"the bane of Ireland," is an evil in part growing out of it, and in part augmenting it-the habit of depending on the potato as the staple article of food. We think it was Cobbett who denounced the potato, when it began to be so extensively cultivated in Ireland, as "the root of all evil," and who predicted its ultimate failure. The Horticultural Society of London has repeatedly protested against the use of the potato as the common food of the peasantry. The potato is easily cultivated, and yields abundantly, but it is a perishable crop, and too bulky for easy transportation. It can not be kept from one season to another, and therefore no provision can be made for the contingency of a failure of the crop. This has been a very frequent occurrence, especially in the provinces of Munster and Connaught, where sometimes for a series of years the failure has been so extensive as to require vast ap. propriations from government to keep the people from starvation. The humidity of the climate and soil of Ireland is peculiarly unfavorable to this plant; and it is a matter of astonishment, that after such painful experience, and such repeated warnings, the people should have persisted in depending upon a means of subsistence so precarious. The awful events of 1847, will serve to arouse all parties to the necessity of a radical change in this particular. By the general failure of the potato crop, the produce of 2,000,000

acres

was cut off, and four-fifths of the food of the peasantry was destroyed. It is computed that between four and six millions of persons in Ireland live solely on potatoes. An acre produces on an average eight tons of potatoes, so that at the average rate of eight pounds a day to each individual, two mil lions of acres would furnish food for more than twelve millions. The same surface in wheat would not sustain more than one-third the num

ber.

But an able-bodied man is ra ted at fourteen pounds of potatoes as food for one day, and so uncertain and so perishable is this crop, that the greater proportion of it has been annually consumed upon the soil.

Mr. Thornton, describing the condition of the agricultural laborers says:

"Their food consists of the potato alone, without meal, and in most cases without milk; their cabins are wretched hovels; their beds straw; the wages of labor are reduced to the lowest point, upon an average not more than 6d. a day. of all energy; labor brings no adequate Poverty and misery have deprived them return; and every motive to exertion is destroyed.

In the most flourishing counties of Ulster, Armagh, Down and Antrim, where the traveler from the south or west is most struck with the improved appearance of the cottages and their inhabitants, the agricultural laborer in many places can not earn his shilling a day oftener than three days in the week, on an average throughout the year. In winter, from December to March, he has scarcely any thing to do; but at that season, nevertheless, he is often best provided with food, as it is not unusual for him to rent a bit of potato land from a farmer, which he pays for with labor, and the produce of which maintains him in the summer, from May or June till August, when he is again out of work, and has besides pretty well exhausted his stock of potatoes; and then, unless he migrates to England or Scotland for the harvest, his only resource is the mendicancy of his wife and children; for he himself can seldom be compelled to beg by the cruelest privations.

winter months. His hardest time is in

In other cases the peasant has a bit of land of about a rood in extent, which he sometimes holds on condition of manuring it: but for which he is much more frequently obliged to pay a most extravagant rent-seldom at a lower rate than £3, and generally, if the land be Jet to him manured, as high as £7 per acre. From this con-acre, as it is called, he may get nine barrels, each containing fortytwo stone of potatoes, on which he may make shift to maintain himself till spring, when employment begins. But in May tatoes have been long since eaten; and or June he is again out of work; his po melancholy are the expedients to which he is then reduced. Perhaps he may get some food on credit from the farmers; and

although he has to pay twenty or thirty per cent. for it above the market price, he thinks himself lucky, because he hopes

that his creditors will employ him, in order to ensure payment of his debt. When in the idle season a man is fortunate enough to get a job, it is common for the farmer to give him his wages in the morning, in order that he may buy food for breakfast, and so gain strength to do his work. Men with less powers of endurance than the rest, sometimes eat up their seed potatoes, and with them their only means of subsistence during the ensuing winter; or they grub up young roots in June or July, when they are no bigger than marbles, and as unfit for food from their quality as from their size."

