The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-18 00:00:00

THE CROPS.

The splendid weather of the past week has effected
a marked and gratifying change in the grain crops, and
1 flelds,sre already cut; barley and wheat are ripening
and changing colour with almost magical rapidity, and to
eight or ten days, should the weather continue as at present,
the scythe and the sickle will come into general and active
operation, and doubtless the bu.k of the crops in this dis-
trict will be secured in prime condition.—Nottinglinvi Re-
view.
The wheat harvest will commence generally on Monday
neat. Toe sample will be greatly inferior as compared with
last year. Each year now shows a falling off in the arrival
of Irish reapers. The war, emigration, the improved con-
diiion of Ireland, and the practice of mowing corn are the
causes.—Stomfond Mercury.
The harvest in East Lothian has already commenced, and
will be pretty general on Monday over the early district, of
the county. The crops everywhere present a very heavy
appearance; but the want of sunshine and the late rains
have done a considerable amount of damage to toe wheat.
Tee yellow maggot has been more than usually destructive.
The potato fields are more than usually luxuriant, particu-
larly the red varieties, and, as yet, no appearance of disease
has been seen in the fields.—Edinburgh Courant.
Hay is now mostly gathered, and in bulk is far below an
average. Wheat in this country will, beyond doubt, be
above an average. The quality of the crop will, however,
be contingent on the next few weeks' weather. Potatoes
and turnips surpass all former crops within our recollection.
Potatoes continue free from disease et a later stage of their
growth than in any season since 184.5. The potatoes and
turnips of this cautty are certainly extraordinary crops.—
Apr Advertiser.
Relating to the harvest, cheerfulness has taken the place
of despondency. The yield, though not equal to that of last
year, will, it is anticipated, supposing the present weather
continues, prove nearly if not quite an average. Harvest
has now commenced in some favoured localities, and will
doubtless soon become general.—PlymourhJournail.
More settled weather is now bringing the harvest rapidly
forward. A considerable breadth of oats and peas has been
cut, and in some instances carried to the rickyard. Wheat
and barley are little moss than oommenced with, and of the
former a lamentaVe breadth has been flattened by the rain.
The later part of the hay crop is in progress of being so.
mire
at d, and the bulk is generally balmier than that which was
cat a much earlier date .—Covenfry Morita

CELEBRATION IN DERBY CV THE NAVAL VIC-
TORY IN TEE BALTIC.—The news off the successful bom-
bardment of Swesborg was hailed in Derby with general
rejoicing. The bells et All Saints, St. Alkmunds, St. Wer-
burgh', and St. Peter's, sent forth merry peals daring the
day ; cannons sod guns were fired in various parts of the
town ; sod the union jack wa. hoisted at the manufactory
of Messrs. Holmes, the Royal Hotel, the Mechanics'
tutios, the Shot Tower, and other places. At night many
thossands of persons congregated is the Corn•market, Vie-
terle.street, and Albert-street, and a display of fireworks
took place. What with the firing of guns, the roar of
rockets, the fining of tquibs, and the cheers of the mul-
titude, the scene was one of great excitement. The polices
were in attendance, but the authorities thought it better to
allow the popular feeling to give vent without unnecessary
interference. Of course a succession of such scenes is not
desirable, and we hope that this single dencon.tration will
be considered sofficient for the occuion, as a repetition of
snob scenes might lead to unpleasant ooncequences. Lot
tie papist*" may sad wise."—Dsrbr .Reportsr.

eke exprefifi.

advertisements taisdarer "Tbr '...--
• ialilii lviallogNeir,
nisi he at the Oft% le. Ilmi b 7 Two Vie* •• She
day ot pablfeades.

HIGH WATIR AT LONDON BRIDGE,_

Two D.,—llariim N.
Timmikow—liarsing, M.

b 4 27a.
66. 2a.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18.

