The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-22 00:00:00

THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL

SOCIETY OF ENGLAND.
EXETER, JULY 19.—Yesterday afternoon, after the
early part of the day had been spent in visiting the
show-yard, the members and friends of the society, to
the number of 2,000 and upwards, assembled in a spa-
cious pavilion, erected for the purpose at the bottom of
Queen-street, to celebrate, in the way most suitable to
the habits of Englishmen, the agricultural meeting of
1850 in Exeter. The banquet, which forms an indis-
pensable part of the society's proceedings, is always an
imposing spectacle, but yesterday it took place under cir-
cumstances of peculiar eclat. The reception which the
citizens of Exeter hadgivenito their visitors made every
one anxious to attend what was, using Cromwell's
expression, to be the " crowning mercy " of the
occasion; and, moreover, the fame of M. Soyer, the
furnisher of the feast, drew many who might other-
wise have been indifferent to taste the culinary wonders
be had announced his-intention .to prepare. his bill of
fare promised, among other things, " rounds of beef a la
Garrick," " a new pudding a /a Exeter," " a baron, with
eadd!e back of beef, a /a Magus Chants," and a "grand
agricultural trophy of agriculture." It was impossible
for farmers to resist such appeals to their local attach-
ments, their profession, and their patriotism; so that
tickets to the dinner were in as great demand as railway
scrip during the mania, and at 4 o'clock, the hour when
the festivities were to commence, many fuund themselves
unable to gain admission. Every part of the pavilion
was filled, but, owing to the judicious arrangement of
the committee, there was no overcrowding or confusion,
and M. Soyer having managed his share of the pro-
ceedings with his usual ability, the dinner went off in the
most satisfactory and successful manner. The chair.
behind which was a large transparency of the Royal
arms, was of course occupied by the Marquis of Downes
shire.
The usual loyal toasts were proposed by the CHAIR-
MAN and accepted by the company in a becoming
manner.
The PRESIDENT then rose and gave " The health of
the Foreign Ministers." The Noble Marquis concluded
by inviting his Excellency the French Ambassador to
acknowledge the toast.
His Excellency M. DROUYN DE LRUYS, who was re-
ceived with load and enthusiastic cheering, said—My
Lords and gentlemen,—l beg leave to respond, both in
the name of my colleagues and my own, and to offer
you our best thanks for your most welcome toast. I
respond with the feeling of gratitude so fully due to
your kind reception. Without any pretension to a
practical knowledge of the details of agriculture, I have
held it in the utmost esteem for its manly and useful pur-
suits. Even as a passing traveller through this delightful
county, so prOperly called the garden of England, I
have had reason to admire and feel the energy displayed
by your landlords and farmers, who have rendered
increasingly productive the land in proportion with
your increasing population.—(Cheers.) I was struck
with wonder at the sight of those alterations brought
about through the labour of your experimentalists and
the researches of your men of science. Whether I con-
sider your superior breeding of stock, your improved
implements of husbandry, your rapid systems of crop-
ping, your bold processes of draining and subsoiling—
(Hear, hear)—and your happy application of chemical
discoveries for remedying the defects or adding to the
natural capabilities of your different soils—whether again
I behold around mo your sturdy Saxon yeomen—
(Cheers)—I say again your sturdy Saxon yeomen and
their blooming daughters—(Renewed cheering)—when,
may I say, did Divine Providence grant a more pro-
mising land to a more deserving race?—(Continued
cheering.) Once more I have the honour to return our
thanks for your cordial hospitality, and I beg your leave
to couple with the expression of those thanks a toast
which, I am sure, will be received well by all of you, the
toast of " Success to the Royal Agricultural Society of
England."—(Cheers.)
The AMERICAN MINISTER Sall—My Lords and gen
tlemen, I have placed in my hands a toast which I shall
offer with very great pleasure, inasmuch as it relates to
the great interests of this country—the whole of this
country—inasmuch as to me there is no want of har-
mony in these interests if properly regulated; and with-
out touching on any point that could give, or weal
give, the slightest umbrage, or the slightest ill feeling to
any human being at all. Without further remark, I will
introduce the toast at once to you; it is, " Agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce."—(Cheers.) A friend as
I am to all those interesta—believing that the power and
the glory and the interests of this country have been
promoted by the encouragement of them all—l rejoice
that agriculture is first.—(Great cheering.) Gentlemen,
I come here not as a foreigner—l come here to claim re-
lationship, for the first time of my life, to see the
farmers of England with my own eyes—(Cheers)—
believing that when I saw the farmers of England
I saw the back-bone of England.—(Great cheering.)
