The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-03 00:00:00

HUMAN FOOD.

The world has seldom exhibited a more strange and
startling contrast than that which now presents itself be-
tween the intemperate pursuit of artificial wealth and the
stern incurable deficiency of the most essential products of
nature. If any one should come amongst us unprepared by
the renown of this great country for the astonishing spec-
tacle of human activity which it presents, he would ask with
a sort of wondering fear for the meaning and the purpose of
this infinite perturbation, this ceaseless running to and fro,
this intricate and restless mechanism of fortune. He would
see fictitious holders of fictitious property made and unmade
in an hour by the fluctuation of fictitious prices; and by the
side of this imaginary opulence, inflated by the premature
excesses of unreal luxury, he might watch the steady ap-
proach of want in its worst form, imposing on every man who
breathes the breath of life duties of self-denial and public
sympathy. At the very instant when the imagination of
the community is rapt in a sort of frenzy by the disco-
verers of some new mode of creating inexhaustible wealth,
we are reminded that these great magicians of the age are
powerless against the cankerworm or the palmerworm, which
are emphatically called Ged's army for the chastisement of
mankind; and whilst they are proclaiming their recent vic-
tory over space and time, a blast of wind or a grub may de-
ny subsistence to the world. Though we can pierce rocks
and pile embankments with a power and an art which will
leave imperishable traces on the globe, we cannot anticipate
by an hour the harvest of next year, we cannot augment the
actual supply of the primary articles of food. Be it more or
be it less, the population of the globe has its annual ration.
The present prosperous condition of the country, the de-
mand for labour, the high rate of wages, and the general
fever of activity which pervades every class of the commu-
nity, arc circumstances which tend to augment rather than
to diminish the danger of scarcity ; for they manifestly in-
crease the amount of present consumption, they encourage
habits of indulgence, they drive off the day of privation and
self-denial. The time when a nation may have most need
to husband its resources may also happen, from causes quite
independent of the scarcity of food, to be that at which it is
most lavish of them. It has yet to learn the mockery. of
•It.h which cannot purchase sustenance for the population

THE RACE FROM ALEXANDRIA TO LONDON.—
ALEXANDRIA, OCT. 22.—Mr. Waghorn started from this
port for Trieste at 10 minutes past 11 o'clock on the morning
of the 20 th inst., in a steamer placed at his disposal by the
Austrian Government. and he hopes by that route to antici-
pate the arrival in London of the regular Bombay mail,
which will go through France. The Hon. Company's steamer
Semiramis arrived at Suez with the Bombay mail on the
morning of the 19th, and Mr. Waghorn received a private
India despatch from Suez,!by express courier, in the remarka-
bly short space of 21 hours. The Iberia leaves this morning
with the Bombay mail, ethich will be sent via Marseilles,
thus Mr. Waghorn will have had from Alexandria the start
of the mail by 47 hours, and although it cannot be expected
that a heavy mail of 60 or 70 boxes can be conveyed from
Suez to Alexandria in as short a time as a single dispatch, still
if Mr. Waghorn does anticipate the arrival of the mail in
London by more than two days, it will prove that the Trieste
route is shorter than that through France.
STATISTICS OF OREGON.—At length we have some-
thing practical in the shape of a letter from the Marshal and
High Sheriff of Oregon, who has been fifteen years in that
wee._ _ country. " Last year," says he, in a letter to his brother in
of the w"- ee time of year, in the months immediately Missouri, " I raised 1,500 bushels of wheat ; this year I
At the prase,- '-ne, tlese forebodings may seem unne- think I will 'have 3,000 bushels. I have a farm lying eight
succeeding harifestae- •by a slight augmentation of price, miles from the ship navigation, worth as much as half the
cessarily dark; for, except: .... ton market. But we hope countyyoulive in. I have a large building in Oregon city that
no real pressure is felt in the pro.. these cautions and this cost me about 7,000 dollars. I have also property in the city
the country will learn in time that ee • t. can alone mode- of Multanomali and alsointhe town of Linntan. Oregon city
augmentation of price are the checks wilisse -tety for the lies on the east side of the Willamette Falls, and Multanomah
rate the evil hereafter. We are under no an... sr butu,ot on the west side, and Linntan 20 miles below, at the head of
supply of food in the second or third month of the yt., ,
.' .
our anxiety and our foresight ought already to embrace lee.: the ship navigation. I have besides 70 head of cattle, 15
probable condition of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth h.,-ed of horses, 900 hogs, 2 dogs, 1 cat, 3 children, and the
old w.:_ean, with chickens innumerable." He thinks it is a
months. If it be necessary to support the population of any
given country or of a:1 the countries of Europe upon eight or fair countr;—soil good, timberb tall, and climte fine rains
ten-twelfths of their ordinary quantity of nourishment, it is but e five months' matenua
no ice in Wintee,.
evident that the more equally the privation is distributed still the crops are fah; and the cattle good.—Neat York Ikrald.
over the whole year, the less severely will it be felt at the I THE EXPERIMENTAZ SQUA.DRON.--We regret to
end of it. The obvious course is, therefore,
have bees in a very bad way to endeavour at hear that the ships eenetjteeLe_gthe experimental squadron
once to. devise the best modes of economising the supply of eaiete the late severe trial
food we possess, more especially by the introduction of bread to which they have been subjected.'
stuffs which may be usefully and safely combined with the suffering from an internal complaint, eceesisting
ic of a de-
best kinds of grain and flour. For example, the farina of the The Albion has le !II
rangement of the ballast, which rendered flrast treat
to F,
were
potato may be prepared with complete success even from the meat necessary; and no less than thirty
diseased tubercles of the potato plant; and Indian corn, taken from her. At one time her state was so frighdelly
.which even now may be imported at a very low duty, is cer-
tainly the best substitute for wheaten flour, especially when plethoric that she was thought to be gradually sinking; but
she has since rallied under the influence of strong stimulant&
mixed with it in proper proportions. The Queen has been suffering front a pressure of the stays,
In ordinary years it may be assumed as a general truth and a straining of the arms, but is now considerably better.
that there is ne excess of food produced on the globe. With The Vanguard has been rather dropsical, and has water on
the exception of wine, there is no article of very extensive
consumption for the purposes of sustenance of -which the the chest, but is now as well as can be expected. The
Canopus was thc.ught to have had two of her ribs broken,
annual store exceeds the demand ; and, with reference to the ' accompanied by a coldness in the legs, or shivering of the
principal object of vegetable diet, a very slight deficiency is timbers ; but on inspection she proved to be in a tolerably
immediately felt, because it must be supplied, as far as pos- sound conditio».—Punch.
sible, out of the current year. The failure of the potato crop i \ye learn from a source on which we place great
inmost of the northern provinces of the continent, and more ; reliance, that important changes are in course of operation
recently in so many parts of the United Kingdom, is, how- in the Ministry ; and that there is little doubt-that -Lord
ever, no slight deficiency. The potato is the lowest and John Russell will join the Administration of Sir Robert-Pekd
cheapest article of human food ; and the difficulty of provid- ' —that Lord Stanley will retire from the office of Colonial
log food by some
.means or another for the populations thus Secretary, and will be succeeded by Lord Johu.--Brightme
a.
id
deprived of thenehabitual subsistence, is increased by the car- &r
1 cumstance that the substituted food must be, fox the mostpart, i