also been unaltered in value, but business continues to move within narrow limits. The week's arrivals of beans were 27,570 cwt., and of peas 35,114 cwt., showing an increase of 9,563 cwt, on the former, and 13,929 cwt. on the latter. Both articles have been in moderate request, and the few sales made have been effected at previous currencies. The increased activity noted last week in the demand for agricultural seeds has continued, and, with fine spring weather, a fair business has been done in the principal varieties at former prices. Red clover seed is now purchaseable at unusually low rates, but white clover is rather dearer on account of scarcity. Grass seeds have undergone no alteration, while spring tares have advanced 2s. to 33. per qr.. with a brisk demand. Hemp continues to meet with little attention, although offered as low as 81s. per qr., and canary has tended upwards. The supplies of wheat at the country markets have again been very light, but improved condition has been noticeable in many instances, and the trade, although manifestly restricted by holiday causes, have nevertheless, ruled steady, aud 18. per qr. more money has been obtainable for the best parcels. Seed oats and maize, have also advanced, but there has been no change in bailey, beans, or peas. At Liverpool, on Tuesday, the market was scanti y attended, and only a moderate retail business passed in wheat at a declize of 1d. per cental on white descriptions. Flour was also slow, but without change in value, but beans were held for 6d. per qr, more money. Maize was more freely offered, and scarcely so strong as at the close of the previous week, but prices showed an improvement of 1d. per cental, new mixed being quoted at 63. and old at 6s. 1d. per 100!b. The week's imports included 60,000 grs. of wheat and 28,000 qrs. of maize. At Newcastle a rather weaker tone has been noticeable in wheat, although the decline has been scarcely quotable. Flour has ruled dull, but oats and maize have fully supported late rates. At Bull and Leeds a fair retail demand has been experienced for both English and foreign wheat at fully previous prices, while oats, beans, and maize have sold steadily at rather higher quotations. March 24. There was a further arrival of 200 qrs. of home-grown Wheat since Saturday, and the trade ruled quiet, but Monday's prices were well maintained for the few parcels of fine quality. Of foreigu the imports amounted to only 4,750 qrs., and with a scanty attendance of millers a r tail consumptive demand was experienced at about former currencies. The arrivals of Flour consisted of only 10 sacks o foreign. Business ruled quiet for both sacks and barrels without quotable change in values. FOREIGN GRAIN. 58 Phillings per Quarter. Ialian.... .37 to 39... Egyptian PEAS, Canadian...............35 .31 FLOUR, per sack, French 38 33 22 38 36...Prussian ......... 36 24 A COMMON SENSE CANDIDATE.-(In reply to a requisition from a body of Electors inviting him to become a Member of Parliament.)-Gentlemen,-I hereby acknowledge representation of our County. As the office of a Member f the receipt of your application requesting me to stand for the Parliament is laborious, tiresome, and unpaid, I am very loth o accept it. However, since the men who solicit it are t fit for it, whereas I am, and, being well-off and unemployed, can afford to take it, if I were to refuse it I should decline & duty. But the work of a Member of Parliament is so hard and so heavy, that of the two situations I would rexily rather be saddled with that of High Sheriff. I hope, therefore, you will all understand that, in consenting to let myself be proposed as your representative, I conter upon you a very great favour. As my political principles may not be known to every voter, I will send a statement of them to a newspaper, whence you can, if you please, extract it, and print it for distribation. If necessary, 1 will also declare my opinions at a publie meeting, which can be called for that purpose. But, as they can be expressed in few words, I shall make only a short speech, if I am interrupted by any shouts, cries, or idle be known for a tool by my much speaking. In making that questions, I shall immediately hold my tongue, and retire. The expenses of printing and publishing cards, circulars, and other advertisements requesting people to vote for me must be paid by those who desire to have me returned. My constituents, or would-be consti uents, must also defray all other charges incidental to my election, or their attempt to effect that object. In conclusion, I can only say, that nothing but a strong sense of the obligations of my position as an independent man could induce me to undertake an employment, which will withdraw me from my occupations and amusements for six months in the year, besides compelling me to breathe mach bad air and listen to much iole talk, nearly every night till past twelve o'clock, and often till three or four in the morning. I am, gentlemen, your servant to command, CORIOLANUS CANDIDUS.-Punch. The supply of Barley consisted of 150 grs. of home-speech, not wishing, when I have little to say, to let myself grown, and 3,280 qrs, of foreign. Prices were nominally unaltered for both malting and grinding sorts. but there was little or no demand for either. The return showed no further arrival of Maize, and the market was quite bare of mixed American on spot. The nominal quotation was 29s. to 30s. per 480lb. To arrive, Monday's extreme prices were insisted on, as there is very little near at band. The imports of Oats amounted to 15,920 grs., and and sales progressed steadily at Monday's advance of 6d. to 1s. per qr. Malt was neglected and without change in value. There were no fresh arrivals of Beans or Peas. Both articles were firmly held, but there were very few buyers to be found. The seed market was well attend-d, and, with an actual consumptive demand, a steady trade was done in