The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-04 00:00:00

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1822.

canals in Ireland, frOm the former losses sus,
tained from such undertakings. I am, however,_
quite sure that the were disappointed, from
these canals having been carried through districti
which were abundantly supiilied with turf. In
my opinion EVERY CANAL DUG 1N IRELAND
SHOULD BE CONSTRUCTED WITH THE VIEW OF

CHEAPLY SUPPLYING THE INTERIOR WITH THE
BITUMINOUS COAL or Excl. IND. Canals which
pass through or near to turf bogs (as is the case
with the Dublin canals) cannot become advanta-
goons to the public, till the tuff bogs arc colonised.
and cultivated. If that were done with judg-
ment, and instead of pursuing the Irish practice
of swarming the land with a host of miserable
potatoe planters,—if the English system of di-
viding and farming the land were adopted, these
canals, so much inveighed against, would at length
hVome highly useful 4454114 e., conveyance, not
onlrof English coal into the interior, but ulti-
mately of every article usually conveyed by ca-
nals in England. In order to introduce the con-
sumption of coal, and to relieve Ireland from a
dependence upon that worst of all kinds offuel—
Nil; canals should be dug by Government in
every possible direction throughout that country ;
and after these canals are dug, and English coal
can be supplied in sufficient quantities, if the ex-
tensive bog of Allen and other turf bugs cannot
be immediately brought into cultivation, some
means should be devised to prevent the making
use of turf for fuel. No one who knows the
dreadful distress that arises from the want of
fuel in Ireland, will 'wonder at my anxiety to
have that kind introduced into the interior of
the country, not liable to fail from a wet season.
Do but consider, Mr. Editor, to what a_wretched
state the people of any country must be reduced,
who subsist wholly upon potatoes,,and who can-
not obtain wherewithal) to prepare them for
food; the total loss of the turf in Ireland, though
potatoes were abundant; would certainly occa-
sion a famine, for when that failed (there being
scarcely any wood) the mass of the people have
nothing to resort to. In such cases the poor
have been known to burn the few articles of fur-
niture they possessed, and even the rafters of
their houses. It is quite clear that a people
subsisting upon potatoes, and having no other
fuel than turf, have every year two chances of
being starved, either from a wet season, which
would destroy their turf, or from a severe frost
in November or earlier, which would destroy
their potatoes. People who subsist upon grain
or animal food, and who burn coal, are nearly
exempt from so dreadful a calamity. But not-
withstanding the innumerable mischiefs which
arise from permitting the labouring classes to
have land, to enable them-to cultivate potatoes
for their subsistence, Me; ARTHUR YOUNG, in
1799 and 1800, exerted himself to the utmost of
his power to influence the people of England to
take the agricultural labourers of every parish in
the kingdom OFF TUE CONSUMPTION OF WHEAT,
AND POT THEM UPON THE CONSUMPTION OF PO-
TATOES. A friend of mine in Bath, who was
rather enthusiastic in favour of this measure, lent
me some tracts, written with a view to point out
the advantages to be derived from giving land to
labourers for potatoes, and grass for cows. I had
had too much experience of 'the, bad effects of
this systentin Ireland, not to endeavour to con=
Vince my friend, that if introduced into this
country it would be found extremely injurious.
wrofe down some questions for him to answer,
and having been told that Mr. ARTHUR YOUNG
was the great promoter of the system, I after-
wards
,sent the same questions to him, hoping,
by directing his attention to some points that I
supposed might have escaped his notice, it might
cause him to change his opinion, and be the
means of his preventing the, mischievous measure
from being adopted, to the injury of England.
, I had not the least expectation that the questions
would have been printed, and as was not a
reader of the Annals of Agriculture, f did not dis-
cover that they were so till about eight yearsafter
I had sent them to Mi. YOUNG. They are pub-
lished in the 195th number of the Annals, vol. 34,
p. 546, and are as follow :

QUERI ES'S ÜBMITT ED TO MR. YOUNG.

