THE NEW BID FOR THE FARMERS.
TF the account of the meeting in the tea-room between Sir 1 Stafford Northcote and his supporters, which was given in Friday's journals, is to be trusted, the Government are to be put under pressure to carry the Bill for increasing the price of meat, and securing the gratitude of the Farmers, through the House of Commons. We speak of this as the real effect of the Bill, because Lord Salisbury admitted in so many terms in the Lords on Monday that if the Duke of Richmond and Gordon could remain for ever Presi- dent of the Council, and continue to apply his sober wisdom to the great subject of the cattle-plague, no new Bill would have been necessary. Nothing, said Lord Salisbury, could be better than to leave in the hands of the noble Duke the dis- cretion which he already holds. But then, unfortunately, the Duke is not immortal. "If," said Lord Salisbury, "they could pass an Act of Parliament that he should live for ever and hold' the office for ever, no doubt all would be right ;" but that being impossible, the House must regard this Bill as the best means of providing, not so much for the judicious slaughter of cattle, as against the terrible consequences which might otherwise be caused by the resignation or demise of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. Well, if the Government take up the same attitude in the Commons, we think we can
predict the result. Unrivalled as the Duke of Rich- mond and Gordon may be in judging when fat cattle ought or ought not to be killed, we do not suppose the Commons will so far despair of their country as to think it impossible that his place should be filled ; or will provide against the contingency of his resignation, by a measure which assumes the total inadequacy of Lord George Hamilton or any other British Minister to exercise the noble and delicate discretion which the Duke has exercised. It Will be said, of course, that this language of Lord Salisbury's was simply jocular, and that the Ministers really believe in the necessity for this measure. But then why insist so much as they do on the success which has been attained under the present law ? If that success has been so great, why adopt a new step of almost revolutionary stringency, and not only of revolutionary stringency in some directions, but of very irregular stringency too. "Why can't you leave it alone ?" as Lord Melbourne used to say. The Duke thinks he has done a very great deal towards stamping out cattle diseases. Well, let him go on as he has begun, and educate some younger statesman,—like Lord George Hamilton, for instance,—into the mysteries of this great art. It seems to us simply in- credible that,—at all events, while we have a Duke of Rich- mond and Gordon,—it can be essential to order the slaughter of all fat cattle from European ports ; and quite obvious- that if this is necessary, it cannot be right to exenipt those fat cattle which come from Canadian or United States' ports. It is absurd to say that the length of the vdy- age itself operates as a sufficient quarantine. That would be true so far as regards foot-and-mouth disease, but is very far from the truth so far as regards the far graver malady of pleuro-pneumonia. At all events, when the Government admit that the use of the discretion given them under the present law has done so much, and when by excepting the United States and Canada from the rule of slaughter, they admit also that the necessity is by no means universal, those may surely be excused who say that the chief result of the measure will not be so much to stamp out cattle-plague, as to raise the price of meat, to brighten the prospects of all farmers and graziers in this country, and indirectly of the Tory party in the counties. The Marquis of Salisbury says that it is the English producers who produce 16-17ths of the food,—we conclude he meant of the meat, as the• debate did not affect other food,—of this country. Mr. Caird, who is, we suppose, a much better judge, says that the home supply is not more than 12-13ths of the whole, and that the foreign supply represents nearly a month's consumption out of the year. supply,— and of course the order that all fat cattle re- ceived from Europe are to be slaughtered at the port of debarkation will cause a very great diminution,—the price of meat, already extraordinarily high, will rise much higher ; and the owners of stock in this country will be great gainers, at the expense of the general population. Where the supply is already only just up to the demand, the sudden diminution of it, were it only by a fortnight's supply in the year, would raise the price far more proportionately than the supply had been diminished. In a word, one thing is certain,—whether the measure be otherwise needful or not, it will act as a heavy bonus to the keepers of stock, and that is one of the chief reasons why the country party rally round Sir Stafford North- cote, as the country party rallied round Mr. Ward Hunt in 1866 and 1867, to urge on the carrying of this Bill. Now, with the admission of the Government that the discretionary power they have hitherto had, has acted well, and that they have a Duke of genius for the exercise of that discretionary power, it does seem to us monstrous that a measure like the County Government Bill, which, however feeble, is at least the germ of a great reform, should be thrown aside to make room for this revolutionary bribe to the breeders of cattle. At all events, if the measure is to be pushed forward in this way as one of first-rate importance to the Government, and one for which the first attempts at a better system of county administration are to be ruthlessly sacrificed, let it, at least, be confessed the important political measure which such a course, at such a time, implies. In that case, it should be renamed either, "A Bill for transferring commercial profits from the towns to the country districts," or at least, "A Bill for securing to the country the best possible equivalent for 'a great grazier's judgment upon cattle plague, after the resigna- tion or demise of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon."
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