The Sun.
London, England, 1846-03-13 00:00:00

POTATOES.

(From the Limerick and Clare Examiner, of March 7.)
Through the kindness of an intelligent and benevolent
landlord, who instituted a statistical inquiry into the
condition of the agricultural population in a very large
and extensive county parish in the neighbourhood of
this city, we are enabled to publish the following parti-
culars, the importance and alarming nature of which
cannot be overrated:— _

The classification embraces the number of families,
the number of persons comprising each family, the num-
ber of persons in each family under ten years, the num-
ber over ten yeara, the number not employed, the num-
ber employed, the rate of wages per week, the quantity
of potatoes on hands last November, the quantity on
hands. at present, the quantity of potato land tilled, the
quantity of land sufficient, by whom employed, and
remarks. -

The parish is divided into ten townlands, and contains
a 42 families ; population, 1,942 ; number of persons not
employed, 286. The quantity of potatoes on hand, in
November, was 10,425 barrels of 48 stone each. At
present there ate but 2,244 barrels, the greater part of
which are rapidly running into decay
In one townland the number of families was 75 ; the
poptilatibil was 431 ; number of persons under tett years
of age, 114 ; number of persons over ten years of age,
325 ; number not employed, 1450 number employed,
45 ; rate of wages received per week, 64 shillings ;
quantity of potatoes in November, 1,684 barrels ; quan-
tity no* do hand, dOlt barrels ; tittantity of potato land
tilled, hi acres 2 roods and 3 perches ; quantity of land
sufficient, 36 acres additional.

The above is the list of labourers' holdings, Next is
the landholders/ list In the sAtue townland.
Wcornprisingliff} Veers., 54 under ten-years of ag6;
slid to over ten, antity of potatoes oil band in
November, 2,830 barrels; quantity now on hands, 501;
quantity of land tilled, 78i acres; quantity of con-acre,
25 acres; ,produce of con-atre Noreraberi- 1,013' bar-
rels; produce at present; AlB barrels; rate of dorl-acre
average 71, 15s. per acre.
The average of the rethalhing to*filtridS is sdnievirhat
similar. 'there is ho material difference ;. and so it be-
tombs iintieChsBark to ptabli f parVeulars The deductions
are plain and appad I
ifig in tne extreiile. f id, ,42s barrels
?
of potatoes were produced for a twelire month's consump-
tion for 1,94 people; eaCh month's6ofisiirdptidri *ouici
an:lonia to about At 0 barrels. The quantity on hand,
even Supposing the present potatoes to remain free
troth pregressive disaSe;, Would duly last ford
Over two months ;tat is to about May-day whilst
the terrific certainty of an entire abSente of food
for five or six . months stari t lb tile race.
Bnh again; sii iibslft that the disease progresses
with a rapidity equal to what is experienced at
present, the stpek on hands will riot, last more
than sit weeks at furtbeSt. The aocotint df mofley re-
t eired to purchase the necessaries of life for the labour•
ing Pdrtion of the parish-to which We have, Alluded at,
aay,,Mt. er had. ter the 'tithe stated, *child lie about
fi,r,d'it. the average for the county would be very near
the enormous sum of 90,0001. This statement requires
net one word of ennatnenh

