The Express.
London, England, 1846-11-30 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 30, 1846.

SIR THOMAS LETHBRIDGE AT TAUNTON.
The annual meeting of the Taunton Agricul-
tural Association was held in that town on Friday. The
show of stock of all kinds was of a very superior description,
if we except lean oxen, which were not equal to those of for-
mer years. There were some very fine fat oxen and heifers,
and the show of pigs was also unusually good.
The general meeting of the society was held at the Guild-
hall in the forenoon, and a dinner at the London Hotel,
served in Miss Coombe's best manner, took place' in the
evening. Sir Alexander Hood presided, and amongst
his supporters was Sir Thomas Lethbridge, whose
speech, on propo,ing the health of the chaii man,
was the leading feature of the festival. The vete-
ran baronet rose amidst tremendous cheering. My
duty here to-day, he said, is a very plain one. First of
all it is to congratulate my friends and neighbours that they
have shown their faces in the noble manner in which I see
them here before me. They are engaged in a good cause—
the cause of agriculture in the west of England, and the west
of England has long set a good and bold example to other
parts of the empire. We have been followed, gentlemen. I
am old enough to tell you, that fifty-five years ago. I was
member of the only agricultural society then in the empire,
called the Bath and West of England Society. I am the
oldest vice-president now, except one. But time has done its
work, and I cannot address you now as I would. Col. Gore
Langton is my senior, and a most excellent member of
the society he is. We have trodden in the steps of
that society. That was the mother; you are the
grown-up child, and a most splendid child you are.
(Cheers, and laughter.) You can do everything. Take
care that what you do is right. There are various ways of
coming to the same ecd. Many go one road, and many an-
other. We have gone the straight road hitherto. Let us
keep to it. There is one thing, gentlemen, which I particu-
larly rose for. It is to propose the health of the President.
(Loud cheering.) He has shown you what he can do to-day.
He can do what he likes, all that is right and proper, in te
most manly way. (Cheers.) He will forgive me when I
tell you I was one of these who did themselves the honour to
join the corps of his gallant father, who was killed in the
service of his country. He stood the chances of war in
behalf of his country, and a bullet sent him to a better
world. I followed him here, and have lived long enough
to see the elder son of that great man perforating his duty
in that manly way in which he always has performed it.
You have heard from your county members very good and
sensible speeches. They are gentlemen who wish well to
you and to your country, and they may one day be at the
top of the tree as agriculturists, for they are young men
now. lam gbid, gentlemen, that you have met them, an
that they h lye met you. if there is any difference of opd
i-
nion between you, take htld of the plough, look at your
oxen, look at the prices you are getting for them, arid shake
hands with each other. There is one thing I wish to tell
you. You have gone far enough in fattening stock. It
strikes me that you are putting tooW muchhave tfa ohow lean
what we
nes.
That does no good to anybody. e soon
can do, and you can do what you have done, over and over
again. But it is not wise and profitable to do it. If it takes
away an atom of food from the poor, stop it. Breed as much
as you like ; breed to the top of the tree. Breeding in all
branches! (Cheers.) Go on with your breeding, gentle-
men, but don't put too much fat upon lean bones. You are
starving people by doing so. One of my tenants told ineleat
week that he had two biautiful oxen for which he has got •
prize. They were brought here to-day. They were fed
with ten times as much as they ought to have been. Is this
wise ? Where is your money ? It is not in your pocket.
It is on the animal's back. One-half of it will go into the
chandler's shop, and into the soap-basin. Who will thank
you? You have shown what you can do. See if you can-
the
not do something better. I meant to say a gnat dea
1 subject of the labourers, hut I have not breath enoukgh to dol
it well. But I must say this, that you and I may tae counse
together and spend money ; but if you forget the men whose
labour gets all for you, you &reacting ungratefully. I therefore,
in three words say, " Raise your wages." I have done it
myself, and Itl all my friends to do it. I tell you all to
raise your wages, and I tell you this—there never was& man
in your employ who ever struck a stroke for hie master, but
' struck that stroke with redoubled force and energy (and
' if he does this, who profits ?) when he knows he is welt
used. (Cheers.) How is he used? In Somerset they give
what ? (A voice, " They give what it is worth."airs ) I gußecol-
essed
I should be interrupted, but recollect my grey h.
lect my experience. Recollect my triumphs in farming.
