AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS AND THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

Press, Volume IV, Issue 387, 26 January 1864, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS AND THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.

At the last annual meeting of the Chertsey Agricultural Society, Mr. \V. 8. Lindsay in the chair, some speeches were delivered which cannot fail to be of interest to our readers, and among them that of Colonel Laraar, of the Confederate States , Army:— The Chairman proposed "Success to the Chertsey Agricultural Association." He said that, without professing to know much übout agriculture, he could speak as to the duty and. the advantage of providing proper dwellings' for the labourers. It was the first duty of the owners of land to provide comfortaole dwellings for those who tilled it, and it was their interest also, as where men had to walk two or three miles to and from their work, they thereby exhausted some portion of the physical powers which would otherwise be applied to the ordinary labour in the fields. But in addition he thought comfortable dwellings could be built which at a fair and moderate rent would return a reasonable interest upon the outlay. Uβ had built about 40 cottages at Shepperton, each containing a living room,, a kitchen, a wash-house, a bed-room for the grown up girls, another for grown-up boys, and accommodation for the man and wife. The cottages cost him each about £85, and he let them together with a small piece of land, to grow vegetables for the family, at from 2s. 6d. to 2s. 9d. per week. [Hear, hear.] He would recommend landowners not to build highly decorated cottages, but comfortable dwellings for families of fire or six persons—not more, as otherwise there would be a risk of the evil of lodgers. [Hear, hear.] Upon another subject connected with agriculture he could speak from his knowledge as a commercial man, and that was v to the necessity of having agricultural statistics. In 1846 or 1847 he, as a broker, engaged tonnage to bring to his country no less than 1,200,000 qrs. of corn. Other brokers of course did the same, but he then felt it to be uncertain whether that quantity of grain was actually required. At that time France was buying corn largely in, our markets at from 465. to 505., and the farmers and holders of corn were sellingatthosepricee.Ninemonthsaftcrwardethepcople of tin's country wore paying 102s. per qr. for corn. France, by reason of the statistics taken in that country, knew the quantity of corn likely to be required from abroad, while we were in utter ignorance as to the quantity we had actually grown. In consequence France had a great advantage over us, and for three or four months the people of England were paying £1,500,000 per month for grain from abroad. In 1846-7 we had to send abroad large amounts of gold to pay for grain. A panic followed and a fearful crisis occurred ; some of the largest houses failed, and very many farmers lost large sums of money, because in our ignorance of our real stock we had sold to France for 465. to 50s. the corn we had afterwards to replace at 100*. to 102s. [Hear, hear.] The people suffered and the farmers suffered, because no one class could suffer without all other classes in some degree also suffering. [Hear, hear.] As it was with individuals, so it was with nations, when one suffered so did the other. America was now pasting through a fearful ordeal, and England woe suffering, too, to a great extent from the calamities of the American people. [Hear, hear.] It was the interest certainly of England to see all other nations prosperous and happy. Twenty million quarters of corn required 3,000,000 of registered tonnage or 4,000,000 toM burden of shipping to import it. They could easily perceive how that would affect the price of other articles of import by creating a scarcity of tonnage, and enhancing the price of cotton and other raw materials upon which our manufacturers and artisans depended. The price of these manufactured articles advanced, and thus all classes were affected. He would therefore suggest to his agricultural friends to consider calmly whether the collection of agricultural statistic* would not be an advantage to them as well as to other classes of the community. Mr. Briscoc, in replying to the toast, promised to give his beet consideration to the subject of agricultural statistics whenever it should be brought forward in Parliament, but would not at present give any decided opinion, as he should wish to know what were the opinions of the fanners of Surrey after hearing the able arguments of his hon. friend and others. The toast of "Prospcrty to the Agricultural Interest of England," was replied to by . ~. Mr. Caird, M.P., who said that he had long been intimately acquainted with the character of the English farmers and always found them ready to give a friendly reception even when he h , **? inquiries which they considered would be as well omitted. The subject of agricultural statistics was one to which he had devoted much attention* and it could not be put in a fairer way than it had been put by the chairman as a commercial in»n» He would speak to those present as a farmer to farmers. It had been said that the question we* a corn-merchant's or coradealer's question and not a farmer's question: but he would ask them, were not the far greater number of corndeaJert also farmers ? There were about 500,000 fknnw» iv Great Britain and only about 5000 or 60W

