The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-19 00:00:00

THE lONIAN ISLANDS.

Of these islands, the volume of colonial statistics recently
issued by the Board of Trade reports the population, in
1860, to be 232,426, and the area 1,041 square miles; in
round number the six-hundredth part of our possessions, in
point of population, and the three-thousandth part in area.
The productions of the islands in 1860 comprised 69,253
barrels of olive oil, worth from 50s. to 555. a barrel;
30,250,8971b5. of currants, worth from five guineas upwards
per I,ooolbs. ; and 148,539 barrels of wine, ranging from
Ils. to 2 Is. per barrel. Only 67,580 bushels of wheat were
grown in the year ; the soil is more favourable to grape cul-
tivation than to the raising of corn, and indeed corn is the
chief import taken. The live stock consisted of 13,171
horses, 10,374 horned cattle, 131,684 sheep, and 111,907
goats, a considerable increase within these few years. The
revenue of 1860 was £140,855, the expenditure, £151,187;
in the last 12 years the lonian revenue has only on two oc •
casions provided the Exchequer with a surplu.. The ex-
port duty on the olive crop forms the standard and main•
spring of lonian finance, and the trade being as speculative
as the hop trade in England, the revenue is liable to violent
fluctuations ; the export duty on oil produced above £BO,OOO
in 1858, only £19,000 in 1859, and £27,000 in 1860. More
than a third of the revenue of the year was raised from the
export duties of 19i per cent, on olive oil and currants, and
a still larger proportion from import duties ; only £24,090
by stamp duties and other inland taxation of a trifling cha-
racter, no article of consumption (save salt and gunpowder)
being taxed except on exportation or importation. The re-
turn of imports and exports is for 1859, a year of bad har-
vest. The imports amounted to £1,306,303, the exports to
only £649,047. The imports from Turkey amounted to
£432,980; from Greece, £106,311; from Austria, £152,360;
from the United Kingdom, £355,050, cotton being the chief
item in the export from this country. The entrances and
clearances of shipping in 1860 were 5:7,320 tons inwards,
525,802 tons outwards. They have shown a large increase
within the last two or three years. Wages in 1860 averaged
355. a month for domestic labour, ls. 6d. a day for predial,
and 2s. 6d. a day in trade. The lonian peasant is said to
be not very provident. There was an abundant harvest in
1858, and the marriages next year were 4,002 ; the hirvest
in 1859 was defective, and the marriages of 1860 fell to
1,358. The population contains no less than 116 men to
every 100 women; and it is singular that for several years
the births, marriages, and deaths in Corfu have all been
more than in Cephalonia, where the population is greater.

_LORD PALMERS7 ON AY ROIIISEY.

ROMSEY, THURSDAY.

The annual dinner of the Agricultural Society
took placo this afternoon at the White Horse
Hotel. Viscount Palmerston presided. Amongst the
guests were Sir H. Jervoise, M.P., the Hon. Mr.
Dutton, M.P., Mr. C. J. Taylor, Mr. C. J. Lordan
(the Mayor), the Rev. E. Berthon (the Vicar), and
U. very large number of the influential agriculturists
of the district.

Lord PALM ERSTON, in proposing the first toast
said—lt is ono which expresses the strongest feel-
.mg in the bosom of all Englishmen—a hearty wish
for the health of the Queen. (Loud cheers.) There
never was a. Sovereign, of whom it could be more
emphatically said she reigns in the hearts and affec-
tions of the people—and that attachment which has
long warmed the breast of every Englishman has
been, I may say increased, and in some degree sof-
tened, by deep sympathy with that heavy affliction
which her Majesty has had to undergo, and which
she has borne with a fortitude and resignation ex-
emplary to all her subjects.

The toast was received with the greatest enthu-
siasm.

The Noble Lord again rose and said,—l now beg
to propose the health of his Royal Highness the
Prince of Wales, and the rest of the Royal family.
(Cheers.) His Royal Highness has seen perhaps as
much of the world, and more of the world, than
almost any man of his age, and wherever he has
been, he has won golden opinions, and conciliated
the affection and respect of all with whom he has
come in contact. (Cheers.) He is now about to ab
that which seldom falls to the lot of a Royal Prince,
namely, to make a love marriage. (Much cheering.)
He has every prospect of all the happiness which
can attend the marriage state, for he is about to
marry a Princess distinguished by all those quali-
ties which adorn either a Princess or a person of
any other rank. There is every prospect of happi-
ness for him, and every prospect of that welfare
which naturally belongs to a country where there
is a successor to the Crown fitted to conciliate the
affection and commend the esteem of a people.
(Great cheering, and " One cheer more for the
Princess.")

