The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-09 00:00:00

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THE NAVY:

1

as these leriodical meeting, Oi 642613eti1fe
excellencies of different men W, tkire:l3:rrnit. • es
of agricultural pursuits axle' broigel4l:9llliii,_
to notice, and which tend to keeiaii.)7o'..-41:„Wi:f
hearts the great fact that every{ im",712
season of the year, in the',joursuit of 4,:cliz""_.„l._
progress blends harmoniously-Unto_ onet
whole. (Cheers.) I leave it to „‘thoie
fied than I am to speak upon thettoractieal stib;ftw
which in reality have brought us here to-(raj
but I thought it might not be amiss if I venturea.'
to recall to your minds some of the great and
enduring benefits, which I believe apply to the
country as a whole in a social point of view, of agri-
cultural gatherings such as this ; and I will now sit
down, begging leave to propose as a toastthe health
of three gentlemen, without whoselvaluable assist•
ance the meeting to-day would have been a complete
failure—l mean the three gentlemen who have been
good enough to act as judges of stock upon this oc-
casion. I take leave to couple with the toast the
name of my excellent friend, whom I so often meet
in the hunting-field, Mr. Bland. (The noble lord
resumed his seat amid loud cheers.)
Mr. BLAND briefly responded, and
The CHAIRMAN then gave " The health of the
Stewards," coupling with the toast the name of Mr.
Chewier.
Mr. CHOWLER said he was sensible that he had
bee. somewhat out of place in makingithe arrange-
ments for the meeting, and should be most happy
to find that his exertions had given satisfaction.
With regard to agriculture, he '.vas glad to find
that sub-soiling had gone out of fashion to some ex-
tent compared with former years. As to the top or
shallow cultivation there might be different opinions
as to the proper depth, as -there were different
opinions as to the proper depth of drainage. Mr.
Mechi, who had just been starring it at Manchester,
condemned all cultivation and all drainage thatwas
not deep. But, although he condemned the
culture of the country, he still admitted that his
foreign friends did not grow more than half the
crops grown in this country. He immediately added
that the agriculture of this count was a disgrace
to it, though how he could reconcile the two state-
ments he (Mr. Chowler) was at a loss to conceive.
This, however, he did know, that a gentleman who
a short time ago visited both Mr. Mechi'a farm and.
his pigs, stated distinctly that his pigs were in
such a filthy and dirty state that they would be a
disgrace to any farmer in the country. (Laughter
and cheers.) It was unnecessary that he (Mr.
Chewier) should pause to inquire how far deep
cultivation was likely to be beneficial. That was
a question that could be better discussed at a
special meeting, and if such a meeting were
called he would be quite ready to attend and take
part in the discussion. He had, however, one
remark to make upon another subject. The position
of the English farmer was very different from what
it was 12 months ago, and if agricultural statistics
would ever have been of advantage to the farmer
they would have been during the present year. He
believed that the pulse crop had been a total failure,
although in the face of that he was glad to say that
the labouring classes were not only fully employed,
but at fair wages. (Hear.) They had usually been
in the habit of reckoning the wages of the labourer
according to the price of wheat. If they adopted
that principle now the wages would be brought
down to 10s. a-week, whereas, at the present mo-
ment, he was glad to say that no labourer he was
aware of was working for less than 2s. a-day.
That fact proved there was a desire on the part of
the English farmer to employ the labourers steadily
and to take better care of their poor than the manu-
facturers. Recent Poor Law returns showed that
directly the manufacturing trades fell off, the poor
who were dependent upon manufactures for a living
were thrown upon the parish, so that in some places
—for instance, in Manchester—the poor rates had
been increased 15 per cent. in consequence of the
slackness of the trade. That was not the case with.
the farmers, for the same returns showed that
throughout purely agricultural districts pauperism
never increased at all. For instance, in Dorsetshire,
where they used to hear such great complaints
about the wages of the agricultural labourer, the
returns showed that pauperism had steadily de-
creased, That convinced him that the poor were
much better attended to in agricultural than in
manufacturing districts, and it came to this after
all—that whatever might be said against the agri-
culturists, they were the best friends of the labour-
ing poor. (Cheers.)
Several other toasts of pumety local interest were
then proposed and the proceedings terminated.

The Grielle, Prussian screw yacht, having on.
board his Royal Highness Prince Adalbert, Admiral
of the Prussian fleet, sailed from Portsmouth yes-
terday morning for the eastward.
The St. Vincent, 101, Captain Harry Eyres,
C. 8., was taken into dock at Portsmouth yesterday
for repairs.
The Agamemnon, 91, screw ship, is to be taken
into No. 7 dock, at Portsmouth, to-day, for repairs.
The Mersey, 40, screw frigate, is to be taken
into the steam basin, at Portsmouth, to-day, to re-
ceive her engines, and to be brought forward for
sea service.

The Melpomene, 51, screw, is to be taken out of
dock at Portsmouth to-day and taken into the
steam basin to be got ready for steam reserve.
The Dauntless, 32, screw, is to be taken into the
steam basin at Portsmouth to be brought forward
for the steam reserve.

The Lucifer, 4, paddlewheel steam vessel, Master
Commander Johnston (acting), sailed from Ports-
mouth yesterday afternoon with supernumeraries
for Plymouth.

The Sidon, 22, paddlewheel steam frigate, in
charge of Commander Gardner, went out of harbour
at Portsmouth yesterday for trial of her engines.
Admiral Sir G. F. Seymour and several naval
and military officers went on board the Stork gun-
boat, tender to the Excellent, yesterday, at Ports-
mouth, to witness some shot and shell practice fired
from her at the iron plates on the sides of the
Alfred, 50.