The Express.
London, England, 1853-08-16 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDA Y, AUG UST 16.

This day, at 3 p.m., Lord JOHN 111,SELL is to
tell the Ministerial tale of the Turkish and Russian
disputes. The wish that what he has to say may be
satisfactory is stronger than the hope even among
those who are most friendly disposed towards him
and his colleagues. Appearances aro unfavourable
to the expectation that the part played by the
English Government in the negotiations arising out
of this matter will prove creditable to it. And
bearing in mind the old proverb, that " too many
cooks spoil the broth," men are rather dubious as to
the diplomatic success of a Cabinet that numbers no
less than five Ministers (past and present) for
Foreign Affairs among its members.
According to the most recent intelligence the
head-quarters of the Russian army of occupation in
the Danubian Provinces, on the Ist of August, was
at Bukarest, and the mass of the army was concen-
trated within three miles round that town. But
despatches from Braila of the Fame date men
tion that detachments of Russian troops, which
had entered that place some time before,
had quitted and marched along the north
bank of the river, up stream, others being announced
se advancing to succeed them. An armed Russian
steamer was stationed off Gslacz, and a Russian
admiral had been despatched to inspect the embou-
chure of the Danube; according to one version of the
story, for the purpose of devising fortifications;
according to another, with a view to discover means
of deepening the channel, as Russia is bound by
treaty to do. Great care was taken to
avoid irritating the inhabitants by enforcing
payment by the soldiery of everything they received
from them, and the favour of the priests was
courted by ostentatious intervention with the local
governments of the Danubian Provinces to respect
their immunities wherever they had fallen into desue-
tude.

On the Turkish side of the river, from Belgrade
downwards, troops were be3inning to muster in
considerable numbers, and great activity was dis-
played in strengthening, increasing, and repairing
fortifications. French and Prussian officers were
chiefly employed in this latter service.
On the side of the Russians no symptoms were
manifest of the slightest preparations for a backward
march. On the side of the Turks the warlike
preparations were marked by that eager baste which
always implies an awkward sense of previous
procrastination. The German papers are filled with
paragraphs, evidently of Russian parentage, all
tending toimpress Europe with a belief of the immense
available military resources of Russia ; of the
humanityand forbearance with which the Russians
are acting in Wallachia and Moldavia ;
and of the difficulty that the Emperor
may experience in persuading his brave and
eager soldiers to retire without achieving
anything. In short Russia is taking up a strong
position along the north bank of the Danube, from
its own frontier to that of Austria, and is preparing
excuses for postponing the evacuation of this posi-
tion as long as possible—trusting that the impossibi-
lityof moving in winter through marshy
soon be added to these excuses. Turkey,
on the other hand, having been prevented by
the European diplomacy of Constantino-
ple from being as prompt and forward with
its military preparations as Russia, may be unable to
equalise its strength in time with an antagonist so
reluctant to commence a retrograde march.
All, in short, that European diplomacy has RC- I
complished for Turkey is to hang on its arms and
prevent it from assuming a strong position for at-
tack or defence, while Russia has been left
free to do so, and has done so. This fact is clear,
and incontestable. One thing, therefore, that
Lord Joust RUSSELL is called upon to do in his
promised statement is to exculpate himself and his
colleagues from the charge of wilful or blundering
complicity in this gross wrong offered to Turkey.
There are many Englishmen who believe that both
the honour and interest of England arc concerned in
the upholding of the Turkish Empire in its indepen-
dence and its integrity ; there are some Englishmen
who hold that this country has nothing to do with
the disputes of other nations, but should stand aloof,
and allow them to fight it out ; but there is no Eng-
lishman who will or can endure that his Government,
after actually interfering in such negotiations as have
arisen out of the Russc-Turkish question, should
back out of them, baffled and shamed, leaving the
State it professed to befriend only the worse off for
trusting its friendly professions.

WE have now arrived at a period of the year
when something like a definite answer can be given
to the question so anxiously asked by rulers and
statesmen, "How are the people to be fed ?" Never
was a satisfactory reply to that question more im-
portant to this country than at the present moment.
Our consumption of food is unprecedentedly large,
arising from the development of all branches of our
trading and manufacturing industry since the repeal
of the corn-laws, and the consequent advance of
wages in every department. And the Free-trade
which has been the not very remote cause of our
actual demand for food must be unquestionably our
main reliance for its supply during the ensuing year;
for it is now certain that our own growth of wheat,
at all events, must prove cousid:•rably below an
average. How much it may fall short, or
indeed what is an average produce of whect
in this country, from the absencu of any public
effort to collect and record agricultural statistics, it
may not be easy to ascertain. Still such accounts
of the growing crops now on the point of being
garnered as can be obtained from individual sources
may afford data for proximate estimates of our pro-
bable supplies of food from our own soil for the
consumption of the ensuing twelve months. if we
be deficient, such deficiency should be known and
proclaimed as early as possible, and for two I
reasons—first, that all practicable economy in
the use • of food should be incultated on the
public ; and secondly, that supplies should be
sought for in each and every foreign corn-growing
country likely to supply our need. Of the results
we entertain not the slightest apprehension; for
while our prime are likely to be sufficiently high to

attract grain from many unlooked-for quart--
e. t hat
attraction will be sure to produce importations cnough
to prevent any exorbitant rise of prices.

