The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-14 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, FRIDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 14, 1849.

Dear Sir,—My speculations as to attending your m. sting
ere suddenly cut short by a cold I have caught, which, were
there no other reason, necessitates my staying at hums on
this occasion. You may believe me, it is no want of good-
will to your sesociatiun, which I con icier to be, of all neces-
sary aseociatione for agitating the community on public ques-
tions, by far the mat necessary and legitimate. In all times,
is all places. the duty of having the people instructed—
. Worsted' by the best wisdom which human effort can pro-
enre—is a sacred and primary one for every commonwealth
of Men, not to be neglected but at the peril of all parties,
and with sure end fearful penalties sooner or later. In
England, as all thinking men too well discern, this
duty bas been shamefully neglected from of old
down to these days ; and to neglect it lenger
seems to me (such are the signs of the times)
Ile defying the Omnipotent Power to levy the penalty
nil Ili! The ' penalty, air, can be ' levied,' and it is ter-
rible and manifold. May God avert ! The special circum-
stances of your associaiion are not well known to me, nor
have I minutely studied what the details of your plan are ;
bat I know enough to wish you with my whole heart, per-
il...finance, courage, discretion—good speed. Fur it seems to
me every borest demand for education is of the nature of a
twain?, disto be taken as the set o' mod citizens in this
fine; and I must say the wont plan of education I ever
heard deliberately propounded for England, or know to be
is actiea in any civilised country, would to me appear a very
high improvement upon no plan at all, or the ' leave aloes
plan, which is ours hitherto. Persevere end prosper —I
remain, dear sir, yours very sincerely, "T. CARVELL
Samuel Lucas,'Esq , President, &c."
The CHAIRMAN said—Gentlemen, many of you are so
doubt aware that a conference of the trends of educationacla
the plan of the Lancashire School Araociatien, was held this
morning in the Mechanics' Institution, for the purpose et
giving and receiving information of a practical nature as to
the best means of promoting it. There wen present at the
meeting, waich was num-rouely attended, gentlemen of great
talents and influence from different pars of the kingdom, 1,
whose valuable remarks and whose el: quince we listened to
with delight ; and tome are also other distinguished gentle-I
men wto were not there, but whom you will have the plea-
sure of hearing te is evening, and from that gratification I'
shall not long detain you by any prolonged observation of
my own. I call upon the working end middle dares,
for whose especial benefit the plan has been devised,
to join the association—to work heart and hand with us in
the attainment of the object, and in demanding from the
government legislative enactment", without which it cannot
be carried our ; and it they do so, we shall not long see
deferred that which MOW' object—acomprehen.ive system of
secular national education.
The Right Hon. THOMAS MILNER GIBSON, M.P.,
than addressed the meeting. He bad been invited by the
chairman to express to the assembly the opirions which he
entertained upon the subject then under discussion ;• subject
which he appro ehed with great diffidence in the presence
of many by whom he was surroansled, who, by ex-if:Tient*
end long acquaiatance with the important question of edam-
lion, were so much better qualified to dirauss the scheme
which the Lancashire Public School Association had ia
view. He should be sorry to approach the quo-'
tion in any feeling of antagonism to any other bodies who I
were engaged in the erne duty of spreading education
amongst the people. (Hear ear, sod cheers) lb
thought those who first made ant c road into the ignonme
of this country by the establishment of Sunday scholia had
cone great service to education, and the whole country mum
ander deep obligations to them for their efforts. (Chem.) '
He should be sorry to discourage or disparage in any way
educational plans conscientiously undertaken by any
of his fellow•countrymen—(chars); but he thought wee
at liberty to say, that the efforts now being made were OM
inadequate to grapple with the evils which they prams/ to
remedy—(hear. hear); and that although we were told the
religious societies and congregations were, by their musk&
lion and means, spreading knowledge,' both secular sail
religious, amongst the people, nevertheless we had this
humiliating fact before us which could not be got rid
that in &lied, with all its wealth, power, splendour, sad
refinement, nearly one-half of the population, men and I
women, Were unable to write ; that nearly one woman out of
every two who went to sign in the marriage register was un-
able to affix her signature, and that nearly out of every three
mos in this kingdom one was unable to writs kis name. If
it were true also that the ignorance of writing was aotespa-
sell most generally with an ignorance of reading, was it not
a lamentable position of affairs that so iarge a proportion of
the community should be unable even to read, not even that
Bible which had been pressed f mired almost in the chaise-
lee of a tsek book, thong h he (the speaker) thought it ought
Mbe kept wee peculiarly as a book of religious teaching—
(Min, Mar it not a lamentable fact that, with all this
dart— all this apparatus exercising its influence
am sonny, so large a proportion of our community
dead be thus Ignorant ? He found, from the returns laid
before the country by the Registrar-Oeneral, that there was
alp sheet one per one. less during 41 years of women who
seed met write than there were before ; and rannethirig
men than one per cent. lees of men, alio unable to write
their names, daring the same period ; so that, by this rake,
Wens going es upon the per cent. system, it wasimperible,
if there was any troth in figures or statistical Monk to get
rid of the appalling fact that at would eke centeniM~emM 11
the present system, to teach the whole population the
elements of education—reading and writing. And=at.