LAbrary, Batb, Jan. 24, 1400.

Whether cultivating potatoes, !lax, and hemp,
as has been recommended, will not occasion in
future more poverty than there is at present ?
Whether potatoes do not require much manure?
Whether they do not lessen the number (I should
have said prevent the increase) of sheep and cat-
tle, by occupying land where turnips anti cab-
bages might be raised ? Whether (by being ap-
plied to the feeding of man) they do not deprive
the land of the manure of cattle and sheep, and
consequently diminish the quantity of grain. ?
Whether the raw materials for cloth and leather
(I should have added many more materials for
manufaCture) will not be more scarce 'by culti-
vating potatoes ? Whether they are not unfit to
he brought to market from their weight ? Will
not this induce people to settle upon, the spot
where they are cultivated as in Ireland ?
not this check the population of towns, front les-
sening the food brought to market ? Will not
the lower classes probably become too numerous
to be all employed in the country ? Will they
not, as in Ireland, have food, but no money to
purchase fuel or any thing else ? Will they not
he driven to destroy the fences (as in Ireland),
and to commit other thefts? tVill not the de-
struction of the fences make it more difficult to
keep cattle or sheep, 'and consequently their
numhers be lessened ? Will not the lower
classes of the people, from being independent of
towns' or markets for food, and habituated to
commit thefts in order to procure fuel, become
as barbarous in their manners, and as namanage-

tbie, as the common Irish? Whether also it is
imt.unwise to cultivate hemp, inasmuch as it oc-
cupies and exhausts ground where food for man
and cattle might be raised ? besides that it is
substituting one raw material for three others,
[many more] wool, hides, and tallow. Whether
it would not be better to prohibit the growing of

. •
hemp, ,and give a boUnty upcn its importation as I
a means of employing the poor ? Whether even
this would relieve the distresses of the lower.
classes ? Whether the population of England
does not exceed what the lands at present in a
state of cultivation can (if one may so say) con-
veniently feed, even in abundant ' seasons ?
Whether any permanmt remedy can be applied
to prevent future distress, but that of either
diminishing the number of useless horses; en'cou-
raging or obliging farmers to breed cattle and
sheep' nstead of those animals, or formiag. a
society for cultivating Cie waste lands•?-.
a society could not be formed, why might not
Agricultural Societies set on foot a.subscription
for purchasing, enclosing, and cultivating wastes ?
-The profits arising from those lands might be laid
out in foreign hemp, Which could be given to
overseers of parishes to be distributed among the
poor.—With the highest respect, I am, Sir, yotir
obedient servant, It. C.

The only reply which Mr. A.,YOUNG made to
my questions was the following note :
Note—l have inserted this to shew how little
can he said against potatoes, even by gentlemen
that are adverse to them. A. Y.

Before I had seen the above note, I had read
Mr. MALTHUS'S Essay on Population; mill upon
comparing my queries with his opinions, I had
the pleasure to find that, in opposing Mr. YOUNG'S
theory, he had most ably and. completely esta-
blished the truth of my positions as well a his
own. What 'he. says against the potatoe system,
.is to be found in the second volume-of his Essay,
3d Edit. Bvo. Chap. 10 and 11, p. 444 to 480,
and Appendix, from page 530 to 547. Much is
written for and against the Potatoe System by.
different persons, in Vol. 34, 35, 36, 39, and
41, of the Annals of Agriculture. Mr. A. YOUNG
writes at considerable length in Vol. 36, where
he seems to imagine he had completely triumphed
over 'all his opponents. Ile also says -much in
reply to Mr. MA LTUUS, HI VOL 41. Mr. MAL-
Titus afterwards spewed, in his Appendix, that
Mr. A. YOUNG'S plan of taking the labourers of
I England from the consumption of wheat;, .and
putting them ,upon the consumption potatoes,
would have the effect of reducing th'eM to the mi-
serable state of the• lower class of Irish, and
would be the most cruel and fatal blow iO their
happiness They had ever experieneeel;
it will be immediately seen by the perusal of
my questions submitted to Mr. A. YOUNG, that
I was of the same opinion.• Mr. lll.vriilrug says,
in a note to •p. 401, 2,—" In his (Mr.
" YouNG's) Irish Tour, he seemed much struck
-cc with the plenty of potatoes which they pos-
" sensed, and the absence of all apprehensions
"of want. Had he travelled in 1800 and 1501,
" his impressions would by all accounts have
" been very different." lam myself, certain it
would have been the case; for Ireland was to a
great extent a pasture Country wh'en Mr. YOUNG
travelled through it and resided there ; and then
labourers had not only potatoegardens,;/mt
,rocs

