The Express. — 1851-08-18 (London, England)

LONDON, MONDAY, AVG UST 18.  A rRiETUTIONNT contemporary, supposed to speak , the sentiments of the leading men of its party, mingles with expressions of concern at the re-appearauce of the potato blight in revers' parts , of Ireland, vehement denunciations of the freetrade policy, which if it be not actually the occult cause of the disease, is at all events responsible for the miseries its recurrence may occasion. 'there ought to have been scientific inquiries instituted. Had there been, who can tell but the diagnosis of • the malady would have been accurately obtained, its origin detected, and, as a matter of course, adequate remedies devised to battle its malignant I influence in future. Or, if analysis had failed and medical skill proved vain, the planting of the incorrigible root might then have been pr"hibileal in future - -whether by act of parliament or by royal proclawithin our contemporary does not say. We have heard of an enraged polemic " throwing his wig in the fire" in order to show how intense was , his indignation at the treatment he had endured. , We have lisewisc read in comic chronicle how, in a certain desperate emergency, " the beasts committed suicide to save themselves from slaughter? But it was reserved for the logic of protection to prose that the appropriate prevention of partial failure in a principal article of food would be to interdict the culture of the unreliable root altcgctber. What the alternative was to be in ease of the passing , of a penal law against potatoes Lord IbActiv's daily orator does nut explain. Not Indian corn, Odessa wheat, or French flour; for, in the course of the same article the importations of these obnoxious kinds of human aliment are bitterly complained of and denounced. Thus, then, we are led step by step to the top of the protectionist Pisgah, whence a happy and well fed people may be discerned dwelling safely. The loss of one-hall the potato crop is lamented, and, by insinuation, attributed to negligence on the part of government. Then the existence of the other hull is made a theme of reproach, inasmuch as it ought to have been prevented. Finally, the introduction of supplies to make up the deficiency is reprobates' as a tearful aggravation of the national misfortune. Neither is this exquisite solecism to be explained by any uncharitable surmise regarding the esoteric view, of the writer on what is commonly termed over-population. We cheerfully acquit him of any sympathy with thoughts of the kind. Whatever the local love of clearance may be, we imagine that the system of wholesale extrusion and depopulation hitherto carried on so ruthlessly by Irish landlords, is beginning to create sentiments of strong disapproval and disgust from their brethren on this side of the channel. Apprehensions, not wholly groundless, already aeon to lw entertained of the effect on the harvest-labour market of both countries by the permanent expulsion annually of such vast multitudes of able-lioilosl hands. English landlords like high prices and high rents, but they have an invincible mitipathy to high wages, and 'Ley understand very clearly that un under supply of field-labour leaves the rate of wages practically liable to capricious and inordinate enhancemew. Owners of close parishes, indeed, and rigid economists in boards of guardians, are ever watchful to limit the number of permanently resident labourers. lest they should become more than sufficient for the wants of the locality in the. slack seasons, and so become chargeable on the rates. But then an essential condition of this shrewd and selfish system was that an inexhaustible supply of extra labour always csisteil in Ireland—within call at, short notice when required, and easily driven buck to its breeding wolds when the temporary work was done. The enormous emigration of agricultural labourers and natters from all parts of the sister kingdom during the last three year., and the manifest prospect of its continuance, threaten to disarrange this snug borough constitution of things. Excessive emigration, as far as the peasantry are concerned, there is nut and cannot be. Happy are they who escape from a land of oligarchic extortion and misrule. Benefited also are they who remain ; for the value of their labour must be more or less raised, while the price of land must inevitably be lowered. Wen- there safer, speedier, and more inexpensive means of transport to America, the' more that go the better—the batter for those that go and for those they leave behind them. But fur landlordism, whether English or Irish, there are many who think that emigration has already overpusned its limits. Why not, then, bring in a bill to cheek emigration? The politician* who would prohibit the eultvation of the potato would hardly be guilty of any great inconsistency in undertaking to regulate the demand and supply of labour according to the esmvenicncc or advantage of the privileged orders. To put a fixed duty on the import of corn, and a poll-tax on the export of men, would be' quite in keeping with the anti-free trade. policy. Louise: Aire rf laissez caller, is the old watchword of the system of rhe p rn ular freedom and international competition.natural converwe would be,—neither let them do nor go as each indivi.l.o would, but let all things and all men be subordinated to the will and benefit of the class that make the laws. Still we must express once more our wonderment at the project for prohibiting the culture of the potato. Is it a desperate expedient for raising the pncc of corn ? Surely protection must be descending fast to dotage.