The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5, 1863

mentioned an interesting anecdote concerning a boy
who was sent out as a servant to one of our consuls
at a port in the Mediterranean. When he got there
the consul found him so advanced in many things
that he made him his secretary. Thus proving
that education could elevate in every sense of the
word.

Mr. ROEBUCK concluded his interesting address
by descanting upon the duties of the upper classes
towards the class below them. He said that it was
not only that they had great means in being wealthy,
but their advantages of position gave them means
by example. If these earnest words were more
acted upon there is no doubt that great and good
results would follow, and both sides would be the
gainers; the rich would have won a more honourable
renown than all the trappings of grandeur can be
stow, and the poor would have obtained a treasure
that could not vanish like the shifting gifts of for-
tune, and leave sorrow and disappointment behind.
If they were to mix more with the labouring classes
—and where better than in the school P—if they
were to mix more with and take more interest in
the existence of their fellowmen who live around
them, their presence would be as the sun shining
upon the cold earth, bring up and vivifying the
seed that is within it.

Agricultural meetings are being held all over
the country, with earying claims upon our atten-
tion. The one nearest home, however, is by no
means the least interesting, and the annual fes-
tivities of the Middlesex Agricultural Association
were honoured by the presence of one of the
most learned and respected occupiers of the Eng-
lish Bench. The Lord Chief Baron POLLOCK, in
acknowledging the toast which coupled his name
with the Judges of England, remarked that he
had taken the chair at the very first meeting of
the Association. That event, it is true, is so far
removed from the present day that the venerable
speaker expressed his conviction that few of those
then gathered around him would be able to re-
collect that he presided at their earliest •
feast.
From having assisted at the inauguration of the
Society, he has probably since followed its fortunes
with some degree of interest, having, we find, filled
the office of chairman on more than one subsequent
occasion. Baron POLLOCK admitted that he was
not much addicted to agricultural pursuits, and,
indeed, such a taste would not be very easily in-
dulged, if possessed, by our learned Judges. Their
science is of a deeper and sterner soil---the elements
they have to contend against are more difficult to
deal with than untimely frosts or blighting
winds, and, anxious as may be the farmer's
labours to gather in a good supply of food for
man and beast, the public responsibilities of a judge
press as heavily on the owner as any individual
cares can do. It is a very different order of facul-
ties which is demanded for the quiet cultivation of
Mother Earth and for the presidency of a Court of
Criminal Law; and, although the hero of antiquity
is not the only one who turned for mental refresh-
ment and relaxation to the humbler but no less
scarcely
necessary toil, the two lines of life are
harmonious or sympathetic. It is sometimes, how
ever, very advantageous to hear the opinion of a
comparative stranger on our work and our war'
that we may learn how it appears to the uninitiated,
and what is their impression of our excellences and
defects. A mind so enlightened and so rarely
gifted
as that of our Chief Baron could not,
moreover,
have failed to refleat upon the general prospects and
progress of an all-important profession. He con-
fessed himself that " he had not altogether neglected
other studies than those which belonged
to his
school and college, nor had he entirely confined his
purposes as a lawyer to the dry details of his pro-
fession, but he had studied other miners
which had
afforded him the delight of an enlightened exist-
ence." On these grounds, then, Chief Baron
POLLOCK was well qualified to deal with the sub-
jects brought before him at an agricultural meet-
ing, and his remarks were received with the
respect and attention due alike to his
position and
his attainments. Tue college life to which he re-
ferred was the occasion of one of the most interest-
ing incidents in our academical annals, and the
high honours which rewarded his diligence at its
close were happily only forerunners
of the gifts
which fortune had in store for him in later life. In
contrast to the general tone of congratulation and
compliment common at these feasts, the Lord Chief
Baron told his hearers that he considered their
science a little behind the age. Althoughry the first
art ever cultivated by man, and the art except
onl
war which has bden kept up in all agricultureages)
has never been among the first to profit by the
march of mind and the extension
of knowledge.
Great things have lately
been done in this respect,
and time-worn prejudices have so rapidly succumbed
to advancing intelligence that it may seem a strange
moment for censuring want of progress. Still our
friends the farmers will not be the
worse for being
reminded that, much as they have done, more yet
remains to do, and in spite of steam ploughs and
artificial manure, Baron POLLOCK was right when
he said that the four sciences of mineralogy, meteo-
rology, chemistry, and mechanics
have as yet done
little for agriculture iii comparison with what may
bs expected from them.
According to his views,
perhaps the least known of these branches of know-
ledge is the one that most concerns the farmer, and
it is at least an original and striking suggestion.
Meteorology, he considers, might become " one of
the greatest exponents to teach
farmers when it
would be proper to cultivate one description of pro-
duce rather than another. At the present moment the
study of meteorology as
an agricultural science was
entirely neglected, but who could doubt that if due
attention was paid, and a proper record made of the
various changes in recurring
seasons, such an
accumulation of experience would be obtained as
would enable the farmer to judge beforehand in
what manner he should direct his industry and his
course of crops." In alluding to the recent appli-
cation of machinery to agriculture, Baron PoeLocK
remarked that there was no longer any fear of ex-
citing riots by the use of machinery. It is a curious
and satisfactory fact, mentioned before now by our
public speakers,
and referred to by the learned
Judge, that, according to experience, wherever the
introduction of machinery has displaced one
labourer it has necessitated the employment of two
others. In support of this assertion the learned
Judge mentioned an incident that had occurred in
his own experience that bore a similar moral. At
the time of the first opening of railways he filled
the offiea of Attorney-General, and in that capacity
was present when a deputation of postmasters ap
pealed to Mr. (JOULBURN for a reduction of the
post-horse
Their plea was that the duty
would be
so duty,littl
little that it would scarcely be worth
collecting owing to the great innovation of steam
locomotion. But Mr. GOULBURN assured them that
so far from there having been a reduction in the
number of post-horses used in consequence of rail-
way Another of the incidents which
traffic, the duty had amc taur aktel
dy
hdi
so uAbtl
teodr
ney- Generalship was the outbreak of the famous
Rebecca riots in Wales, but the learned Judge
claimed the gratitude of his neighbours, since, in
spite of his official position at the time of the dis-
turbances, he had succeeded in removing a toll-bar
from their vicinity!! Greatly as this service may
have been appreciated by his own locality, the re-