NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ME tumult in Ireland increases. Some parts are in a state of permanent riot, and the first blood has been shed. Notwith- standing the laudable spirit that has been observed, the difficulties presented by the people themselves appear to grow with the emergency. This is not said in the way of blame, which would be quite idle ; but it is very necessary- distinctly to note the fact. The people, no doubt, are reduced to the verge of starvation, and much may be pardoned to the struggles of desperation, to the delirium of physical suffering; but it Is painful to see the manner in which the whole nation receives the aid extended to it. The Chief sufferers meet the gift of relief with an increase of their habitual supineness, or with their ruling passion—that of quar- rel. When in actual want of food they quarrel with the food given them—with their wages—with the kind of employment ; and, altogether, do their best to confound destitution with a state of social revolt. The manner-in which they are treated by those " above " them is not less painful to notice. Some, like Mr. John O'Connell, threaten that there will be bloodshed ; and lot there is bloodshed. The "Liberator," the "father of his country," breaks out into boundless demands that England should "give," almost as if he meant to provoke alarm at the prospect of the mad expenditure in Ireland and its economical consequences. The great body of landlords' with less ostentation of extrava- gance, are "presenting" local improvements which will involve a ruinous outlay ; calculating, we are told on trustworthy author- ity, that they will be never called upon to repay their share of the expenditure.
Meanwhile, experience fearfully multiplies and strengthens doubts whether the official rulers have taken a fit position for con- trolling the storm. The object of the Labour-rate Act, to give food in return for employment, is excellent,- but in the working, the statute does not seem to reserve to its administrators sufficient hold over it. It is everywhere being converted into "a gigantic system of unproductive labour"; diverting the industry of the country, such as it is, from the substantial improvement of na- tural resources, and over-stimulating those "habits of laborious indolence" which are the fatal disease of the nation.
With all this excess, it nevertheless seems paradoxically doubt- ful whether the measures taken by Government are sufficient for their purpose—for securing to the people subsistence under the total annihilation of their staple food. Ministers, in fact, have been obliged to depart from their plan,—that of not interfering in the actual supply of provender : under threats of suicidal excesses to be committed by the people, Government does send large sup- plies of food. It must be confessed that the oft vaunted public discussion does
not give Ministers much help in their gigantic task. There is a clamour of extortionate demand sufficiently bewildering ; there is in that cry enough of real agony to compel the utmost efforts to sooth it. Human nature could not resist the impulse to do anything that occurs at the moment in order to allay sufferings so shocking in their nature and in their universality.
In the midst of the hubbub, the still small voice of political economy keeps up a strain of didactic censure on the mode of assistance, which is calculated scarcely to suggest better methods, but rather to increase the distraction of mind.
It is, indeed, very desirable that even in the very storm and whirlwind of their sympathy, the official rulers should do no- thing which might aggravate future difficulties, or gratuitously create them. Are Ministers really masters of the situation "1 Reconsideration of the Labour-rate Act is promised ; stores of food are sent hither and thither, as the starvation here and there appears to grow more intense; where tumultuous disorder raises its perverse head, military appear to repress it : so fat there is due preparation ; but something more is needed than this topical method of treatment with specific remedies pro re nata. Minis- ters, we do not doubt, mean the best. There cannot be any in-
tention of attempting to meet the monstrous emergency of the time with the narrow and pedantic dogmas of political economy that have been obtruded. You might as well send Mr. Porter's Blue Books to a starving family in St. Giles's. A true political economy, indeed, would extend its scope to the full breadth of the occasion. Some of those who retain their cooler senses in the turmoil are wasting their logic in reciting formulas about the ordinary workings of trade. There is no question now of the ordinary workings of trade. The true question is, not how to supply food by the methods which under or- dinary circumstances are the best, but how to supply it by methods suitable to the extraordinary circumstances. A full consideration of all the facts,—of all the needs of Ireland, all the resources that England can command, all that is possible to legislation,—would, there is no doubt, suggest measures at once adequate to the emergency and beneficial to the permanent interests of the nation. Some Irish papers are wrong in sup- posing that we would urge "confiscation." We urge nothing of the sort. But in a period of actual social disorganization, we do say that nice punctilios should not stand between the awful ne- cessities of Ireland and any measure which would supply sub- stantial relief. The idea of a "confiscation," as it is called—that is, the conversion of a nominal into an actual ownership, with full compensation of existing interests, andnewly-created powers really to fulfil the duties of property, is one which is creeping out in va- lions quarters. The Dublin World traces the idea in other journala of different politics : it is to be seen in Mepsborne's letter, in Mr. Poulett Scrape's. Whether Parliament will meet in November or not is doubt- ful. Some suppose that Ministers will proceed on their own responsibility, calculating upon an act of indemnity. Both plans would have their advantages. That would be best which would admit of the widest scope of view, the most unprejudiced policy, and the most vigorous activity.
