The Sun.
London, England, 1851-03-12 00:00:00

LITERATURE
THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL AGRI-
CULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.
This journal always abounds with valuable and in-
teresting information, combining, as its motto tells
us, " Practice with Science." The first article of
the present volume is by Mr. Pusey, M.P., " On the
Progress of Agricultural Knowledge during the last
Eight Years." One portion of this paper, " Meteor-
ology," is illustrated by Professor Dove's chart of the
world. The following observations extracted from
this portion of the article are worthy of notice :
" Much light has lately been thrown on climate; and
our own, which was once so much complained of, is
found to be the best in the world for healthful exercise,
and, as I believe, for farming also: because it enjoys
the most temperate summer, combined with the mildest
winter, and, on the whole, a steady downfall of ruin.
No one can have raturned from Calais to Dover without
admiring the refreshing verdure of the English downs.
This we owe to our frequent showers, to our clouded
sky, shielding off the scorching sunshine, and to invisi-
ble vapour diffused in our air. The excess of vapour is
shown by the difficulty of growing in French green-houses
the heath, a plant requir►ng moist air, and the difficulty
of working the English electric telegraph. This mois-
ture arises partly from our neighbourhood to the sea on
all sides, partly to the prevalence of western winds ar-
riving from a wide ocean. Hence comes our grazing
husbandry. Our equable distribution of warmth through
the year gives us our peculiar farming, mixed hus•
bandry, the extensive growth of roots upon corn-land,
producing meat largely as well as broad, the mainte-
nance of stock thus supporting the production of corn.
If our summers were hotter, we could not grow turnips;
if cooler, they would not ripen wheat. If our winters
were colder, turnips would perish. Our forefathers, in-
deed, did not practise root-husbandry. On the easter❑
side of England they took two corn-crops and a naked
fallow, which is the three-course shift still lingering in
Cleveland, and prevailing in Prassia. This is the corn
side of England. On the west side, you may still find
in secluded parts of Wales, or in Devonshire, three or
four oat-crops grown in succession, and the land left as
many years covered with grass. This is the grassy
side, and though the turnip has now overspread Eng-
land, one side of the island is still best suited for corn,
the other for herbage. This difference of produce rests
on a difference of climate, the causes of which are well
understood, but are found in very remote parts of the
globe. Heat and cold, long continued, accumulate in
regions removed from water, because the land there be-
comes constantly hotter or colder whilst the influence of
the sun remains strong or weak, and the wind from the
sea, which varies less in temperature, scarcely reaches
those inland tracts to mitigate the fierce extremes.
Hence the coldest part of the old world is in the centre
of Siberia. As you recede from that point westward
you approach the sea, and hence in winter our cold
comes with north-east winds from Siberia, the great
deposit of cold. But we have happily a distant yet
effective source of warmth also in the Gulf of Mexico,
from which the gulf stream washes our western shores.
This great warm-water apparatus of nature passing even
beyond us stretches northward of the north cape of
Europe, and there, accordingly, though so near the pole,
the coldest wind of winter comes actually from the
south-east. Hence, as is shown in the annexed extract
from Professor Dove's chart, the line of equal cold dur-
ing December runs in Great Britain due north and
south. Hence, the meadows are brown in Essex, while
the grass grows till Christmas in Devonshire. English-
men, indeed, do not know the mildness of an English
winter. London, though on the cold side of England,
is less cold in January than Paris or Milan; and though
they go for warmth to the south of France or to Italy,
deserted Mayo and Connemara, and the shores of Kil-
-1 larney, covered with arbutus, are warmer than Mont-
pellier, or Genoa, or Florence. Such is cur winter cli-
mate. But as spring advances a new cause of warmth
arises. The sandy deserts of Africa and Arabia,
gathering heat, begin to glow like a furnace, and dart
warmth northwards across Europe. Germany lying
nearer to the centre of this burning wilderness becomes
warmer than England, which is now cooled compara-
tively by the sea that warmed it before. So that whereas
in winter the more you advanced east towards Russia
the deeper became the snow, now you find it snore and
more sultry. Hence, hock is grown in the latitude of
Cornwall. The lines of equal temperature now run up
in the map to the north-east. Stockholm and Peters-
burgh, in June, are as warm as London. Hence, the
east side of England, being the warmest in summer, is
the best side for wheat. But, besides the mild winter on
one side, and the warmer summer upon the other, there
is a yet greater difference as to moisture visible and in-
visible. In Devonshire you find fern growing on the
limbs of the oak, and oaks themselves thriving on the
top of high narrow hedgebanks. The air, though clear,
being moist, probably absorbs less water from the surface
of leaves, which therefore require a less supply of water
through the roots. The difference, too, as to visible
moisture, rain, is very great indeed; for, the westerly
winds arriving from the warm gulf stream, charged with
vapour, are chilled by the land and part with that vapour
in rain. If they strike a hilly land (and our western
coast is almost mountainous) the air is driven up from
the level of the sea to a higher and colder region, and
parts with yet more rain. Accordingly, taking 29
places* on the east side of the island, we find the yearly
downfall to be 25i inches; and at 29 places on the west
side to be 49 inches, all but double; while on the Cum-
berland mountains it reaches the enormous amount of
121 and 147 inches. In Northumberland, when a
south-wester blows, they kuow►, I was told, that it is
raining in torrents in Cumberland, 50 miles off, hut they
get none themselves, because the air has been dried i❑
rising over the mountain tops.