crime. Since the ocmmencement of the present century
the population had not doubled, but had crime decreased,
or bad 1 increased, taking into consideration the Mersa.
of the population ? Why the commitments for the meet
serious-offenes in England and Wake, sines Ike commingle-
meat of the present century, had initYllased
though the population had not doubled. (Reer, hear.
Was not this a humiliating teat; and were we to
hit
from publicly stating these faces, and recognising their twee.
Moe, from any feline that it was humiliating that um*
▪ state et** settee should be publicly known ? He mid
no ; sad the more we thought upon than appalling MAO
the mere we treasured them up in our sleds. the SIN kW
permit we should feel this educational menumeen le be.
Mess, hear.) No doubt great efforts had be amok tokens
mime ; bat in his opinion they had been made at the wrong
end. Ye
ntaa hanging was tried, and &variety of seven
punishme for minor offences; recently, undoubtedly,
•
better eastern had been obtained—a system of reformer'
prison discipline ; but we had never
at
the epee
which was now submitted, beginning at the right ged,
and tryiog to prevent crime by elevating the
end intellectual character of the people. (Loud applause.)
What expenditure had taken place in improving our prisons
—what philosophical discussions upon the best mode of
reforming the hardened criminal—what lengthened distrd-
sitionsas to the best means of getting rid of the criminal
population—but what cold indifference did we find in may
quarters when we raised that most important question of
how crime could be prevented br beginning at the rig t end,
h
and educating the people, making them sensible of their
duties as citizens and Bolin's! (Cheers.) The facts which
he bad stated must convince all that the existing, apparatus
for education in the United Kingdom was Taira insufficient
to remedy the orals that wen complained of ; and when it
was argued that it would be better to leave education entirely
to voluntary effort, he must say that he deemed such a view
of the (oration not well suited to the district in which he
then stood. And why not ? Why, tbe state,
or the country
through parliament, had already Interferd, by making
an education of some kind or other the necessary
condition for children to earn their bread in the
foctories. We had a law upon our statute book
which said that it was unlawful for any person engaged
in the manufacture of wool, cotton, silk, or file, to employ
any child of a certain age who did not pedals a certain
ticket, showing that he had attended school for six days every
week, And could there be any stronger compulsion upon
thee who had to live by labour than to say, "Yoram:ell not
earn your bread unless you attend schools? " He was at a
loos to conceive that there could be. But had they who made
employment contingent upon school attendance taken steps,
on any comprehensive plan, to provide good schools which
the children were to attend ? lie knew himself clergy-
men in the church—and if he had their permission he
could quote them—who were in favour of the principle of
educatioa which was supported by the Lancsibire Public
School Association. (Loud applause.) It could not be
denied. Weer, that the church, as a corporation—as a
great body in the country no doubt at one time was stun
to education altogether. The principle upon which they went
seined to be this, " Better that the people should not use
educated ; bat, if they are to be educated, it is better that we
should do it than anybody else." The opponents of the system
talked sail people wen to be brought into the schools for
the purpose of hearing revealed religionliaaran sou i an
4 mations underrated, Nothing of fie

intended was to adept the ally preetkel method, situated
es we won at the present time, with all the diversity of
isligfees opinions wake meld be hand to Impart to the
people the ratbneats of knowledge ' • sad these mesas
by which they might be afterwards Maimed in religion
and all other pulsate. (Chem.) It was his Ana be-
lief, that the inetruseed maa was a far better disciple for
the Wainer, than the sea whose imamate had nem been
teethed, either by the St why 0011001 or gay other arrange-
ment. (Hear, hear.) He would ask any of the manatees
in the Starlet of Yucatan, who are acquainted well with
the habits sad the character of the population that sur-
noodled than, it they did not find the moat ready attention
to their ministration amongst thews who bad received
some education, however imperfect; and he considered that
the adherents of the secular screen should sever be charged
with any deliberate attempt to intater• with the religious
feelings of any portion of the community when they were
advocating • plan which in their consciences they believed
would not only benefit religious objects, but which would
also raise in the moral and intellectual seals all elms s
In this great country. (" Hear, hear," and cheers.) With
regard to the question of the necessity of mixing the
religious and secular education upon all ocessioes, he must
say that his own experience did not teed him to believe
that many of those who opposed the Lancashire plan,
upon the ground of its being purely secular, were sincere in
their advocacy of an exclusively mixed system of education.
