The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-19 00:00:00

Lo rd Stanley on Agriculture.

Lord STANLEY, M.P., presided at the annual
dinner of the Ormskirk and Southport Agriculture
Society on Wednesday. In proposing the toast of
the evening, lea spot e as follows :—Gentlemen, I am
afraid I shall have to try your patience once more.
(Applause.) If we had a toastmaster here he would
tell you to fill your glasses bumpers, because I am
now going to call upon you to drink what on these
occasions is called the toast of the evening," Pros-
perity to the Ormskirk and Southport Agricultural
Society"—(applause)—but in doing that it is my
duty first to lay before you as briefly as I can the
position and the prospects of the society whose an-
niversary we are now keeping. (Hear, hear.) We
are not a very ancient society—all the better for
na, I say, because we are clear of antiquated rules
and unsuitable customs. (Hear, hear.) We are not
an old scciety, but these are the days when men
live fast, and when one year dons the work of half.
a-dcz3n. (Laughter.) We have seen within one ge.
neration on this very spot a village grow up into
a town of 20,000 people ; and we need not, there-
fore, be ashamed of owning that our society is a
little younger than Southport—being only eight
years old. (Laughter.) Nor can we claim to be
at present a very numerous body. We have upon
our list as paying 10a and upwards 2io members,
but there have been fluctuations. Two or three
years ago the number was rather larger than it is
now, but I lay no stress upon that, because I con-
s.ider we are still growing, and that we have not at
all reached what may be considered as our perma-
nent position. (Hear, hear.) Bat in a society of
this kind the number of enrolled members is no
test whatever of the amount of the work which
you have done, or which you are doing. There
are very many persons who don't care to subscribe,
but who, nevertheless, come as regularly as any
subscribers to our yearly meetings, and who
pay their shilling upon the ground, and who go
away, having carried off whatever they could learn
there in the way of agricultural experience. Now,
those attendants, though they might not show on
our lists, yet not only do some good to themselves,
but very materially assist in the aggregate of our
finances. I don't mean by that that I should not be
very glad for one to see the subscriptions to this
society increased. I think they ought to be increased
and I think they will be increased ; at the same
time I can make largo allowances for men who are
not very willing to part with money that has been
hardly earned by their own labour, or by labour
which they had honestly paid for. It is one thing to
be free with your cash when you have made God
knows how much by speculation, at the risk of total
ruin, and it is another thing to part with that which
has been honestly and hardly earned. (Hear.) But
what I do say is this, that,the iefluance and useful-
ness of a society of this kind is not in any degree to
be measured by the number of its annual subscrip-
tions. I think we have a much better test in the
tendance at the show yard, and in that respect it
shows a very marked improvement. The amount
taken at the doors last year, I am told, was £ll7.
To be sure, it was wet, but that is not a very un-
usual thing in Lancashire. (Laughter.) The amount
this year I believe has not been accurately made up,
but ix this day considerably exceeds £2OO, and that
I ho-p is a :fair 'measure of the progress we are
inahing. (Applause.) On the whole, if we look back
at past, although we may not be able to point to
any very brilliant or extraordinary achievements,
still we may fairly say that we have done and are
doing our work in a steady and unosteatatious way.
(Hear, hear.) There is such a thing as making
the pace too good to last, and spending all one's
energies at the outset. Well, I hope we have
not done that. (Hear, hear,) Plants which are
the fastest of growth are the most rapid also to
decay. That has not been our case, and I think
we have taken root in the soil ; and although
lwa expect to be blown about and buffeted, our
aesoeiation will grow up into a stately tree: Having
diicnssod these financial details, let me say one word
as to the value of local associations of this kind.
There are some people who think it would be better
if there Wor3 cniy one or two great agricultural
associations in a county, and if all these smaller
gatherings were done away with. I believe they
are entirely mistaken. I don't look up en it that we
take a ray one subscription or one visitor from the
Liverpool and Manchester or from the North Lan-
cashire agricultural societies. (Hear.) There are
many gentlemen who attend here in their own
neighbourhood, among their own friends, where
they can recognise every other face they see, who
would ;clever think of taking the trouble of going to
one of 'the inland towns among arrangers halfway
from here to Yorkshire. (Hear.) No, there are
some people who say, " I can't afford to subscribe to
both the county and the local society, and I prefer
the kcal." That is true; but then the larger asso

citation may set this against it—there are many
personas who acquire a taste for these meetings, and
an inclination to compete at them, who would never
have acquired that taste had not the opportunity
been brought to their doors. (Hear, hear.) There
is another point. We are a little out of the way
here. The greater societies very properly and natu-
rally look to their balance-sheet, and, as that de-

ponds very much upon the number of admissions to
the show-yard, they are always anxious to hold
their meetings in the most central towns, where a
large number of persons can be brought together.
That is quite right for them to do ; but I am afraid
if we had to rely upon them exeusively, we in
Southport and in Ormsitirk might find ourselves, to
use an American phrase, " left out in the cold."

