The lowering sky and drenching showers, which convert August into
a melancholy cross between April and November, begin to occasion well-founded alarm. The anticipated fine fruit-season has been spoiled ; but people care little for that—bread is the thing at stake. As the season advances, the hopes of a favourable har- vest grow less and less. May was wet : well, "A hot May maketh a fat churchyard." June too was wet : the corn, however, was young, and had not yet come forth into danger. July was better at first, but again the latter half was wet : still, the critical time had not approached. The 1st of August was a little drier, and people began to hope that summer had come at last; when lo I the sky is more overcast than ever : it is summer only in the weight and sud- denness of the showers—April in changeableness—old Autumn in chilliness. In one district, wheat is reported "small and thin in the ear" ; in another, there is extensive mildew. They seem to make the least complaints in Scotland ; and in the Lothians the crop is said to be "abundant." Harvest began there about a fortnight ago : it has now partially begun in Essex and elsewhere ; but ever and anon we have these deluging rains. The average price of wheat for the six weeks ending July 14th was 49s.: that of the present week is 62s. lid. ; and the bakers of the metropolis are reported to have raised the price of bread a penny or more the loaf. Under one name or another, we have poverty-agitations in Wales and Ireland ; and in England and Scotland the miners are preparing to employ the leisure thrust upon them by slack and diminishing work in a strike for higher wages !
