to be reserved for a Tory Government to render less anomalous and to make better adapted to the growing intelligence, property, and numbers of the community, the Whig Reform Act of had. I can only say that her Majesty's Govern ment will enter upon that most serious task with the single and earnest endeavour so to mend the represents, don of the people in Parliament as to secure the best elec toral body and the best representative body which can be obtained for the people of this country. But, gentlemen, after all, hustings, registration courts, polling booths, speeches from the hustings, and even speeches in Parlia• meat, and divisions consequent thereupon, are only a means to an end, and that end is the good self-government of a Christian and a civilized community. Without depre ciating other pursuits and other ways of life, every day 1 live more and more convinces me that the art and practice of agriculture is the safest, the surest, and the most bene ficent of all the industries in which the wit, intelligence, and capital of man can be employed. We shall do well, then, I think, as 1 ventured to say at the outset of the few observations which I have thought it right to make, — we shall do well to keep alive by every means in our power the corporate character of our relations one to another, and I know of no means—of no human means—which can so fully impress upon all our hearts the great truth that land lord and tenant, farm servant and husbandman, clergy and laity, all form one great Christian brotherhood, as these periodical meetings, at which the respective excellences of different men in different branches of agricultural pur suits are brought prominently to notice, and which teed to keep alive in all our hearts the great tact that every process —at every season of the year—in the pursuit of agricultural progress blends harmoniously into one beneficent whole. I leave it to those more qualified than lam to speak upon the practical subjects which in reality have brought us here to-day; but I (nought it might not be amiss if I ventured to recall to your minds some of the great and enduring henefits . , which I believe apply to the country as a whole in a social point of view, of agricultural gatherings such as this. C ONSERVATIVE MEETING AT NORWICH. AN importantimeeting of the Conservative party of this city took place on Tuesday evening, the occasion being the anniversary meeting of the "Eldon Loyal anti Constitutional Club." The proceedings derived some importance from the presence of Sir Samuel Bignold, late M.P. for Norwich, and Sir Henry Stracey, formerly M.P. for East Norfolk, and the unsuccessful Conservative candidate for that con stituency. In the course of the evening, "The health of Sir Samuel Bignold, the leader of the Conservative party in N ., rwich," was proposed, and received with much applause. Sir SAMUEL Biattom returned thanks, and con gratulated the party on the accession of Lord Derby to Once, and the satisfactory results which he consi dered had followed the change of Government. Re ferring to the more current topic of the day, Sir Samuel observed that a great deal had appeared in the public journals about the intention of the Go vernment to bring in a Rfform Bill. But Lord Derby, on the first evening on which he took his sent on the Treasury bench, made no promise to that effect. He simply said that the session of IMSB was not a proper time for the introduction of a Re form Bill, and that, with respect to the future, he would give the subject his most mature and anxious consideration. He (Sir S. Bignold) was not aware that Lord Derby stood pledged to bring in a Reform Bill during the approaching session ; but if the Go. vernment should be of opinion that the time had arrived for some changes in the Constitution f the country, he for one should have much greater con fidence in the changes enunciated by the Earl of Derby than those proposed by Lord Palmerston, be• cause the former would introduce no changes which would at all endanger the balance of power—Queen, Lords, and Commons—in this great country. The CHAIRNAN proposed " The health of Sir Henry Stracey, and his speedy re-election for the county of Norfolk," which was received with loud cheers and musical honours. Sir H. STRACEY responded, and, after briefly ad verting to his defeat, though supported by 2,700 of the Conservative electors, proceeded to say he be lieved that they might rely upon the Conservative party and upon its great bead, Lord Derby, for what ever was promised to them. Lord Derby had held out a kind of promise as to a Reform Bill ; he had stated that he did not approve the practice of keeping the subject dangling before the eyes or the country. These were the terms Lord Derby used, and they were enough to tell them that his lordship had a Reform Bill in his mind, and that he intended to produce it. His firm belief was that a Reform Bill would be produced next session. lie had no special nformation on the subject, and no further reason for saying so than his firm belief that Lord Derby did more than he promised. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who bad held the honourable office of Chan cellor of the Exchequer, and was a man of great education, had lately stated that no Reform Bill would be acceptable which did not savour strongly of democracy. He did not exactly understand this, as he did not see how any limit to democracy was to be secured. As far as he understood democracy, it meant the government of the people ; and he looked upon this as leading at any rate to the indulgence of the wildest passions, without any guard whatever. He therefore looked upon democracy and revolution as synonymous terms. He did not believe that Lord Derby would ever dream of introducing a bill leading to democracy without limitation ; but. he had not the slightest doubt that his lordship's bill would have a liberal tendency, that it might even tend to lower the franchise, and give members in proportion to the population of the country. It might have liberal tendencies of this kind ; and he candidly told them that if be were in Parliament, and if the Reform Bill introduced included the ballot, he should only be too glad to support the measure. The question of the ballot was one which Conservatives had always looked on with horror, and he must acknowledge that no one had a stronger feeling than he had on the subject. He had felt that the influence of property ought always to be felt ; that it ought to ba known how that property was represented—that is, how persons voted ; and he had also considered that property would not have its proper iufluence if vote by ballot was established. But he had now had a certain amount of experience in social and political life ; he had been engaged