ght Vrobintes.

A great number of the agricultural societies have held their annual meetings within the last fortnight; but generally under circumstances which indicate decay. At few of the meetings has the show of stock been equal to that of previous years, and at most the attendance has exhibited a marked falling off.

The exception is the West Dorset Society, which had its grand day on Thursday sennight. The show of stock was here exceedingly good, and the proceedings altogether showed signs of prosperity. Mr. Floyer spoke of the competition which the farmers would have to struggle against here- after, in the growth of corn, as only to be met by further improvements in agriculture.

As a set-off, however, to this record of success, the Arundel and Brain- ber Association had a meeting of the most dismal aspect. Only twenty- five sat down to dinner, of whom not ten were farmers. The Earl of Arun- del and Surrey, who presided in the absence of the Duke of Norfolk, an- nounced the society to be on its last legs; the funds being so low as to render it impossible to go on. Other associations, he said, had declined; among them the West Grinstead and the Goodwood, at which latter only ten members sat down at the last dinner.

The Waltham meeting took place on Monday. The ploughing was ex- cellent, but the show of stock a comparative failure as to numbers. Here the Duke of Rutland, who presided, expressed his alarm at the probable result of the late Corn-law measures: he enjoined, however, increased energy and industry, as the best defence of the farmers. The Marquis of Granby also touched on the recent legislation— The Corn-laws having been thrown off, they had been told that there was no chance of regaining them: whether that be true or not, he could not tell, but he believed it was not. But if it were so, he ventured to say, there was not a man among them who would not do his best to preserve the protection, the small rem- nant existing in favour of the manufactures and commerce of the country. And it would be a proud day, when, on the question of the Navigation-laws, the Coun- try party should have the opportunity of resisting the attack upon those important interests of the country. They would not inquire whether they had been sup- ported or not respecting the Corn-laws; but they would maintain the commercial interests of England, and fight her battles to the very last. Referring to the dis- tressed state of the manufacturing interests of the country, he admitted that if Free-trade measure had done no other good, they had produced a good under- standing between the manufacturers and the operatives in their present difficulties as to the best method of alleviating their mutual embarrassments.

At the Warwickshire meeting, the show of stock was inferior, and the whole appearance fiat. The funds, however, are flourishing. At the meeting of the West Beds and East Bucks Association, Baron Lionel de Rothschild defended the usefulness of agricultural societies, against the attacks of the Times. Continental farming, he said, was in- ferior to our own: it was like comparing a cart-horse to Van Tromp. Meetings have also been held by the societies of Abingdon and North Staffordshire; but the proceedings do not challenge special notice.

Sir Robert Peel has been entertaining a select party of gentlemen inte- rested in agricultural pursuits, at Drayton Manor. Among the visitors, were Earl Talbot, Lord Hatherton, Lord Forester, Sir Francis Lawley, the Dean of Westminster, Captain Dilke, Mr. Edmund Peel, Sir Henry De la Beebe, Dr. Lindley, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Professor Wheatstone, Mr. George Stephenson, the Reverend Mr. Huxtable, Mr. Josiah Pashy, Mr. Mechi, and Mr. F:Woodward. On Friday the surrounding tenantry were invited to meet them at dinner; and some excellent speeches were delivered upon important agricultural subjects.

There have been gay doings at Knowsley, to celebrate the newly-attained majority of the Honourable Edward Henry Stanley, son of Lord Stan- ley and grandson of the Earl of Derby. The festivities commenced with a dinner-party on Monday the 20th September, and were kept up for a week with the greatest spirit. The hall has been thronged with noble visiters, and dinners and balls have succeeded one another. The tenants and labourers on the estates have not been overlooked. On Wednesday, about eight hundred of the Earl's dependents were feasted in a spacious marquee. The great field-day, however, was Friday, when the tenants were invited to banquet with the Earl and his guests. They mustered four hun- dred strong, in the temporary saloon erected for the occasion; and at three o'clock sat down at the table to certain extempore variations on "the Roast Beef of Old England," performed with furious enthusiasm by the Chelsea Pensioners Band, who had already dined sufficiently. Here the Earl of Derby presided; supported on the right by his son, and by his grandson on the left. After dinner, Lady Stanley and a party of ladies listened to the speeches from the orchestra. The Earl of Sefton proposed the toast of the day, " Health, long life, and happiness to the Honourable Edward Henry Stanley." He spoke of his friendship with four generations of the house of Stanley. After individual allusions to the late and the present Earl, and to Lord Stanley, Lord Sefton dilated on the fourth generation- " We cannot say much beyond what we are able to found upon great promise. One security we have against disappointment in the anticipations which his career hitherto Dilly justifies—and that is, that he comes of a good sort on both sides. He ought not, and I think he will not, disappoint us. He is born to every terres- trial blessing which can be heaped on the head of man; and I trust I may say, with deep anxiety, that he will deserve his high inheritance. He has every bright prospect which station, wealth, and, I know, talent, can secure for him. With the enjoyment of the rights he will have to perform the duties of property. In his station, his friends expect of him that he will be an example. His wealth, as

in the cases of his grandfather and of his great-grandfather, will have to be de- voted to the dissemination of general happiness; and his talents—making his DO-

bility more noble—have been given to him to serve his country. Our business here is to launch him prosperously into life; and we will do it, if there be value in the expression of our hearty good wishes, in a manner that shall waft him fa-

vourably in his coarse over the troubled waters of this world. Gentlemen, he will not disappoint us. In the simple, intelligible, though nnclassic language of our own county, I say, 'Hell prove a rent 'nn, and I'll oophoud Wm.'" (Tremendous applause and great laughter, in which Lord Stanley joined)

