The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-22 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEIVII3ER 22, lEEE.

agricultural societies in England are merely imita-
tions of it. The objects which it proposed when
formed were limited in their character, but they
were excellent as far as they went. The society
worked well in its generation. To recognise humble
merit, to reward humble skill, we may now with our
more enlarged skill look upon as very inferior objects,
but they were very important objects in those days,
and they brought all classes of society belonging to
the agricultural world together, and created feelings
of mutual good will which from time to time have
ever increased. (Hear.) Well, gentlemen, as time
advanced, there was a fresh feeling of dissatisfaction
in the county as to the state of the Royal Bucks
Association. It was considered to be too local. Now,
I should be the last person to speak with any depre-
ciation of the local sentiment ; for the local feeling
is the deepest and most precious, as well as the most
captivating and enduring influence that can govern
men. But for all things there is a season. There
are transactions in which the local feeling is predo-
minant and effects all that you can desire ; but there
are certain circumstances of life in which the local
influence ought not to be unnecessarily appealed to.
The hedger, the thatcher, the dairymaid, the
ploughman, the cottager who is encouraged to
practise habits of cleanliness by rewards—these are
persons who can very fairly be brought under
the influence of a local institution. But when
you come to the exhibition of stock—stock which
is to be the source of your worldly prosperity—
what you want is excellence, and you can only
obtain that excellence by competition. Therefore I
describe your position as somewhat unsatisfactory;
for really you have been attempting to do two
two things at the same time which are perfectly
incompatible—to reward local merit, and to aspire
to national and general excellence. (Hear.) A few
years ago there was a feeling that the results of our
labours were not sufficiently satisfactory, and the
Central Buck's Association was founded by gentle-
men of great spirit and enterprise. The consequence
was that the Central, though aiming at general ex-
cellence, was after all founded on a limited system ;
for it was only limited to the centre of the county,
and it was felt that the society could not effect its
object, and so, with an admirable temper and dis-
cretion on both sides, which could not be too highly
praised, the Royal united with it. That was the
reason. (" Hear, hear," from Mr. Fowler, and
"No.") I should be very sorry to misrepresent
the facts of the case. " You're quite right," from
Mr. Fowler.) No one appreciates more than I do
the conduct of the Central Society ; but I believe
what I said was correct—namely, that you were
trying to do two things which were incompatible.
(" Quite true.") There is no want of sympathy,
one society with the other. (Hear, and cheers.)
There is no want of sympathy with agricultural
pursuits. There is no want of landlords of the
county to come forward to do that which is not
only for their own interest, but for the honour of
the county. But the thing has been so done that
that which has been and ought to be in its consti-
tution a great county and a national society has
been mistaken by the landlords of the county for a
mere Aylesbury ploughing match. That is a state
of affairs which ought never to have been brought
about. I remember there were half a dozen places
—Amersham, Slough, Salthill, Risborough, Buck-
ingham, &c. There was nothing but distracted
effort and no concentrated energy. So far as the
constitution of this society, after it was united with
the Central Bucks, was concerned, nothing could
be more perfect in theory. In theory now it is the
most perfect in the world, and one would have
supposed that a great agricultural county like
Buckingham—purely so—(no)—well, eminently so
—would have been willing and anxious to show all
England the first stack and the most successful ex-
periments in agriculture, and the most skilful machi-
nery, thus taking the lead and giving a tone to
public opinion. (" Hear" from Mr. Fowler.) Only
read the objects of your society as set forth in your
rules, which are :—" To promote and extend a
knowledge of the theory and practice of agriculture
and husbandry, the improvement of live stock in
