The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-30 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, SATITR.I)O Ryrouro, SEPTEMBER 30. 1848.

taken to threw auffideloa on tionland ohm of 14
the great eraof our iodustrld
We preeameoar readers _y penned with
natidact;on the very spirited and intelligent speeches
delivered at the Liverpool. meeting. The arguments
they contain are so straightforward and practical,
that they speak for themselves, and need repetition,
not comment. We need only recommend our readers
to keep in mind the fact which Sir JOSHUA Warms.
LET took so much pains to impress on the Liverpocl
meeting; e., the intimate connexion that exists
between electoral reform and financial reform.
The imperfect and unequal representation of
the people is at the bottom of all their sufferings.
That evil most be redressed, or nothing can be
redressed. Financial reform may be, perhaps, under
an unusual pressure from without, effected in oae or
two of ite branches; but it will never be carried out
or oompleted without an effective parliamentary re-
form to consolidate and confirm it. It is not the bug-
bear of continental follies, about which each a finis is
made at present, that will deter the people of England
from attempting some farther realisation of that prat
tioal wisdom, that effective and constitutional controul
over their representatives and their rulers, of which
their past history presents so many and such notable

IT is by no means an ordinary necessity that would
induce any one at this period of the year to press for
the publication of another blue-book. They come
upon us thick enough, in all the senses of that trebly
expressive word. But still there may be circum-
stances underwhich even the addition of another blue-
book to the annual September lane might be desired,
such, for example, as the following
By the act 10 Cleo. IV., c. 50, my Lords Commis-
sioners of Woods and Forests are bound annually to
lay before parliament one report of their proceedings.
Since the year 1831 these reports have pretty regu-
larly been laid upon the table And ordered to be
printed. Upon the whole the reports have passed
muster very satisfactorily. No one has ever dived
very deeply into them ; the formal statements they
have contained have been taken at their usual value,
and the few who have looked into them have not, it
would seem, found occasion to express much suspicion

anent the contents.
Lord Mourne, than whom there is not a more
conscientious man in all the world, though there may
be some a degree less credulous and soft-hearted,
attaches considerable value to these annual statements.
His lordship informed the committee of last session
that these annual reports comprised every transaction
of the board in detail, whether lease, male, purchase,
exchange, or other matter. Every transaction was
seenrately scheduled, alter being submitted to the
closest and fullest audit. "It does not occur to me,"
said the noble lord, " that there is any department of
thegovernment whose proceedings are laid so distinctly
and in such detail before parliament, and the frequent
returns which are called for h 3 members give further
elucidation." The report, he says, contains the fullest
accounts. "Of course, if a gratuity is given to an
oldpark-keeper, it is not thought necessary to specify
it in • parliamentary statement ;" bat, except this
sort of unnecessary particularity, every kind of ex-
penditure is accurately set forth.
Well, such being the state of things, and the rule
of the Woods and Forests, as stated by Lord Me:tit-
re:Tit, being utterly opposed to that of every other
government office, the accounts from which for the
most part are anything but satisfactory, we confess to
some curiosity as to the annual statement sf my Lards
Commissioners for 1848. Looking to the circumstances
of what Sir CHARLES WOOD Calls " his financial year,"
we feel sure that such a weakness will be considered
pardonable. The various budgets for 1848 have been
by no means so remarkable for their precision that
we can afford to spare this peculiarly accurate account
from my lords commissioners in Whitehall-place. Let
us have it with every expedition by all means.
If it were noes-ary to give another reason for
pressing for the immediate production of the report in
question, we should be inclined to mention the desira-
bility of allaying the, of course unfounded, suspicions
which prevail in several quarters that this report is
not, this year, delayed without some extraordinary
cause. Usually it has been forthcoming in ample time
to satisfy every bon. member be lore the shooting season.
This year, whether owing to the length of Mr.
AN STET'S orations, or the delay of the printer, or
some other circumstance, this document has not made
its appearance at all. Of coarse it is on the table of
the house? My lords cannot have overlooked 10
Oeo. IV., c. 50? They surely don't pay 11,0001. a
year to their solicitor, and yet make so grave a mis-
take as to omit to comply with the acts of parliament
by which they hold their offices? It is impossible to
believe that they have not produced the document : it
must be "the printer's" fault that the public have
not got it. Poor printer! for how many errors and
omissions, besides your own misprints, have you not
annually to answer !
But take care of the pounds, shillings, and pence
columns this time, Mr. Printer, if you please. They
will be looked at carefully we promise you. Some
how or another (it is, no doubt, all owing to you),
these reports of " my lords commissioners " have, for
the last few years, become annually more meagre and
obscure.
Very recently they have verged on absolute unintel-
ligibility. We say so with all deference to the
opinion of our excellent, good-natured, kind-hearted
Lord MORP ETU • and, of course, we lay the blame at
the door of " the! printer."
The printer is so long over his corrections, that this
year, no dubt, everything will be precise. Then we shall
see how it has been that for several years put " the
annual balances" have been so regularly brought
down, whilst, according to the report of the Deputy
Paymaster-General, there has been no balance struck
since 1839. Then we shall have it explained how it
has occurred that that same officer should make a re-
port that the accounts have not been audited since
1843, whilst, as the commissioners report to parlia-
ment, they are submitted to the fullest and closest
audit. Then we shall discover whether or no it is a
fact, as is confidently alleged, that these annual state-
ments have been (of couree all owing to the printer)
little more than what is vulgarly celled " a cram,
accounts gaited to the atmosphere of St. Stephen's,
where mach will pass current that would never obtain
credit in Basinghallstreet, or in the little dens of the
official assignees, immediately adjacent. We entreat
"the printer," therefore, to be careful and not to keep
us much longer in saspenre ; really, it is unfair to the
Woods and Forests, as " my lads" would no doubt
tell him, if he was particular in inquiring their
wishes on the subject.
By the way, there was an" Appendix" promised to
the report of Lord DUNCAN'S committee. No satis-
factory information respecting it can be obtained.
Is " the printer" also responsible for withholding that
document? Some weeks ago we heard that there
bad been " a little mistake" about it. More i Neatly
it was reported that there was " some trifling con-
fission respecting one of the accounts." If Mr. AN-
L rums would kindly look to it, as the Woods and
Forests are evidently unable to set the error right
themselles, it really would be an obligation to "the
" as well as to the public,.

