The Principality

FILVNCE General Cavaignac, and M. Bastide, the Minister for Fovci; Affairs, presented themselves on Friday to the Committee on Foreign Affairs. They 'were first requested to t xnlain the object of the mediation between Austria and Kill"- Charles Albert. General Cavaignac refused to enter :lt() any explanation. The will of the Assembly would over be the rule of his conduct. He would ever act for the interest of France and for her honour and dignity. He .irmly expected to be able to maintain peace in concert with Great Britain, and would not declare war except at the last extremity. Some members of the Committee having de- manded the documents, General Cavaignac refused. On Saturday, Marrast informed the Assembly that the documents relative to the inquiry into the events of June, .vere so voluminous that their publication could not take olace before Wednesday or Thursday. The discussion illight consequently be fixed for Monday week. M. Louis iilanc insisted on the publication of all the documents without exception. M. Ledru llollin made a similar request, aud called for those already printed. M. Marrast replied that they should be communicated to him and his two co- accused, MM. Louis Blanc and Caussidiere. The President read a letter from M. Afire, brother to the late Archbishop of Paris, who begged to be authorised to abstain from the de- bates on the inquiry from motives of nciute covenance. The eight military commissions, daily sitting and deciding on the fate of the 9^000 insurgents imprisoned in the gaols and forts in Paris, have already decided the fate of 2,718 of the accused. Of these, 1,398 have been set at liberty, 1,206 have been transported, and 116 of the most deeply impli- cated, have been ordered to be tried by courts-martial. It appears from the weekly account published by the Bank of France, that its stock of bullion has increased within the week by 7,000,000f. ( £ 280,000), whilst its notes in circula- tion have diminished to nearly an equal amount. The amount of the commercial bills under protest has decreased by about 1,000,000f. ( £ 40,000). And the balance to the credit of the Treasury has decreased by a sum of 3,000.0001' of £ 120,000. The effective force of the army was fixed, previous to the Revolution, at 342,767 men, which has been inereased, within the last three months, by 179,360 men, and conse- quently, at this moment, it amounts to 522,127 men.

ARREST OF MEAGHER, O'DONOGHUE, AND LEYNE. DUBLIN, SUNDAY. A letter from Thurles this morning announces the arrest the night before, between eleven and twelve o'clock, of Messrs. T. F. Meagher, P. O'Donoghue, and Maurice Con- nor Layne. The arrest was effected by Constable P. Mad- den, and the police patrol, on the road between Rathcom- mon and Holy Cross. The prisoners were conveyed to Dublin by special train from Thurlcs at half-past, six, and conducted under an escort of 20 of the Thurles police to the Royal barracks. Captain Mackenzie, having seen them safely deposited in the Royal barracks, immediately proceeded with dispatches from Gene- ral Macdonald to the Vice-Regal Lodge. By the few provincial journals which reached Dublin this morning all would appear to be perfectly tranquil in the south. There is a close chase after O'Gorman, but his cap- ture is not likely to be effected without giving the authori- ties some further trouble. It would appear by the latest accounts from Limerick and Clare that O'Gorman has not succeeded in effecting his escape.