the district, and particularly to excite by premiums
and otherwise a spirit of industry and emulation
among all classes connected with agriculture, to
encourage generally all useful improvements, expe-
riments, and inventions, and to promote the better
construction of implements in agriculture." These
are the most noble objects men can propose to
themselves. (Hear, hear.) Is there any want of
feeling on the part of the county to realise these
objects ? I deny it. I appeal to this society, to
this meeting, to show the desire. But you see the
result of these contra,cced schemes is that you can
have no real competition, and you cannot, there-
fore, approach the realisation of the excellence
spoken of in the objects of the society. You will
consequently have inferior crops and stock, and find
in the long run that you have not maintained or
increased the sources of your wealth. (Hear.) I
think the time has come when we ought to consider
how we shall meet the difficulties of our position.
(Hear.) How should we answer the questions, Why
is the great county of Buckingham inferior to
Northampton ? Why have we not those great ex-
hibitions which are an example and excitement to
all England ? There are landlords of this county
most skilful and practical—who are occasionally
members of the Royal Society of Agriculture, who
take a leading part in its proceedings, and gain prizes
elsewhere than in this county. (Laughter.) Now,
I ask, why do not these events take place in this
county ? (Hear.) I do not believe that it is possible
for us to shun this question. (Hear.) We ought
to maintain the excellence of our county,
but this we shall not do by falling into the
error of other counties, and thus diminish the sources
of our prosperity. This is the practical point before
us. I know there are difficulties in the subject. My
opinion is this, that you have made a mistake in
mixing two things together which ought never to
have been united. I know there is some jealousy in
talking about a general society throughout the
county, where there are local societies, to say that
that would interfere with their duties, arrangements,
objects, &c. ; but I assure you that is a complete
delusion, for it would be impossible for a general
society to reward the most skilful thatcher, for in-
stance, of any given locality. There are, of course,
local qualities, accomplishments, and virtues which
only those who are on the spot can recognise and
reward. Let those be attended to. Let us in this
district maintain and fulfil those objects of a local
nature ; for I must confess my belief that all those
local rewards which have been offered have hitherto
been perfectly successful. At the same time let us
by some decided step appeal to the county, so that
we may have an annual exhibition of stock and skill
which will test the position of the county of Buck-
ingham in the country to which it belongs. That is
what is wanted. Ibelieve that such an appeal would
be heartily responded it. Only make the proprietors 1
of the soil understand that the society is not merely
a local society—confined to Aylesbury and its vici-
nity—and they will come forward and support it,
and with a very small amount of effort your funds
will be able to command the competition of all Eng-
land. (Hear, hear.) You know we do not give
prizes merely to reward a few farmers of this county
but to improve their stock and skill, and thus to
improve your wealth ; if you open your society
even to all England you will not be sorry for the
result, for you may depend upon it that the people
of Bucks ought to be able to compete with those of
any other county, and carry off a goodly number of
prizes. I have at several other dinners of this sort
intimated these views. Placed in the position of
your president, I could not from a sense of duty
be silent ; but I hope that you will maintain
the respectable position which you now occupy as
a y, and
increase
onyyuotrp rowedalutche. by
I maintainingplace
a high e
character for this
matter before you, and I hope my suggestions will
be beneficial. Our society has existed for many
years and amid many obstacles, but whatever may
have been its faults, it has effected some good.
That is a reason why it should continue to exist.
What we ought to aspire to is not merely to effect
Scarcelycountyfollow.ow
n
which it ought to do, considering it possesses the
Wiest puturep, producea the greatest amount of

