The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-06 00:00:00

862 is even more marked, amounting to more than
22,000. Notwithstanding this the estimated
total value of stock has considerably in-
creased—in fact it has risen—more than
half a million, an advantage attributable
to the increase in cattle and sheep. For the former
the numbers have risen from 3,144,231 to 3,257,309
in the year, while the sheep show an addition of
54,864 in the same period. It must be remembered,
too, that the homes do not represent the same value
as they would in England, being, many of them,
of very inferior quality. If we can get the Irish
to turn their attention to improving the quality of
their stock, as well as, or instead of only thinking
of the quantity, it will be a great gain. Meanwhile
it is a noticeable fact, that the number of pigs was
decreased by 11,000 in the twelvemonth. This
seems to indicate some change in the old traditional
Irish peasant life, when every hovel kept its pig
or pigs, which shared the family bed and board.
In England the possession of a pig would generally
indicate that a cottager was thrifty and well-to-do,
but in Ireland it would afford no such test. It is,
therefore, not very likely that the owners of pigs
have been able to abandon their charge for the
sake of more, valuable cattle, unless, indeed, the
change is in the property of large owners, and not
of the peasantry. This we are not told, and, in-
deed, it would be difficult to learn, although Mr.
DONNELLY testifies to the general readiness with
which the returns were given, still we should
like to know some particulars es to the decreased
value of the Irish pigstyes. In the other great
staple of Irish peasant life there is, however, no
such diminution—the cultivation of potatoes having
increased by 15,868 acres. The principal item in
the increased land under cultivation this year is,
however, the flax crop, which shows an increase of
no less than 87,761 acres over the preceding re-
turn, This great rise would seem to show that
Irish cultivators are by no means insensible to the
advantages offered by this cultivation, and that
they are determined not to lose the opportunity
now offered to them by high price of cotton
and the consequent increased demand for
linen materials. Many persona still retain
their preference for the good old-fashioned stuff
o'er all the dainty varieties of New Orleans and
Sea Island, and there are usquestionably many
purposes for which calico ill supplies its place.
There is therefore no reason to suppose that the
fuller supply of cotton will seriously affect the de-
mand for flax, especially as Ireland has long pos.
sessed so high a reputation in that particular, The
cultivation offers profitable employment to the
people as well as its advantages to the landowner,
and therefore we shall hope to see the number of
acres under flax cultivation yet increasing in the
next report. There is one item in these returns
which will, however, impress the reader painfully.
It is the increase of over 50,000 acres under the
head of Bog and Waste unoccupied. This increase
is divided among the three provinces of Leinster.
Munster, and Ulster, Connaught showing a decrease
of 7,000 acres in her unprofitable land ; but it is a
mortifying fact that notwithstanding the 10,000 ad-
ditional acres under crops, so great a deficit re-
mains. The fact is attributable to the difference in
the grass lands, in which there is a perceptible
diminution of more than 60,000 acres as well as
about 7,000 in the fallow lands. Fluctuations are
of course to be expected, and so long as they only
consist of casual variations, or of the substitution
of one crop for another, there is nothing to be said,
but to see the country receding instead of advanc-
ing in cultivation is an awkward and unpleasant
spectacle. It coincides very ominously with the
continual tide of emigration flowing from the Irish
ports. Emigration is indeed a blessing to an over-
crowded and populous State, in which labour is
cheapened below its fair value, end trade is
damaged by excessive competition, in which energy
and enterprise have, as it were, no room to move in
the crowd. It is the natural channel for relief
when the national family outgrows its
dwelling-place, and Englishmen have good
cause to rejoice over the possession of so many
fair and healthful colonies, to which her people
may go without breaking all the ties of home or
losing the protection of his great and free Go
vernment. Englishmen may still live under their
own laws, they may hear their own language
around them whether they cross the Atlantic or
seek the Southern seas. But while a countryaracte.
turns 4,600,000 acres of land as " Bog and iv
unoccupied," there is little need for such a remedy.
It is like applying the treatment required by snr.
feit to starvation, or trying measures of depletion
to a case of extreme debility. There is plenty of
room at home for the men and women who are hur-
'ling from their country—plenty of work to do on
these waste lands for the strong arms that are
going to give a strange land the benefit of their
strength. There is not much chance of the "over'
crowding" we suffer from troubling Ireland for a
good many years to come, even should the tide
of emigration be forthwith stayed ; but if the
stream is to keep pouring much longer at its pre-
sent rate, a serious difference will soon be percep.
tible. In the first seven months of 1863 the
number of emigrants who left Ireland declaring it
was their intention not to return was 80,606. This
was surely bad enough, but the first seven months
of the current year show an increase of 4,080 on
that enormous amount. Of course the American
War has much to do with this, and the ignorant
and misguided peasantry still hurry like moths to
the candle to fall into the trap set for their unwary
feet. But it is strange when so much has been
said and done to undeceive them, and when it may
natural:y be supposed they have heard of the fate
of many of their comrades who went over before
them, that the number of emigrants should be
steadily rising. We wish Mr. DONNELLY could
have told us to what ports these 84,586 were bound,
but in any case, we may well regret that they found
it necessary to say farewell to their own green island,
and trust that the gradual increase in the wealth
and prosperity of the sister country may provide
honest and ample means of livelihood to the active
and industrious peasant, who is generally the one
to try to better his condition by trying another
land.

