The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-27 00:00:00

THE Bl?ITISJI ASSOCIATION.

LEEDS, SEPT.-25.
Yesterday was an idle day with the members of
the British Association, for though all the sections
assembled as usual, with a good array of business
to dispose of, most of them discontinued sitting
after one o'clock. Saturday, in the former days of
the Association, was the excursion day, and though
that regulation has been formally broken through
and the excursion day is postponed to the Thursday
following, yet the old members still remember
Saturday as a holiday. A horticultural show at
Kirkstall Abbey, and a public distribution of prizes
to the successful candidates at the Oxford middle-
class examination, also tended to thin the section
rooms, and the many objects of interest thrown
open for inspection in the town required a leisure
day. The weather, which had previously been very
unfavourable, cleared up yesterday, and invited
strangers to look about them, so that science did
not advance far in its progress.
There has been a very full attendance of vistors
at the meeting, and the friends of the association
will, no doubt, benefit by the visit to Leeds.
Amongst the names entered on the list, in addition
to those already given, are Professor Airey, Sir
Charles Anderson, the Earl of Bradford, Mr. M. T.
Baines, Sir Charles Barry, Mr. Bazley, Sir Ben-
jamin Brodie, the Rev. J. Barlow, Sir David
Brewster, Lord Alwyne Compton, Mr. E. Chad-
wick, Sir Phillip Egerton, Professor Eckard, le
Marquis de Fontenelle, Capt. Fishbourne, Professor
Faraday, Lord Goderich, Admiral Grace, Lieut.-
Col. Goodenough, Rev. Dr. Hook, Professor Hark-
ness, Mr. J. Heywood, Sir W. Jardine, Sir John
Johnstone, Rev. J. Kenrick, Mr. Monckton Milnes,
Mr. J. S. Russell, Col. Rawlinson, the Dean of
Ripon, Professor Rogers, Count de Strzelecki, the
Marquis of Stafford, Mr. Robert Stephenson, Mr.
James Yates, &c. The sum received up to Friday
night was £1,714.

-Professor PHILLIPS on Friday evening delivered
a lecture in the Town Hall on the ironstones of
Cleveland, in Yorkshire, and showed the great
development which the working of iron has
undergone in that district since 1848, when it was
first undertaken. The want of coal in the imme-
diate neighbourhood delayed the progress for some
time, but the supplies since received by railway
from the Durham and Yorkshire coal fields have

removed that obstruction to the development of the
works, and nearly two million tons of iron stone
are now annually quarried and smelted there.
The bands of iron stone vary in thickness from 8
to 32 feet, and the quantity of metal amounts in
some to 50 per cent. Three bands of ironstone
extends over an area of 200 square miles.
The opening address of Sir John Herschel, in the
Chemical Section, was unfortunately inaudible to
most of the company, owing to the low tone of
voice in which he speaks, and he has consequently
been induced to print it. Copies were issued yes-
terday, and the greater portion of it is subjoined.
It is to be hoped that his remarks on the growing
confusion arising from the multiplication of terms
in organic chemistry not correctly applied will have
good effect. After some introductory remarks he
observed •--

" Since organic chemistry has assumed, by the
experiments and reasonings of Dumas, Liebig,
Hoffmann, and its other distinguished cultivators,
that highly abstract and intellectual form under
which it now presents itself, and which by the
links of the platina bases, and compounds such as
those described by Gibbs and Genth under the
name of the ammonio-cobaltic bases, and by those
which are every day coming into view by the
mutual interweaving, if I may use such an
expression, of the organic and inorganic systems of
composition in bases such as those of the metallic
ethvls and those of boron and silicon, it seems to
place these conceptions in much the same sort of
rehition to the ordinary atomic theory as put iorth
by Dalton and Higgins, and the elementary notions
of oxide, acid, and base of Lavoisier, that the tran-
scendental analysis holds to common algebra. And
here perhaps I may be tolerated if I put in a word
of reclamation against the system of notation
into which chemists, who for the most part are not
algebraists, have fallen, in expressing their atomic
formulae. These formulae have been gradually
taking on a character more and more repulsive
to the algebraical eye. There is a principle
which I think ought to be borne in mind in framing
the conventional notations as well as nomenclatures
of every science, at every new step in its progress,
viz.—that as sciences do not stand alone, but casist