" What then is the practical inference for agriculture
from these undoubted facts, established by science?
Caution in laying down general rules. We now see why
a Scotch farmer often fails in England, or a Suffolk far-
mer even in Cheshire. Again, if a landowner desire to
improve his estate in the West Highlands or Galway, he
must look, we see, not to Lincolnshire or Aberdeenshire,
but to some district of kindred moisture. There is, how-
ever, a more definite inference to be drawn even than
these. How can a fixed rule be laid down for the depth
or the distance of drains or the size of the pipes, when
one county has 25 inches of rain and another has 50
inches to be carried off by those drains? The difference
is, in fact, more than this; for a large part of the down-
fall returns to the air from the surface. According to
the most recent and trustworthy experiments published
in this journal by Mr. Charnock, out of 33} inches of
rain, no less than 25 inches are evaporated, 81- inches
only reach a depth of three feet, and therefore pass
through a drain. This was in Yorkshire. But at Ken-
dal there fall 54 inches of rain. The evaporation there,
however, would be not more, but less, because the air
being moister must dry what is exposed to it more slowly.
and tbo evaporation would not exeeed, probably fall short
of 21 inches. There remain, therefore, for the drains
33 inches depth of water in this case, 8i inches only iu
the other—four times as much in Cumberland as i❑
Yorkshire. Yet, hitherto, if a man living in Oxfordshire
said that inch pipes would drain his land well, a voice
from Ayrshire might exclaim that it was absurd to use
less than 1 pipes, which he found far the best. Yet, the
smaller pipe might be more competent to its duty in one
place than the larger one in the other. Henceforth, in
speculations on the agriculture of the country, we
must never lose sight of our material variations in
climate."
• " I have taken the places given in Mr. Whitley's
ler, Journal, vol. xi. p. 13."

T!IE GREAT EXHIBITION.
A very important series of decisions has been come to
by the Commission regarding the juries, upon whom will
devolve the task of awarding prizes in the different
classes of the Exhibition. As upon the soundness of
the rules laid down in this respect, and on the practical
character of the arrangements made, the satisfactory
issue of the whole display must very largely depend,
we invite particular attention to the paper which we
subjoin. It should be observed, with reference to the
mode of striking the juries, that the number of each is
kept as small as possible, consistently with the due re-
presentation of foreign and native interests by an equal
number of jurors. This has been done, of course, to
reader the different juries effective; the Commissioners
disclaim the idea of regulating the number of jurors
by the relative importance of the classes. The diver-
sity of subjects included in each class, the amount of
articles exhibited under it, and the opinions of prac-
tical men qualified by their experience to say how
many each jury should consist of, have been used as
guides to the decisions arrive I at. Dr. Lyon Playfair,
the Commissioner especially charged with this depart
meat of the general business, has skilfully based his
plan upon usages with the equitable character of which
our municipal institutions and the development of our
representative system have long familiarised us. The
different towns will send in their lists of qualified per-
sons to act as jurors, and the Commission will reduce
those lists to the standard number. One possible difli-
culty presents itself from this arrangement in the dis-
appointment which individuals and localities may feel
at being shut out from the jury lists. It must, however,
be borne in mind that the necessity for juries as small
and compact as possible will render exclusions unavoid-
able, and that such exclusions cannot, under the circum-
stances, involve the remotest idea of a slight. To be in-
cluded in the lists sent up by each town must be re-
garded as an honourable distinction, which the sub-
sequent choice or rejection of the Commissioners does
not at all affect. The determination of the principle
upon which foreign jurors are to be appointed has
been prudently postponed until the opinions of the
agents of foreign commissions can be obtained
upon the subject. But at present it seems obvious
that we should have as little as possible to do
with the selections made or the manner of making
them. It is most desirable that the whole responsi-
bility of choosing their own jurors should, in the first
place at least, be thrown upon the foreign contributors
or those acting on their behalf, and if the Royal Com-
mission is to interfere in so delicate a matter, it should
only do so because such interference becomes unavoid-
able. It is in aid of the juries when once constituted
that the elaborate classification of articles drawn up by
Dr. Lyon Playfair, and to which we, on a former occa-
sion, alluded, will have its value and usefulness felt.
This classification has been the first attempt made to do
in the artificial world what has already been done in the
natural by the labours of Linnmus, Cuvier, and others.
The division of the products of human industry into
their respective sections, and the subdivision of each sec-
tion again into its component parts, furnish, if success-
fully done, an admirable method for collecting in precise
and orderly form the scattered and miscellaneous statis-
tics of trade. For those purposes of arrangement and com-
parison. so essential to an exhibition like the present, Dr.
