still the problem of perfect good government. And let M. Kossuth be assured that if what he states be
true, as most certainly it is, that all the Continental governments have been enfeebled as well as corrupted
by unbalanced centralisation, neither is it less true that unwatched and unregulated localisation has had
the effect of very greatly retarding the political growth of the English people.

The remark may not unfitly carry us from the eloquence by which M. Kossuth is making himself heard
over Europe, to that very different kind of eloquence with which our local squirearchies have, for the last
month, made ring from side to side our barn-roofs and tavern-parlours. It has been the month of agricultural
meetings, the idle time between harvest and fox-hunting, when prize oxen and prize labourers occupy
the fields, and the farmers are harangued by the landlords, and (now and then) the landlords lectured by the
farmers. Both Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Foskett have had their several adherents in these displays, and Paul has
continued to persecute Benjamin through the tongues of bullying parsons and infuriated squires. The Rev.
John Cox of Hinckford declares that unless her Majesty restores the Corn-laws he is not disposed to give many
years' purchase for her crown; and Mr. Welch of Taxley Hall denounces German sinecurists and pensioned foreign
potentates, after expounding a theory of tithes that would confiscate half that kind of property in the country.
On the other hand, Mr. Harcourt, Mr. Henley, Mr. Palmer, Mr. Adderley, Mr. Clive, and Mr. Child, have
successively read Protectionist recantations; and have warned the farmers not to rely on getting what is precisely
the last thing they are ever likely to get, Lord Derby's five shilling duty, which Mr. Alcock has further had
the politeness to characterise as a dirty, pitiful, trumpery, absurd piece of nonsense. Nevertheless, Lord
Granby sticks to his ancient sign-post. He is for the old, creaking, groaning, swinging, rusty Protectionist
clap-trap; and he declares that for his life he cannot see how, without a duty on corn, we can continue to pay
our army and navy, or, as he expresses it in his fine rhetorical flourish, how we are to "preserve our hearths
inviolate, and secure to our virgin shores freedom from a foreign foe." Above all this disjointed clatter
there meanwhile quietly arise certain facts, financial and statistical, quarterly revenue returns and so forth,
which, proclaiming a tolerably full exchequer, seem to point out to sensible folk the very best and easiest
way of preserving (if we must adopt that fine style of expression) the virginity of our shores. From these
tables it appears that not only manufacturers, traders, and ship-owners, are in a high condition of prosperity,
but that there is equal reason to infer the general prosperity of all classes, from the extraordinary increase
of consumption of every kind.  When farmers with a grain of sense begin to study such statistics as these, they
will awaken to the consciousness that, whether for past suffering or future expectation, it is not legislation
but landlordism that they have mainly to look to. And already has the magnanimous Mr. G. F. Young
betrayed his fears in this direction, by a moving appeal to the pockets of his friends.

Into other discontents just now very audible, there is no need to enter. The Exhibition could hardly
close to the satisfaction of everybody, after leaving fourteen thousand exhibitors quite unnoticed, selecting
three thousand for special commendation, and singling out some hundred and seventy of these for commendation
more special still. But it is a subject which cannot very fairly be discussed till the juries have published
their reports; and in other respects the month has been barren of leading incidents. The Queen has made
enthusiastic progress through Lancashire; the Irish exodus continues, and the American ambassador has been
making a tour round Ireland which is wittily compared to the walk which a certain personage one day
took to see how his snug little farm the earth went on. Dr. Newman has been repeating his belief in
miracles, and Lord Londonderry his faith in the speedy release of Abd-el-Kader, with about equal attention
from bystanders. To conclude, reformers seem to be gradually becoming eager and expectant as to Lord John's
promised bill; and the best promise yet thrown out in connection with it, has been an assurance from the
Solicitor-General to the effect that he had refused one of the high legal appointments lately in the gift of the
crown, because he felt that as a measure of reform was impending his proper place was in the House of
Commons. The proposal might or might not, added Sir Page Wood, meet with general acceptance; but
that it would be a substantial measure of enlargement of the franchise he entertained no doubt whatever.

NARRATIVE OF POLITICS.

The Agricultural Meetings held during this month
have been chiefly remarkable for Defections from the
Cause of Protection.—At the meeting of the Watlington
Agricultural Society, Mr. Henley and Mr. Vernon
Harcourt, two of the members of Oxfordshire—at the
meeting of the Royal East Berks Association, Mr.
Palmer, one of the members for the county—and at the
North Staffordshire meeting, Mr. Adderley and Mr.
Smith Child, the members for that division of the
county—concurred in saying that, looking to the state
of the country and of public opinion, a return to
protective duties is out of the question. At the meeting of
the South Buckinghamshire Agricultural Association, on
the 7th inst., Mr. Disraeli at great length repeated the
counsels which he had previously given at Aylesbury to
the farmers of the northern division of the county. At
the yearly meeting of the Worcestershire Agricultural
Society, Sir John Pakington expressed an opinion that
the question of protection or no protection, re-enactment
of a corn-law or extension of the present system, cannot
be settled by merely one general election. He declared
that all the prophecies which had been made both for
and against the repeal of the Corn-laws had signally
failed; and claimed that the tillers of the soil are
"undoubtedly entitled to relief from all burdens in the shape
of taxation which unduly press upon them."

The Catholic Defence Association has put forth its
promised "address," commencing with a declaration
that the Ecclesiastical Titles Act is aimed not at the
"assumption of titles," but at "the very vitality of the
Roman Catholic faith," it recounts the formal steps by
which the society was organised. A large space is
occupied in simply reproducing the resolutions moved and
adopted at the aggregate meeting in the Rotunda; all
the Roman Catholic Prelates mentioned having formally
prefixed to their names the ecclesiastical titles which
the act has made illegal—"Archbishop of Armagh";
"Archbishop of Tuam"—"of Cashel," &c. The objects
of the Association are then explained, much as they
have been before. The committee who have drawn up
the address say—"They never can sufficiently impress
on the minds of the people the great fact, that all our
hopes of redress, under Divine Providence, are centered
in the creation and sustainment of a Parliamentary
party, ready to defend at all hazard, with an
independent spirit, our civil and religious liberties."  "It
will become an imperative duty to organise and marshal
the elective power of each constituent body so as to
insure a right direction being given to every available
vote, and thereby to evince in the most solemn manner
unalterable attachment to their civil and religious
freedom in all its practical reality."  "These great
objects cannot be accomplished without combined exertion,
great personal sacrifices, and the command of large
funds. We therefore call upon you to enrol yourselves
as members of the Catholic Defence Association, and
appeal with confidence not only to the Catholics of the
British empire, but to our brethren in every country

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