butter, and contains some of the finest stocked farms
that can be found. It remains for you to decide
whether you will take a step in advance. But do
nothing in a hurry. Well consider everything. Time
is precious, but truth is more precious than time, and
therefore it is for you calmly to consider what I have
said to-day. I have thrown out these rough hints,
but I hope you will ponder over them, and I trust
they will have the result which I sincerely desire. I
ask you to drink " Prosperity to theßoyal and Cen-
tral Bucks Agricultural Association. (Cheers.)

Mr. J. TREADWELL responded.
Mr. DAUNCY, in highly eulogistic terms, proposed
" The Health of the Chairman."

The toast was drunk with the greatest enthusiasm.

The CHAIRMAN, in responding to the toast, said—l
have taken the great liberty to-night to give good
advice, and it is said that every one who does that is
sure to repent it. But my confidence in my consti-
tuents is so great that I have broken through that
general rule. Mr. Dauncy says that if it should turn
out that my account of the state of the wheat crop be
correct, it would be, to translate his eloquent and
graceful language in prose, something in my favour.
Allow me to suggest, what I did not remind you of
before—the first prize cup to-day has been given to
a cross between a Down and a Cotswold. (Cheers.)
And the observations which I made at one of your
meetings last year—not in the proud position of a
president, but in the humbler capacity of one of your
representatives—have been sanctioned and confirmed
by the decision of your admirable judges. I think,
therefore, that you may place confidence in the re-
port which I have given you on the root crops in
the north of England. I was much pleased with
the remarks of Mr. Treadwell in responding to the
toast of " Prosperity to the Institution." I certainly
agree with him in the hint he threw out, that if we
could establish this Buckinghamshire association
totally independent of all little associations interfer-
ing (mind that) with no little associations, it would
be most desirable that it should visit periodically
different places in the county. It should go to New-
port, to Eton, to Amersham, to Buckingham, and
other places, and this would create an excitement,
an emulation, something like what we hear of at
Peterborough, and, instead of receiving a few pounds
as entrance money to view the yard, we should re-
ceive very considerable sums. I also entirely agree
with Mr. Treadwellthat, whatever may be our views
on this subject, it is impossible to act with any energy
or decision at this time, when this terrible cattle cala-
mity is impending over us. I wottld not venture to
speculate on the origin of this great pestilence ; all
I can say is, that when I read the account of the
cattle plague published by the Privy Council, and
the remedies that were to be applied, it seemed to
me that it was not a plague of recent origin. I
thought I had read in the third Georgic of " Virgil"
—unfortunately a long time ago—an account which
in the minutest details touches this question. My
idea was that as her Majesty's Ministers are obliged
to remain in London—at least some of them—and
some of them at least being men of classical habits
and tastes, they had given us a free translation
of the third Georgic, by way of a description of
the cattle plague and the remedies to be applied.
We have the sighs and moans, the tears and
groans, the withering of the flesh, and the ultimate
corruption—all symptoms exactly the same as have
been described. But what is most remarkable is
that the remedies are also exactly the same. You
are to kill the beasts, dig a deep ditch and bury them
immediately. Well, even the very hide is to be
sacrificed—neque erat coriis usus—so that you see
even in the time of Virgil they had the same com-
plaint, although they did not call it the Russian
plague, no doubt because they had never heard of
Russia. (Laughter.) But the symptoms were the
same, they buried the animals in the same way, and
they even included in the destruction that hide to
which the farmer and the grazier might naturally
cling, even with disease and corruption, as some-
thing which could not be infected. (Cheers and
laughter.) I thank you, gentlemen, for the way in
which you have drunk my health. It is something
to represent such men, and to preside over such a
meeting ; and it is something to have one's health
proposed by a gentleman who is not only a pro-
prietor in this county much respected, who is not
only a first-rate scholar, but a man who lives in the
hearts of all those who know him. (Loud cheers.)
Several other toasts were afterwards given, and
the company did not separate until a late hour.

THE UNITED STATES.

(From an American Correspondent of the Times.)

PIIILADELPIIIA, Sept. 8.

One week ago I informed you there was indubita-
ble evidence that the Mexican Republic was nearly
at an end, and although since then there have been
some vague rumours of Juarist successes in minor
contests in the neighbourhood of Matamoras, the in-
telligence of the waning fortunes of the Liberals in
their last stronghold, the north-western Mexican
States, is overwhelming. Some time since Juarez,
with a devoted band of followers, retired to Chihuahua
and fortified himself in the city. Maximilian's troops
gradually closed around it, and although we have yet
received no details of the final contest, the latest news
we hear is that Chihuahua has fallen ; the Impe-
rialists have occupied it, and Juarez, with a hand-
ful of troops, has fled to El Paso. Thither his
enemies are following him, and the probabilities
are strong that he will soon be driven even from
this last halting-place, and forced to take refuge in
the United States. The days of the Mexican Re-
public are numbered, for not only in the north-west
but everywhere else, excepting around Matamoras,
its cause is waning. Its supporters are dispirited
and mutinous, and in several cases have joined the
Imperial standard ; and the States that once ad-
hered to Juarez are being overrun by French and
Austrians almost without opposition. Cortinas,
near Matamoras, has succeeded lately, in:his erratic
wanderings, in capturing a small Imperial waggon
train with its guards, but this solitary victory is
blotted out by the swelling tide of misfortune else-
where. Guerilla bands, such as will always infest
Mexico, wander over the country, but Maximilian
is now the only ruler of Mexico, though the people
will always be on the look-out for a chance to raise
another revolution.

