The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-14 00:00:00

Mr. Henley, M.P., in Oxfordshire.

BICESTER, Wednesday.
The annual meeting of the Bicester Agricultural
Association was held yesterday in this town. In the
afternoon a dinner was held in a marquee erected
at the back of the King's Arms Hotel. Sir H.
Dashwood, in the absence of the Earl of Effingham,
presided, and among those present were the county
members—the Right Hon. J. W. Henley, Colonel
North, and Colonel Fane—the Rev. J. C. Blomfield,
Mr. G. R. Clarke, the Rev. F. French, and a
large number of the gentry and tenant farmers of
the district.
The usual loyal and patriotic toasts having been
honoured, the chairman proposed " the Health of
the Bishop and Clergy of the Diocess," which was
responded to by
The Rev. J. C. BLO3IFIELD in a speech of some
length, in the course of which he expressed a strong
opinion that the condition of the labouring classes
in the locality was becoming mttch improved, and
urged upon the landed gentry the necessity of pro-
viding them with the means of obtaining better
education and an improved class of dwellings.
Mr. G. R. CLARKE proposed " the Members for

the County," and thanked Mr. Henley for the ser-
vices he had rendered as chairman of Quarter Ses-

sions.

Mr. HENLEY, in responding, said—l assure you
that I feel most deeply grateful for the manner in
which you have been pleased to receive the toast,
and for the kind expressions my hon. friend Mr.
Clarke has used in reference to me when I filled the
situation of chairman of Quarter Sessions. But per-
haps the first thing I ought to do on this occasion
is to congratulate myself that I have again the
chance, in the office I now hold, of being here among
you to return thanks, as one of your county mem-
bers, for the kindness with which you have received
me. (Cheers.) There have been so many seats this
year who have run on the wrong side of the post
that those who happen to have come in on the right
side ought only to be too thankful. (Laughter.) We,
therefore, cannot but be thankful to our friends and
constituents with whom we meet on this occasion.
It is not my intention to say anything upon politi-
cal matters. If I can help it, I shall not say one
word calculated to promote the slightest disonance
of feeling, and I quite concur with the wisdom of

the rule laid down that at meetings of this nature
all such expressions should be carefully avoided.
We meet here for a common purpose—that of giv-
ing such countenance as we can to a society which
we believe to be useful, and which we hope is
doing good in the various ways in which it is
concerned. (Cheers.) There are not now many
matters [of great public interest before us. As
agriculturists it is impossible for any two of us to
meet together without one saying to the other,
" How about the cattle plague ?" 'We cannot get
past that, and therefore I will venture to say a word
or two about it. As to its origin and nature, I be-
lieve that we yet know very little about it, and
from all we read from other countries it would
appear that they do not know much more there than

we do ourselves. Our Government have taken such
measures for preventing the spread of the disease as
in the state of want of knowledge we are all in at

present seemed to them to be best. Ido not think it
is our business to canvass those measures, or to set
up our own judgment against theirs, and against
what they may have done, but I think, for the

common good, our best course is to do what the

Government have pointed out as, in their judg-
ment, the best means of helping us. If we can
discover anything among ourselves that will aid the
measures suggested to us for checking this alarming
disease, of course we can adopt and make it known
to others. (Hear, hear.) We must not forget that

in matters of this sort the interest, great as it is to
us as agriculturists, is greater to the immense masses
of the people who eat meat, because we may depend
on it that if this disease continues to spread the price
of meat must inevitably run up to a figure which
we should all regret to see it at. (Hear, hear.)
P assing from one thing to another, there is one
matter which I cannot help glancing upon. I ob-
served in the show-field to-day a magnificent show

of specimen roots. I hope that they may be fair
cron;vri ono of o sonciul vavy, Lull 141., TLo V L.. tau.,
may be, the specimens to-day are so magnificent of
their kind, and we have all been so much accus-

