The Sun.
London, England, 1862-06-27 00:00:00

COAL, CORN, AND FINANCE COMMITTEE.

Mr. JOHN YOUNG, jun., the chairman of the
Coal, Corn, and Finance Committee, brought up a
report recommending that a sum of £2OO should be
expended in laying out the land in front of the
London Almshouses, Brixton, as a garden, also that
one hundred guineas should be granted towards the
erection of the new ragged school in Buck's-row,
Whitechapel, and fifty guineas to the Islington
Dispensary.

This report led to some discussion, Mr. Tegg, Dr.
Abraham, Mr. De Jersey, ;Ir. Lowman Taylor, and
several other members of the court expressing their
opinion with regard to tile first portion of it, that
it would be much better to employ the money in a
practical manner upon the land by enabling it to
grow potatoes or other vegetables for the use of the
inmates, than to expend it in making a garden ;
and eventually this portiol of the report was re-
ferred back for further consideration. The propo-
sition of granting a hundred guineas to the Ragged
School was negatived, and the sum reduced to 50
guineas. With regard, to the last proposition, to
grant 50 guineas to the Islington Dispensary, the
court appeared to be almostunanimously of opinion
that no case had been made out for such a grant,
and Deputy Low observed that it was almost a
disgrace to the wealthy perish of Islington to come
to that court and ask for a grant for an insti-
tution with which the Corporation were in no
way connected, and which they were quite able
to support from their own locality if proper mea-
sures were resorted to.

Mr. H. L. TAYLOR eventually moved an amend-
ment that this portion of the report do lie upon the
table, which was agreed to, and the court shortly
afterwards adjourned.

BATTERSEA-PARK SHOW OF THE _ROYAL
A9RIOULT URAL SOCIE2Y, 4.c,

A beaming sun, once more returned to give the
strawberries a flavour and invite the corn into
flower, smiled propitiously upon the Society's ss.
day. More than 10,000 visitors paid the entrance
fee, and several thousand members added to the
handsome company, who did their best to accom-
plish some portion of the eight miles of walking
which are required in order simply to pass by every
stand of implements, and every stall and box and
pen of live stock.
The cattle classes were reviewed yesterday, but
much remains to be noticed. We do not profess to
have inspected and carefully handled every one of
the 73 Leicester sheep, the 90 Cotswolds, or the 96
Southdowns ; but the impression conveyed by the
sheve is tha:a while our.old friends, Mr. Sanday and
Mr. Pawlett, are great prize-takers as usual, the
Leicesters have not progressed, and, though nu-
merous, display only their average excellence. This
is the first occasion on which the large Lincoln long-
wools have been honoured by separate classes (ex-
cepting when the meeting was held in their own
locality); and, from some unexplained cause, many
of the first-class breeders have refrained from ex-
hibiting. This is a pity, as no breed of sheep pos.
sesses greater value, when the production of an
abundance both of wool and mutton is taken into
consideration. Mr. Thomas B. Marshall, of Bran-
ston, certainly shows some very good specimens ;
and Mr. Jobn Clarke, ofLong Sutton, illustrates the
fleece-bearing property of the breed by exhibiting
sheep still in their heavy lustrous wool, and also a
staple of this valuable:textile metetial no less than
40 inches in length. The ancient breed of Cots
wolds, which furnished wool for exportation five
centuries ago, and of which individual specimens
have been known to attain the weight of 3361 b. the
carcass, form a most magnificent show, with their
immense proportions, snow-white curly fleeces, and
noble heads with the characteristic forelock. And,
undoubtedly, we owe this great spectacle to the
slight which the Cotswold breeders supposed the
Society had put upon them and their favourites
in an unequally divided prize-sheet. • Mr. William
Garne, Mr. Willis L me, and Mr. Edward Handy
are well supported by a host of skilful sheep-
masters, thoroughly asserting and maintaining the
fame of this breed. The Kentish or Romney
Marsh sheep are still susceptible of great improve-
ment in form and quality. The Southdowns, of
course, are a splendid show, Mr. Rigden and Lord
Walsingham sweeping off honours wholesale. And
perfection of form and minute adherence to every
characteristic of the tine type is seen throughout
the various pens, with only here and there an ordi-
nary or even second-rate sheep. No breed has
grown more in public estimation than the Shrop-
shire Down, of which there are here 95 pens ; Mr.
Horton, Mr. Horley, and Mr. Crane winning in
classes well sprinkled with just " commendations."
There is a very grand show of Hampshire and
West Country Downs, and the Oxfordshire Downs,
62 in number, show themselves to be a most valuable
breed, combining the best points of two of our
best breeds of sheer. Among the mountain sheep
is most :noticeable a magnificent Lenk ram, much
like a blackface, but larger, and carrying a heavy
valuable fleece, well adapted as a substitute for the
blackfaces on the Scotch highlands. The fine show
of the handsome horned blackfaces, and red.woolled,
white-faced Cheviots, furnished by North Britain,
is a source of very great interest. But the great
curiosities in this department are the foreign breeds.
Visitors seem astonished at the fine show of French
merinos, with their immense curling horns, Roman
noses, wearing shaggy mats of wool on their heads,
and completely gloved in wool down to their very
hoofs, while some are extravagant for loose folds
and frills of skin, unsightly enough in the eyes of
English graziers, but tolerated for the sake of the
superlatively fine wool that only a merino can give.
The Spanish merinos from Hanover, and the
Saxony merinos, are not equal to those improved
by the French breeder. Everybody is amused with
the strange, long-necked, crop-oared Chinese eheep,
exhibited by the Acclimatisation Society.
It is a curious fact that the Ist, 2d, and 3d prizes
in classes 1,2, and 3, for " Cheviot sheep," have all
been awarded to gentlemen reeidiet; at the same
hotel, viz., the Spread Eeglo, Gr'eeechurch-.street.
As for the collection "eri swine, the Society never
before could beeet ouch a grand show. No matter
which of 191 pens is inspected, great merit is
SP'
.".e to appear; and it is a source of wonderfully
varied interest to compare the virtues of old dowa-
ger sows, huge baconian boars, small delicate
porkers, all flesh and fat, with the slenderest neces-
sary bone ; or sleek, rich little gruntere, marvel
lously precocious in their alimentive faculty.

A word may be added here on another exhibition
—of animals not made to be eaten—which has