in mutual relation to each other—as it is for their
common interest that there should exist among
them free communication on their frontier points
—the language they use and the signs they employ
should be framed in such a way as at least not to
contradict each other. As the atomic formulae
used by the chemist are not merely symbolic of the
mode in which atoms arc grouped, but are intended
also to express-numerical relations, indicative of the
aggregate weights of the several atoms in each
group and the several groups in each compound, it
is distressing to the algebraist to find that he can-
not interpret a chemical formula (I mean in its nu-
merical application) according to the received rules
of arithmetical computation. In a paper which I
published a long time ago on the hyposulphites, I
was particularly careful to use a mode of notation
which, while perfectly clear in its chemical sense,
and fully expressing the relations of the groupings
I allude to, accommonated itself at the same time
perfectly well to numerical computation, no symbol
being in any case juxtaposed, or in any way inter-
combined withone another, so as to violate the strict
algebraical meaning of the formula. This system
seemed for a while likely to be generally adopted,
but it has been more and more departed from, and
I think with a manifest corresponding departure
from intelligibility. The time is perhaps not very
far distant when from a knowledge of the family to
which a chemical element belongs, and its order in
that family, we may be able to predict with confi-
dence the system of groups into which it is capable
of entering, and the part it will play in the combi-
nation. A great step in this direction seems to me
to have been lately made by Professor Cook, of the
Haavard University, of the United States (in a me-
moir which forms part of the sth volume of the
Memoirs of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences), to extend and carry out the classification
of chemical elements into families of the kind
I allude to, in a system of grouping, in
which the first idea, or rather the first germ
of the idea, may be traced to a remark made by M.
Dumas, in one of his reports to this association, and
which is founded on the principle of arranging them
in a series, in each of which the atomic weight of
the elements it comprises are found among the terms
of an arithmetical progression, the common differ-
ence of which in the several series are 3,4, 5,6, 8,
and 9 times the atomic weight of hydrogen respec-
tively: So arranged they form six groups, which
are fairly entitled to be considered natural families,
each group having common properties in the highest
degree characteristic ; and what is more remarkable,
the initial member in each group possessing in every
case the characteristic property of the group in its
most eminent degree, while the others exhibit that
property in a less and less degree, according to their
rank in the progression, or according to the in-
creased numerical value of the atomic equivalent.
Generally speaking, I am a little slow to give full

