The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-22 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL POVERTY.

Having lately visited a part of the country on the
borders (7f; Bedfordshire nod Buckinghawibire, and
only a few, miles from the Duke of .Buckingham,
took some interest in observing the condition of thc
agricultural labourers in that neighbourhood. Had I
not beheld those poor people, I could not have credited
a true description of their state. 'Where the manu-
facture of straw plait is carried on, you will now see a
great many of the grown-up lads, and even the men,
engaged in it, in consequence of the want of employ
on the farms. And yet that business is overdone;
the men and the lads are, evidently, not at all wanted
in it, but turn to the employment merely from having
nothing else to do. Their next move is, into the
union house.

It is a difficult thing to depict, in a few words, the
appearances of the misery here exhibited. We may
say " very, very poor," " excessively poor," and so
forth, using any general terms you please, which,
after all, can only express such depth of distress as
might occur to any body from accidental circum-
stances, and in a short time. It needs minuteness of
description, to those who have not beheld it, to repre-
sent the character of the poverty seen here, which ap-
proaches very nearly to, if it does not quite equal, the
lowest depth of wretchedness which you find in the
most despotic States on the continent of Europe. The
mud-made huts or hovels are fit only for pigs to live
in, and the existence of such dwellings for human
beings is a disgrace to our common country—more
especially to that part of it where such things are
seen—and still more especially to those great lords
of the soil who inhabit that part, and who
make so many loud pretensions of solicitude for the
people on the land. The raggedness and the filth of
that people is surpassed, I should suppose, nowhere
but in Ireland. But it was the lords of the land who
brought Ireland to her present state ; and, therefore,
why may we riot expect them to produce the same
here, if they are allowed ? There is a squalidness
which looks almost like the plague—denotes the suf-
fering either of dreadful disease or long-continued
famine. And this is in England ! and in Bedford
and Buckingham ! ! two of the counties the most ex-
clusively, possessed by those who call themselves
" farmers friends," and who demand " protection ! !! "
In the counties to which I allude, and where the
people are thus suffering, the land is nothing like
fully cultivated, and it requires no more than for the
people to be allowed to till it properly, to furnish
them all with abundance of food.—October 12.
(From a Correspondent of the Wiltshire Independent.)

THE LATE DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGIL—We
understand the funeral of the deceased Duchess is to
take place at Blenheim to-morrow, when her mortal re-
mains are to be deposited in the mausoleum of the house
of Marlborough, in the chapel of Blenheim. The Duke,
the Marquis of Blandford, and Lordo Alfred and Allen
Churchill, and several of the immediate relatives of the
Duchess are to attend the funeral.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COUR.T
The twelfth session of the present Mayoralty com-
menced yesterday, before the Recorder, the new Sheriffs,
(Aldermen William Hunter and Sydney), Aldermen
Sir Chapman Marshall, Kelly, and other civic func-
tionaries.

The grand jury having been sworn, were charged by
the Recorder, who said that since the last session there
were 182 persons committed for trial, of whom no less
than six stood charged with the crime of wilful murder.
It would be for the grand jury, however, to say, after
he•zring the evidence that would be laid before them,
whether in some of them it would sustain a charge of a
ztraver oX:nce than L11:::t it inwslr,to-,t,:r. lEvMg ex-
oluined the law of murder, the Reeo,,ier ailuded to other
serious of which appeared in the calendar, which,
however, presented no peculiar features ; and having
explained to them the nature of their duties generally,
he dismissed them to their room.