There are always two or three months in the year when potatoes are scarce, and the people must have recourse to other food. Oatmeal has hitherto been the principal substitute; but it is difficult to find a general substitute, for there is nothing poorer or cheaper than potatoes, as a staple article of food. In a wheat country, if a crop fails, though there may be general distress and dearness of food, there will be no starvation; for a people who in common times live upon wheat, can easily obtain something inferior to live upon in a season of scarcity. Thus, in 1800-1, when Great Britain was visited by a famine, so that wheat rose nearly to £6 per quarter, there was great distress among all classes, but there were few cases of starvation even among the poorest. But what help is there for a people who account their "meal year" their misfortune. The Irish peasantry have been in the habit of living almost entirely without money; so that when their potatoes failed, they had nothing wherewith to procure a substitute, however cheap.

Mrs. Nicholson gives us an insight into this feature of Irish life, by such incidents as the following. Meeting a company of laborers repairing the road, she asked, "How much do you get a day?" Eight pence, ma'am; and its little of the time we get that." "And what do you eat?" "Eat ma'am, we eat potatoes when we can get 'em, and

66

right glad too we are to have 'em." "And have you no bread ?" "Bread! ma'am. Faith! that we don't; if we can get a sup of milk once a day, or a little salt, it's all we look for." "And how can you live on such scanty fare?" "We can't die, plaze God! and so we must live."

"Plaze God," they can die now, poor creatures, if that was all they wished.

While the destruction of the potato crop was the immediate occasion of the famine, the fact that her immense rural population has hitherto subsisted on a crop so easily cultivated, and yet so precarious and so perishable, thus living at the lowest point of subsistence and of civilization, and yet increasing in a frightful ratio, this almost universal dependence on the potato must be regarded as a fruitful cause of the miseries of Ireland. For years past, more than fifty per cent. of the whole population have been "living, or rather struggling through a miserable existence, upon the result of a precarious employment, (averaging about twenty-two weeks of the whole year, as given in evidence by the poor-law commissioners,) and the accident of a potato crop, or the alms of those but one degree less afflicted than themselves." The famine has fully exposed this miserable condition of things. It is one of those severe, but wise and kind dispensations of Providence, by which an enormous social evil is made to cure itself. Hereafter the people of Ireland will turn their attention to the cultivation of a staple more reliable than the potato. Indian meal, which was at first known among the peasantry as "Peel's brimstone," and which was administered by the ton as an unpalatable medicament, will gradually become a favorite aliment. The system of property and of society will be reorganized; domestic economy will be improved; comfort, health, and utility will begin to be consulted in

the rude cabin of the peasant; the kitchen, the chamber, and the stable, will no longer be in one; the oven will displace the iron pot, and spoons and forks will supersede nature's utensils. From the lowest point of depression we mark an upward tendency. Time must develop and perfect it.

But we must postpone our reflec. tions upon Irish reform till a future number. We do this with the painful thought, that while every steamer is bringing us fresh tidings of disorder and distress from that unhappy land, our subject can not grow old.

THE energy displayed by Great Britain during the latter years of the war with Napoleon, the number of men furnished to recruit her army and navy, and the sums of money raised to support her colonial establishment, were such as to excite the astonishment and admiration of the civilized world. And the attentive reader of history, when he remembers the extent and natural advantages of the island of Great Britain, compared with the resources of the dorninions of Buonaparte and his dependent allies, which in the year 1812 embraced almost the whole European continent, when he calls to mind the genius and military power of the French emperor, and when he considers the progress and issue of the contest, will experience similar emotions in a still higher degree. No where does the political economist find presented for his investigation, matter which demands more serious and careful study. Where in the annals of authentic history, is recorded a parallel to the fact, that in the years 1813, 1814 and 1815, Great Britain and Ireland with a population of eighteen millions, raised by loans and taxes five hundred and ten million pounds sterling, or $2,448,000,000.*

* Porter's Parliamentary Tables, quoted in Blackwood's Magazine. The pound sterling is estimated at $4.80, which is its average value. VOL. VI.

