Mr. C. S. Read on Tuesday informed the Farmers' Club
that he had reluctantly been compelled to resign office, and only re- tained his post until his successor could be found. His cause of complaint was that Her Majesty's Government had begun to neglect agricultural interests. He had vehemently pressed upon the Duke of Richmond the importance of extending to Ireland the Act ordering the slaughter of all cattle infected with pleuro- pneumonia, had been rebuffed, and had resigned. He was, how- ever, pacified by promises, but they had not been kept. On the contrary, the "Veterinary Inspector, Mr. Fergusson, had not only denied that the disease was imported from Ireland, but had insulted Norfolk by asserting that it sometimes arose there from the dirty mode of littering the cattle, which stand permanently in muck. This was too bad to bear, and this time Mr. Disraeli had accepted his resignation. We have commented on Mr. Read's course elsewhere, and need only say here that his resignation will have no political importance. It will increase the irritation of the farmers, but as they would vote Tory if Mr. Disraeli gave them all pleuro-pneu- monia themselves, that does not signify politically. Besides, this Government will not go out without extending household suffrage to the counties, and then those poor farmers will not be able even to seat Mr. C. S. Read.
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