The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-23 00:00:00

principle and the practice of efficient poor relief in
Leland out of rates imposed on Dish property is
wrung ; for that is what has spec:ally and for the
first ti.ue been rendered obligatory by law under
the present administration. In the good old
tory time, property in Inland had rights,
but duties in the contemplation of law it
bad none. A similar state of things was
perpetuated by sufferance under the ten ye3ri of wbig
rale. admittistered by the cabinets of Lord GREY and
Lord MaLsovitriz. In 1838 it is true, s ground-plan
was aomewhat clumsily laid down, for the future
eggutiou of an adequate and permanent system of
pow relief. But it was not until 1847 that the edi-
fice was rears, or a refuge offered for the decti-
ration of Ireland. Fee= the day that the bill
obtained the royal inaction wh:ch conferred
upon the able-bodied poor a qualified title to
rrli. t, an unaleepieg spirit of resistance has
been actively at work among the landed
roptietors of Ireland to throw off the yoke of moral
mid flash responsibility thus imposed upon them.
In every locality there has been an unscrupulous
cab/A ; in every coterie a sanguine ache me for the di-
rect or indirect overthrow of the humane law of
1t47. Meetings and petitions innumerable there have
been with this view, and discus ions without end
from the commencement of the s-csion on every detail
of the subject. But the upshot of the whlsie has been
to demonstrate more completely the true purpose
and aim • f the nobl- and honourable confederates in
both Sums of parliament—Namely, to elude the
burden of the poor-law.
Wei e it possible that they should succeed, the im.
mediate and inevitable consequence must be, either
that the ahlc-bodied poor men- be suwained by grants
from the imperial treasury, cr that they must be kit
to perish is multitudes. Humanity repo s the one.
justice the other; yet to one or other of these alterna-
tives it 1- not dented that the landlord policy c woes;
and if this be not the policy for which Mr. Hos&
less's motion would pave the way, we know not
whither it would tend. A tree is known by
si fruits, and a motion is best understood
by the votes that are given in support of it.
We alt II await the issue in the present case with a
conficent assurance that few if any will be found re-
ceiving their suffrages in its support save those who
are peonnally or by eympstny identified with the
Irian la,.d ord patty. For t e moat put these are
porky, thuogh nut all. Bane Lose and floating spars
from the wreck of other hopes may pos,ibly be found
drifting together as the tide of the cession ebbs ; but
for the most put the materials out of which Me.
!Who' tic would endeavour to construct his aszy
raft are the old timbers of toryism, held tenspftrity
together by some few frail splinters from the mass of ,
libcra:11,111.
If another session is not to be wasted ive
controversies on this unprofitable subject, ILA
thit such a majority will be found restating this ill-
adv.ae and ill-timed motion as will serve to warn
men . t. talent end discretion like Mr. HoitsMAN not
bait iy to commit themselves in future in so un-
popular a cause.

MR. FIRRRIES has made a discovery—or rather
s'or.c protectionist political eeonorniste have made a
di,covory f,r him, and Le, in the lion-e r f Commons,
has r. commended practical application. We hope
none of our protectionist writers or orators will take it
amiss that we call them political communion. They
are in the habit of giving Italy names to political eco-
nomy ar.d political economists, yet if they will but
eel c: that political economy is nothing more
than tie application of the theory of the origin and
distrilio.ion of national wealth to administrative pur-
poses, and recollect that they too Im.ve a theory of the
kind, and advocate their peculiar financal and com-
mercial policy by arguments drawn tram this theory,
they will see that they are themselves u arrant
notified economists ac try member of the
Manchester schrol. The poor gentlemen have
ell tl;s time been talking political economy
(and very bad political economy too), as the
hero of NOLlERE'S"Bourgeois GertilliOMMe "
talked pr•se' without knowing it. Perhaps 'hie
piece rat information may imince them to be lees
liberal for the future in their application of dialogistic
epiliets to political economy ; at all events it may
r.rve to couvince them that in calling them political
ecenomi-te we mean no offence.

...._..
