The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-25 00:00:00

No. 16,932. LON DON, F RIDA Y EVENING

BY COMMAND OF HER MAJESTY'S POSTMASTER'
GENERAL.

CONTRACT for CONVEYING the LONDON
DISTRICT POST LETTER BAGS.

Notice is hereby given, that her Majesty's Postmaster-General
will be ready to receive Tenders on or before the 22d day of
JANUARY next, for conveying the London District Post Letter
Bags, twice a day, to Woodford Bridge, and twice to Woodford, by
mail-carts, stage coaches, omnibuses, or any other carriage conveying
passengers or parcels
The conditions, and full particulars, may he seen on application
to the Superintending President of the London District Post-office,
General Post-office. . .

Tenders are to be scaled up, and addressed to "Der Majesty's
Postmaster-General," and endorsed, " Tenders for conveying the
London District Post Bags," and delivered before Twelve o'clock on
the 22d January next.
General Post-office, Dec. 22, 1846.

REFORMATION IN CLEANING CHIM-
NEYS.—The use et the PORTLAND PATENT SPRING
BRUSH and CHIMNEY-SWEEPING APPARATUS obviates all
the annoyance and inconvenience consequent upon the present dis-
gusting plan. By it a flue is completely cleansed without one
particle of soot entering the apartment. A short time ago
an experiment was made with this apparatus at the House of
Common, the success of which was complete. Sheets of writing
paper were placed upon the chimney-piece, and in various ether
parts of the room, and after the completion of the sweeping mot one
particle of soot was discernible upon any of the sheets of paper.
To be seen at 69, Welbeck-street, Cavendish-square.

N.lt. The Proprietor is willing to grant licenses for the use of this
patent invention in the provincial towns of England.
Agents for the Metropolis are required.

THE SELF-SUPPORT INSTITUTION,
(aided by Voluntary Contributions,) for the Cure of Stricture
of the Urethra, and all other Diseases of Urinary Organs, Nervous,
Local, and General Debility.
SURGEON—F. B. COURTENASY, M.R.C.S.L., 2, Chandos-street,
Cavendish-square.
To small tradesmen, clerks, mechanics, and the working classes
generally, this Institution offers, in all eases, gratuitous surgical
assistance, and in others medicine also free of expense.
Apply at the Surgery adjoinng the Surgeon's residence.

In Weekly" Numbers, price 3d.,

THE CHESS - PLAYERS CHRONICLE.
NEW SERIES. Edited by H. STAUNTON, Esq.

- -
The first Number will be published on the let of January, 1847,
and will contain three first-rate Gaines, a Chapter of Elementary
Lessons and Four Problems on Diagrams.
11. Hurst, 27, King William-street, Strand. To be had of all
Booksellers, Newsvenders, &c.

It)1110STON, STAMFORD, and BIRMINGHAM
RAILWAY, (STAMFORD TO WISBECH,)

At the first ordinary :Meeting of Shareholders under the Act of In•
co, poration, held at the Company's offices, No. 18, Abingdon-street
Westminster, on Tuesday, the 22d day of December, 1846,
THOMAS MACAULAY, Esq., of Leicester, in the Chair,

The report having been read by the Secretary, the following resolu-
tions were proposed and unanimously adopted :
It was moved by the CHAIRMAN, seconded by Mr. MIDDLETON, and
carried unanimously,

" That the Report now read be received and adopted, and pr'nted
and circulated amongst the Shareholdora."
It was moved by Mr. BADGER, seconded by Mr. WATKINS, and carried
unanimously,

" That the terms offered by the Great Northern Railway to this
Company, as specified in the Report, are approved of by this
3feetin;."
It was moved by Mr. CRADDOCK, seconded by Mr. WILSON, and

carried unanimously,

" That the following gentlemen be chosen or re-elected Directors
of this Company
Edmund Denison, Esq , 111. P., Doncaster.
James Arl,,onin, Esq., 3, Brunswick-square.