credence to numerical generalisations of 'this sort-,
because we are apt to find their authors either tak-
ing some liberties with the numbers themselves, or
demanding a wider margin of error in the applica-
tion of their principles than the precision of the ex-
perimental data renders it possible to accord, so that
the result is more or less wanting in that close ap-
pliance to nature which makes all the difference
between a loose analogy and a physical law ; but in
this instance it certainly does appear that the
groups so arising not only do correspond remark-
ably well in their theoretical numbers with those
which the best authorities assign to their elements,
but that it really would be difficult to distinguish
the elements themselves into more distinctly cha-
racteristic 'classes by a consideration of their quali-
ties alone, without reference to their atomic num-
bers. When we find, for instance, that the prin-
ciple affords us such family groups as oxygen,
fluorine, chlorine, bromine, and iodine self-arranged
in that very order ; or again, nitrogen, phosphorus,
arsenic, antimony, and bismuth ; when we find
that it packs together in one group all the more
active and soluble electro-positive elements,
hydrogen, lithium, sodium, and potassium, and
in another the more inert and less soluble
ones. calcium, strontium, barium, and lead
and that, without outraging any other
system of relations, it certainly does seem that we
have here something very like a valid generalisa-
tion ; and I shall be very glad to learn in the course
of any discussions which may arise on such matters
as may be brought before us in the regular conduct
of our business from those more competent to judge
than myself, whether I have been forming an over-
weening estimate of the value and importance of
such generalisations. I will only add on this point,
in reference to what fell from our excellent presi-
dent in his address to the assembled association last
night, that this kind of speculation followed out
would seem to me to terminate in a point very far
from that which would regard all the members of
each of these family groups as allotropes of one fun-
damental one, inasmuch as the common difference
of the several progressions which their atomic
weights go to make up, are neither equal to nor in
all cases commensurate with the first terms of these
progressions. For instance, in the chlorine group
the first term being 8, the common difference is 9.
Something very different from allotropism is surely
suggested by such a relation. It would rather seem
to point to a dilution of energy of one primary de-
ment by :the superaddition of dose after dose of
some other modifying element, and this the more
strikingly since we find oxygen standing at the
head of very distinct groups having very striking
correspondences in some respects, and very striking
differences in others. But all these speculations
Lake for -granted a principle, with which I must
confess I think chemists have allowed themselves
to be far too easily satisfied—viz., that all the
atomic numbers are multiples of that of hydrogen.
Not until these numbers are determined with a pre-
cision approaching to that of the elements of the
planetary orbits, a precision which can leave no
possible question of a tenth or a hundredth of a per
cent., and in the presence of which such errors as
are at present regarded as tolerable in the atomic
numbers of even the best determined elements shall
be considered utterly inadmissible, I think can this
question be settled—and when such gigantic conse-
quences, so entire a system of native is to be based
on a principle, nothing short of such evidence ought,
I think, to be held conclusive, however seductive the

theory may appear. Ido not think such precision
unattainable, and I think I perceive a way in which
it might be attained, but one that would involve an
expenditure of time, labour, and money, such as no
private individual could bestow on it. If the phe-
nomena of chemistry are ever destined to be reduced
under the dominion of mathematical analysis, it
will no doubt be a Very circuitous and intricate
route, and in which at present we see no glimpse of
light. We should therefore be all the more care-
fully on the watch in making the most of those
classes of facts which seem to place us, not indeed
within view of daylight, but at what seems an
opening that may possibly lead to, it. Such are
those in which the agency of light is concerned in
Modifying or subverting the ordinary affinities of
material elements, those to which the name of
actino-chemistry has been affixed. Hitherto the
more attractive applications of photography have
had too much the effect of distracting the attention
from the purely chemical questions which it raises,
but the more we consider them in the abstract, the
more strongly they force themselves on our notice,
and I look forward to their occupying a much
larger space in the domain of chemical inquiry than .
is the case at present. That light consists in the
undulations of an ethereal medium, or at all events
agrees better in the characters of phenomena with
such undulations, than with any other kind of mo-

tion which it has yet been possible to imagine, is a
proposition on which I suppose the minds of physi-
cists are pretty well made up. The recent re-
searches of Professor Thomson and Mr. Joule more-
over have gone a great way towards bringing into
vogue, if not yet fully into acceptation, the doctrine
of a more or less analogous conception of heat.
When we consider now the marked influence which
the different calorific states of bodies have on their
affinities—the change of crystalline form effected
in some by a changing temperature--the allotropic
states taken on by some on exposure to heat—<r the
heat given out by others on their' restoration from
the allotropic to the ordinary form (for, though I
am aware that Mr. Gore considers his electro-
deposited antimony to be a compound, I cannot help
fancying that, at all events, the :tate in which the
antimony exists in it is an allotropic one) ; when,
I say, we consider these facts in which heat is con-
cerned, and compare them with the facts of pho-
tography, and with the ozonization of oxygen by
the chemical rays of the electric spark, and with
the striking alterations in the chemical habitudes
of bodies pointed out by Draper, Hunt, and Bec-
querel; and when again we find these carried so
far that, as in the experiments .of Bunsen and
Roscoe, we find the amount of chemical action
numerically measuring the quantity of light
absorbed, it seems hardly possible not to indulge a
hope that the pursuit of these strange phenomena
may by degrees conduct us to a mechanical theory
of chemical action itself. Even should this hope
remain unrealised, the field itself is too wide to re-