Why, what was the course taken is some of our leading edit-
eational establishments, where penises of what w. re called
the higher closes—or rather he would call them the classes
of more independent means—derived their education and
their koowledee ? What was the course taken in the ani-
anities of the Lad? lie could speak from experience that
in the University of Cambridge there was nothing which
could be called religioueinstruction. 'fin whole aura of reli-
gious instruction, was, to a great extent, of a voluntary cha-
racter on the part of the people ; and he very will recollected
that is so ease, unless he intended to enter the church as a
profession, was a student required to attend the divinity I. c-
urse. And more than this, though, pester, be was telling
secrete that ought not to be told—(laughter)—on such coca-
' siona,he well remembered, there were certain young gentle.
mem who were going into the church. who used to attend
Om divinity lecture by proxy. In conclusion, he would say
ismestentiously that they might ask me co-operatlen of the
clergy of all denominations in the promotion of the scheme
he was supporting. (Hear, hear.) It appeared to him
that consistently with the sacred functions which they
had to discharge, there were none but what might support
the plan without any deviation from duty, or departure from
conscientious feeling. The religious sentiment—that mighty
agent is human affairs—he was persuaded, when the plan
was well understood , would come to its aid—(mar, hear);
and he hoped that at no remote period the world would no
longer witness that melancholy evidence of human selfish-
ness which existed now in the United Kingdom, namely, the
co-existence of great wealth, of great power, of great refine-
ment, of great progress in material civilisatien, with a cold
neglect of the moral and intellectual welfare of the milliuns
upon whose enduring industry and patient sacrifice all our
greatness was based. (Loud applause.)
W. J. FOX., Esq. M.P., WB4 next introduced to the
meeting, and said—Mir. Chairman, I cannot find myself on
this platform, sad again face to face with one of ynur mmni-
flOlMManatetergatberings, without the recurrence of recol-
lections and associations which it would not have been per-
tinent on the present occasion that I Mould dwell at length
upon, but which I trust I shall be excused the ad-
verting to, beause their recurrence to my own mind
is natural and unavoidable. And I think they cannot
be altogether absent from your minds. (Hear, hear.)
When I last met you here, it was in the proeeution of •
treat, continuous, arduous, and at length triumphent strug-
gle. (Hoar, hear.) 1 meet you nor in • struggle not less
great, less arduous, nor, I trust, in its results less successful.
(Hear, hear.) We gathered then to claim food for perish-
ing bodies; we gather now to claim a lair supply
of food for perishing and starving minds. (Cheers.)
We met together then to struggle with the igno-
rance and prejudices and sinister interests that pre-
vented the enjoyment of • great Imola right. So is
it now ; for what but ignorance and pr. juilice, and if not
these, what but sinister influence can interpose between the
great ease of the people and that intellectual culture which
alone can render • pooch' great, happy, and glorious ?
(Cheers) We mumbled then to endeavour to avert crime
and falai de misery. The material alleviation is in some
measure accomplished—but we meet now for the greater
purpose of averting crime arising not only from ohs, '
liell distress, but from intellectual and 'coral peceersity. We
meet now to keep oft a greater ea amity than even • starving
people; and that is a demoralised imam. (Hear, hear.)