THE prayer of our soldiers is heard. LIPKA:fin%
divisions have shown themselves in the field to re-
learn in three hours the lesson of Inkermann, which
they had taken nine months to forget. The victory
on the Tchernaya, reported by General SIMPSON in
another column, was swift and signal, and, consider-
ing the strength of the enemy, may be said to have
been purchased cheaply.
Since the middle of July certain signs have be-
trayed the intention of Prince GORTCHAMOIT to

depart from the defeceive system he had so long
maintained, strike some great coup, dispirit the
Allies, and delay, if not avert, the assault. Thus the sick
and disabled were removed from the north of !Sebas-
topol to the interior, and the hospitals prepared for a
sudden accession of wounded. General PANIITTINE't
corps, or the principal part of it, was also brought down
from the South of Russia, and, to mark more distinctly
the high issue to be tried, the machinery of super-
stition was employed to an extent unprecedented in
this war. The aged Archbishop INNOCENT was
brought from Kherson to bless the troops, and the
white-bearded metropolitan Pnaaarric from Kieff to
prophesy their success. The " sacred image of Mrro-
PHAN." brought from its shrine, was solemnly com-
mitted to the army, and the miraculous efficacy of its
presence asserted in orders of the day. The time, the
place, the manner of the coming stroke, were, how-
ever, a secret.

The exterior Russian army, when the last detailed
accounts were received, held a strong position on the
Mackenzie heights, its line extending from Aitoder
to Albar, with advanced posts on the range of
heights overhanging Urkusta and the valley of
Balder. A portion of this delightful vale and
the line of the Tchernaya have been held
by the Sirdinian Contingent, the Turkish army
from the Danube, and a mixed division of
French troops, computed in the last week of
July to number in all 30,000 men. It was here
the fatal blow was to fall. With what was deemed
excess of caution, the Piedmontese and Turks enter-1
tained themselves with adding new tablas to the
redoubts first thrown up in the new position, but
Wisdom appears to have justified her children. On'
Thursday last, at daybreak, the Russian field army,
which bad long defied reconnaissance, disclosed its
front. According to its wont, it advanced in masses.
The generals compute that it numbered 60,000, the
strength which Lord RAGLAN attributed to the army
opposed to him at Inkermann. But how different
the result : then a day's fighting and a victory
bought with enormous loos; now a decisive result in
three hours, and " the loss on the aide of the Allies
very small."

The question will arise—What impelled a General of
LIPRANDA mark to an undertaking so adventurous
aced insecure? Perhaps necessity. Having lately
given considerable space to a Russian communication,
celebrating the abundance and healthfulness which
reign within Sebastopol, we may now state, from in-
formation of higher authenticity, that the gar-
rison of Sebastopol is upon short rations, and
that it suffers greatly from sickness. We do
not underrate the patience and heroic endurance of
the Russian eoldiers, but it is not unreasonable to
believe that where great privations have been endured
for • year without the stimulus of present or pro-
spective sucoem, irritation and impatience will pre-
vail. Such a disposition revealing itself among the
defenders of Sebastopol would weigh with the Russian
Commander-in-Chief, and might induce him to ven-
ture an attack upon the untried Sardinians or the
disesteemed Turks. It will, we believe, be found
that General LIFILANDI'II attack expresses less the
enterprise than the straitened situation of the Rus-
sians in the Crimea.
We can afford to wait for the further details of
this battle; bat appearances conspire to foretel that
they will be eclipsed—say, rather, outshone—
by feats more critical and more glorious.
Generals Stumm sad PILIBIIIEZ have resolved to
improve the time; and a despatch from the British
head-qoarters, dated on the evening of this victory,
inks= the public that their resolution was to open,
on the following (yesterday, Friday) morning, the
Are of all their batteries against the fortress.
We are then in the midst of great events. The
grandest artillery contest ever known is at this moment
fully raging. Describing the last fire directed against
Sebastopol, Prince GOIITCHAKOTY found words too
weak until he become almost profane. But the "feu
den*" of his despatch was weak, scattered, and
remote, compared with that which the English end
French, from stronger, nearer, and more numerous
batteries, now concentrate on the place. Truly, if
it had been possible for General LIPJULNDI to avert
each a catastrophe, his attack was not a minute too
soon.