AMEItICAN QUESTION.
Thb ,fourital deci !Vats hai the tolloNitrig remarksoil nig longependingOt which nculispruesieid: is
ent ol not
Polk
an easy s yh
st oc form
an idea of the object
cillors propose•to themselves: On one side, they reject arbi-
tratien ; c±l the othei; thbk adoptn their arguments such
iefeitilees as ielider it no Idngbr possible t 6 nego:iate for the
Preeident alteitys !Sete out from this idea; that the whole of
the territory reverts Lb the Union; and ,that Englatid has no
right to retiiiii the snialkst poi ait NO*; to propose
to a power purely and eithply to abandon a territory that it
now oceuples by Cdmilion cdnSent, is .to tell it that no nego-
Catkin will be entered
juice Te Speltof One's love for peace
whilst putting forward such pretensions, is talkidg non-
sense. The dispatches of 11Ir. Buchanan will be quite unin-
telligible to Eitroktin clip tiiii Lists. Iti order to possess a
ksv to Pile tdysteey; to ity and trieitsuf6 the aid, bearing of
what President Polk is doing; the best way is to go back to
his ineiltiratioh `Message:' In that duct:meta was produced
with Mitt the dottrine that EaroPe nothing to do with
the affairs of America, add that no new guropean establish-
ment can be tolerated, on the nett/ continent; etpecially in
North Amerita. The Presidentf lto doubt ; eonsidets that, in
the pfesent slate of things, tinder the system of joint-occu-
pation; England has; strittly speaking, no establishment in
Oregon: There exists id that territory; iti fact, neither town
nor fortress. All is reditced to a hunt for peltries, organised
on a large scale, under the direction of the Hudson's Bay
Company, and a few post for the purpose of trafficking with
the savages:. The moment; on the contrary, the English
*eke planed iq exclusive possession of a portion of the Oregon
they would found a colony there—a political and coin-
mercial centre of action S that is to say, just what the
first magistrate of the Union has declared intolerable.
Ccnsequently, the Oregon must wholly revert to
the Union. Such appears to be the object of his efforts—
the tendency of his arguments. This is what he will have,
no matter at what price, without being stopped by the news
communicated to his Goverment by the American
Envoy in London (Mr. M•Lane), that the English
Government is perfectly prepared to make war imme-
diately upon the United States, and to strike great
blows at the first outbreak of hostilities ; and that it is
impossible not to perceive that the immense maritime pre-
parations of Great Britain have at least an indirect relation
to the chances of rupture between that power and the Ame-
rican Union. If such be President Polk's idea, will the
American people follow it up? Every day informs us that
the most eminent men are making manifestations in favour
of the cause-of peace. The last arrival brought two docu-
ments, one by Mr. Rivers, formerly ambassador at Paris,
who has long represented the state of Virginia in the Fe-
deral Senate with much distinction ; the other by Mr. Gal-
latin, an illustrious veteran, who has resumed his pen at the
age of 85, and descended into the arena to implore his fellow-
citiZens not to precipitate themselves into the abyss that
is being dug beneath their feet. The very amount of the
majority that voted the resolution' of the House of Re-
presentatives seems of a nature to give every security.
This majOrity, nevertheless, includes a considerable
number of orators; who have claimed for the United
States the whole of the Oregon territory, and the
trAcellent paper of Mr. Gallatin appears to us to de-
monstrate very clearly that the single act of the de-
nunciation of the convention of 1827 would render the
maintenance of peace extremely problematical ; and, in fact,
the Moment the United States have put a period to the joint
occupation, during which every permanent establishment is
prohibited and impossible, they will plant their standard in
all points where American citizens are to be found, that is,
every Where, They will execute justice, they will organise
a government, they will levy customs' duties, they will per-
form acts of exclusive eovereignty—they will do it a thou-
sand times for one. They will thus reduce England to the
alternative of evacuating the Oregon altogether, or making
war for the maintenance of her rights in that quarter; and,
eta' the vast preparations that she is making, and which
Mr. Arlene bas sufficiently characterised, would England
take the first part or the second? Thus, the vote of the
House of Representatives is, at the bottom, an offensive one,
and if it were thought that the Senate would adopt the same
measure, war must be expected. We persevere in hoping
That the Senate will resist the fatal impulse to which the
House of Representatives has yielded, more perhaps than it
itself imagines; and all the acts which it has hitherto per-
formed confirm us in that hope."

ACCIDENTS IN MINES.—On Thursday last three men
were _severely burnt by an explosion of fire damp in the
mines of Messrs. Blackwell, Jones, and Oakes,. Tansey Green.
Two of them are in a way precarious :state. On the same
day a man residing at Hurts Hill, died from the effects of
injuries he received, some five months ago, in some mines be-
longiog to the Sinn &m,—Worcestershire Orctnick.