The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-16 00:00:00

THE I.REIVC

"ON ®_F 12 0111 E.

The Opinion Nationale, alluding to the anniver-
sary of the taking of the Bastille, observes that
France is acting with respect to the new Kingdom
of Italy strangely in contradiction to the principles
of 'B9, opposed, as they are, to any interference with
the efforts of a nation striking for liberty or endea-
vouring to consolidate its independence. Our con-
temporary, of course, alludes to the continued oc-
cupation of Rome by the French troops, which it
asserts ought to be brought to a termination with-
out delay. The following is the language em-

ployed :--
" In the name of the great principles of 1789, in
the name of justice, and of the sacred right of po-
pulations to chose the form of their Government,
France has permitted Victor Emmanuel to realise
the wishes of Italy, and to create national unity.
France, England, Switzerland, Portugal, Greece,
Turkey, and the Scandinavian States have recog-
nised the new kingdom. We desire to see it con-
solidated, and to develop itself in order and peace;
but, by a strange contradiction, we interdict to it
the most essential of all rights, that which Nature
has engraved in the heart and conscience of all
beings—the guarantee and protection of life—the
right of self-preservation and of legitimate defenc.
We pe-rmit its bitterest enemies, those who wish
for nothing so much as its ruin and its death, to
establish themselves on its frontiers, and in the
very centre of its provinces, to excite rebellion
and foment civil war among its populations, to
give it both in open day and in the dark repeated
blows ; and when its elected King endeavours to
ward off those attacks, to punish its enemies, and
free Italy from them, he is checked, under pretence
of religion, in his generous movement ; such long-
suffering as God himself would not exact from saints
in Paradise is imposed on him, the asylum in which
are assembled from all parts of Europe the aggres-
sors against him is declared inviolable, and in their
favour is resuscitated the right of refuge which thr:
middle ages, pious and bigotted, granted to churches
and monasteries. A situation so strange cannot be
prolonged. It is full of perils, and there would be
risk by prolonging it to drive, if not the Italian
Government, at least the Italian people, to extreme
resolutions of a nature to compromise general peace.
That is a truth which is evident to every one. The
future of Italy and the triumph of liberal principles
should be assured ; the Government of Victor Em-
manuel ought to be allowed to escape from the dead-
lock in which it stands ; and, for our part, we think
that both the dignity and the history of France
require us to hasten the desired solution with or
without the co-operation of the other Catholic or
Legitimist Powers. We, the sons of 1789, cannot
in fact sacrifice the independence of 25,000,000 of
men to the temporal power of the Holy See, and
we can do so the less from the fact that the tem-
poral power of the Church has been formally con-
demned by the Gospel, by the Fathers, and by the
Popes of the first centuries."

ROYAL AGI?ICULTUR/IL SOCIETY'S

MEETING.

LEEDS, MONDAY.
Agricultural England is holding its festival—not,
as last year, in the quaint cathedral city of a county
of hop-gardens, or, as previously, in a castled

county town, the centre of a midland tract of corn-

lands and meadows, but in the very heart of that
great factory, tho West Riding of Yorkshire.

To enumerate the chief novelties and excellen-
cies among 5,500 articles, or even to name the
principal among more than 200 exhibitors, is be-
yond our power in the limits of a general report.
As regards numbers and general excellence, the
shorthorns, as might be expected from the district
of the show, exceed their appearance on any former
occasion, though with few specimens of surpassing

merit. The Bates blood carries all before it. The

first prize bull of Lord Feversham (sire, sth.
Duke of Oxford) is.a grand beast, though perhaps
not so splendid in quality as many we have seen ;
this bull has never been exhibited before except at

local shows. Mr. Langston's bull " Royal Turk" /5

second.

Mr. Jonas Webb's is an uncommonly

good animal, and his second prize yearling bull
gives promise that the Babraham shorthorns are
treading in the steps while they graze the same
pastures as the departed Babraham southdowns
and Mr. Charles Howard's prize bull calf is cer-
tainly a beauty, and of great merit for its age. Capt.
Gunter's famous " Duchess 77th" takes the first

prize in the cow class, beating Mr. Booth's noted

" Queen Mal)," that is second here, as last

year at Canterbury. The Captain's two superb
twins, the " Duchesses 79th and 79th," and Mr.
Booth's " Soldier's Bride," grace the heifer class,
and the yearling heifers are a very fine class. We
are sorry, however, to miss the herd of Colonel
Towneley, there being not one Butterfly present,
though 11 are entered in the catalogue ; neither is
there a single short-horn comparable to the hitherto

incomparable " Royal Butterfly" of last year.
Let us now turn to the sheep, respecting which
we must be still more concise.
The sheep classes are exceedingly well sustained,
but we missed the animals usually shown by Mr.
Jonas Webb, although Mr. Rigden ably succeeds
him in success. Lord Walsingham shows some
beautiful animals. The Duke of Richmond's ewes
are exceedingly good. This class is not so well

filled up as usual.- The Leicesters are in full force,
and many superior animals are shown. The Cots-
wolds, or long wools, are equal to former years,
and as animals of the ovine class they are wonder-
ful specimens. The Shropshires are unquestion-
ably the largest and best of the short-woolled
classes ; some ewes, not 15 months old, measured
from the joint of the shoulder to tail 2 feet 9
inches ; girth, 4 feet 8-kinehes.

