The Press.
London, England, 1854-06-10 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS.

ARRANGEMENTS for the collection and preparation of
agricultural statistics upon a regular system are now
in active progress. Sir John Walsham has just pre-
sented a supplementary report on the subject, in
which he sets forth the conclusions regarding the
best form of proceeding which he has arrived at,
either by his own investigations when conducting the
experimental inquiry in the county of Norfolk, and
from the experience collected by Mr. Hall Maxwell
in Scotland, while pursuing similar inquiries on
behalf of the Highland Society. The form of the
schedule that should be sent to occupiers is inserted
in this part, both Sir J. Walsham and Mr. Maxwell
agreeing that the inquiry should at first be confined
within the simplest limits, and not elaborated by
questions calculated to perplex, if not alarm, the
farmers generally. They propose that the distribu-
tion of crops and the amount of stock throughout
Great Britain should be ascertained on the Ist of July;
that the estimates of the produce per acre, to be pre-
pared by the enumerators of the Scotch districts and
the statistical committees of the English unions, in
respect of the harvest, should be lodged with the
superintending authority, by whom the results of such
harvest would have to be calculated, between the 20th
of October and 20th of December ; and that the
Board of Trade should publish the estimates before
the Ist of January. Respecting the most expedient
machinery for collecting the required facts, Sir J.
Walsham considers that the agency of parish officers
and boards of guardians will be the most effective,
and estimates that by this means the whole work
might be performed, as far as regards England and
Wales, for an annual sum of 15,0001. Those boards '
necessarily comprise a comsiderable proportion of
the leading agriculturists throughout the country,
while union officers are well known to all classes
within the district for which they act, and, as a body,
are most intelligent and trustworthy. If this organ-
isation were made available, nothing more would be
needed than for the Board of Trade to delegate the
undertaking to the Poor Law Commissioners. With
reference to the feeling with which agriculturists
regard this scheme of collecting agricultural statistics,
through the agency of boards of guardians and their
officers, it is stated that a general opinion in its
favour seems to prevail among practical men. Under
these circumstances, looking at the critical influence
which the next harvest must have upon all the com-
mercial and financial interests of the country, it is
hoped that no obstacles will be permitted to prevent
the entire system being put in force during the pre-
sent year.

A YANKEE BARGAIN IN THE WIND.
Cult American cousins, with their keen scent for abargain,
are already beginning to speculate upon the possibility of
realising something handsome for themselves out of the
present European crisis. Their first glance is directed
towards the territory which Russia possesses on their own
continent, and the plan for turning it to account is thus
described in the New York Herald:—" It must be manifest
to every intelligentj reader that the possessions of Russia
on the north-west coast of this continent are held at this
time subject at any day to seizure and annexation by Great
Britain. The addition of those islands and seacoast lying
north of 54 deg. 40 min. to British Oregon would make that
colony so valuable to its owner as to render its ultimate ac-
quisition by the United States impossible, except front the
chance of external war or internal revolution. But the
Russian possessions in question may undoubtedly be pur-
chased by our Government at this crisis for less than cost
price, and their acquisition would so far hem in the pos-
sessions of the Hudson's Bay Company as to make their
purchase at a reasonable sum a natural consequence. It
may, therefore, be worth while to admonish our Govern-
ment that the position of this republic as the first com-
mercial nation of the world—that our territories on the
Pacific, and our prospective trade, across that ocean, with
the nations and islands of Asia—suggest the policy of
strengthening and extending our commercial facilities,
wherever the opportunity is offered, without disturbing our
peaceful relations with other powers, and especially
wherever an advantageous bargain of annexation may be
made. In this broad and general view, when Honduras,
through her minister to Washington, shall lay before our
Government an offer comprehending the incorporation of
that State into our Union, quietly and peacefully, and
without the extortion of a Gadsden treaty, we should close
in with the offer, for our constitution and our institutions,
our enterprise and our ' manifest destiny,' are sufficiently
cohesive and elastic to cover the continent and its con-
tiguous islands, of all sizes, and in all latitudes. Hence,
also, if the Russian territories in question can be purchased
for a mere trifle at this time, it is our policy and our duty
to purchase them."

Tim son of a workman in the Moselle department,
named Brodbergen, committed parricide, as it is surmised
from no other motive than that, having been drawn for a
soldier, he hoped to become exempt from service as the son
of a widow. His crime was discovered and the assassin
awaits h.!, trial.

539

CLOTHING-COLONELS.
AN important missive, "regulating the future position
of the colonels of regiments with regard to the clo-
thing of their regiments and the emoluments which
they are to receive," has just emanated from the
Horse Guards. This document comprises a royal
warrant by which flied payments are substituted to
the colonels (according to the system in use in the
household cavalry) in lieu of the varying profits they
now derive from the " off-reckonings." The warrant
sets forth :
VICTORIA R.—Whereas it has been found expedient to alter
and revise the warrant end regulations regarding tho supply of
clothing, accoutrements, and appointments to our army, so that
the colonels of the respective regiments shall in future receive a
fixed annual allowance in lieu of deriving any pecuniary emolu-
ments, as heretofore, from the off-reckonings, we are therefore
pleased to direct that, in future, the following allowances shall be
made to the colonels of the respective corps In lieu of off•reckon-
ings,

Grenadier Guards.... 1,0001. per ann.
Coldstream Guards .. 1,0001. "
Soots Fusilier ditto .. 1,6001 "
tat Dragoon Guards .. 8001. "
Other regiments of
Dragoon Guards 4101. "
and Dragoons, each (To be reduced to 1,0001.
Ist Regiment of Foot 1,2001. " in the event of a va-
cancy occurring.
60th ditto 1 Ist BtUn. COOl. "
2nd ditto COOL "
Rifle Birgde. 1 let Bat. 6001. " If appointed before Ist
vild do. 60,1. June, latit ; but if ap-
Other Regiments of In- pointed subsequently
fantry of the Line IBi. ~ only COOL per annum.
and West India Re-
giments, each.. •...
The clothing, accoutrements, and appointments will in future
be provided by the colonel, the public only paying the cost price
of such articles ; the payment will be made under such regula-
tions u the Secretary at War may hereafter determine.
The engagements already entered into by the colonels of the
respective corps will be taken over by the public in such manner
as the Secretary at War may hereafter direct.
Given at our Court at St. James's, this 6th day of June, 1864,
in the seventeenth year of our reign.
By her Majesty's command,
SIDNCY