The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-06 00:00:00

SIR EDWARD BULWER LYTTON AT

lIEEEFORD.

HERTFORD, Oct. S.--Yesterday the annual meeting
of the Herts Agricultural Association was held in this
town, and the occasion was chiefly interesting from the
speech it elicited from Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton, one
of the members for the county. The proceedings con-
sisted of an interesting exhibition of agricultural imple-
ments and stock on the farm of Mrs. Dorrington, at
Waterford-hall, and at Sele-mill, both in the immediate
neighbourhood, concluding with a dinner in the evening
in the Town-hall, over which Mr. Robert Hanbury, the
high sheriff of the county, presided, and at which a great
number of the neighbouring gentry, clergy, and the
principal agriculturists were present, including, besides
the two gentlemen already named, the Marquis of Salis-
bury, Mr. Abel Smith, Mr. C. W. Puller, Mr. G. J.
Bosanquet, Mr. C. J. Dimsdale, Mr. R. Dimsdale, Mr.
W. R. Baker, Mr. R. W. Goussen, Mr. C. Soames,
Mr. Abel Smith, jun., M.P., Mr. R. W. Phillimore,
the Rev. C. B. Pearson, Mr. Roberts, Mr. G. T. Thorn-
ton, and many other influential persons. The usual
loyal and constitutional toasts having been drunk, that
of " The Army and Navy" being proposed in appropriate
terms by the Marquis of Salisbury, and responded to
with more than ordinary enthusiasm, and Mr. Thornton
having given " The Members of the County,"
Sir EDWARD BULWER LYTTON rose to acknowledge
the compliment, and was received with vehement cheer-
ing for some moments. He said,—Mr. Chairman, my
Lord Salisbury, and gentlemen, feebly indeed, after
the more than usual warmth with which you have so
kindly responded to the toast which has now been pro-
posed to you, can I return you my thanks for the com-
pliment you have paid me. Allow me to join in the ge-
neral congratulations you have received on the excel-
lence of your annual show. It is not my intention on
this occasion to detain you for many minutes. I have
nothing to add to what I have before urged on behalf of the
general objects of meetings like the present, and I would
wish to content myself with a brief assurance of the
pride and pleasure I feel in whatever reflects credit
on the industry and intelligence of this country. After
the able and minute speech of our friend—the friend of
all us here on this occasion—Mr. Puller—(cheers)—and
after the critical reply of our friend, Mr. Roberts, I feel
I should do best to make no reference to the minute
points connected with husbandry or with agricultural
machinery, but to leave such remarks to those whose
superior practical knowledge would render their criticism
more worthy of attention. (Cheers.) Upon this occa-
sion, indeed, I am called on pointedly to address you in
my capacity of a member of Parliament. It is in that
capacity that you have just drunk my health, and the occa-
sion justifies and perhaps suggests some reference to more
general topics. Not, gentlemen, that it will be neces-
sary for me to touch on the forbidden ground of party
politics. We have separate interests as Conservatives
or as Liberals, but we have all some common interests
as Englishmen, and it is only to those that I shall pre-
sume to allude. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, in this world,
as we all know, good and evil, blessings and afflictions,
are inseparably blended together in the divine system of
Providence ; but to make the most of the good, and to
counteract, as far as possible, the evil—that is the art of
the wise man, and that also is the proof of civilisation in
a people. Now, as Mr. Puller has so well observed, it
has pleased Providence to bless this country with an
abundant harvest ; but that favour is not confined to
England alone—it extends also to lands in which
the climate and the soil are infinitely more favthired
by nature than our own. But to make a diligent
use of that harvest—to extend its produce through
a thousand reproductive channels of national prosperity
—to enrich the agriculturist, and, through the increase
of his profits, to give a fresh stimulus to trade—to make
new demands on manufactures—to pour new energies
into the various investments of enterprise and capital—
that is the merit of the English people, and that is the
way in which the civilisation of man assists the bounty
of the Creator. (Cheers.) In other countries that I
might name—such, for instance, as Spain or Sicily, once
the granary of Europe—lands infinitely more favoured
than our own—for want of roads, for want of markets,
or facilities for interchange—in one word, for want of
civilisation, the corn in many places will rot uncut where
it stands, and the whole harvests pass away, enriching
no trade, recruiting no manufactures, rewarding no in-
duetry, affording no surplus capital to energy or enter-
prise ; and that is the way in which uncivilised nations
frustrate the benevolence of Providence. So, again,
with regard to those afflictions to which humanity is
liable. It has pleased Providence to visit us with one of
the direst calamities in itself to which man is subject—
war ; and I confess, even in this hour of victory, I do
not like to approach that subject in any spirit of levity,
but more with the sentiment of religious awe. But, as
it has been so well brought before you by my noble
friend on my right (the Marquis of Salisbury), and in a
spirit so thoroughly English, let us for one instant con-
sider if even to that evil we have not applied some of
the high energies of thoughtful men to make the most of
it, and to draw from it some future profit ; that is to
say, let us compare the objects for which we now send
forth our fleets and our armies with those which have
induced the Emperor of Russia to invade his neighbour.
ar to both of us—England and Russia—is a great
calamity ; but there is this difference between the con-
tending Powers. Suppose Russia were to succeed to
the utmost of her ambition—suppose that next year the
Cossack should stall his horses in the palace of Constan-
tinople—should we be one whit nearer to peace ? On
the contrary, should we not have all Europe the more
