An American correspondent of the Birmingham Daily Post, who, though
obviously well-informed, is, we hope, something of a pessimist, sends a lamentable account of the distress just now endured in some of the American cities. In New York, between April and August, eleven persons were recorded to have died of actual hunger. Thousands cannot obtain work, and we hear, from another source, are demanding work at the expense of the city. In Newark the Irish threaten riot, and the Mayor has been twice besieged. In Jersey City the Mayor has advised the municipality to grant work, as "without it there will be a bread- riot." The most extraordinary narratives, however, come from Iowa and Western Illinois, where the people have literally taken up arms against regiments of tramps, who enter the towns in bands of 500, and levy contributions or break into the railway-trains. The Mayors are compelled to arm the fire-brigades and call out volunteers, and the fighting is sometimes very severe. The dis- tress, in fact, is general, from want of work, and the reluctance of the Irish to leave the towns and settle to hard labour on the land.
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