As the Irish harvest becomes more general, a scarcity of
labourers—a very novel complaint in Ireland—is experienced in several districts; thus exhibiting the formidable inroads made by the famine, emigration, and clearances, upon the rural population. The earliness and the suddenness of the harvest this year caused an active demand for labourers ; and this, combined with the comparative scarcity of able-bodied men, whilst many had gone off to England and Scotland to seek the usual harvest-work, has caused a very considerable increase in wages for this temporary em- ployment. In the neighbourhood of Carlow, the daily wages of a harvest- labourer are as high as half-a-crown, and some extensive farmers find it difficult to obtain a sufficient number even at that rate. This is a great piece of good fortune for the poor peasants, who will be well employed for some weeks, at what may be considered high wages, when food is so cheap and abundant. In the Southern and Western districts, where the farmers generally are still in distressed circumstances, after the exhaust- ing famine, the prices of labour are little changed—the peasantry are -glad to accept work at the current wages ; and the improvement in their condition is solely attributable to the plenty and cheapness of provisions. —Morning Chronicle Dublin Correspondence, Aug. 23.
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