The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-01 00:00:00

' any length that evening, knowing, as he did, that
topics connected with politics were rather put aside
on these occasion; though he confessed he did not
see why at meetings like that it should be so, because
if there was an occasion on which a county member
had a better opportunity of meeting his constituents
than another, it was at meetings of that kind ; and
if anything was likely to subdue the bitter feeling
of political excitement it was partaking of such an
excellent repast as they had had. (Laughter.) After
dinner they all settled down into a good-natured
sort of conversation, in which, even if they were to
enter into an argument upon the new Reform Bill
which they had heard was to be introduced, he
doubted not that at that table they would be able to
manufacture a very pleasant one. (Laughter.) He
sincerely trusted that, if the Government did bring
in a Reform Bill, they would have the fair judgment
of the country, and not be -treated as it was said the
ultra-Liberal party had some idea of treating them
—by having nothing at all to say to it. He did
not conceive that it was by any means impossible
that a Conservative Government should settle this
much- agitated question. Everybody would admit
that the various Governments which had attempted
the task had signally failed ; and if there was to be
any settlement of the question (which, he humbly
believed, was very doubtful), he did not think it was
a question which could be settled by one party or
another, but that the only way of settling it, giving
a fair representation, and holding strongly to those
ancient laws which had been laid down with regard
to the strength and welfare of the constitution of
the country, would be for the House of Commons
to resolve itself into a committee of the wholehouse
and make the best bill it could. That, he thought,
was about the only chance the country had of hav-
ing a Reform Bill. Parties were so divided upon it,
and the working of parties, when they took the line
they did upon matters of that sort, reduced the ques-
tion to a shifting of places, and then he saw but
little hope of the settlement of so important it ques-
tion. Anyhow he had no doubt that if Lord Derby's
Government took up the question of reform they
would take it up with a spirit of honesty, having
strongly at heart the welfare and prosperity of the
country. (Cheers.)
The Noble PRESIDENT, in proposing " Success to
the Newmarket Farmers' Club," said he cordially
concurred in the expression by his brother (Lord G.
Manners) of his gratitude that they had been allowed
to gather in their harvest better than some of their
neighbours. He feared that upon the whole the
harvest in England had not been a good one, and
that in many counties, especially in the north, a
great deal of good corn had been entirely destroyed.
He thought, therefore, those who had been able to
gather their crops in good condition should feel
peculiarly grateful to Providence for having been
allowed to do so. (Applause.) When he last year
had the pleasure of addressing them in that room
the cattle plague had but recently broken out, and
he remembered he then stated that he was afraid that
of all the many remedies that had been proposed to
counteract that fearful disease, none of them would
be of any real or permanent avail. He was
sorry to say that that prediction had been but too
truly verified, and he believed that, up to the pre-
sent time, no specific had been found that would
care that fearful plague. But at the same time he
thought that something with respect to it had been
established, and, amongst other things, he thought
it had been established that it was contagious, that
it was imported from abroad, and that the only way
of getting rid of it was by stamping it out. That
had now been done for some time with good effect,
and he rejoiced to find tliat, according to the last re-
turn, there were only six cases during the week,
being five less than in the previous week. Ile hoped,
therefore, that the disease might soon disappear
altogether, and that, with the exercise of the care
referred to by his brother, it might not appear again.
There was one point that struck him as very remark-
able in the report of the commissioners upon this
subject, and that was that in no case had the disease
ever ascended to an altitude of above 1,000 feet.
Throughout the country all the highest parts of the
land had been entirely free ; there seemed to have
been hardly an exception. In Westmoreland, in
Cumberland, in Scotland and Wales, in the high
parts of Leicestershire, and in the high parts of that
unfortunately low county (Cambridgeshire), they
found there had been no cattle plague ; but when
they got to Cheshire and the fen districts there the
fearful disease seemed to rage with impunity. There
was another point alluded to by his brother which he
thought of great importance at the present time, and
that was the prospect of a scarcity of labour. He
had observed that nearly all the meetings which had
taken place this year on the subject of agriculture
that question had been alluded to, and he was happy
to say he thought in almost all cases in the very best
spirit ; and he quite agreed with the remarks made
by almost every speaker on the subject, that if they
wished to retain the labourer on their farms it must
be by improving his condition, and by looking
after his wants and necessities. With respect to
the hint that had been thrown out by his brother
as to co-operation, that was certainly the
first time he had heard it suggested as ap-
plied to the agricultural labourer, and therefore
he could not give a very decided opinion as to its
practicability ; but of this he was quite sure—that li
whatever increased the comfort and well-being of
the labourer not only conferred great benefit on the
labourer himself, but also upon all dependent upon
agriculture—upon the farmer as well as upon the
landlord; and he was convinced that nothing they
could do would so benefit agriculture and themselves
as to improve the labourer by all the means in their
power—by giving him better wages, improving his
cottage, and giving him increased comforts in every
way. He believed that nothing would so increase
their own prosperity as increasing the prosperity of
the labourer. (Cheers.) He had great pleasure in
proposing the toast he had mentioned, because he
felt that that society was one that conferred great
benefits on agriculture ; but he thought they would
take a low and a small view of the benefits it con-
ferred if they confined their vision to the actual and
positive benefits derived from that club. He alluded
to the prizes that were given for ploughing, forroots,
forthe best agricultural labourer, and for the increase
of agricultural produce. These conferred a direct
and evident benefit upon agriculture ; but if they
wished to estimate the full behefit that was derived
from that society they should look more to the effect
that it had upon agaiculture by bringing them toge-
gether as it had done that day, and by the good fel-
lowship and good feeling which he believed that in-
tercommunication of ideas would produce. (Cheers.)
At the present time, when there were those in this
country who were endeavouring to set class against
class, agriculturist against manufacturer, and
manufacturer against agriculturists, who were endea-
vouring to widen the gulf that already! separated
riches from poverty, and doing all in their power to
create evil passions and excite animosities, instead of
endeavouring to heal and to calm the feeling that
might in some cases arise—he said that when there
were endeavours made to create dissensions and ill
feeling, he- thought it was more necessary than ever
that they should unite together—(cheers)---in feel-
ings of friendship and of loyalty, in feelings of
loyalty to the Queen, and of attachment to their
institutions, as giving them freedom and liberty,
and in feelings of true and lofty patriotism. (Cheers.)
He felt convinced that the time had not come when
they were prepared to risk all that they held most
dear in the hope of some unattainable good that
could never come. (Cheers.)
In the course of the subsequent proceedings, Mr.
Gardener referred to the suggestion of Lord G.
Manners as to the co-operative system, and said
that if the labourer got no share of the profits till
those of his master reached 10 per cent., he did not
see much of a prospect for the labourer upon 'that
system.

A Now Zealand letter of September 8 says :--
:" In the yearly part of the present year Professor Owen
suggested that a feath2r or bone of some extraordinary
fossil bird or reptile discovered at Nelson should be for-
warded to him for examination. That fossil might have
been better described from its appearance as an enormous
brickbat. Mr. Dobson, who, in consequence of Professor
0 wen's request inspected the supposed fossil, declared it to
be merely a mass of highly quartzose sandstone. But by
this mail a really interesting contribution to science is for-
warded to one of the London societies by Dr. Hector,
P. 11.8., the Government geologist, in the shape of some
elaborate drawings, &c., of a portion of a moa's egg, with
the bones of the chick in an advanced stage of incubation.
The egg was found at Otago and received here a few
weeks ago."