AMON° the ordinary phenomena of the season may
be reckoned agricultural meetings, at which county
members and potent landowners compliment their
landed supporters and " soft-sawdern the farmers.
When we recollect the rampant exhibitions made by
the " British Lion,' the landed aristocracy, a few years
ago at theme societies, we almost wonder at the tame
and spiritism performances of the present time.
Where are now the wild shrieks of alarm at the pro-
spect of foreign competition? Where are the once
vehement appeals to the farmers to give aid to land-
hods in keeping up rents by act of parliament ? Even
Pnii, the perfidious, has not, so far as we have
nof, received a single attack from the most fierce
of his deserted protectionist allies. Indeed, the politi-
cal landowners have fought rather shy of sash gather-
ings this autumn, and where they have shown them-
selves, they have talked in a strain somewhat
different from that of past years. Thus in
South Luicubirsi, Lord STANLEY, instead of
wild tales about Mahar wheat-growers, . was elo-
quent on the important advantages which large mann-
&Wiz( towns offered to farmers as markets for their
produce; and the whole tone of his lordship's speech
told plainly enough that he, (or one, was not about to
lead a forlorn hope attack against free-trade in corn.
To improvement and self-relying industry he directed
the attention of farmers as their sole means of moms.
As to what are the obstacles to agricultural maws
we shall may a word presently.
In Buckinghamshire, the farmers assembled at the
" Royal Bucks Agricultural Amociation," and, at-
tracted by the name of Mr. DISRAELI on the placards
announcing the meeting, were big with resolution to