We asserted then the great common right of human nature
—the right of man to obtain the food needful Lit him in the
cheapest end best en meet. We meet now to assert the still
greater and still more precious right of human asters to find
that aliment without which humanity cannot attain its full
miturity. And just as there ere those who never reached
the full development of their physical faculties for want of the
nesessary physical supplies, so the human mind reaches
the full development of the moral and religious being which it
was intended by the Creator to become; and ignorance and
lob*, and the suffering wt ich attends upon both, prevent him
from appearing that image of God which is DM gnat and
' Wad/ions destiny. (Hear, hear, and sheen.) May
the some enemy and perseverance which distinguished and
' ounobled Manchester in that arduous conflict be put forth
in the present cause. I approve of ibis plan, because
it is comprehensive, because it includes all sects and de-
nominations of religion, and all classes of society. It is
intended alike for rich and poor, intended to provide i
thorough education, that those of different ranks ,
in the social scale shall cheerfully send their children to rap ,
its common benellie. It does not educate according to a I
prescribed plan of government ; it aims at making neither I
slaves to political power, nor advocates to religious creeds, hut
to make men well informed. (Cheers.) And this is what
we should do, educate man as man not as a rich man, nit
as a poor man, not as • man of this or that future occupa-
tion
in life—(hear, hear) ; but educate him an as to develop
hie powers and faculties, those great and heaven given powers
that ore latent in all men, only needing the fostering
care of intellectual culture for their development. I approve
of this plan, became it is at once local and national. The
powers it requires, the officers it employs, are all appointed
by fair and free eh. ction. In pc • sing onward..
from the plan drawn up for this county of Lancaster to some
remarks on the general need of education, 1 must, at the
hazard of repeating facts f .miliar to many, advert to the
two greet divisions of that work. We require educational
reform and s:tension, both as to the quitanty and as to the
quality. (Hear, hear.) We require it as to the quantity,
for what is the condition of the masses incur country ? It
1 Ins been in some measure described by my leo-
will bear •• fewo more observations as to the
matter of fact. There are, it has been estimated by very
accurate calculations, three quarters of • million-750,000
children in the country, in the teachable age, between 5 and
11, who attend no school whatever, of any kind or deserip-
tien—(bear, hear)—but are utterly and totally disregarded.
fad M we take the comparative standard of the proportion
el Walden in eleseatury schools to the entire population,
liat ' runs thus: In Scotland, part cf Holland,
and ,Ws'
a,`
proportion of scholars to the entire poodle.
des k 1 is 8 ; in Denmark and Norway it rises to 1 is 7 ; in
Feiseland, Oversaw', and most of the Swiss cantons, 1 in
8 ; in 111Lasseehussetts, lin 8 also ; in Saxony, 1 in 5 ; in
the well educated province of Borne, 1 in 4 ; while in Eog•
land the most sanguine of all the calculations, that of Mr.
Baines, only estimates it at 1 in 84 ; and the more common
reckoning is lin 13. (lieu, hear.) If we tote particular
bealities, we Soil in the district of Vauxhall, Liverpool, the
a day scbooli is 1 in 11) ; in Bleckfriers, Sal-
-111
7111736. (Hem, hear.) In the diocese of Chester,
1 ale; in Sheffield, 1 in 11; in Manchester, 1 in 144 ; in
Mlailmex, 1 in 191. Is this a state of things to be endured ?
lake the United States of America, and ascertain there
IllarMile unable to read and mite in proportion to the
. In Massachusetts it is lin 186 ;in New
1 in 310 ; in Vermont, 1 in 473; in Connecticut,
asSeklaC;lllthla
11n ut in England 1 man in 3, 1 women is 2, are
22"t0 sign their name with marks when they are mar-
(a..,, hoar.) Now, suppose tbis great maim of imm-
anent eselthe suffering which must always attend ignorance
here any Miter form than it does, how would ympathies
be alai firth ! The British people are a sympathising
people • filly look abroad en the world, especially in
religious matters, and are ready te exercise the
most earnest and honourable zeal for religions ob-
jects. They fail for the grovelling idolatry of
Ike Ilindoo—for the barbarism of tee Louth Sea
lasseree—they feel for the sufferings, and they secured the
=Pion, of the enslaved negroes—they feel even for
of ignorance, who are led by it into via and
alme,and for these they have basted charitable institutions;
but they have never yet felt as a nation, anu as becomes •
sivilhea and Christian people, for the ignorance which is at
the aura of that crime and suffering, and which it should
be their fast object to remove. (Cheers.) But, strongly as
I feel on the limitation of the quantity of education, I feel
yet more stronoly sato its imperfect quality. (Hear, beer.)
We are content to call drilling and cramming educable. ,
(Hear, hear.) We are content to make children parrots 's* I
stead a reasoning, thinking, and intellectual beings.
