Plan 8. Agricultural Implements: CROSKILL on Reaping Machinery .. .. 25. Tithe Commutation Table. Communicated by R. DYMOND, Exeter 299 26. Average Prices of Meat and Corn. Compiled by R. DYMOND, Exeter 300 INTRODUCTION. THE present volume marks an era in the history of our Society. As an American once remarked, "We are growing fast; let us hope we are not growing loose at the same time." The character of the past year has been extension in the area and in the objects of the Society; accompanied, to a certain but still insufficient extent, by an augmentation of its funds. One strong proof of the continued attention of the Council to the interests of agriculture, and of the cordial harmony subsisting among its members, is to be found in the Report on Agricultural Customs and Covenants, presented by Mr. Gordon, and now first published. The Report was agreed to unanimously by a committee, including owners, occupiers, and managers of land, and lawyers, twenty-four in number, of whom twenty-two took an active part in the proceedings. The reception by the Council of this Report, so carefully considered, and the order for its publication, in connexion with the explanatory documents giving the reasons on which it was founded, is an event for which we believe there is no precedent in any other Agricultural Society. How it would have gladdened Philip Pusey, grappling as he did with the subject of tenant-right in Parliament, thwarted as he was in his endeavours, if he could have seen this result of English fairness and free discussion! The Committee aims at no more than to aid in laying a just basis for the growth of that public opinion by which all progress in England is guided; and both the Committee and the Council carefully guard against the supposition that any interference with private arrangements is proposed or intended. The extension of the Society's operations, by its acceptance of the invitation to visit Cardiff, has proved the advantage of intercommunication, which has already borne good fruit in improved steam communication and an increased demand for the best breeds of cattle and sheep. Nothing has occurred in any way to disturb the basis of the Society's constitution, but it has gained friends; while the hospitality, zeal, and ability displayed by our Welsh neighbours, now made more near, will long be cherished by every member of the Council who was among the half hundred who stood up to acknowledge the courtesies of the Mayor, Charles Croft Williams, Esq., of Roath House. It will not be the fault of the Mayor and Local Committee of Barnstaple, if the year 1859 does not hold out sufficient attractions to induce a continuance of the intercourse so pleasantly inaugurated in 1858. This year marks also a point of advance in the implement exhibition, the point, namely, at which, by common consent of a large number of the exhibitors, purchasers, and officers of the Society who have so ably and zealously conducted the competitive trials, the prize system may safely be dispensed with. The transactions in the implement trade resolve themselves now into the ordinary relations of business, aided by the opportunity of an annual gathering for comparison, selection, and purchase. The West of England has fully maintained its character in the local examinations both of Oxford and Cambridge, at Exeter, Bath, and Bristol. Some explanatory documents are inserted in the present volume. It is satisfactory to learn that in the birthplace of these examinations the entry of candidates for 1859 keeps up, notwithstanding the severity of the test applied by the University at the first examination, and the raising of the fees to be paid by the junior candidates for the present year. The entries of the senior candidates at Exeter are the same as last year, 29; the juniors 54, instead of 55. Only six of one class and seven of the other decline the religious examination. The projected fulfilment of the original idea of the Society, by the establishment of the Arts and Manufactures Department, is explained in various papers in the present volume of the Journal, and has also been warmly and liberally advocated by some of the most influential conductors of the Local Press. To Dr. Scott the Society is indebted, not only for his paper in the Journal, but also for unremitting attention to the details of the arrangements. Indeed, the pledge given to the Council, that efficient voluntary assistance would not be wanting, has been fully redeemed by the gentlemen who have acted on the Arts and Manufactures Committee, both in the way of personal exertion, of liberal contributions, and of other facilities for the discharge of business. None of those gentlemen, however, will hesitate to confirm the statement that to the organisation of the whole scheme Mr. Gendall has brought to bear an amount of personal influence, activity, and skill, which it would have been difficult to supply without him. Much credit also belongs to enterprising tradesmen in Exeter, Bristol, and elsewhere, whose appreciation of the practical tendency of the Exhibition has led to contributions of extraordinary value being sent by distant manufacturers. The thanks of the Committee are also in an especial manner due to Mr. Redgrave, Mr. Macleod, and Captain Fowke, officers of the South Kensington Museum, who, in the absence of the Secretary, Mr. Cole, on the Continent, rendered every assistance in their power to forward the objects of the proposed Exhibition. Supported as the promoters have been, it only remains to express the hope that the exhibitors will, in their turn, receive the support of the public; in which case the success of the experiment may be considered as ensured. Such are some of the actual and probable results more or less owing to the harmonious action of the Society up to the present time. That its work has received the notice of the Royal Consort of our Gracious Queen is an honour of which every member of the Society feels proud. The unsolicited permission to enrol the name of his Royal Highness as an annual Subscriber to the Society, and also as one of the exhibitors at the Barnstaple Meeting, adds to the value of the encouragement given to the extended plans of the Society. Such tokens of the interest awakened in high quarters by voluntary efforts for any worthy object, and the warmth of feeling which is kindled in return among large bodies of the Queen's subjects, are among the golden links which bind together all classes of a free and loyal people. The Journal Committee has received the valuable additions of the names of Mr. Gabriel Poole and Mr. Robert Dymond: Mr. Josiah Goodwin has prepared the Note Book, and assisted throughout in the revision of the present volume. Feeling, as the Editor is obliged to feel, that he must ask to be relieved in future from much of his former responsibility, he is also convinced on other grounds that the time is come for making some more efficient arrangement for the conduct of the Journal. But he would be ungrateful indeed, if he was not sensible of the support and kind forbearance which he has uniformly received at the hands of those with whom it has been a pleasure and an honour to act. Dismissing this last sheet, as the Editor is compelled to do in the midst of duties of a very different kind, he hopes he may be forgiven for closing this notice of the past, as in the sixth volume, with a quotation. It is taken this time from a thoughtful divine on whose pages his eye has rested for a moment : "It is not in times of action and of effort only, that Christ's miracles of nature speak with comfort to our hearts. There is scarcely one of us, I fancy, who has not at some time stood face to face with some of the grander spectacles of the outer world, with a mountain throned in calm cold majesty or with the starry sky, fearful in its impenetrable depth, till he has felt the cry of David rise to his lips as the utterance of hopeless despair; and then it is that the thought of Christ, the Sovereign and the Redeemer, converts the words of despondency into a hymn of triumph (Ps. viii. 4; Heb. ii. 5). We recal the events of our past life in silent review, and trace back our position ... to some trivial cause; and as we are tempted to ascribe all to blind fate, the old scenes by the Galilean Lake confirm by living proofs the great truth that 'Chance also is the daughter of Forethought,' so that the least details are ennobled by the thought which threatened to rob the whole of its dignity." Then, quoting a noble Greek fragment which adds that "Chance is also the sister of order and persuasion," the author points out that the three-fold offspring of Forethought represents the working of Providence. "It first appears as Chance in regard to its occurrence, it next works Persuasion as men bow to its decrees, and at last it issues in Order."* May we not-while thankfulness for the past blessings of this country is mingled with anxious forebodings for the future-gather heart to persevere in efforts for national improvement, from the thought that peace and order depend less on the chances of strife than on the gradual persuasions of rational beings, and on calm forethought for the claims and wants of all classes? Sidmouth, May 25, 1859. * Sermon On Christ's Miracles on Nature,' by Rev. B. F. Westcott, one of the Masters of Harrow School, p. 34. |