The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-29 00:00:00

SEPT. 29, 1855. THE THANKSGIVING FOR THE VICTORY AT SEBASTOPOL.—FORM OF PRAYER. IN accordance with an Order in Council, issued at Balmoral on the 24th inst., his Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury has issued the following "Form of Prayer and Thanksgiving to Almighty God, for the signal and repeated successes obtained by the troops of her Majesty, and by those of her allies, in the Crimea, and especially for the capture of the town of Sebastopol" :- 0 Lord God Almighty, the disposer of all human events, in whose hand Is power and might which none is able to withstand, we, Thine unworthy servants, desire to approach Thy throne with the tribute of praise and thanksgiving. NVe bless and mag nify Thy name for the successes granted to our countrymen, and the armies allied with them, now engaged in a mighty warfare, and defending the rights and independence of nations; and es pecially for the signal victory by which the stronghold of the enemy has been overthrown. We acknowledge, 0 Lord, that the wisest counsels awl the strongest arms, without Thee, cannot but fail: for Thine, 0 Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the 'victory, and the majesty; and therefore, not unto us, 0 Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name, be all praise and glory ascribed. Continue, we beseech Thee, Thy favour to the allied forces, both by sea and land. Le; not the glory of their progress be stained by ambition, or sullied by revenge; but let Thy Holy Spirit support them in danger, control them in victory, and raise them above all temptation to evil. And grant that this and all other successes which have crowned the bravery and rewarded the endurance of our armies may issue in the return of peace, and the restoration of Christian brotherhood among nations. Finally. U Lord, we entreat Thee so to dispose and turn our hearts, that Thy mercy now manifested towards us may engage us to true thankfuluesa. and incline us as a nation to walk more humbly and devoutly before Thee, by obeying Thy Holy Word, by reverenoing Thy holy day, and by promoting throughout the land the knowledge of Thee, the only true God, and of Jesus Christ whom Thou host sent: to whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. The prayer is "to be used at morning and evening service after the general thanksgiving in all churches and chapels in England and Wales, and in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, upon Sunday the thirtieth day of this instant September, or upon the Sunday after the ministers of such churches and chapels shall respectively receive the same. LIEUTENANT-COLONEL CLAREMONT has succeeded General Torrens as Military Commissioner in Paris. MR. AUGUSTUS STAFFORD, M.P., is an inmate of the Abydos Hospital, having overtasked his strength in attending to the sick among the French troops during his passage from Malta to Constantinople in the Etna. There were 800 soldiers on board, and, when cholera broke out amongst them, Mr. Stafford was unremitting in his attentions to the patients— reading to them, writing for them, and cheering them. THE KING OF SARDINIA has been seriously ill, bu is now progressing favorably. His visit to Paris will therefore be delayed. A RUSSIAN LOAN will, it is stated in late accounts from America, be negotiated in the United States. RUSSIAN VESSELS, to the number of 135 in all, have been captured by British ships, between the 28th March, 1854, when war was declared, and the Bth of August last. THE FRENCH WOUNDED are so numerous that the hospitals and ambulances at Constantinople, which afford accommodation for 15,000, are found iu sufficient for the patients who arrive from the Crimea. LADY CAMPBELL, widow of the late Sir Donald Campbell, died at Down, on Monday last. Her lady. ship was taken with a fit, and although medical assistance was immediately obtained, life was found to be extinct. Ma. DUNLOP, M.P., met his constituents at Greenock on Wednesday, and made a long speech on the topics of the day. With regard to the war, he expressed his opinion that it was a contest between despotism and constitutionalism. As to home topics, he pointed out that administrative reform would best be pro moted by the constituencies refraining from inter ference with patronage, as the Greenock constituency had done. He referred in succession to several Scottish and local topics. A vote of confidence in Mr. Dunlop was unanimously passed. ROYAL DISPENSARY FOR DISEASES OF THE EAR.— The half yearly meeting of this useful institution, founded in 1810, for the cure of deafness, discharges from the ear, noises, and other affections of the ear, was held on Friday last, at the dispensary, Dean street, Sobo, Mr. William Temple Cooper in the chair. The secretary announced the amount of sub scriptions which had been received during the last six months, which was -.ery inadequate to the number of applicants for relief. Mr. Harvey, the surgeon to the dispensary, stated to the meeting that the number of cases admitted on the books during the last six months were upwards of 429, consisting of cases of diseases of the throat in connection with deafness, rheumatic affections of the head, and noises in the ear, with numerous cases of neglected discharges from the ear amongst children. The committee appealed to the generous public for their support of this useful institution. The thanks of the meeting were given to Mr. Harvey, the surgeon, NW to the chairman, and tbe meeting seporsted, THE PRESS. AGRICULTURAL GATHERINGS. AGRICULTURAL societies are meeting in different parts of the country, and under circumstances favorable to the landed interest. The harvest has been gathered in excellent