alarmed, and would not every free State tremble for
itself?? The war would be carried on on a much larger
scale ; it would be no longer a war waged for the inde-
pendence of Turkey, it would be a war of self-defence
over the whole civilised world. (Cheers.) Can any man
say that the triumph of Russia would conduce to one
single interest of the human race ? Rather, would it
not endanger every other interest which liberty and in-
telligence defend from brute force ? (Cheers.) If it
please Providence to continue to give triumph to our
armies—that is, the armies of England and France—if
Turkey can be preserved from all further interference—
if Russia can be confined to her ancient dominions—if
new barriers can be thrown up between barbarian hosts
and peaceable States, who does not feel that the war
would then compensate for all its horrors by the new
bulwarks which we should have secured for human
liberty and the uninterrupted development of intel-
lectual progress? But, gentlemen, here, at this moment,
the joy we feel at the success of our arms is not from
any selfish acquisition of dominion. The fall of Sebas-
topol adds nothing to the empire of England. Our joy
is in the successful vindication of the generous principle
that we defend the weak against the strong. (Cheers.)
Sufficient reward for all our treasure and our blood 'if
we cats establish in the hearts of tyrants the Divine
command, " Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
goods," and still less shalt thou compass thy neighbour's
death in order to divide his possessions. (Renewed
cheers.) Gentlemen, I must apologise to you for
touching on general topics. (" No, no !" cheers, and
"Go on.") I feel very much obliged to you for
those cheers, and I will tell you why, because they
confirm me in the opinion that there cannot be a
more vulgar mistake than to suppose that because
farmers, partly from the nature of their pursuits and
the greater seclusion of their homes, don't trouble their
heads about mere party struggles quite as much as the
more excitable inhabitants of towns, they are therefore
more indifferent to those graver questions which affect
the honour and welfare of this country. I feel here that
I should touch on somewhat delicate ground, which Mr.
Puller has gone over with much ease and dexterity. But
still, when I am touching on the war, I must say there
are few questions that can more interest the farmer and
affect his calculations, perhaps almost as much as the
weather and the seasons, than the continuance of war.
My friend, Mr. Puller, has shouted, somewhat prema-
turely, as I think, in triumph over our friend Mr. Der-
ing. Be reminded us that some three years ago Mr.
Dering thought the game was nearly up with agricul-
ture; but he forgets there were two things which Mr.
Dering had no right to anticipate. One was the discovery
of Calif milieu and Australian gold, and the other the war.
Mr. Puller will bear me out when I say that all political
economists of any authority are agreed that war in itself
is a more stringent mode of effecting what was once called
Protection to agriculture than anything which Parliamen-
tary wisdom could devise. War in itself restricts foreign
competition ;. war raises home prices ; and I most heartily
agree with him, therefore, in this—that the prudent agri-
culturist will do well to husband all the savings which
continuance of Los var enable him to accumulate,
so as to be fully prepared against that inevitable reac-
tion which, according to the uniform experience of his-
tory, may follow the return of peace. You all remember
the great depression that followed the peace of 1815 ; in
fact, exorbitant rise of protective duties at that time
was'only an expedient of Parliament to replace that de-
gree of Protection which had been the natural and ne-
cessary consequence of the war ; and the severest test of
that new political and commercial system which we
have adopted may probably be found in a year or two
after the peace ; and therefore you cannot do better now
than to make all diligent use of all the improvements in
agriculturalseience and of whatever aids machinery may
afford you, in order that the English agricultural skill
may hereafter be fully and adequately prepared to meet
increased competition and if necessary, a fall of prices.
Gentlemen, the toast'which I have to respond to would
have led me to pass over, on any other occasion, a some-
what wide field of remark • I mean the toast that con-
nects me with the House of Commons ; but here I am
forbidden to do so by a rule of
your society, which de-
precates all political discussion, and will
I not make the
most distant allusion to the dehantetshoervotes of the Le-
gislature of the last session. o
pretty well fir.ished all I have to say to you contra-ryi.o I
_ha,,,ve,
that I should neglect a duty if I did notLefore I sit
down make some allusion to that mournful ev?nt which,
nttlhe re-
since we last met, has occasioned a change
presentation of this county. (Hear, hear.) 4
upon a former occasion, at the eve of my contest with
Mr. Trevor—l call him by the name he then bore—itit
was my lot to call upon you all to lay aside party differ-
ences and to join with me in a tribute of respect to the
memory of the late Lord Deere. That eminent person
went to his peaceful and honoured grave in the fulness
of his days. Release to him was the natural release
of human inermity from protracted suffering. But your
late representative, Mr. Halsey, was taken from you in
the full vigour of life—no previous warning, no lingering
disease, which could make death itself seem a mercy.
Ouc moment he was seen in all the strength and spirits
of healthy manhood, and in the next he had vanished
for ever from human eyes. [Here the honourable
baronet's emotion overcame his utterance, and he was
unable for a moment to proceed.] No friend could
receive his last wish ; no kindred could comfort his
last sigh. To his grave there went no weeping funeral
procession ; over his remains there was no holy ee.
• vice for the dead—so sudden and awful was
catastrophe ; the young husband and the young wife
swept away into the deep, scarcely knowing, perhaps,
the previous danger, scarcely hearing, perhaps, the