tomed in other years to see specimens exhibited so
much worse, that I have a good hope the bulk from
which these specimens have been taken is in quality
far above that of ordinary years. If that be so to
any degree, it will to some extent help us against
the loss which the disease in cattle may bring about,
because these great crops of roots may be turned
into meat, and the more roots there are the more
meat will probably be produced from them. I have
no doubt that some of the inconveniences—or con-
veniences, as some of the agriculturists may regard
them—of high prices have arisen from the shortness
of the root crop of last year. It was impossible,
with a shortness of food of that description, that
meat could be produced except at a very high cost.
But the spirit of our agriculturists was not wanting
to the occasion. They met the failure of the root
crop by an enormous outlay in corn and other mat-
ters, but that could only be done at a considerable
expense, and to a great degree it run up the price
of meat. I trust, therefore, that the great supply
of roots which we have this year, although it will
not altogether remove, may palliate in some degree
the losses which may be sustained if this wretched
complaint should continue to go on among our
cattle. (Hear, hear.) There is no subject of public
political interest on which you will expect me to say
a word. Fortunately, we are in the enjoyment
of peace with foreign countries, and peace ap-
pears more likely to be preserved all over the world
than for some years past. At the same time I am
afraid, whatever my hon. and gallant friend (Col.
North) may feel upon the subject, and however much
disposed the lion may be to lie down by the lamb,
that the time is far distant when we shall feel justi-
fied in dispensing with the services of our army and
navy. I am afraid it will be very long before we
shall be able to see so good a day as that. My rev.
friend who sits near me (Rev. J. C. Blomfield) has
stated a fact which, from his very great power of
observation, I have no doubt is correct, and which I
am glad to hear, and that is that in his judgment the
working people of this neighbourhood are well off.
This is the most comforting statement I have heard
for a long while, because of this I am quite sure, that
when the working people are well off, and if they can
command a reasonable share of the necessaries of life
and of their humble luxuries, they will not be long
without good dwellings and not long without educa-
tion. (Cheers.) I believe that no greater libel is
ever uttered against the working people than when
it is said that they do not want to improve their
children if they can. I have never been brought into
contact with any of the working classes who adopted
such a view. On the contrary, in the intercourse
which I have bad with them they have always said,
" We have only had so much money a week," tell-
ing me what it has been, " and this child can earn so
much, so that I cannot afford to sendhim to school."
Of this I feel quite sure, that if my rev. friend is
sound and well-founded in the statement he has
made, and that the situation of the working classes
in this neighbourhood is improved and improving, I
have no doubt that those other matters which he
wants will be called for, and directly they are called
for they will be found. (Cheers.) The supply is
sure to come if there is a reasonable demand for it ;
and if the working people are reasonably well off
they will be in a position to say to those who employ
them, " We will not live here, and we will not do
your work unless you provide us with better places
to live in." We know very well that we cannot do
without their work ; and if they ever come in that
position we may depend upon it that they will not
be in it longer than they can help. I believe that
they who tell us the people are not increasing out
of the towns only do so to deceive us. I am firmly
convinced that the people in the agricultural dis-
tricts are not diminishing. We all know the great
spirit with which the land is now cultivated. We
know that cultivation is not decreasing, and the
number and condition of the people must be im-
proved in consequence. I am speaking in the pre-
sence of men much more able to judge of these
things than I am, but, I believe that, in the last 20
years, the wages of labour have greatly increased
in this country. That certainly is the opinion which ,

I have formed, and if that is so, you may depend
upon it that the comforts of the peoplewill very soon
follow. (Cheers.) Persons in the situationl have the
honour to fill are often found fault %with because
they do not on these occasions talk what is, called
" agriculture." Now, I will tell you honestly why
it is that I never presume to do that. lam here in
the presence of gentlemen who know a great deal
about it, whereas I know next to nothing. (Laugh-
ter and cheers.) I have been an occupier of land
nearly all my life, but I know the difference be-
tween a man who occupies land and a man who
occupies it for a business and for making a living
out of it. If 1 were to presume to tell you anything
in regard to agricultural matters, I know that you
would receive it with great kindness, but you would
be very apt to laugh at it afterwards. (Laughter
and cheers.) That is the reason why at all these
meetings I have never thought that I had anything
to tell you upon agricultural questions which you
did not know better than I did myself. That being
the case, I have always considered that the less I
said about the subject the better. (Cheers.) I have
now only to thank you for the kindness with which
on this and all occasions you have ever xeceived me,
and to drink all your healths in turn. (Cheers.)
Col. NORTH briefly returned thanks.
Col. FANE also acknowledged the toast. Referring
to the question of educating the children of agricul-
tural labourers, he expressed himself warmly in fa-
vour of extending the advantages of education ; but,
he asked, how was it expected that a boy who had
engaged at the plough for eight or ten hours a day
would be prepared to walk at night two or three
miles to the village school? His rev. friend (Mr.
Blomfield) called upon the landlords to build cot-
tages for their labourers, but who the deuce was to
find the money? (Laughter.) He would also ask
his rev. friend whether he and his people, and the
college to which he belonged, had done their duty ?
He (Colonel Fane) was, he was happy to say, a
landlord, and he believed that he was not disliked
by his tenants. He would ask, however, who made
the best landlords for the poor, the college or indi-
viduals ? Had therefore the clergy the right to
complain of individual lands, when it was noto-
rious that they failed to administer to the
necessities of the poor labourers who were
more immediately under their charge ? The gallant
colonel concluded by thanking them for the compli-
ment they had paid him, and by assuring them that
he should endeavour to deserve their good opinion
by the manner in which he discharged his duty as
their representative.
Various other toasts having been drunk, the pro-
ceedings terminated.

