The meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland has
beeii held this year in Athlone, with Lord Carlisle in his true- voeiktion as a lecturer on the progress of opinion. The Con- stabulary had supplied him with raw material, in the agrienl-. turd statistics, showing a.„general.__ingease _in...all the best
branches of Irish 4grieultnre ; and Loa Carlisle. - the figures, with admirable effect. He added a fact which is an example for England : the farmers of Ireland spontaneonsly,
supply the details of these statistics by filling up the returns. " Rare indeed are the instances in which the information re-
queited is not supplied with alacrity and good-will." The Irish farmer proportionately knows what he is about, and is a most successful example for those reluctant English farmers whose Members in the House of Commons are impeding the collection of agricultural statistics.
A. second exaniple. The tables have just been published 'of the results of the competitive examinations for provisional com.:-: missions in the Royal Artillery, and for admissions to the Royal; Academy at Woolwich. There are eleven commissions and thirty admissions. Of the eleven, the first and five others were taken by Irish students ; of the thirty, the five first and two, others were taken by Ireland. There is a direct reason for this.
As soon as the competitive system threw the possibility of obtain- ing commissions and the military education open to the public, certain Professors in Trinity College Dublin exerted themselves to establish " a Woolwich class," avowedly to prepare candidates for the conipetition. We see the result. • Of the commissions, Cambridge takes three, Oxford one ; of the admissions Oxford one, Cambridge none ; while King's College London takes five. Oxford and Cambridge might advantageously study this operation of cause and effect.
