The Press.
London, England, 1858-10-16 00:00:00

TH E Pft_gS 8, OCIOI3Ett 16, 1858.

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We all know how the education of the children of the
peasantry of this country has received a great and sensible
influence from the speeches which have been made and
the suggestions which have been thrown out at meetings of
this kind• Bat so much has been said on that subject,
and so certainly do I think the progress of education in its
common and hackneyed sense to be secured in the country,
that I will dwell no longer upon it further than to say that
I hope in our seal and our endeavours to promote the edu-
cation of the intellect we shall not altogether lose sight of
the education of the bodies of the children of the labouring
classes. I attach such importance to the manly and
athletic games and pastimes which have heretofore cha-
racterized all classes of our English community that I
would say to all men, however wise, however stupid, how-
ever rich, however old, stimulate and foster every manly
and athletic game, commencing from marbles and ascending
up to fox hunting, and if there be anything above and
beyond fox hunting, then teach the labouring classes that.
Tend them religiously, and from the lowest and the
humblest, up to the maturest and the highest a our
national sports and pastimes, let us endeavour to pro-
mote them one and all. I say this because I have
noticed with pain and concern a heresy, as it seems to
me, growing up and spreading in this country, the up-
shot of which will be that England will be divided into
two great classes—those who spin and those who study.
It is to promote some such consummation as this that we
find that admirable speaker and sterling member of Parlia-
ment, Mr. Bright, recommending emigration to the
whisky drinking, joint-stock bat.k•breaking people of
Glasgow; and we have the Times, the great organ, as it
used to be called, of public opinion in England, warning
all the noblemen of England out of the hunting field. As
many present know, I am no great rider, and do not
profess to give much time or attention to hunting, but this
I do know, that I never jog home after a day's hunting
without feeling that I have seen or heard something which
has added somewhat to my small stock of knowledge, and
without rejoicing as a politician—of course i do not use
the term in a party sense—in the existence of that manly
and invigorating pastime. Then, gentlemen, say I, long
may there be a race of yeomen in England who, like my
friends the Guys of Hatton, the Vinceuts of Bottesford,
or the Blends of Marlborough, can carry off the prize in
the cattle ahowyard, and the brush at the head of the hunt.
On the political future, the noble lord observed :

The future, of course, is dark, but at the same time it is
more than probable that. the question most likely to interest
an agricultural assemblage in the next session of Parlia-
ment will be the much discussed question of Parliamentary
Reform. Upon that question, of course, my lips are sealed,
and I can only say Rust by one of those curious turns of
the wheel which mechanizes modern politics it seems to
be reserved for a Tory Government to render less anomalous
and to make better adapted to the growing intelligence,
property, and numbers of the community, the Whig Reform
Act of had. I can only say that her Majesty's Govern-
ment will enter upon that most serious task with the
single and earnest endeavour so to mend the represents,
don of the people in Parliament as to secure the best elec-
toral body and the best representative body which can be
obtained for the people of this country. But, gentlemen,
after all, hustings, registration courts, polling booths,
speeches from the hustings, and even speeches in Parlia•
meat, and divisions consequent thereupon, are only a means
to an end, and that end is the good self-government of a
Christian and a civilized community. Without depre-
ciating other pursuits and other ways of life, every day 1
live more and more convinces me that the art and practice
of agriculture is the safest, the surest, and the most bene-
ficent of all the industries in which the wit, intelligence,
and capital of man can be employed. We shall do well,
then, I think, as 1 ventured to say at the outset of the
few observations which I have thought it right to make,—
we shall do well to keep alive by every means in our power
the corporate character of our relations one to another, and
I know of no means—of no human means—which can so
fully impress upon all our hearts the great truth that land-
lord and tenant, farm servant and husbandman, clergy and
laity, all form one great Christian brotherhood, as these
periodical meetings, at which the respective excellences of
different men in different branches of agricultural pur-
suits are brought prominently to notice, and which teed to
keep alive in all our hearts the great tact that every process
—at every season of the year—in the pursuit of agricultural
progress blends harmoniously into one beneficent whole.
I leave it to those more qualified than lam to speak upon
the practical subjects which in reality have brought us here
to-day; but I (nought it might not be amiss if I ventured
to recall to your minds some of the great and enduring
henefits., which I believe apply to the country as a whole
in a social point of view, of agricultural gatherings such
as this.