(Chan.) In the legislative measures which have been
adverted to, Sir Jams Graham's Factory Education Act,
there was only a requirement that the child should have
bees at school, and no inquiry into the result, that being the
me emestial thing on which our attention should
be *zed. The Rev. Dr. Vaughan, in his excellent
work ea public school', has shown, with a patient
minuteness and a careful induction which defy contradiction,
that even the figures of his opponent in the controverse,
in their true interpretation, prove that more than thirty ia
every hundred of our entire population are without
any apparent means of learning to read, and that not
less than forty in every hundred are unable to write.
Should an intelligent and generous nation suffer such an
evil to exist ? Why, a schoolmaster must, like a poet, be
born such—must be finned by nature—have that peculiar
temperament which enables him to enter into the mind of a
child, and lead it onward to the strength and attainments of
his own mind ; he must become • child with children, and
be enabled to see their difficulties, or how con he tell
how to smooth their path ? It is not your learned man that
is the beet schoolmaster .. he is very often a meet inefficient
one. It is more often to men of lea extended acquirements
~ that the necessary qualifications are given, and we should make
' much of such men wherever we can find them. (Loud
cheers.) You regard your physician as a member of aliberal
profession; why, the business of a schoolmaster is to heal
the intellectual and moral diseases of youthful minds. You
regard your clergymen, your minister, your priest, with equal
consideration, while the schoolmaster stands at the entrance
of the temple and prepares the young Neophytes to enter it
in ',Antal advantage to themselves, and fur the ben:-
fit of their souls. As you will not allow men
to practise medicine without duo requirements,
be
so
churches have their standard which they require to
attained before a preacher is allowed to enter the pulpit.m As
s
in ariost occupations a test is applied to amertatn a As

*Nee, 1 midi ad* ends a tat to the schoolmaster. I
gemild allow hide of that latompetene• and quackesy now so
dila Y the emnid. Look you. men with Rabin la *sir own
Wen, sad he power to emenniunieete it it they have—
,ter)—iedt_yelea thy raise 'sheds, and fora large
take
mail/ erdeem by athertisieg that they only take
;LT fleggi el gent? men. (Cheers) ) And I know
of ems sear who raised a very large and floor,
Ming mined at kartea in the neighbourhood ,
of the aieleggifille by a saccemion of (dumpsites
dinners to WadeM r pares» (Cowin and laughter.)
We »outdate, all this. (Hsu, hear.) We should be sure
of the right ens, and then we should treat them accord.
iagly. (Hear, hear.) They should like their place in society
as amoebas of a liberal peeksion ; of ors which deserves to
be at die bead of the Mega parikwiens, lodged by its 'mita.
We should leek dism as hoidens el dissmot, and entitled
to rank with • ; we shoal leek upon then es pre•
panes for the religiose end moral estate, end thew
fore entitled to stand aide by side with downs&
(Hear.) Yon have been told by yew able logneerfilli
the of the »ernes of crime—a feudal einnitigraties
in these times—but I would direst year attest-
tion to one circumstance in that iseresee, which
shows that what we call education at present is
inefficacious as a barrier to crime. I say that
instruction as now administered over a large extent of
this country—it may not be so in your semis, bet I
know it is in too many schools—is of no avail for the pre-
mhos of criminality; for what say the returns? They
show a large increase of crime ; and where has it increased ?
Not in the well-taught, in that class crime has diminished,
nor miraculously diminished ; not in the totally untaught,
for in that class, too, with all their disadvantages and priva-
tions, to them, honour be it said, crime has diminished;
the increase of crime is in the class between these two, in the
imperfectly educated class. (Hear, hear.) Aod does not
this speak, as with a trumpet voice, to call upon us univer-
sally for the improvement of the instruction which is now
rendered, as well as its extension. It is an imperative ne-
cessity that we should not be content with the endowed
use of inefficacious means. But let me not be understood as
casting the alienist reflection oa Sunday-schools or their teadi-
en : in their sphere and for their purposes they may do, and I
believe actually do, accomplish a large amount of good, but
say that they are not efficient as a means of instraction inset*
a way, to such an amount, or with such consequences as
throw up an impassable barrier to the increase of crime.