Recollect how many labourers I have employed—how 1 have
lived among them. Recollect, also, that though lower in
the scale than some are, they are men before God as well as
yourselves. (Cheers.) Woe be to him who will not mete
out to others what he wishes to have meted out to himself.
But must you do it if the rules of political economy say you
should not do it ? I say, " Avaunt, political economy, if
they say so. But, gentlemen, the rules of political economy
say no such thing. They do not make men brutes. 1
They do not seal up and freeze all the finer feeling of human
nature of man towards man. They have thrown open the 1
whole world to competition, and I hope and believe that out
of this the hest results will come to all. 1 believe that those I
principles are true. (Cheers.) So far as we have tried them, I
they appear to be true. No man can predict what they may I
do for us in the future. But looking, as I have always
looked, and always do look, I am well convinced, as surel j
as I am standing in this room (most likely for the last time
(Loud cries of " No, no," and vehement cheering)—
firmly believe we are going on in the right path—to the path
which leads to the prosperity of the landlord, the prosperity
of the labourer, and to the prosperit of the whole people, and
even more than all, to permanent peace ; and let me say, God
grant it may be so, for peace is the greatest blessing that can
flow to a people like the English, who are united among
themselves, and are beloved by the whole world because they
have made the rule of right their rule. (Cheers.) Now,
sir, I have one more word to say, and then I will sit down.
It is this: I shall offer a higher reward if the society will
not, but the society had better do it, not for putting fat upon
lean bones, but for putting comfort into the cottages of
the poor labourer+. (Cheers.) If you
fo do not encourage
them, all your meetings here are good r nothing. You
may as well go home when you leave this, and say
" Well, I have done very little."—(Laughter.) What I
propose is to give to the farmer who from the first day of De-
cember, 1846, to the first day of November, 1847, shall em-
ploy the greatest number of labourers and servants, at the
kigbest rate of wages, by the week or month, and without
reference to the size of the farm, the sum of 111.—(Cheers.)
I ho the society will do more than it has yet done for the
labourer. He must be raised from his present poverty and
degradation, and I call upon you to do what you can towards
accomplishing that purpose. In conclusion I beg to propose
the health of Sir Alexander Hood.—(Drunk with three times

three.)
Speeches having been delivered by Sir A. Hood, Mr.
Acland, Mr. Dickenson, and Sir E. Colebrooke, the prizes
were awarded. The convires were then addressed by ?dr. B.
Escott, and the president finished the evening by proposing
as a last toast " Our next merry meeting."

A WALK AMONGST THE WORK._
TRAINING SCIIOOLS AT SWINTON.
After forwarding to the Express the ataternt_
relative t 3 the condition of the colliers ;at Walkden Moor,
and the means for instruction theme dispensed byl thnext e noble
owner of the property and his ficent lady, in-
tended to have given some notices of like matters at Worsley,
but, on my arrival there for that purpose, I found that one of
the gentlemen from whom I expected to receive information I
was absent, and the other was so deeply engaged in
time
that moment. I, therefore, recollecting that
in I had in my
pocket a letter to the governor, the clergyman attendance
at the training schools at Swinton, directed my steps thither,
and a pleasant walk of some two short miles across the
fields brought me to the large and palace-like building
which had now become the object of my attention.
I shall not attempt to describe this great pile, which, at a
cost, as I had been informed, of not far from sixty thousand
pounds, bad here been erected, by the guardians of the Man-
chester poor-law union, for the reddence and proper training
up of orphans and other unprotected children within their
district. The motive was a noble one, and the structure is
worthy of the motive ; but when I say the building is palace-
like, I mean in form, extent, and exterior embellishments
only—perhaps there are more of theme tter than are really
wanted—but all the interior arrangents, so far as my ob-
servation enabled me to judge, are calculated for strict utility
only.
Raving rung the bell, a sharp lad, apparently one of the
inmates, quickly made his appearance, and took my letter.