mm merchants, and, therefore, surely if anybody Crested in obtaining correct information it SSStaSr. The onlf advantage they could r?L to have over any foreign grower was their P Jmitvto the market, and if they had early P?S£n of the state of the market have the benefit of that adSaw He was glad to believe, from STfrfendk manner in which the chairman's SLiks had been received, that m that part of the ontrv no insuperable objection existed to a sys£m of statistics that would not be inquisitorial. <Thl right hon. member for Oxfordslure, Mr. nvnlev who justly enjoyed the confidence of the £riculturL«ts,lxadput it that the farmers would X£et that the cost of making such inquiries £« ta exclusively borne by them. That was reasonable objection, and no man could say that tie farmer should be exclusively taxed for a nrocceding that was intended to be for the equal Wfit of all classes. He knew of no other country where agriculture had improved more than in this country. Our agricultural shows mtr stock shows, our displays of implements and machinery, proved that. He would just make a f , w remarks upon the late abundant harvest, that they might realise what was tho meaning of those words. Taking one quarter per acre as the average excess of the crop of this year, winch he believed was a moderate estimate, and adihng for the additional weight and better quality of the grain two bushels per acre, there would be 10 bushels per acre above the avermre They had certain facts, although but nartkl information, upon which they could calculate the breadth of land under grain cultivation. He/oundthat something like 12 millions of acres of land in the United Kingdom were used for the crowth of corn ; 10 bushels excess per aero upon the breadth of land gave a total excess of quantity above an average crop of 15 million, of quarters. From those facts his hearers could realize tho meaning of an abundant harvest, which gave them an excess valued at present rates at £21,000,000. ftehad been surprised to see in a usually well mformed newspaper, the Spectator, so low an estimate of the annual produce of wheat at 6i million quarters a year. He believed it wns nearly 12 million quarters. The excess of crop this T ear would be about 5,500,000 quarters, and as tho overage consumption of the country was twenty million quarters, it followed that we should have to import not more than 2£ million quarters in the present year. Not having the figures before him, he could not speak precisely, but he believed that last year we bought abroad JO million quarters, at a cost of £25,000,000, while this year we should only have to buy 2,500,000 quarters at a cost of £5,000,000, thus effecting a saving to the country in the single article of wheat of 20 millions sterling. They knew also as farmers that it was not their business to depend exclusively upon the produce of their cornfields, but rather to increase their green crops, with which the foreigner could not so well or so cWnlv supply them. Referring to Arthur Young's account of prices in 1770, lie found that bread wne then lid. per lb., the same as it was now. Meat was then 3d. per lb., now from 7d. to Bd.; butter which was 6d. i 3 now Is. 3d., end'wool had risen in value 6d to Is 6d. per lb. Therefore the conclusion was that the land yielded more than twice as much in moat and three times as much in wool. It was therefore not doubtful that the formers would devote their energies to these branches of their trade which were likely to be the most remunerative. With respect to labourers' dwellings he agreed that great improvements were absolutely required, but he would remind the agriculturists of England that a change was going on which was beyond their control, and which was most prominently to be observed in Ireland, where, of late, about 500 persons per day, or the amount of the total labouring population of many parishes, wore emigrating to America. Th* same cause which induced that flight from Ireland could not fail to operate in Kagtaad. They were flying from Gd or Bd. a day to 6s or 8s per day. It would be necessary, therefore,for the agriculturist to turn his attention to the neee of machinery and the employment of skilled labour, which would he deserving of and could demand higher rates of wages. The Chairman then proposed " The health of the "Visitors, ,, and with it coupled the name of Colonel Lamar, who was his guest. His house was always open to the representatives of oppressed and downtrodden nations ; and he was honoured with a visit from Mr. Mason, whom he was proud to call hi. friend, and who was not. present that evening simply because he desired to avoid at present all public assemblies. Colonel Lamar, who was present, was also a distinguished man in Wβ own country, not only as a statesman in the United States' Congress, but as a brave soldier in the Confederate army [cheers]; that army which had endured untold hardships, and under the gravest difficulties had hurled back again and again the invaders of their soil. [Cheers.] For hunielf he would not at the present moment otter any opinion as to the terrific struggle now pending; buthe did not hesitate to say that, in any awembly of Englishmen, those brave men would be received with tho warmest sympathy. [Cheers.] The "Health of the Visitors, and of Colonel Lamar," was drunk with acclamation, the whole company, with scarcely an exception, rising to drink the toast. Colonel Lamar, in reply, thanked the chairman for his remarks, and tho company for its cordial reception of his name. Their generous and cordial reception touched his heart and olicited hie most sincere gratitude. The enthusiasm which had been manifested was the more gratifying to him that it was manifested at a farmers' dinner. He belonged to a country which was a nation of farmers [cheers], not, as they had been told, a country of indolent, wealthy, and dissolute planters, of poor white trash and degraded slaves. It was not that, but a country of independent, intelligent freemen, of the eight millions of whom two-thirde earned their