, .
" she a great effort' he recovering "protection."
Rat, alas 1 the vanity ofAsolitieo-rnral hopes—no Mr.
Insnasu was there. He sent his 51. prise for the
encouragement of the ill-paid Buckinghamshire
farming men who breed up their eight and ten
children without aid from the parish, but he
himself came not. At that very time he
was talking badinage to the ladies of Durham
I about the linguae of flowers at a horti-
cultural fate presided over by the Marquis of LON-
DONDERRY. And the hon. member was quite right
to let the protectionist steam of hie slow-going con-
stituents blow off for this year. Next season it will
all be over, and some cew and wondrous political tale
may then serve to astonish them with the eloquence
of their unintelligible member. The local Journal
tells us that, despite the resolution we have mentioned
as exising amongst the members of the Royal Bucks
Association, "in consequence of the absence of leaders
little was done." Thus the farmers, deserted by
STANLEY and DlansEct, have no resource bat to help
themselves. Fortunately, they can do more for
themselves than whole parliaments of protectionist
politicians have ever been able to do for them.
Some of these agricultural meetings do,however, dis-
close incidentally the feelings which are working in the
agricultural mind. Thus, at the South Lancashire meet-
ing, Mr.NEILSON mid that unless the landed proprietors
of the district came forward and supported the society
by their presence and contributions, it could not go
on. Why is this ? The great agricultural societies
of the kingdom, the Royal, the Highland, and the
Yorkshire societies are mainly supported by farmer',
and whycaunot the local societies live unless the land-
owners uphold them ? Simply because these local
societies are mote political than agricultural. Agricul-
ture is the pretence, but political influence is the chief
motive of their promoters. There is one unfailing indi-
cation of this in the course these local societies invaria-
bly run. They commence most brilliantly; a grand
effort made by the landowners produces for a meeting
or two, good shows, and large attendance, which gra-
dually fall off until they die out front exhaustion. The
voice of warning is raised in South Lancashire; in Ox-
fordshire the Banbury Areociatiou exhibited the later
stages of po.itico-agncult tire decline. The show of stock
was "smaller than usual," the attendance at dinner was
much " thinner," and the chairman of the meeting, a
" glorious constitution" protectionist, and the county
members, could only comfort each other fur the
paucity of stock and of dinners by hoping " for a
considerable improvement in both respects next year."
Lord Noumea, one of the members, referred " with
satiefiction to the rule of the society which excludes
the discussion of political questions at the society's
anniversary. He was of opinion that parliamentary
proceedings on agricultural questions should be dis-
cussed at meetinystotally independent if the association."
The reader will readily understand his lord-
ship to deprecate any reference to the tenant-right
question and security for farming capital, which are
notions uppermost in the minds of nine-tenths of the
yearly tenants of England's agricultural districts. One
would have thought a more appropriate occasion
for considering such questions could rot be
found than when some of the leading farmers
were face to face with the county members
at a meeting professedly for the advancement of
husbandry. lint then landlords and tenants are at
utter variance amongst themselves on this class of
questions; Inn= the exclusion of " politics," ay, of
agricultural politics. These local societies are in-
tended to be nothing more than occasions for enabling
the landocracy to call over the muster-roll of its-ad-
herents and to count its forces against the middle and
industrious classes. But farmers are beginning to see
that their interests lie with the industrious and
not with the landed oligarchy, and they are becoming
every year more shy of the cat .m agricultural associa-
tions. No one, who knows aught of English husbandry
practically, can doubt that it is the want of secure
tenure and complete possession of their farms which
constitute the main obstacle with which English
farmers have to contend. Yet this, the one topic
of the day in agricultural communities, is tabooed
by the landlords. For instance,.at the North Lan-
cashire Agricultural Society's meeting, lately held at
Preston, the Earl of BuRLINGToN, the chairman, after
dilating on modern improvements in husbandry, and
urging them on the attention of the Lancashire
farmers, .aid " only a few minds can originate the im-
, pr-mements, but when once originated, they are easily
1 within the scope and reach of the combined efforts of
landlords and tenants." The " loud and long-continued
applause" which followed the last sentence warned
his lordship that be was approaching the debateable
ground, for he immediately said, " I know then are
questions connected with the security of the tenant
into which I will not now enter ; for I feel convinced
that there is a rapidly-increasing feeling among the
landlards of England that their efforts must be
combined with those of the tenant in order
to make the agriculture of England pro-
dace generally what it is capable of peo-
(lacing." And the " cheers" with which even such
vague generalities were greeted show the strong feel-
ing on the subject the fanners present entertained.
Now, the way in which the landlord is required to
"combine" with the tenant in order to advance Eng-
lish agriculture is, in nine eases oit of ten, nothing
more than the same combination which takes place
between the owner and the tenant of a house in Fleet-
street or Cheapside—that is, to grant a long lease on
fair and rational terms, at a full rent. But such a
simple plan is the last which the owner of agricultu-
ral property thinks of adopting. He will sometimes
drain the land or improve the buildings, forgetting not
to charge an interest on his outlay—the Marquis of
SALISBURY requires from seven to twelve per
cent. ! He will occasionally make an agreement to
pay for " =exhausted improvements," provided he
himself dismisses his tenant, but the simple and
effective plan of granting a twenty-one
.years' lease is
abhorrent to the landlord mind. Nor is the cause of
I this very difficult to be understood. The landed
aris-
tocracy, whig and tory, have the representation of
the English counties in their own hands. This is the
main source of that political power, which enables
them to maintain for their own peculiar benefit the
most extravagant public expenditure the world ever
saw : and that power is chiefly obtained by the hold
they have over the votes of the farmers. Thus the
backward condition of English agriculture is both a
cause and a consequence of the imperfect state of the
national representation.