CONSERVATIVE MEETING AT NORWICH.
AN importantimeeting of the Conservative party of
this city took place on Tuesday evening, the occasion
being the anniversary meeting of the "Eldon Loyal
anti Constitutional Club." The proceedings derived
some importance from the presence of Sir Samuel
Bignold, late M.P. for Norwich, and Sir Henry
Stracey, formerly M.P. for East Norfolk, and the
unsuccessful Conservative candidate for that con-
stituency.
In the course of the evening, "The health of Sir
Samuel Bignold, the leader of the Conservative party
in N.,rwich," was proposed, and received with much
applause.
Sir SAMUEL Biattom returned thanks, and con-
gratulated the party on the accession of Lord Derby
to Once, and the satisfactory results which he consi-
dered had followed the change of Government. Re-

ferring to the more current topic of the day, Sir
Samuel observed that a great deal had appeared in
the public journals about the intention of the Go-
vernment to bring in a Rfform Bill. But Lord
Derby, on the first evening on which he took his
sent on the Treasury bench, made no promise to
that effect. He simply said that the session of IMSB
was not a proper time for the introduction of a Re-
form Bill, and that, with respect to the future, he
would give the subject his most mature and anxious
consideration. He (Sir S. Bignold) was not aware
that Lord Derby stood pledged to bring in a Reform
Bill during the approaching session ; but if the Go.
vernment should be of opinion that the time had
arrived for some changes in the Constitution f the
country, he for one should have much greater con-
fidence in the changes enunciated by the Earl of
Derby than those proposed by Lord Palmerston, be•
cause the former would introduce no changes which
would at all endanger the balance of power—Queen,
Lords, and Commons—in this great country.
The CHAIRNAN proposed " The health of Sir
Henry Stracey, and his speedy re-election for the
county of Norfolk," which was received with loud
cheers and musical honours.

Sir H. STRACEY responded, and, after briefly ad-
verting to his defeat, though supported by 2,700 of
the Conservative electors, proceeded to say he be-
lieved that they might rely upon the Conservative
party and upon its great bead, Lord Derby, for what-
ever was promised to them. Lord Derby had held
out a kind of promise as to a Reform Bill ; he had
stated that he did not approve the practice of keeping
the subject dangling before the eyes or the country.
These were the terms Lord Derby used, and they
were enough to tell them that his lordship had a
Reform Bill in his mind, and that he intended to
produce it. His firm belief was that a Reform Bill
would be produced next session. lie had no special
nformation on the subject, and no further reason for
saying so than his firm belief that Lord Derby did
more than he promised. Sir George Cornewall
Lewis, who bad held the honourable office of Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and was a man of great
education, had lately stated that no Reform Bill
would be acceptable which did not savour strongly of
democracy. He did not exactly understand this, as
he did not see how any limit to democracy was to be
secured. As far as he understood democracy, it
meant the government of the people ; and he looked
upon this as leading at any rate to the indulgence
of the wildest passions, without any guard whatever.
He therefore looked upon democracy and revolution as
synonymous terms. He did not believe that Lord
Derby would ever dream of introducing a bill leading
to democracy without limitation ; but. he had not the
slightest doubt that his lordship's bill would have a
liberal tendency, that it might even tend to lower the
franchise, and give members in proportion to the
population of the country. It might have liberal
tendencies of this kind ; and he candidly told them that
if be were in Parliament, and if the Reform Bill
introduced included the ballot, he should only be too
glad to support the measure. The question of the ballot
was one which Conservatives had always looked on
with horror, and he must acknowledge that no one
had a stronger feeling than he had on the subject.
He had felt that the influence of property ought
always to be felt ; that it ought to ba known how
that property was represented—that is, how persons
voted ; and he had also considered that property
would not have its proper iufluence if vote by ballot
was established. But he had now had a certain
amount of experience in social and political life ; he
had been engaged in two elections; he had fought
one contest singlehanded ; and, as far as his expe-
rience went upon the latter occasion, he had been
led to the conclusion that the Conservative cause
could not have been injured by the ballot. He was
quite convinced that the Conservative cause, not only
in Norfolk, but throughout the country, could not be
injured by the ballot, if honesty of principle was to
prevail without that abominable thing called the
" screw." Of this he was quite sure, that the present
laws at any rate did not prevent corruption, which
had been general throughout the country ; and could
things be worse with the ballot" He very much
doubted whether they would not be a great deal
better, and he thought the experiment was well worth
a trial. If an honest man had an opportunity of
exercising his judgment freely he believed the Con-
servative cause, in consequence of the exercise of
that honesty, would be in the end the gainer.
Possibly some of them might not agree with him on
this subject, but Lord Stanley, who, as had been ably
observed, was a government in himself, bad voted for
the measure ; so that at any rate be was not forming
a very erroneous judgment, and he felt himself justi•
fiei, from personal experience, in declaring himself
in favour of the ballot.

SuOsequently,
Mr. J. G. JOHNSON (a gentleman invited on a
former occasion to offer himself as a candidate for
Norwich) responded to the toast of the magistracy,
and entered a strong protest against the ballot.
Referring to Lord Derby's anticipated measure of