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THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENI SEPTEMBER 25, 186►2.

MR. GLADSTONE, M.P., ON AGRICUL

of itself, the man who pursues it as an occupation
I
must be a man of active mental as well as of active
bodily habits and the more he exercises those gifts
of the mind and that power of thought with which
Providence has endowed him, the greater and more
conspicuous will be his success in his calling.
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, my hon. relative, Sir W.
Wynne, has congratulated you on the favourable
change which the last few weeks has made upon
the prospects of the harvest ; we have had indeed
very serious indications of the reappearance of the
potato disease, but so far as information has reached
me I am happy to say those appearances are local
and partial, and upon the whole I think we may
consider that up to the present moment the potato
crop is in a sounder and more healthy condition
than it has usually appeared to be of late years. I
am afraid it would be a little premature to pro-
neunce definitely as yet upon the result of the gene-
ral harvest, yet it is within my knowledge and the
knowledge of some of my friends, who are most
competent to judge from an extensive agricultural
experience, that the yield of all descriptions of escu-
lents for the present year will be far more consider-
able than it has been for several years past, We
must all feel very great thankfulness for the mea-
sure of favourable weather with which the country
has been blessed, and the prospects which farmers
now enjoy. Indeed, the state of the corn market
proves pretty conclusively that we enjoy a fair pro-
spect of a sufficient supply of food for the country
at reasonable prices during the coming winter.
(Cheers.) If we look at agriculture as a trade, I
must say that I think it impossible not to be
struck with its favourable circumstances. I
don't mean to say that agriculture as a trade
will be distinguished by the enormous gains
which other pursuits may occasionally produce; but
then inasmuch as agriculture is by far the most
healthy, by far the most agreeable, and on the whole
by far the most satisfactory of all pursuits, it would
be a very unequal distribution of the benefits of Pro-
vidence if agriculture had coupled with all these
advantages an overbearing share of the profits of
industry. (Hear, hear.) Apart from the condition
of agriculture as a trade it is impossible not to con-
sider its social condition, and those relations of class
to class which are so intimately bound up with the
whole of its functions and operations—an overpower-
ing evidence that whatever changes take place in
the country, the older she grows, she does not grow
weaker—(cheers)—that those ties which unite one
class to another do not with the lapse of years be-
come feebler than they were before, but on the con-
trary it is our belief that the confidence of class in
class, of each one class in every other, is growing
stronger and stronger from year to year, and that
the whole social fabric which depends on the union
of all classes is gradually acquiring a broader,
deeper, and firmer foundation. (Cheers.) If it be
true that the pursuit of the farmer is not a pursuit
which has been attended with the realisation of
sudden and enormous profits—if it be true that the
wages of the agricultural labourers are, as a general
rule, somewhat below those of the gains of the me-
chanics and operatives of this country, the farmers
are not exposed to the reverses which we see at this
moment with the deepest feeling of regret spread
over the very heart of the manufacturing district,
and which have totally paralysed the hand of ma-
nufacturing industry ; and the peasant is not ex-
posed to the total loss of employment from causes
not only beyond his own control, but which it was
perfectly impossible for any man to foresee or pre-
vent. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, it is a happy social
condition in which you live, and besides being a
happy social condition, it is a sound economical
condition. If it be true that great and brilliant
prospects do not commonly attend your business,
it is equally true that the dangerous element of
gambling, which enters of necessity into some
descriptions of human enterprise, is almost
entirely absent from yours ; and it is also
true that moderately and gradually, but steadily,
and with every prospect of permanence, the wealth
as well as the intelligence of the classes connected
with the cultivation of the soil is increasing.
(Cheers.) But, gentlemen, although much has un-
doubtedly been done, still much more remains to
be accomplished. The whole subject of the appli-
cation of manure to the soil, the whole theory of
what is termed utilising those vast materials which
are annually wanted, and of making them available
for the fertilising of the soil, has yet to be carried
out to perfection. Many useful discoveries I admit
have been made, but many more remain to be made.
It may possibly seem strange if I were to use
such an expression as that both agriculture and
commerce were still in a state of infancy, yet it is
perfectly true that so much retrains to be gradually
and steadily accomplished, that although metapho-
rically speaking, you have covered a good deal of
ground, yet there is a great deal more to cover, and
we have yet many more sources of wealth and
many more means of producing wealth to open out
than at present exist, and I may also add that
many of those sources are, in my opinion, at the
present moment entirely unknown. Take, for
instance, the case of the sewage of our great towns,
and above all take that of London ; it would
hardly be believed, so extraordinary a thing it is,
that up to the present moment it is uncertain
whether the enormous amount of wealth which is
undoubtedly contained in that sewage can or cannot
be realised, and the most important questions of
health connected with it are at this moment in-
volved. We are gradually, it is true, getting towards
a solution, For a long time we were content in a
manner so slovenly as to be unworthy of any
amount of civilisation, to allow that great mass of
sewage, not only to escape from our land, but to
poison the noblest of our rivers, upon which a great
city was built ; and it was only four years ago when
it pleased P rovidence to remind us of our duties by
causing old Father Thames to give us notice of his
displeasure by sending up one of the most abomin-
able
and protracted stenches that ever entered the
nostril of mankind, that we set about a work of
legislation which involved the expenditure of
millions of money, but the consequence of which
will be that in all future times no part of that im-
mense mass of sewage will find its way into the
river, but the Thames will become again what it
was originally, a pure and beautiful river. That
great work is now almost completed, and very
shortly the mass of sewage to which I have alluded
will be available to be experimented upon in order
to see at what cost the deleterious particles can be
separated and the fertilising properties applied to
the soil. Without presuming to pronounce any opi-
nion upon the subject, I cannot help feeling san-
guine as to the results of those experiments, and
that eventually the sewage of London, instead of
being a means of poisoning the stream, will be a
fertilising agent of the greatest value. There are,
however, numerous other improvements in agricul-
ture with which you are extensively acquainted,
and while you have reduced the necessity for actual
manual le boor in the field, you have rendered neces-
sary the employment of a higher and more intelli-
gent class than were formerly employed. You have
indeed achieved great progress both in the applica-
tion of manure and the mode of cultivating the
ground. Great, however, as that progress has been,
I believe that still more remains to be achieved. It
was once thought that the cultivation of land had
reached its limits, and no more could be obtained
from it, It is perfectly true that to some extent this
will always be a corn importing country, but at the
same time you will recollect that while we grow a
great quantity of corn, the people have now so in-
creased in numbers that there is an enormous de-
mand for all kinds of esculents, which the farmers
find it profitable to grow, and, consequently, to some
extent we do throw ourselves on foreign nations for
no doubt more or less we shall
a supply of corn, and
always do so. At the same time this is fraught with
good, because while other nations supply us with
corn our commerce is extended ; and while. on the
one hand, there is an immense saving of labour here,

