The Express.
London, England, 1861-10-29 00:00:00

THE THREATINED ?AMINE IN IRELAND.

The Iri4l. Times reiterates its warning of an ap-
proaching famine in the West, and recommends government
to alleviate its horrors by employing the people at drainage
and other public works. It rays :—" We regret to fled that '
our statements respecting the probability of dearth and suffer-
ing in the west of Ireland have been officially confirmed.
A public meeting of the gentry end clergy of Crionemara was
held on Wednesday, in the Court-house of Clifdeo. Mr.
George Robinson, J.P., of Ballinahinch Castle, occupied the
chair. The requisition for convening the meeting was signed
by gentlemen of influence in the locality, and of all creeds
and parties. The resolutions, unanimously passed, declare
that the cereal crops are far belnw the average ; ' that
• two-thirds of the potato crop are diseased, and the rest
unfit for food ; that what grain there is 'is serioraly
damaged by the constant rain,' and that already 'a
scarcity of fuel exists.' The meeting decided that these
facts should be embodied in • memorial to be laid before
the Executive, praying for a timely interposition on the
part of government to prevent the recurrence of famine
and the sacrifice of life. Government might do much IT
opening reads through the beautiful but almost unexplored
mountains of Coonemarn; much might be done in the way
of drainage and other public works."
The Kilkenny Moderator rya, !speaking of harvest pro-
epoch;:—" Potatoes, in strong retentive moil or cold wet dis-
tricts, are in many instances so bad that they would scarcely
pay the expenses attending the digging of them out."
rho /foram Whig says :—" The partial failure of the
potato crop this season has fallen with great severity on the
small farmers and day labourers of Connaught. and, as
usual, the cry fur government aid is raised by those who
abuse the Samos in favourable seasons and beg from them
iu unfavourable ones. The live counties of the went com-
prise an area of nearly four and a half millions of acres.
Of them, only about eight hundred thousand acres are
under crop, all the remainder being either wholly or par-
tially waste. With what ideas of right can men, who
should know better, cell on the government for assistance
towards the relief of the poor, while the raw material of
comfort and independence lies at their very doom, awl while
the legitimate sources of charity withhold their contributions
We are well aware that in 1822, anal in Mil, as well u in
1847, daring the terrific visitation of famine, the resident
gentry of the west, lay and clerical, displayed the utmost
liberality in their aid of local destitution ; and it is also
well known that then, as now, the absentee owners of laud
did very little in the same cause. Most unjust, then, is
the current cry for state Resistance now ringing in different
portions of Connaught. We grant that the potato disease
has prevailed largely thin mason, that it has destroyed
much more of the crop than was so carried off in any rear
ADM 1846; but it must not be forgotten that the yield of
all qualities, good awl bad, is very large. and that, if a full
third of the whole be lost, the remainder would give a
moderate yield, at least in all wellaituated lands. Hut are
the other three provinces not likely to suffer equal loss in
their potato lands ? Of course they are, and equally cer-
tain it is that no appeal from the people of ouch sections of
this island will be made to the British government. It is
sad - any it is more than sad—to think that the inha-
bitants of any part of the British isles should be sacrificed
to the misery of periodical famine. There is nothing in-
herent in the lands of Connaught, nor is there anything
in the atmosphere, the climate, or the people themselves
to induce the existence of poverty as a chronic disease.
On the contrary, the soil of a great portion of the
whole ia good, and the climate favourable ; arid as to the
natives, we know that some of the mo.t industrious and
some of the moat prosperous of the colonists of Canada, of
the once United States, and of the denizens of the Awitra.
lien Wen, first drew breath in the West of Ireland. Half
the labour and toil that have been exeencled by Connaught.
men on the prairies of America and the plains of New South
Wales would have made the sow neglected lands of Galway
and Mayo smile in all the luxuriance of fertility, had the
system of land-tenure been such as to stimulate exertions,
and had the curse of absenteeism not halm over the land.
Depopulation, rack-rents, neglected cultivation, awl absentee
landlonlism have produced their natural result..
These are matters worth consideration, especially at
this time, when the wail of famine is again
heard from the very quarter of Ireland winch
teems with the sources of agricultural prosperity.
With regard to the cause of the potato disease, it will not
be out of place here to state that at • meeting of the Holley
and South Hants Formals' Club last week, Mr. Lucas, the
sculptor of Sir Isaac Witten statue at Southampton, was in-
troduced to bring before the club an account of some ex-
periments he had made on the growth of potatoes, with the
i view of preventing disease. He said that in a rotten potato
might be found some of the workings of the great law of
nature. The disease was caused by an excess of damp,
which prevented the maturing of starch in the tuber. Ten
' years ago, at Otterbourne, he endeavoured to prevent such
an excess of moisture; it WA on a clay land that he first
tried the experiment ; it mu simple, and for ten successive
years it had been effectual. Lurked of digging a trench to
put in the tubers, the ground was manured -too much
manure would bring too much green and too httle tuber—
' stable litter was put on the top of the ground ; on the top
of the litter the whole potatoes were placed, IS inches
apart between the seta, and the same distance betweee the
rows The first hoeing between covered the seed ; another
hoeing removed as much of the soil from the bottom to the
top that an efficient drainage was the result ; anal where
he had treated land in this manner, either on the clay land
of the paten at Otterbourne, or on the hog he occupied at
Chilworth, he never had a rotten potato, while from
some of the whole potatoes he placated the result was at
least a produce of one gallon. This having been his ex-
perience, it gave him much pleasure to communicate it to
le club which had at hoist the advantage of the country.
The process was very simple • no science or skill was
required ; and it was within all their opportunities to try the
experimest. The epidemic in the potato first arose from
the great excess of moisture ; his experiments hail been
made with • view to counteract it. In reply to members be
mid the potatoes might be ploughed instead of hoed, the
rows being 18 inches apart. After a diaciussion on what
Mr. Lucas bad communicated, the following resolution was
unanimously carried :—•• That it is the opinion of this
n:eeting that the mode of planting potatoes adopted by the
introducer, Mr. Lucas, viz., that of placing the seed in a
row on the surface previously manured, and then covering
them by the hoe or the plough, with the view of preventing
an excess of moisture awl the manifestation of the disease,
is reasonable in itself and well worthy of thu attention and
experiment of the club."

ALIMMATION IN TRH CRIMINAL LAIW.—" CON-
IMIRACY TO MeRDEM."--00 Friday next, Nov. 1, the new
act on offences against the person will come into operation,
containing an importaut provision with respect to " con-
spiracy to counter —e subject which excited a good deal of
interest about three years ago. The fourth section of the new
act 124th and 25th Vict., c. 100) states that all persona who
, shall conspire, confederate, and agree to murder soy person,
whether he be a subject of her Majesty or not, or whether
he be within the Queen's dominions or not, and whosoever
shall solicit., encourage, persuade, or endeavour to persuade,
or shall propose to any pen•ou to murder any other person,
whether he be rt subject of her Majesty or not, and whether
be be within her Majesty's dominioos or not, shall be guilty
of a misdemeanor, and, being convicted thereof, shall be
liable, at the discretion of the court, to be kept in penal
servitude for any term not more than ten aid not less than
three years, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding
two years, with or without bard labour.
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