The weather is broken and unsettled, and thunder-storms accom- panied
by violent winds and heavy rains have been frequent. Less damage appears to have been done in the North of the island, but over a wide range of the Southern counties there are general complaints of grain shaken from the over-ripe corn, harvest-fields flooded, and wheat beginning to sprout. Apprehensions of a short harvest are not now confined to the easily panic-stricken English farmers. Over a wide track of the European Continent the weather ap- pears to have been even worse than in England, and the crops to have suffered more. Of the harvest prospects in America nothing is yet known. With free importation of corn, however, frómall
parts of the world, there can be little fear of scarcity, though the grain-producers may suffer. But a bad harvest will materially add to the embarrassments of Lord Derby.; Protectionists are not the most reasoning of ntortals, and the pinching of their pockets will make the clamorous for the restoration of a corn-duty more reluctant than ever to acquiesce in unrestricted trade as a perma- nent necessity. On the other hand, Lord Derby cannot be un- aware, that if one year of famine sufficed to blow the ports open, a year which but for supplies from abroad might be one of famine • also, is not likely to have the effect of closing them.
