From Ireland, with further confirmation of the fact that the
famine has been effectually provided against, we have further proof of the extent to which the Irish have been trading on the -dearth and the English intervention. The importations of silver to pay for wages on public works do not circulate, but disappear at once ; absorbed, we must conclude, in the hoards of a barbarous people. And the officers on public works complain of flagrant and wholesale attempts at imposition. At the same time, the farmers proclaim that they cannot obtain work at practicable wages. Having provided for the great danger, the exertions of the officials must now be directed to stem that contagious cor- ruption which spreads like an epidemic, and threatens to convert the real necessities of the people into a wholesale swindle and a national imposture. The best instrument for checking this kind of abuse would have been the machinery of a real poor-law ; and the want of it now is one of the penalties to be paid for the selfish timidity that has prevented its establishment.
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