The class of other short-wools, namely, Hamp-
shire and other down sheep—is in considerable
number and variety, but of a highly useful cha-
racter. The classes of long wools shown for the
local prize were very thinly represented, certainly
to the detriment of lung-wooled breeding, as such
wools are exceedingly valuable. The mountain
sheep and similar classes are not a creditable dis-
play, though sound, useful animals.
The pigs exhibited are of the usual character—
some very massive and ungainly animals, others
very proportionate and handsome. The show is
equal to those of former years.
What with soil to be tilled, products and mer-
chandise to be transported, a business population to
be conveyed in ruder or more refined vehicles at all
rates of velocity from the carrier's jog-trot to the
pace of the flying tandem, and a wealthy community
to be furnished with the equestrian pleasures of the
hunting-field and the race-course, our national stock
of 2,500,000 horses must continue to increase; at
least, all varieties but the heavy-limbed plough-
horse, which will lose one-half his occupation by the
spread of steam husbandry. The breeding of the
best quality of hunters, roadsters, carriage and
draught horses, grows in importance with the rapid.
increase and enlarging necessities of our people, and
no department of the annual exhibitions of animals
can awaken a greater interest than the display con-
tributed by the paddock and stable.
Of course it is desirable that agricultural horses
should always form a prominent feature in the show,
while powerful dray horses should likewise be well
placed ; but the farmer's and gentleman's hack, the
sportsman's hunter, and horses for harness and for
military service cannot receive too much attention,
not only for home purposes, but with a view to main-
tain the celebrity of English breeds end increasing
our export trade in horseflesh. For if we import
some 5,000 horses, we annually ship to France,
Belgium, Holland, &c., about half that number for
improving the studs and mounting the cavalry of
the Continent. Accordingly the society have this
year a £lOO prize (with second prize of £25) for
the best thoroughbred stud horse, best calculated
to improve and perpetuate the breed of sound and
stout thoroughbred horses for general stud pur-
poses.
The judges in the Horse Classes have fully con-
firmed the decision of the Derby in favour of
weight-carrying thoroughbred stud horses, best
calculated to improve and perpetuate the breed or
the sound and stout thoroughbred horse for general
purposes. The horse that carries off the first prize
of £lOO, Nutbourne, is the property of John Wyatt,
of Nutbourne, and broke down at the Derby last
year. She shows breeding and weight in a remark-
able degree, together with a beautiful head and mild
expression. Age four years, colour chestnut. The
second prize horse shows the direction of the current
in the same direction. The horses in the thorough-
bred class are nearly all of good substance, and those
that are weedy have been very properly weeded out,
for the object of the bounty is less to encourage the
turf than the field and the road. In this hasty glance
we could recognise Comet, the second prize horse at
Canterbury last year; Fazzoletto, who ran fourth for
the Derby five years ago ; Vortex, own brother to
Voltigeur— a black brown horse of splended pro-
portion ; and Windbound, 14 years of age, and sire
of Thormanby, winner of the Derby last year—a
smaller horse than his son.
The hunter, as a class, is well sustained, and
the whole class of blood hunters, mares and geld-
ings, is commended.
In the agricultural horse classes the heavy horses
gave way to the clean-legged, strengthy horses, for
which Yorkshire is celebrated.
The entries in the thoroughbred, hunting, and
roadster classes number 127, of ponies 28, and of
agricultural horses 99, and comparatively few of
the standings are empty. This is decidedly the
finest show of horses we have ever attended.

INVERNESS SHEEP AND_WOOL FAIR.

(From the Inverness Courier.)

The prosperous appearance of the fields in our
Northern counties, the continued seasonableness of
the weather, the abundance of pasture, and the un-
usual promise of the turnip plant everywhere, con-
tributed to give much spirit to the attendance at
our wool fair. Georgemas market, too, was so de-
cidedly a rising one, that confidence in the prospect
of good prices increased during the week ; and when
buyers and sellers met, it was soon pretty evident
that no great abatement from last year's quotations
would be made, at all events as regarded age&
sheep. Lambs were in a peculiar position. Last
year, as will be too long and well remembered,
their numbers were scarcely half the average,
and their value was out of proportion to the other
ages. It was, therefore, natural and reasonable that,
in the face of the most successful and abundant crop
of this spring, their price should recede ; and,
accordingly they may be quoted at an average of
about 2s. 6d. per head below 1860. With even
n this difference, howevaerr,
btaltieterbecieueadleiyrtsyearba—reesitdhfeeasir,
; better off than they were last
will get far more money for their cast, and their
customers will have f
Indeed, we are probably quite within the fret!,
in saying that a better quality of sheep of
Friday.
all ages—taking condition into account—wao
never before offered for sale at Inverness. The de-
mand for ewes and particularly lots of about 200 to
cwidaesdslyoldbron
greatiirttsehhkte:ianneddain o ur
ow n proportionara arable
o
of hill ewes are now
numbers. The price, therefore, was
sladses
districts a
special
odrecrossing
n-cer
03f000,iiws
Leicesters, and this cause
Very
almost, if not quite,
was high ; in fact,
as high as last year generally,
and in a few best caAssla.orgfem.O.udinerbaetr:
instances even an advance was ob-
tained.few remain for sale. Wedders
be quoted at last year's prices, but there was rather
more stiffness in their sale. All the principal lot°
were disposed of by mid-day on Saturday.
Wool has been very little dealt in, the general
feeling being that the present fall in prices i°
temporary, and more the result of panic than genu-
ine difficulty. A few sales have, however, taken
place at 4s. to 4s. 61. under last year's market, but
our quotations are necessarily scant. We heard of
one or two parcels which had been sent to Liverpooh
as having sold ex ship at 245., and these factS,r
coupled with the capital demand at last month's
auction sales, have no doubt considerably influenced
sellers. The quality of the wool, too, is so univer-
sally first rate, that doubtless some are desirous to
sell it. by public competition. Though, therefore,
the title of wool fair has been in some- measure 13,..
misnomer this year, it must not be supposed that
our annual gathering shows any sign of decreas:
ing.importance, for probably there never was ti
busier and more useful meeting than on this o°'
casion.