The agricultural meetings of the season almost monopolize the ground
of English politics this week. Three of them especially attract notice,—that of the Hinckford Association at Castle Hed- ingham, of the Hereford Association at Leominster, and of the 'Cheshire Association at Tarporley. At Castle Hedingham, the proceedings mostly took a political turn, and the tone was of the gloomiest kind. Major Beresford and Sir John Tyrell sent ex- cuses for non-attendance,—the Major, on the score of his legal liabilities, and the consequent reserve which etiquette imposed ; Sir John, "for want of heart and courage," his party broken down and himself reduced to a passive or " floating" condition. The Leo- minster meeting was purely agricultural ; and the speaking, though still of the couptry-gentleman order, belongs to a some- what newer school Mr. Booker has found that his gloomy fore- bodings of Free-trade consequences have not been fulfilled ; and he glories in the preseiit high prices, notwithstanding the attendant circumstances that the acreage of corn is diminishing in Hereford, and that many farms are but half-cultivated. However, where there is hope there is likely to be renewed energy ; and the precept thrown out further North, in the Cheshire meeting, might be caught up by Hereford before it reaches weeping Essex. At Tar- porley, Mr. Martin told the farmers, roundly, that they could not fit themselves to the times without better education, and he demanded schools for them. Whether the schools be given from
abovb, or created by the farmers themselves and supported by their own means, the precept is sound. It is only through educa- tion and better agriculture that profits can be rendered independ- ent of high prices, and that Mr. Booker's more cheerful mood may be continued when the whole country is rejoicing in plenty.
