The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-13 00:00:00

' adventured upon in this country to the simple
and obvious circumstance of the farmer's
complete isolation from the rest of the
community. That isolation having been rendered
of late years, so to speak, a matter of absolute im-
possibility henceforth, because of the more and more
complicated intersection of the country by railroads.
Hence the right hon. gentleman remarked that
naturally enough the agricultural population had
eventually awakened to a sense of the urgent neces-
sity there was for the holding out to each other of
a helping hand in cases of great emergencies, arising
out of unlooked-for and, in very many instances,
wholly undeserved misfortune. " Intercourse,"
as Mr. DISRAELI well observed in reference to the
mere reasonableness of this tardy awakening—" in-
tercourse not only produced knowledge, but some-
thing far better even than knowledge—sympathy."
Hence, in effect, it is that this Agricultural Bene-
volent Institution, which was founded only as
recently as last year, may be recognised as having
sprung from the gradual development, and the
wider and wider extension of the three great and
•
beneficent systems of penny postage, of railways,
and of electro-telegraphic communication. The far-
mer's horizon, formerly contracted within the circum-
ference of the parish bounderies—has expanded be-
yond the reach of all ordinary calculation. He no
longer depends for his information in regard to the
rest of the world upon the ignorant gossip at the
tavern ordinary upon market-days, or upon the stale
dribblets of information that might be spelt out by
him, with extreme difficulty, at remote intervals)
from the columns of the month-old local newspapers.
Thanks to the railroads, to the telegrams, to the penny
postage, and to the penny newspapers, said Mr.
DISRAELI, the agricultural population were almost
upon a par with the inhabitants of great cities, even
with the population of the metropolis, in respect to
the advantages arising out of what may be termed
the combination of rapidity and periodicity of intel-
ligence. Henceforth the farmer is not left to
struggle on alone against all the various perils and
uncertainties incident in a peculiar manner to his
primeval occupation. The destructive storm, the
barren harvest, the murrain, the mildew, and the
rot—occasionally interfere sometimes disas-
trously with all his wisest forethought and all
his most rational calculations. He need no longer
contend against these alone, unaided, unknown,
and consequently unsympathised with in his time
of trial and solicitude. Supplemented as it were to
the prudential system of insurance that has been
growing up with such marvellous speed during the
past half century, comes now in aid of those at least
who may be put to the direst straights, the benefi-
cent assistance yielded through the agency of this
Agricultural Benevolent Institution. Ths original
idea out of which the association appears to have
emerged, Mr. Alderman MECHI seems to have had
the honour and merit of suggesting. Two years
only have yet elapsed since the scheme was first
taken in hand with any visible hope of the project
it involved being carried out in genuine earnest.
During one year only has it been in actual opera-
tion. Ytt is it even now, we rejoice to learn, an
expanding and advancing enterprise. The anni-
versary banquet could hardly have been more
of a success than it was yesterday. The
eloquent advocacy of the claims of the
institution by the right hon. chairman of the even-
ing, resulted in a generous and munificent series of
subscriptions there and then handed over to the
treasurer to swell the funds of the Association.
Four thousand pounds sterling, it is pleasant to
know in regard to this newborn Institution, had
already been invested in its name before the
banquet of yesterday. And already many farmers
in distress, and many widows of other farmers de-
ceased, are (from the Funds of this Benevolent In-
stitution) at this very time in receipt of pensions
of twenty pounds per annum—the recipients of
these little pensions being thereby relieved from
the anguish of absolute destitution. And this
through the agency, it is at once consoling and
encouraging to remember, of a benevolent society
only the other day, as it were, called into existence!

We must of course bow to the law of our own
Lord Chancellor, all the other judges who heard
the case uniting also in opinion with him. As a
matter of fact, the Emperor of AUSTRIA has ob-
tained the aid of an English court of justice in
preventing the preparation of a paper currency to
supersede legally that which he now circulates
illegally in Hungary. While, however, it is useless
to impugn the Lord Chancellor's law, we must think
I hat it is the old casd of sumrnum jus summa injurra.
On the ground on which our First Judge in the
land based his decision we must confess that in our
non-technical judgment it seems somewhat a strain-
ing of the case for the strong against the weak—
for our Ministers and the Emperor of AUSTRIA
against an exiled patriot. Verily the stolen note
has been used to some purpose! The thief and his
numerous abettors have succeeded in their object.
Suppose we admit that, the usurper of the Hun-
garian Crown having been recognised as de facto
King of HUNGARY by our Government, our Courts
were not at liberty to inquire whether he was
really King or not; suppose they were not even
at liberty to question his fraudulent issue of
Vienna bank-notes in Hungary, and illegally
making them legal tender there ; admitting all
this for argument's sake, we are yet at a loss to
see how the plaintiff showed that KOSSUTH'S notes
would injure the property of the Usurping
but de facto, King. KOSSUTH asserts, and
the form of the notes guarantees the truth
of the assertion, that they were not to
be used—indeed they would be useless—until
the present state of things ceased, and the usurper
had no longer any property in the currency which
he now forces on Hungary. Such a state of things
may be a dream or not, bat only in the case of its
becoming a reality could the notes of M. KOSSUTH
be of any value. They purport, says Lord
CAMPBELL, to be received by the State and at
State offices. True, but the very statement is
proof, that they contemplate another Government as
represented by those offices, and one in which
Lolls KOSSUTH would have a right to sign these
notes. Lord CAMPBELL seems to agree that had
they been arms which were manufactured, as they
knight have been, for a lawful purpose, an in-
junction might have been refused—but to most
persons it will seem
avery labwefluielvesputro
be certain, and to prepare,
to-
pose for a person to
prepareo for an
event which he, however
mistaken,
nwhssatthiatt would
t
be wrong and injurious te use unless
should occur. We cannot see that the Lord
Chancellor had before him one tittle of evidence
to prove that the notes would or could be used
in any other case than the perfectly legitimate
one—that at some time hence the Hungarian
Diet should accept these notes and declare
them legal tender. Till that was done
the notes could do no harm ; when that was done
they would be a public benefit. England will be
sorry that in her courts of equity, through
legal
refinements, a .KossuTH loses his fair rights,
while the original thief, the unknown policeman,
Sir RICHARD MAYNE, our Foreign and Home,
Secretaries, the Emperor of AUSTRIA, in fact, and
all his abettors, gain their object against exiled
patriotism.