Now there were some culotte facts brought out at a recent
temperance meeting held in the metropolis. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. &Riad*, late of Yoh, made these statements on lue
own experience. As I observed, it was a temperance meet-
ing, end he thereto» spoke for other purposes, but the
felts are equally applicable to those we have in view. Ha
said, about two years ago be virited a poor boy in one of the
largest gaols is Yorkshire. There were fourteen convicts,
including him, and he round in conversation that thirteen of
these primers had each beau Sunday-school pupils. (Hear,
hear.) Lut week he addressed litters to the governors of
a hundred prisons in England, Wales, and Sccvland, and
requested to be informed how many prisoners had been
Suuday-uhool pupils. From the return he had received it ap- '
peered that the number of prisoners in the gaols from which
he otr.ained them was 5,09 G, and of them '2,920 had been
Sunday-scbool scholars. He had obtained similar statements
from the matrons of a number of penitentiaries and houses of
refuge up to the '27th November, 1849. The result 422
inmates, of whom 512 had been Sundayschoel scholars, and
16 teachers. (Hoar, hear.) It »lees very much from the
mishits so ably commented upon by your hon. member—
it arum from the disregard of the enmity of blending
secular instruction with that which is of a theological cha-
racter. The mind requires a certain expansion and lemon-
regiment for the reception of religion, and secular education
neti•t give that. I am propel»), nosubstitutiou of the secular'
for the sacred; the principle I lay down is this, that the
slued cannot grow to its full dimensions, nor exercise
its proper power, unless there be a due proportion
of that stimulation of the faculties which is caused
by. secular instruction. The difference in re-
ligion between the taught and the untaught
man, is, that the same trait which is bright and beautiful in
the on', becomes obscured, hanh, narrow, repubive, ann
self-satisractory in the other. (Cheers.) Take two such
men, with the same amount of rt ligious feeling, so far as we
can judge, and you will then find, on an examination of their
intellectual faculties, that the amount of their acquirements
make a mat observable and important difference between
them. And this difference I believe to be the cause why
there is so much Sunday school and other religious teaching
which fails to produce the anticipated result of diminution of

crime.
The hon. gentleman sat down amidst prolonged and en.
thusiastic cheering.
Lc. Warns and Mr. T. Salmi afterwards addressed the
meeting, which lasted three hours.

BRISTOL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.
The annul meeting of the Bristol Agricultural
Society was held on Wednesday afternoon. The show of
live stock, whisk was held in the large cattle market,
Teeple-made, was not so good as on many former years.
The exhibition of sheep and pigs was much more scantily
supplied than usual, as was likewise the show of fat stock.
Among the breeding stock there were some animals of con-
siderable merit, but they were mostly from the stock of
Mr. Stratton, an eminent breeder in Smithfield, who, in.
deed, carried off a large portion of the premiums offered.
The meeting for the dispatch of business wee held in the
tarn room of the Canhenearket Hotel, W. MIL= Esq.,
ALP., and President of the Society, occupying the chair.
The PRESIDENT, in opening the business, having ex-
pressed his regret that he could not congratulate the society
on the character of its show, drew attention to some very
fine roots of mangold wand and turnips which were on the
table, and adverted to the importance of encouraging the
growth of root crops—root culture being in his judgment at
the basis of all good farming. It was generally held now
that root crops could be grown even on clay lands. and what
they had to look to was how they could grow them
in the best possible way and at the least possible coot.
(Rear, hear.) It wan admitted on all hands that
there was nothing so good as farmyard manure, but then
the difficulty experienced on large farms was to get
sufficient of it (Hear) This led them to see whether by
the admi of some artificial manure with it they could
not make their farmyard dung go further, and at the same
time improve their root crops ? (Hear.) 'His attention had
long been turned to the subject, having been_ particularly
directed to it by some experiments tried by Mr. Pussy in
Berkshire, the particulars of which were reported
in the 6th ?clone of the proceedings of the Royal
Agricultural Society for 1846. (Hear.) This was •
matter of great importance to ferment, for if they could, by
using some cheap and accessible artificial manure, make a
much less quantity of farm-yard dung sufficient, they would
do great good. If, instead of dressing with 20 or 24 loads of
farm-yard dung per sere for root crops, they could reduce
that quantity to 13 loads, they would enable the farmer to
spread his farm-yard manure all round his farm. Mr. Miles
then proceeded to give the results of Mr. Pose 's well-known
experiments, with which your agricultural toners must, from
their frequent publication, have become long since familiar;
and which tended to show that by using bones, rags, or
guano, the requisite quantity of farm-yard manure was
greatly reduced, while by the admixture of 3 cwt. of guano
with 13 toed of dung, a crop of 36 tons per acre was pro-
duced, as against 281 tons produced with 26 loads of good
dung. Guano was portable and accessible, and even at its
highest price, 101. per too, it would be found worthy the
attetrion et farmers. His (Mr. Miles's) own funt was situated
high and required coneiderable manure, and not having suffi-
cient dung he Ind adopted Mr.Pusey'sphin,and had manured
with 13 tons of dung and 3 cwt. of guano ; his ground was
clay, shallow, and on mountain limestone. He had found
great benefit from the manure, having produced 28 tons per
acre of orange globe mangold wore' upon an average over
16 acres.