Juarez's misfortunes have not suddenly come
upon him, for he has been fearing a forced flight
to the United States for some time. Part of his
family have for several months resided in New
York, and one of his younger children died there
about a month since. There is very little doubt
that he has long before this laid up provisions in the
United States for an honoured retirement, and the
people of the North, who hate rebellions in their own
country so cordially, but are always ready to encour-
age rebellions elsewhere, will receive him with
marked distinction. But the most significant fact
connected with the fall of the Mexican Republic is
the virtual death of all attempts by the United
States to practically enforce the Monroe doctrine.
Hereafter it will be a subject to prate about, but be-
yond that no one will go ; theonewspapers will be
filled with fierce denunciation of England and
France, and earnest appeals to President Johnson
to send huge armies to redeem Mexico, but except-
ing as a sort of safety valve to let off some of the
extra excitement America is always so full of, the
Monroe doctrine will be a thing of the past. Secre-
tary Seward, and possibly some other members of
the Cabinet, are full of the idea of recognising
Maximilian's Government, and putting Mexico in a
fixed and certain position towards the United
States. Although the Republic has much sym-
pathy in the United States, and Juarez is regarded
with high favour, no one here has been willing to
send him any material aid. All the Mexican sym-
pathy meetings have been failures financially, and
should President Johnson, who keeps aloof from
the question, lean towards Seward's way of think-
ing, recognise Maximilian and receive his Minister,
there will be a little grumbling on the part of the
Radicals, but that will be all. The ship-owners
will start lines of steamers to Vera Cruz, the
Yankee cotton and woollen manufacturers will turn
a penny by sending goods there, and so long as
trade is prosperous Radicals and all will hail Maxi-
milian as the lawful ruler. Juarez will be handed
about the country a travelling show ; he will be dined
and toasted, Maximilian will be " resolved" the
usurper, but his usurpation will be considered the

lawful Government. The bugbear of the Monroe
doctrine need no longer frighten foreign countries.

Several prominent English merchants and finan-
ciers arrived at New York on Sept. 5, by the Scotia,
and their visit has created much interest. On Sept.
6, some of them, Sir S. Morton Peto and Messrs. M.
Henry, Satterwaite, and Kinnaird being among the
number, had a lengthy interview with the directors
of the New York and Erie Railroad, in which they
urged the construction of a double-track broad
gauge railway from New York to St. Louis, and
offered to furnish the money necessary to build it.
The New York and Erie road will of course be the
beginning of this new railway, and the English
gentlemen urged that its extension should be at once
begun. They also announced that it was their in-
tention to double the track of the Atlantic and
Great Western Railroad, and they wish it and the
Erie to be integral roads and placed on an equal
footing. The gentlemen are now in the oil region
of Western Pennsylvania, and before they return
to Europe they will visit and closely examine all
the railways in the United States and the British
provinces.

The woollen manufacturers of the United States
on September 6 held a council in Philadelphia, at
whichsome very important statistics connected with
the American woollen trade were made public. For
the year ending June 30, 1864, the value of the
woollen goods manufactured in the United States
was $121,868,250. Of course during the war the
Government was the greatest consumer of woollen
goods ; for in 1862 it bought 21,715,382 yards of
kersey, in the manufacture of which 51,431,7701 b.
of wool were used, and in 1863 it bought 26,885,515
yards of kersey, in which 61,273,8941 b. of woolwere
used. The amount consumed by the Government in
1864 was about the same as in 1863. The following
are the sheep and wool statistics of the United
States for various years :

Sheep. Pounds of Wool.
1850 1g,777,468 41,40,380
1860 17,198,219 51,766,439
1862 18,880,340 ... 66,081,190
1864 24,346,391 ... 91,298,965
1865, Jan... 28,647,269 ... 114,589,076
In 1863, 48,744,9011 b of wool were imported into
New York, and in 1864, 56,874,1281 b. In 1865 the
production of wool averaged about 41b. for each
sheep.

