The Express.
London, England, 1851-09-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 18, 1851.

MR. DISRAELI AND THE ROYAL BUCKS
AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION.
Yesterday tho annual ploughing match, and
distribution of prizes in connexion with it, took
place in a field adjoining the town of Aylesbury. At the
close of the out-door sports the members of the associa-
tion dined together at the George Inn. Mr. W. Lowodee,
of Ches.ham, occupied the chair ; and there were present
Mr. Disraeli, M.P., Captain Vyse, M.P., Captain Grove,
Mr. John Green, the .Rev. C. E. Gray, the Rev. E. N.
Young, the Rev. E. N. Coles, and other gentlemen of the
county. Not one hundred people sat down to dinner, and
there was a marked absence of distinguished persons.
There were only some half deem magistrates out of up-
wards of eighty in the county, and four clergymen. The
customary loyal and patriutic toasts having been duly
honoured,
Mr. DISRAELI, M.P., proposed the health of the per.
esdent of the day. (Cheer; )
The toast was drunk with all the honours, and was suc-
ceeded ,I
in rapid succession by the health of the "Duke of
Buckingham, the president of the association," the "Royal
Bucks Agricultural Association," the "Judges of the day,"
the "Stewards," &c.
Mr. LOWNDES STONE, amidst great applause, pro-
rued the health of the county members, Mr. DupPl, Mr.
Disraeli and Mr. Cavendish.
Mr. DISRAELI, iu acknowledging the toast, after •
few preliminary observations, said—l know that
upon this occasion we meet under very peculiar circum-
stances. This association is unlike many similar associa-
tions of this country. It was not merely retailed for the
highly intcreeting, though limited, object which we have
fulfilled by the interesting circumstances which have just
occurred, it WAS not merely formed to give a higher tone to
the Peasantry of the country, and to animate them to
faithful service, and to reward them for diligent con tact •
but (and I may he allowed to give an opinion upon it, be:
cause 1 watched over its earliest hours) it was also founded
to guard over the fortunes of the agriculture of the country.
(Cheeri.) Therefore it would be worse than mockery, meeting
as you do under the circumstance., your member in the house
of Commons, bound to consider your fortune., and to
vindicate your interests, if he were to take ad-
vantage of • commonplace excuse which some-
times is too dbernlly exercised, and to say that politics
are forbidden, and in fact avoid making any allusion to the
perilous position which you occupy, and which of course is
the great subject which interests you, or try to avoid that
responsibility which as your member he must ever bear.
(Hear.) I think it is nearly three year; since we met
under the peculiar eircumatauces which have now called on
together. Difficult and disagreeable as is the duty,
I cannot but take this opportunity in as few
words as I can to endeavour to form a far and im-
partial opinion of the position in which we arc pla:ed, and
of the prospects which ore opening to ns, so that we may
not indulge in any illusions. and that we may not try to
keep up our spirits merely by the conviviality of the hour ;
but that understanding the pa:Rion in which we are placed,
we may at once come to the conclusion either that it is •
hopeless position, or that it is one which, however difficult.
may be encountered by understanding it, by union and by
determined conduct. (Cheers.) Now some years have
elapsed since that great revolution took place in the
laws that regulate the industry of the country which has
exercised so fatal an influence or all owners and occupien
of land in this county, and I think that we may all approach
the considerutian of that attedion with calmer feelings than
we naturally did when that nitceatiun was proposed so sud-
denly, and from a quarter so uuexpected. (Cheers.) I
think that we may be able now to view this question in a
calmer and fitter spirit. You must recollect that this strange
and sudden alteration-6,r strange and sudden all muse
admit it to have been, whatever may he their opinion of
the policy or impalicy of the measure which opened to un-
limited competition the industry and labour of the whole
wort' with our own so far as agrieuilture was concerned. It
was held out to England that the old system of popularity,
called " the protective system," which was abrogated, was
the bane of ugriculture—that the reason why the farmer: of
the United Kingdom could nut compete with the cultivators
of the sail in other countries was that they were nut men of
entrgy and enterprise—that they were men deli Tent in
skill, and that their want of energy, their want of enter-
prise, and their want of skill were occasioned by that sys-
tem of protection to which I have referred. No doubt
these statements made in a very reckless manner, accepted
by great masses of people, and not encountered at the time,
at encountered too late by throe critical observations which
I might have impugned their accuracy, carried what is culled
I " public opinion with them ; and those alterations were
made, however many may have doubted their expediency,
with a very general impression that there was on the part
of the cultivators of thesoil ol the United Kingdom n want of
energy and enterprise, and a deficiency of skill and capital.
