The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1874-12-01 00:00:00

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AGRICULTURAL POLITICS.
Daring the post few weeks there has beets greet
osia ,f_,....ceechifying at agricultural meetings on topws
of interest to farmers ; and, although there has
no= much novelty in the various utterances, it
may be intereeting awl instructive to note their salient
points. One of the most ri mark:dale was certainly
that of Mr. C. S. !lead. the tenant farmer meniber for
Norfolk; and reading it we are reminded of the candi-
date sketched by " Hosea Iliglow" : -
I'm en eclectic, es to chnosin'
Tw xt this an' abet, I'm plaugy lawth
I leave a side that be,kx like losin%
But (wile there's doubt) I stick to buth
I Man upon the 'onslitution.
Kt prudent statesmen say, who've plann'd
A way to get the met profusion
0' chances es to min they'll stand.
Kt to the answerin o* questsonx,
l'au an off ox at beta' druv,
Though I suit one thet any tests shuns
gsse our Mks a kelpie shove;
Kind u* promiscomin I got it
For the boll country, an' the ground
I take, ez nigh cs I can show it,
Is pooty gen'elly all round.
WIG does he gay of a Minister of Agriculture? Not
C word. What of compenettion for unexhaterted im-
provements? "The interest of the landlord would be
sunrly regarded, as was not the came by the Irish
liilL" What about Turnpikes? " Those matter*
are arranged by the pemement officials, and therefore
Tory or Liberal hlinustere make no gliffereuce." What
about the repeal of the Malt Tax? He gave many
masons against it, and said let it 'stand over till the
next election. As a set-off "he noticed in detail the
Alkali Act " which of course wag deeply interesting to
farmers. In regard to Fitiancial lloards lw had
advocated them long before he entered Parliament ;
not that he questioned the economy of the immen-
fables. But be sketched his notion of the liciiNet that
Ought to have been, He would have taken off half
the malt tax and retained the sugar thitiee ; yet the
repeal of the latter was wise and beneficial for they
hampered trade beyond the oincePtiou of the public.
Ile should have done as Mr. Ward limit did in regard
to Local Taxation. lie would have taken the duty of
tradeemen's honicei as well as fanner 5; 1.:1111% on a
farm be would hese exempted from tax and sheplienTe
doge, but "igiorting dugs ought to lie doubly taxed."
But then with his 'clear he should have " deAroy_ed
his party." And that's the secret of it all; Po let Mr.
Clare Head pars as • fernier.' friend spoilt by office.
At Marlborough Lord Ailesbury delivered himself on
farming and farm labourers.
Hs (Lord Affesbury) found that the farms that were
best cultivated were In time counties were the wages
were highest, and it was simply this—that they had
better and more skilled workmen and extracted from men
more work than from unwilling men who were earning
wages not above one-half what they were earning in other
parts of the country. The labourer was to • certain
extent unable to hold his own against the superior
elements above him. By combination he was able to
Impress upon those above him the necessity of being kept
In • somewhat superior position to that of his ancestors.
They must therefore allow their labourers the right to
combine rationally and reasonably for their own interest,
because they were the must helpless of the three classes
who gained • livelihood from the land. He would say
!2!hi.., n2i to encourage strikes, and believed those who
engag
ed In them were ninety-nine time out of a hundred
ika. to their folly. There wearim deal more
luxury enjoyed by landowners and culturists than
formerly, and the labourers ought certainly to participate
in thole advantage&
Speaking to has constituents at Hackney, Professor
Fawc:ett strongly argued the extension of the suffrage
In counties.
In consequence of the remarkable movement lately
t the agricultural labourers, the extension of
amongst• suffrage to the counties was chiefly interesting
to the public so far as it was likely to affect their condition.
That movement was rapidly raising the agricultural
labourer from that condition of tutelage and dependence
in which he had been so lung placed, and in a short time
the relations between fanners and labourers would
become the same independent relations as those which
existed between employers and employed in all other
branches of industry. The fanners of Cambridgeshire, in
returning Mr. Itudwell to represent thetas in Parliament,
on account of his sympathy with their proceedings in the
recent lock-out, had supplied one of the strongest possible
arguments which could be advanced in favour of their
labourers: for if one party thought it of the tire import
enee to be represented in Parliament, was it not grossly
unfair that the other party to the dispute should have no
chance of any representationt—(hear, hear). It was said
In certain quarters that the agricultural labourer diil net
require the vote, because the lanilowuers and the farmers