main unexplored; and, to say nothing of discovery,
the use of photography merely as a chemical test
may prove very valuable, as I have myself quite
recently experienced, in the evidence it has afforded
me of the
.presence in certain solutions of a peculiar
metal having many of the characters of arsenic, but
differing from it in others, and strikingly contrasted
with it m its powerful photographic qualities, which
are of singular intensity, surpassing iodine, and
almost equalling bromine. There is another class
of phenomena which, though usually considered as
belonging peculiarly to the domain of general phy-
sics, and so out of our department, seems to me to
want some attention in a chemical point of view.
It is that of capillary attraction. The co-efficient
of capillarity differs very remarkably in different
liquids, and no doubt also in their contacts with
different solids, a fact which can hardly be separated
from the idea of some community of nature between
the capillary force and those of elective attraction.
I hardly dare to hint at the existence of some slight
misgiving I have always felt as to the validity of
the received statistical theory of capillary action
which carries with it the authority of such names as
those of Laplace and Poisson. Any discussion of this
point would be matter for another section of this
association, and if I here touch upon it, it is only to
observe my, impression of the requisiteness of a force
so far allied to chemical affinity as to be capable of
saturation, rests on other grounds besides • that of
the mere diversity of action above alluded to. But
I must remember that you are not met here to
listen to generalities of whatever nature, but that
we have plenty of real and special business be-
fore us."

The chemical section yesterday displayed more
activity than any other, and photography, which
Sir John Herschel particularly noticed in his
address, formed the subject of several papers.

Mr. SYKES WARD, an amateur photoraphist of
Leeds, who has been very successful with the dry
collodion process, explained the means by which he
operates, particularly the manner of preserving the
sensitiveness of the plates ; and he exhibited some
excellent photographs taken by him in Dublin,
with plates prepared in Leeds. One of the objects
of Mr. Ward's experiments has been to obtain a
preparation that will be impervious to the action
of light after the image has been properly im-
pressed on the plate,, so that the process may be
used for practical purposes by unskilled persons.
He exhibited some stereoscopic views, in which one
view had been exposed twice as long in the camera
as the other without any perceptible difference in
the effects.

Mr. R. J. FOWLER read a paper on a process for
the estimation of octinism, which, if practically
applicable, might have the effect of rendering the
length of exposure to light more determinable.
Mr. LYNDON SMITH, a photographist, who ex-
hibits many beautiful specimens in the Leeds
Exhibition, read a paper on the adaptation of
different processes,in which he advo-cated the wet

collodion process, and contended that true artistic
effects cannot be obtained by the dry process.
The most important communication, however,
was one from Mr. Mercer, who exhibited photo-
graphs in colours. The coloured photographs were
not the natural colours of objects impressed directly
on the paper, but they were produced afterwards
by a. process similar to dyeing. The impressed
image acts as a mordant, and when it is dipped
into the developing fluid all the lights and shadows
are brought out in various shades of colour, accord-
ing to the menstruum used. The per•oxylate of
iron is one of the agents employed by Mr. Mercer
in his processes. Numerous specimens in various
colours were exhibited and distributed among the
company. By this application of photography it
would be possible to print cotton goods from nature,
of almost any colour required.

EAST SURREY AGRICULTURAL

MEETING.

