The Express.
London, England, 1852-12-30 00:00:00

THE
AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

RURAL RETROSPECT.-RURAL PROSPECTS.

TO THE 101105 Of THE DAILY Haws.
SlE,—The present time is an epoch in the history
' of British husbandry ; a date from which certainty
in rural affairs commences; a period to which the
agricultural wind will henceforth refer as the time
when it finally learnt the necessity of trusting to
realities and realities only. Moralists may, perhaps
with justice, regret the evil example, the flipper,
I conduct, and gross political and personal prevarica-
tion of the Derby-Dierselite government though I
believe the effect of their flagrant outrages on public
thounur has been rather to disgust and ulienate mazy
of their more respectable adherents, than to commend
i them to any but the must reckless partisans. But the
effects of the Derby-Disraeli exhibition of the Let
six weeks on the minds of the aeric.ilite al public
I have been extremely salutary. The readiness with
which the once loud denouncers of tree trade,
the impatient asserturs of tie: neces i v .or
restored protection, yielded up their convictions
—it ever they hail any—in the hope of ietaining
place and patient..e ; their miserabte shiltisig and
shuffling to evade the expression of parliamentary
opinion on their budget; and, though last not least,
the absolute inefficiency of that budget to afford even
a semblance of relief to what fat mess lia‘e been
pleased to call their distress, ha% e combined to
Impress indelibly on the sgricultur,ts that they
must no longer trust to politics or politicians ise
relief from any of the ills they are aunt to iouipla;n
of. This is satisfactory; and to none more so than
to 'arsons, like myself, who daiiy see and know
that farmers really do labour under burdens and
endure grievances of no slight importance, but that
they have hitherto been grasping at the shadow
and missing substantial relief by pursuing the will
o' the wisp of the hour—protection, special burdens,
or compensation—of which it pleased their landlords
and their landlords administration to lead them in
chase. Nothing short of the exhaustive process, the
proving by demonstration the protectionists could
do nothing for them, would have convinced tne
farmers and the minor landlords that Lord Derby and
his noisy crew could do nothing "tor the relief of
agriculture," if ever so desirous, and farther, that
they would not if they could. The result has been
to show the farmers they can does other traders have
done—help themselves. What the effect of that
knowledge will be on the relations of landlord and
tenant, on the progress of husbandry, and finally, on
the condition of landed property, I forbear on this
occasion to discuss, further than to note that I 'echos
the changes which must ensue will be far greater
than are commonly supposed, and that such changes
will be all for good, though perhaps they may inter-
fere with some cherished prejudices and established
errors in conuexion with the possession and manage-
ment of landed property.
Circumstances recently directed my attention to
the West of England. I felt curious to see what
influence the failure of the Derby shuttle would
have upon the farmers of that district. I Mond there
as elsewhere that up to the very last moment certain
partisan landlords were doing all they could to keep
up the delusion that if Lord Derby could not restore
protection, he would do "something'' for the far-
mers, while all the current fallacies against free trade
we:c being irworked perseveringly. For instance,
whilst the question was in process of settlement, the
Her. H. F. Yeatman, a Dorsetshire landlord of some
notoriety, presided at the Sherborne Agricultural
Society, and entertained his audience with just such
a speech as he was accustomed to deliver before the
corn laws were repealed. This gentleman seems to
be afflicted with great fluency and a statistical flux,
and for two mortal hours he poured forth is mane of
incoherent and indigested figures and extracts—taken
possibly from Blackicood=to prove that free trade
had reduced the growth of corn, that trading capital
and industry ought to be taxed to relieve land, and
that prices have recently risen from the reduced value
of gold, and consequently that the rise is nominal
only. And about the same time another reverend
orator, at the Yeovil Agricultural Society, indulged
in profuse lamentations over free trade, as has tag
brought "irretrievable ruin on the agricultural
cease," a cause which he admitted "ti be rather
lukewarmly supported just at present." It is wor-