His Lordship next said—The toast which I have
now to propose is " The Army, Navy, and Volun-
teers." We are happily at peace. Long may we
so continue ! (Cheers.) It is an old saying—but
all old sayings are not invariably true—that in
peace men turn their spears into ploughshares.
Now I think that in order to enable the ploughshare
to pursue its avocation with success and safety it is
well that there should be the sword in its neigh-
bourhood. (Hear.) We fortunately have iron
enough in this country both for swords and plough-
shares, and we have also hands sufficient to wield
both, and I trust that both will be wielded when
occasion requires with equal skill and success. (Loud
cheers.) It is satisfactory to know that our army
and our navy are in a state of the most com-
plete efficiency. I may say that they never were
more efficient as far as organisation and disci-
pline and instruction aro concerned. (Cheers.)
With regard to the volunteers I need say no-
thing, because they happily are so numerous
and so scattered all over the island that every
man must know from his own experience what pro-
ficiency they have made in discipline, in the use of
arms, and in military evolutions; and I trust the
Romsey volunteers are not behind-hand with their
comrades in any part of the country. (Cheers.)
The toast was responded to by Captain ALLSOP,
of the Volunteers.

The NOBLE LORD, having proposed " The Bishop
and Clergy of the Diocese," said—l will now pro-
pose "The health of the two gentlemen by whom
you are so efficiently represented in Parliament,"
and they are also entitled to your consideration
from the fact that they are themselves practical
farmers. There was a time when the agricultural
interest felt a peculiar anxiety with respect to its
representatives in Parliament. There was a time
when they apprehemled, groundlessly, in truth, but
sincerely, nevertheless, that measures were in con •
templation which would ruin the agricultural in-
terest by throwing open the trade in foreign corn.
Those days have passed away. These alarms have
vanished. The cultivators of the soil have found
that that freedom of moult:ice to w hiett they looked
with dismay has only stimulated them to greater
exertion ; and, therefore, whatever may be the
merits of your present members, and however com-
petent they may be to fight your battles under pre-
sent circumstances, their labours in defending what
is conceived to be the agricultural interest arc
lighter than they would hove been at former periods.
(Hear.) So much the better for them. Their
labours are less, and, therefore, they will be better
able to perform them.

The toast was drunk with the usual honours.

After the toasts of " The Mayor and Corporation
of Romsey," and " The healths of the successful
and unsuccessful candidates,"

Lord PAL3IERSTON said—l am now about to give
a toast which I might be somewhat diffident in pro.
posing, because I have some interest in it, and that
is " Prosperity to Romsey Market." (Cheers.) It
is very gratifying to those who went over the
ground to-day to see the improvement which has
taken place in the show. (Hear, hear.) But we
must not conceal from ourselves the criticisms that
are made by others, and I am afraid it is too
true that Hampshire farming does not stand so
high in general estimation as the farming in
some other counties of England. It, has, however,
improved, and will, I trust, go on improving.
(Cheers.) It is not for me to pretend to talk about
farming to practical farmers like those who are
are present, and who understand these matters much
better than I can do; but there are things which
strike even the most ignorant, and when a man
walks over a field of turnips and sees it full of char-
lock he must say there is room for some improve-
ment. (Cheers and a laugh.) With regard to the
charlock, I was glad to see the turnip fields looking
greener than usual, with less of that picturesque
yellow than we have seen in former years. (Laugh-
ter.) lam afraid the botanist might have revelled
in the excess of "couch," but we are told that the
wetness of the season may in some degree account
for that. But there is no doubt respecting one
fundamental principle of farming, and that is to
keep the land clear, because weeds cannot grow
without nourishment, and the nourishment of which
the weeds rob the soil is the nourishment which
ought to go to the plant which it is the interest and
profit of the farmer to cultivate. (Hear, hear.) We
have seen a statement made, and I have seen an
example of it, that a gentleman at Brighton has
made a wonderful improvement in the growth of
wheat. By carefully selecting his seed, and by
dibbling those seeds so as to give room for each
plant to grow, he produces wheat ears infinitely
larger than those of the common plant, and the
stalk is considerably stronger. I saw not long ago
in Derbyshire a field of wheat which was so grown,
and I was astonished at the produce which it
i tyielded. (Hear.) These are thm gs which ,
every-
body would naturally turn their attention and o
the more the farmers bend their minds to improve-
ments the better it will be for them. Competition
and rivalshiP always set people awake. Monopoly
always goes to sleep.
Mr. DUTTON, M.P., then proposed the health of
the Chairman, to which his lordship briefly re-
turned thanks.
After several other toasts of a local character had
bean given, his lordship retired amidst loud cheers,
and the party separated.

A political pamphlet, from the pen of M. Eugene
Randu, Chef de Division at the Ministry of Public Instruc-
tion, published under the title of " La Souverainete Ponti-
Scale en Italie," advocates the maintenance of the temporal
power, but points out what appears to the writer to be de-
fective in it.

DEATH OF SIR G. L. HODGEs, R.C.B.—We have
to record the death of Colonel Sir George Lloyd Hodges,
K.C.8., formerly her Majesty's Charge d'Affaires for the
Hanse Towns. He was the son of Mr. George Thomas
Hodges, of Limerick, and commanded the British and
Foreign Legion in Portugal, under Dom Pedro. He was
Consul in Servia from 1837 to 1839, Consul-General in
Egypt from 1839 to 1841, and Charge d'Affaires and Consul-
General at Hamburg from 1841 to 1860, in which year he
received his K,C.B. and retired on a pension. The gallant
Colonel served in the Peninsula and at Waterloo. lie was
73 yearn of age.