The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—Mr. Henley appears to think that the
introduction of Free Trade had a very inappreciable
effect upon agriculture, which has pursued an
even tenour of improvement from time immemorial,
whether fostered by grants, by laws, or by loans ;
whether helped by the sister sciences or released
from vicious protection. It is difficult to assign a
definite effect to any one epoch, for no sooner is it
done than up starts an objector with abundant evi-
dence to show that the epoch signified very little.
We need not go very far for an instance. Com-
mon opinion assigns the bureaucracy and excessive
centralization of France to the assumption and
absorption of all power by the Revolution and
the Empire ; but we have been lately assured
on a very high authority that this is ail a
mistake, and that the French Government was in
all ages too jealous of local authority. Indeed, if
you are to be " brought to book," as Mr. Henley
expresses it, it would be easy to prove that the
English were very good Protestants for centuries
before the Reformation, for, though they burnt
Protestants, that fact itself proves that there were
Protestants to burn, and if they burnt one it was to
inspire a wholesome terror into the thousands who
listened to his teaching, and gave it its political
importance. We are still of opinion that, on the
whole, unprotected Agriculture has made greater
progress than protected. We do not measure that
progress by scientific discoveries. Science is almost
necessarily slow, halting, and accidental in its pro-
gress. Yon cannot bribe science or flog it into
brisk action. You must wait for genius, for op-
portunity, for the concurrence of circumstances,
the meeting of men, and the comparison of
thoughts. Even when science or Heaven has done
its work, it requires a man of almost fanatical
zeal to embrace the new truth, and urgo it to its
practical consequences. So in a comparison of
periods we rest rather on the amount of enterprise,
the general spread of knowledge, and the work
actually done ; and on a rough but very palpable
estimate we claim a great step since the British
landlords and farmers were chiefly known as habitual
grumblers, depending partly on the clemency of the
skies and partly on parliamentary protection. But,
so far from being desirous to exalt the agriculture
of this day at the expense of a former period, we
entirely agree with Mr. Henley in thinking that
much remains to be done, and that the south of
England especially has even arrears to make up. It
must be said that Agriculture is not so profitable
as it should be for any one of the three classes con-
cerned—for the landlord, the tenant farmer, or the
labourer. The landlord does not obtain the rent
that he should, the tenant does not make good a profit
as he might, and the labourer is not so well off as he
should be. At present it is difficult to take the part
of any one class without seeming to infringe on
the just claims of another. But as all these classes
certainly derive much more from the soil than they
did, we will say, before the end of the last century,
—if we were to put it within this century, Mr. Hen-
ley would probably contradict us,—so we hope they
will derive more than they do now, and we see no
reason why they should not. There are, of course,
moral as well as scientific considerations that bear
on the condition of Agriculture. With those we
will not meddle. The art itself is most evidently
open to improvement. It does not make the best
of its opportunities in these islands. Wherever
the sun shines and the rain falls upon an un-
grateful soil, there sun and rain are wasted
and lost to the country. Wherever the water
stands and drowns the land, and prevents the
introduction of warmth and air, there the soil
is wasted and lost to the country. Wherever
the convertible materials of future harvests are
thrown into our rivers to be carried out into the sea,
or dissipated into the elements, there also the food
of millions is wasted and lost to the country.
Wherever the labourers are ill-housed, ill-clothed,
and ill-fed, and are therefore incapable of doing all
the work they might do, their labour is wasted and
lost to the country. Under all these heads there is
an amount of waste equivalent, probably, to the
sustenance of a second population, equal to that
which now finds subsistence in these isles. No
doubt, we shall be charged with cutting out hard
work for Agriculture, especially when Ireland is
thrown into the account, and science is required
to meet the twofold difficulty of a sterile soil
and inclement sky ; but if science and invention
had not braved difficulties supposed to be in-
surmountable, neither England nor Europe
would now stand at the top of the world.
The Duke of Marlborough, in common with most of
our landowners, claims for agriculture a pre-eminence
over all other arts in dignity and in actual import-
ance. Mr. Henley believes it to be the first interest in
the country. If the comparison must be made, then it
must be admitted that food is the most indispensable
product of industry, and that, as a fact, landowners
have more political power, more social influence, and
more social consideration than the other interests.
This is recognised by merchants find manufacturers,
who, as soon as they have made a hundred thousand
or so invest in land, when they could easily obtain a
much higher interest in the safest branches of their

own business. But the only use of such comparisons
is to remind the higher not to be beaten by the
lower, and to carry off the palm of achievement as
well as the pride of position. Has agriculture done as
much as manufacture in these islands ? Has it con-
verted barren heaths into the habitations and gar-
dens of prosperous crowds ? Has it multiplied the
popul,ation of counties three or four fold within a
hundred years? What part of Ireland now prospers
most, the agricultural or the manufacturing? Which
interest offers the most opportunities to those who
are thrown on the world and have to seek their for-
tune? Considering the answers that must be given
to these questions, it hardly becomes lords and
county members to institute a comparison between
the importance or the rank of the sister interests.
Let them be allowed the pre-eminence, if they will
really take the lead, and surpass on the wide plat-
form of nature the wonderful progress of our menu-
ficturing districts. The way is plain before them.
Earth and sky are theirs. The land cannot run away;
the materials to be worked with are safe under
Nature's key, and cannot be withheld by jealous
neighbours or angry belligerents. Moreover, it is
their turn to do sometLing marvellous. So let
them set to in good earnest. They are " the first
interest ;" let them take the lead.
HERALD.—The Channel Fleet in the Bay of Dub-
lin excites, the local journals tell us, in stereotype
phrase, "universal interest." Wherever this "city
on the inconstant billows dancing" settles itself,
though but for a brief while, the whole neighbour-
hood is astir to welcome it and do it honour. Some
15,000 visitors from the Irish capital daily go to see
the great iron-clads which are to help to deter-
mine the future of Great Britain on the seas. So
we may be pardoned for expressing a hope that a
solid substantial result will attend the friendly in-
tercourse between the home miTyand the ei;izens of