in two elections; he had fought one contest singlehanded ; and, as far as his expe rience went upon the latter occasion, he had been led to the conclusion that the Conservative cause could not have been injured by the ballot. He was quite convinced that the Conservative cause, not only in Norfolk, but throughout the country, could not be injured by the ballot, if honesty of principle was to prevail without that abominable thing called the " screw." Of this he was quite sure, that the present laws at any rate did not prevent corruption, which had been general throughout the country ; and could things be worse with the ballot" He very much doubted whether they would not be a great deal better, and he thought the experiment was well worth a trial. If an honest man had an opportunity of exercising his judgment freely he believed the Con servative cause, in consequence of the exercise of that honesty, would be in the end the gainer. Possibly some of them might not agree with him on this subject, but Lord Stanley, who, as had been ably observed, was a government in himself, bad voted for the measure ; so that at any rate be was not forming a very erroneous judgment, and he felt himself justi• fiei, from personal experience, in declaring himself in favour of the ballot. SuOsequently, Mr. J. G. JOHNSON (a gentleman invited on a former occasion to offer himself as a candidate for Norwich) responded to the toast of the magistracy, and entered a strong protest against the ballot. Referring to Lord Derby's anticipated measure of 1001 Reform, Mr. Johnson expressed his conviction that it would give numbers their proper influence, property a proper influence, and station a proper influence, while at the same time it would not seek to override the indepe►►dent will of the Sovereign nor to swamp the House of Lords, which had often proved the safe gußrcl of England. Several other toasts were given in the course of the evening. THE EARL OF CARLISLE ON INDIA. Tin: Earl of Carlisle, in the course of his speech as president at the annual meeting of the Bradford Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society, thus referred to the Bible in India : However brilliant have been the feats of our arms, and however heroic the abbievements and the sufferings of our countrymen, we must all desire to raise on that vast con tinent other trophies than those of the avenging sword and other growths than that of the bloodstained laurel. I feel sure that you will be all disposed to agree with me that even in India, even among those to whom we have been obliged to apply all the rough and harsh methods of punish ment and conquest, even there we should not seek to introduce the priceless benefits of Christianity itself merely by State influence and by actual compulsion. The Word of God is too precious a thing to be made, under any cir cumstances, the subject of a bribe or a threat. And I have seen with some regret what was, perhaps, natural, what was, perhaps, unavoidable, both in this country and in India—during the first moments of alarm and horror—l mean the somewhat over-vehement and vindictive tone in talking of the native population, so that sun3etimes the peaceful and pardon-breathing precept of the Gospel seemed almost to have become as strange to the dominant as to the native and infidel races. Yet 1 trust now that a Govern ment conducted in a far other spirit, and conscious of its high responsibilities alike to the parent country and to the subject populations, will speedily obliterate all such painful traces of past convulsions and conflicts. lint the spread of Christianity is not properly the work of any Government as such. Christianity marshals her own votaries and marches under her own banners ; and just as unbidden by any Government you muster in this noble hall, just as unbidden and unpaid by any Government the Bible Society sends forth its agents and colporteurs, and your churches and denominations send forth their missioneries and teachers, so. asking nothing from any Government but a fair field and no favour, will the work —the Godlike work, I had almost said, of evangelizing and Christianizing the heathen go on, relying on its own resources and sufficient or its own vietorias. THE BISHOP OF OXFORD. AT the dinner which followed the annual meeting of the Royal South Bucks Agricultural Society, which took place a few days ago at Salthill, near Windsor, a somewhat extraordinary scene occurred in connec tion with a toast usually drunk at agricultural meet ings, " The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese." Mr. WANKLYN, a county magistrate, in proposing the toast, said, that since they had last assembled in that room circumstances had occurred in that neigh bourhood which had given it a world-wide import ance. In consequence of these circumstances his toast was invested with more than a common in terest. Public attention throughout the country bad been directed to these circumstances principally through the instrumentality of the amiable and ex cellent vicar of Stoke, Mr. Shaw. (Here applause of a most rapturously enthusiastic character broke forth, which prevented the speaker from proceeding for some moments.) He trusted that the proceed: ings which had taken place would have the effect of checking and of rooting out of the Church those practices which were abhorrent to the feel ings of every true Christian. The system to which he alluded he unhesitatingly condemned as anti. Pr otestant and un-English, as anti-Christian and nn scriptural. To use the language of the Bishop of Oxford in a document published a few days since— " God forbid that our clergy should administer such a system, or that our wives and daughters should be subjected to it." He would add a prayer—May God grant that both bishop and clergy and laity may hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in the righteousness of lite. It was because be be lieved that the bishop was sincere in the utterance of these sentiments—(loud cries of "No, no," and tremendous uproar)—it was because he believed that lie was a conscientious—(" No, no," and continued interruption )—that he was a sincere—(" No, no," mingled with an occasional " Yes, yes ")—that he was an exemplary and faithful—(loud noises and discordant yells)—bishop, that he begged to propose The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese." (Cries of " No bishop," " Mr. Shaw and the clergy," followed by loud cheers.) The great majority of the company drank the toast, at the same time calling out " Mr. Shaw and the clergy." It should be observed that the vicar of Stoke was not present. After some degree of tran quillity had been restored, The Rev. S. F. 31Ansium., vicar of Farnham, Royal, responded, amidst considerable interruption