Lyon Playfair's labours are invaluable, and we can only
hope that foreign countries, instead of being guided in the
disposition of their contributions by a desire to please
the eye, will fall readily into a plan which, by distri-
buting their goods in en orderly and systematic manner,
will vastly facilitate the inquiries of those who visit the
Crystal Palace not for amusement but for study, and who
hope to bo made wiser and better men by that vast dis-
play of industry and skill. It is obvious that the useful-
ness of the whole show must largely depend upon an ar-
rangement of its contents founded as much as possible
upon the classification referred to. The manner in
which the awards are made by the different juries must
also, to a great extent, be determined thereby, for if
they have not the requisite facilities for making compa-
risons and coming to fair decision, their verdicts cannot
be expected to be satisfactory.
Some of the foreign agents have, we hear, decided
on adopting the plan of distributing their artio les re-
commended by the Commission, but whether all will do
so or not remains to be seen. Their recent agitation
for increased space, and for exemption from
Custom-house surveillance, has led to a certain
amount of co-operation among them, and we trust
that that combined action, though it has commenced for
objects rather opposed to the harmonious progress of
the preparations, may be continued for a variety of
useful purposes, among which may be specified the best
method of selecting foreign jurors, and the propriety of
arranging their several compartments in the manner
which has been determined on, and which Dr. Lyon
Playfair's classification indicates. As it is probable that
an equal proportion of foreign to British jurors may not
bo forthcoming in all the sections, and as the Commission
propose forming the chairmen of the different juries into
a council for certain purposes, if the chairman of each
jury was elected by it not only would great inconve-
nience and loss of time be caused thereby, but the council
of chairmen would very likely have a preponderance of
our own countrymen in it, which might give rise to sus-
picions of partiality. The Commission have, therefore,
determined to keep in their own hands the power of no-
minating the chairman to each jury. All the regula-
tions connected with this important subject have been
framed by them in a perfectly fair and equitable spirit,
nor can we anticipate that any of the exhibitors from
abroad can take objection to the manner in which the
merits of their contributions are to be judged. Tho
following is an abridged copy of the decisions re-
ferred to:—
There shall be one jury to each of the 30 classes,
into which the Exhibition is divided. The number of
jurors in each jury is determined by the amount cf
articles exhibited in each class, and the greater o r less
diversity of the subjects included in it, but no abstract
idea of the relative importance of the classes is involved
in the numbers attached to them.
"If exhibitors accept the office of jurors, they cease
to be competitors for prizes in the class to whisk they
are appointed, and these cannot be awarded either to
them individually, or to the firms in which they nutty be
partners. Juries may take evidence when a majority of
the jury deem it advisable, and name the persons to be
consulted. Juries of another class may also be called in
aid by a jury, when a knowledge involved in that cless
is required. Juries may act in matters of detail by sub-
committees, but no award can be made except by the
majority of the jury. Before a jury can publish its
awards, they must be submitted to a council consisting
of the chairmen of all the juries, for the purpose of se-
curing uniformity of action. The awards of a jury,
when reported by the council of chairmen, are final.
The juries will commence their duties on Monday, the
12th of May, at ten o'clock, and will be aided in the
general transaction of the business by a person to be
named by the Royal Commissioners, who by himself, or by
a deputy to be approved of by the Commission, may be
present at their deliberations, for the purpose of ex-
plaining the rules of the Commission. This nominee of
the Commission will not have a vote in any of the ju-
ries, or at all interfere in the adjudication of awards.
" The jury will in general consist of an equal number
of British subjects and of foreigners. If foreign com-
missions do not send a sufficient number of foreigners
to represent one-half of the jurors in each class, the de-
ficient numbers may be completed by the appointment of
British subjects. Country as well as metropolitan dis•
tricts will be represented on the jury. Each jury will be
presided over by a chairman, to be nominated by the
Commissioners, and he will be aided by a deputy-chair-
man, to be elected by the jury. Juries may appoint one
of their own body as a reporter.
" The chairmen of the 30 juries will be associated as

ARRIVALS FOR THE EXHIBITION.
From Demerara we have already received several
hundred specimens of the wood of the colony, and several
barrels containing plaintain meal and plantain fibre.
From Greece there has been sent some exquisite an-
cient and modern sculpture. From Hamburgh we
are to expsct, foremost in the works of art, the
Fries, designed, drawn, and a specimen of its sculp-
ture by Engelhardt, a disciple of the late Schwanthalar
at Munich. The Fries represents northern mythology.
There is another figure in gypsum, by the same artist,
and a small one in bronze by him, representing
Richard the Lion-hearted on horseback, both exceed-
ingly well done. There is also a large glass tumbler,
in which one of the campaigns of. Alexander the Great
is cut, and a glass plate representing on both sides, in
different colours, the battle of Marston Moor. Among
the various arrivals from all parts of the world for the
Exhibition, not the least remarkable is one which has
just taken place cf some bales of hops by the steamer
Sir Edward Bankes, from Ostend, the produce
of Belgium. Tuscany, too, has eagerly responded
to the appeal made by England. Upwards of seventy
packages are expected from that country. Among other
interesting articles to be exhibited will be a mosaic
table (the private property of his Royal Highness the
Grand Duke), made of hard stone, which is the work of
eighteen years' labour, and is valued at 600,000 francs.