The hall was open ; it was blowing a keen wind, and so I
stepped inside, and stood examining a model of our glorious
little isle, which lay on a large square table, when the ap-
proach of footsteps, and the humming of a tune, caused me
to look aside, and a gentleman in canonicals, with square cap
and tassel, came forward, and apologising for not being able
to accompany me through the building himself, consigned
me to the guidance of one whom he designated " the
porter," with whom as a conductor I had every reason to
be satisfied.
The building is calculated to accommodate one thousand
children, with suitable offices and apartments' for the go-
vernor, matron, clergyman, teachers, servants, and other
necessary attendants. At present there are o
in
to it 255 bo
nys,
and 197 girls, and their ages vary from tw fourtet or
fifteen years. On arising in the morning, the infants area en
by classes to a lavatory set apart for their ownshed a especillover,
where, with tepid water and soap, they are wtticoats and pine-
a
and then dressed, in good clean frocks, pe,
fores, of checked and other warm serviceable cottons. The
boys and girls have also each a lavatory, to which they are
conducted in classes from their sleeping-rooms, and where
they wash their hands, necks, and faces, and dry themselves
en rod clean towels. There is also in each lavatory a bath,
which can be filled with tepid or cold water, at pleasure ;

this bath is used where health or other eircums
require it, and at stated times the whole of the
children undergo a thorough ablution. The clothing of
the girls is chiefly of the sort of cottons worn by the
infants, with shoes or clogs for their feet. The boys
are clothed in gray-ribbed fustian, with clogs, shoes, and
cloth caps ; and their clothes, as well as those of the girls
and infants, were all very clean, neat, and comfortable in ap-
pearance. After being washed, the whole of them attend
chapel, and the prayers of the Church of England are reed
by the minister. They next breakfast on milk and oatmeal
porridge ; their diuners consist of butcher's-meat, soup,
hash, bread, potatoes, and run-milk, as the dieters fur the
clay prescrilna ; and their suppers are uniformly hived and
milk the milk varying from a pint and a half to a pint; and
the' bread from five to six ounces. A pint and a half of i
milk, or of any other liquid, is certainly too much for any
child or big boy, or girl, to take before going to sleep. A I
gill of liquid, with a little cheese or butter to their bread,
would be an improvement. Each class, infants, boys, and
girls, attends its separate school forenoon and afternoon : the
instruction which the infants receive is of the usual alphabe-
tical and other elementary nature. The boys learn
reading, writing, accounts, and the rudiments of music ;
they are also instructed in useful branches of employ-
ment, as tailoring, shoemaking, clogging, and spade and
other husbandry work; one gang of the boys are frequently
employed in digging, wheeling, and levelling the garden, I
which is &large plot of ground, capable of growing most of
the rzots and horticultural vegetables which will be wanted
by the establishment. The school instruction of the girls
is similar to that of the boys, besides which they are taught
knitting,sewing ; and they perform all the household eznploy-
ment by turns, a certain number at a time. Every evening
the Church prayers are again read, and twice a week the
children of Church Protestant par or who have Pro-
testant connexions, are instructed in the Church catechism.
The children of Roman Catholics also attend pceyers, it being
understood that their priests have no objection to their doing
so, but they are exempted from attendance on the catechist.
A separate place of worship altogether is in the course of pre-
paration for them.
The rooms were all very clean; the infants' dormitories,
their bedding, and the floors, were surpassingly clean, d
well arranged. The condition of the other sleeping:rooanms
was equally satisfactory, and with one scarcely distingizishable
exception, nothing whatever like a c.lue or confined air could
be detected.
Such is the course of nurture and instruction afforded to
these poor, homeless, parentless children by this noble insti-
tution. The motive does great honour to the ori-:inators ;
and, though some of the details might be improved, the es-
tablishment, imperfect as it yet is, and must necessarily be,
is a vast advance on any similar attempt under the
be old poor
law. Here, however, the dietary might, perhaps, consi-
derably amended. It strikes me as being of too liquid a
nature ; out of ten descriptions of food which they partake
in the course of a week, seven are chiefly liquid. Por-
ridge, milk, soup, hash, potatoes, run-milk, or milk curdled
by runnet, and milk again. These are their chief dishes,
and if they eat what is set before them—as probably children
will do—they get far too much slop and far too little solid
food in proportion.. They have potatoes twice a week and
hash twice a week, which is potatoes stewed over again
whereas we all know that potatoes are at present probably
the most costly and the least nutritious in proportion of any
food which can be placed before human beings. A recur-
rence to our old•fashioned mode of living would, I am per
waded, be better, and if either children or upgrown persons
must have have slops lic
etwe a day, they should, at any rate,
have solid food at noon of c day.
