The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-30 00:00:00

WALTHAM AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIA-

TION.

At the first meeting of the newly amalgamated
Leicester and Waltham Agricultural Association,
held a day or two ago, the following speeches were
delivered :

Lord JOHN MANNERS on rising was received with great
cheering. He said :—My kind friend Mr. Pochin in pro-
posing, in far too complimentary terms, the health of my
worthy colleague and myself, said that nothing was more
grateful than the soil. I beg leave to demur from that
sentiment; for, believe me, ladies and gentlemen, the re-
presentatives of the northern division of Leicestershire,
when their health has been proposed and received as it
has been to-day, are far more grateful even than the soil
of Leicestershire. It has been justly remarked that
one of the principal uses of meetings of this kind
is that we should freely interchange ideas and
opinions. If, therefore, on the present occasion, I seem
to wander for a few moments a little out of the beaten path
which is usually pursued at meetings of this kind, I trust
you will believe that it is only because I think I am dis •
charging a public duty. It is not many days ago. that I
had occasion to address even a larger meeting of agricultu-
rists in the important manufacturing town of Leicester, and
I ventured then, in alluding to the paramount question of
the day, to express a doubt as to whether the mode in which
the terrible crisis which is now impending over our fellow-
citizens in the North of England is being met in the best
or most appropriate manner. A fortnight or so has elapsed
since I made those observations, and I will now ask how is
it proposed to employ the manufacturing population in the
North during the ce,oing winter, and. perhaps, even in the
coming winter after that ? I confess that I look with amaze-
ment no less than disappointment at the prospect that is
before us. Nothing seems to me to be prepared. We hear
the people called upon to impeach Sir Charles Wood for not
growing cotton in India ; but just before the impeachment
of Sir C. Wood was called for, a still greater authority than
Sir C. Wood—Mr. Laing—fresh from official responsibility
in India, had announced to the people of Manchester that
if they looked to India for a supply of cotton whereon to
employ the toiling population in the North, they would and
must be disappointed, " Years," said Mr. Laing, " must
elapse before cotton can be grown in India in sufficient
quantities to supply the place of that which has heretofore
come in from the United States of America, and even if cot-
ton were grown the industrious and skilful inhabitants of
India, living upon the spot, would manufacture for their
own profit the cotton they grow." That being the case, how
is it that public attention had not been more directed to
other modes of employing that population, whose sufferings
and fortitude have been so well and eloquently described by
Lord Berners ? Can it be that there is something so
magical in cotton that nothing else can take its place? I
am addressing now a large assemblage of consumers, and
I ask you to reflect if it is absolutely necessary that you
should go on wearing cotton for all time to come? Cannot
linen and woollen garments be made and worn which shall
comfortably fulfil every purpose heretofore performed by
manufactured cotton goods ? Is cotton so much more com-
fortable, so much more wholesome, and so much more plea-
sant that it is impossible to substitute any other garments
for those made from that material ? My belief is that cheap-
ness has been the sole characteristic which has induced the
people of England so largely to wear cotton. Cheapness is
nt
hoo
comfortable,
cheapnessod.%
levji
ipoal
ual b
llndeoi n,
hast
enableag ugddforo opoman departed
tpleasantphegarmentssedymi
]paying
gtploidepend
nepldnua
rramadeofnugcphedroanswepiort
oi
equally
qlheceuoonaft
eptl
gloreyanoer,pwenitho teandeononitfe
garments.
wholesome,
Eng-
landeldenst
seems to me astonishing that this truth, which, according to
some of the paragraphs which have appeared in the news-
papers, is now making its way upon the Continent, is not
more appreciated at home. Since the meeting took place
at Leicester, agents from Belgium and Prussia have visited
Ireland, and have offered high wages to skilled workmen in
flax-mills as an inducement for them to go to Belgium and
Prussia in order to carry out in those countries the linen
manufacture, which, I believe, is destined to replace to a
considerable extent the manufacture of cotton. Two days
woollen
articles. machinery to the manufacture of flax and
tFhreanTeiemae st
Rouenstatement
an dLt
lalte tahree
now
oetwt o
and ma
patni
hug-
north of England to continue to be saved from starvation
faaargetoitcullresesar.ws Uoinfnder these circumstances, are the people of the
of materials grown
ibny
atoll be
ni tt t earn
db r
he ao dn
oon
rf
by ca
ohkula
err i
eot
myw,
hp
employ
lmloewn shall..t they be
fellow-citizens
amaintained
h o ni
substitutione or
in the colonies ? That is a question which is very much to
be solved by the consumers themselves. So far as the
manufacturers are concerned, the question for their con-
sideration is—will they continue to see the people
around them suffering the extreme of penury and priva-
tion, or only rescued from starvation by the charitable
exertions of the English people all over the world,
or will they employ them upon materials which can be
grown at home rather than wait until a sufficient supply of
cotton can be produced in the swamps of Africa or the
Ps
emq ul
nailtsnathsui oovnboe
s.f ifllinetn.
nd
isi mad :e
Mr.t or caavl snot imo
nu ct ho
anupootnkethr esucko
jtetootn.
upont
hrou Heygate, has made some comments
ilnygoursaaidtte
gwkh
wa
ihoal
ws oemke
at imv e ej subeen s
sed called
Atshoenienoafc tyi vo en
rs
repreon-
sentatives, es
ps iroen.
interests
ba
any
y very few, upon the session of 1862. Ido not know that
measures which greatly or critically affected the agri-
culturalypadsusetyd ttohsraoyugahfepwarwlioarrads, and they shall
r
Act
y.
.swiluleewleisslselfetanritaa,:ohwne wet;
Parliament met there was one measure, buetnitt.
agricultural interestpinrjluarinocefuelwyhi
brew beerear w
as Soonof
com-
parativelyaf te
minor importance,
itw who
no
ii
nt sfuture
should sense. andch hurtfully, speaking
esapffeeacktiendgthoef
toaoerpbtrhopeiorsalowwnhoiocohswumaspmtiaodoe.
by Mr. Gladstone to eke out failing revenue by taxing all
I rejoice to think that Melton Mowbray
in the kingdom which raised its voice
Other towns adopted the same course,
Was prevailed upony to abandonuy
a na
same
tue thatitdtiimimffieaotwelletyh proposal.ttlkee
objections became so strong that vcAitththouets
which I trust will work raaygawn. ads the first town
e
peCoahs
odiousa ns e
passed
etl Chancellor ro andoo fr thefoolishth r
eE e Exchequer
ahe
measuresscheme.
bene-
ficially for the agricultwal interests—I meanthe Highways
Assessment
ever, enter into these questions, as neither the time nor the
opportunity is suited for so doing. I hope
they will be found
e which
sf. was_t hTeh
to work well, and that when the
1862 agriculturists of England
18 being the first
Act and the Parochial
occasion on which the two societies of Leicestershire and
bla look o
for
grateful
backr that towf thrhi
etehhleewgii
legislation
austiniaostnui ofocnc
Waltham have met in the neutral town of Melton, I cannot
refrain from adding my congratulations to those which you
have already received upon the marked and prominent suc-
•
which has already characterised our amalgamation. I
cess
t of bums which we can
really hardly know any °lemon