36

During the same period the in. dustrial interests of the nation, if we may be permitted to make use of a word whose convenience has within a few years given it currency, were in a state of great activity and prosperity. Indeed this fact alone can explain how such exertions and such expenditures were possible. The commerce of continental Europe having been annihilated, and that of the United States having been fettered by our foolish embargo, the ships of England sailed through every sea without a rival or competi tor. Her manufacturers supplied the world with their fabrics, obtaining profits unreduced by the competition of foreigners; for the "continental system" of Napoleon was hardly more successful in excluding them from Germany and Russia, than was the broom of the venerable lady commemorated by Sidney Smith, in keeping the waves of the ocean out of her domicil. The supplies of food required by the government for the army and navy, added to the usual wants of the country, enabled the farmer to obtain high prices for every thing he had to sell. All classes therefore were able to pay taxes, which were imposed, in the memorable language of Sydney Smith, 66 upon every article which enters into the mouth, or covers the back, or is placed under the footupon every thing which it is pleas

ant to see, hear, feel, smell or taste -on every thing on earth, and the waters under the earth-on every thing that comes from abroad, or is grown at home-on the ermine which decorates the judge, and the rope which hangs the criminal-on the poor man's salt, and the rich man's spice-on the brass nails of the coffin, and the ribands of the bride."

Since the year 1815, the population of the United Kingdom has in creased more than thirty per cent.; but it does not appear that her resources have increased in an equal proportion. To an attentive observer, it has been evident for some years that the great interests of the country were less healthy than heretofore, and that many things which to a superficial eye seemed like vigorous growth, were in truth the result of diseased action. To most men this statement would have seemed, a year since, almost paradoxical; at the present time no one, we believe, would hesitate to admit its truth.

In our last number we suggested to our readers some thoughts respecting the causes of the financial crisis of England. That article being limited both by time and space, was less thorough and minute in the examination than we wished. We propose at the present time to con. sider somewhat in detail, the situa tion of Great Britain in several respects, and particularly in respect to the great interests of agriculture, of manufactures, and-what has recently begun to rival these in importance of railways; and to compare her situation and prospects as to these particulars, with those of our own country.

The national debt of Great Britain is too important an element of her political organization, and exerts too great influence upon her prosperity, not to demand careful examination in an enquiry of this nature. Were it due wholly to her own citi zens, it might be regarded as neither

increasing nor diminishing the na tional wealth; since if it were an. nihilated by a simple act of repudi. ation, the amount of tangible actual property in the country would be precisely the same as at present. But this view would be exceedingly imperfect and superficial. The debt amounts to eight hundred million pounds sterling, and the annual interest is more than half the national income. It is impossible to say how many persons receive from this source a sufficient revenue to main. tain their families without their own exertions; but it is not improba. ble that there are nearly half a million; and these with the landed aristocracy, the pensioners of gov ernment, the army and navy, and a multitude of smaller divisions, constitute the class of non-producers;

of those who contribute nothing by their industry to the national wealth, and who are supported by the labor of others. This class ex ists in every country, but with us it is so small as hardly to produce any perceptible effect upon our social organization; in Great Britain it is very numerous and powerful, controlling the legislation of the country, and affecting every department of its industry. To support this class in idleness and luxury, all oth er members of the community are taxed to the extreme limit of endurance. In a time of general pros. perity their numbers and influence attract comparatively little atten tion; but now, when the pressure of every burden seems augmented tenfold, the most ignorant and unreflecting laborer can hardly fail to realize that were there not so many who eat but do not work, his own labor would secure for him a more adequate support; and the political economist will not hesitate to say, that the national debt of England is among the most efficient of the causes which have embarrassed the industry and impaired the prosper. ity of the people.