The state of the country grows no better. " Jorrs
of Tuam" has written to Sir ROBERT PEEL, to tell the Premier that vast num- bers in Ireland evade starvation by poisoning themselves with noxious weeds picked in the fields ; and there appears no reason to accuse the Prelate of exaggeration. Lord ELIOT says that Govern- ment have taken measures of relief, and that the distress will be only temporary : he means, we suppose, that it is merely the annual famine of Ireland in the interval between the potato-crops. But we are not used to annual famines in England; and the distress here, if less acute, has nothing of a temporary character about it. The Manchester shopkeepers have held a more exclusive meeting ; and, from the triumph of the Chartists at that meeting, it may almost be inferred that Chartism has made considerable progress among the middle-class. Chartists or not, their means and trade are rapidly dwindling away, without hope of restoration. The au- thorities of Leeds have been paying the poor of the town to collect a huge and useless heap of stones ; and now they offer a premium to claimants for relief not to add to that monument of overwhelm- ing pauperism. In one country-town we read of poor-relief admi- nistered under a military guard, because the recipients were exas- perated to a dangerous pitch by the suspicion that the rate-payers attended in person to watch the disbursement of the money ; an outbreak which shows at once how great a burden the rates are supposed to be, and how insufficient they are for their object. Pauperism spreads so wide and so fast that it may almost be called national.
Of course the new Tariff can hold out no relief for these instant ills : no more, for the hour, would Corn-law Repeal, or the ad- mission of sugar from Brazil and Cuba, displacing that of the British Colonies. People want the means of buying sugar and corn, at any price : to have created such means through the operations of trade, the career of legislative amelioration, only entered upon in the pre- sent session, ought to have begun eight or nine years sooner. Lord JOHN RUSSELL and his adherents, on parting with the TarK re- proached the present Ministers with not having done more : Sir ROBERT PEEL'S reply, delivered in the phrase of ordinary conver- sation, went to the core of the question, as a Minister is compelled to view it—could they or any Government have done more with such general approbation ? Lord Jonat says that Sir ROBERT has thrown away the opportunity afforded by the strength of his Government : but had he attempted more, would not that strength have departed ? Had, indeed, a genius of states- manship stepped forth, and, taking an entirely original position, offered at once to place the commerce of the country on a sound footing in all its branches, he might have done more for the paupers than Sir ROBERT : but would he have had a majority of 90 in this Parliament ? would the office-seeking Whigs have supported him ? Much has been done by the mere practical assertion of sound principle : that, as Lord Howtmr. said. in conclusion, is the merit of the new Tariff; and a good begin- ning once made, Parliament will henceforth have to proceed in the same direction. It has a long arrear to bring up. Meanwhile, hard as the case is, the distressed people must wait: no one has really any present remedy for them. Their first relief must be from the heavens : the prospects for the harvest are good; and if the seasons continue propitious, the approaching winter may be viewed with less dismay. But if the harvest fail