condition, the yield is moderately good, and prices are at least fifty per cent. above what would in ordinary times be esteemed a remunerative rate. Cultivators are, therefore, well inclined to listen to suggestions for improve ment, and even urban communities begin to perceive that they must look to home growers fur their prin cipal supplies of food, and to feel an interest in the increasing success of British agriculture. At the Paddiham (Lancashire) Society Sir J. Kay Shuttle worth distinguished himself by an excellent address in proposing the health of the Lord Lieutenant and magistrates of the county. Comparing the produce of continental countries with that of England, he observed:— The result is that the whole moneyed produce of the farms in England, on the good farms, is nearly fourfold that of the same extent of land—even of better land—in France. I connect these facts very much with the toast I have the honour to propose to you, and for this reason, that I think a very large part of the success of the agricul- ture of England has been owing to the good feeling which has subsisted between the proprietors and tenantry of the whole of England, to the extent to which the gentry of England have lived among their tenantry, and been ready to associate with them in such meetings as the present, and their readiness to pay close personal attention to the improvement of their estates, of which we have had such noble examples as Mr. Coke of Norfolk, the late Lord Leicester, the present Duke of Bedford, and many others whose names I might enumerate as examples of a class of proprietors who have spent their time, fortunes, and talents which would have made them probably statesmen of the highest order, on the improvement of their estates and the welfare of their tenantry. I believe these results are to a very great extent owing to the attention the gentry have paid to the improvement of their estates, and likewise to the energy, skill, and enterprise of such men as Mr. Bake well, the Elmans, and others, who have especially devoted themselves to the improvement of the different breeds of cattle in this country and the introduction of right princi- ples of culture. In this superiority the agricultural population fully shared : One thing which strikes one's eye abroad very much is the extent to which the labour of women is introduced upon the land The consequence is that at the age of forty-five, or even at forty, the women are haggard, worn out with constant labour in the hot sun, from early morn to late at night, in the most laborious operations on the land. There is scarcely any kind of farm labour which they do not regularly perform, and they hoe, they dibble, they weed, they even trench the soil, they load carts; and even drive them, and from morning to night such labour as this forms their habitual occupation almost all over the continent of Europe. Now, I think it is a very great ad vantage indeed to this country that that form of labour for women is rather the exception than the rul;s, and that even in the agricultural counties it is chiefly in harvest time, i and, to a certain extent, in weeding and hoeing, but rather as the exception than the rule, that female labour is em ployed upon the land. Occasionally, however, we have seen women, apparently paupers, employed in breaking stones by our waysides in rural districts. If the practice be sanctioned by poor-law authorities it is discreditable, as it is opposed to our general usage, and the labour is of a very unfit kind for women. The conclusion of Sir J. K. Shuttleworth's speech was gratifying : I am very happy to find my opinions and convictions are supported by the most recent labours of political econo mists, and of men of high science, who have visited this and foreign countries—that the system of English agricul ture is one which not only contributes in a much larger degree to the health of the nation than that of foreign countries, but that it also contributes in a much higher degree to social contentment, to the maintenance of healthy relations between tenants and proprietors, and to that happy constitution of society which makes, as 1 think, and as 1 trust foreign countries also believe, the condition of England one to be envied by the rest of Europe. In TIPPERARY, which has obtained in years past such unenviable notoriety for agrarian outrage and cold-blood assassination, Lord Stanley has proclaimed that " a new era has opened for Ireland." His lord ship presided at the recent meeting of the Agricul tural Society of Tipperary Union, and, with the frank ness which is characteristic of his nature, stated the result of his observations, more especially, we may presume, in relation to the estates of his father, Lord Derby. The following suggests that, notwithstanding the new era, there is ample room for improve ment : He would not speak from imagination or from fancy— he would not tell what he had seen, and what they had seen not only within the last few days, but years ago. They enjoyed an unparalleled climate and a soil the most abundant in the world. They had seen fields and farms divided eight, nine, ten, twelve yards from side to side, with fences which were not only wasting all the land that might be used profitably, but a nursery for all those weeds which overran the fields, and for those blazing flowers of red weed which they knew so well, and which appeared like an overgrown crop in some localities. (Loud laughter and cries of " Hear.") Be bid seen the farm yard-well so planned that all the reit. god Plaware 0 ( the 9517 yard and the pigstye drained into it—(" Hear," and laugh- ter),—thus not only wasting the manure, which might be placed to profitable account. but poisoning thatwater which might be a