thy of remark that some of the meet unscrupulous of
the protectionist agitators have been found amongst
the clergy, and the speeches of these men invariably
abound in the most virulent abuse and invective.
Even while the clerical agitators were doing their beet
to keep up "obsolete" delusions, the more practical and
rational men, at the same meetings, were by their
comments offering complete contradiction to such
frothy nonsense. Thus the chairman at Yeovil said
they would all agree with him that within the last
15 or 20 years the science of agriculture had under-
gone so great a change for the better, and the im-
provement in farm buildings, stock, and tillage had
been se great, that we seemed to live in another
age." And Mr. Bide, a glove manufacturer of Yeovil,
in reference to some suggestions made as to the ne-
cessity of not removing, protection from the glove
trade "suddenly and rashl,r " remarked that he
" had always expressed his belief that unrestricted
competition would be the order and rule of the
day ; that agriculturists must exert themselves, and
manufacturers must do the same ; and that agricul-
turists must look to their own prosperity, or they
would never find it. They must see what they are
doing before they took their farms, and take them at
the proper rate. It was far better for them to do so
than depend on their landlords to return them. 5, 10,
or 15 per cent. on the rent. In business, as in agri-
culture, it was always bad policy for persons to
attempt to do more than they had the means to do
properly. In trade. they should call it' over-
trading, and in agriculture they should call it
taking a larger farm than they could properly
manage." And these wholesome truth' were loudly
applauded. So Mr. Pope, a tenant farmer, in re-
spending to a toast, said, " his advice was to econo-
mise their own resources. They must in these days
endeavour to cheapen produce, and to farm in such
away as would enable them to compete with all the
world." Now lam told that this Mr. Pope has been
a great leader amongst the protectionist farmers,
and it is obvious that he was sobering down to a
rational state of mind, notwithstanding all the
counter-irritants of the protectionist parsons. At the
Castle Cary Agricultural Society's meeting, how-
ever, held after the explosion of the Derby-Disraeli
bubble, Mr. Pope, as well as Lord Derby, begged
" most respectfully to bow" to the decision of the
country, and thus formally divested himself
of his protectionist harness. " Whatever,"
said the heroic Pope, " might have been my
former convictions, however zealous I may have
been as a member of the antral committee, and as a
frequenter of 17, Old Bond-street, I now feel that I
ought to bow to the decision of the country." Now
albeit there was something of the mock heroic in the
solemn renunciation of protection by Farmer Pope,
after all that is gone and past, we must remember
that these protectionist hrmers mainly gain credit
amongst their Blasi by loving voice to what their
neighbours Wok, eft swamp they think, on a sub.
ject they are mei* peolbeadly ignorant of. And
when the talking humors say, as Mr. Pope after-
wards said, the waft "would keep their minds
open to the improvements of the day, and pay
due attention to the suggestions of those who de-
voted their time and attention to agriculture," I know
well enough that the same rational sentiment has
:already become familiarised to the minds of the
farmers he is accustomed to associate with.
I have dwelt so long on the effect the settling the
protection question has bad on the minds of the
west country farmers, because I take them to be
about the most backward of English farmers, and I
know that in opinion the farmers of more improved
districts have hitherto been a-head of them ; but every
where it is good to have the question set finally at
rest. Here. then, I say, let protection rest in peace;
though the mischief it has entailed on English
husbandry will not be at once repaired.
The recent advance in the prices of all kinds of
agricultural produce, partly the effect of season,
partly the reaction from undue depression, has gone
far to disabuse the farmers' minds from the notion
that they must all be ruined, that is, if they ever
entertained it to any extent.
At present our great and very natural Arthhig is
about the season. For the greater part otillibefioislim,
since the second week in August, we reae.
I•
cession of rains end 'teems such as hail Mooed
during the present century.
After the hot weather of July, whik ie. believed
to have ripened the wheat premature*. hist -mood r
e "
ry