Twenty-ono packages, a howitzer, and other consign-
ments, have already come from Spain; and other
countries are preparing to join in the generous con-
test of all nations. Meanwhile, their representa-
tives are one by one appearing on the scene
of action. First, we see it announced that M. Sal-
landrouze de la Mornaix, General Commissioner of
the French Government for the Universal Exhibition,
has arrived, with the staff of the Commission lately
appointed, at his residence in George-street, Hanover
square. Next we learn that the members of the Greek
Commission are in London, and have taken possession
of the space in the building allotted to Greece; and
then we are told that M. P. Corridi, Professor at the
University of Pisa, and Director of the Technological
Institute of Florence, having been appointed by the
Government of Tuscany as special commissioner for the
Great Exhibition, has arrived, and been received by
several members of the Royal Commission, to whom he
presented his credentials.—The Weekly IVews.

a body, to be called the ' council of chairmen.' In the
absence of a chairman, the deputy-chairman will take
his seat at the council. The council of chairmen will be
constituted, as far as practicable, of British subjects and
foreigners in equal numbers. The first duties of the
council of chairmen will be to frame rules for the guid-
ance of the juries. The council will also have to deter-
mine the conditions under which the Ist, 2d, and 3d
class medals respeenectral iveprinciplesly are to
to be
which awarded, and
to define the git
be advisable to conform in the awards in the
several departments of the Exhibition. It is the wish
of the Commission that medals should be awarded
to articles possessing decided superiority of whatever
nature that superiority may be, and not with reference
to a merely individual competition. The three classes of
medals are intended to distinguish the respective charac-
ters of subjects, and not as first, second, and third in de-
gree for the same class of subjects. The council of
chairmen must see that awards of the individual juries
are in accordance with the rules before they are consi-
dered final. Although the Commissioners may be dis-
posed, under peculiar circumstances, to consider the pro-
priety of peculiar grants to individual exhibitors, they
will only take such applications into consideration on the
the recommendation of the several juries, sanctioned by
the council of chairmen. As some of the most import-
ant duties of the council of chairmen are preliminary to
the action of the juries, it is necessary that they should
meet one week previous to the assembling of the juries.
The duties of the council will therefore commence on
Monday, May 5. In order to represent the wishes of the
Commission, and to explain its rules, a nominee of the
Commission will attend the meetings of the council,
and aid it in the transaction of business ; but he will
not possess a vote, or act as a member of the council.
" Those towns which exhibit to a considerable extent
in any of the classes, will be invited to send a list of
names of persons who would efficiently represent the
knowledge of those classes as jurors. It will be neces-
sary to state, according to the classified jury list, the sub-
divisions of the class with which the person recommended
is specially acquainted; and all nominations must be
made in classes, and not in the aggregate. As it is ne-
cessary to reduce the lists to the standard number for
each jury, the Commission charges itsi It with this duty.
Those persons who have been recommended as jurors,
but who from the small numbers of the jury are not
placed on it, may, on the application of a jury, be called
in on special occasions to give aid, under the title of as-
sociates, but without a vote. Although it is impossible
to set apart special days in which the juries alone can
examine the articles exhibited, to the exclusion of the
public, arrangements will be meld° to carry on these ex-
aminations with as little iucenveuit nee as possible.
The paper fixes the exact number of jurors in each
class—the lowest number being 6, the highest I`2, and
the whole 270. Of these, therefore, by the proposed
plan, 135 will be foreige era. The only section which is
exempted from the preceding arrangements is that of
agriculture' implements, which is left to the usual mode
of testing merit resorted to by the Royal Agricultural
Society, with this simple proviso—that foreigners may
be added to the list of judges if desired.
'as

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London.
CITY SEWERS CommissioN.--Yesterday 5 court
was held for the dispatch of business. Mr. Deputy Peacock
\presided. Upon the application of Mr. David Davis, the
carriage builder to the Great Weston Railway, a proposition
made by him for the establishment of a " retiring carriage',
,
1 for gentlemen was received; and upon the motion of Mr.
Deputy Harrison, seconded by Deputy Holt, it was agreed
that two of the same should be permitted to stand for the
convenience of the public during the pleasure of the corn-
missQiobreliersk,.e_neikaditotiinqahre.statuto of King William, in ,
East-
cheap, and the other at the wederh 04 a Cheapside near
I the l 5

- -e- -
THE OUTER liinnlnts-.-413e !Glasgow section of
the Highland DeStitution Board;" übder whose charge the
outer Hebrides were placed for relief purposes, have appro-
priated 6501. out of the balance in their hands, for the alle-
viation of the most pressing cases of destitution in those
islands.