ItoUert Gill, Esq., Mansfield Woodhouse, Notts.
Captain I,,ws, R.N., 20, Sussex-square, Hyde Park.
William Skinner Marshall, Esq., 4, llyde Park-square.
George Hussey Packe, Esq., Caythorpe, GraLthani.
Francis Parker, Esq., Manchester.
Archibald Frederick Paull, Esc., 33. Devonshire-place.
William Wilberforce Pearson, Esq., 2S, Chapel-street, Belgraye-

square.
William Atkinson Gardner, Esq., 4 ,Suffolk-street, Pall-mall.
Charles Holle Bracebridge. Esq., Atherstone Hall.
Thomas Macaulay, Esq., Leleester.
It was moved by Mr. GATTIE, seconded by Mr. HA.vszs, and carried

unanimously,

" That 1,0001. be allowed to the Directors of this Company, as a re-
muneration for their services during their ensuing year of office,
the same to be divided in such a manner as they shall deem ex-
pedient."
It was moved by Mr. GARDNER, seconded by Mr. PEARSON, and

carried unanimotisy.

" That Edward James Hawker, Esq., of 4, Wilton-street, Belgrave-
square, and Ashford Lodge, near Petersfield ; and William Thomas
Preston, Esq., of 2, Figtrce-court, Temple, and Flasby Hall, Gar-
grave, Yorkshire, be appointed Auditors of this Company's Accounts,
at salaries of 201. each ; and that Mr. George Seward be appointed
Secretary, at 1501. per annnm."
THOMAS MACAULAY, Esq., Chairman.
It was moved by Mr. WILSON, seconded by Mr. BOWMAN, and

carried unanimously,

"That the thaaks of this meeting be tendered to the Chairman and
Directors of this Company, for their services in obtaining the Act,
and in conducting the affairs of the Company."
GEORGE SWARD, Secreta-y.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
RAILWAY (SOUTHERN DIVISION).
ALTERATION OF TRAINS.
NOTICE.—The public are informed that on and after the Ist of
DECEMBER next, the following Alterations will be made in the Trains
on this Railway

FOGS AND D OLP AIR. has, for
many years,
BARCLAY'S ASTHMATIC CANDY
preservative from the
in the Winter .season,
e
been proved an effectual
ill effects of the Fogs and Damp Air, which,
preserve the Stomach from the admission of )}amps, are so prevalent in this Climate. Its effects axe to expel Wind,.
yte
those who suffer Irom Difficulty of Breathing. Prepared only by
Barclay and Sons, 95, Farringdon-street, Loral-on; and sold retail, by
their appointment, by Sanger, 150, Oxford4Areet ; Gifford, 104, and
H. Hurneld, 180, Strand ; Johnston, 68, - '
Vornhill ; Hallows, Drug-
gist, 2, High-strett, Islington Deudebotirek, Druggist, Church-
street, Hackney ; and all respectable Medicine Venders in Town and
and to relic
Country.-Observe : none can be
genuine, unless the names of
.` Barclay and Sons" are on the Stamp afffiea to each Box.

THE BARON DE BODE.—Another lamentable con-
sequence of the opposition offered by the Government
to the generally admitted just claims of the recently
deceased Baron de Bode is announ•.ed in the latest letters
from Russia, bearing date Deceraber, by which it appears
that the lady of the surviving claimant, Baron Clement
de Bode, has expired under excitement and anxiety, oc-
casioned by the responsibilities and peculiar position in
which her family are placed by the recent decision of
the court4,3n relation to 'ais case. At the same time we
learn that it is the determination of the present Baron
to prosecute the long 'ending suit with energy, assisted
by the mcst talented, n,nd distinguished counsel of the
day, in defiance of any opposition that may hereafter be
offered by the law and its technicalities, ¶he arrival el
the Baron is hfaurly expected:

AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION

IN IRELAND.