In one of the rooms of the infants' school WAS a cage with
a throstle in it, and my guide informed me the bird was
kept for the purpose of conveying instruction in ornithology.
The poor captive looked " dowse an' was " indeed, and
I could not for my life acquiesce in that cruel detention
merely for the purpose of showing English children " what a
throstle was."
rate play-ground, or yard, in which
Each class has a sepa
they can take exereive without restraint, when they. are not
at work or at school. In one yard girls were swinging most
joyously,. and in another infants, both bps` d girls, were
playing in the sunshine. Each party arge room to
p'ay in when the weather prevents the enjoyment of out-
door exercise. Still I thought something seemed wanting
amongst the young folks. I did not notice any dolls or other
girlish play-things on the one side, nor any tops or marbles
amongst the boys ; they may have them, but I did not see
any, and I wished I had ; fur however commissioners and
guardians may smile at the notion, my opinion is, that the
first thing done to these young folks should be to make them
happy—happy in all innocent enjoyments ; happy as if they
were on their own hearths, and under the eye of their
parents. In one of the store-rooms was a drum, and I men-
tioned to my guide that if the young musicians could muster
a fife to it, the boys would have go ml exercise in
and marchnineing-
.
Why, also, might they not have boats, "
pins" and hall-play, and why might not the
have besta
-
conducted of the girls and the boys be to
dance now and then ; to have " a ball " in their own humble
way at Christmas or any other time, when the world out of
doors is merry? Such indulgences would be great incen-
tives to good behaviour, and would, I am certain, make them
both happy and grateful.
The responses in the church-service are chanted on Sun-
days, as well as at morning and evening on other days. Ths
children have, therefore, enough of music, including their
lessons. It is also introduced at meals. A class of girls was taken
into the eating-room for dinner just before I came away.
Their food was each a plentiful dish of potato hash,
and not amiss was it either considering what sort of potatoes
we all eat now-a-days. Good warm hash it was, with beef
in it ; still it was but hash, for I saw not any bread. The
girls each took her place and was seated. The music master
stood facing them. A pause ensued. The master
whistled and said "stand up ;" the girls stood up. The
master said, "eyes shut," the girls shut their eyes, and
sung "a grace before meat." The master then whistled
again, paused, and said, "sit down," when the girls sat
down and commenced their meal. All this semed very
exact, and precise, and methodical, hut I must confeu I
would rather have beheld less of the trainer, and more of
the brother on this occasion ; less of the disciplinarian and
more of the father.
These young beings should, as mush a+ pos!ible, be
governed, and ordered, and arranged, without their hearts
being made to feel the bonds by which they are restrained ;
and it strikes me that devotion is not to be called forth by the
cry of a whistle, or at the word of command; the humble
exhortation, "let us pray," is far more likely to touch the
heart and bring forth true devotion.
One incident gave me a favourable opinion of my conduc-
tor. We had passed thrr,urh the infants' school, where a class
was under tuition, and had entered the next apartment, where
another class were at play, when we perceived one of the
little fellows fast asleep on the cold flags of the floor. My
conductor stepped forth, and raising him kindly, patted his
head and face until the child opened his eyes and smiled.
He then set him on his feet, and in a moment we sur-
rounded by the little creatures, clasping our knees were ,
taking
our hands, pulling our clothes, and stretching out their arms
to be noticed and caressed. I saw that my guide was quite
on familiar terms with them, and I thought a great deal of
" the porter" from witnessing the pleasure which thei-
tiality gave him, and his kind endeavours, in return, tom e
them happy.
With a suggestion or two, meant in all good feeling. I will
close this letter. In one of the yards was a fire•engine, in
apparent good order. Would not two be better, and should
not the boys be well trained to work them ? There is some•
thing almost awful in the idea of a family of a thousand
Would p
r-
eons being all dead asleep under one rasa at night.
it not be as well to have some one or more always awake and
perambulating whilst the others slept water would it not be
well to have always a large supply of at hand
X. L ?
M.