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY

THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

bare possibility of such a contest or its instructive re-
membrance would sown work a change in the ttionJits
and ideas of the haute noblesse. Airs of patronage would
be laid aside for a worthier style of political bearing;
condescension would give place to conference, and the
voice of command to the accents of counsel.
But, above all, the extension of the elective franchise
to all holders of rated tenements, whether lands or
houses, of the yearly value of 101., would create a pub-
lic spirit in the whole communities and throughout ex-
tensive districts where it now has no existence. The
only question on which the owners of counties have for
the last ten years allowed the occupiers to go through
the unmeaning form of giving an estate vote has been
protection. To keep it up, the occupiers of the soil were
drawn out on parade in 1841; and to get it back, they
were marshalled in like manner at the general election
of 1847. So, likewise, if there were a dissolution to-
m mow, the same exhibition would be attempted
throughout the agricultural districts. All other ques-
tions, all real questions, all questions in which the in-
dustrious millions who live by agriculture are practically
concerned—these are pooh-poohed as vulgar and igno-
rant notions by those who have hitherto kept the county
representation as an heirloom for the few great families.
It any wilful or hard headed elector ventures to put in-
terrogatories about taxation, rent, tithe, or peer-rate.),
he is met with a civil rebuff for his pains, or a well-bred
stare. But the power to enforce a reply is wanting. The
spirit that animates the town populations is not to be
found. A choice between blue and yellow is to be
made, perhaps, but not by the freeholiers and 501.
tenants at will. They are too few to dare to assert their
independence. The county Members are nominees of
the aristocracy, not representatives of the people.
Such is the state of things which the House of Com-
mons, not three weeks ago, declared by a majority of
two to one, its earnest desire to amend. The proces,,
which Mr. Locke King proposes to try for that purpose
is simple enough, He asks that the principle of the
town franchise should be applied to counties; and that
every man occupying or paying rent for a house or for
land worth 101. per annum should be entitled to give a
vote for Members of Parliament. Can any one show
any just cause or impediment why this should not be
done? Will anybody pretend that the possession of the
same amount of property in a suburban parish implies
a less degree of worth or intelligence than in the cloudy
regions of a manufacturing town? Does the clearer at-
mosphere incapacitate the rural ten-pounder? Or does
his civic brother inhale political discrimination and
judgment from imperfect sewers? And if not, how can
the opponents of so moderate and reasonable a proposi-
tion as this justify themselves in refusing to give it a
second reading?

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
(From the Times.)
Government again in a minorit3 ! The butt has only
been set on end to be knocked down again. All the agonies
of the Ministerial crisis have merely given us a target
for ambitious or diseffectel reformers to try their skill
upon. Mr. Locke King scored two to one against his
political chief. Lord Duncan must be content with a
more modest victory. He last night carried his resole
tion for a reform of the Woods and Forests by a majority
of one, the division being 120 against 119. As it ap-
pears to be a settled thing that Lord John Russell must
be our Minister, and as appearances indicate that he
must be continually beaten, the destined hero of a hun-
dred defeats will probably take this little unpleasantness
as a matter of course. It is only by one, and it is only
by the merest accident that it wasn't one the other way.
Besides, the House was a small one. We must wait to
see, however, what his Lordship will actually say to it.
Men of business, anxious to see the great national loco-
motive once more in gear, will be apt to say that " a
miss is as good as a mile," or, to keep to the metaphor,
if the engine once gets off the rail, it might as
well be a mile off. A great problem. it is clear, is
iu process of solution, and Lord John Russell is,
much against his will, the corpus of the exp -ri •
mont. We have a Premier, it is true, bu', in the lan-
guage of the Stock Exchange, he is a Premier at a dis-
count. There was a time when our rulers were con-
tented with a working majority; it now appears that
they can put up with a working minority;—indeed, they
must, and we all of us must, for there is no other alter-
native. Most of the nations of Europe have been trying
experiments on Government, with some rather singular
results. We aro about to furnish our national contribu-
tion to the political museum. Lord John Russell will
occupy no unimportant position in the pantheon of Mi-
nisterial martyrs. Some of his contemporaries have
been slain, others banished, others cast in prison, others
reduced to foreign subjection, while others have sunk
under mortification or toil. Lord John Russell's is a
tardier and mere refined martyrdom. Endowed with
the fatal gift of Ministerial immortality, he is condemned
to a perpetual repetition of the mortal stroke. Well, as
there is no accounting for tastes, so there is no setting
bounds to necessities. There are people who like to be
abused. There are tradesmen who grow rich on bank-
ruptcies. The King of Pontus lived upon poisons, and
we have even heard of people who maintained themselves
by dying. Our new order of political flagellants sus-
tain life and credit by periodical castigation.