the leading varieties of agricultural seeds at late rates. Printed by HAZELL, WATSON, & VINEY, 255, Strand, London. Our representative's name is Norval, whose father feeds his flocks, and hearing of the furious harangues, party squabbles, free-fights, chuckings and smokings out, breaking heads, window smashing, and other intellectual amusements going on during the hubbub and excitement of a general election, and that John Bull's favorite game of "pull devil pull baker" was in full swing throughout the United Kingdom, sought, without being proposed and seconded by his two faithful companious, and gained by his own exertions, aided by a good heart, sound lungs, and a sure foot, the highest position in the country. There he is, not caring who is in or who is out, enjoying the quiet of regions almost as peaceful as those in which dwells the" fabled arrow shot beyond the attraction of this world and where, reader, if your imagination will carry you as high, we will leave you with plenty of room to kick about in, and in no fear of blundering over a scientific frontier, of following Will with the wisp, or of a landed proprietor, with Permissive Bill behind him, riding up on Clavilem and threatening unless you keep to the milky-way they will prosecute you for trespassing. FARMERS AND THE PARLIAMENT. The farmers have to a considerable extent responded to Lord Hartington's appeal, asking them to give the Liberal Party a trial. In the last Parliament the Counties of England, Scotland, and Wales were represented by 170 Conservatives and 49 Liberals; in the new Parliament there will be 125 Conservatives and 94 Liberals. This is a great change, and, although it has not been wholly caused by the votes of farmers, it clearly shows that they have in great numbers decided to test the sincerity of their new allies. Nor does this diminution of Conservative representation in the Counties show the full extent of the change; for in several divisions in which contests would have been hopeless for Liberals at the last General Election, Conservatives have only retained their seats by small majorities. There can be no doubt but that a considerable number of farmers who have previously voted for Conservatives have at the recent elections gone on the other side, or that the reason for their change has been the contemptuous neglect of their demands on the part of the late Government on the one hand and the liberal promises made by Opposition candidates on the other. Not only is this generally admitted, but it is also admitted that the coming Liberal Government will be bound in honour to deal with the most important questions of agricultural reform at an early date. Mr. Childers, in a speech at Spalding recently, fully admits this. First of all a measure effectually OLD SERIES securing to tenants their unexhausted improvements should be passed. That is a matter of the first importance to tenant-farmers, and a very simple Act would suffice. The laws relating to the ownership and transfer of land will undoubtedly be dealt with; but their reform will involve a more laborious preparation than that which has just been mentioned. The Abolition of the Law of Distress and a measure securing to tenants an indefeasible right to kill ground game will be simple alterations in the law which can be carried into effect very speedily, when once agreed to by the coming Government. These are the really vital questions of agricultural reform, and it is earnestly to be hoped that they will be first dealt with. The comparatively trivial question of County Government reform can afford to wait for a time, though it should precede any attempt to deal with local taxation. A short Act rendering the payment of tithe rentcharge by landlords compulsory would be popular, and no reasonable opposition could be offered to it as it is generally admitted that tithe is a charge upon land, and not upon the occupier. The repeal or transference of the Malt Tax is a change which very few Liberal candidates have pledged themselves to advocate, and as long as farmers are so greatly divided upon the subject the new Government can scarcely be expected to take it up. our opinion the transference of the tax to beer would be higly beneficial to the interests of farmers, and if the tax were collected as it is in the In United States there would be a great saving in the cost of collection. But it is of the utmost importance that the attention of Parliament should not be distracted from those measures of agricultural reform which will effect a complete change in the conditions under which farming is carried on. To simulate the improved cultivation of the land by making it to the interest of landlord and tenant alike to invest capital freely in it, and to remove all unfair privileges enjoyed by landlords at the expense of their tenants-these should be the first agricultural objects of legislators. To attain them we want compulsory Tenant-Right, the prohibition of limited ownership in land and the simplification and cheapening of transfer, the abolition of the Law of Distress, and the reform of the Game Laws. THE STRATHLEVEN EXPERIMENT. The price of butchers' meat in the towns of foreign and colonial meat-producing districts is, as it is in England, out of all proportion to the wholesale price of the article. The Rosario correspondent of the Buenos Ayres Standard says, in respect of this matter, "a joint of our best beef in the markets, which is as a rule very inferior to what is sold in every market in England, actually costs more here than in Europe. The price per arroba (25.35 lb.) say about eight shillings sterling, does not appear out of the way; but it is made up of the worst meat, only fit for the commonest dishes. A family must select the meat, either joints, loins or ribs, and at present we pay fully as much, if not more, for these than is paid in Paris for the same pieces. Somebody must swindle the community. Cattle sell