After a modest acknowledgment from Mr. Stanley, the health of Lord Derby and Lord Stanley were proposed by one of Lord Derby's tenantry, Mr. Robert Neilson, of Halewood; and the toast was received with the greatest enthusiasm. Lord Stanley returned thanks, in the midst of fre- quent cheers- " I speak to you on behalf of my father and for myself. I thank my friend who has just done us the honour of proposing this toast, not less for the manner in which he has been kind enough to speak both of one and the other of us, than for the fact than on this occasion—and, as addressing in the main the tenantry of my father—he has coupled our names in one toast; thereby intimating to you that—than which nothing can be more severely and strictly true—that as regards our relations to each other there is perfect and entire uniformity of sentiment— one heart, one view, one mind, one warm cordial, and sincere affection. " Gentlemen, out of the immediate sphere of domestic relations, beyond those who are entwined around a man's heart from the very period of infancy, endeared

by affections which grow with our growth and strengthen with our strength—

those relations, I mean, arising from family ties—there is among the social rela- tions of life no tie more intimate or more confidential of necessity than that which stands between the proprietor of the soil and those by whose talents, by whose

capital, and by whose industry, that soil is rendered productive. My friend ,,,ho preceded me has told you that the relations of landlord and tenant are intimately and closely. connected: I go further, and say that they are one and indivisible.

I say it is impossible but that the fortunes of the one should follow the fortunes of the other. I say also, that it is next to impossible that a bad landlord can have a good tenant; and I hope it is equally out of the question that a good tenant can have a bad landlord. We have one common interest—our pecuniary and personal interests are one and the same—the occupation in which we are en gaged is the same—it is the same soil which the tenant feels a pride in cultivating in the highest perfection, which is to give the highest remuneration to the land- lord—it is the came soli which the landlord has the pride of seeing in the best condition, which he may also satisfy himself will secure to him the most thriving and prosperous tenantry. " There is also something in the relation between landlord and tenant according to the character and habits of this country of a peculiar nature. It has not been, and I trust it never will be—it has not been a matter of mere contract, but of permanent connexion from generation to generation. Far be it from me to say, that among those who are engaged in other and hardly less important business of our domestic industry, there may not be the closest and the most cordial attach- ment so far as concerns the individual employers and the collective employed: but then it strikes me, the relation of landlord and of tenant has in it by practice and

by custom, if not by law, a permanence of connexion and of interest which at-

taches to no other branch of industry in this country. I don't say that I don't rejoice to see among the tenantry of this house new names introduced—men who bring to the cultivation of the soil not only increased capital but additional science and perfected skill. I think the infusion of such new blood in every case is a benefit as regards the occupation of land: but then, while I rejoice to see among the tenant-farmers the introduction of the Neilsons and of the Smitheya, of the Harveys and of the Cripa, and of others I might name, nothing would give me deeper regret than to see expunged from the lists of tenants on these estates the old names of which I enumerate a few, when I talk about the Websters, the Harrisons, the Ashcrofts, and the Tyrers, all and each of them intimate to me from infancy. And while I say we have a right to expect from all of them that

they shall advance in the march of improvement, and not be found in any direc- tion lagging behind, I say this further, that whether with a lease or without a lease, on the expiration of any term, I would rather—I confess the weakness— retain upon inferior terms for the landlord, provided they were an improving te- nantry—I would rather, I say, have the old names retained upon the list." After the dinner there was a grand display of fireworks, and later in the evening a ball, to which the wives and daughters of the tenantry were in- vited. Saturday was devoted to the feasting and amusement of some three hundred children; and merrymaking closed on Monday with a ball for the special amusement of the members of the household.

Mr. Edward Owen Bishop, the manager of the Christchurch branch of the Wilts and Dorset Banking Company, has been committed for trial on a charge of embezzlement. The examinations before the Magistrates were private; but it is understood that several cases of malversation were clearly made out.

The long-pending inquest on the engine-driver of the South Coast Railway, who was killed at Nutbourne, terminated on Tuesday. No evidence was giveti; the Jury having met merely to consider their verdict; which, after the Coroner had summed up, they returned in this form-

" That Samuel Gregory, on the 31st day of May last, was killed by the engine No. 40 running off the line of the London, Brighton, and South Coast Hallway, In the parish of Westbourne, in this county. That such engine was subject to considerable oscillation, which gave it an undulating, swaying, and jumping motion ; but whether the engine left the rails in consequence of such motion, or from what other reason, no evidence appears to us."

The Foreman then added, that the Jury bad also to recommend to the Directors, and they hoped the recommendation would be attended to, that engines of the construction of No. 40 should not in future be used for passenger-trains. Mr. Faithful, the solicitor to the company, announced that the use of long-boiler en- gines had already been discontinued for passenger traffic.