As for the particular subject of last night's reverse,
that is a minor consideration. Under the frequent re-
petition of such disasters, little count is kept of the pro-
voking causes. We hardly know which way our general
good intentions to Government would incline us to speak
about the present affair. Is it kind to say that they
were in the right last night? If in the right, why
were they beaten? Why did not their majority of three
hundred odd gather to their defence? If a man is de-
serted by his friends even when he is right, how much
more when he is wrong, as must be one time or an-
other with every human being? What hope is left if
truth and justice will not secure a triumph? It is the
kindest course to admit that Government was in the
wrong. A plain rule of common sense has been violated
in this instance, as in that of Mr. Locke King's motion.
When a Minister finds that a Member of the Legislature
has made a walk for himself, and mastered his subject,
so as to command the confidence of many other Mem-
bers upon it, and to be sure of considerable support for
any measure he may propose, it becomes the duty
of the Minister to deal with that Member and his
cause in a rational and conclusive manner. If the Mem-
ber is wholly wrong, give him battle, but not without
mustering your forces and making every preparation. If
ho has truth on his side, but error also, then take the
wind out of kis sails by a poposition of your own, em-
bodying his truth and avoiding his error, and give your
proposition, if possible, the star!, of his, so that yours
shall not be disparaged by coming on at the last as a
mere excuse or "put off." If
.that Member is decidedly
in the right, then encourage him and co- operate with
him; and, above all, if his character and condition
allow, invite him into office, and secure at the same time
his services and his influence. But what Government in
the world will go on long with its places filled by respect-
able cyphers, while there are ambitious and capable men
all around you who have nothing to do but master the
subjects which your subordinates do not master,
and concoct measures which you have not the industry
to prepare or the courage to propose ? After the fatal
exposure of the " Woods and Forests"in the Committee,
after the unanimous judgment of the country against
the present management, and after the Bill of last ses-
sion, some very definite course ought to have been taken
this session. A Bill ought to have been prepared, or a
good reason given for postponing it to next year. As a
mere matter of political business, care should have been
taken either to anticipate Lord Duncan, or to give way
to him, or to beat him.
The strength of Lord Duncan's case, and perhaps
almost the whole of that strength, is that some alteration
is necessary. It by no means follows that his remedy
is the best that could be imagined. The plan of voting
upon estimates annually submitted to the House is not
so uniformly successful against extravagance, folly, and
peculation, as to be hailed at once as a specific for the
Woods and Forests. Indeed, the experience of the pre-
vious night was sufficient to show the little impediment
that Parliamentary forms will interpose when millions
are to be voted. The revenue of the Crown estates
would be a mere trifle in the imaginations of men ac-
customed to docks, fortifications, harbours of refuge,
and Houses of Parliament. Indeed, we almost despair
of seeing the House of Commons ever really economical
itself in its direct action, though it may indirectly do
good, by refusing new taxes, and giving its support to
economical Ministers. But if it does admit of a question
whether it be wise to put the Woods and Forests into
the estimates, for that very reason it was desirable not
to leave Lord Duncan's measure in exclusive possession
of the ground, or, at least, in prior possession.
As it
is, nothing is more likely than that a rash and sweeping
measure may be passed for want of a better considered
one; and forward courage, as, indeed it deserves, may
legislate for us instead of hesitating prudence.
But what is to be done? We are now living under a
perpetual Ministerial crisis—a state as abnormal as a
lever or a fit of hysterics. A Parliament without a
regular lead is a legislative anarchy, and there are not a
few men in the present House of Commons who will
rejoice in the opportunity of a general disorganisation.
Nobody knows whom to look to, or where to look
to for the measures of the session, and perhaps the last
part of the House whence they may be expected to pro-
ceed is the Treasury bench. To sit there by sufferance,
it is evident, does not involve legislation by sufferance,
for it is far easier to be tolerant of men than of mea-
sures. A few more such incidents as last night's, and
again there looms upon us a dissolution as the last re-
source. We can only say—Heaven forefend it. Any-
thing rather than that. It is believed that the Irish
brigade, as it is called, will be doubled the next general
election by the operation of the late electoral reform
for that island ; and it is possible that even the
Protectionists should find themselves somewhat
stronger. Both these changes would increase the
difficulties, we will not say of the present Govern-
ment, but of government and legislation altogether. In
fact, the only result would be an indefinite exaggeration
of our present evils. We have no fear of ever seeing
our commercial policy reversed, because we do not think
the leading Protectionists such absolute desperadoes as
to attempt it; indeed, the smallest glimpse of responsi-
bility sets them to work qualifying their professions, and
reducingidle talk to the measure of practice. We are
not afraid of this, but we cannot thick it expedient for
the country that Government should pass into the hands
of men deeply committed to the interests of a class. The
immediate perils arising from their rashness and inex-
perience would be considerable; and not less those
which would arise from the strength aad fury of the
opposition such a Government would certainly have to
encounter.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE:
ROME CIRCUIT.—Lewes, March 11.
The business for the county of Sussex commenced on
Monday. There were 50 prisoners for trial, but with
the exception of some cases of burglary the whole of the
charges in the gaol calendar appear to be of the ordi-
nary description. The cause list is very meagre in-
deed, there being only six entered.
CIVIL SlDE.—(Before Mr. Baron PARKE and a Com-
mon Jury.)
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.