subsistence by the iweat of their brow, nearly one-half of them owning the land they cultivated, and nearly all of them seeing in each up-turned sod of their Mow ground that which was more precious to them than the gold of California, —the sparkle of independence and of personal liberty. [Cheers.] Many of the qualities which that people had exhibited during the last two years, and which had been to kindly alluded to, were in his opinion due to the fact that they were a nation of fanners. He believed, without disparaging other pursuits, that from the culture of the soil, the drawing of sustenance from tho bosom of mother earth, they derived a certain moral nutriment, a certain richness of sentiment, of capacity for self-devotion and sacrifice, which kept the heart fresh and pure, »nd made the nature of men simple and unaffected. [Cheers.] Jt had been represented to England that tho great conflict, the bloody war which had been waged, and was still being waged, against the people of the South by the Government of the North, was a war on behalf of civil liberty and of constitutional government against a band of lawleee conspirators, who sought to trample down those liberties and to overthrow tho august etrurture of that Constitution. [Hear, hear.] Fortunately for the South, in coming before the British people, they came before a tribunal fully competent to consider the question. He congratulated Englislunen on their practical knowledge of civil liberty. [Hear, hear.] They had it in substance j theytnew it by certain broaS, practical foots, and they could not be misled by •ttbUe refinements or fanciful theories. When Jinglishinen were told of civil liberties they immediately thought of certain great historical guarantees for that liberty—the right of habeas «»?"*. of trial by jury, the supremacy of the law, the subordination of the military "to the civil power. Those things constituted to an Englishn>Mi the true indication of civil liberty [hear], JJdtheu- Biitorf-tanght them that whenever a T*£°*_ °* a ty»nt WMler any disguise sought to **k>? the liberties of tho people, he commenced

by attacking those great "guarantees of civil liberty. [Hear, hear.] Let them test the contest in America in that manner, unrl lot them mt which party was contending for civil liberty and constitutional government. [Cheers.] Let them look at the States. Did they see any of the gieat bulwarks of English liberty existing there ? [Cheers.] The Chief of the Cabinet —the Secretary of State—had made it a boast to the representative of Her Majesty's Government as evidence of his strength that, sitting in his private chamber, he could, by touching a bell on his left hand, order the imprisonment of a citizen in the far distant State of Michigan, and by touching another bell on his right he could imprison a citizen of the distant States of the Maine or Xew Hampshire. Were the citizens of that great country exempt from illegal arrest ? Why were .not* the houses of American citizens like the houses of Englishmen —their castles ? and why were they subject to illegal and unwarrantable searches ? [Hear.] lie would tell them. That Government was not seeking to establish civil liberty. A grim despotism, glared over the land. Liberty stood naked and defenceless, cowering before it. [Hear, hear.] Spies, police-officers, provost-marshals* were the ministers of the Government. The legislature of a sovereign state was broken up by armed force, judges dragged from the bench and imprisoned, men arrested without warrant of law and undergoing long and indefinite confinement without examination into their cases, conscripts marching through the streets manacled together and shot in the presence of the army —such was now constitutional liberty and free government in the North. [Cheers.] lsut let them look across the Potomac, and what was there to be seen ? A people invaded at different times by 1,000,000 armed men, but not such v sight as he had just mentioned. They would see :i number of confederated States with a Constitution in peaceful operation, safe in the affections of the people ; the majesty of the law unimpaired, and acting with umliminished vigour ;—[hear, hear] —the courts of law open everywhere except where hostile armies stood confronted ; the judges in many cases deciding against the Government and its officers, all of whom bowed before the majesty of the law. When by a. spontaneous vote of the people—for it was spontaneous, and not the result of preconcert or conspiracy— when certain States thought fit to withdraw the powers which they had delegated to a common Government, because those powers were being used to their destruction, there was not a break in their social institutions, nor even a momentary pause in the working of the internal administration of their government. That was because it was a movement inaugurated in the interest of order for the conservation of liberty and law, and for the supremacy of the constitution. Even while it was in abeyance before the Congress met at Montgomory to form a new Government the people still obeyed it. Thus stood the issue between the two people, and he was willing that Englishmen should decide which were the representatives of American or Anglican liberty and constitutionality. [Cheers.] liut the Southern people had made sacrifices for their independence, they had sacrificed everything save their civil liberties. The rival armies had often met in conflict, and the results of those meetings it did not become him to describe. Englishmen could form and had formed their own opinions upon that point [hear], and the South had the rare good fortune to fight her battles and to leave her enemy to publish them. His friend the chairman had spoken of his sympathy with down-trodden and oppressed nationalities. He