ARRESTS IN DUNDALK. The Newry Examiner of Saturday gives the following accounts of arrests in Dundalk At about half-past ten o'clock on yesterday morning, Edward Hill, Esq., Sub-Inspector of the Constabulary. with about eight or ten police of this town, proceeded to the Dundalk Patriot office, in Clanbrassil-street, and imme- diately after arrested the registered proprietor, Mr. James Raleigh Baxter, on a charge of' high treason,' by virtue of a warrant from the Lord-Lieutenant which arrived that morn- ing, authorising Mr. Baxter's capture. Mr. Baxter hap- pened to be in the office at the time, and being informed of the object of the police, immediately surrendered himself to Mr. Hill, and was placed in the charge of one of the constables. The police then commenced searching for papers, and after occupying themselves in this manner for about an hour and a half, conducted Mr. Baxter to the county gaol, where lie now lies." "ARREST OF WELLINGTON SHEGOG, ESQ.—We have been informed on good authority that Wellington Shcgog, Esq., solicitor, of Ardee, was arrested yesterday morning at an early hour. Mr. Shegog, we believe, was a Conservative until within the last few months he was in the habit of receiv- ing the proclamations and addresses from the Repeal Asso- ciation in Dublin, and having them posted up in Ardee. We have not learned the charge on which he was arrested." THE STATE TRIALS.—The trial of Mr. Kevin O'Doherty, one of the proprietors and editors of the Tribune newspaper, was resumed at the Dublin Commission Court, Friday morn- ing at ten. The case has not excited the slightest interest; with the exception of the police, there were not at the sitting of the court two dozen persons present as mere spectators. The prisoner is quite a young man, and seemed altogether indifferent. The jury retired at twenty minutes to four o'clock, and at six o'clock returned into court, when the fore- man informed their lordships that there was not the slight- est probability of their agreeing to a verdict. They were then ordered to return. 0 On Saturday, the jurors who were locked up for the night, having come into court, the clerk of the Crown asked them if they had as yet found any verdict ? The foreman: We have not, my lord, and there is no pos- sibility of our agreeing. Baron Penny father: I will discharge the jury, and enter on the record that I did so after the case was on two days, and after they had been locked up for nearly twenty hours without any refreshment. The Attorney-General observed, that it should also appear that the health and lives of the jurors, or one of them, was in danger before they could be legally discharged under the decision he referred to. A juror: My lords, I am nearly sixty years of age, and feel extremely unwell, and hope your lordships will not de- tain me any longer. I feel that it would be extremely in- jurious, if not dangerous, to me. The Chief Baron: I have observed, sir, that you looked unwell. Baron Pennyfather: Now, Mr. Attorney, I can state on the record that I discharged the jury, one of the jurors alleg- ing that he was ill, and all difficulty will be then removed. The Attorney General having mentioned that he had no further objection to urge, the jurors were discharged. The prisoner was then removed from the dock. The Crown, in consequence of the result of this case-the first of the State prosecutions—have postponed trying any more of the pri- soners charged with publishing seditious libels under the 9 ,.I Felony Act until Monday, in order to enable the law officers to consult as to the best mode of proceeding. It was sup- posed Mr. Doherty would be arraigned before another jury, and tried upon additional evidence. If not, it is probable all the trials will be abandoned for the present, and be brought on at the Special Commission. Several persons having been arraigned upon indictments charging them with having had guns and other weapons in their possession, con- trary to the late statute; and, it having appeared that the parties were ignorant of the law, they were cautioned and discharged. Mix. JOlIN MITClIrT,IVe have seen a letter addressed to a gentleman at this place from a naval officer, who was at Bermuda at the time that Mr. Mitchel arrived there, in which the writer says,—" I have seen the newly-arrived heroic patriot lodged and ticketed No. 1,769." This shows that Mr. Mitchel has been treated like other convicts, having now his number in the gang.-Plymouth Journal.