- The-annual ploughing match in connection with
this association tookplace on Thursday at Croydon,
when upwards of 40 ploughs competed for the vari-
ous prizes. In the afternoon a dinner was held in
the King's Arms Hotel. ' Mr. T. Byron, president
of the association, occupied the chair, and Mr.
Alcock, M.P., and a number of the gentry and
agriculturists of the district were also present.
The usual loyal toasts having been given, Mr.
CLEASBY proposed " The,health of the Archbishop
of Canterbury and the clergy of the diocese."
The Rev. E. F. BEYNON, in responding, said he
thought such associations deserved support, whether
they were regarded as educational institutions, or
merely as channels of sympathy between one class
and another. He was one of those who believed
that our education could only end with our lives,
and that when we ceased to learn we might in one
sense be said to cease to live. All agricultural
associations were to some extent educational insti-
tutes. He did not undervalue the blessings and ad-
vantages conferred by the various schools scattered
throughout the country, but at the same time he
-did not view as an unmitigated evil the early age
at which the children of the labouring classes were
taken from school. There was something to
be done beyond making these children scho-
lars. They required to be taught those things
upon which they , were afterwards to employ their
talents and by which they were to gain their liveli-
hood, and, though it was highly desirable that they also be taught the elements of the Chris-
tian religion, and be instructed in the rudiments of
education, he did not regard as an unmitigated
evil the early age at which they left school. (Hear,
hear.) If they were.made scholars only tl-ev would
ultimately prove unfitted for the station of life
which they were destined to fill. (Cheers.) He had
said that he also regarded these agricultural asso-
ciations as channels of sympathy. Great interest
had been taken in that Atlantic cable which had
just joined two worlds together, but, however im-
portant that cable might be as a commercial artery,
it was, in his opinion, far more important and valu-
able when considered as a sympathetic nerve beat-
ing at the bottom of the deep, and connecting the
two countries together, not merely by parchment
treaties, but by that sympathy of heart which made
us brothers in affection, as we had always been

brothers in blood, language, and interest. (Cheers.)
He regarded these agricultural societies in a similar
light. They were the means of bringing all classes
together, whether landlords, tenants or labourers,
owners, occupiers, or workmen, and of enabling
them to take an_ interest in each other's proceed-

ings. (Cheers.) He sincerely believed that such in-
stitutions were calculated to elevate the social,
moral, and physical condition of society, and they
deserved the greatest encouragement and support,
because they advanced the interests of those sons of
toil to whom we were so much indebted for the
bright position which the country occupied ; who,
by their industry and good qualities, had invested
the country with both a material and a moral great-
ness ; and who, as the golden pillars on which the
basis of society was founded, were, under Provi-
dence, the main source and the true secret alike of
a nation's wealth and a nation's power. (Cheers.)
Mr. MORTIMER proposed " The health of the
members for the eastern division of the county."

