The Sun.
London, England, 1852-12-06 00:00:00

LITE.RAT ÜBE

The Farmer's Magazine.—The first article is a
treatise on the cultivation of oats. It is followed.
by a Lecture read at the annual meeting of the
North Staffordshire Agricultural Society, on the
improvements of homesteads and remodelling of
farms. An agricultural biography is continued,
and there is also a Lecture on the use and abuse of
lime in agriculture. There is an interesting ac-
count of the Flax Industry of Ireland, and the
present number also contains several articles on the
potato.

Newton's London Journal.—This number con-
tains a list of fourteen patents, three of which are
for improvements in the construction of ploughs.
The most important are those of Negretti and
Zambra for thermometers, J. M'lntosh for ord-
nance and fire-aims, W. E. Newton for manufac-
turing coke, &c. The list of Irish, Scotch, and
English patents is given as usual, and the maga-
zine contains two plates illustrating the patents.

Mr. Sponge's Shorting Tour.—With the last month
of the year, our fortune-hunter brings his Sporting Tour
to an end ; and after many matrimonial speculations
and questionable transactions in disposing of his horses
to unprotected greenhorns and would-be sportsmen,
uninitiated in th mysteries of the dealer's stables, he
settles indite, united to an 'adventuress as needy as him-
self, who- has fairly 2.idden, into his affections. Through-
out the whole of this. amusing narrative the object of the
author is apparent, and. while the reader is amused by
the description of the various characters who are to be
met with in the hunting-field and at the tables of masters
of hounds, he sees vividly depicted the snares into which
the crafty and unscrupulous vampires who live by de-
frauding the unwary lead their victims, who; in propor-
tion to their ignorance, are presumptuous and self-con-
ceited. In the conclusion of the tale, the biter is bit, for
Mr. Sponge is taken in by Facey Romford—a knave of
deeper dye than our hero himself ; and in the grand
aristocratic steeplechase which is the closing scene, the
renowned Hercules astonishes both his owner and the
public by winning the race in spite of Mr. Sponge, whose
interest lay on the losing side.

Zadkiel's Almanac for 1853.—The most striking
vaticinations adventured upon by the renowned seer,
Zadkiel, in this the twenty-third yearly edition
of his almanac, are those regarding the new Em-
peror of the French, Napoleon 111. The hour of
birth being ascertained with sufficient accuracy from
the official Moniteur, the sage artist presents his readers
with a scheme or figure of the heavens, at sixteen
minutes before one o'clock, on the morning of the 20th
of April, 1808. After some singular remarks and cal-
culations, which certainly go far in support of the geneth-
liacal science, the following predictions are made for the
ensuing year and its successor :—" 1853—His affairs
run very untoward ; his enemies are gathering ; a cloud
threatens. I judge that February can hardly go by
without WAR DECLARED. In May . the nation is much
excited—takes an active part in warlike operations—and
probably his troops gain a battle of consequence. June
brings losses and discomfiture ; tumults and insurrec-
tions annoy him, and some plots are rife against hie
power. But August promises him gain and victory.
Also, in November, he gains martial honours ; yet some
strange reverses befall him at the end of the year. 1854
—February brings warlike gain ;he conquers. The
summer and autumn very unfortunate ; his troops
overthrown ; his enemies prevail in August, when sudden
reverses attend him. He is confused, totters to his fall,
and bows before the frown of fate ! Let him not dream
of lastinc, honours, power, or prosperity. He shall found
no dynasty ; he shall wear no durable crown."
In the prognostications given for each month under
the title of " Voice of the Stars," may be found the fill-
lowing, worthy of the attention of the curious in such
matters :—" April—The return of the Sun to his place
at birth of L. Napoleon gives the Prince prosperity dur-
ing his forty-sixth year—honours, success, victory !
And this the King of Prussia will discover to his cost."
—"June—L. Napoleon meets a check, and may loose a
battle now ; but is only a check—the tide of his fate
will still flow onwards. This month is fatal to the King
of Saxony, whose kingdom is rent away, and whose life
is endangered. The King of Prussia and Emperor of
Austria both bow to their adverse fate, and are tumbling
before the star of Napoleon." "July—The Autocrat of
Russia meets the frowns of fate, and sees his armies de-
feated, and his ambitious projects overthrown. He may
not hope to set his foot in Constantinople during his
fifty-eighth year, which is unfortunate." " October—
We shall hear of some sudden loss and injury to the
affairs of L. Napoleon. Riots prevail in his dominions,
and sudden matters affecting his honours, &c. He may
now look for the commencement of a series of troubles,
accumulating one upon the heels of another, exterminat-
ing, in the fall of the year 1854, by his overthrow, if not
his death." "November—The stars still frown on Aus-
tria's Emperor, and he is defeated in all his projects.
The King of Prussia 4 may look for military misadven-
tures, losses, and discomfiture. In LONDON there are

failing trade, sudden fluctuations in the funds, and a
general derangement of commercial interests." "De-
cember—Paris is filled with sad turmoil, and London full
of gloomy thoughts and scenes of sadness ; for but little
that is good or vrosperous befals the realm the latter
part of this year.'
Among other matters promised us in the approaching
year by the prescient Zadkiel, are—a bountiful harvest
—an entire change of Ministry—war in India, ulti-
mately (though not in the outset) successful—Continental
war in the earlier part of the year, in which Frederick of
Prussia will grievously suffer some time in summer.
The announcement of all these marvellous events, and a
good deal of astronomical and meteorological information,
together with weather predictions, tide-tables, and the
usual tabular matter, being furnished by Zadkiel for the
small charge of sixpence, it is not surprising that his
Almanac is in very extensive demand.

AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.

Mr. Grantley F. Berkeley has addressed the following.
letter
"To THE BRITISH AGRICULTURISTS AT HOME AND IN
THE COLONIES, AND TO ALL THE INDUSTRIAL CLASSES.
" Gentlemen,—The motion of Mr. Villiers having been
thoroughly discussed in the Commons, and happily dis-
posed of, I hasten to avail myself of the accommodation
of the press in offering you a few observations.
"It is an error to assert that the prosperity at present
enjoyed by the industrial classes arises solely from re-
cent legislation ' or the abrogation of the corn laws.
Had we as many labourers in the United Kingdom now
as there were in 1846—1 allude more particularly to tho
rural districts—the rate of wages at present paid must
and would have been infinitely lower, or half the hands
been without occupation.
" Expatriation, to the extent in which it has gone on
since the abrogation of the corn laws, throughout the
United Kingdom, is not a proof of prosperity,—far frs
it ; while, at the same time, it accounts for the rate of
wages paid to those who cling to their native land. On
every side it is admitted that the West India colonies
are gone ; that 'British Guiana' is below English resus-
citation,tt and I have therefore a right to maintain
there is no source of well-founded or safe congratulationthat
there
in the assertion that the labouring classes at home are
legislatively better off than they
arises from the ruin of their colonial e
brethren if their benefit
and from
.w
that the attempt of Messrs. Villiers, Cobden,
the,,er
aisgtiosrearti: of their relations and friends.
and Co., to wrest from the house a refusal to consider
the state of the land, and, to deny that that particular
interest deserves any further legislative attention, is one
tyrannical and oppressive in its inclination and griev-
ously unjust, while at the same time it militates against
that ' unrestricted competition,' for the extended in-
terests of which they profess themselves so sedulous.
Let the land be as free to the farmer as the loom and
steam to the manufacturer, the exigencies of the state,
of course, considered ; let the produce of the slave be
refused, the British market be accessible only to the
labour of the free ; let the colonies of the mother country
once more lift their eyes above the sea of destruction
with which the policy of Lord Grey so obstinately
overwhelmed them ; let emigration decrease, and I
will then join in an approval unqualified of ' recent
legislation.' True, the gold mania may account
that
for
t
much absenteeism among the labouring classes, but
a rise
again is answered by the fact of its cwauismeg,
in the wages of those left
nlosthaouulacizlhvaovve, advocacy
position
been
same time, the importation of the precious
btyhe
not without its effect on the behind
resourcestionm a d
eo f
maettalthies
coun-
try. I do not regret the n
the debate on Mr. Villiers' mo-
tion
tthhee lastfirst Pnairglhiatmeefnt, as alludedi°to by Mr. Bright in
owing to the
rTelhaattingthteu htboeusierupshuoAltdiutaukuefinutooruc.o,nsiAdera,
ctioonn.
theac:7;
tioont
tshideeirmatpioonsit'
imposition
oofbatadiunteyd
; necessitated
atthat time
acknowledgment2tmeet itsth that,
acobnrotegantteiodn
the land deserved an immediate and an extended relief
woifththeanco rn aws
from its peculiar burdens—burdens which I have ever
held should have been taken off ere the foreigner had
been permitted to come in. These Manchester poli-
ticians, as it was likely they would do when setting their
hands to rural interests, put the cart before the horse,
and instituted what they called `free trade' before the
fanner was in a fair way to grapple with it, and by so
doing their rashness risked eventual success. All I have
ever asked is, 'justice for the land,' and I have invariably
stated that justice was due, elf', ler by a protective duty
or by the remission of peculiar burdens,—l cared not
which. Lord J. Russell, when tested by me, refused to
grant relief either way, and the present abortive attempt
of Mr. Villiers to withhold any consideration to the land
—for it amounts to that—savours of a factious design to
cover what in my humble opinion was a remarkable
error in his Lordship's policy. The conclusion to which
the House of Commons has come confirms me_
that in
my
position, The free-trade majority' returned .to
_Parlia-
ment as a national decision declares t whic h I most
, as an
conscientiously believe believe to be true,—
hat
stricted trade is to be the future
policy'
it is wiser to intrust its details to Lord Derby and the
of Great Britain,
it combined
present Administration,. as the
Legislature, than to an
d
in the
strongest working party he ' Lord
John Russell and the incongruous aid might solicit--
not command—for that especial purpose.
"I have the honour to be, your most obedient humble
servant,

~ GRANTLEY F. BERKELEY.
" Beacon Lodge, Nov. 27."

MARYLEBONE VESTRY.—The Marylebone vestry
agreed on Saturclay to assemble the rate-payers in the
purpose of opposing the increase on the
taxli,fsourdthaecommittee
was
appoiited
to
awry out
the eXri.kDgcraenta of thi Pattiz&
VHesoutsreY