This is a very important period of the year in
reference both to agricultural and commercial prospects. We have seen cheering accounts of the growing crops, and statements of an opposite cha- racter. The generally fine weather of April and May has un- doubtedly done much to counteract the deplorable consequences of a wet autumn ; but much of the grain sown last year will never yield an average crop, and the spring-sown wheat must come late into the granary. These filets influence the market. Fine wheat sold in Mark Lane on Monday last for 79s. a quarter ; and that holders generally anticipate a short supply, appears from the ten- dency of prices to "look up." A month ago, the price of " super- fine " wheat was 74s. a quarter. Always bear in mind, that the denmod annually inereeses, whatever the supply. There are half a million more stomachs to till in 1840 than in 1839.
Complaints of the dulness of trade are heard on all sides. This is the height of the London season : the town is tail of the aristo- cracy and the landed interest ; but the shopkeepers declare that the expenditure is unusually small—at any rate, less business and profit fall to the share of each. In the great markets for Foreign and Colonial produce, the weekly report is gem:rally in these or similar terms—" Much heaviness continues to pervAe every de- partment of commerce." The manufacturing districts share in the general depression ; and the latest accounts from the United States forbid the expectation of a thriving trade with America in the autumn.
Under these circumstances, the working population of England inevitably suffer severely ; but their condition is comtbrtable com- pared with that of a large portion of the inhabitants of the South of Ireland; where famine renders men reckless, and barns, ware- houses, and ships are plundered for the means of subsistence. Even in Dublin, we are 'told that " the details of suffering related at a public meeting by some of the wretched creatures in the Earl of Meath's liberties were harrowing in the extreme." Precautions against outrages from these "wretched creatures" were taken by the authorities of the Irish capital. Very few persons attended the public meeting alluded to, which was held on Wednesday. And all this misery is in summer—a season, formerly, of compara- tive wellitre to the poor.
