The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-20 00:00:00

STATE OF THE LABOUR-MARKET.

The Evening Post calls attention to a remarkable
circumstance which has marked the progress of this
year's harvest—namely, an equality of wages for
labour in England and in this portion of the
United Kingdom. After a brief reference to this
strange feature of the social revolution 'the Post
proceeds as follows :

" Some days since we copied a paragraph, mention-
ing that hundreds of labourers had returned to Dun-
dalk, after failing in their attempts to obtain employment
in England. While they had been away there had been
complain is of the want of labourers at home, and wages
advanced considerably in most parts of Ireland. From
2s. to 3s. per day were usually paid in those districts
from which we have obtained reports ; and, in some
cases—probably few in number—food was given with 3>.
per day. This, we believe, is fully as high a rate of
remuneration, if not higher, than the Ira' e ordinarily
paid for fieldwork in England during the present har-
vest. We know that there has been within the last
few years a tendency to increase of wages in this country
from the miserable rates which had prevailed in former
years, and when the late Duke of Wellington proposed,
by legislation, to provide for the payment of wages to
agricultural labourers in money. We remember a
case that was beard not very long ago, at Macroom
Sessions, where a labourer woo had been for several
weeks employed by a farmer, sought to recover a sum
equal to ld. per, day for his time and labour ! This
might have been a merely exceptional case ; but there
cau be no doubt that wages, for many years
before the famine, seldom were up to Is. a-day, and
were generally not more than half that amount. Very
often money was not paid at all, a small portion of po-
tatoe land forming the remuneration for labour. This
system was at the very root of the social evils of the
country, and had been productive of the worst possible
consequences. Fortunately a great change has occurred
since the famine in everything connected with Irish agri-
culture ; the condition of the labourer has been steadily
improving, and it will not, we believe, be materially af-
fect.-2d by the introduction of reaping-machine 3 or other
substitutes for human labour, because there will be
ample means of profitable employment in branches of
husbandry in which machinery cannot be made avail-
able. A corresponib nt of this journal, thoroughly so-
quainted with farming, and who has long taken the
deepest interest in the welfare of the labouring classes,
has called our attention to the fact that labourers have
been during this liar% elt so scarce in some parts of Meath
that women had to be employed as reapers. In a com-
munication received yesterday from this gentleman he
says, 'Last Thursday, near Daleek, nearly 30 women
were reaping a field of oats, and one man, probably the
bailiff, was superintending the work.' Ale,Tether the
Irish labourerB, as well as the farmers, have had a good
return from the present harvest ; and, for this reason, the
state of affairs is sound. There can be no real pros-
perity in which the labouring classes do not adequately
participate. When those classes have their toil fairly
rewarded, and trade and agriculture are in as wholesome
a state as we believe them to be at this moment in Ire-
land, it may truly be said that the country is tending to
a flourishing condition; likely, according to all human
calculations, to continue."

THE POTATO CROP.

The Banner of Ulster gives a most gratifying re-
port of the state of the potato crop both in tha
north and south :

1 • " The potato crcp (.Says the Banner) is still to the
' fore,' aid however seriously- the fact may tell on the feel-
ings of the panic-mongers, we must admit that the
plague has passed off with few vestiges of its former de
vasta.tion. Three weeks ago there were most melancho;y
accounts of decided disease' in the potato, and lovers
of the doleful uvelled in graphic details of the blackened
stalks and dying tuberi. It is hard to disturb the visions
of these people ; but, as truth is sometimes necessary
even on the sul2j,ct of Ireland's potato crop, we can only
state that the prospects of an asundant yield iu this de
partment of farm produce have never been hater than
at present. Several of the most extensive growers in,
Down have stated to us that, so far as they have raised
their potatoes this season, the bulk is fully equal to that
of 1839, and the quality is, perliap4, the finest ever raised
in Ireland. The white rock variety has turned out a
gross produce of largo and small tubers which would

erage 250 bushels per acre ; and the coarser descrip•
nos i f he petate- -those chiefly used in cattlt-feeding
but which will not.he ripe 'or some weeks to come—pro•
mise to produce 300 hush is to the statute acre. It is
pr,baWe that the iy;tato lands of Ulster—the rich and
the inferior in soil—will yield an average of 200 bushels
ptr acre. The quality of this c'as of food is admitted to
he very zuperier, and thus the produce will be consider-
ably more va'uoble. Several of the new varieties are
turning out well, and the older descriptions such, as the
lumper,' have bee :end greatly improved by cultivatien.
The local markets are well supplied with excellent
which are retailed at 4-Ie to 4d. per stone, and of
this cheapness the working ranks fusty avail themselves.
It is pretty, certain, how, vtr, that we shall never again
see the day when the masses of Ireland's industrial
ranks wiii subsist, as they were wont to do, on mere.
potato diet. Fifteen years ago there were at least
2,000,000 of persons in Viis country who were fed ex
elusively on potatoes, and abeiit an equal number had
recourse to the same description of food "at least
twice a-day. Many small farmers, too, lived almost
solely on the produce of their potato fields. The famine
was a terrible ordeal, and the suff,ring directly created
by that visitation was intense beyon I the power of de-
scription ; but, under Providence, much good has arisen
from it. Sinc 1847 the phy,ical condition if Ireland
his gradually improved ; the use of grain food, then in-
troduced by stern necessity, 1 a+ created a sweeping revo-
lution in dietetics ; a d even the kingd.en of Connaught
now consumes wheaten and other flour to an extent hare ly
credible. In the south of Ire and the pot it crop is ex-
celleet, but its 1 reduction is no:. so extensive as to send
back the now strong tnera of that province to the salt bur
ring and the potato basket. Human bones and sinews
are now of such value that their exercise commanes
full rate of wage-, giving the men of toil ample meaus to
purchaee grain food and a moderate supply cf colonial
luxuries, such as tea, sugar, and coffee. What would
the late Lard of Darrynarie have thought of 3r. 6d. or
4s. a nay fur labour in the corn fields, or how would be
have exulted to sea a fondly of the finest peasantry'
seated at a meal ma,'e ap of articles raised in three quar-
ters of the g:ebe ? Giving a fall margin for any loss that
may be eventually produced by the potato disease, there
will still remain a largo average crop as compared with
late years. This is highly gratifying, and still more
satisfactory is the undoubted fact that the potato has
ceased to be the staple food of Ireland's people."

THE CONVICT SOLDIER.
The Cork Reporter, referring to the approaching