at a comparatively high price it is true, but not more than half what they sell for in Chile, where good beef is always to be bought at a lower price than our butchers make us pay." Complaints of a similar kind have been made by the people of Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. And a New York paper complained some time since that consumers in New York paid more for inferior American meat than consumers in London paid for the best meat the United States could produce. This statement is true only so far as the wholesale price of American meat is concerned. But it is evident that the middlemen connected with the meat trade get large profits all over the world. Papers recently to hand from the Australian colonies show that the telegraphic news of the success of the frozen meat sent here in the Strathleven has very naturally elated the Australian people. Queensland will send beef, New South Wales mutton, and Victoria and South Australia butter. We quite agree with our friends at the Antipodes that the event is fraught with much importance both to Great Britain and to the Australian colonies. The Queenslander (Brisbane) says:-"The success of the Strathla en experiment is not only perfect, but it opens to the trade possibilities that we hardly venture to hope for. The possibility of placing Australian meat in a marketable condition in the shops of London salesmen is now established beyond a doubt. It is needless to dilate on the effect this will produce on the position of the graziers of Australia. A market which they cannot glut has been opened to them, and their success in it will be determined mainly by themselves. In Queensland the effect will be especially marked. The cattle stock of this colony is unusually large, its sheep stock proportionately small. A market for meat is therefore of paramount importance to us, and there is no colony which should derive so great and direct an advantage from the new trade as Queensland. It opens to us a hope we have scarcely dared to entertain, and it trans forms the fear that all the enterprise and capital devoted of late years to the formation of cattle stations in the west and north-west would prove to be almost a waste of energy, into an assurance that we may look to it as an abundant source of future wealth. The arrival of the Strathleven in the Thames has done as much to strengthen the financial position of the colony as alm st any event that has occurred since the separation of Queensland. All the graziers of Queensland, from the great squatters to the smallest selectors, would profit by the change, even if the frozen meat trade were to be con fined to the ports of Sydney and Melbourne. Bat we have reason to expect that no such limitation of our hopes will be necessary. The Government are calling for tenders for a line of steamers to bring mails and passengers viá Torres Straits directly from England. There is nothing to prevent these steamers returning with cargoes of frozen meat, shipped at their various ports of call along the coast. It is quite possible, and we are inclined to think that it will be found profitable, to load meat, already frozen, in roadsteads such as Moreton Bay, Keppel Bay, and Townsville, the terminus of the main railway routes from the interior. The supply that can be kept up from our enormous stretches of grazing country will be practically unlimited, and the quality can be made to equal the best that our American competitors are likely to place in the market. We see no reason to doubt that the export of meat alone from Queensland will equal in the not very distant future the present value of our output of gold or wool. It is the commencement of a trade so peculiarly suited to the conditions of colonisation in Australia that, sanguine as our expectations are, it is quite possible that the reality may far overpass them. The price of carcase meat for the past eighteen months in the metropolitan market-and rates in Brisbane have been as high as anywhere in the colony, we believe-has ruled at about 12s. per 100lb., sometimes even falling to 10s. A price of twopence per pound for prime beef should satisfy the grazier, and if this 16s. 8d. per 100lb. might be looked upon as the, minimum price for fat stock it would make the difference between the present depression and a splendid prosperity. Since the day when gold was first discovered in Australia, there has been nothing in our history which is likely to be more pregnant with future meaning to the industrial development of Australia than the day on which the Strathleven steamed past Gravesend with her cargo of fresh meat for the Loudon market." In New South Wales the Strathleven affair has set the Colonists to work in earnest. The Sydney Mail says:"Almost as welcome as the cry Sail ho!' to the ship wrecked crew on a raft, is the telegram which informs the pastoralists of Australia that a marketable quantity of fresh meat from this country has been landed in England. We are not over sanguine when we hail such trustworthy tidings as a glimpse of sunshine to the graziers of Australia. The Strathleven has tapped a market which cannot possibly be overdone or exhausted. The price, although it may seem small to those who have been accustomed to hear of the very high retail rates paid during the past three years in Great Britain, is not too low for Australian stockowners, who have been for many months almost unable to obtain more than 1d per lb. for their meat. Possible obstacles in the way of founding a regular trade may arise, but these may for a while be cast aside, and some consideration given to the work which must be accomplished before this port is made thoroughly suitable for a steady export trade in fresh animal food. Hitherto there has been much talk and little work. Corporation sale yards, markets and mest depots have, been sketched, but in the matter of solid wood or bricks and mortar very little, if any, headway |