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

HUMAN FOOD.

The a. *rid 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 in curable deficiency of the most essential products of
nature. If any one should come amongst us unprepared by
the ren own of this great country for the astonishing spec-
tacle or human activity which it presents, he would ask with
a sort of wondering fear for the meaning and the purpose of
this luatinite perturbation, this ceaseless running to and fro,
this intricate and restless mechanism of fortune. He would
see ffet, iambs 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-
prom th of want in its worst form, imposing on every man who
breat bes the breath of life duties of self-denial and public
sympathy. At the very instant when the imagination of
the cc unmunity 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 God'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 lass, the population of the globe has its annual ration.
The present prosperous condition of the country, the de-
mand f, it labour, the high rate of wages, and the general
fever of activity which pervades every class of the commu-
nity, are circumstances which tend to augment rather than
to diminish the danger of ticarcity ; 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 laviiih of them. It has yet to learn the mockery of
wealth wlLiel cannot purchase sustenance fer the population
of the world..
At the present time of year, in the months immediately
succeeding harvest-time, these forebodings may seem unne-
cessarily dark for, except by a slight augmentation of price,
no real pressurtl is felt in the provision market. But we hope
the country will learn in time that these cautions and this
augmentation of' price are the checks which can alone mode-
rate the evil hereafter. We are under no anxiety for the
supply of food in the seconder third month of the year, but
our anxiety and our foresight ought already to embrace the
probable condition. of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth
tgnvgiven months.
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evident that the more equally the privation is distributed
over the whole yr ,ar, the less severely will it be felt at the
end of it. The ob ivious course is, therefore, to endeavour at
once to devise th a best modes of economising the supply of
food we possess, n lore especially by the introduction of bread
stuffs which maybe usefully and safely combined with the
best kinds of gran n and flour. For example, the farina of the
potato may be pas spared with complete success even from the
diseased tuberch:s of the potato plant; and Indian corn,
which even now may be imported at a very low duty, is cer-
tainly the best. ,substitute for wheaten flour, especially when
mixed with it !in proper proportions.
In ordinary years it may be assumed as a general truth
that there is r.n. excess of food produced on the.globe. With
the exception of wine, there is no article of very extensive
consumption fir the purposes of sustenance of which the
annual store exceeds the demand; and, with reference to the
principal object of vegetable diet, a very slight deficiency is
immediately felt, because it must be supplied, as far as pos-
sible, out of the current year. The failure of the potato crop
in most of the northern provinces of the continent, and more
recently in rso many parts of the United Kingdom, is, how-
ever, no slight deficiency. The potato is the lowest and
cheapest article of human food; and the difficulty of provid-
ing food by some means or another for the populations thus
• deprived of their habitual subsistence, is increased by the cir-
ctimataTrte that she egbatituted (cod must be, for the mot part,