(Laughter, and hear, hear.) Well, I say, therefore,
let us live and let live. (Hear.) There is ample
room for our society; ample room for other associa-

tions of the same kind, and I hope that we may con-
tinue to flourish by the side, and, if they so please
it, under the shade of our bigger neighbours. (Hear.)
They won'tehurt us, and I 'don't believe we shall
hurt them. (Applause.) And now will you let me
say a few words upon a question deeply interesting
to us all, and which on these occasions we can't en-
tirely avoid—namely, what are the prospects of
agriculturists in these districts, what has been done,
and what is doing here? (Hear, hear.) I have al.

ways said, as I say now, recognising as I do the
immense improvement in the last 25 years, that
Lancashire farming is still not, upon an average,
what it ought to be. and not what it will be. (Hear.)
Partly this is due, I think, to the enormous increase

of trades and.manufactures in these districts, draw-
ing off capital and energy in other directions; partly
it is due, not to poverty, but to the over wealth of
landlords, whu draw many of them from coal and
building land so largo a portion of their rents that
to them agrcaltural operations are a secondary
matter; and, again, partly it is due to the unfavour-
able opinion—a prejudice I think—as to the climate

and soil of this county, which possibly- prevents
farmers from coming here from other districts•
(Hear.) No doubt we have a damper soil and colder
climate than in the south ; no doubt the sea wind
does us no good ; no doubt most of our land requires
a deeper and costlier draisage for making it really
valuable; but, on the other side we have great ad.

vantages to set against this. (Hear.) We have an
almost entirb freedom from such droughts as at this

moment are causing the great ansit4 and alarm
over the south of England. (Hear, hear.) We have
more capital at our doors than is possessed by any
"fluty excepting the metropolitan county of Mid.
alesez; we have a greater quantity of machinery;
we can get better machinery, and we can get
men to manngo it; and we can, too, get
what is as important—cheap coal to work with.
(Applause.) The flat expanses of this county are
singularly favourable for the operations of the steam
plough; and, what is Perhaps more important than
wa have in Liverpool and the adjacent district
absolutely ineatiabie, especially for
(Hear.) There is ono thing more.
ropr;, Who aro now a good deal
'34'111 SOlle among themselves
11:' th 2 sewage of towns really
k• that will come before lona
DOsition to take back from
fend to them- (Applause.)
We want here, and that
„st place I think we want
a moeo thorough conviction, especially among land_
lords and tenants, that farming, in order to be