Mr. ALCOCK, M.P., responded. In the name of
his hon. colleague and of himself he sincerely
thanked them for the compliment which they had
paid to their representatives. He deeply regretted
that his hon. colleague, Mr. Locke King, had been
prevented from attended the meeting. For about
two months Mr. Locke King had been danger-
ously ill from a fever caught in London while
attending to his Parliamentary duties, in conse-
quence of the bad state of the river Thames. He
was happy to state, however, that at this moment
his hon. friend was gradually recovering. (Cheers.)
Since the last meeting of the association peace had
been concluded with China. About a year and a-
half ago, when the subject of the war was much
discussed, strong doubts appeared to be entertained
as to the probability of the speedy termination of a
war with so vast a community at such a great dis-
tance from this country. It was a matter of
sincere rejoicing to find that the predictions then
made had been falsified, and that peace had been
concluded upon terms so highly favourable to this
country. (Cheers.) He thought we were fully
justified in expecting that great advantages would
arise from the resumption of our intercourse and
commerce with China. (Hear, hear.) Up to the
present moment our commercial relations with
China had been exceedingly limited in extent.
With one or two exceptions, tea was almost the
only article which we obtained from that country,
and, though the exports from the United Kingdom
to the world at large amounted to about
£115,000,000 annually, only about X 1,250,000 went
to China, notwithstanding that that empire formed
more than three-eighths of the entire universe.
Hear.) He trusted, and he thought it not unlikely
with a man of the original ideas of the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer, that advantage would
be taken of the altered state of our relations with
China to reduce the duty on tea, so as to extend
our commerce, and to render an article which had
now almost become one of the necessaries of life
more accessible to the humbler classes of society.
(Hear.) At the present moment tea was more
heavily taxed than almost any other article of
general consumption. The duty was no less than
Is. 9d. a-pound, though the price of tea itself in
bond was only Is. .4d. a-pound ; and consequently a
duty of about 140 per cent. was levied, and the
result was that the consumption of tea was much
more limited than its importance as an article of
general consumption required. If the duty were
reduced to one-fourth of its present amount he be-
lieved the consumption would increase so enormously
that in a very short time the Exchequer would
lose nothing whatever by the reduction. (Hear,
hear.) As an instance of the effect which the present
high rate of taxation produced he might mention
that in the United Kingdom the annual consump-
tion of tea was about 211 b. per head, while in the
colony of Victoria, in consequence of the absence of
taxation, it was 101 b. per head. (Hear.) He had
been induced to make these observations simply
because he wished to point out how much good
might result from the improved state of our rela-
tions with China. Hitherto we had regarded China
as a barbarous country, but he trusted that every
year as our intercourse with that empire extended
such a stigma would be more and more removed.
(Hear.) There were other subjects besides the
Probability'of extended commerce with China which
demanded attention at the present moment. In a
short time he hoped to see the system of turnpike-
tolls, which was now so loudly complained of, espe-
cially in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, en-
tirely done away with. In Ireland turnpike-tolls
were now got rid of, and, as the experience of that
country proved that no harm resulted from their
abolition, he saw no reason why they should not
also be done away with in this country. (Cheers.)
But the abolition of turnpike-tolls was not the only
instance in which Ireland was beforehand with us.
Twenty-four years ago great dissatisfaction was
expressed at the church-rates in Ireland, end in a
much less number of months than the church-rate
abolitionists in this country had been fighting years
they were got rid of to the satisfaction of both
Churchmen and Dissenters. (Hear, hear.) This
question of church-rates was, in his opinion, one of
the questions which ought to be settled in some way
or other in the course of the ensuing session. His
own impression was that it should be an adjusted
question. He had no wish to see the Church in-
jured, nor did he believe that it would sustain in-
jury if it was prepared to deal with the question in
a spirit of conciliation and concession. The time
had arrived, however when the whole matter ought
to be settled and finally set at rest, and he believed
that before long it would be settled. (Hear, hear.)
The hon. gentleman then briefly adverted to seve-
ral topics of local interest, and concluded by ex-
pressing his warm wishes for the increased pro-
sperity of the society.
Several other toasts having been given, the pro-
ceedings terminated

STAFFORDSHIRE AGRICULTURAL
SOCIETE

THE EARL OF SHREWSBURY, LORD SANDON, AND
MR. ADDERLEY.