the several ports to which it has found its way, and.
that this hilarious greeting and pleasant curiosity
of the landsmen, who live at home at ease, will not
be the only good effected by the progress of the
Channel Squadron along the shores of the United
Kingdom. Admiral Decree, who is evidently proud
of his profession, very judiciously took advantage of
the enthusiastic reception he and his officers met
with from the Royal Mersey Yacht Club at Liver-
pool to make some thoroughly practical remarks at
one of the prandial festivities. Seeing the un-
bounded and undeniable welcome with which
officers and men had been treated ever sit-ice
the great ships came up the broad stream of the
Mersey, the Admiral expressed his surprise at the
small number of men enrolled in the Naval Reserve
at Liverpool when compared with the swarming
population of the town, directly or indirectly con-
nected with seafaring interests, It would not be
amiss if the admiral repeated similar observa-
tions wherever the flag ship rested and received
guests. Throughout the country the Naval
Reserve has still but a very limited popularity.
Its numbers are greater than formerly, and here and
there, as on the Thames and the Tyne, energetic
shipowners have stimulated the movement into
something like a success. But still, compared with
the increasing strength of the mercantile marine,
the force of the Naval Reserve is not a tenth of
what it should be. A public correspondent, from
Liverpool, has called attention to the present hesi-
tation of both officers and men of the mercantile
marine in joining this invaluable supplement to th©
navy. There is no question but that the regular
service and the Admiralty view any intrusion upon
the distinctive rank and privileges of the navy with
a curious professional dislike, if not actual appre-
hension. The same quiet contempt with which the
volunteers on land were met by the army and its
authorities in the first days of the rifle corps more
or less tinges the feeling of the Admiralty and the
service it controls towards the Naval Reserve.
There is a fear that the [navy may be lowered and
its dignity impaired by too free and ready an ad-
mission of the officers of the Naval Reserve to suit-
able rank and privilege. Mr, Ballantine states a
perfectly recognised fact, when he declares that, at
present, there is no active co-operation on the part
of the officers in the merchant service to swell the
ranks of the Naval Reserve. " From what I feel
myself, as well as from the notorious absence
from the force (of course, with a few excep-
tions) of the commanders of the great mail lines
of steamers—such as the Omani, the Peninsular
asid Oriental, the Canadian, and other services
—it is very clear that the terms offered by the Go-
vernment are not considered those to which mer-
chant officers of the highest class consider them-
selves entitled." This system of "chilling rewards "
is altogether a very short sighted policy. The
Admiralty must know as well as we do that the
majority of the commanders of the mail lines is com-
posed of retired naval officers, and that nothing would
please these gentlemen more than the opportunity
to resume the connection with the service to which
they once belonged, if that opportunity were be-
comingly and honourably offered. It is idle to think
that any large body of men can be subdued, as it
were, into patriotic efforts, or that, unless a great
emergency arises, they will condescend to accept an
inferior status in the Queen's service, and so lessen
their weight and standing with their professional
brethren and the crews under their command. Even
such an eccentric refusal as that returned by
the Admiralty to the Mercantile Marine Service
Association, on their application that the officers of
the Reserve might fly the blue ensign, will go far
to disgust any naval volunteer. The highest na-
tures feel these slights most keenly. And the
Admiralty should be very chary of offering them,
especially when there are so many temptations
to keep the officers and men away from the dis-
cipline and extra duties and liabilities of this
invaluable adjunct to the Queen's service afloat.
" What is honour ?" says the fat knight. "A word.
What is in that word, honour ? Air. A trim
reckoning. Who hath it ? He that died o'Wed-
nesday. Doth he feel it ? No. Both he hear
it? No. Is it insensible then ? Yea, to the dead.
But will it not live with the living ? No. Why ?
Detraction will not suffer it—therefore I'll none
of it." This is the sort of catechism with
which Lord Clarence and those about him
must have confounded themselves, according
to the terms they have proposed to the officers of
the Naval Reserve. " Officers of the land Volunteer
forces," we read, "are allowed their rank up to
colonel, but officers of the Naval Reserve can never
attain even the honorary rank of commander or cap-
tain unless on actual service." " I may add," urges
Mr. Ballantine—and his complaint breathes the
same spirit of soreness against disdain and con-
tempt throughout—" that the force has no recog-
nised existence in a social position; for I have never
seen, either at the entertainments given by the town
of Liverpool to the fleet, or by the officers of the
fleet themselves, the slightest recognition of the
Reserve officers, who are to rank with, but after,
the lieutenants of the Royal Navy." It needs no
argument to demonstrate the error of all this indif-
ference and cavalier treatment. All proper eti-
quette springs from the kindly and conscientious
feeling of the superiors by whom it is dictated. It
is quite certain that whilst the officers of the mer-
chant service consider themselves in any degree
slighted by the Admiralty arrangements the Naval
Reserve will never be adequately manned. If the
force is wanted, and is to be relied upon in the hour
of necessity, it must be made popular to both officers
and men.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

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MANCHESTER.-THIIRSDAY.

At our market this morning the demand for wheat was
very languid ; dry new English was held at the full prices
of this day ae'nnight, but damp samples were ineffectually
offered at about a reduction of is per qr, while American
declined 2d to 3d per 1001bs. Flour inactive, at 6d to is
per sack and barrel lower. New oats receded id to 2d per
451 b, and new oatmeal again • pressed at is to 2s per load
lees money. The tone of the trade for Indian corn and
beans was about the same as last market day,