a m

dsiry

at sea on

game

useful-=and I ca

wa shall then be i

the towns as much an

Well,.then, what

we Cala Supply ? /a

carried on efficiently, requires both capital and

training. (Hear.) Ido not look forward, as some
people do, to see small holdings extinguished, and
to see the whole country divided into enormous
farms and many hundred acres. I shall be sorry to
see that day upon social grounds, and I do not be.
lieve it will be economically necessary. (Applause.)
Now, as a general rule, the holdings in 'this coun-
try are smaller -than they ought to be ; but I be-
lieve—and I am speaking upon the judgment of
high agricultural authority—I say I believe that
farms of moderate size, from 100 to 200 acres, may
be worked with all the appliances of modern skill
and science, given only two conditions—that there
shall be the requisite training in the farmer, and
that he shall be able to combine with his neigh-
bours to obtain those costly improvements which are
necessary for modern farming, and which on his own
private account he could not purchase. (Hear.) But
we want something more. I have said it before, and
1 say it again, although I am afraid it is an old
story—.l think that every good tenant, who is ex-
pected to stay permanently on the farm he holds, is
entitled to ask for a lease or for the offer of a lease.
(Applause.) One feels that there is something rather
pleasing in the idea of that relation which exists be-
tween tenants-at.wilt and a landlord, in which they
are bound, not exactly by law, but by a sort of ho-
nourable understanding that exists between them.
(Hear.) I have nothing to say against that, and
where perfect reliance can be placed upon that
understanding I don't doubt it is sufficient. Bat I
do say this—and in what I am speaking I am rather
in my own mind addressing landlords than tenants
—I say that if t► tenant is to be expected to lay out
capital on his farm, it implies no distrust of the
landlord, it is simply an ordinary and a proper
business precaution, that he should insist upon
having a lease. I may say that upon the estate of
which I know most—upon the estate of Lord Derby
—no good tenant has been, or' will be, refused a
lease except under some peculiar circumstances
where the arrangements made are only temporary,
and where some change in those arrangements is
contemplated. (Hear.) Now, there is another
matter which I, if I am not tiring your patience,
should like to mention. It is quite right that the
landlord, whose interest in the soil is permanent,
should secure himself against ill-usage or exhaus-
tion of the land by one whose interest may be only
temporary. There can be nothing said against that
—(hear, hear)—but that may in general be done by
a few simple provisions, and I don't hesitate to say
that leases, as they are framed over the greater part
of the country, are in many—perhaps in most,—
cases coupled with conditions which are unneces.
sarily complicated and unnecessarily restricted.
(Hear, hear.) Bat then the answer is plain. If you
don't want to enforce them, what is the use of
saving them ? I believe that these two things--
the one making the giving of leases the general
rule, the other having leases drawn more simply
than, as a rule, they are at present—l believe that
those two matters would go very far to settle that
question of land ownership of which we have heard
something of late. (Hear.) And perhaps you
will allow me to say a word about that matter.
(Hear, bear.) I promise you, as I am bound to
do, to keep wholly clear of its political bearing,
and to consider it wholly as a social question.
We have heard great alarm expressed of late lest
the soil of England should be swallowed up by a
certain number of great proprietors. We have been
told that large estates are everywhere increasing,
that small properties are everywhere dying out, and
that therefore the bulk of the population is being
separated from the soil. Now, I cannot speak for
other parts of the country, but in these districts I
will venture to say that, although there has been a
very great amount of transfer, it wig probably be
found that those transfers have been, in by far the
majority of cases, not in favour of the old possessors
of the neighbouring property, but rather in favour
of a new class of proprietors, who have made their
money in towns. (Hear.) No doubt there are cases
where estates have grown by economy and good
management, as there are other cases where estates
have been diminished by waste ; but, take is upon
the whole, the real change that is taking place is
this—that the old small freeholder, burdened with
debt and mortgage up to the ears, is being bought
off, and his piece is being taken by those who have
acquired wealth in commerce or in manufactures.
(Bear.) Now, I can't say that, as to that process,
sea anything which ought to be objected to. In
England the possession (I mean the ownership) of
land is a luxury ; and those therefore who are making
their 10 per cent. securely in business will be glad
to pay from 40 to 50 years' purchase for landed pro-
perty, receiving, that is, from 2 to 21 per cent. on
their capital, and thus be sacrificing, so far as that
amount goes, from three-fourths to four-fifths of
what they are making. That is no uncommon case,
that is, I conceive, the result of our national charac-
ter. (Hear.) The noble lord proceeded to observe
that when a Frenchman had made a fortune his de-
sire was to take a flue house in a fashionable street
in Paris, while an Englishman, in a similar case,
would buy an estate, and try to bring up his son as a
country gentleman, and that he thought the latter
the better taste of the two; but it followed from
the very existence of that taste that land could not
be remunerative as an investment. Consequently
land was a bad bargain to buy, but it was a good
one to sell, A poor man would thus sell a sma

estate, which was heavily mortgaged, probably
thinking, and thinking rightly, that he would do
better by becoming a tenaut on the land, and by in-
vesting the money he thus obtained in the purchase
of cock, and in making other improvements, than
by retaining a nominal ownership of the land with-
out having the capital or the credit to make that
really available in a financial point of view, Arid
thus it was in this country that the number ofsmall
freeholds was gradually diminishing—but dimi-
nishing not, so far as his observation went, in
favour of a few colossal properties, but rather of

moderate sized estates, purchased by capitalists
who had acquired wealth elsewhere. (Hear.) He
believed that if this state of things in England were
investigated, county by county and parish by parish,
that would be found to be a true description. (Hear)
That was not a state of things that they need re•
gret. Let theta try to give the farmers a more in-
dependent possession, and let them encourage such
excellent societies as that. He advocated the plan
of giving to labouring men at a moderate rent free.
hold cottages (and railroads added to the facility
for doing so), and remarked that the soil of England
was not split up into estates of which it would take
100 to make a good. sized field. His lordship con-
cluded by observing that, whether they had agreed
with him in what 113 had stated or not, he thought
they would be of his opinion that it was better for
him to discuss such matters as those to which he
had alluded than paying them mere compliments,
As to the show of that day, so far as his observation
went, it had far outdone any of its predecessors ;
and though there were not so many implements
displayed. as might be desired, the show of horses
was excellent, and of cattle generally very poor,
while the display of fruit was entitled to high praise.
He then gave the toast of the evening, which Wail
received with great applause.
N A

EW ,CT ON _ZTROPOLITAN TRAFFIC.—One
of tha last public acts of the late session was for
the setter regulation of the traffic on Westminster-bridge,
and for the prevention of obstructions ther'on. The regu.
lation of the City traffic will lead to great improvements in
the metropolitan traffic, and thereby prevent numerous ac-
cidents. Tho Commissioners of her Majesty's Works aro
now empowered to make bye. laws, rules, and orders for
regulating the traffic on Westminster-bridge and its ap-
proaches, and for a breach thereof the offender is to be
liable to a penalty of 40s, to bo recovered under the Police
Act. The bye-laws, &c., are not to coma into force until
14 days after the publication of the same in the Loivion
Gazette and in the daily newspapers.

- -M. Eugene Godard and M. Gabriel Yon, who
went up on Monday evening in the balloon from the Quai
d,Ors,:y, came down at two in the morning at Iledon (Ille•
et-Vilaine), in sight of the Atlantic. It appears that they
accomplished 120 leagues in a little under seven hours.
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