The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-25 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 25, 1862.

his (Count ZAzioYsifs) views, to satisfy the wishes
of the country. Our correspond.mt, in relating this
circumstance, observes—" The Count replied with
respect, but firmness, that he had no authority to
speak in the name of the nation, that he should
have first to consult his countrymen upon the sub-
ject ; but, as an individual, he was bound to tell
his Imperial Highness that nothing short of the
full restitution of ancient and national rights, and
of a Government entirely composed of the Poles,
could in any way appease the present discontent
of tie people. He added that the present Govern-
ment inspired no confidence in the country, and
it was so much of Russian Government that even
the EMPEROR himself was unable to accomplish
any of his promised amelioration.; in fact,
he said in plain words, that in Russia the
EMPEROR is one and his Ministers another, and
by far a stronger authority." Unpalatable truths,
no doubt, all these, to be listened to by his Imperial
Highness : but truths, nevertheless, every one of
them! Remembering that he it was who
had summoned Count ZAMOYSKI to Warsaw,
and who had there and then invited him to utter
his opinion frankly as to the requirements
of Poland (in his estimation, of course), under
existing circumstances—the Grand Duke ought
surely, in justice, in courtesy, in simple decency,
to have borne with those truths, however unpa-
, latable, at any rate with something like a show
of equanimity. Instead of which, however, his
Imperial Highness replies to the Count in
an angry tone, and replies by reproaching him'!
Intimating to the Count ANDREW ZAMOYSKI at
the same time and before the close of this interview
—" that he should concert with his country and elicit
the real sentiments of the nation." The advice so
given to Count ZAMOYSKI by the Grand Duke CON-
STANTINE was quite plain enough. Count ZAMOY-
listened to that advice—and followed it. He
despatched a circular forthwith to the wealthiest
and the most influential landowners in Russian
Poland—demanding their opinion, and receiving in
reply an address signed by no less than 300
of those the richest and the most considerable
among his countrymen. This important address
embodies within it the requirements and wishes
of the country, as expressed through the medium
of these same 300 landowners. It contains also,
besides this, a request to Count ZAMOYSKI that he
will be the interpreter of these 300 landowners
before his Imperial Highness the Grand Duke
CONSTANTINE. Count ZAMOYSKI complies with

this request—but with what results ? Why, with
these results—that on the 15th instant his palace
is suddenly surrounded by police, and a peremptory
order is handed to the Count by Generals POLUGGI
and BABUTOW, commanding Count ZAMOYSKI at
once to proceed to the Grand Duke's palace at Bol-
vediere. There—is it to be believed ?—he
is coolly informed by the Grand Duke (that
Great Prince and Gentleman) that he must
account for his conduct to the Emperor !
His conduct But it was in obedience
to the suggestion of the Grand Duke CONSTANTINE
himself that he had been acting throughout ! No
matter—the Imperial orders are peremptory and
without appeal. The GRAND DUKE himself is per-
fectly self-possessed as though his role as Prince
and Gentleman were being performed to perfection.
Within two hours from the moment of receiving
this astounding intimation from the lips of the
Grand Duke—Count ZAMOYSKI is in a railway car-
riage as a state prisoner, being conveyed under a
strong military escort from Warsaw to St. Peters-
burgh. "Those," writes one correspondent, " who
witnessed his departure from home state it to be
one of the most tender nature—wife, children, and
friends vied one with another in taking an affect_
tionate, and perhaps a last glance of this great
and noble victim of Russian treachery and
cruelty. He himself looked calm and serene,
con scions of having done his duty as a Pole
and an enlightened patriot, having no
other motive but to servo the best in-
terests of his country." GOD be with him !
and protect him ! Remembering the power re-
posed in the hands of that Autocrat of 60,000,000,
remembering those icy wildernesses of Siberia,
remembering all the wrongs perpetrated by the
Czars of Russia upon the champions of the Polish
Nationality since the evil days of the first, second,
and third Partitions—let us hope that some happier
fate than now appears to be imminently threaten-
ing him, may yet, with HEAVEN'S good help, be in
reserve for Count ZAMOYSKI.