CRACE V. WILSON.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, Rose
Sarah Crace, to recover damages from William Henry
Wilson, the defendant, for the breach of his promise to
marry her.
The defendant pleaded that before the breach was
committed the plaintiff had exonerated him from the
promise he had made.
Sergeant Shee and Mr. Needham were for the plain-
tiff; and Mr. M. Chambers, Q.C., and Mr. Willes for
the defendant.
Mr. Chambers said that by the form of the pleadings
it devolved upon him, as the counsel for the defendant,
to make out the plea he had put upon record—that the
plaintiff had exonerated him from the promise he had
made to marry her. He admitted that he had made the
promise, but he said that the plaintiff had of her
own accord absolved him from that promise, and
had, in fact, discharged him from it ; and if
he should establish that fact to the satisfaction of
the jury, the defendant would be entitled to their
verdict. The plaintiff, Miss Rose Sarah Crace, was the
daughter of a gentleman residing in London. He was
unhappily separated from his wife, and Miss Crace had,
in consequence, been to a great extent deprived of the
advantages of a home, and she had maintained herself
in a respectable manner by the exercise of her talents as
a governess. In the year 1844 she became acquainted
with the defendant at a time when she was on a visit in
the neighbourhood of Arundel, in which town his father
held an appointment under the Customs. At this period
he was twenty and she was eighteen years of age. The
plaintiff was invited to the house of the defendant's
father, but at this period there did not appear to be any
close intimacy between her and the defendant. After-
wards, however, there was no doubt that an intimacy
did spring up between the parties, and that a promise of
marriage was made by the defendant. For reasons
which it was not necessary at this stage of the case for
him to enter into, the family of the defendant were averse
to the marriage, and in the month of November, last
year, the plaintiff, accompanied by some other relations,
went to the house of Mr. Edward Wilson, a brother of
the defendant, in London, and upon that occasion she
stated distinctly that if he would say that it was of his
OWLI accord that he desired the match to be broken off,
she would discharge him from his promise and return his
letters; and upon his saying so, the plaintiff said she re-
leased him from the promise of marriage, and she should
think no more about him. Ho should prove this fact
by the testimony of the relations of the defendant, who
wore present upon the occasion; and if it was esta-
blished to the satisfaction of the jury, the defendant
would be entitled to their verdict.
Mr. John Wilson deposed that he was father to the
defendant. He knew the plaintiff, and remembered her
being on a visit at his house four or five years ago. An
intimacy subsisted between them at that time. Ho
never approved of the intimacy, but he could not say
that he ever positively objected to it. He first became
acquainted with the plaintiff upon the occasion of her
visiting a relative at Patworth.park, near Arundel. In
November last, in consequence of a communication he
had with his son Edward, he went to London, and on
the 27th of that month he saw the plaintiff and her
brother and sister at his son Edward's house. The
defendant was also present. The plaintiff talked a
great deal, and he heard her say to the defendant, that
if he had broken off the marriage of his own accord she
had no wish for it, and that she would relieve him from
his promise and give him up all his letters. His son,
when she said this, replied that what he was doing with
regard to the breaking off the marriage was done en-
tirely of his own free will. After this the plaintiff and
her relations had some refreshment, and they all parted
on very friendly terms. His son was at present a land-
ing-waiter in the port of London, and his salary was
1501. a year.
By Sergeant SarEE—Had known the plaintiff since
she was 18 years old. His son was also on a visit at
Patworth-park, and it was by this means he became ac-
quainted with the plaintiff. Their intimacy had con-
tinued ever since that period, but, he was not aware
that his son first made an offer of marriage to the plain-
tiff in 1845. The defendant was not very communica-
tive upon the matter. It he had been he would not have
got into the present dilemma. He was now about 26 or
27. He could not tell exactly what year he was born
in.—(A laugh.) He could not say that all this time the
plaintiff Lad been looked upon as the intended wife of
his son, but it certainly was something very like it. He
was aware that they were engaged to each other. He
knew that the plaintiff was engaged as a governess in
several respectable families, and he had reason to be-
lieve that his eon was very much attached to her. He
did not sanction what was going on, but certainly he did
not stoutly oppose it. He understood that the mar-
riage was -fixed to take place on the 28th of November,
and the meeting to which he referred took place on the
27th. He understood that the marriage licence had
been obtained, and that apartments had also been
taken for them to reside in after the marriage.
Ho did not think that his son attained the appointment
he held in the Custom House through the intervention
of Miss Crace's friends. His son said very little at the
meeting on the 27th. All he did was, to state that he acted
of his own accord in refusing to marry the plaintiff. The
plaintiff did not appear very much distressed. She did
not cry, at least he did not see any tears. The defendant
said, that what had been done had been done with his
own free will, and the plaintiff then said that she dis-
engaged him from his promise, or words to that effect.
The plaintiff did not lay hold of his son's hand and touch
him at any part of the interview.
