The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

I'HE PRESS, NOVEMBER 7, 1857. culture of this county was spoken of in language which I amounted to contempt, as compared with that of neigh. Louring counties. No doubt there was some exaggeration and some little malignity in these criticisms, bat the improvement which has taken place shows that there must have Leen some foundation for them. Although there are some things which we ought not to neglect any longer, I believe there is no county in England that has made such gradual but decided improvement as the county of Bucks. It. was said at the meeting of the royal Agricul tural Society, the other day, that the main occasion of the improvement of agriculture was that a county should have I a variety of soil. Now, in no county in England have you such a variety of chalk, sand, gravel, rich pasture, fine meadow, and good dairy land. In every one of the modes in which land is cultivated improvement has taken place. and not the least of all among the farms of the Chiltern Hills. No doubt these societies, if they save not immediately caused, have sustained that spirit of imptove ment which has raised the county in the estimation of all who are judges of that most vital point in the condition of any county—its agriculture. Mr. Du PRE, M.P., in responding to the toast of " The County Members," took occasion to advert to the great national calamity which had befallen our Indian empire, and to eulogise the lofty courage of our officers and soldiers engaged in quelling the mutiny, and the endurance and heroism which had inspired our unfortunate countrymen and country women there. The company was also addressed by Mr. Caven dish, M.P., the Hon. and Rev. Lord Wriothesley Russell, Mr. Bernard, M.P., and several of the resi dent gentry in the course of the evening. LADY FRANKLIN'S ARCTIC EXPEDITION. THE following letter front Captain M‘Clintock to Mr. John Barrow, F.R.S., has been published this week. It will be read with interest : Yacht Fox, lat. 71 deg., off Cape Cranstoun; closed at Uppernavik, Aug. 6. My dear Barrow, —Although I have but little news to relate, I am sure you will he none the less rejoiced to hear from the poor little Fox. Here she is off Cape Cranstoun, in lat. 71 tkg., having on board an Esquirnaux and ten very fine dogs obtained at Disco. She also is cmnplete with coals, having filled up at the coal cliffs in Waigat Strait. I have sent home one of my crew, who proved to be con sumptive, and, having proved the others pretty well, I can answer for their soundness and willing cheerfulness. We get on admirably—exactly as in the old Intrepid. At Lievely I ,saw two whaler captains, whose ships were crushed in Melville Bay last Jnne. They seemed to think I should not experience any difficulty. I cannot find that we have forgotten anything, great as was the hurry of sail ing. We are very comfortable ; our provisions are most excellent. The Fox sails well, but steams slowly in conse quence of the screw being too small. As she gets lighter she will go better. I have tried her among the ice, and find that her sharp bow reedit, opens a passage where a bluff one would knock in vain. 1 did not stop at ktonkerdluk, where the fossil wood and leaves are, SO have none to bring home for your friend. I write by this opportunity to beg that the Admiralty may grant to my crew upon their return, if successful, that their time for pension may be allowed to count. 1 am most fortunate in my officers and crew ; all deserve my praise alike. Aug. 6.—Blowing strong from the southward. Hove to off Uppernavik. We have got thirty dogs, and are about to proceed on our voyage, so 1 must end rather hastily.— Yours very sincerely, F. L. M'CusrocK. MR. DISRAELI IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. fits Amersham and Chesham Agricultural Associa tion held their annual d►nner in the Town-hall of the former place on Tuesday last. About one hundred and forty persona engaged in agricultural pursuits, either as landowners or occupiers, dined on the oc casion, including Viscount Curzon, M.P. for South Leicestershire, who occupied the chair, the Right Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P., the Hon. and Rev. Wrio thesley Russell, Mr. Du Pre, M.P., Mr. C.C. Caven dish, M.P., Mr. Bernard, M.P., Mr. Acton Tindal, the Rev. J. T. Drake, retor of Amersham, Mr. \V. Lowndes, and a great many more of the neighbouring clergy. In the early part of the day a ploughing match had been held, and various prizes distributed for that and other forming excellences. The day being fine, the town had a holiday appearance, and when Mr. Disraeli, who had been invited, arrived in the afternoon additional interest was given to the occasion. After dinner, Mr. DISRAELI was called on to propose the toast of the evening, and the right hon. gentleman in doing so said : I have been unexpectedly called on to propose a toast which I may fairly style as not the least important that will be brought to your notice, but it is one which so fully commends itself to your best consideration that I cannot snake the fact of my being unprepared an excuse for re fusing the duty. 1 now ask you to drink prosperity to this association. I believe the time is now past—although it once existed—when it was necessary to vindicate associa tions of this kind, or to offer any reasons as an excuse for establishing them. In this age of progress arid in this age of association it was at least very wisely comprehended that the agricultural