The Royal Agricultural Society's Shows in Ireland are always cheered
by sunny Viceregal optimism. We do not remember a single Lord-Lieutenant who had the courage to discourse gloomily on these occasions. But now there is really very little excuse for gloom, and even the Home-rulers do not pretend to be unhappy. The Duke of Abercorn was well Qatisfied this week with every- thing around him in Derry, where the flavour of Orangeism in his Conservatism was agreeable to the natives. He went through the usual catalogue of signs of advancing prosperity, dwelling especi- ally on the fact that the grumbling of the farmers at the increasing cost of labour showed that the working-classes were improving their position. He congratulated the country on the diminution of agrarian crime, and the general orderliness of the people, as proved by the peaceable way in -which the O'Connell celebration went off. Almost the only disparaging criticism the Duke had to offer was that he saw too many weeds. Ireland cannot be in a very bad way, if the worst that can be said of her is that her fields are not very neab to the critical eye of a duke with agricultural instincts.
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