I know too well the history of my ancestors, and of my
kindred in England, not to know that the farmers of
England have always been loyal and true to the Crown.
—(Cheers.) I know history too well, not to know that
the battles of England and the glories of England, are
indebted to the patriotism, the prowess, and the sacri-
fices of the farmers of England.—(Cheers.) I come
here because my ancestry were all farmers, and English
farmers too—and I come here first as the representative
of a country whose great material interests are founded
in the soil—(Hear)—l come here to pledge to you, and
to offer to you, in that kind, in that fraternal feeling that
should exist between two great nations, the sympathy
and the kind feelings of the great body of the
farmers of the United States of America.—(Loud
eheers.) I come here as their representative, to tell you,
and to make you feel and realise, that they feel under
great obligations to you for the experiments which you
have tridhere—which we, being young, and not rich—
(A laugh)—are not able to try—while you, having the
capital and skill, and what is more, the science which
has been applied to the art in Great Britain, are well
able to do it all. When I look at the state of agricul-
ture in 1850, and compare it in England with the state
of agriculture in 1820, I am perfectly amazed. I have
been overwhelmed to-day. I have heard so much, and
have seen so much, that I have not had time to digest it.
—(Cheers.) When I look back to this country only 30
years (and in the annals of time that is but a day),
I look to that period when the average production
of wheat, I believe, in this realm, was not more than
20 or 22 bushels of wheat to the acre, and now high
authorities, of all parties and shades of political opinion,
agree that the average produce now is from 24 to 28
bushels to the acre.—(A voice—" 30.") Thirty then, if
you please. If it were 40, I should rejoice and thank
God for it.—(Cheers.) We of the United States have
not the slightest jealousy of the agricultural interest in
England.—(A laugh.) We rejoice at every new agri-
cultural implement you bring out, suitable to your con-
dition—we rejoice when you can, by the aid of agricul-
tural chemistry, produce another shear of grass. It has
been said that he who can produce two blades of grass
where one grew before, is a benefactor to his country. If
that be true you are all public benefactors, because you
are increasing the product of the nation.—(Cheers.) It
is a matter for you and not for me to decide on those
great questions which agitate the nation now, for I do
not come here to enter into such discussion. I may be
allowed to have my own opinions on them, but those opi-
nions will never be expressed in Great Britain, so far as
regards the internal policy of Great Britain.—(Cheers.)
But I tell you the more food you produce—the nearer
you supply the necessities of this great people—the more
rejoiced I shall be, or the country which I represent.—
(Cheers.) With regard to commerce, I apprehend there
is not a man within sound of my voice who will not
agree with me that commerce, trade, or whatever name
you give it, is essential to the prosperity of the agricul-
tural interest. Commerce has been the great pioneer of
civilization, and what country has done as much as this
to civilize the world through the instrumentality of com-
merce? In regard to manufacturers, it would be idle, it
would be futile and foolish, for me not to acknowledge
that the manufactures of England—the spindles of Eng-
land, if you please—have in conjunction with this great
and powerful body of men, the agriculturist interests,
fought the battles of Great Britain. There is no discre-
pancy whatever in my judgment in maintaining all those
interests which aro vital to the prosperity of this nation,
and to all great nations—l believe these three interests
are identically the same. It is for you to decide how
far you may be willing to be dependent on foreign nations
for your food.—(Cheers.) This is a question, gentle-
men, which belongs to the English political constitution,
and not to a man representing a great nation on the
other side of the Atlantic. This is a question I shall
not touch. Ido not rise for the purpose of expressing
opinions with regard to the internal policy of this great
nation, but I should deem it a misfortune to my own
country, and to the world, if anything, whether by the
legislation of your own Government, or from any other
competition
I des
cause, this mighty nation of Great Britain should lose
any portion of its power in the family of nations.—
(Cheers.) There is room for us all. I should like to
seenatiocnoms;p but
i
reto amongstliberal,seeabove a
il,
a nlfact amongst,competition etbe-
tween old Anglo-Saxon and
young Anglo-Saxon, but
let it be upon one principle—how
e—how we shall advance
and diffuse civilization throughout- the world.—(Loud
cheers)—which of as shall
extend
d justice to other na-
tions feebler than ourselves. —religion—the
Bible—let that competition be as tucati
the most good.—lam happy state o which nation will. do
°won that the ijuited to you on this oo-
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