The Sun.
London, England, 1856-08-23 00:00:00

COMMUNICATION WITH SCOTLAND.

A Treasury minute just issued notifies that the
Lords of the Admiralty have reported that the
ports of Donaghadee and Portpatrick are the best
that could be selected for establishing a short sea
passage between the north of Ireland and Scotland;
and that, upon certain conditions being complied
with by the promoters of this line of communica-
tion, the Government will be prepared to make the
necessary improvements on the two ports named,
and use the packets plying between them for the
mail service, at a fair rate. The conditions are two
—first, that a steam-boat service, suited both for
passengers and mails, shall be established by a pri-
vate company without any aid from the Govern-
ment, except a reasonable charge for carrying the
mails ; and, secondly, that the railways on each
side of the Channel shall be completed, so as to
connect Donaghadee with Belfast on the one side,
and Portpatrick with Glasgow and Dumfries on
the other. As soon as the Government are satisfied
that these works will be carried out they will pro-
ceed to execute the improvements.

THE HARVEST.
The following rather discouraging agricultural
report appears in the Packet of last night. Since
that was written the weather, happily, has under-
gone a favourable change, the whole of last night
and this morning being fair; and, as the wind is
blowing due north, it is to be hoped that we have
done with the rain for the present :

" We are sorry to say that our advices of to-day give
a discouraging account of the state of the weather in the
Irish provinces. Harvest operations have been in many
parts of the country totally su-pended in consequence of
heavy rains, and our accounts all agree in stating that
the cereal crops are, to some extent, damaged. We have
personally seen fields very much injured ; but, as these
were in peculiarly exposed situations, we may express a
hope that their case is not so general as the fears of some
persons lead them to anticipate. In Dublin yesterday
a very constant and heavy rain descended, and to-day,
also, though the atmosphere is lees heavy, the weather
is singularly unpropitious for all manner of field work.
We hop© we shall not have to record more considerable
iejuries to the wheat and oat crops than we as yet hear
of. This condition of the weather has led to a rise in
the corn markets."

In the country about Dublin, at the north side,
the blight in the potato crop has made extraordi-
nary progress during the last two or three days.
Yesterday a field was dug up n-,:ar Malahide, and
the produce was so seriously affected that the
owner was glad to dispose of the crop upon any
terms, in order to rid the ground of it. This morn-
ing's accounts from Cork say
"The rain has, of course, retarded harvesting opera-
tions, but the crops themselves do not appear to Lave
sustained injury. A continuance of wet weather could,
however, hardly fail to be highly prejudicial to the
cereals, a'though it may be serviceable to the green et ops.
Cts.ving to the abundance of the harvest and the
great scarcity of labourers, wages have advanced in this
district to the unusual rate of 3s. a-day, with diet, and
even at this remuneration there is great difficulty in
getting good reapers. Women are getting from ls. 6d.
to 2s. a-day with diet. Labourers competent to do farm
,work are very scarce, and farmers are thankful that the
disembodiment of the militia has taken place, otherwise
a great portion of the harvest must have been lost."