Truziuriftl.
Mr. Meehi was entertained at Woodbridge in Suffolk last week, at a dinner where Mr. Archdeckne the High Sheriff presided. Mr. Mechi discoursed copiously on agriculture ; on the necessity of "spending money" on farms; on the uses of deep-draining and steam-cultivation. He seemed to look forward to the partial substitution of steam for horse power ; and he preached up "high farming" with his accustomed fervour. One passage in his address has an interest wider than the agricultural one, and a bearing on the great-political questions of the day-
" There was Mr. Boydelrg traction engine as seen at the Royal Agricul- tural show at Chelmsford, walking about like a mammoth. He saw Mr. Boyden the day before yesterday with a view to arrange that one or two of his engines should form part of the civic procession of the Lord Mayor Elect' for as the Londoners could not do without eountry-made food, they thought it was quite proper they should as closely as possible identify agri- culture with commerce. But to return to Mr. Boyden, he had no hesitation in saying, that his invention was one of those events m agriculture and in the annals of this country that would work one of the mightiest changes ever known. When Mr. Mechi said to him, I want this engine,' he replied, The Emperor of Russia will have me and my engine in a fortnight. He has secured my engine and me with it, in order that it may be used in Russia for various purposes, but above suer drawing cannon '; for it was a remarkable fact that that engine would take a weight up or down hill or over a swamp where horses could not go,—a fact he recently saw illustrated at the Arsenal Hill, at Woolwich, which had an inclination of 1 in 10. First of all he saw ten powerful artillery-horses attached to a gun- they failed to move it; but twelve being put on, they at last got it up the hill- whilst Boyden's engine took the gun (which weighed ten tons, and itself twelve) np the hill, and what was still more surprising, down the hill as well ; in addition to which, the commanding-officer told him it had gone over rough ground and deep ravines in an extraordinary manner. He mentioned these things because he thought they were worth thinking about."
The annual meeting of the Waltham Agricultural Society, held on Wednesday at Waltham, was remarkable for the absence of the Duke of Rutland and the Marquis of Granby—the usual occupants of the chair at the annual dinner. The cause of this absence is that the Duke is very ill, and that the Marquis, therefore, cannot leave Belvoir. In their absence, Mr. Norton of Elton took the chair. The famous Mr. Chowler was the chief speaker ; and one or two sentences of his address are worth preserving, as marking the change in agricultural opinion since 1847— The show that day had been extremely good both in quantity and qua- lity ; but in one particular he thought the principles of the Society were a little too contracted. Be observed that by one of their rules all animals shown were required to be bred in the district. That was something like introducing a principle of restricted competition, which he should be glad to see done away with. As he said before, prices were now remunerative, and he hoped that they would continue so. He hoped from the bottom of
his heart, that the manufacturers, who are the best customers of the farmer, would continue to enjoy the prosperity which they are now blessed with."
The meeting of the Bridgenorth Agricultural Association was held last week at Bridgenorth. It was attended by many of the county notables,: and after dinner there was the average quota of speechmaking ; but the one salient speech was made by Mr. Evan Davies, in proposing the health of "the labourers."
"Although education is now brought within every one's means, and ai- med to every one's door, yet I must say it is most defective in quality for the education of the agncultmiets. There is our own school at Quatt, which I believe comes nearer to perfection than any other school with which I am acquainted for this purpose. Still I think this is far from perfect. I have no doubt that at the recent examination there, (which I regret harvest ()aerations prevented me attending,) the children acquitted themselves to t& entire satisfaction of the managers and the admiration of the strangers present. I have no doubt that many of them could parse a sentence in gram- mar in a way that would have put some adults to the stand-still. I have no doubt that they are well up in geographical knowledge. I have no doubt they could put their finger on the map to the spot where my fellow country- men from the land of leeks stood the brunt of Alma's fight. I have no doubt that many of them could trace out the kingdom where now the mo- dern Nero sets at defiance the remonstrance of the two most enlightened and most powerful nations in the world. But, gentlemen, I very much doubt if one in ten of them could tell you whether a cow gets up on her fore or hind legs first. (Laughter.) I much doubt if one in twenty could tell on which jaw of the cow the nipper teeth are placed. I very much doubt if one in ftfty could tell the difterence in the masticating process of the cow and the horse. I much doubt if one in a hundred could explain the germinating process of the wheat, barley, and oats, which it will be their province here- after to scatter upon the ground. I very much doubt if one in a thousand of them could describe the nature and habits of those insects and fungi which infest and destroy those crops which they will be called upon to cul- tivate and protect.; and whilst I have no doubt many of them could solve a problem of Euclid, and have travelled over the ass's bridge, yet I very much doubt if one of them could tell at what angle a furrow should be laid to expose the greatest amount of surface to the action of the harrows, and the ameliorating effect of the winter frost. Again, with regard to the girls, I have no doubt they acquitted themselves well in the Imowledge'of those things which would fit them for the parlour; but I very much doubt if they were well up in those things that would fit them for the kitchen and the brewhouse. I very much doubt if any one of them could tell the principle on which the milk is extracted from the cow, or de- scribe the process of turning that milk into 'cheese and butter. And surely, gentlemen, these are things that the future labourers and labourers' wives should not be ignorant of : but I have little hopes of improvement here until the entire class of books in our agricultural schools are forgotten and a new compilation takes place, not only for labourers, but for farmers, land- agents, aye and landlords themselves. How often have I been perse- veringly told by a brother farmer that rye-grass turns into scotch, when they are as distant as wheat is from barley. How often have I heard the possessors of large territorial domains at meetings of this kind regret that toasts have been put into their hands, for they knew nothing of agriculture. How often do we see the management of large estates intrusted to the care of some old college companion, who has retired from the Army or Navy, or sometimes to reward the faithful services of a groom or a valet, and too often to the care of those who have received their education at Lincoln's Inn. No wonder, then, that agriculture, which is coexistent with man's creation, should be only just now emerging from its dark ages ; no wonder that it is only just now being thought worthy of being placed side by side with those other sciences which have made such rapid strides throughout the world."