7URAL PROGRESS.

we strengthen those bonds of amity and cordiality
which should exist among all the nations of the
world. I believe you will, however, find that the
present products of the soil in this land have by no
means reached their maximum. At the same time,
in no part of the kingdom have enterprise and skill
been rewarded with a more visible increase than in
the principality of Wales. (The right hon. gentle-
man resumed his seat amid loud cheering.)
Several other toasts having been given, the meet-
ing separated.

MOLD, FLINTSHIRE, WEDNESDAY.
The annual meeting of the Denbigh and Flint
Agricultural Society took place in this town to-day.
It being known that Mr. Gladstone would preside,
a very much larger number of the gentry and far-
mers of this part of North Wales were attracted to
the show than had ever before been known to attend.
Unfortunately torrents of rain began to fall in the
early part of the morning, and continued all day;
but the show-yard was, nevertheless, crowded. The
cattle exhibited were remarkably fine. At 5 o'clock
a party of about 300 of the principal gentry and far-
mers sat down to dinner at the Black Lion, under the
presidency of Mr. Gladstone, who was supported by
Mr_ Mainwaring, M.P., and Sir W. W. Wynne,
Bart. The right hon. gentleman on entering the room
was loudly cheered. After the removal of the cloth he
proposed the usual loyal toasts, which were drank
with enthusiasm. In giving the health of the Prince
of Wales and the rest of the Royal Family he alluded
in the following terms to the approaching marriage
of the heir apparent :—Gentlemen,—We have all
heard, with no common interest, of the event which
is about to take place. The Prince of Wales is about to
be married to an amiable and virtuous princess who
has shown herself worthy both of her future husband
and of the exalted station which she will one day be
called upon to fill in the country. Among the
brightest and most happy characteristics of the pre-
sent period Lnd the present reign none has been
more distinctly marked than this, viz., that the mar-
riages of the royal family have been without excep-
tion marriages which, while in every respect con-
formable to the public interests, have been also
founded upon the warmth and sincerity of personal
attachments as much as in the case of the humblest
of the Queen's subjects. (Cheers.) That was the
case in the first instance with her Majesty herself.
It was the case with her daughters, and we have it
upon the most undoubted authority that it will be
the case with the marriage which is about to take
place with the Prince of Wales and the Princess of
the House of Denmark. (Cheers.) You will all agree
with me in saying God bless them both, and may
that marriage be a fountain of joy both to them-
selves and to the people over whom at a distant date
they may be called upon to reign. (Cheers.) The
next toast was "The bishops and clergy," which
was acknowledged by the vicar of Mold, and which
was followed by " The Army, Navy, and Volun-
teers." In giving this, Mr. Gladstone observed, that
we alone of all nations had solved the problem of
vesting enormous strength in a separate portion of
the community without destroying their citizenship
or endangering the liberties of the people.