Since that tinte the subject has become better understood, and
our calmer feelings have allowed all classes to come to a more
correct opinion on the subject, and there are now some great
facts which are no longer doubted. It is no longer a
doubt that the British farmer, who was held up as
• man so deficient in energy and enterprise, in
skill and capital, is a man who has raised from un acre of
laud more produce thou any farmer tither in Enrope or in
America. (Cheers.) That is a point now universally ad-
mitted, and it is unnecessary now in any society to discuss
the truth of it, (Cheers.) Even yesterday, I read a state-'
meat respecting the cultivation of France, and I there read
that the average of the produce of France was only sixteen
bushels to the acre, and in the United Stoles en., eighteen
bushels. That circumstance would not seem to show that
the British farmer was so dehcient in energy and enter-
prise. It is also a fact according to the official papers laid
before the house of Commons, that at the end of the war
with the American States the average produce of an acre
was twenty bushels of wheat in England; and when the
corn laws were abrogated in 1S iii the average produce was
thirty-two bushels. I can only draw a very opposite
contusion front that fact to tho.e which have been
drawn by others. Ido not think it trips against the
system under which so great an increase of prOduce was
effected. (Cheers.) There is another fact now universally
admitted. that in the period of time that elapsed from the
year 1821 to the year 1846—a p,-rind of a quarter of a cen-
tury—the increase of population in this country was 32 per
cent., anti the increase iii the produce of wheat was 61 per
cent. 'that also is not a proof of want of energy and enter-
prise. (Cheers.) There is also another fact which now no
one disputes, that in 191.5, when not a man in this country
could have supposed that the protective system was in dan-
ger, the farmers of the United liingilotu imported from a
remote port iu the racitie more than 4,000,000 cwt. of a
rare, new, and peculiar manure—guano. That also is not
a proof of want of energy and enterprise. I notice these
things because I wish to convey to you what I think is the
public opinion on the subject—that whatever may be the
public opinion as to the expediency or inexpediency of the
repeal of the corn laws in 1146, the pretext that it was I
necessary to repeal them because the cultivators of the
soil were not men of energy and enterprise is given up.
(Cheers.) There was also another pretext on which those
Taws were repealed, namely, that it would not affect prices.
The facts are now acknowledged by the country, that the
farmers—the cultivators of the soil—were not deficient in
energy, enterprise, skill, and capital, and that the change
has -affected prices moot seriously. Meeting here after •
plenteous harvest, and hearing from all of you that, with
the advantage of a good harvest and the great exertions
that you have made, you still feel that you arc involved in
the most difficult struggle that any great body of producers
ever yet engaged in, I think we ought now to inquire what
is this cause of that great depression ; and if we can arrive at
any satisfactory conclusion as to what is the cause, I think
we ought to try to ascertain what might be the best remedy
under the circumstances, and whether it is possible by union
and energy to effect that remedial consequence which we
all desire. Now, I have always spoken to you with the utmost
frankness upon this point. My conscience does not accuse me
that when the protective system was attacked I did not do
my best to uphold it. But to uphold a system that exists,
end to bring back a system that has been abrogated, are
two different things, and I am convinced myself that that
system, generally known by the "protective system," can
never be brought back unless it is the interest of all classes
—at least of all classes of importance—that that should be
the principle which should regulate the national industry,
and unless the nation speaks out upon the question in an
onsastakeable manner. But, knowing the difficulties in
whisk the question is involved, am 1, as the representative
elm agricultural constituency, to sit still and to say that
those whose interests I represent are to be allowed to fall
Inei that state of dilapidation because nothing but one
remedy can be acknowledged as the one that is satisfactory,
whoa we all know that that is one which only can be ob-
Woad under most difficult circumstances? No; I look to
lbs mai question. What is the reason that the British
lturist, whom I have shown is a man of energy
and enterprise, who has the command of great skill
and capital—what is the reason that he cannot compete
with the foreign producer? The reason is, that he is sub-
jected to a load of taxation which overwhelms his energies, I
and which curtails his enterprise. (Cheers.) I know very
wall, and I say it at once without reserve, whatever may be
the general weight of the taxation of the country, that the
agriculturist must bear it—must take his share of that taxe-
d', as well as all other classes. I look to the increase of
the population—l look to the increased produce of the pre-
doss metals, as circumstances which no doubt have a
temkney to diminish the weight of that taxation to all
dames of the country; but I find that the owners and
ampler' of the soil have to incur a taxation which other
darn of the country do not share; and, therefore, how-
ever you may diminish the weight of the general taxation
of the country by an increase of population or by an
increase of the precious metals, yet the owners and
occupiers of the sod will always have an additional burden
to fight against which ether classes have not. I know it
was said—and I allude to it in order to simplify the case—
which Is really extremely simple if it is understood—that
when the corn laws should be repealed it would be
found out that the interest of the owners and occupiers
of the soil were not the same; but, my opinion is that the
repeal of the corn laws has very much simplified that ques-
tion—that it was very possible before, under the then exha-
ling circumstances, to make out a ease, I think a fallacious
Nei! but to make out a cast that the interests of the owners
wild occupiers of the soil were different ; but the moment
you withdraw all those laws which give an artificial price,
the owners and occupiers of the soil become wholly in the
situation of partners—one brings the fixed capital and the
raw material, the other brings labour, skill, sad the finite.
lan capital, and they divide the profits of the enterprise
moordiug to any private arrangement animas themselves.
Jirrtmaas
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understanding of the amount of their 11111.141011 111110114111
tpsrowptortyareaccom rPartawahlarding to Mamba.-
, (Hear. hear.) Then, I say, if that be the eine.meo else
I pier, or of the individual who may fill bolt poshVe
saw tim to the land the advantage or
=Le legislature and tho
bedworl have acknow.
I land, whether it is the clans of the wrier, eir Walls=
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date Ile principles which ought to extended to all