The Government has also promulgated some in-
teresting statistics. In August 575 patents were
issued, and 3,902 invalid pensions were granted.
The number of pensioners now on the rolls is 55,000,
and the list is increasing at the rate of from 3,000
to 4,000 a month. At the last Session of Congress,
the aggregate amount of money appropriated was
$822,076,523. It is now positively stated that the
Government will not have to resort to any loans
until after Congress meets, that the Treasury works
very easily, and that this promising state of the fin-
ances results from the largely increased revenues of
the Government over the estimates that have been
made. The receipts of internal revenue for the
quarter ending Oct. 1 were some time since esti-
mated at $65,000,000 ; it is now thought they will
amount to $110,000,000. The receipts from sales of
war material no longer needed also add large sums
to the Treasury. During August the revenues of
the Government just paid the current expenses, which
were about $80,000,000, or a little over $2,500,000
a day. The Secretary thinks he can very soon bring
the expenses below the receipts, and he feels confident
that the public debt has reached its maximum.
Mr. Joseph Aspinall, President of the Detroit
Board of Trade, has published some very interest-
ing tables, showing why the exportation of Ame-
rican grain to Europe is not remunerative to the
Western farmer. In Liverpool a bushel of corn
sells for about $1 22c. in greenbacks, while the
freight and charges of transportation from the
Western States amount to $1 11c. in greenbacks.
The farmer thus gets but 11c. for his bushel of corn.
Mr. Aspinall urges the construction of a ship canal
from the Mississippi to the Lakes, so that vessels
can sail direct from the Western States to Europe.
In that case the charges will be but 61/c., so that
the farmer can sell his bushel of grain for 60ic.
This subject has been very thoroughly studied, and
the entire North-West is in favour of the canal, but
as they wish Congress to construct it as a " war
measure," the project hangs fire. As the reports
from Europe do not show very good harvest pros-
pects, and nearly all our American grain crops are
enormous, shippers are preparing for an immense
export trade. As the matter now stands, however,
the farmer gets no benefit whatever, and in many
interior counties of the West the small price of his
corn will not pay the expense of reaping it. This
autumn will probably see many a field of corn rot-
ting because the price offered for it will not pay for
the harvest. Such has been the case before this
when crops have been abundant.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

-*

UXBRIDGE AND RICKMANSWORTII.

The directors in their report regret that circumstances
had delayed the commencement of the works of the railway,
although agreements had been entered into and some pay-
ments made for land at different points of the line, which
would allow the contractor to proceed with the works. The
original estimates were found to be insuilicient for the con-
struction of the railway on the mixed gauge. The directors,
however, deemed it essential for the prosperity of the under-
taking that the narrow gauge should be laid down, to avoid
any break in the through ccrumunication with the important
systems north of their line. After much deliberation this
point was conceded by the Great Western Company, but
subject to the withdrawal of their authorised subscription
of £20,000 toward the undertaking, and subject also to a
perpetual lease of the line being granted to them, instead
of the proposed working agreement. The directors could
not recommend the shareholders to agree to these terms,
and they failed to induce the Great Western Company to
agree to any alteration of them. The directors much de-
plored this state of things, as the line would complete a
through communication between the Great Western, North
Western, Great Northern and Great Eastern systems, via
Rickmansworth, St. Albans, and Hatfield. Since the close
of the session the directors had, however, renewed their
negotiations with the Great Western Company, with the
strong hope that such an arrangement with that company
might now be made as would enable them promptly and
without further delay to proceed with the works. The call
made in July last was responded to by the proprietors.