Well, Mr. BERRIES hes neeriniended in the House
ef Commons the practiced application of a great dis-
cover) that has been made by the protectionist poli-
tic il roan Mil.,. The discovery in question is neither
mare nor less than the means of raising a suffi ient
revenue to defray. the expi.nditurii of government
without taktog a single shilling cut of the pocket of
any 11. lush subject. Mr. Helot' is is too wary and
experienced a tactitian to unveil the whole of
his magnificent echeme at mice, thereby der:lint
the op ice of the bystanders. The late GEORGE
STEPHENSON, when first examined by a com-
mittee of the Ileums of C immene, e.id he
mild make a steam loootnotise move along a rail-
road at the rate of ten miles an hour. lie knew
he (001 make it move much more rapidly, hut he
also knew that if be said so nobody would be'itvc
bim at the time. In like manner Mr. Hennes
contents hime.ill with de:lefng in the first in-
stance that he can raise a million annually with-
out vein:: Coo country a farthing. He asks the
Crteerietiolt OF TIIE EXCHEQUER I.) try the experi-
meot : he knows it will ranted, and as soon as it has
mime li d he will point out far adoption the wider
application of the principle.
The means by which Mr. Minnie., when Chan-
celler of the Excaequer, will entinly relieve English-
men from the disagreeable necessity ef paying taxes,
is simple enough. It is merely to met foreigners to
pay all our taxes for us. Our Ts eiders shake their
heads. Nodoubt, if you were to go blunderingly and
openy t, work, and est foreigners to pay your taxes
for you, their reply would probably be the reverse of
cis •I and tonciliatory. lint Mr. HEaRIES proposes to
go f r more cunningly to work. lie will take the
Ramey from the foreigners without their knowing it.
M-Altaartradmits that thereis a good deal of truth
Is the theory that all taxes on commodities are paid
by the consumer. He maintains, however, that this
economical law Ocoee not hold perfectly and absolutely
true; there is, he 'eye, "a margin" between high
taxwion and no taxation at all, by keeping within
which you may save the consumer from paying any
part of the tsx. He moreover thinks that he has din-
cm-r.d this margin, and that by rerulating our tariff
of eustoon-howie (twice according to his discovery, he
can shift the whole, or, at all events, the far greater
rtt, cf the cost of maintaining our government on to
the shoulders of foreigner,. He does not,
em we have already remarked, propose the
adoption of his plan in its entirety in
the first instance. lie only asks leave to try an ex-
periment upon some one of our least important
articles of general consumption. "Fiat experimentvm
is f*.rpOre rili," says Mr. MERRIL+. "There is Mtn •
which my protectionist friends, it is true, when rents' 1
seetallmd of, affect to think of some consequence ; but
which, by the cool way in which they insist upon
keeping up the price and diminishing the quantity of
it, they evidently think people can do very well
without. Let us test my principle by beginning
with imposing a fixed duty, " within the margin,"
upon corn." Mr. li E RRI re thought the promise of a
million per annum would be au irresistible bribe to
Sir CHARLEB WOOD, in the difficulty he finds at pre-
sent to make ends meet. And Mr. Humes looked
forward, with palpitating eagerness, to the moment
when the million having been netted, he
might exclaim, " try the same plan with
cotton, try it with sugar, try. it with
article we import." BT bringing one
:vrte7cTe of import after another within the range of his
marginal duty, Mr. MERRIES will tax the whole
world of foreigners fur our benefit,as sure as Bolnuld,
if allowed to try, would have killed off all our eremite
by fifties. Mr. Ilenetes is the Bobarlil of finance..
There is one obstacle to the success of this magni-
ficent scheme which Mr. HERMES, in his er,riguine
calculations, appears to have overlor led. " Two can
play at that game," se the old proverb 'Aye: other
nations would be pretty sure to Icon 'our trick, and
play it "ff against ourselves, It we towed colt in and
corn for the support of our gevernmeet, France, Ger-
many, America--all the world—vre,uld tax Birming-
ham hardware and Manchester cottons for the
support of theirs. The result would be that, accord-
ing to the theory of the pratctionist political econo-
mists, every country would pay fur governing all its
reighboars. It is th-e old story of the monkeys in
Exeter 'Change, s'. here every monkey insisted upon
eating out of it co neighbour's pan. All things con-
sidered, we suspect it will be beet to adhere to the
vulic or but simple and honest plan of every nation
paying its own shot.