source of health and cleanliness to himself and to his family. (Cheers.) He had seen whole families living in rags and in want on a miserable patch of land which was not sufficient to afford them sustenance for three months in the year, and they lived on that wretched patch, in that misery and destitution, because they preferred the " dignity " of occupying land to the labour of earning a livelihood from others who could afford them employment. Because the times were now more favorable to agricultural industry than they had been, he urged his bearers to take advantage of the opportunity for improvement opened to them:— Let them only use half the energy in the good work which they had wasted in feuds and in factions—in political and sectarian dissensions,—let them, he said, do this, and they would go far to make Ireland what God and Nature intended her to be, and what man had hitherto prevented her from becoming—the garden of Europe and of the world. (Loud cheers.) His lordship's speech has been closely criticised by the Irish press. In some instances objection is taken to his opinion against small holdings, but in general his address seems to have produced a good impres sion and to have met with warm approval. At AYIESBURY the annual meeting of the Roi al Bucks Agricultural Association was held on Wednes day. The occasion was chiefly distinguished by the presence of Mr. Disraeli, hut in his short speech the right hon. gentleman entirely avoided allusion to politics, and confined himself to the business of the day. Prizes to the amount of nearly 501., including three prizes given by Mr. Disraeli, were distributed among farm labourers and servants. At the dinner, Mr. Lowndes presided. In acknowledging the toast of the bishop and clergy, the Rev. E. N. Young defended such agricuitui al societies from the charges brought against them : Livin?, as the clergy for the moat part did, among the people, u was impossible for them not to feel and recognise the salutary influences of such societies. It had been sais that agricultural associations, or rather the giving away prizes, bad, if not a demoralising, a degrading efli•et upon the labourers. He, for one, did not hold that opinion ; and he could not see anything either in the distribution of the prizes or in the annual dinner afterwards which could Ft vent either the clergy or country gentlemen from taking part in those demonstrations. On this text Mr. Disraeli spoke a little later:— These societies, as my friend Mr. Young has men tioned, have sometimes been subjected to ridicule ; and hardly know anything in a country remarkable for its ree dom of speech, as well as for everything else, which has nut at times been subject to observations of a depreciating character. But these societies, notwithstanding those re• marks of ridicule which are generally made by those who are not acquainted with the subject, and have no persona experience of their bearing and influence—these societies, I say, have continued to flourish, and the one of which we are members counts, 1 believe, a quarter of a century of existence. (Hear, hear.) I never myself could discover any valid ground for those charges and sneers that are sometimes indulged in. Now, with respect to the instance mentioned by my friend Mr. Young, who said that it was held as degrading to a labourer to be called up to receive a special reward for his services, it appears to me to have very little foundation in reason. I read in the newspapers the other day that one of the ambassadors of her Majesty appeared in a very interesting scene•—l allude to the Crimea, and called together half a dozen general officers, who had pre-eminently distinguished themselves, in order to confer upon them, by command of ber Majesty, a deco. ration to express a public sense of their public services. But he would not say that it was more degrading for those general officers to have come forward and receive the public expression of the value of their services, than for the peasants of the country, who had shown their integrity and ability in their vocation, to have come forward pub. fitly to receive the respects and marks of regard of those present on an occasion like this. (Cheers.) It is quite unnecessary for me to trouble you with any arguments on this head, because every one present must know from his own practical experience the beneficial influences of these institutions. 1 think there has been a very great error on the part of those who made comments upon the influences of these societies, in having an idea that they are scientific institutions ; whereas, the fact is, they are social institu tions. We do not pretend to make any scientific disco vesies, nor do we suppose, in oar limited and contracted sphere, that we can revolutionise the agriculture of the country. Such are not our objects; but our aim is to cherish and encourage good feeling and brotherhood among the various classes of the community—an object which we believe to be highly important to the general welfare of the country. (Cheers.) In my opinion these societies have been eminently successful in this respect, and I am certain, as you all must be, that this association has in its peculiar sphere exercised a very beneficial effect upon the feelings of the labouring classes of the district. If this be our conviction I am quite persuaded that the Royal Bucks Agricultural Association will sustain itself with credit and influence. Sir H. Verney, in a short speech, advocated the cheap and easy transfer of land, as likely to prow beneficial to the agricultural interest. THE " HORSE FAIR "nF MLLE. RO4A Bowstrtiß has received the compliment of a letter from the Queen to the fair artiste, expressing high •dmiratioq of the merits of the picture,