Let who will depreciate agricultural meetings,
Cabinet Ministers, " in" or " out," will not. We
have just had DISRAELI among the farmers, we have
now GLADSTONE among them. Both of them
have steered very clear of existing politics, and
both amused themselves by specious generalities.
" Solving problems" seemed to be, for this purpose,
a favourite political pastime. Mr. DISRAELI used
the old country to solve his hardest political pro-
blem—we had " combined reverence for tradition
with progress." Mr. GLADSTONE, in toasting the
Army, Navy, and Volunteers, flattered us on the
solution of another. "We alone of all nations
had solved the problem of vesting vast strength
in a separate portion of the community without
destroying their citizenship, or endangering the
liberties of the people." These agricultural gather-
ings will thus teach us, on the testimony of those
who have to manage us, that we are a finer 'set
of fellows than we knew ourselves to be_ We
are almost afraid that, going on in this way,
praised both by Liberal and Tory Ministers, we
Shall at last get as conceited as the Yankees them-
selves.

Mr. GLADSTONE, took, however, a better text
than giving green coats and bright buttons to prize
labourers, and premiums to faithfulness which ought
to be rewarded by the master, and to economy which
had spared the parish rates. Mr. GLADSTONE
gave us an oratorical Georgic on the modern
farmer. And a good topic it is. The
modern farmer is a very different person
from his prototype of ancient times, or even of the
last century, in England. " There was a time, un-
doubtedly, when the farmer was looked upon as a
different kind of person from a manufacturer, and
when it was supposed that a very average standard
of mental qualities, if not 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
everything more or less connects itself with the cul-
tivation of the soil, and that it not only involves all
the knowledge which science can bring to bear upon
the manufacture of implements the most suitable to
be employed in cultivation, but a high chemical
knowledge of all the qualities of those restoratives
which in their thousand forms replenish and revive
the surface of the ground ; consequently, that 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 pur-
sued, in a manner worthy of itself, the man who
pursues it as an occupation must be a man of active
mental, as well as of active bodily habits, and the
more he exercises those gifts of the JAincl and that

power of thought with which Providence has en-
dowed him the greater and more conspicuous will
be his success in his calling,"
It is indeed true, that while in too many parts of
the country, an old-fashioned, illiterate, poor
tenantry, and a humane landlord who cannot bring
himself to unsettle old semi-feudal dependents, the
land is yet tilled with little advance on the practice
of remote times—yet in rapidly extending districts
change for the better is going on fast. The opening
of the country by railroad alone has done much
to equalize the value of farm produce, and to carry
the knowledge of agricultural improvements to
parts where they before have been heard of only.
It is not many long rides which an observer can
now take by railway without noticing obvious im-
provements in the enclosures and general aspect of
the fields, and if he has known the country long, and
is familiar with such subjects, he will notice also the
effect of good drainage both on arable and pasture
land. The manuring, the implements for tillage,
and the character of the farm stock will all strike
him also as considerably modified for the better
within his recollection : of some of our poorer soils,
he will know that the production within a half
century has been nearly doubled. And all has
been the work of advancing knowledge and skill.
Chemistry, physiology, social habits, mechanical
ingenuity, and not least, the independence and
energy generated by the repeal of the corn laws
have all contributed their part towards the great
agricultural change.
Perhaps there is no change more needing to be
fully developed than that which may be almost
said to have been inaugurated in quite modern
times ; we refer to the not very pleasant, but yet
very important subject of sewage. The views of it
now generally held could hardly be said to have
existed in any shape before the time of LIEBIG.
Of course every farmer and gardener knew
the value of the ordinary farm manure ; but for
the first evidence of the direct relation of the pro-
perties of vast quantities of what was recklessly
wasted in England, to the growth, nutrition, health
and properties of plants, we are mainly indebted to
the German professor. No one now doubts that
were it mechanically practicable to sweep clean the
streets of our cities, towns, and villages, to secure
what is now fermenting in cesspools, or polluting
our streams, and to place the whole on the land, in
connection with appropriate crops, we should pro-
duce almost as much extra grain from it as the
inhabitants of the town consumed. Were nothing
lost through the habits of men and animals, a po-
pulation in fair seasons might, with the natural
fertility of the earth, be self supported
by its own territory. Of course tbis marvellous
theory can be no more fully carried out in practice,
than there can be motion, in accordance with mecha-
nical theory, without allowing for friction. But it
is something for the towns and agriculture to under-
stand each other on this subject. It must make its
way in time. London, with its vast system of
sewers, will soon take the lead, in not merely
diverting offensive matter from its noble stream,
but in showing what a vast supply of food for man
and beast may be called into existence by the right
appropriation of what is now a nuisance. We do
not doubt that the day is fast approaching when in
every respectable house in the kingdom it will be
held to be a kind of crime to waste what would
fertilise the soil.