POTATO DISEASE. The Council of the Royal Agricultural Society have re- ceived the following statement from Lord Portman, in refer- ence to the potato crop in Dorsetshire, viz. Bryanstone, July 31, 18-18. On the 1st of July my gardener observed the potatoes looking rather fading, and day by day observed the symptoms of disease increasing. I desired him to dig those which were the. most af- fected on the 19th and 20th. We found one-half were too bad for the pigs to eat, and the other half sound. The hot rain set in and stopped our work. The rain ceased on the 27th, and we re- sumed the digging on the 28th. We then found nine-tenths rotten, and so offensive to the smell that I directed them to be buried. The remaining one-tenth were sound, and I have placed them on dry soil in large shallow heaps, and I have carefully dusted them with quick-lime, and covered them slightly, hoping to preserve them for food. I have heretofore tried all the experiments sug- gested, and I have found all to be useless except the plan which I have now adopted, because it alone has heretofore invariably succeeded. The disease is very bad all around me. The cottagers who planted late in the spring have quite lost their seed and la- bour, for the haulm is dead, and the ti-ilbers not larger than marble but those planted in January, early in February, and in the au- tumn, aie the most valuable, because though now entirely checked, they have obtained an edible size, if they happen to be fit to eat, and may be stored with lime for future use. The crop is very large and fine, and would, but tor this visitation of Provi- dence, have given a great supply of tubers. Here we are filling the plots cleared of potatoes with turnips and cabbages. (Signed) PORTMAN." The disease has this week been fed by the close atmosphere, and frequent rains, and accompanied by electric influence from repeated thunder storms; the tops or haulms have died away rapidly, even where the bulbs have not half arrived at maturity yet- upon examining the roots the disease has not far extended. Some growers are still hoping that the crops will escape others entertain fearful forebodings. Some are, pulling up the tops and leaving the bulb in the ground, others are digging and selling at any price, while a third party leave them to take their chance. On making our weekly inquiry in the markets of the metropolis, in the Bo- rough we found the salesmen abundantly supplied with very fine potatoes from the counties of Kent, Surrey, Sussex, Essex, and Middlesex, which met a ready sale at about the prices of the Saturday previous. The growers up from the country admit that, although they found some diseased po- tatoes when digging, there were not so many as some repre- sented. Many fields arc entirely free, others about one sack in twenty sliglitly touched. The yield is immense, particu- larly of the second early. The late or general crops are still green, and hopes are entertained that such will escape.— Spitalfields Sales were brisk at the prices of last week.— Co-vent Garden: The salesmen had large consignments, not, only from the counties near London, but also from the nor- thern and eastern comities.—Farringdon and Portman Mar- j kets on Friday: Best Shaws and Regents sold at £4 a ton inferior at £ 3 ditto. (From the Mark Lane Express.) The weather has been of a very variable character since our last; more rain appears, however, to have fallen in the immediate vicinity of the metropolis than in the country and in some localities the carting of corn was not inter- rupted from Tuesday morning up to Friday night by a single shower, whilst in London we have not been 24 hours consecutively without rain. It is nevertheless certain that harvest operations have progressed but slowly, and that by far too much wet has fallen to allow us to calculate on any- thing like fine quality. The reports as to the yield of wheat to the acre are like- wise, we are sorry to say, becoming more unfavourable from day to day; this is particularly the case as regards Essex and Kent, and several of the western and south-western counties. In the east and north both quantity and quality are better spoken of; but, taking the kingdom collectively, the produce of wheat is not likely to exceed an average, even if the weather should become and remain favourable until the whole of the crops shall have been secured whilst each day's rain must now detract from the quality, if it does not lessen the quantity. The accounts which reach us in reference to the potato crop are exceedingly conflicting, but that those of an un- n 9 favourable nature predominate is certain; indeed some of our correspondents who have until lately maintained that the loss likely to result from the disease would prove comparatively trifling, now begin to express fears on the subject. As regards the probable range of prices of wheat, we are inclined to think there will be no great fluctuation during the remainder of the year, unless the weather should un- fortunately