"The "great day" at Smithfield has disappointed the grazing in-
terest, and has occasioned some grave faces in other quarters. `..` Beasts " and sheep proved not a very readily convertible " pe- etinia " on the great Christmas market-day. The Times, having achieved distinction by writiiig at fat, and -having no doubt helyeil the great reform in the cattle-show of the Smithfield Club, MESS the present occasion to read the graziers a more solemn lecture than usual on the yellow and rancid redundancy in which they so suicidally indulge. "Fat," says the Timis, turns the stomach of Londoners and children, and goes into that grease-pot which is tile perquisite of servants and the normal beginner of menial dia. Immesty. Fat, too, tends to make meat the worse to keep, and the muggy weather has alarmed butchers. Moreover, there was a glut : there has been over-production and over-trading.
On a glance at the figures, however, this is not made out satis- factorily. The number of beasts for the present year is 6120; the average of the five previous years is 5347,—showing an excess on Monday last of 1383. The number of sheep on Monday last was 26,800; the average of the five years is 23,781,—an excess of 3019. No doubt, the number of beasts is considerable—nearly 800 above the highest previous number, which was in 1848; and the prices both for beef and mutton are lower than they have been for six years. But this cannot be imputed either to over-trading, for the excess in sheep is very trifling, or to the fat, since there has been a progressive improvement in that respect for these last three or four years.
One fact in regard to prices is curious. In 1846, the number of sheep was higher than it is now-27,900 ; but in that year the prim also was higher. Trade also is reputed to be brisker this year than it was in 1847 or 1848, when the prices of beef consi- derably exceeded even the proportion for the present year.
The muggy weather" may have more to do with it. Still more, perhaps, a progressive change in the national dietary. Jehn Bull is acquiring a soul above beef; perhaps also a body somewhat below beef; and Mr. Cobden assures him that he will never again be called upon to fight three Frenchmen at once.
