The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-18 00:00:00

ghe •nwestc.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.
a brad Wiles of " Ispress'. sorrow be our trobte's
• Gusty* b prier ray Toeuday e.J Mew LOLL is tire
for prL
iratrimarlsessarl Sr "Tie Urns," brim Zsers, parr.
essa be se re nen. le. IlsimarborneL by tin east so the
dry at prirrss.

NlOll WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE
Tun liar—W!. SC 4M. Allarrems. Ge. fa.
Te4MILII•Ir —lama& I. Um. ..—...Alterrae. M. 411%.

LONDON, MONDAY, AVG UST 18.

A rRiETUTIONNT contemporary, supposed to speak ,
the sentiments of the leading men of its party,
mingles with expressions of concern at the re-ap-
pearauce of the potato blight in revers' parts ,
of Ireland, vehement denunciations of the free-
trade policy, which if it be not actually the occult
cause of the disease, is at all events responsible for
the miseries its recurrence may occasion. 'there
ought to have been scientific inquiries instituted.
Had there been, who can tell but the diagnosis of •
the malady would have been accurately obtained,
its origin detected, and, as a matter of course, ade-
quate remedies devised to battle its malignant I
influence in future. Or, if analysis had failed and
medical skill proved vain, the planting of the incorri-
gible root might then have been pr"hibileal in future
- -whether by act of parliament or by royal procla-
within our contemporary does not say.
We have heard of an enraged polemic " throwing
his wig in the fire" in order to show how intense was ,
his indignation at the treatment he had endured. ,
We have lisewisc read in comic chronicle how,
in a certain desperate emergency, " the beasts
committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter?
But it was reserved for the logic of protection to
prose that the appropriate prevention of partial
failure in a principal article of food would be to in-
terdict the culture of the unreliable root altcgctber.
What the alternative was to be in ease of the passing ,
of a penal law against potatoes Lord IbActiv's daily
orator does nut explain. Not Indian corn, Odessa
wheat, or French flour; for, in the course of the same
article the importations of these obnoxious kinds
of human aliment are bitterly complained of
and denounced. Thus, then, we are led
step by step to the top of the protectionist
Pisgah, whence a happy and well fed people may be
discerned dwelling safely. The loss of one-hall the
potato crop is lamented, and, by insinuation, attributed
to negligence on the part of government. Then
the existence of the other hull is made a theme of
reproach, inasmuch as it ought to have been pre-
vented. Finally, the introduction of supplies to
make up the deficiency is reprobates' as a tearful ag-
gravation of the national misfortune.
Neither is this exquisite solecism to be explained
by any uncharitable surmise regarding the esoteric
view, of the writer on what is commonly termed
over-population. We cheerfully acquit him of any
sympathy with thoughts of the kind. Whatever the
local love of clearance may be, we imagine that the
system of wholesale extrusion and depopulation
hitherto carried on so ruthlessly by Irish landlords,
is beginning to create sentiments of strong disap-
proval and disgust from their brethren on this side of
the channel. Apprehensions, not wholly groundless,
already aeon to lw entertained of the effect on the
harvest-labour market of both countries by the per-
manent expulsion annually of such vast multitudes
of able-lioilosl hands. English landlords like high
prices and high rents, but they have an invincible
mitipathy to high wages, and 'Ley understand very
clearly that un under supply of field-labour leaves
the rate of wages practically liable to capricious and
inordinate enhancemew. Owners of close parishes,
indeed, and rigid economists in boards of guardians,
are ever watchful to limit the number of
permanently resident labourers. lest they
should become more than sufficient for the
wants of the locality in the. slack seasons, and so
become chargeable on the rates. But then an essen-
tial condition of this shrewd and selfish system was
that an inexhaustible supply of extra labour always
csisteil in Ireland—within call at, short notice when
required, and easily driven buck to its breeding
wolds when the temporary work was done.
The enormous emigration of agricultural labourers
and natters from all parts of the sister kingdom
during the last three year., and the manifest pros-
pect of its continuance, threaten to disarrange this
snug borough constitution of things. Excessive emi-
gration, as far as the peasantry are concerned, there
is nut and cannot be. Happy are they who escape
from a land of oligarchic extortion and misrule.
Benefited also are they who remain ; for the value
of their labour must be more or less raised, while
the price of land must inevitably be lowered.
Wen- there safer, speedier, and more inexpensive
means of transport to America, the' more that go the
better—the batter for those that go and for those
they leave behind them. But fur landlordism, whe-
ther English or Irish, there are many who think that
emigration has already overpusned its limits.
Why not, then, bring in a bill to cheek emigra-
tion? The politician* who would prohibit the
eultvation of the potato would hardly be guilty
of any great inconsistency in undertaking to
regulate the demand and supply of labour
according to the esmvenicncc or advantage of the
privileged orders. To put a fixed duty on the im-
port of corn, and a poll-tax on the export of men,
would be' quite in keeping with the anti-free trade.
policy. Louise: Aire rf laissez caller, is the old
watchword of the system of rhe p
rn ular freedom and in-
ternational competition.natural converwe
would be,—neither let them do nor go as each indi-
vi.l.o would, but let all things and all men be sub-
ordinated to the will and benefit of the class that
make the laws. Still we must express once more our
wonderment at the project for prohibiting the cul-
ture of the potato. Is it a desperate expedient for
raising the pncc of corn ? Surely protection must be
descending fast to dotage.