Mr. Layard, M.P., on Museums and the
Progress of the Working Classes.

Last night a grand musical conversazione, to which all the
members of metropolitan working men's clubs were in-
vited, was held at the North-Eastern London Exhibition,
Agricultural Hall, Islington.

H. LAYARD, Esq., M.P., presided, and in addressing the
audience, which was extremely large, said the principal
object of their meeting there was to consider the importance
of having in various parts of the metropolis " local mu-
seums." The importance of the subject he presumed no
one who knew anything of it would deny. Exhibitions of
whatever kind owed their origin to Paxton, who was tho
main cause of the establishment of the Great Exhibition of

18M. It was Paxton who, whilst others were discussing
whether there should be an Exhibition or not, stepped for-
ward, and like Columbus showed them how to make the
egg stand on its bottom. (Laughter and cheers.) That
man had by his own merits raised himself from the ranks
of the working classes—(cheers)--and showed the work-
ing men of England what was required of them to success-
fully compete with other nations. At the time of the Ex-
hibition there was one thing wanted to enable them to com-
pete with the world, and that one thing, viz., " free trade,"
was gained for them by Richard Cobden. Since then
England had made such progress in the arts requiring
taste and colour that she had not only regained lost
ground, but had distanced all competitors ; and in 1862
France had to acknowledge the superiority of British
workmen over her own. (Cheers.) But as the principle
of free trade advanced it became necessary for Englishmen
to increase their efforts to keep pace with the times. He
addressed himself to all classes of society, for the question
was a national one—(cheers)--and he hoped that, ere long,
a nut aroirrt Ilremlrl hn nofahlfchArl
aid in improving the taste. of their artisans. By museums,
he did not mean exhibitions of the nature of the one they
were in, for that only existed for a short time, and its in-
fluence was not maintained; but he meant local establish-
ments of a permanent nature, where articles illustrative of
applied science could be exhibited. He did not see why
they should not accept the offer of the Government,
through Lord Granville, of the building at South Kensing-
ton for such a purpose, and that offer, he ventured to sug-
get, would be extended if a movement were really made in
the right direction, He did not mean that Government
would give money assistance, for if that were done in the
case of Islington, every other town in the kingdom might
expect the same—(hear, hear)—but he considered that
Government might be inclined to give them duplicates of
works in the British Museum and other places. A propo-
sition had been made to open the public museums at night
time, but he was entirely opposed to such a course, not
only account of the risk that would be run of destroying
by one accident incalculable treasure, but because he
thought that on account of the distance of the museums
from the homes of working men they would be unable to
avail themselves of the advantages offered. Referring
again to the supremacy of Great Britain in arts of taste, he
alluded to the works in china and glass produced by Min-
ton and Phillips, which were unequalled by any other
nation. He then proceeded to uree upon the working
men the necessity of maintaining their position, and con-
cluded by earnestly expressing a hope that working men
would shortly be aided by the museums he had referred to.
The speaker, on sitting down, was enthusiastically
cheered.

Messrs. Sales and Hodgson Pratt and the Rev. IL Solly
were aneongst the gentlemen who afterwards addressed the
meeting.

Resolutions in support of such a scheme as proposed were
adopted.

THE OXFORD AND CANTERBURY HALL COMPANY
(LIMITED).—The second annual report of this com-
pany states that the amount paid upon the 6,652 shares
issued is £38,204, £6 per share having been called, and that
£40,234 have been paid off the purchase money, leaving
£39,766 still to be paid. The profit and loss account shows
that, after taking into consideration the gross receipts for
admissions, &c., the profit made on sale of refreshments,
writing off the expenses of the year, and making an allow-
ance for sundry accounts unpaid, there remains a balance
of £5,860 18s. 11d. net profit; from this balance must be
deducted the £1,620 10s. dividend and bonus paid to the
shareholders in February last, when £4,240 Bs. 11d. will be
left for appropriation. The directors recommend that a
further dividend at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum, with
a bonus of 2s. per share, should be paid to the shareholders
(free of income tax); that a sum of £l,OOO be carried to a
reserve fund, to cover contingencies and depreciation of
property, and the remainder be carried forward to the next
account. At the annual meeting, to be held on Monday
next, Messrs. E. B. Jones and G. F_Awlerean, the eenier
directors, will retire, but will be eligible for re-election.
Two auditors will also be elected for the ensuing year.