We are not, indeed, to expect that agriculture
is ever to be a very profitable employment. Great
ventures cannot be made in it as in trade and com-
merce. We never hear of millionaire farmers,
though we often hear of millionaire landlords, who
owe their position to the gains of the manufactory
and the warehouse. Mr. GLADSTONE was one of
the many who need not look beyond his own origin
for the illustration of this. But farming has its
compensations assuredly. Mr. GLADSTONE truly
remarks " that we could not expect that farming as
a trade will ever be distinguished by the enormous
gains which other pursuits may occasionally pro-
duce, 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 pur-
suits, it would be a very unequal distribution of
the benefits of Providence if agriculture had coupled
with all these advantages an overbearing share of
the profits of industry. The agreeableness of agri-
culture, as a pursuit, can hardly be denied, for
what does every man, worried with business,
look to, as what he should to do when
he has made his fortune and retired ?
The small farm, homestead, and mansion
are his soothing ideal. He will lose money
by it, to be sure, if be gains them ; but nct so
much as he might by American railways, or some
other bad investment. But indeed from the flower-
pot in the windows, and the suburban gardens,
where we grow vegetables at a greater cost than we
could buy them for, all of us look uron eliciting the
powers of mother earth in the shape of vegetation
as the most soothing and rational of recreations.
Agriculture is but the same occupation on the large
scale, and it will therefore always have the peculiar
charm which indisposes men to quit it for other
pursuits, and which attracts men of other pursuits
to it.

However, as Mr. GLADSTONE justly remarked,
though there are rarely ifever great windfalls in agri-
, culture, its gains are steady; and even its labouring
population, if wages be low, are not sub-
ject to such total failures as we have lately seen
in Coventry and now see in Manchester. We
hope Dorsetshire will be content with this rea-
soning, but we also hope that the extension of
scientific and mechanical farming will raise the
skill and value of agricultural labour to something
like the position reached by that of the manufac-
turing operative.

We are not about to write a homily on the life
of WILLIAM ROUPELL. Its moral—though
the events of the last few years partake,
through their magnitude and daring, of the
marvellous—is, we think, of a very vulgar
kind. His alleged motives for his last acts are be-
fore us ; bat, as the Judge significantly remarked,
ONE only can know whether they are the real
motives. The Judge, however, indicated the single
and but too common lesson deducible from the
whole, that "the man who deviates from the path
of rectitude takes the first step on the decline
of a precipice, when he has no longer
the power to stand still or to recede, or to go for-
ward;
and every further step he takes only leads
to certain ruin and destruction."

WILLIAM RourELL has intentionally withheld
what he at one time thought of giving to the pub-
lic, the full story of his life. Without this we have
nothing but the facts known to every one. They
would, antecedently to his confessions, backed by
the corroborating circumstances, have been thought
most violent and improbable as fictions. It
may possibly be, therefore, that the story he
told in court was a true one. Otherwise we must
say we should think it as improbable as the tale of
Mrs. NPLACIILAN, delivered also in court before her
condemnation. It may have been that to repay a
friend in difficulties a sum no larger than was re-
quired to purchase books—books for the profession
he was studying, we may suppose—he commenced
his course of reckless forgery. It may have

been, but who without the proof can think
it likely ? He " risked his soul" to save
his friend from an embarrassment that all but
drove his friend to suicide. This is the " one
virtue" produced as the set off against " a thou-
sand crimes." As to his privations, what can we
think of them ? It is incredible that they should
have been such as to tempt him seriously to crime;
his father was a money-saving man, and he has told
us a way ward man, still we have no reason to think
that WILLIAM ROUPELL was in half so much want
as is experienced by tens of thousands who
yet retain their integrity. We can have no
wish to accuse ROUPELL of any of the vices
ho expressly repudiates; yet the public will cer-
tainly think that a young man in his position had no
need to incur the enormous expenses of a Lambeth
election. If he was not " personally extravagant"
he was surely publicly extravagant. Lambeth
could have been represented without his aid; and it
could have been, therefore, only for personal
reasons that he threw away thousands to add M.P.
to his name, As yet we know of nothing
to redeem his name from the catalogues in which
the PULLINGERS and REDPATHS figure so con-
spicuously. There is reason to fear that the days of
his childhood were not guarded as those of child-
hood in happier homes, but when we said that we
have said all that we know. We can only concur
with the judge in regarding the " series of mistakes"
of which he says his life consists—as a series due to
the absence of that " rectitude of intention" which
is the only safeguard of life.