The following are quotations from the appendix to
minutes of evidence taken before Commissioners on the
occupation of land in Ireland, and consist of the leading
portions of a paper on agricultural education, by Mr.
Thomas Skilling, Model Farm, Glasnevin, Dublin,
printed among the documents in that appendix:—
That Ireland and her population are to be improved
by the people themselves is, in my mind, an incontro
vertible fact ; I mean the people of all classes. Tin
poverty, discontent, and turbulei.ce of the great body of
her inhabitants arise from ignorance, neglect, and mis-
management of their affairs. That the lower orders arc
ignorant is not perhaps so much their own fault as that
of the superior or higher classes, who have been placed
in power and authority over them ; who ought to hay(
been their natural guardians and instructors, but why
have overlooked their duties and trust, and are now
reaping the hitter fruits of their previous neglect. Tli
chief cause, however, of the poverty of the masses
arises from their own apathy, indolence,- and mismanage-
ment. This cannot he too frequently brought forward,
inculcated, and placed in the strangest point of view
befure the public mind. It is very wrong—it is cruel and
wicked to make the people believe that the power of
raising them from a state of degradation, wretchedness,
and poverty, does net rest with themselves, but is pos-
sessed by some superior or extern power, whose caprice
or malevolence is withholding their just rights, nay, the
very necessaries and comforts of life from them.
Nothing is so easily accomplished as to make a man be-
lieve that there is an excuse for all his errors, faults, and
frailties ; and that there is a power over which be has

no control, and which he may lay the blame that is
producing all his embarrassments. This is peculiarly-
the case with farmers. It is no difficult matter with a