Nov. 24. .

SCOTLAND.
VIOLENT SHOCIL OF EARTHQUARbeforePerthhire
12
Courier says :—On Tuesday night, a few minutes
o'clock, a shock of earthquake was felt
rehere of reate
In-
tensityi and longer duration than any
membered.
state of the atmosphere at the time was cairn, and beautifully
clear. Early on the previous morning a very heavy rain had
fallen, whick had cleared the air, and softened the tempera-
ture, and the following day waa unseasonably fine and mild ;
the thermometer standing about 52 degrees. At nine o'clock
ng
,
evening, it had fallen to 42 degrees, the barometer indicati
29,50 inches; the greatest cold during the night was 36 de-
grees, and the barometer, inclined to rise, standing next
morning at 29.51 inches. The feeling of inividuals
It, during
the shock, depended greatly on their situatdion. is most
generally described as being rather tremulous than undu-
lating, and in high tenements heavy articles of fur-
niture were violently shaken, bells were rung, and
crockery-ware overturned. Every family was alarmed,
and many rushed out to the streets, under the im-
pression that their houses were falling. Such as were
walking at the time describe the ground as shaken under
their feet, much like the tremulous motion in steam-boats.
The duration of the shock, by all accounts, must ha careen
been
from 15 to 20 seconds, although the fears of many nat
led them to think it longer. It extended as far north as our
accounts yesterday reached, and, along the line of the Gram-
pians it seems to have been particularly severe. Our corres-
pondent at Crieff writes last night thus At twelve
o'clock, perhaps two minutes after it, a low rumble, resem-
bling distant thunder, but one which a practised ear could
da
once detect to be the herald of an earthquake, was hear.
For five or six seconds It approached nearer and nearer, and
waxed louder and louder ; then came a he gad undergro ling,
und
knock or two, then a sensible uphsaving an downfal
accompanied by a violent slinking of everything on the sur-
face, and the thunder-like noise continuing for six or eight
seconds, and died away in the distance. This may not have
been the heaviest shock of esethquake that has occurred in
Crieff fur the last fifty years, but it certainlyake . was ave
Thery
smart one, and caused many a timid heart to
qu
air before and at the time of the shock was calm and still,
but a short time thereafter a fresh breeze sprang up."

WALES.
EptcperioN IN WALE.—It is anticipated that the report
of the Government Commissioners will be ready for presen-
tation ato the commencement of the ensuing sess ion. The
inquiry will extend to the hills and minin• districts of Mon-
mouthshire, where a lare proportion of the miners and
labourers speak only the Welsh langusge. J. C. Symons.
Esq., commissioner for the midland and part of the mineral
districts, has been makig his inquiries in Aberystwith
and neighbourhood. H. V. Johnson, Esq., has nearly
completes' the circuit of the island of Anglesey, having
visited Beatimaris, Llangefni, Holyhead, and Bodedern.
He has now commenced his labours in the adjoining county
of Carnarvon. R. W. Lingen. Ess., commissioner for the
south, has been prosecuting his inquiries throughout the
various towns in Carmarthenshire, and will shortly extend
them into the other counties in his district. The commis-
sioners are each accompanied by gentlemen well conversant
with the language. The beneficial object of the commission,
says a correspondent, seems to be fully appreciated by the

inhabitants; and every aid is 'afforded to facilitate the col-
lection of the necessary details.
DISTRIBUTION 07 CHURCH PATRON/AM—Ws And the
following in the Merthyr Guardian :—There are fourteen
dignities in the Cathedra of St. Auph, Nine of these are
held by Englishmen, and five by Welshmen. The revenues
of those held by the English amount in the aggregate to
1,8411. per annum; and the total amount of fines, at the
time of making the returns, during an average of three
years, were 7721. On the other hand, the revenue* enjoyed
by the five Welsh amounted to 311. per annum, and the fines
during the same period of three years were 2011. per annum.
Thus :
Total Income of Englishmen Z 1,1141 per annum.
Welshmen 3l „
Total tines of Friglishinen 772
Welshmen
Total re4ived by Englishmen during throe years " 12,611
Welshmen
Excess received by Englishmen over Welshmen /2,381