prove of a character to encourage speculation. The crop, we admit, is not likely to yield quite an average, but the stocks still held by farmers are not unimportant; at the same time we may calculate on considerable importa- tions, which circumstance, together with those above re- ferred to, and the decreased demand for bread (owing to the present abundance and cheapness of potatoes), will tend to check any advance if the weather be only moderately propitious forfillishing the harvest. The trade has through- out the week remained in a quiet state, and at most of the leading provincial markets prices have rather given way than advanced. As yet comparatively little new wheat has been brought forward, and those samples exhibited have not led to a very favourable opinion as to the quality. By our letters from Scotland it appears that the potato disease had begun to manifest itself in that country; and notwithstanding the somewhat dull tone of the advices from the south, wheat was held at rather enhanced rates on Wed- nesday both at Edinburgh and Glasgow. The advices from Ireland on the subject of potatoes are de- cidedly unfavourable, and the wheat crop is also stated to bo deficient in many parts of the island. Oats, on the other hand, are well spoken of. At Cork, Limerick, &c., potatoes have lately been selling at 6d. per 211b. in retail, in conse- quence of which Indian corn had been wholly neglected, and the value of that article, meal, &c., had suffered a ma- terial decline at the leading consuming towns. THE POTATO CROP IN IRELAND.—The night air was giving way before the early sun as my car drove out of Limerick, and for seven miles it was heavy with the foetid odour from the potato fields, which might be seen blacken- 0 ing round. I have visited the potato market this morning, and find the damage most extensive. Take up a potato; it Z) looks well at a casual glance, but a slight discolouration of the skin, in some part or other, of the greater number, shows the infection. The' servant of the commissary came back this morning, saying she could not buy a sound lot. Believe me, the crop is gone, and that another "forty-six" is upon us The early potato fields are unmistakeably gone or going. The late crop, when the plant reaches the same period of growth, will fall in like manner, for on every plant may be found the fatal spot, the young disease which shall subdue at length. Some intelligent men think that the wheat-crop is greatly deficient, not merely thin and the head small, but the ears unfilled. But still more extraor- dinary, I met a friend, an extensive grazier from Meath, coming into Limerick yesterday, who said the grass in lVleath is unusually bad for this period of the year; and on my mentioning this to a Clare dairy farmer, from the Shan- non border, he said that in their neighbourhood they had remarked that the grass did not yield the milk it ought this year, for instead of getting from sixty cows six firkins of butter per week, their usual yield, they could only get four firkins.— Chronicle correspondent.

THE CROPS IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRINCIPALITY. DEAR SIR,—During my stay in this neighbourhood, I have had an opportunity of making some inquiry into the nature and extent of the potato blight in this county, and I regret to state as the result of my inquiry, that the disease has not only appeared, but has made considerable progress in devastating entire fields. The disease continues to spread more rapidly than in any previous year; and farmers gene- rally are of opinion that its attack this year will ultimately be more serious than in 1845 and 1846. Field grown potatoes, especially when the soil is dry, and where there is a free cir- culation of air, appear to be less affected than those grown in cottage gardens, though I have seen whole fields of seve- ral acres each almost entirely decayed, the owners of which do not expect to realise a single peck of sound potatoes. Instances have come under my notice of farmers offering for sale whole fields of potatoes at one halfpenny per perch. The only alternative appears to be to dig immediately, select the soundest for present use, and boil the remainder that may not be entirely decomposed immediately for pigs. The wheat harvest in this neighbourhood has but just commenced, the crops arc good; and should we be favoured with suitable weather, will no doubt soon be gathered in, in good condition. In Somersetshire and Wiltshire the wheat harvest is more forward than in this county, and would have been much more so, but for the unfavourable weather. The potato disease too is bad in these counties, but not to the same extent as in Gloucestershire. ONE OF YOUR CORRESPONDENTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. SIR,—Considering it of great importance that the public attention should be directed to the actual condition of the potato crops, I take the liberty of' addressing this communi- cation to you in reference to these