world should not be torpid, and that an interest which consists of many classes should take means that all who compose it may become well acquainted with each other, and, whenever opportunity arises, assist each other. Having watched the results of societies like this for the last twenty years, I think it is no longer a matter of controversy that the establishment of them was a wise and prescient undertaking. Mr. Disraeli then, alluding to the distribution of prizes on these occasions, remarked : Nothing can be more miserable than the criticisms which rewards of this kind have received in the public newspapers when they ridicule the idea of giving perhaps 50s. for fifty years' faithful servitude. I need not tell you— and I am ashamed that there should be any of our fellow subjects whom it is necessary to tell—that in giving rewards for excellent moral character we do not pretend to measure the excellence of the individual by the mere money value of the prize, but to single him out from the crowd and show that his services are appreciated by the community in which he lives. ( Cheers.) If we are always to estimate public services by the vulgar test of money, we shall not be able to carry on the public service of the country. We reward with prizes of blue and red riband acts of the greatest patriotism and heroism. It is the associations connected with such public acts which make the value of the prizes offered to the recipients. A little while ago we heard of a series of heroic actions on the part of an individual never, perhaps, equalled in the histcry of this country, and while his praises are yet on every lip, a good-service pension of lOW. a year was bestowed on General Havelock. (Cheers.) No one sup posed that this was the measure of the nation's gratitude ; but this pension, which is much coveted in the army as a reward of signal services, happened to be available, and I have no doubt it was received in the spirit in which it was offered, and has been interpreted throughout the country in the sante manner. ( Cheers.) Just so, in the other case, every man feels he is raised in the public estimation by this public recognition of his ex sellent character. 1 believe I can say I dined at the first agricultural dinner in this county, and to-day lam your guest at Amershain, so that on this subject I have had some experience. I have seen how these societies have worked, under great disadvantages, under every kind of misconception, and often under defective management, and in my opinion they have raised the character of all classes of the com munity. Ido not limit this to lanse farmers or landowners. I think every class in the community is more sensible of its duty, and more assiduous in fulfilling it now than when these societies were first established. There is the parent society, which recently held its anniversary at Newport Pagnell, there is the South Bucks, and there is a younger society in the middle of the county, the Chiltern Hills Society, whose meeting T had not the honour of attending, but, judging from the list of stock exhibited, I should say that no provincial society in England could compete with the show of that society. Except the Royal Agricultural Society of England, there is no society which, so far as my observation extends, could for a moment compare with it. And there is your own society, which, though young, promises to be extremely effective. At the commencement we were all jealous when new societies sprang up, but it appears to me that competition has only stimulated to exertion, whicl. has been of the utmost advantage to the county of Buckingham. One thing no one can deny, that a great improvement has taken place in the agriculture of this county within the last twenty years, and it is during these years that these societies and the spirit which animates them have been most effective. Ido not pretend that it is in conse quence of the action of these societiesthat all this improve ment has taken place. That improvement is the result of a spirit of progress which, among other things, has pro duced these societies. There was a time when the ogrI" - a, ab 3 anb 'polite. JUDGMENT in the bankruptcy case of Rbgg and Sadgrove was delivered on Tuesday by Mr. Com missioner Holroyd. Ragg's certificate was refused and Sadgrove's suspended for two years, when a third-class certificate only will be granted. An application for protection was refused for Ragg and granted to Sadgrove. More, the discounter of Ragg's bills, was refused the costs of his opposition. The Commissioner, alluding to Ragg's proceedings, said : - - • • Now, I think there can be no doubt that Ragg, by his conduct as the principal actor in the bill transactions, has laid himself open to the severest reprehension, if Lot to crinvnal responsibility; for, not only is writing the ac ceptance of an existing person to a bill of exchange with out authority forgery, but writing the name of a person non-existing is forgery, if the name was written with in tent to defraud in that particular instance, or for a system of fraud within which that signature fell or of which the forgery formed a part. A PORTION OF LADY ELLESMERE'S PROPERTY, stolen from a cab in June last while I er ladyship was en route to the Great Western Railway station, and supposed to be recently discovered in a house in Leonard-street, Shoreditch, was—to the extent dis covered—fully recognised on Tuesday, at Worship street, by the housekeeper, lady's•maid, lace-cleaner. and lace•manufacturer