Wted after his interest, and were his natural protectors.
Looking into the the theory of natural protection,however,
be would ask, who had protected when, millions of acres
of common land being enclosed, they had been thus
deprived of privileges of priceless value? Who had pro-
foetal them, when, year after year, a wicked monopoly of
core had been maintained, and bread had been made
dearer, with no other result than that of raising rents,
while the cruellest pangs of hunger had been brought to
thousands of homes. Guardianship What was it worth
if it put labourers in hovels in which hones would not lo
stabled, or hounds kennelled. For centuries there led
been this system of tutelage and dependence, and what
bad it led to: whole families heeling together in single
reels, the children sent to work at eight years of age, and
labeler so ill remunemtal that short lives of eiuseless
Industry led to an old age pased in penury and pauperism.
Dataand (or labour was caused liy the amount of capital
invested in industry, and more capital might be invisted
In English agriculture if the tenants hail tenant right and
compensation for unexhausted improvements. Another
great cause of non-investment was the present system of
landowners only having a life interest in their estates,
It was said there was an excess of labour in the rural
districts, but that arose from the improvidence, a
fruitful source of which was the vicious assail= system of
administering the poor law in thew districts, and from
the ignorance of the labourer, who was thereby deficient
in enterprise &La slow to migrate to localities where his
labour was wanted. Though all the expected results from
extending household suffrage to the amanita might not
Immediately billow it was inapossilie to overestimate the
ultimate adveutage of such extetasion. When a popula-
tion hail for centuries been sunk iris condition of depen-
dence, there was no chance of improving their condition
stelae they could be inspired with the sentiment of self-
respect and self-reliance ; and in order to do that it was
swewsery to make (hens feel that they were citizens of a
free state, sharers in the goverundent of L great country,
and not serfs of the soil and clients of powerful patrons.
It was essential, however, that the extension of the
suffrage should be associated with • redistribution al
deists
At East Knoyle Mr. Stratton spoke out fur the
taunt farmere, lie complainol of the difficulty in
ttin bn g any sensible lelvelatoi o the Contagious
(Animals) Act, and eabl they wanted •
Minister of Agriculture ti whom they could look, and
who in his place in the !louse of Commons could be
queitioned on those matter..
As it was, Chers were half-a-dozen member.' of the
Government who divided the agricultural interest among
them. The Luke of Richmond as president of the
Cowedl pretended to superintend tlae regulations as to
the contagious diseases; but he was also at the head of
the Educational Departmeut and he acted as leader of
his party la the House of Lords. Ile had anultifarious
dunes, and be looked upset this as a mere nothing. So
that if they wanted to go on with the subject they had to
go to the Board of Trade, and from thence they were
referred to the Local timer:meet Board; in fact ifs man
wanted to make enquiries on an agriculturul question, he
was bandied about from one office to another until he did
not know what to do—(how, hear). With such a minister
appointed there would lee • responsible person who would
lie called upon to answer many questions which at present
were unasked or unanswered. That was one matter
which he thought was very important, and which they
ought all to use their influent.* with their members to get
instituted--(hear, hear.
Ho complained of the utter sinking of all talk of
repeal of the Malt Tax, and touchingly exclaimed--
He honed the present Government woidd very soon awake
from their apathy and see to putting their house in order,
set satisfy them that they were going to do a little good.
They (the agriculturists) had not striven so hard to change
Use Government to be satisfied to see this Government do
as little as the one before it—(hear hear),
In answer to this appeal Lora If, Thynne, Ml',
was LK Mild as a mucking clove, told the cximpany the
difficulties of the situation, and pleaded that the
Government had done as much as they could and
showed their good-wilL Then he peeled to safer
topic', and descanted on the advantages of the large
farm system, and tickled the ear* of the farmers by
saying he wished the wretched agitators could see the
labourers in their Sunday's host! What wondrously
mild eloqueuce compared with his fierce attacks at
Shaftesbury, when his party were the "outs'! Mr.
Godwin, however, was not to be cajoled. He said
It was all very well to te". them about • lot of legisla-
tion which they did not want to interfere with. At these
mete meetings they wanted to talk about matters which
concerned them individually.
And lie went on to tell them why he wanted such an
address from the Coriaervative member--

