NEWS OF THE WEEK.
A WEEK has not made much difference in the state of Ireland. Employment is more general; but there is a spirit of extortion abroad, and men who were barely making sixpence a day are now indignant at the offer of tenpence. It seems to be thought that as Government has intervened at all, the people 'ought at once to be better off than if there were no scarcity. And some of the more educated classes do not scruple to foster that unreason- able feeling. Nevertheless, a wiser spirit is also astir. Although Mr. O'Connell has as yet but one avowed adherent to his renewed project of a committee of country gentlemen in Dublin, practical measures are not neglected. It will be seen, from several official documents which we cite among our Irish news, that the Govern- 'dent is displaying a degree of activity as unusual as it is lauda- ble: every question of difficultyseems to be fairly entertained and explicitly answered, with temper, firmness, and discretion. The official intervention in the supply of food is put upon an in- telligible basis, as judicious perhaps as the circumstances would admit, though not quite unobjectionable. Government reserve their own supplies for the dreaded time of prohibitory prices. Meanwhile, the reasons why any premature effort to make corn "cheap" would defeat its object are temperately explained ; and the gentry are called upon to aid Government in dissuading the people from violence. In England the discussion on Irish affairs is. pursued with a sincere regard to practical objects. The Morning Chronicle is ably enforcing the fact that through the cultivation of waste lands landlords might escape from their difficulties, and avoid the dis- astrous solution of such questions as "fixity of tenure" or "con- fiscation." The Chronicle is well echoed in Dublin by the Free- man's Journal ; which shows the landlords—and the Ministers— how imperative is effectual action, how disastrous would be inac- tion. Whatever the measures adopted, it is encouraging to see this growing sense of the necessity for action, this temperate and comprehensive view of the subject.
