Without any allusion to " ill weeds," we must confess
that the agriculturist movement grows apace : it is becoming quite " for- midable." The English agricultural counties are all alive with Protectionists marshalling themselves in the new organization. The British Lion, we are told, is roused, and does not " wag his tail," but—dire portent ! — shakes his mane. The tenant-farmers assemble in hundreds ; subscriptions begin to be worth mention- ing ; exasperated by a report that he had turned Corn-law Re- pealer, the Duke of BIJCCLEUCH talks hotly about " lies," and subscribes a cool hundred ; the Duke of BUCKINGHAM shows himself in wonted obstinacy ; country gentlemen flock to fraternize with farmer's ; County Members attend on their constituents, and seek to come into favour again with assurances of at last making a stand ; a Whig has even been seen, like a bat among the birds; and at length an" Operative Conservative" has been procured. There is business and action in all this. As to the manner of the ratioci- nation, there is still room for improvement : we still see beings of the clerical order raving about the League's encouragement of incendiarism ; see Sir Camir.us KNIGHTLEY, a good specimen of the agricultural Member, assailing the League with fox-hunting wit ; many making the most extravagant constructions of the Free- traders' motives and aim ; Lord ORKNEY deploring the ruin of Scotch cheese-makers by the Tariff, which did not touch cheese at all; and, in short, we notice a hundred instances of deficient schooling. The most showy speechmaking is that of Mr. JOSEPH WILLIAMS, the "working man," at Buckingham : but his oratory will not bear scrutiny. Among working men he is of a suspected class—a baker. He has, too, the true " Operative Conservative" cant, as will be seen by our samples of his speech : being aristocratic by dint of his Conservatism, he sneers at " Mr. Hawes the soap- boiler," whom, it appears, he encountered in Lambeth : so that he is a knight-errant—one of the itinerant "mob-orators" desiderated by Mr. CHAPLIN as the humane alternative to ducking Mr. Coil- DEN. Yet does Mr. JOSEPH WILLIAMS shine, and confessedly shine, among the agriculturists; and moreover, he is vaunted as constituting or representing "the people" at the rural meetings. "The people," we suspect, are those who look on in sullen apathy or sportive recklessness while the ricks are burning. All this ex- posure of deficient rhetorical resources detracts from the power of the country gentlemen, but their personal activity bodes something to come. Perhaps they have no very distinct idea of the results likely to follow the action they have evoked. The immediate effect of their minacious support will probably be, to fortify Sir ROBERT PEEL in his stationary policy as respects Corn-laws and other economical questions ; but as speedy an effect of their concentra- tion will be, to present a direct antagonism to the League, to enter into an unequal contest of argument, to frustrate the Premier's Fabian policy, to compel the large class of waverers that break the force of every blow dealt at the agricultural interests to tak sides, and to bring the question to an issue in a pitched battle—t.ie agri- cultural party occupying the disadvantageous position of the de- fensive. An ulterior result will be, that the organization of tenant- farmers, now grafted upon the old system of agricultural societies, will survive its original purpose : the landlords, like the Horse in the fable, are putting the saddle on their own backs • for, when- ever the Corn-laws are settled, one way or another, the organized farmers will remain to investigate questions of rent, leases, and the like. Yet further, the Conservative country gentlemen are now multiplying the number of those local " conventions " which con- stitute the new democratic element in modern political rule. What- ever their own views of political economy or political constitutions, they are maturing the practice of settling legislative questions in " caucus." WoUld the Corn-laws stand with universal suffrage ? The Conservative agriculturists are anticipating universal suffrage, by helping to teach the people that they ought to settle questions of the kind, as the final and directing authority.