_(Cheers.) Ile had also tried an experiment with
turnips. He got 20 bushels of bones mixed with about
double the quantity of ashes, and over this he poured two or
three times the contents of a manure tank. This was
turned over two or three times, the bones heated, and
decomposition went on. Of this ho used a good dressing,
say 60 bushels an acre. His tarn,. were put in rather late,
end same up as moat turnips in this county did this year, at
twice, but his crop was very fine. Another experiment he
had tried was with what was called Joptha oilealte, which
on obtained from • manufacture by Messrs. Virger anti Co.,
of Bristol, and could he readily obtained at IL 3s. per ton
crushed, and 31. whole. He had some wheat Waking
very bed only in the spring, and he tried it, aa
a top dressing, against guano, which latter he put
on at 3 cwt. par acre, using twelve or fourteen beahels
per acre of the oil cake. As he subsequently found that a
former tenant had petted • part of the field, using guano
upon it, he could not look upon the experiment as being
perfectly satisfactory, but he had no hesitati ni in saying that
the Joptha oil-cake woul t prove an exceedingly valuable '
auxiliary to huebendry. It was his intention to try it next'
year upon a different plan, with his spring wheat, sowing
it on the ground, and ploughing it in. Tne quantity which,
as far as experiments had gone, it had been found ne en-
eery to employ, was 5 cwt. per acre fur roots, and 71 net, as
a dressing for wheat. (Cheers.)
The report of the committee, which was next read by the
hnn. secretary, Mr. Marmont, speke of the funds as has kg
fallen off, and urged the members to exert themselves to
procure new labia:bets.
After an award of a sweepstakes fir mangold wet:el and
turnips had been mode to Mr. J. Ntblett, of Felton Farm,
Mr. MONTAGU GORE rose to propne the re-election
of the President, and in so doing highly eulogised Mr.
Miles's devotion to the agricultural interests. At all times,
ae,d under all cir.umetancs, he (Mr. Gore) wished to
ere societies like that Lorin, but more especially
at the present moment when a severe struggle was being
made by the agriculturists to keep. if possible their heads
above ground, and meet their foreign rivals in the market.
It was only by • cordial union of landlord, tenant, and
labourer, that they could hope to get through their difficul-
ties. (Hear.) A great deal had been said as to what rents
should be under the present circums'ances. lie considered
it imposeible that they could lay down any stated canon rule
for rents; but landlords and farmers should look to the ptices
of the day, and see how far they were remunencive, and it the
tenant could not pay, the landlord should make what abate-
ment the exigencieaof the time required. (Cheers.) This would
be better than training rules from which they must depart if
times grew worse. Mr. Gore went on to argue that landlord,
tient, and labourer should sail in the tame boat, participat-
ing in the same fortune, and after advising that steps should
be taken for improviser the dwelling of the labourer, he con-
cluded by proposing Mr. Miles's re-election, which was car-
ried rum. con.
The other officers were also re-elected, and the award of
miums made by the judges.
In the evening the members and friends of the exiety
dined together at the White Von Hotel. W. Miles, Esq.,
M.P., presided ; and J. klarmont, Esq., took the vice-
chair.
Various toasts were drunk, and at the close of the dinner
a sweepstakes entered into for a show of fat stern next year.
•111).
tennis.

BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES CATTLE
AND POI:LINT SHOW.— Birmingham, Dec. 13. The
dinner to celebrate this show took plus at the Town-hall
this evening, the Earl of Aylisford in the chair. The com-
pany consisted of about five hundred. Amongst the more
distinguished persons present were the Earl Talbot, Lord
fietherton, Lord I.ewisham, M.P., Bir F. Lumley, But.,
the Hon. E R. Lyttelton, M.P., the lion. F. Gough, Mr.