. .
jiff their cows. The bounty upon the inland car-
riage of corn to Dublin (which Mr. Youxo with
sá much ability exposed the folly -of) had only
produced a partial effect in stimulatiog the' far•-
mers pasture and dairy farms to' sell the.A.
cattle, to break up their grass land's, and
.let
them to their herdsmen and labourers.. After
Mr. A. Y.OuNG left the 'country this was
done to a great extent ; and KS the population
increased, those grass farms becamo nibre altd
More divided ; and from This cause, within the
last thirsty years, the increase of the people has
been, 1 believe, more rapid in Ireland than was .1
ever known in any other country :in the world.—
Many of the grazing arid dairy farinerS, who fre-.
quently rented their lands frOM 'Middlemen,
(after plotting out the whole of their farms) re-
tired, perhaps, to some town to live upon their
profit rents, which, from the high price of Corn
during the war, in many instances became con6l-
- incomes. As to the cultivators under them
(for they cannot :be called farmerS) they raised
potatoes as a first crop, which they followed with-
corn generally, till the land, being quite exhaust-
ed, was obliged to be left to nature ; and
_alma
invariably pursuing this system over the whole of
their ground, they could haVe few or no cattfe,
and were obliged, in general, to subsist upon po-
tatoes alone, without milk, :.cinch they had in 60M-
paratiie plenty when Mr. .VouNG was in lretand.
The.Potatoe y'stem is calculated to produce, in
every tillage totintry, such mischievous effects.—
In pasture countries, the system, as I have she wn,
will not be found quite so injurious.; but it ren-
ders man independent of society, which, in itself,
is a great evil. It is man'sdependence Lipmi his
felloW men which causes him to become civilized:
As a consumer of bread and animal food, he
must be dependent upon markets; but, as a con-
sumer of potatoes, upon almost any mountain
Ind where he can find water and turf, he may
subsist mith having- scarcely any in6rconrse
with his fellow-creatures. The Freeholders that
" S." speaks of are, it appears, often settled in
mountainous districts, to save more valuable pro-
perty. I should suppose that, 'in a turf country,
a thousand Freeholders, veldt their wives, bri•og
placed upon a thousand acres of .ground, with
about three or four shillings, or perhaps less, an
acre, could sulisist themselves, without more
land being given- to them, till their numbers in-
creased to several thousands. Besides having the
pleasure of finding that so able a writer as Mr.:NIAL-,

PRICE SLVEN?ENCE.