It would seem from the report of the proeeedings
at Salthill that antagonistic debate and discussion
are by no means confined to the Parliamentary
arena. Some few days ago the right hon. gentic•
man the member for B ockinghamshire, in pursuance
of his autumnal duties to his constituents, who pre-
sent at an agricultural meeting, when he na'urall3
addressed them on the topics of the day, among
which the harvest took, of course, a prominent
place.
His speech was lucid and sensible, core-
hatirg the melancholy views which some persons
had taken about the crops, and entering into some
of their agricultural perplexities. But it seems
that this address, although apparently harmless
enough to the unin;tiated, has excited the dire dis-
pleasure of other parts of the county; and at another
dinner held yesterday at Salthill, a Mr TROMPER
who proposed the health of the county members,
was obliged to relieve his feelings Toy expressing his
dissent from almost everything Mr. DISRAELI had
said !Iron a former occasion, alai by gravely assert-
ing that "he had been told" the (ffi:ct of the right
11"• gentleman's speech woe io low r the price of

wheat two shillings. Mr. DISRAELI'S words are,
no doubt, listened to with respect in many influen-
tial quarters, and his political speeches have been
read with anxiety and interest in many of the
Cabinets of Europe, but it may ♦ery reasonably be
questioned whether his countrymen are quite so
easily influenced by the expression of his opinion
on a matter which has no connexion with politics
or parties, and on which a little personal observa-
tion and inquiry will enable most well-informed
persons to arrive at their own conclusion. But,
notwithstanding Mr TROMPER'S indignation about
the harvest, the fact appears to be that he is rot so
much diseatisfiod with the harvest as with the state
of farming generally. A great part of his grieve
ante against Mr. DISRAELI is that the latter " dc-
ecribed farmers and farming in a too roseate hue."
Mr TROMPER is apparently a sample of the good
old school of English agriculturists, who are " never
happy unless they are mieerable," and to whom it
is a very great hardship to be told their trade or
profession, whichever they choose to call it, has,
on the whole, many advantages; that its profits, if
small, are sure, its investments, though tedious in
their returns, are safe, and that, though they are
undoubtedly liable to the vicissitudes of the seasons,
the evils of which can be lessened by prudence and
caution. They are at the same time exempt from
those more violent and startling convulsions which
so often bring ruin on the most seemingly flourish-
ing commercial enterprises. What is to become of
the long established privilege of the farmer, to
grumble at every change of weather, to complain
of the drought of a hot season and the moisture of
a wet one, to lament alike the absence of sun and of
rain, and of wind and of calm, if this theory is to
be generally accepted ? OTHELLO'S occupation will
be gone; and what with the improvements in
machinery, the advance in agricultural science, and
the greater diffusion of knowledge and taste among
all classes, the typical British farmer will be a
character unknown. Mr TROMPER is not easily
pleased. He complains alike of the low price of
wheat and of the high price of beans; but we towns-
folk may at least console ourselves under the antici-
pation of dear meat, that bread, the great source of
supply to thousands who seldom trouble the butcher,
will at least be cheap and plentiful. The food for
atock is certainly a serious consideration, but it
will be hard if the ingenuity of our day cermet
devise some substitute for the deficient beans and
turnips. At all events, it is better to fece a difficulty
with a stoat heart than to commence our lamenta-
tions before the trouble has reached us, especially
when we have reason to rejoice in a fair average
crop of wheat, which, in spite of the farmers, is
the first consideration with the great body of the
people.