as articles purchased by, cleaned for, and belonging to her ladyship. The prisoners charged with the robbery are one Jackson and wife, respectable (!) tradespeople. SOME singular and suspected murders have oc cuffed this week. A Mr. Isaac Butcher, of Colne Engaine, a village near Halstead in Essex, was 1087 found last Saturday night lying dead, covered with blood, but with no marks of bruises about his person, and his pockets rifled, on the high road close to Colne-park. The medical e:ideoce is in favour of deceased having been " garotted" to death, and the personal evidence of one Butler, who was close to the spot at the time, is that be distinctly heard • scuttle, a faint cry of " Oh, don't," " Oh dear," and then the steps of persons running away. Other witnesses who passed the deceased on the road noticed that two men were following him. Their description is but vaguely given, yet it is hoped that it will prove sufficient to lead to their arrest. It may be mentiont.d that only a few minutes after Mr. Butcher's death, and the pursuit of Butler after the assassins, a brother with a friend drove to the spot where the body lay; the horse shied, Mr. Butcher alighted, and lifted up the corpse of his own brother ! The coroner's jury have returned a verdict of " Wilful Murder."—At Eastborne in Sussex the starved body of a boy, about thirteen years of age, carefully packed in shavings and can. vas and inclosed in a wooden case, has been picked up on the beach, near Langley Fort. A blow on the temple was evident, and the medical opinion is that a foul murder has been committed. The police are making active search. 3rtlant. DEATIv OF LORD CHARLES BUTLER.—Lord Charles Wandesforde Butler died suddenly on Friday last, at the residence of his mother, the Dowager Mar chioness of Ormond, Marley, Ratbfarnham. Imme diately after breakfast on Friday morning his lord ship complained of feeling faint, and retired to his bedroom ; the servant hearing him call at once went up, and found him lying on the floor, suffering from an apoplec►,ic seizure. Medical aid was immediately procured, and his lordship rallied a little, but in the course of the afternoon he bad a second seizure, which terminated life. Lord Eharles Butler was fourth son of James, Marquis of Ormond, brother of the late lamented Marquis, and uncle of the present. He was in his thirty-eighth year. TIIE ORANGE LODGES met on Tuesday in Dublin, when a committee was appointed to take into con sideration Chancellor Brady's recent letter, and other subjects, bearing on the prospects of Orangeism. The meeting was most fully attended. Lord Dun gannon, at the half•yearly meeting at Antrim, last week, in his address, referred to the Chancellor's letter : Was the Lord Chancellor prepared to say he could point out one instance of a member of the Orange So ciety, in such a position, allowing his religious prejudices to sway him in the discharge of his public duties—that he had acted arbitrarily or unjustly in any case that had ever come before him to be adjudicated upon? Something of that kind must be made manifest, in order to justify the course that had been adopted. It ought to have been shown that some magistrate connected with the Orange Society had done something of a character to make him unfit to hold the commission of the peace; and any gentlemen who could thus have set aside his sense of duty, and allowed his religious zeal or party prejudice to bias his conduct in the discharge of his magisterial functions—be he an Orangeman or whatever else he might—ought no longer clearly to be suffered to retain a power he thus abused. He did not say that individuals connected with the society bad not com mitted faults betimes, and been punished for them, but he could safely venture to state that be had never yet heard of an Orangeman being convicted of any serious offence, or being in any way connected with sedition or disaffection. Had the Orange institution ever been found plotting against the existing order of things, or conspiring against the Crown or Constitution? No; they had ever been loyal subjects, ready to stand forward in defence of the Crown, the laws, and institutions of the country. In times of real danger they had been proved—and well did one member of the Cabinet know this. He alluded to the noble earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Did he not know, as a notorious fact, that nine years ego, in the hour of difficulty and alarm, when he presided over the Government in lreland,he had to call on the Orangemen for support, placing arms in their hands and relying on them for preserving the peace and order of the country ? And he (Lord Dungannon) was firmly of the belief that, if there had not been at that time existing such a body of men as the Orangemen throughout Ireland, the scenes of 1795 might have been revived in all their horrors. Three courses were now open to them—to petition the two Houses of Parliament; to appeal to the Prime Minister; and to lay their representations at the foot of the throne. He could not but believe that wizen the whole case became known throughout the country, it would do a great deal in their behalf. The noble lord concluded as follows : One piece of advice he would offer to the Government. They called themselves friends of civil and religious liberty. Let their future actions more nearly accord with their professions. At the conclusion of his lordship's ad.iress he was loudly applauded, and received the cordial thanks of the assembled lodge.