have their wages reduced, and who are content if they get only mere necessaries, should never be held up for public imitation. On the contrary, everything should be done to make such apathy be esteemed discreditable. The best interests of society require that the rate of wages should be elevated as high as possible that a taste for comforts and enjoyments should be widely diffused, and, if possible, engrafted into the national character. Low wages, by rendering it impossible for increased exertions to obtain any considerable increase of comforts and enjoyments, effectually hinders such exertions from being made; and is of all others the most powerful cause of that idleness and apathy that contents itself with what can barely continue animal existence.

Ireland furnishes a striking example of the disastrous consequences resulting from the depressed condition of the labouring classes. There the natural or necessary rate of wages is determined by the lowest standard. Having no taste for conveniences or luxuries, the Irish peasantry have been satisfied if they have had turf hovels for their habitations, rags for their raiment, and potatoes for their food. But as the potato is raised at less expense than any other variety of food hitherto cultivated in Europe, and as wages, where it forms nearly the sole subsistence of the labourers, are chiefly determined by its cost, it is evident that those who depend on it must be reduced to a state of almost irremediable distress, whenever it happens to be deficient. When the standard of wages is high-when wheat and beef, for example, form the principal food of the labourer, and porter and beer the principal part of his drink, he can bear to retrench. Such a

man has room to fall. In a period of scarcity he can resort to cheaper varieties of food-to barley, oats, rice, maize, and potatoes. But he who is habitually and constantly fed on the cheapest species of food, has nothing to resort to when deprived of it. You may take from an Englishman, but you cannot take from an Irishman. The latter is already so low that he can fall no lower. He is placed on the very verge of

existence. His wages, being regulated by the cost of potatoes, will not buy him wheat, or barley, or oats. Whenever, therefore, potatoes fail, it is next to impossible he should escape falling a sacrifice to famine.

The history of the scarcities that so frequently occur in Ireland, affords many illustrations of the accuracy of the statements now made. Owing, for example, to the failure of the potato crop of 1821, the bulk of the peasantry of Clare, Limerick, and other counties bordering on the Shannon, were reduced to a state of almost absolute destitution, and had nothing but a miserable mixture consisting of a little oatmeal, nettles, and water-cresses to subsist upon. In some instances, the potatoes, after being planted, were dug up and eaten; and, in consequence of the insufficiency and bad quality of food, disease became exceedingly prevalent, and typhus fever, in its most malignant form, carried its destructive ravages into every corner of the country. The price of potatoes rose in Limerick, in the course of a few weeks, from about 2d. to 5d. and 7d. per stone, while the price of corn sustained no material elevation, none, at least, to prevent its being sent to the then overloaded markets of England.

But it is unnecessary to go back to 1821 for an example of this sort. Notwithstanding the all but total failure of the potato crop of 1846 in all parts of Ireland, and the conse quent destitution of the peasantry, there was no very considerable falling off in the exports of corn, and other articles of provision, to England, till the contributions of government and of the British public were applied to purchase supplies for the Irish poor. And it is indeed obvious, that to whatever extremity a potato-feeding peasantry may be reduced, they cannot relieve themselves by purchasing corn. Did wheat, barley, or oats form the principal part of the food of the people of Ireland, corn would be poured into it in the same way that it is poured into England, as soon as it is known that the crop is materially deficient. But a population which is habitually dependent on the potato, having their wages regulated accordingly, cannot buy corn, or any higher

priced article. In periods of scarcity men cannot go from a low to a high level; they must always go from a higher to a lower. But to the Irish this is impossible. For having already reached the lowest point in the descending scale, dearth is to them attended with all the horrors of famine.

It is, therefore, quite essential to the protection of every people from famine, in seasons when the crops happen to be deficient, that they should not subsist principally on the cheapest species of food. They may use it in limited quan tities as a subsidiary and subordinate article; but if they once adopt it for the principal part of their diet, their wages will be proportionally reduced; and whenever a period of deficient supply occurs, they will be left without any re

source.

Besides its influence in depressing wages, the potato, considered as an article of subsistence, has sundry defects peculiar to itself, which deserve the most careful attention.