Whoever may have been deluded by this promising
theory, Mr. HERRIES evidently bas not. He took
care to bring his plan under the consideration of the
house in a form that precluded the possibility of a
division on it. He threw out the suggestion, in an
easy conversational way, as one worthy the attention
of the CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, but made
no motion. The consequence was, that he had well
nigh escaped even a debiee upon it. One honourable
member proposed to get rid of the topic by intro-
ducing ano her, a second by adjourning the house,
and at lsst,the housegrowieg wearied of talking when
there was no motion before it, the subjeetwas dropped
as informally as it was introdeced.
The truth is, that Mr. Ileums and his patty are
burning to do something, and yet do not see what
they can do. They are much in poor Littn's condi-
tion : " I will do such things—what they are yet I
know not." And besides, they must keep up appear-
ances, and persuade their followcrs they are doing
something. To these feelings we are indebted fur
Mr. Denim/as proposal at the beginning of the KIP
lion, to relieve agriculturists by transferring the col-
lection of some millions of taxes from local to govern-
ment ra'e collectors; and Mr. HERRIES' proposal at
the end of it, to begin the work of every nation
paying its neighbour's taxes. People were prepared
for any possible amount of eccentricity in financial
plans from Mr. Diseseht, but nobody expected to see
the sedete and prosaic Mr. Ileitetes excel the author
of Yleian Grey in his own line. We have had ere
now an administration of " all the talents." When Mr.
HbRAELI, Mr. HERMES, and their colleagues, come
intooffice, we shall have an administration of " all the
crotchets."
If there is any meanirg in Mr. Hermes's proposal
it is to re-impose a protective duty on home-grown
grain. If it can bare any practical result, it is to im-
posea taxation of 5,000,0001. per annum en the
bread-eaters of England, of which one million is to go'
into the Exchequer, and four millions into the
pucketeof the laudlords. Mr.Heitates would havekept
this feature of his rzheme in tte background, but
the impatience of Mr. NewnEcAre tamed round
its back face, and showed it to all the
world. The glorious discovery heralded by Mr.
HERRIAS was discovered, when stripped and turned
round, to have, like SPENSER'S Dueua. a fox's tail
"with dung all foully dight," depending from its
caudal extremity. This was unanswerably shown by
Mr. MITCHELL, Mr. BRIGHT, and Mr. COBDEN. The
remarks of the last-named gentbman drew from Mr.
BAnees the dolorous declaration that " the interpoei
tion of the honourable member for the West Riding
had not in the slightest degree facilitated the object
of the debate." It certainly had not facilitated the
object which the parties who began the debate had
in view.

THE annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural
Society is an event of too m'ich importance, with re-
gard to the actual condition of rural industry, to be
passed by without remark. The existence of the
society is a matter of some eignificaoge, for its forma-
tion was the first effort of self-reliant 3 on the part of,
the landed interest, and its progress has marked the
advancement of English husbandry, which the meet-
ings and journal of the society have methodiced and
stimulated. The society, established in 183 e, origi-
nated from the inquiries made in 1836 by the select
committee of the House of Commons upon " agricul-
tural distress." It was then proved to demonstra
Lion that protective duties on foreign corn could not
secure what, in the phraseology of the day, was celled
"a remunerating price," while farmers were induced,
by reliance on agricultural "protection" to neglect
or misapply many of the resources within their much.
The leading landowners became convinced that
to the improvement of husbandry they must
lEly look for maintaining their rents, and
unseeing that distress which the mode-
prices, of 1831 arid 1833 had brought
upon the inferior classes of English farmers. The
late Lord SPENCER, Mr. HENRY HANDLEY, Mr.
PCSEY, and the Duke of Rienstoso, were the el.ief
originators of the society, and it speedily attained an
importance from the station and number of its mem-
, bers which had no previous parallel among agricultural
societies in this country. The highland Society had
been of great service to Scotch agriculture, and Mr.