thanked his friend for his kindness and hospitality to Southerners. They were a people, but they were not down-trodden, nor oppressed, and by the God they never would be! [Cheers.] Liberty might sometimes be crushed under the armed heel of the despot; but in the Southern country whence lie ctmc could be seen old luen and young standing up side by side for their country, their bayonets glistening in the sun, unstained by aught save the blood of their enemies. Hut it was well to recollect that the South, abused, bleeding, her life blood draining away, was fighting not alone for her own liberties, but also for the liberties of that people who were sending armed millions to subjugate and to crush her. More than that—the South was struggling for freedom everywhere, and was seeking to rid the world of one of the most intolerable, aggressive, overbearing Powers that ever disturbed the repose of Europe, or menaced the peace of civilisation [hear, hear] —a power which stood as the embodiment of the sovereignty of brute force, which if it succeeded in its designs would bo a fireship among nations, and which even now, in anticipation of its triumph, laughed to scorn the faith of treaties, the obligations of humanity, and the laws of civilised warfare. [Cheers.] It had been said by those whose interest it was to misrepresent the South that, although she might be engaged in defending her own independence, yet her great object was to perpetuate the degradation of another race which she had enslaved. [Hear, hear.] He did not not wish to commend any of the social institutions of the South to Englishmen, and he did not stand there to defend any one of those institutions. But although these opinions might be formed and pronounced as to some of those institutions, he believed they were yet too fair not to hear the truth, which had not been told toEngland upon that subject. [Hear.] With a full and distinct understanding of the diversity of opinion that existed between his hearers and himself as to some of the institutions to which he referred, he asserted in the face of that company, and before the world, that the statements which had been made against the South were calumnious and untrue, and that the white race in the South had been the guardians, the protectors, the benefactors of the black man : that they had elevated him in the scale of rational existence, that they had Christianized him to a state to which lie had never before attained. : He only desired Englishmen to listen, not to opinions, nor to misrepresentation.*, but to facts. When the American continent was discovered and occupied by the European race it came into contact with two savage races. One was the noble Indian race, the ancient occupiers of the continent and the highest type of savage manhood: the other race was one brought there, not by ageucy of the Southern people, but by agencies which he would not then discuss, —it was the African race, which all philosophers and historians pronounced to be the lowest type of natural man. It was a race without rational ideae —cannibals not attaining even to the civilisation of the figleaf. [" Hear," and a laugh.] What had been the history of the two races he had described ? The Indian race—the noble race incapable of domestic life, of anything but its wild and nomadic existence, had been driven back to contimially narrowing circles, witfi constantly diminishing means of subsistence, and were in danger of complete extinction before the advancing wave of civilisation. But the other race, the negro, with all its foulness and barbarity, being naturally a servile race, had become domesticated, and in spite of the institution of slavery if they pleased, but still with slavery, had risen higher and higher in the rational scale, until now it furnished heroes and heroines for modern romances, poems, for modem songs, while some had been deemed by statesmen "fitted to enter witliin the charmed circle of social and political equality. [Hear, hear.] An institution tliat has done so much for that race must be considered carefully. He might bo told that, having brought die negro up to the point of civilization, the South owed it to Christendom to emancipate them. [Hear, hear.] In answer, he would refer to the opinions of British statesmen, British travellers, and philosophers, who were united in opinion that the emancipation of that race at the time, and especially in the mode pointed out by those of the North who were so enamoured of constitutional Government, would loud to an appalling crisis for

both races, [near.] But, whether they were so or not, lie could safely say that if that race had rivMi to the rank of Christian and fellow men, and if ihe time should ever come for them to believe that liberty would be a boon and not a curse, then the South would be prepured to confer that boon upou thorn. [Cheers.] If that time should ever come they would be capable of asserting their own claims, and the whites could not if they would withhold the boon. [Hear, hear.] Misrepresentation had been constantly made to the English people upon the subject, and it had been said that in the South the ne«ro was treated only as property, and that he had no legal rights. Kut that was not true. The laws of every sovereign State awarded the penalty of death for* the murder oi a slave, and imprisonment in the Penitentiary was the punishment for maiming. [Hear, jmd " Time. ,, ] The Chairman having explained that the distribution of the prizes hutl to take place. Colonel Lamar concluded his speech by again thanking the company for their sympathy with the South, which he said would nerve their arms to inflict heavier blows and to enact more heroic deed?. [Cheers.] Some other toasts were drunk, and the prizes to the successful competitors were distributed.