Residents in Southern England, including the millions of London, are
for once seriously preoccupied with the weather. The rain seems as if it would never leave off, and the total downfall in less than ten months has exceeded that of any year except 1852, when two inches more fell. Even that wet year will almost certainly be caught up before January, and probably far exceeded. The injury done to crops is great, and the discomfort inflicted on human beings much greater ; and there is a disposition visible, resulting from depression, to believe that we have entered on a rainy cycle which may last seven or ten years. The downfall has hardly been general enough to justify such predictions ; and while we all know too much about weather, the most expert meteorologists confess they know little about its causes. One thing is certain : we shall hear little for some years about the shrinkage of sub- terranean springs, and the consequent fear that the kingdom might be gravely imperilled by a general drought.
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