The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-14 00:00:00

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[PRICE SD•

CORN AND CATTLE.

(Prom the Times.)
Amid wars and rumours of wars, Asiatic cholera,
London fog, Lancashire strikes, and all the other
troubles that thicken around us, it is consolatory
ttoerfinodf
unqualifiedoneelassatlecaosntgwrahtousleatcioonn.ditioTnhaist aismanto-
other than our old friends the. ag,ricultnriitz,,iillo
have really forgotten their once familiar language
of complaint. Theirtameness is almost shocking,
so accustomed have we been- to see them in their
mthoerye
itlarargeicnniotoodsosw. Tn
inhoeli.er
and generally gone deeper into speculation. It is
bmeueit mutton,
Christmasn ,th-oi veal,s)eel7o and d
not only that wheat fetches. more than twice as
pork,n
grou n standd soe
much as last year,only complaint
aniinotr:sCattitilaet,
but those vulgar, but needful substantialities, beef,
figure than last Christmas, and higher still the
was there so great a supply-, though only lust meet-
7Abseaaslittiotsti
and 290 pigs, that stood in2e
in
meet-
ing the demand. Good profits there must have
other_
:nB3eg
Smithfield-market
ars
eli in
proportion,
~2t0600,
cua le vlv.
Monday, covering the al
close
sae muulacth higherh,na
ling" was impossible till the afternoon. Many a
country squire, as well as tenant-fanner, not to
speak of here and there a clergyman, who culti-
vates both parish and glebe, has derived from
that sleek multitude the means of more ample hos-
pitalities than usual. The extra leaves of his
mahogany have been oftener in requisition, more
merry faces are gathered round his fire, the house
rings more loudly with laughter-loving lasses, and
one son more is destined for Eton, or some pre-
paratory school. Unquestionably the prosperity of
this class assumes a more graceful form than that
of the sister interest. With increased demand for
calicoes you have more chimnies, more noise, mom
dirt, more cellars, more cholera, more talk about,
sanitary measures. With corn-and-cattle pros.e
perity we have all that the poets have ennobled
and the Protectionists have vulgarised. True, the
mercantile part of the affair is not very beautiful.
A fat beast, panting, sweating, and staggering
through the streets of London, with his tongue out
of his mouth, vainly trying to slake his thirst at
every little pool in the gutter, is not a more agree-
able object than a bale of cotton wool. But we
must not concern ourselves with the intermediate
stages, when the beginning of the agricultural pro-
cess is the rural homestead, and the end a dining-
table. They say that a visit to the kitchen before
dinner would effectually dispel appetite ; so it
would be nothing strange if a visit to Smithfield
and the Baker-street Show had the same palling
effect.

But a word or two about this intermediate stage
—the fat beast itself. Glad aro we to find that
year after year our feeders are getting out of their
old way, which was simply to produce a mountain
of fat with the least time and cost. The wants of
the customer were put wholly out of view. Moore's
Hindoo city, in which comely butchers and welh
filled shambles were everywhere seen for the benefit
of natives who were compelled by law to buy, but
prevented by their religion from eating, was quite'
equalled in a metropolis where a conspiracy of
farmers, butchers, cooks, and tallow-chandlers
compelled us to buy, cook, carve, and put on our
plates, masses of adipose matter, which the palate
and the stomach alike resented, and Liebig has,
scientifically condemned. There is a continued
and progressive improvement in this respect. Size'
and fat are no longer preferred to beauty and meat.
Among the successful competitors for the prizes,
or those that should have had them, we find such
notices as " a little Devon of great beauty "
" a most splendid beast, small, and well made, with
a great quantity of the finest meat in a small
compass"—" very superior, and just fat enough
for all useful purposes,"—" a very fine little beast,"
—" a very fine, superior beast, showing a great
quantity of fine meat, -which is what is required,"
—" very good, and not superfluously fat,"—no
pretensions towards being a fat beast,"—while
giants and monsters are justly left to their own
disgusting ugliness and cumbrous inutility. Vat
beasts, fat women, and fat children are very well
for shows, where there is always a certain class of
minds who are better pleased with bulk than beauty.
Otherwise, the article itself, it is now generally
agreed, ifs about as injurious a substance, in undue
proportion, as it is possible to force into the human
stomach.
But, while we congratulate the agriculturists on
the good time which has come at last, we must
admit that we have no desire to see prices always
what they now are. That they are so high is not,
as a certain gentleman seems to imagine, the effect
of any financial laws, but simply the natural
course of things. It so happens that corn is
cheaper in this country than in those around us.
The French and Belgians are coming to us for
supplies, and the produce of the Black Sea is
diverted from us to Italy. In fact, this metro-
polis may now boast the cheapest market, quality
considered, in Europe, and, if legislation has done
anything, it has cheapened food rather than the
contrary. This resort of foreigners to our market
takes place, too, be it observed, when an immense
stimulus has been given to foreign production,
when English capital and English skill have been
transferred to other countries—not
.directly, per-
haps, to the cultivation of the soil, but to public
works and general improvement. This happens,
too, at a time when our example and the demands
of our immense consumption have led all the na-
tions of Europe to greater efforts of industrial and
material improvement that were ever known in
history, so that philosophical fanatics loudly lament
the present degradation of the world, manifested,
as they think, in the predominance of such vulgar
pursuits. Yet, in spite of this universal pursuit of
useful wealth, England keeps ahead, and has at
this moment the most abundant supply of the food
of man to be found in the world. So much for the
taunt that the repeal of the corn laws has not given
us cheap bread just now. It has given us cheaper
bread than Louis Napoleon is able to give his
armies of workmen, soldiers, and courtiers in Paris.
It has given us bread so cheap that the immense
harvests of the Danube are detained On the shores
of the Mediterranean by higher prices than we
need give here. If it has not given our people all
the content, wisdom, and happiness we could de-
sire, that is a success which, so long as man is Man, we are not to expect from any law, or any work,
in this sublunary sphere.