Ho had stood in this 1,0111 and stated on two previous
occasions that foot and mouth disease had cost him ISM
each year—(hear, hear); and he would give any man 1701.1
to reimburse him this year the loin be had sustained from
that same pest—(mar, bear), lie had hoped that evening
to bear there was • prospect of some assistance from
(loveninient, to protect them from the spread of that
disease. What was to be dune? If the disease was to be
allowed to be brought into the country wholesale, as it
was at present, the pasture lauds of this country must la
depreciated in value—(hear, bear, and a Voice: They
are). No tenant fanner could stand against it—(bear,
hear). But here they met, and nobody said a word about
it they all sat down and swallowed it.
Mr. A. Seymour following, concurred an to the
need of a Minister of Agriculture.
When they considered that the agricultural interest had
between kV and 300 millions sterling invested in stock,
implements. and the farming stock•in.trado of this
country, which he believed was larger than the value of
the whole merchant shipping of the country—that surely
was not an interest to be lightly eat aside or lightly dealt
with—(applause).
Regarding the Malt Tin, which he said was utterly
indefetusible, he observed --
Between i'..s,lfiskisa out £6,000,000 was not to be re-
=very readily. (Mr Stratton : Thrown away this
) Mr. Stratton said it had horn thrown away this
past Beesion, but he (Mr. Seymour) was happy to say, in
enter to conduce to the harmony of this meeting. it Ind
been thrown away by a Conservative Government, and
not by • Liberal—(laughter and applause),
With regani to the prevention of tattle pLlgue, he
said—

It was understood to le one of the great I.eas stailai of
this Government that Nanitary ntatters were to be !wall-
mislay attended to. God knew they paid enough now to
be looted after—(hear, bear)—every odd corner of
their gardens a sanitary inspector came and poked his
nose into, to see If it WIWI smelling in a proper state—
(laughter). He thought if thole gentJenien would only
ply their noses to some 1 the cattle trucks, and supply
with water. they 1101.11t1 be doing a good deed,
sad saving a east amount of money in the country—
(applause).

TID DUICB AND DUCHENE; OF EDINBURGH.
The 1411k0 and Duchess of Edinburgh left Buckingham
Yalu* on Wednesday morning for Eastwell Park. Kent.
the special train leaving Chairing Cross shortly miter
sloven.

ALgifaanna OlL—Messrs. J. L Thouuu & Co., of
Easter, are the proprietors of an admirable lamp-oil
known as ths Alexandra, which la colourless, emits no
mall when burning. and Ls forty degrees eater that ordin-
ary petroleum. These valuable characteristic* cause it to
be wroly coommed, and lead, also, to inferior oils beln
soid—Ce ft to • large extent. lately a gentJeman in North
Devo. complained that a lamp In which he burned the
Awmidm ccooded, and made re rotations to Mows.
Thomas, &CM rie the luhiurt. Mown.. Thomas diecos-
wed that the oil which had been supplied In thii instance
was not Alexandra but ordinary petroleum, awl tho
daterminod to y
iniititute Chancery iirectealitio for their
owa protection and the consumers. A suit instituted by
them against Mr. NOON a vendor of oils at nammtabm,
came lbefore Vice-Chancellor Ramo. when a
lAignotien to restrain defendant from maim
ell arm ties Alexandra oil mild by the plaintiff.
=Wok untated. and defeudent agreed to pay no
ow oda