farmer who is labouring his land in wet, among weeds,
without stock, without manure, without any of the
auxiliaries which would produce successful cultivation ;
it is no difficult matter, I say, to convince him that all
his evils arise from being rack rented, no matter what
the rent he pays may be. He complains of the want of
stock, the want of capital, at the same time he cannot be
induced to use judiciously the producers of all capital,
his hands and his soil. The want of competent know-
ledge among landed proprietors and their agents, has
produced more misery and turbulence in Ireland than
perhaps any other existing cause. It is pure igno-
rance that prompts a landlord or his agent to -dis-
possess the small holders on his property, and to
throw his estate into large farms, because he sees large
farms in Great Britain, in a country differently circum-
stanced in every respect; and it is want of knowledge
and something more that induces him to allow his land
to be comparatively useless, grazing sheep and cattle at
20s. or 30s. per acre, yet charges the poor cottier from
8/. to 121 for raising his wretched subsistence, a crop of
cup or lumper potatoes. It must be ignorance that pro-
duces these and a multitude of other evils. It is not
any inclination or morbid desire on the part of the
higher classes to persecute, distress, and render miserable
their fellow-creatures under them; and though I point
out the errors of the great, I by no means wish to adopt,
the too prevalent habit of attributing all the evils of Ire-
land, all the discontent and misery of her people, to the
tyranny and oppression of her landlords. An unjust
and malignant shout has been raised against them, kept
up and joined in by those who should have known
better. The great majority of them are kind, bene-
volent, and in every way disposed to promote the hap
piness and comfort of the people under them. A bad
landlord is the exception, not the rule. I do believe
the greatest anxiety prevailing among the landlord class
at present is, how they shall best promote the pros
perity of their tenants, and thereby increase their in-
come and improve their property ; but their almost
general want of practical knowledge in the proper ma-
nagement and true value of land, and their supplying the
vacancy with silly, sometimes pernicious advice, pre-
vents their accomplishing what they so much desire.
We hear much of rack-rents and oppressive landlords,
but if there were more improving tenants there would be
fewer bad landlords. The people are steeped in igno-
rance and poverty. They are waiting in listless apathy,
and calling on Parliament and Government to relieve
their distress ; it never occurring to them that for the
real purpose of improving their social condition, remov-
ing discomfort, and attaining a degree of prosperity and
happiness, they have more in their own power than both
the Government and Parliament ; like the waggoner in
the fable, they must "whip the horses, and put their
shoulder to the wheel." Were all classes, from the
landlord to the labourer, to lay their heads and minds
together—have but one object in view, the improvement
and happiness of the whole—act with mutual confidence,
friendly feeling, and a continued reciprocal interchange
of gocd offices; if ever this state of things arrive, the
duties of Parliament and of Government will be very
easily discharged.
A man possessed of even a moderate share of agricul-
tural knowledge, scientific and practical, travelling on
the top of a coach through Ireland, may easily explain
the cause why the agricultural population aro wretched
and poor. Let him drive east, west, north, or south,
even through the best cultivated districts, and he will
find ample cause for the poverty of the people. He will
see the whole face of the best natural soil and country
intersected and covered with an immense number of large
crooked and useless ditches and gripes ; the ground
saturated with wet, from the rain that falls and cannot
get off; or from the large open gripes, which keep up a
regular supply in the fields ; or from land springs or
main springs, rising unheeded in different points through
his fields ; at the same time the surface of the ground
covered with stones, as if supplied for the necessary pur-
pose of drainage; .He will see a portion of the land
scratched and turned over by the plough three or four
inches deep, the same portion and depth, that has been
scratched and turned over by himself and his ancestors
for centuries, completely exhaused by a succession of
grain crops, and filled with roots of weeds which
supply the chief crop of the following year. Ile will
remark the total absence of anything like a regularly
formed or respectable dung heap; the wretched steels
running over two-thirds of his holding, summer and
winter, it lying in miserable pasture for that purpose,
without green food or sustenance for cattle to produce
manure during the winter, or milk for the use of himself
and family ; at November lie finds the whole produce in
the yard, a few small stacks of grain and a few pits of
potatoes are all the man has to pay his year's rent,
taxes, and other charges, clothe, and feed his family,
and support his stock during the winter.
Should the traveller go in another direction, he finds
the scene changed —the whole face of the country has a
different aspect, the farms are largo, and all in pasture,
with numerous splendid flocks of sheep, and bullocks
grazing upon them. This is the country for fattening
the bullocks and starving the people ; here the oxen are
luxuriating on the richest pastures, and the people
starving on lumper potatoes in their miserable huts,
without even a potato garden. Here the agent or
middleman will let an. acre of land to fatten cattle for
305., hut charge the poor labourer or cotter from 8/. to
12/. for the iniquitous con-acre. The fair green of
Ballinasloe annually presents one of the most singular
anomalies on the face of the earth, and a fair
specimen of the effects of true Irish misrule, not
Parliamentary or Executive misrule, but the mis-
rule and mismanagement of the proprietors of the
soil, their agents and middlemen. We there see a spe-
cimen of the most beautiful, well-conditioned, highly-fed
cattle and sheep in the world, and along with them the
most wretched, lean, half- starved, ragged, and miserable-
looking human beings to be found!, and the very parties
who create and perpetuate this injustice and oppression,
this anomalous state of things, which produces discon-
tent, turbulence, periodical famine, continued suffering
and misery, these are the parties who are loudest in
their shouts for justice to Ireland, and who even go so
far as to take the benefit of this misery, to excite the
u:4 which three their
old
times pastures,
thePthtrrhrealesvaieeset present
tlti
passions of the people to further their own selfish and
political ends—these are the people who cry loudest for
Government interference and Acts of Parliament to re-
pave i
tayn de
of cattle
ec crops, by
neve the miser whichbd; yetldwebre the Gonvernment to
pass law by t ey wou e compelled to break
mp
paid,
, thean
d vrewell number
fed—ifef people
su
b
would with their
iniquitous customs, it would be
ned and virulent opposi-
a keptlawsupported,o ny
et
rh
e e
all
announcedl a n d,
employed,and d
interferec
1 the enforcing of martiallaw
trnioentindolent,bt3hatnb absurd,
eamc oweirt
eh i 0 n
in the country.
broughtl
s and a change round
themselves, who
by the combined efforts of the classes
tem, a change by all classes,
date the
It is not new laws we wan , t is a new chane of sys-
Bil , or
it i desirable
s not
laltoinsenhetavlaewtl,iebuptormeerwtloedagcehlw.eeve hwsaunet;
trumsi of the Legislature, but the instruction from the
schoolmaster.
Toreedaude,awtirointeitora and ccilpohdebro,pirsecro;nsaind
deretdbeqti
of a family is almost universally selected for
far-
mer. Every other trade or calling has a regular time,
more or less, for its acquirement—the carpenter, mason,
biltotehckeah feaar suf-
ficientd
blacksmith, tailor, even the brogue-maker and chimney-
sweep must serve a certain apprenticeship before he is
allowed or considered competent to practise his business.
Not so the farmer. Any person capable of handling a
spade, holding a plough, or performing any of the com-
mon practical farm operations—even those without any
degree of practical knowledge—will without hesitation
engage in a speculation to conduct all the various and
complicated operations, managing in various soils, sea-
sons, courses of cropping, &c., which would require the
highest degree of scientific knowledge and practical
skill. Such things have kept the knowledge of the
science and practice of agriculture so far behind al-
most all the mechanical trades and other profes-
sions, and steeped the great masses of the agricul-
tural population of the three kingdoms in compara-
tive ignorance. Such is this state of ignorance, that
it has been, and I believe in. some places is still de-
bated, whether it is possible or practicable to teach
the great leading principles of the science and practice
to schoolmasters and scholars, and diffuse this important
education through the community the same as any other
branch of knowledge. Thanks to the Commissioners of
Education, this great question has been settled and set
at rest. They are the sirst public or private body in the
crapire who conceived the idea, and put it in practical
ereration. of having the leading principles of the science
'tin.' practice of agriculture taught in every school, to the
children of the middle and lower classes,' who attend
these schools; and after several years of trial and expo-

