The Morning Herald gives the following account of the altered
state of things in Ireland. After speaking of the extensive failures in the corn and other trades and of the consequent tightness of money, the writer says- " The working classes are much better off than they have been at any corre- sponding period for some years. Food of all kinds has fallen to actually low rates; and no man, woman, or child, has now an excuse for begging. We need not here say who will have to pay for this improvement in the condition of the lower orders; but enough for the present to say, they never were, within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, so well fed, housed, and clad as at present. "The fact is that labour is scarce in all parts; and in some localities such is the want of hands that the oats and even wheat are shedding with every breath of air that passes ever the teeming fields. The average price of farm labour at present is as. fid. a day for able-bodied reapers, and women who are good binders obtain 2s. 6d. Boys from ten to fourteen years of age are paid in proportion. This scarcity of labour is easily accounted for,—first, from the deaths which oc- curred during the past winter among the migratory hordes that previously poured in at harvest from the counties of Mayo, Galway, Sligo, and Roscommon; secondly, the vast emigration to America and England of the same and rather higher classes of labourers; and thirdly, the vast increase of tillage in their own localities which offers employment at home. If the present bounteous weather continue another fortnight, the great bulk of the present glorious harvest will be pretty safe from the ordinary changes. As if Providence in his mercy intended to make up in some degree for the horrors of the past year, every article of food promises to be of far better quality, and the quantity much above the ordinary average of the best seasons on record. The potato blight is no longer whispered anywhere. Al the brown spots which caused so much alarm a month or two ago have either dos appeared in the ground, or, better still, under the palates of their admirers."
Some leading Irish papers confirm this view. The Limerick Chronicle states that cargoes of Indian corn have been offered for the freight; and with no astonishment, when new wheat is offered at 13d. per stone and no purchasers. According to the Kerry Examiner, potatoes are selling at 5d. per stone. The Cork Examiner states that those connected with the Irish provision trade have had their spirits much roused by the announce- ment of a contract for the Navy for 5,000 tierces of beef and 11,000 tierces of pork.
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