e all the cotton bales of
Manchester in comparison with such considerations as these? O
Devil's-dust--Devil's-dust! Have we really declined so far, that _you_
are to be the Sinon to bring us to this sorry pass? Is the poisoned
breath of the casuist to destroy the prosperity of those--

"Quos neque Tydides, nec Larissaeus Achilles,
Non anni domuere decem, non mille carinae!"

It may be so--for a small shard-beetle can upset a massive
candle-stick; and it will be so assuredly, if the protective principle
is abandoned. The first duty of a nation is to rear food for its
inhabitants from the bosom of its own soil, and woe must follow if it
relies for daily sustenance upon another. We can now form a fair
estimate of the probable continuance of the supply, from the premature
exultation exhibited in the foreign journals, and we shall be worse
than fools if we do not avail ourselves of the lesson.

[Footnote 39: "Not that I think there was more rain in the _earlier
part of summer_ than the potato crop could absorb, for it is known to
require a large supply of moisture in its growing state, in order to
acquire a full development of all its parts. It was observable,
however, that the rain increased as the season advanced, and after the
potato plant had reached its full development. It is, therefore,
probable that the increased moisture, which was not then wanted by the
plant, would become excessive; and this moisture, along with the low
temperature, may have produced such chemical change in the sap as to
facilitate the putrefaction of the entire plant. As to the theories
with respect to the presence of a fungus, or of insects, in the plant,
I consider these as a mere exponent of the tendency to a state of
putrefaction; such being the usual accompaniments of all vegetable and
animal decay."]

[Footnote 40: "I remember the wet seasons of 1816 and 1817. There was
then no rot in the potato; but, during the whole of those rainy
seasons, we had not the _continued cold_ weather which we have this
year experienced."]

INDEX TO VOL. LVIII.

Account of a Visit to the Volcano of Kirauea, in the Island of
Owhyhee, 591.

Agriculture round Lucca, 619.

Alas, for her! from the Russian of Pushkin, 141.

Alpine scenery, sketches of, 704.

American war, causes which fostered the, 721.

Andes, description of the, 555.

Andre Chenier, from the Russian of Pushkin, 154.

Anti-corn-law League, strictu