The very remit events of the corn market make
this sufficiently plain. After a season more adverse
to the growth of wheat than any which has occurred
since 1816, and under the influence of a threatened
war with Ru-sia, from whose southern provinces we
have latterly received such large consignments of
wheat, the price of that grain hail risen consider.
ably, but not to an extent materially to inter.
fere with consumption—nothing like the rise
that would have occurred under like circumstance'
during the existence of the corn laws, when
,
with the commencement of August the weather im.
proved, warm sum)) days succeeding to interminable
rains, and the prospects of a continuance of peace
became more promising. Immediately a fall of from
3s. to 4s. per quarter took place in the !nice of wheat,
land every apprehension of serious seateity, if such
existed, forthwith was dissipated.

Still, in so bulky an ar;icle as wheat, any great
deficiency of the home growth can only be sup.
plied.by means of importation at an enhanced cost,
uud it is important alike to growers and consumers
to learn as nearly as may be the prospects of the
coming harvest.

Now the accounts given of the wheat crops in dif-
ferent districts and by different reporters vary so
much, that persons unacquainted with the rural die.
tricts may assume, as many do suppose, that the
numerous complaints they hear of bad crops are to
be set down to farmers' grumblings, and may be dis-
regarded accordingly. Nothing could lead to more
erroneous conclusions than such premises. A MU}
cession of wet weather occurred from about the
second week in August last year to A!orch in the
present year, when there was a large fall of snow,
accompanied by severe frost, which c ,titihued until
April. During that long period, %%Atli the excep-
tion of about a week in September, it was
wholly impossible to sow wheat upon the stronger
kinds of soil with any reasonable prospect of obtain-
ing even a moderate crop ; and on the lighter soils,
much injury was caused by the bad state of the seed
bed. It was only on some of the thin soils, on open
sub soils, where a few hours of dry weather enable
the farmer to plough and sow after the heaviest
rains, that wheat was well planted. But the effect
upon all our various soils taken together has been, a
deficiency in the breadth of wheat sown, both in the
autumn and the spring, which has been estimated at
from a fourth to a fifth of the average quantity.
Much of the wheat actually sown was got in so
badly that in some of the clay lands a comparatively
few wheat ears are seen straggling amongst a wilder.
ness of weeds ; while in other cases, the seed
was sown so late in the spring that it may
be doubtful whether the grain will ripen at all
unless the rest of the season prove unusually favour.
able. And it is on sonic of our best wheat !Linda
that the worst wheat °sops are to be seen. In their
last monthly circular Messrs. SITI:GE state it as their
opinion that " the produce of wheat will prove the
smallest that has been harvested in these islands
since 1816." Certain it is that we have not had so
bad a season since that disastrous year ; but we be.
here that since 1816 the cultivation of the light soils
has so greatly improved, and such a large breadth of
light land has also since that time been brought into
wheat cultivation, that the deficiency of these sods
will not be nearly so great as it was in 1816.
Whether the deficiency on the stronger soils may not
be even greater than in that year, is a question not
easily solved.

A writer in the Bunkers' Jlayazine, regarding the
state of the crops with reference to its effect upon the
money market, states that he has arrived at " the
conclusion that the yield of wheat per acre in the
approaching harvest will at most be only about four-
fifths or five-sixths that of average years; and that
"not more than four-fifths can be reasonably antici-
pated, under the most favourable weather." The
data on which these conclusions are founded are not
given, but it is probably an approximation to the
truth.

The Agricultural Ga:rtte has published the re.
sults of returns made to circular inquiries issued to
farmers throughout the country, which are thus
bummed up. In England and Scotland, out of 184
returns regarding the wheat crops, only five report
them as " good," or " very good ;" while 13 returns
report the wheat crops as " average " or "fair,"
94 returns are " under average ;" and seventy-
five "much under average." In Ireland these re•
sults are reversed; of thirty-eight returns twenty.
two are " good" and " very good ;" sixteen "average"
or " fair ;" seventeen "under average ;" and only
three "much under average." It is satisfactory to
know that the fine weather has lately much improved
the quality of the wheat everywhere, so that it will,
should dry weather continue, be likely to weigh
well, and come speedily into use. There is also a
good deal of last year's wheat in the hands of the
farmers, many of whom are now reaping the reward
of their patient holding on their grain. In most
districts the barley and oat crops are good,
though in some places rather late, and there
is a fair prospect of good pulse crops. Hay, how-
ever, has been in general but indifferently made,
and, from the ungenial character of the spring and
early summer, root crops are scarcely equal to an
average at this time of the year. Yet the prices of
sheep and cattle, both lean and fat, as well as of
wool, continue very high ; and it is confessed that
farmers who have been able to hold a reasonable
portion of their grain, and to keep and feed a proper
quantity of live stock, have had a remunerative
year ; and, if we may judge of the existing demand
for farms, the prospects of British agriculture are
anything but on the wane.