Colonel RONVLEY responded.
The health of the county members having been
drunk and acknowledged by Mr. MAINIVARING,
The CHAIRMAN said, I have now to propose " Suc-
cess to the Denbighshire and Flintshire Agricultu-
ral Society," a toast which I need not say forms in
the main the principal interest of our meeting to-
night. (Cheers.) We have not been altogether fa-
voured to-day by that circumstance which they say
is always uppermost in the hearts of Englishmen—
the weather, and there was in the show-yard a very
free exhibition of umbrellas; but, with that excep- ,
tion, I trust the show has been of a character fully
worthy of the ancient reputation of this society. I
don't myself profess to have suckinformation, judg-
ment, and skill as to authorise me for a moment to
attempt to pronounce upon the merits of either
cattle or sheep, hogs, or whatever else we have
seen to-day ; but I do venture to think that if this
exhibition is less satisfactory than the former ones
have been, they must have been very satisfactory
indeed, It is impossible not to see that societies of
this kind are of the very greatest possible interest
and importance. More than anything else this
tends to show that the agricultural interests is not
always what it has been sometimes supposed to be
—behind the rest of the world. (Cheers.) By
means of these societies you bring together the best
of every description, both of live stock and of all
other kinds of agricultural produce, besides the
tools and implements by which you till the earth.
The meaning of this is that you all give blessings
to one another. Those who are able to give them,
give them,those who have occasion to receive them,
receive them. There are few who can't teach some-
thing, and fewer still who have not something to
learn ; but it is within our own recollection that
you have been beforehami in these matter, as com-
pared with the rest of the world. It was thought
a very great achievement, and it was a very great
achievement, when in 1851 all those engaged in in-
dustrial pursuits were invited to send to one spot
their productions for mutual comparison and mutual
instruction in what was called the Great Interna-
tional Exhibition. (Cheers.) The happy idea
which was then so successfully carried out for the
first time, was imitated in various foreign coun-
tries ; and the second application of it has been
witnessed among ourselves during the present
year. Long before the manufacturers and those
interested in the general production of articles of
utility were called upon to compare their produc-
tions you had exhibited to them that system in
actual operation as an established thing, both in
Scotland and in England. There were indeed so-
cieties of this description all over the country—
some of them great and others small, but all
flourishing and all tending to theiame great object,
mutual benefit, which I hope will always attend
their operations. (Cheers.) Whatever may be
the character of the exhibition to-day, upon which
better judges than myself will pronounce, I think
I may congratulate you as an association intimately
connected with agriculture on the present condition
and prospects of those engaged in that noble pur-
suit. (Hear, hear.) All that old English frame-
classes, landlords, tenant -farmers, and the
peasanty
have been sub-
work that binds us together, all the three princial
of old English and Welsh society,
jected under the circumstances of our lifetime
considerable pressure and considerable strain during
to
the transition from one system to another, but we
have all seen with the deepest satisfaction and the
most cordial delight that the result of putting the
Briton upon his mettle has in this case been what
it has undoubtedly been in other cases—namely,
that he has proved himself to be more than equal to
(Cheers.)ieve G
every call that could be made upon him, and that
out of circumstances of danger and of difficulty he
has emerged, not a loser, but a gainer, and a con-
queror over all the obstacles that have beset his
course,e n t l e m e
clans
n , I f
o venture
this
c toou
country,
to
rpy,
e
and to be
to whom that the
farming
we must look as the centre of this great
system of agricultural improvement in respect to
the cultivation
_ of the land, will now feel themselves
to be embarked
one of rked on a career which is likely to be
un-
doubtedly it advantagemust and success to themselves, as un-
ust always be one _of progress and
improvement.
There was a time, undoubtedly,
when the farmer was looked upon as a different
kind of person to
nianufacturer, and when it was
supposed that a low average standard of mental
qualiti* if not of physical exertion would suffice
for the performance of the duties of those who are
engaged in the cultivation of the earth ; but we
have now found out, on the contrary, that every-
thing more or less connects itself with the culti-
vation of the soil, and that it not only involves
all the knowledge which science can be brought to
bear upon the manufacture of implements the most
suitable to be employed in cultivation, but a high
chemical knowledge of all the quali • •
ties of
those restoratives which in their thousand forms
replenish and revive the surface of the ground ;
that consequently the duties and functions which
constitute the business of a farmer are such as to
afford the amplest scope to the greatest efforts,
whether mental or physical, of the highest order of
intelligence which can be brought to bear upon the
subject; and that, if it is pursued in the manner in
which it ought to be pursued, in a manner Worthy