THE SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY.—At an inquest
held yesterday on the body of Wm. F. Vincent, who
stepped in front of an advancing train on the South-
Western Railway on Tuesday last, and was killed by the
train passing over him, Mrs. Emma Vincent, wife of de-
ceased, stated that her husband for at least four monthshad
been in a very bad state of health, mental and bodily. He
had made an attempt to destroy himself with his necktie.
Steps were being taken to remove him to an asylum, and
witness had been told to watch him. He had been obliged
to give up his shop, and the feeling that his circumstances
were getting worse daily had, no doubt, preyed upon his
mind. Verdict—" That the deceased destroyed himself
while in an unsound state of mind."

SERIOUS ACCIDENT ON THE CALEDONIAN RAIL-
WAY NEAR CARNWATlL—Yesterday morning, the
1.40 goods train from Edinburgh to Glasgow ran off the
line near Ampherlaw siding, situated about a quarter of a
mile to the eastward of Carnwath station. The result of
the accident was very serious in damage to,the line, to
rolling stock, and to the goods in the train, though fortu-
nately no accident to person was sustained by any one on
the train. Nearly half-a-mile of the road was torn up ;
and fifty yards of the embankment—which is about
half-a-dozen feet high at the place were thrown
down. Fifteen waggons went over the embank-
ment, and their contents were thrown out into the
adjoining field, a heterogeneous mixture of beans,
wheat, oil, grease, and furniture. The loss to the company
will be very large, as the goods were mostly valuable. A
large force of men were put upon the line early in the
morning, and continued at work during the day, but at
dusk their labour was not more than half-finished, and it is
not anticipated that the road will be re-laid and opened for
traffic until this afternoon. Yesterday the ordinary traffic
was worked for nearly a mile to the eastward of Carnwath
on the single line, and the arrangement was carried out so
efficiently that there was no detention of any trains. The
cause of the accident cannot be clearly ascertained, but it
is believed that it was occasioned by a large pair of smith's
bellows, which were in a truck near the centre of the
train, falling off, and disturbing the wheels.—Scotsman.

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Her Majesty's Visit to Scotland.

The royal train, which left Windsor on Monday
night at 7 o'clock, arrived at Perth on Tuesday
morning, at 8.38, being two minutes before time.
Amongst the few persons present on the platform
were the Right Hon. the Earl of Mansfield, Lord
Dupplin, Sir David Ross (late Lord Provost of the
city of Perth), &c. Her Majesty, on alighting from
the train, graciously bowed to the Earl of Mans-
field and Lord Dupplin, after which, attended by
several members of the royal family and suite, the
Queen proceeded to breakfast in the board-room of
the Caledonian Railway Company. Breakfast over,
the royal party resumed their journey at 9.25, when
several hundred citizens were admitted to witness the
departure. Ferryhill Junction is situated half a mile
from Aberdeen, and was reached a few minutes after
12 at noon. A large number of spectators, admitted
by ticket, had assembled in the inclosure, and they
gave her Majesty a loyal and hearty reception. Her
Majesty stood up in the saloon, looked out, and most
graciously acknowledged the greeting of her sub-
jects. Her Majesty graciously recognised and
spoke to Mr. Thomson of Banchory, who enter-
tained the late Prince Consort at Banchory House
in October, 1859, when his royal highness was pre-
sident of the British Association. At Aberdeen,
Mr. Duncan, the chairman, Messrs. Gordon and
Whyte, directors, and Mr. Ferguson, manager of
the Deeside Railway took charge of the train,
which, after a stoppage of five minutes, left amid
the cheers of those assembled to witness its depar-
ture. The journey up the Deeside was very plea-
sant, the weather being magnificent. Aboyne was
reached at a quarter past one. 'There the royal
party entered carriages awaiting them and posted to
Balmoral, finishing their journey at about 20
minutes past three o'clock. Her Majesty appeared
to be in excellent health. A guard of honour of the
72d Regiment from Stirling is stationed at Ballater.
Her Majesty arrived at Balmoral at three o'clock
on Tuesday afternoon.