One of the chief points of interest in this
victory is the share which the Italian Contingent
has borne in it. Italy, crushed by foreign
oppression, as in Lombardy—debased by internal
Dad government, as in Naples—and allowed to
breathe freely only in Piedmont, comes forward to
prove that the grand national spirit which lifted it
up to the head of the world in ancient times—which
inspired its poets, from VIRGIL down to FILICAIA—
is not extinct. The Sardinians—we have General
Prusaten's word for it—behaved in a manner which
sustains their old reputation. These Sardinians are
the descendants of the men who formerly, by dint of
physical, moral, and mental strength, held at the
sword's point the Crimea against all comers. They
were then, it is true, acting selfishly. Their object
leas to crush Venice, and absorb the whole trade of
the world into their hands. They did not succeed
then is holding secure possession of their con-
quests, because they did not deserve to do
so; but they come forward now to wrest
the Crimea from the hands of a power as unscrupu-
lous as their ancestral Genoa, but possessing none of
those great aspirations after beauty, that lofty feeling
of honour and dignity, that grand conidenos in
manhood, of which the remembrance will never peas
out of history, and which to this day oonserves to
Genoa its name of the " Superb." It is a
greed thing to see one of the most important por-
firms of Italy coming forward to take a glorious
position in a struggle that is to check the progress
of atorrentof barbarism which threatens tooverwhelm
Europe. We may not look as enthusiastically as M.
Cowre to the advent of the establishment of a great
Occidental republic, and we may be excused from
doubting whether such an institution would work
well. But we will lot allow ourselves to be
shakos in the opinion that this return of.

one of the great Italian powers to a dis-
tinguished position in the active life of 14-
rope is a great guarantee for the preeervatioe
civilisation against the attacks of barlarisms. . Tbe,
victory on the Tchernaya is a meal sweet ; arid let um
not forget that one of italroost cheering rectum is
the proof it gives of the great vitality of Italy.

DURING the progress of the Anti-Corn Law dis-
cussion, it was common, and not unjust, to reproach
our agriculturists with indifference, neglect, and
apathy. They relied on Protection, and made few
or no exertions. As a body they were inert, and
going to decay. They are now awakened, active, and
flourishing. Our fields show improvement like oar
cotton milli, and there is an increase in cultivation
similar to that in factories and furnaces. In Scotland
and in Lincolnshire, where there was a less margin
for improvement, less has taken place; in the wealds
of Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, and other backward
places where it was mach needed, it has been very
great. Evidence may be found of this in agri-
cultural journal', but a great deal more on personal
inspection, by looking is at the homesteads, examining
the buildings, all of which are improved, inquiring
into the stock kept, going about the hedges and fields,
and seeing how much the former are now kept under,
and the latter kept clean. But the best evident), of
the advance is the immense crops gathered in
lest year, and the equally large crops which now
stand on the ground, or have been just harvested.
Increased industry, care, and skill secure the
nation • large if not an ample supply of food, and
we are about to call attention to some other sources
of supply. Our readers will be sensible that the
great material improvement in our agriculture, and
the great moral improvement in our agriculterists, are
due to the competition of Free Trade.
Amongst the countries which have latterly contri-
buted much to our supply of food is Canada, which,
like England herself, has made within the lust few
years a wonderful progress under the influence of
freedom. There has recently fallen into our hands •
pamphlet, published at Quebec in 1865, called the
" Condition and Prospects of Canada in 1864." From
the facts there stated the reader will see that while
our own agriculturists have been providing addi-
tional quantities of food, our countrymen across the
water have been labouring effectually to the same
end. The population of Upper Canada was, in 1842,
486,053, and the wheat produce was then 6.6 bushels
to each inhabitant. In 18.51 the population had in-
creased to 952,001, and the wheat produce was in the
proportion of 13.33 bushels to each inhabitant. The
ipopulation had doubled and the quantity of wheat
grown had quadrupled. Much of this increased
prods°, has come direct, or indirectly through the
United States, to England. Similar facts exist in
Lower Canada. In ninety years the population in•
creased more than tenfold, and was, in 1851, 890,261.
Now, in 1843, the produce in Lower Canada was at
the rate of 1.36 minot—about 1-12 more than a bushel
—to each inhabitant; and in 1851, 3.46 ►ninots. In
that great colony, therefore, as the people increase—
and they are increasing very fast—the quantity of
wheat which they grow increases in a compound
ratio, and so the quantity increases which they
have to export. The number of emigrants
who arrived at Quebec in 1854 was 54,112,
and for several years past about 45,000 have
annually arrived. How many locate themselves
permanently in the colony is not stated, but the num-
ber is considerable, though it is only a small portion
of the great increase of population by whose labours
there is a continual increase in the quantity of
wheat grown. The demand for corn in Europe
has there given • great stimulus to agricul-
ture, and, accordingly, in 1853, the latest year to
which we have returns, there were sold in East and
West Canada public lands of all kinds, except one,
to the extent of 425,133 acres, being 122,973 acres
more than the average sales-302,160 acres—of the
preceding six years. The exception was common
school lands, of which, however, 177,483 acres were
sold in 1853, being 121,461 acres above the average of
the two preceding years—the only years stated
in the. document. On the whole, therefore, there
were sold of public lands in Canada, in 1833, 602,816
acres, and all that land was purchased no doubt
to be brought is due season under cultivation, in
addition to the many hundred thousand acres par-
chimed and brought into cultivation in preceding
years. The wheat and flour which she has supplied to
this country independently of that sent through the
United States in 1853, amount to 84,571 qrs. of,
the former, and 288,906 cwt. of the latter, and
every year the quantity will be increased that she is
preparing for our consumption.