The verdict of the jury respecting the Erith ex-
plosion is very much what might have bzen antici-
pated from the circumstances. S.) great and com-
prehensive was the disaster that none were left to
tell the tale. No eye-witness of such a catastrophe
could live to give his version of the disaster, and
all that was known was the fact of the two barges
laden with powder lying at the wharf. Mr HALL,
the owner of the magazine, observed that he " did
not know any person now living who could throw
any light upon the cause of the explosion ;" and
this was the difficulty of the jury. According to
Mr HALL, every reasonable precaution had been
taken. The barrels in which the gunpowder was
conveyed from the barges to the building were twice
examined as to their soundness before they were
filled, 83 that no leakage could have taken place.
No fire was allowed upon the barges, even with the
hatches down, and the men, who had most of them
been employed on the establishment for many years,
were said to be very steady. Under these circum-
stances, the jury had no choice but to return a ver-
dict of accidental death, but they c)upled with it
the expr,ssion of their opinion that no stoves or
lights of any description should be allowed on board
the powder barges. It is to be hoped that serious
attention will be paid to this recommendation, not
only by the owners, but by the men employed
in so dangerous and responsible an office. Whence
came the spark that caused all the mischief is as
yet uncertain ; whether it came unperceived from
some other quarter, or whether there was actually
a light of any kind on board the barge, there is no
evidence to prove, but it is at least reasonable that
all precautions should be redoubled, and that the
men should be closely watched with regard to
their pipes. We know how often recklessness of
miners has cost their lives and the lives of those
around them, and there is no reason to suppose
that the knowledge of the danger would prevent
the men employed in a gunpowder magazine from
similar imprudence. Familiarity breeds contempt
of danger as of other things, and utter indifference
soon takes the place of alarm and anxiety. The
correspondent of a contemporary vouches for
having recently seen a Government barge, laden
the river in charge of three
with powder, going up
or four men, two of whom were smoking and
another half intoxicated, It is in this way that
accidents are brought about, and it would be a
good thing if men were subjected to heavy penalties
for smoking on board such barges. The risk
affects themselves most of all, and it also en-
dangers the lives and property of others, and the
oatastrope at Erith, lamentable as it was, except
under slightly altered circumstances, has been pro-
ductive of damage a hundredfold greater.

Home for Infirm and Incurable Women,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SI'N.

Sir,—As at this season of the year many are
returning to their homes, after a time of relaxation,
with renewed health and strength, it occurs to me
that some Christian persons might be glad, from
feelings of gratitude, and by way of thank-offering,
to contribute towards the support of an institution,
(No. 23, New Ormond• street) for infirm and in-
curable women. This idea has been suggested to
my mind by a lady, who, returning to her home
lately, sent us a donation on this ground.
At present funds are specially needed, from the
fact of an adjoining house, into which we are
about to remove, having been recently taken,
capable of accommodating, in a comfortable tome,
a larger number of respectable, deserving persons,
now helpless through sickness and infirmity, than
the limited number es yet able to be received.
For the purchase of the lease, repairs, and furnish.
ing, the sum of £BOO will be required. Of this
about £350 only has been subscribed ; the remain-
der has still to be made up in order to provide, ere
the winter sets in, this shelter, attendance, and
nursing, proved to be so much needed and sought
for by many who can themselves or through their
friends putial!y pay for their maintenance, but
being, with advancing years, without relatives to
attend on them, and a sufficiency to procure a nurse,
have been obliged to resort to a workhouse, or are
about doing.

While assistance from any kindly disposed would
therefore to us prove very opportune, so, surely no
charity could be more suitah!e for the purpo3e, I
have ventured to suggest, than one which benefits
those whom God's providence has seen fit to afflict
and to debar from the usual comforts and alluvia•
tions of sickne!:s.

Donations or annual suba.eriptions will be that-K-
-fully received by Miss Arnott, 23, New Ormond-
street (in the absence of Miss Twining, the Lady
Superintendent of the home); or, by Messrs. Twin-
ing 215, Strand, W.C. Post-010a Orders may bE
made payable iu Llmb's Conduit-street.
S. S. A.