At the close of the exhibition of the Staffordshire
Agricultural Society, at Lichfield, on Wednesday,
the annual dinner was held in the Guildhall, in
that city. The chair was occupied by Lord Rather-
ton, Lord Lieutenant of the county and the presi-
dent of the society for the year.
Viscount SANDON proposed " The Army and
Navy," mentioning the name of Lord Shrewsbury
as connected with the latter service. At the present
time a good deal had been said at every public meet-
ing, at every assembly of that kind, at every place
where men had met together during the present
autumn, about the expenditure on the military de-
fences of the country. He thought the country
was now fully awake to the necessity of keeping
our shores inviolate from the tread of the foot m
mere aspect of the stranger foeman. He was one o
those who was rather afraid—from having the hon-
our of being a member of the House of Commons
he could not help thinking of money matters—he
was rather afraid that now the spirit of the nation
was roused, it might push them forward into too
great and too general an expenditure for the pur-
poses of national defence. What he felt to be the
real necessity of the ease was, that they should keep'
a gallant, a great, and an overwhelming Channel
fleet, which would effectually prevent any possible
invasion of our coasts. He did not think that they
should keep up an immense army, but that they
should keep up what might be called the skeleton
of an army, which could be increased at any mo-
ment. Let them keep up the machinery of the army
so to speak, and its scientific branches ; but for the
good of the country—for the sake of those who paid
the taxes, which were already sufficiently heavy,
let them not keep up an enormous army, but keep
up an overwhelming Channel fleet, which was really
the only safety of the country. Money should not
be expended in defending small places • let them
defend their great arsenals, let them defend their
great commercial ports, but let not the money of
the country be expended in defending every little
creek and inlet, but under no plea, whatever the •
emergency, whether of a commercial crisis at home
or on any other ground, let not the country allow
the diminution of the Channel fleet.
The Earl of SHREWSBURY, who responded to the
toast, said. he was glad to see that at last there was
a spirit abroad that the main defences of the coun-
try, the wooden walls of Old England, should not
be neglected. (Applause.) At the same time he
felt th :-.1.1:;,,z1c1 not disregard the salutary
warning of his noble friend. Some members of the
House of Commons, after buttoning up their
'breeches' pockets for the last 50 years, now appeared
ready to dip their hands deeply into them, and to
scatter their contents with the greatest profusion.
(Laughter and applause.) There was no necessity
for that. He had always advocated a proper, con-
sistent, manly expenditure on the navy, and was
never afraid of giving his vote as a former member
of the House of Commons for what was necessary
to maintain the proper efficiency of both services.
But he had lately felt afraid from symptoms he had
seen of a danger of too large an expenditure. He
went over to Cherbourg and saw the magnificent
sight which that great fortress presented ; and he
saw another sight—a great number of the members
of the House of Commons—(laughter)—and from
what he saw and what he knew of them he feared
there was a danger of their running into the oppo-
site extreme of extravagance, for some of them
seemed so struck with the number of the ships, the
extent of the fortifications, and the multitude of
ordnance, that they appeared ready to vote million
after million for the defences of the country. Such
an expenditure was not at all nce.3ssary. He was i
happy to say that they had now an efficient Channel
fleet—a small one, it was true—but he did not
think they 'iced have a very large one. They
*anted a standing navy, which they might amplify
at any time when occasion arose. They ought to
have it in the most complete state of efficiency, so
that, if need arose, every ship's company could be
turned into two or three by mixing raw hands—
volunteers, who would, he trusted, if any danger
appeared, flock into their ships. It must always be
remembered that the real resource for manning the
navy was in the merchant service, but when com-
merce was prospentielis and the ships—away in China,
America, and other distant places, a lengthened
period must elapse before their return ; and they
required a provision to meet any sudden emergency
that might arise in the meantime, when they would
always be ready to come forward in defence of their
Country. He would not detain them any longer by
any observations on that head. He did not believe

tlit there eras anything to be alarmed about ; he
felt quite sure there was not ; but if by any chance,
in a short and sudden interval, a foe should land,
he doubted not that the yeomen of England would
give them such a reception that, with a Channel
fleet in their rear, very few of them would ever get

back again.
" The House of Peers " having been proposed,
and responded to by Lord Shrewsbury-, the Chair-
man proposed " The House of commons."
The Right Hon. C. B. ADDERLEY said that
though at an agricultural meeting he might not be
allowed to allude to politics, he might possibly be
permitted to unite the character of both ; and it

would be the duty.of himself and his friends when

they returned to their posts to stand as scarecrows
to frighten away that flight of birds—the voracious
consumers of the national resources which might
be expected after such a splendid harvest. (Laugh-
ter.) If he might compare the political to the agri-
cultural field—and what would not agriculture serve
to illustrate ?—he appealed to them whether they
might not be grateful to both fields for the satisfae-

tor-y
harvest -which had been realised—whether
the winds and storms that ushered in the spring
had not been succeeded by a serenity of atmosphere
which had served to bring to maturity very im-
portant crops ? (Applause.) He could mention
some of them, and he was sure his hon. friend (Mr.
Bass) could mention others. (Laughter.) There
was one crop which he was told was quite certain
to appear in the course of the next session. It wa