In the United States the circumstances are equally,
or still more remarkable. Since September last year
to the 20th ult. we have imported from the States
only 214,885 bushels of wheat and 135,623 barrels
of flour, against 6,762,146 quarters of wheat and
1,791,768 barrels of flour in the same period last year,
although the price in our market has been through
the period of 1854-5 extremely high. In the years
1832 and 1863 we imported from the States raps*.
lively 483,569 and 713,182 quarters of wheat, and
8,835,987 and 5,879,034 (mtg. of flour. The suffi-
cient reason for the great falling off in the imports
from the States in 1854-5 is the great deficiency of
their harvests last year. The consequence, however,
of this is, that fully one-third more land has been
sown with wheat this year than last year in the States,
and as the harvest is good we may expect this year
from them, if we require as much, a supply equiva-
lent to 3,000,000 quarters of wheat. Moreover, the
high price of corn, and the deficiency of the supply,
have driven the people, including the immigrants, into
purchasing immense treed of land with a view to
extending cultivation. Already, in the first half of
this year, 6,129,537 acres of public lands have been
bought by the people, which does not much exceed
the purchase of last year and the year before, but it
is 10,000,000 acres above the average sales of the
eight years ending with 1850. All that land, almost
equal to one-third of England, will in due time be
brought under successful cultivation. The natural
law we have noticed as to Canada holds good in the
States, and holds good everywhere, and the more
the agriculturists are multiplied, the more bushels of
wheat are grown per head, and the more there is to
spare for the population, whether in their own
country, or in other countries not engaged in agri-
culture.

With an extent of land equivalent to England
taken into cultivation in Canada and the States every
three or four years, or a New England in that or a
little longer period brought to bear food, a large part
of its produce being available for the use of Old
England, every notion of our befog dependent on
Russia for subsistence, and that we must starve or
submit to her arrogance, is a mere idle fancy. We
have been at war with Russia for eighteen months,
and have scarcely known a want that peace with her
could have supplied. At the end of this period,
with a large harvest rewarding the industry of our
own people, with a probability of obtaining from
America as much corn as will supply our wants, be-
sides large supplies ready to come to us from France
and Spain, we are now thoroughly independent of the
Czar and his serfs. The war has had the good Ursa
of making that apparent, and teaching both tho CIAZ.

and his allies that though England may be willing to
cultivate end cherish the trade with Russia, she can
cut it elf without a pang when required by ditty to do
so. It will have the further good effect of connesting as
more closely with the freemen of the West, and Never-
ing us more than ever from dependencaon the slavery
of the East.

Our agriculturists will have to compete, not, as the
Protectionists were wont to tell them, with Russian
serfs, but with the freemen of Canada and the States,
having at their command a boundless terri-
tory. But let them remember that our
soil is already enclosed and cultivated close to
a great market, and possessing every facility of com-
munication. They command manure in abundance,
and none of their land, like some of that in the
Eastern States, becomes barren from over-use. Their
land only grows more fertile as it is more used. They
have at their command a large multitude of labourers,
so that no grain of their crops ever need be lost for
want of hands to gather it in. Their competitors in
America have no hands but their own, and an obtain
no assistance to save their crops when the weather is
untoward. They have to clear the lend before it can
bear a crop ; they are u yet, in many places, re-
mote from markets; carriage is difficult; they have
all the disadvantages of a new society, and our
sgriculturists all the advantages of an old one.
Should our agriculturists not be as able to compete sue-
coesfully with the men of the Western world, as the
nation is to dispense with the assistance of Russian
serfs' it will be from moral not from physical cir-
cumstances. Soil, climate, markets, labour, cheap and
abundant, are all in their favour. Game-keeping
squires, and other similar obstructions, are the only
hindrances to their complete success.