THUS supported the opinions which I bad formed
before he wrote upon the subject, with frespect-
to .the injurious effects of the Potatoe ,System; I
was much pleased to perceive, upon reading' the
Tours of Mr.WAKEFIELo.and Mr; Cuit.wr-x that
they were also quite of my way of ' thinking.—
Mr. CUR WEN, before he went to Ireland, was e-K
treinely anxious to proutote the culture of pota-
toes, haiing feel at a, cheap rate • from his own
coal-pits ;be found them, when steimM, a good.
and economical subStitute; for hay ; and I really.
think, near a co.al-pit, it might be advantageous
To'cultivate them for cattle, if there were no danger
of their becoming, to a great -extent,:the food of
, Mr..CurtwEN says, 'in his Ili,i c .fin Agri-
cultural Subjects,. page 94,.that " the-inhabitants
" of the Northern Counties posess some advan-
" to es over those of the South, and in. none more
"than in their 'taste for potatoes." And in page
95, he says, " the most important of all.the.ac,
qnirements obtained by a'knowledge of —the
" New World, are potatoes;and the comfort and
" benefit of them is daily extending, as_well in
44 this as in every. other country."
Ifilr. Cut:-
:WEN, since his having visited Ireland, is quite of a
contrary opinion, for he says, p. 31 and vo'.
9.d,•0f his Tour through Ireland, published in
1818, " I have formerly been an advocate for an
" extended growth and use of the .potatoe ; but
" have recently had cause to alter my opinion,
" and must earnestly deprecate . their" becoming
the staple article of food for the lewe'r clasSes
cc in Great Britain, lest similar results which I
" witness in this country shotild follow." For
my part I am'of opinion, that ONE OF-THE GREAT-
EST MISFORTUNES THAT EVER OCCURRED TO
GREAT BRITAIN. AND IRELAND WAS THE INTRO-
DUCTION OP _POTATOES INTO THESE KINGDOMS
ruoi AMERICA ; for it would have been impos,
sible for Ireland to • have been brought to her
present state of misery, without the mass of her
people being in the habit of depending upon that
root for their subsistence.
I shall now conclude this Leiter with observ-
ing, that the' means to he adopted to relieve Ire-
land from the •melancholy- effects produced, by
having subsisted the labouring classes upon pota-
toes instead of upon wheat bread . and animal
food, is, first, to dig canals through the interior,
for the purpose, of supplying the inhabitants with
coal ; and, nest, td draw off the :uperabundant
people from the lands at .present in cultiatiotl,
and coloni:e the tznf bogs; at the same time; gra-
dually to abolish the use of potatoes, and in their
stead introduce the consureption of wheat.
I trust in GOD that the. unhappy disturbances in
Ireland will imniediately sObsilde,andThat theat-
tention of the Lergisliture-may be solely` directed
'tlnise alterations 'and improvements :Avhkb
have pointed out, and which I am quite sure are
calculated to promote the welfare and the.iappi.
ness of the,:United Kingdom. • 2
I am,Sir,•with sincerity,
Your obliged, obedient Servant,
AN IRISII LANDLORD.

.Tr.nuary 29.

ATTEMT TO COMililT)lli TRDER, FOLLOWED BY

SUICIDE.

It has rarely fallen ,to our lot to. record' a
greater and More deliberate act' of atrocity thatt
the following,' for the authenticity of which we
can vouch man of the name of Harris, re-
siding. in Queen-'street,':Bryanstone-square, and
who formerlY:had been The- rk to an ironmonger
in Circus-Street, New-road, suspected the fide-
lity. of his wife, to whoth he had been married
filleytt years. We dealine, for very obvious re:- -
sons, in- the present stage of the affair, to make
any comments upon the prObahility of his suspi-
cions being either well or ill founded ; they had
i.taken sufficient possession of his mind to excite
him to the double crime of murder and suicide.
lie had latterly been only an occasional visitor
to his wife, and had 'not seen Tier some weeks-.
On Friday evening het Called upon her in Queen-
street, and finding' that she was 'wiith,a. neigh-
bourmg friend in Seymour-place, he went .there,
and requested her to come home,. as he wished
to Speak to "her previous to his departure for
Wales, which he said Was to take place on the
ensuing morning. Mrs. Harris complied with
his request, and went home with him. They
sat down to tea, accompanied by a child of seven
or eight years old, their atiopted son. In a short
time he sent the child out upon an errand, and
immediately drew out a pocket pistol,with %aid'
he shot at the unfortunate- woman, and severely
wounded her. She screamed and rushed to the
door, and at the moment the people of the houSe
came to her assistance, he presented another-pis-
tol to his own head, and inflicted a mortal wound.
A neighbouring Surgeon, Mr. North, of Seymour-
place, immediately attended, and paid every
proper attention -to the wpman. Her lower jaw
dislocated on one side, and severely frac-
tured. She is now under the care of Mr. Guthrie
and-Mr.:North, and it is confidently hoped will
do well. She is unfortunately in the seventh
month of her pregnancy. The nature of the
wound which thethan himself had received,
rendered it impossible to afford. him any assist-
ance, although he lingered for Many hours. Ott
the morning of the saint' day, he gave to the
child an accurate list of what was found'in Iris
pockets, consiqin;; clf six soirreigns, a watch,
&c. He was a fine stout man in the prinie cf
life, and we understand bore a most excellent
character. An Inquest will' sit _upon the body
to-morrow morning at eleven o'clock.—. (Morning
Paper.)