COKE, by collecting about him, at his Holkhatn sheep-
shearing', some of the best farmers from all puts
of England, materially contributed to diffuse the
knowledge of that improved system of firming he
had introduced.
The objects proposed in the establishment of the
Royal Agricultural Society was to effect the same on
a larger scale, and it hen proved completely successful.
It war soon discovered that the diffusion of existing
lagricu'Aural knowledge, the making known
to formers of one district practices which bad
been found beneficial in another, would soon
effect great and general improvement. It was
found, too, that the practice of husbandry as
an art was for in advance of scientific knowledge as
applicable to agriculture. Now that the society has
been established for eleven years its conductors
may fairly take credit for having been largely contri-
butory to the spread of agricultural information and
to the ircrease of scientific inquiry in that connexion.
The society has become national, its exhibitions being,
in fact, formed of stock and implements from every
part of the country, wheresoever the annual meetins
may happen to be held. Farmers also congregate
from the most distant districts, and nobody who hss
been in the habit of communication with farmers for
the last twenty years can doubt that such gatherings
have greatly assisted to wear off the prejudices for
which they were formerly so notorious. At this mo-
ment we believe our more intelligent farmers, and
especially the younger men of the class, are as fully
alive to the necessity of improvement, and se com-
pletely open to revise their own systems, and to in-
vestigate the systems of other farmers and different
distrectii, as any other of the industrious capitalists of
England are willing to go ahead. The Norwich
meeting was an interesting one, for several rca
sons. Norfolk is essentially a tillage district.
Permanent pasture is there the exception, snd is
kept for some special reason. Consequently the
agricultural implements are numerous, and of the
hest description. It is the head-quarters of mechani-
cal ingenuity directed towards husbandry. The
number, extent, and importance of the verions
works for the manufacture of implements
of husbandry to be band in Suffolk attest
the wants of the rural community of the dis-
trict we have mentioned. Nowhere have we seen the
implement yard examined with more discriminating
criticism than at Norwich. There was less, perhaps,
of that mere curiosity which the implement show
attracts in districts where 'tillage is less advanced
than in the eastern counties, but each farmer seemed
to be considering the merits of alterations in some
implement with the use of which he was himself
familiar. There is sotking to which the agricultural
show of the Royal Society has given a greater im-
pulse than to the manufacture of implements, as all
who have watched the progress of these exhibitions
from the first meeting at Oxford in 1839 will readily
admit ; and, perhaps, practical husbandry has been
moot benefited by this branch of the society's opera-
tions. Machinery, in some form or other, is evety
day found to be more and more applicable to
husbandry, and not a few of such discoveries
have been the result of these meetings.
The exhibitions of live stock, too, have been of con-
siderable use. They have enabled all farmers to compare
the se hetet] specimess of thevarious breeds shown with
their own stock, and th, y have ascertained the source
from whence they can derive well-b: el animals for
the improvement of their own stock. In this way th c
society has certainly contributed to the improvement
of Kock. But the effect of its operations has been less
creative than in the instance of implements. Far mess
have not become breeders of stock in conseque,nee of
the eocie'y'aprizes, or tho facilities offered by the'
society's shows, though doubtless many who were
breeders before, have availed themselves '.,f the advan-
tages offered by the exhibitions its their several die-
trio's. This branch of hushes alri requires more
1, patience, capital, and skill, tlesn any other ; and
nothing is more remarkable thrs the fact, that at all
the meetings of the society the substantial portions of
the stock show consist of animals exhibited by
the same persons. For instance: the sheep, South
Downs, Cotawold, or Letasters, are, year after year,
shown by the same breeders end from the same dis-
tricts ; and the competition between them is usually
so close, and the merits of a few flocks so decidedly
superior to the orel:,nary run that there would be no i
difficulty in pres!iicting that the prizes fur each breed
will be swirled amongst some half a dozen breeders. I
Often wo see a struggle between two or three lead:
ing brrsders continued for a time, when, one having
eitelt'oehed his superiority, we see no more of the