Sir Thomas Acland, who deserves well of English farmers, if
ever a county Member did,—the simple Bill, for instance, prepared by him and Mr. Duckham last Session to secure. the outgoing farmer compensation by law for unexhansted manures for two years, would go a great way towards settling the differences between English farmers and English landlords, —delivered a very good speech last week to the Broadclyst Agricultural Association, on the conditions of success in English agriculture. By the introduction of steam ploughs and the diffusion of the best chemical and other agricultural knowledge among his tenant-farmers, he is, indeed, him- self doing a great deal to raise the level of agricultural capacity in that part of the kingdom. One of his political remarks was very shrewd. He would willingly, he said, let the Conservatives have sixty new seats in the great towns, if the Liberals could gain only an equivalent of fifty in the counties, and would think the apparent loss a sub- stantial gain to politics and Liberalism, his reason being that Liberals engaged on the land would never be wild Radicals ; while Conservatives, representing the higher com- merce, never could be very dangerously Conservative, so that the whole tone of the House would be rendered more even and less doctrinaire. We quite agree with Sir Thomas that Liberals representing land, and Conservatives representing commerce, are the best sort of material for what may be called the " grain " of the House of Commons, and no doubt the Conservatives want moderating towards Liberal ideas, even more than the Liberals want moderating towards Conservative feelings. But there is a limit to this process. Heaven forbid we should ever have a hundred and twenty Lord Sandons in Parliament, even for the sake of a hundred Mr. Duckhams!
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