districts, including Car- narvonshire and Anglesey. I make my statement from actual observation, and from facts with which I am person- ally cognizant, so that you may rely upon the correctness of what is stated. Throughout these districts the potato crops are universally diseased. The rapidity with which the dis- ease has manifested itself generally throughout these counties within the last fortnight, is calculated to produce the most me- lancholy and distressing results. To judge from the appear- ance of the haulm, and the effluvia which is offensively ap- preciable on thp. adjoining roads, the disease is :this year more extensive and more virulent iluui it ovQr bocn since its first appearance in 1845. Indeed the appearance of the malady is so universal as to convince me that indepen- dently of any exciting atmospheric cause, there must exist some material elementary defect in the physical organism of the potato itself. As an instance of the rapid progress of the disease, I will mention a case which is within my own knowledge. On last Thursday week five American flour casks full of sound potatoes were taken up. At that time there were some diseased ones picked out. On Thursday last, from the same measure of land, in the same field, and of the same kind of potatoes, the quantity of sound potatoes was only three casks full, showing a loss, within one week, of forty per cent. If the crops be similarly affected through- out the kingdom as they are in tllQ districts with which I am acquainted, and unless something occurs to cheek the process of decomposition, the industrial and poorer classes will, between this and the harvest of next year, be exposed to severe trials. Ought not some official steps to be taken by those in authority with a view to obtain such inibrmatioa as would prove the*, actual state of this crop throughout every part ofthckingdom2 I am, Sir, your obedient servant, O. 0. ROBERTS. Castle Hill, Bangor. August 13, 1848. ■7'

THE ASPECT OF THE TIMES. ONE significant feature in the history of our day is the existence of so many societies. Every important object is now sought to be obtained by the united efforis of large numbers of individuals, who belong as members to one and the same society. This, by the bye, proves the truth of what I said in my last paper, viz., that knowledge and activity are now generally distributed. Of what use would a great assemblage of ignorant men be ?-were members of such a class, multiplied ad infinitum, the aggregate would not yield an atom more of sense the whole would only be a mass of rubbish-a large amount of ignorance. Hence there wera no associations, comparatively speaking, in the dark ages; the few wise ones were obliged by circumstances to be everything almost, and to become the dictators of the many. Learning has in all ages been confined to the priests and it was this that led to temporal power among the priesthood. Instead of teaching others, so as to qualify them to govern—- z;1 following the dictates of corrupt human nature—they re- served their ability for themselves. How entirely is the face of things changed in our day It is this happy meta- "I Z!1 morphosis that gives value to what is called public opinion p 11 and what is of paramount importance, it is lodged in the majority. The voice of the people will and must be obeyed. I do not hesitate to say, that the existence of the Irish clubs is an index of the mind of Ireland. In principle they are right, but wrong and insane in the mode of developing it.- Mr. Crawford's motion is founded on the present state of the sister island. It is monstrous that the premier should, in spite of the million voices that thunder over the land, dare to say that no reform is wanted, and that the people do not require it. Has he not read the accounts of the various meetings, and seen the mountains of petitions rolling into the senate-house ? It is self-evident that he is both deaf and blind; and were I an exorcist I would very soon eject the demon by whom he seems to be spell-bound. He has the audacity to say that that unparalleled monster-evil, the Irish Church, is necessary that all Churchmen in Ireland have a right to it. If they have a claim to worship after their own- fashion, the best way for them to show their sincerity would be to support it themselves. It is really beneath contempt to read the vapid twaddle of John Russell respecting the Church of England in Ireland. He says, If the clergy did their duty it would be a great benefit to the country." Who doubts it ? What consummate nonsense it is to talk about what they ought to do. Facts teach us to speak in the indicative, not in the sub- junctive. What have they done ? What are they doing ? Worse than nothing. At the time of the Reform one half of the population were Protestants, now there is only one- third of them such. The experiment has been tried long enough; the future will be just the same and if left alone, As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end 1" J.