The Earl of Junsry has, since his late return
from the Continent, reduced the rents of
tenantry 30 per cent., and allowed the reditctidn ,
to take place from Midsummer last. •

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

JAN. 31.---. The King yesterday held a
C9uttcll'of Ministers.
. The four sections of the first Electoral arron:-
~,dissement of Paris again assembled yesterday ;
,on.the second scrutiny, the votes were for Gene
-
"'rat Gerard, 641 ; M. de la Pauouse, 476.
uvral Gerard was 'proclaimed a Deputy for the
?Department of the- Seine.
•lit has been stated that the Greek Prince Can-
....:.`tacuzena had arrived, some days since, at Lau-
sanue. • The Brussels Oracle states that he has
beeu deputed by the Congress of Argos, 'to a
: greet Northern power, to make known to it the
atifual situation of the Peloponnesus and of Greece.
----C.lournal de Path.)
We have received accounts from Barcelona of
. the 19th instant. Since the arrival there of
Rie-
go, every day has been marked, by banquets and
,Itejoicings. Several clubs had been opened,
Which were addressed by this celebrated Patriot.
There were still in the hospital three persons ill
of the Yellow Fever.—(Gazette de France.)
.According to a letter from Odessa, of the sth
instant, they did not expect to be informed before
the end•of the month, of the. definitive resolution
of Russia on the question of war or peace with
the.•PQrte. . They had no news .from Coustanti-1
uople,

After upwards of five hours' deliberation, the
Court of Cassation yesterday annulled the judg-
ment of the Cour Royale of Paris decreeing
against the King tine payment of the purchase
't:nney to the Chevalier Desgraviers, for the
estates of L'lsle Adam, purchased by his Majesty
previous to his accession to the Throne.

FRENCH FUNDS.
Jan. 30, Five per Cents. p 37 f. 15 c.
Bank Stock 1557 f. c.
VIENNA, J.N. 20.—A great activity is re-
n-aarked at the present moment in the communi=
cztions between our Cabinet and that of Peters-
burgh. The State Messengers are constantly on
the road. A superior officer, who lately arrived
here en courier, states that', two days before his
departure "from St. Petersburgh, the Senate was
assembled in Council of State, and the discussion,
which was "opened at one in the afternoon, was
prolonged without interruption till nine the next
morning, no one having retired till the Senate-
had adopted a definitive resolution.

The belief continues here of an approaching
arrangement between Russia and the Porte.
There is a general persuasion that peace will not
be-interrupted. It, appears that Russia wishes
as well as the Porte to avoid war, and it is cer-
tain that Austria, France, and England, are
using all their efforts to maintain the alliance
between the European Governments.
STUTGARD, JAN. 24.--Prince Cantacuzena,
whose arrival at Lausanne has been announced,
lately passed through here. It is said that he is
proceeding to Russia.
NAPLES, JAN. 18.-The proceedings against
lite conspirators of July, 18'20, are terminated ;
the number of detours is 66, amongst whom are
fiilvati and Morelli. Carascosa, General Pepe,
Conciliis, Russo, and the Canon Minichini are
Aeclared contumacious, together with 39 of the
principals accused, making the whole number 110.