In the first place, owing to the greater quantity of food which is raised on a given extent of land under potatoes than if it were under corn or in pasture, the population of potatofeeding countries is, cæteris paribus, comparatively dense, and they have, consequently, on a scarcity occurring, a proportionally greater amount of destitution. In the second place, it is a defect peculiar to the potato, or affecting it in a much greater degree than most other articles, that the surplus produce of plentiful years cannot be stored up, or kept in reserve to meet the deficiencies of bad years, but that practically the subsistence of each year is measured by the produce of that year. Probably, however, the uncertainty of its produce and its bulk, and the consequent cost and difficulty of its conveyance, are the principal drawbacks on the use of the potato. Its yield varies extremely in different years, being very large in some, while in others it is next to nothing; and owing to the bulkiness of the article, it is practically impossible materially to alleviate the suffering occasioned by a failure of the crop in one country by importations

from others. In 1846, for example, all the navy of England would have been incapable of importing potatoes, supposing they could have been got, sufficient to meet the falling off in the supply in Ireland. Hence it is that those who principally depend on this precarious resource are almost entirely shut out from all participation in the benevolent arrangement made by Providence for equalizing the variations in the harvests of particular countries by means of commerce. They have, as it were, isolated themselves, and being made to depend in great measure on their own limited resources, are infinitely more liable to the chances of famine.

It is of as much importance to the peace and good order of society, as to the comfort and happiness of individuals, that wages should be maintained at a high elevation. The higher the notions entertained by the labouring classes of what is necessary for their support, and the greater the number and the intensity of their artificial wants, the more secure is their position. When a revulsion takes place in any great department of industry, or when the crops fail, workpeople who have been in the enjoyment of a considerable amount of luxuries, may, by parting with them, still obtain a sufficient supply of necessaries. But those who are divested of all artificial wants, who neither drink ale nor use tobacco, who care neither for comfortable clothes nor comfortable lodgings, and who are satisfied if they have as many potatoes as will suffice for their support and that of their families, can make no retrenchments. Such people cannot part with what is convenient to obtain what is necessary. Their subsistence having been reduced to a minimum, famine must unavoidably follow any reduction of its quantity.

We do not, however, mean by anything now stated, to say or insinuate, that artificial wants, however different, are equally advantageous. Some of them, such as the prevalent taste for gin and tobacco, especially the former, cannot be too much regretted. Intemperance is the bane, the leading vice, of the lower classes of this country. They are impove

rished by the loss of the immense sums lavished on this miserable gratification, at the same time that indulgence in it leads to idleness and crime, undermines the constitution, and brings on wretchedness and premature old age. Nothing, therefore, would be so likely to be advantageous to the labouring class as the substitution of some other and less exceptionable taste, such as the desire to have better houses and furniture, better clothes, or better food, for the taste for gin and tobacco. But, bad as the latter is, still it is better than none. Were the labouring class to relinquish the taste for gin and tobacco, without substituting some one else of equal potency in its stead, their wages would be reduced accordingly. And when a period of distress came they would be still less able than at present to retrench, to abandon superfluities or luxuries, that they might acquire necessaries. And if they had nothing on which to fall back when there was a want of employment, or the crop happened to be deficient, what would then be the fate of the richer class of citizens, if there were any such in the country? It is justly observed by Lord Bacon, that "of all rebellions those of the belly are the worst." Is it possible for human beings without food to be quiet, orderly, and to respect the rights of others? Is it to be supposed, that those who have nothing will submit to be starved without previously attempting to seize on the property of others? Whatever may be said to the contrary, famine and the virtues of patience and resignation are not on very companionable terms. Much, unquestionably, of the crime and bloodshed with which Ireland has been disgraced and deluged, must be traced to former oppression and the character of her people. But much also has been owing to the recklessness and despair occasioned by their abject poverty, and their habitual dependence on the potato. The right of property will never be respected by those who are destitute of all property, and whose wages are totally incom petent to afford them the means of its acquisition. Such persons are disposed to regard it rather as a bulwark thrown up to secure the interests of a few favourites of fortune, than as