Spooner, M.P., Mr. Muntz, M.P., Mr. Newdegate, M.P.,
&c. As little more than the preliminary toasts had been
disposed of at the time it became necessary to despatch my
parcel, 1 reserve my report until to-morrow. You will see
tram the names above recorded that there are some curiously
tt conflicting elements' present, and perhaps more than
ordinary interest nosy attach to their speeches. His Royal
Highness Prince Albert has sent a donatlo a of 501. to the
tunas of this exhibition ; and today the Duchess of Suther-
land end a very distinguished party visited the show pavi-
lion. Up to this evening about 10,0110 persons have attended
the exhibition.
GENERAL ANNUITY ENDOWMENT ASSOCIATION.—
The twentieth annual meeting of this association was held
yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. Parkin in the chair.
The report stated that sixty members, holding a hundred
and thirty-five annuities, bad joined the society during the
ear; that the amount of capital on the 30th of September,
1849, was 236.2151.0.. 9d., being an increase during the year
'of 9,8571. lie. 10d., independent of the sum of
11,8311. 18s. 94., which had been paid to the respective
annuitants. The payments of there members who had die-
nostittued their premiums daring the year, added to the
gam which had accrued in fernier years, amounted to the
sun of 25,4951. 4s. 11d., which was carried to the credit of
tM amendation in the amount of capital. The directors had
boss Informed of the death of nine claimants holding four-
lerm annuities, and of the marriage of three clai-
mants holding five annuities, ell on the civil fund.
Thirty-seven members holding sixty-three annuities on the
elan fund, and three members holding ales annuities on ibis
sanitary and nautical fund, had died during the year. Jn
Inference to the desire expressed by the members at the last
Meeting, the directors regretted that they had not succeeded
In obtaining a house suitable for a change of residence. From
the financial statement it appeared that the total civil lurid
I was 228,0551. 17s. Bd., and the total naval and military fund
18,1511. 3s. Id. The following was the number of members
admitted : civil fund, 3,112; nautical and military, 217 ;
number of annuities on the civil fund, 6,112 ; nautical
and °military, 314. Amount invested within the year,
21,4161. 12e. Ild.; annuities paid, 11,8311. 18s. 9d. Balance
in the treasurer" hands, 3391. 17s. 4d. The report was
unanimously adopted. The four retiring auditors were re-
elected, and 1001. fixed as the amount of payment for their
services.
INQUEST ON THE BODY OP MR. LOUIS SHADWPLL.
—Yesterday, Mr. W. Carter inthannened a jury at the Red
Lion Tavern, Hammersmith-bridge, to inquire into the cir-
curnatances attending the death of Mr. L. H. Shadwell,
aged 38, a barrister, and second son of Sir Lancelot Shad-
wed, Vice-Chancellor of
,England. The cumin and jury
having viewed the body and impeded the Iceality where
deceased met his death, examined several witnesses, who
deposed to the facts recapitulated in the Express of
yesterday. The following evidence was alio taken
Mason, a labourer, living near the Crab-tree, at
Hammersmith, proved that on Sunday night, about a
verter to eleven o'clock, he heard cries from the other tide
of the river, and a person repeat " Oh Lord, oh Gad," many
times, and groan : the party also said, " George, George, a
light." It was a weak voice, and witness thought it a female.
By the advice of Mr. Bullen, thelandlord of the Crab-tree, they
went to Hammersmith-bridge, and got a boat and a lantern,
but by the time they had reached the spot where the crisis
prodeeded from, more than het an hour had elspaed. They
searched the towing-path and banks, and in the latter cVs.
covered the imprint of naked feet from a distance of 20 or 30
yards and back. These marks were 70 or 80 yards from where
the body was found. There was no sign of any vcent
Thee
They called aloud, but got no answer.
The tide was nearly at its height, but not over the towing
path. W. Morris, a labourer, produced the deceased's
cap, which had beta found near the Putney steam-bhichoat
pier on Monday afternoon, as also one of his-shoes, w
he had picked up off the College of Civil Engineers.
Mr. Sullen, the landlord of the Crab-tree, hero ,bserved
d
that he heard some one cry distinctly " Help, help," an
" George, George," and a paddling in the water. Had he
had a boat he was convinced he could have saved the party.
—Mr. Alfred Shadwell said he could not conceive that his
brother was the victim of violence, as no money had been
flacon frem him, and believed, with the rest of the family,
that the melancholy event was purely accidental. The jury
were unanimously of opinion that Mr. Louis Shadwell was
accidentally drowned or suffocated, and returned a verdict
accordingly,