Re-examined—Witness was very indignant at the pro-
posed marriage. His son told him that he had been in-
vited to dinner by the brother of the plaintiff, and that
after dinner the subject of the marriage was brought for-
ward, and he agreed to marry the plaintiff on the follow-
ing Tuesday. They wanted to know why he did not
marry the plaintiff, and upon his stating that he was
under some pecuniary difficulty, the brother of the plain-
tiff offered to lend him 501., and he was to pay 20 per
cent. for the loan. The son also told him that the mar-
riage dinner was to take place at the house of Mr. Henry
Crace, but none of his relations were to be invited, and
if he wished to have any of them he was to order a din-
ner at Hampton, and pay for it himself.
Mr. Edward Wilson, brother to the defendant, deposed
that he was a surgeon, and resided in Great Ceram-
street, Brunswick-square. In November of last year he
received a communication upon the subject of the in-
tended marriage, and ho in consequence called upon Mr.
Henry Crace, the brother of the plaintiff, and that gen-
tleman and his wife and the plaintiff came to his house
on the 28th November. Witness's father, Mrs. Salter,
a married sister, and the defendant, were present at the
interview. He heard the plaintiff say distinctly that if
the defendant left her of her own free will she would
give him up immediately. His brother replied that it
was of his owe free will, and the plaintiff made no re-
ply. The plaintiff's brother asked the defendant why
he refused to marry her, and ho replied that he had not
sufficient confidence in her to make her his wife. After
this took place they had refreshment and shook hands,
and parted apparently upon friendly terms. At the in-
terview he had in the first instance with Mr. and Mrs.
Crace, he understood that it was the desire of ail parties
that the match should be broken off and that they should
mutually release each other.
By Sergeant SuEn—He was aware that the plaintiff'
and his brother had been intimate bine° 1845, and that
the plaintiff had been received in the family as his
in-
tended wife. He did not observe that the plaintiff'w
of
very much distressed upon that occasion. He spokeh
meeting, he told Mr. Craze that _
her condition professionally. Oalberodthayerfowlaloswsioniti.ae
stut
jabteudityweitahnhdthat the match
it
ter very much doubted his
might still take place.
his sister
th ou tgilt
Mrs. Salter, the sister
evidence as to what took place at the interview in
question.
Sergeant SUER then addressed the jury for the plain-

(From the Daily News.)
Brevity has been long regarded as the soul of wit, and
in former times it was esteemed a merit in legislation.
The practice of modern days, whether referable to our
progress in dulness or in love of detail, has become sig-
nally the reverse. Acts of Parliament have come to be
of such prolixity and complication, that a table of con-
tents is almost regarded as indispensable; and to hazard
an opinion as to the meaning of a clause implies the
disciplined courage of a lawyer. To the laity it is no
longer given to be able to comprehend the multitudinous
provisions of the laws under which they live.
Mr. Locke King app, resolved to try whether there
is any charm in verbosity and technical jargon. Having
somewhat unexpectedly obtained leave to bring in a
County Suffrage Reform Bill, he has evidently made up
his mind to give the House of Commons another sure
prise: and this he has, we should think, succeeded in
doing, by producing a Bill whose terms every body can
understand, and whose total length does not exceed thirty
lines! We should not be surprised if so glaring and
audacious an innovation led to the formation of a con-
spiracy among all the big wigs
and all the little
wigs of the House; and that upon the second reading,
whenever that shall be, elaborate arguments were re-
sorted to in order to prove that the simple proposition of
the ingenuous Member for Surrey ought to be consigned
to a Select Committee, for tho purpose of being trans-
lated into the learned and diffuse dialect of what is
called the Constitution.
Should it escape that danger, however, the represen-
tatives of the nation will have in appropriate monosyllables
to say aye'or no to this brit feat of Bills. We are
not so sanguine as to hope that the speeches prefatory
to these decisive ejaculations will be equally concise or
to the purpose. We can imagine the variety and vague-
ness of the pretexts which the farmers' friends will as-
sign for not choosing to trust a greater number of them
with the right of voting than they think they can manage
and control at future elections. South Notts has
thoroughly alarmed them. Their monopoly of produce
was taken from them in 1846; and now their monopoly
of power is in danger. In every county there is known
to exist a malcontent minority of 501,
tenants at will, and
freeholders who have long desired to emancipate them-
selves from the insolent thraldom of oligarchical compact
and clique; but who from their want of numerical strength
have been compelled to accept the nomination system.
Add to these in each shire a thousand or two, many of
whom are I.kely to belong to the smaller towns not re-
turning Members to Parliament—and we should speedily
see a change of tone and temper in the mode of conduct-
ing county elections. Personal qualities would no longer
be thought entre "incidental advantages." The second
and third class of the gentry would by degrees look to
the representation as a legitimate object of public am-
bition; and learn to render themselves acceptable poli-
tically to the community amidst whom they live. The
best man of county business, and the man who habitu-
ally showed
that he unieratood and sympathised with
the farmer's condWon, w mild be " called on to stand"
where now nobody ever dreams of such a thing. Here
such a man might get in; there he might fail. But in
both cases the public interest would be served. The