rience, the system has sueceedt-d far beyond their most
sanguine expectations, though the experiment has by no
means been fairly carried out, nor did it get anything
like justice. The want of funds and of books to carry
forward the system has been much against its successful
operation, yet we have seen as much as must convince
the most sceptical that, with increased means, and some
slight improvement in the mode of conducting the thing,
in an incredibly short time, and at a trifling expense,
this imlortant and indispensable branch of knowledge
may be spread over the whole face of the country; incul-
cated and impressed on the youth and rising generation,
whereby a thirst for knowledge- and a taste for all kinds
of improvement will be the consequence, and an entire
change in the habits and couditiun of the lower orders
will be produced.

The Board have begun at the right end of the subject
—they propose to commence with the children, not the
old people; and there is demonstrative proof that they
are right.
The plan adopted at the model farm for the purpose of
training the masters, may be pointed out and explained.
During the time the masters are in training in the lite.
rary department is that chosen for giving the agricul
tural knowledge aho; all the teachers in connexion with
the Board, amounting to 2,800 or more, are intended to
be trained in Loll departments. Of this number nearly
700 have been already trained in agriculture during the
past six years, since the model farm has been established.
The men are brought up in classes, averaging sixty indi-
viduals at a time, and remain five months. They are
lodged and fed in the neighbourhood of the model farm,
and fed on the produce. Five mornings in the week
they attend a lecture on gardening during half an hour;
and a h cture on the science and practice of agriculture
during one hour—lectures and examinations alternately.
The forenoon of eveT,Saturday they go upon the farm
and see all Mir practices -bperations going on there, and
have everything important explained to them. During
the course the lectures comprise the following sub-
jects:—

" The usual and common errors prevailing in the
management of land ; the effects of such and the reale.
dies." " The importance of clearing off and levelling
useless ditches and fences." " The laying out farms in
a regular and judicious manner, and according to a scien-
tific rotation." " Draining—its neglect, its importance,
and effects ; different modes of." " Deepening the soil,
different modes of, and its importance." " The c.inse-
quences of following a succession of grain crops." "The
importance of a rotation ; and the raising a sufficiency of
green crops for cattle feeding." "All the most useful
rotations explained." " The consequences of weeds
growing upon land, and the best methods of extirpating
them." " The importance of a large stock of cattle on
all farms, particularly s.nall." " Cattle make money and
mar ure ; house-feeding them for that purpose summer
and winter ; the kinds and quantities of food during the
different seasons ; with the inip.oved methods of care
and feeding." " The error of keeping too many horses,
or any at all, on a small farm ; the expenses attending a
horse during the year, one horse displacing two cows ;
the comparative profit or loss between cows and horses
on small farms." " General state of housing—dwelling
and offices ; modes of planning and laying out, how to
place the different apartments ; the dung heap—how to
collect and manage it during the year, to place it in rear
of the houses ; the cowhouse, dairy, piggery," &c.
"Habits of the people—indolence, carelessness, want of
energy and economy, want of early habits of industry ;
regardless of the value of time, &c." This is the first
course.