MR. WILLIAM CHAMBERS AND MERTHYR TYDFIL. TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRINCIPALITY. Siyt,-For a considerable number of years, the principality has been untrodden ground, and a sealed book to the vast bulk of the inhabitants of the British empire. There was a vague notion, it is possible, amongst them, that it had high mountains, a tolerably fertile valley here and there, plenty of sheep, and some thousands of inhabitants, one degree re- moved from savages, going about barefooted, and talking an unpronounceable language. An artist now and then might be found (witness Glover with his beautiful painting of Pont- neddfyclian), who went about seeking its numerous pictu- resque beauties; an eccentric gentleman, like. Warner, of Bath, could be met with, who occasionally ventured on a pedestrian tour, and who sent forth his impression of the country through the columns of the Monthly or Gentleman's Magazine, attempting perchance a description of Caerphilly Castle or the Devil's Bridge; but with these few exceptions, Wales, I repeat, was much less known as to the manners and customs of its inhabitants than many of the distant provinces of Britain. This was not to last for ever. Government, with that pa- ternal care, upon which it so much prides itself, sent various clever men in the shape of Commissioners, to spy into our customs, but more especially to plumb the depths of our ig- noranee. These Reports, in the shape of Blue Books, came forth in due time, and now that Mr. Ling en and his brother Commissioners opened their floodgates of reckless assertion about Cymry, it appears to have become a fashion to have a tilt at our gross ignorance, our dirt, our expensive female dress, our filthy river, our tea-drinking women,, or our drunken Saturday and Sunday brawls. The last gentleman who has come to spy into the naked- ness of our land is no less than Mr. William Chambers, known to, the literary world as the editor of several useful and agreeable works. In his Edinburgh of July 8th, there is a paper headed" A Trip to the Wye and South Wales;" and from its having the initials" W. C." attachedr and also the fact of his having been at Merthyr,. I presume to be his. It is with his observations upon this place and its inhabitants that I have to remark at present. His opi- nions might pass for their value, which is not much I pre- Z, sume but as be hazards facts which are no facts at all, why then, Mr. Editor, you will, I trust, agree with me, there is a duty incvimbent upon the press of Wales to set him right. He begins his observations upon the place by remarking that it has no corporate magistracy to exercise the usual and necessary functions of local government." True it has no corporation in the usual sense of the word, but all the neces- sary functions of local government are exercised by a magis- trate, who has been here for more than fifteen years, an who is paid E600 a year for his services. Mr. Chambers goes on and says," till I visited Merthyr I had been in the belief that the Scotch were pre-eminent in dunghills, but now my opinion was shaken." I think, if report speaks truly, l that still the pre-eminence rests north of the Tweed; but I have been in many English towns quite as culpable in this respect as Merthyr; at the same time, freely admitting that in this respect, there is great room for improvement. He proceeds to remark upon the filthiness of the river Taf, and says that its dirtiness never leaves it for a course of twenty miles. This is a piece of Scotch imagination, as any one can sutisfy himself that the river, even within a few miles of the town, is clear enough for all ordinary purposes. After re- peating the hackneyed opinion about the, evil of the Welsh being still the prevalent tongue, and of their being conserved in their primitive prejudices and superstitions, he favours us with a piece of political economy, by stating his regret that the enormous sums paid and received in and about Merthyr should come to so little good. I do not see that the tradesmen and others benefitted by the expenditure of the workmen can fail to be benefitted here like in other towns. The next paragraph is worthy of being quoted entirely :—•" The houses of the workmen, which generally opcnto, the street, have a clean and neat appearance but they are said to be overcrowded and the family means ineco riomically expended. Much I was told is squandered on gay and expensive female dress for the sake of Sunday show, and the inordinate drinking of tea, purchased mostly on credit from hawkers, is described as a prevalent cause of impoverishment. In the gossiping tea meals the men do not 1)0 0 participate and when they return home, and find nothing to share with their family, they are the more ready to resort to the public-house." I now proceed to hazard a few facts in opposition to what he asserts about the reckless squandering of money. Where is the town from Edinburgh to this place where he can find in the houses of the workmen so much good, valuable, and substantial furniture ? I ask him to name the town which, contains so many benefit societies, both male and female, and where on their anniversaries he will find so many of them so well clad? Let him reckon the numberof places of worship built and supported by voluntary contributions, and show us even in religious Scotland any town with the same amount of population equal to it? Let him examine the criminal records of our country and show another town in the elHU;" of 40,000 people with aq liffl- -4- a-"y úrrne as J savely aver when these facts are known to be true, and, impossible to gainsay, that the family, means are not very me'conomicaily expended. Inordinafe drinking of te a is not so bad. as? inordinate drinking of whiskey or gin bi,t these<