The supporters of the National Society at Lichfield held a large meeting in the Guildhall on Tuesday, to press its claims for support upon the public. The Bishop of Lichfield took the chair; he was supported by the Bishop of Sodor and Man, and a large contingent of the local clergy mustered on the platform. In opening the proceedings, the Chairman insisted on the necessity of keeping up the National Society as an aid to education, because it is directly connected with the Church, and because the education it imparts is based on sound religious principles. The Bishop of Soder and Man, at greater length, worked out the same propo- sition. He pointed out that education had been a question more of dis- cord than unity ; that the greater the efforts were the more apparent was the danger of disunion; and that within the fold of the Church itself there had arisen a controversy respecting the manner in which the So- ciety should carry out its principles in connexion with the formularies of the Church. He believed that the demand for the abandonment of those formularies had been a political demand, set up to cause trouble in the work of education. Now there is no necessity for abandoning those formularies in order to attract Dissenters.
At the Surrey General Quarter-Sessions, held on Wednesday, Mr. Johnson, the Chairman of the Committee appointed to inquire into the propriety of establishing a Juvenile Reformatory for Surrey, moved that the inquiry should be continued. This was opposed by Mr. Aleock ; who objected to the continuance of a Committee that made no report, and brought forward no definite proposition. Mr. Briscoe supported this view; but the majority of the Magistrates voted in favour of con- tinuing the Committee.
Sir Samuel Bignold met his constituents at Norwich last week ; and, having taken a retrospective view of affairs, looked ahead. He said that the next session would no doubt open with some promise of reform in the representation, but with no design to carry a bill to alter the present basis of representation. Conservatives must be watchful. They had no claptrap objects to attain by pandering to the multitude, but their true policy was to seize every really sound measure of reform, rejecting hol- low schemes put forth with no real view to the good of the people.
Lord Goderich has declined a request that he would become a candi- date for Lincoln at the next general election ; because his obligations to his present constituents of Huddersfield will not allow him to become a candidate elsewhere.
The oubseribers and friends of the Castle Howard Reformatory Insti- tution held a meeting at York on Thursday sennight. It was very fully attended, by Members of both Houses of Parliament, country gentlemen, and civic dignitaries. Lord Bolton presided ; Lord Teignmouth, Mr. E. S. Cayley, Lord Greenock, Sir J. V. B. Johnstone, and others, took Part in the proceedings. The institution is quite in its infancy, but the report showed that it has made a successful beginning. The Directors of the European and Australian Steam Navigation Com- pany, which is to perform the mail-service between England and her Colonies in the South Pacific, gave an impromptu entertainment on board their first ship, the Oneida, on Tuesday afternoon. The Oneida is now fitting out in the Southampton Docks, and will set out on her voyage on Sunday. Among the company, were Mr. Rowland Hill, Mr. Andrews, the Mayor of Southampton' Mr. William Schavr Lindsay, and Captain Engledue. The second ship will be the Simla, which the Pe- ninsular and Oriental Company have let to their rivals.
A daring gang of burglars have ransacked a house, belonging to Mr. Har- rison, at Brownhills Colliery, near Walsall. They were armed and masked. In the house were a clerk, an old housekeeper, and her daughter. The burglars did not attempt any nice and skilful operations to get adniittance- they -boldly battered awn a door. The women they tied in tick beds. The clerk they compelled to point out the money-safe and then they bound him, a ruffian with a double-barrelled gun standing guard over him. Fail- ing to force open the safe by means of gunpowder, they broke it asunder with a sledge-hammer. After collecting their plunder, the robbers regaled themselves with the contents of the larder and cellar ; and then they drove off in a cart. Mr. Harrison has offered a reward of 1001. for the apprehen- sion of the burglars.
The Honourable Bertram Wodehouse, uncle of Lord Wodehouse, has died at Exeter in a shocking way—he drank himelf to death. When dis- missed from a hotel in consequence of his deep drinking, he took lodg- ings at the house of a porter there he indulged in brandy and bottled ale to an enormous extent, taking hardly anything else. When he began to sink under the effects of his excesses, he said he would not have a doc- tor. At length a surgeon was procured ; who found him drinking ale from a bottle as he lay dying, and wi h difficulty got the bottle away. Medical aid came tee late. The verdict of the Jury was the echo of the surgeon's dictum—" Died from exhaustion, consequent on excessive drinking." Mr. Wodehouse appears to have been in the prime of life. Lord Wodehouse made him a yearly allowance.
While a party of Royal Artilleryman were at gun practice at Sheerne-s,. last week, a cannon burst. Driver Lambee was killed, and three other sols diers were badly hurt.
On the night of the 6th instant there was a collision between two coal- trains, at a junction near Swansea, by which Anthony Allen, an engine- driver, was killed. The disaster was caused by permitting the second train to advance while the first was still in the way ; this, it is alleged, arose from Mr. Hancorn, the station-master, ordering a telegraphic message to be Bent that the line was " clear " when it was not. A Coroner's Jury have returned this verdict—" It is unanimously our verdict, that the accident is alone and exclusively the result of the neglect and improper Conduct of Mr. E. Hancorn in telegraphing the road 'clear,' thereby causing the coal-train to be put in motion at the time he knew the line to be obstructed, the re- sult of which was the death of Anthony Allen." This being a verdict of manslaughter, the Coroner issued his warrant for his committal to the coun- ty gaol. Mr. Hancorn was, however, still at large,
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