F•cncrally said that we might confidently look for
.whatever be the soil, whatever be the weather,

Tfhatever be the nature of the atmosphere, whoever
be the administrative cultivators. The crop usually
went by the name of reform. He had nothing
whatever to say respecting it, except that as it was
a very important crop he hoped its treatment would
fall into safe and good hands, and if it did he cared
not whose hands they were. It was introduced
into this country some 30 years ago by very dis-
tinguished cultivators—and he was not sure if he
did not see one of them on his right hand—it was

introduced with every possible stimulant, and its
culture carried to such an extent that the whole
soil had becomg impregnated with it, and calm as
was the weather, free as the atmosphere was from

convulsions of any kind, and although there were
no stimulants of any kind, they were told that they
might confidently expect the recurrence of this crop.
(Loud laughter and applause.) One thing he ob-
jected to was that any old cultivators of that crop
should consider that they had acquired any tenant
right in it at all, or that they should be surprised
that, in the passage of time, or in the succession
of events, other cultivators had to deal with that
crop ; that they should consider that they had in
any way a monopoly in any principles they had
once promoted, or that they should consider that
they had any right to bind down any other culti-
vators, whatever might be the progress of science,
or whatever the change of circumstances, to adhere
to the practice of the past century. He should
conceive that no party could on any possible ground
establish a claim for a fixity of tenure in that crop.
He begged their pardon for making such an un-
usual number of remarks upon a strictly agricul-
tural subject. (Continued laughter.)
Mr. BASS, M.P., proposed the healths of the
vice-presidents of the society, which were responded
to by Lord Sandon and Mr. Chawncr, and shortly
afterwards the company separated.

HOWDEN HORSE FAlR.—This fair was held at
Howden last week, and was attended by all the principal
dealers in the country. There was a scarcity of good ani-
mals of all classes, and sellers consequently realised high
figures for these descriptions ; but the secondary and in-
ferior sorts were only partially disposed of, buyers supply-
ing themselves pretty nearly on their own terms.
The Journal (I.' hare et Loire contains the fol-
lowing account of the effects of the electric fluid :—" Count
Thierry de Montesquieu, when out shooting in the neigh-
bourhood of Chammay, with one of his friends, M. Roger,
auditor at the Council of State, were obliged to take shelter
from a thunderstorm in his gardener's lodge. All of a sud-
den they heard a violent report, and M. de Montesquieu
was actual)y lifted up in, 'his chair, and moved a distance of
more thanja yard. A glass, from which he was drinking
was shattered in his hand. The electric fluid had struck
the chimhey,.in a room above which it knocked to pieces,
and then; breaking through the ceiling, fell on the table near
which M. de Montesquieu and his friend were sitting, and
finally disappeared through the window. The count was
uninjured, except that, above the ankle, the lightning left
a slight wound. The other moped altogether.

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THE BOYN-HlLL947Atati i
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(From M .n, 8.2 k-r A S
The inquiry into the Born-hilreonfessional has
ended in the exposure of folly so preposterous that
the Commissioners, as it appears, thought the wisest
thing to be done was to leave it to its own fate.
It is nothing more nor less than an ecclesiastical
"sell," and we congratulate the reverend hark-
(turns on the success with which they have
hitherto passed themselves off on the public as
well-intentioned and serious men. They certainly-
deceived us in this instance, and if we thought
them erring from excess of spiritual science—if
we believed them too adventurous in the use of
the moral probe—if we ascribed to them any
very deep design, or thought that in the
case of Mrs. Nancy Arnold they had been
treading- on the dangerous verge between spiritual
discipline and spiritual defilement, we have now to
apologise -for our simpliCity ; they are simply fools.
This, at least, is only a practical joke, and- we have
been so credulous and so (lull as to think it some-
thing real, and sermonised accordingly. If our
readers would unaerstand the new light in which