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wrote Faraday, "that the various forms under which the forces of matter are made manifest have one common origin, or, in other words, are SO directly related and mutually dependent, that they are convertible, as it were, into one another, and possess equivalents of power in their action. I recently resumed the inquiry by experiment in a most strict and searching manner, and have at last succeeded in magnetising and electrifying a ray of light and in illuminating a magnetic line of force."* The phrase is not a felicitous one to express the idea of the transformation and transmutation of the forces, but it is worth citing as the original expression used. The paper from which it is taken simply proved that a ray of polarised light sent through certain transparent substances in the line of action connecting the two poles of a magnet, became visible or invisible just as the current was flowing or was stopped. In another paper "On New Magnetic Actions," Faraday proved that a non-magnetic body suspended freely in the line of a magnetic current is repelled by either pole, and takes up a position at right angles to the line, and, therefore, at right angles to the line a magnetic body would assume in similar circumstances.

But perhaps one of the most interesting events, to Frince Albert at least, was the laying of the first submarine telegraph cable at Portsmouth on the 13th of December, 1846. In the year 1843 telegraphic communication from the Nine Elms terminus at Portsmouth to Gosport had been established. Then the wires were continued to the Clarence Victualling Yard. The harbour, however, still intervened between the end of the wire and the Port Admiral's house, and it was supposed to be impossible to connect the two points electrically under water. The first plan suggested was to lay the wires in metal cases, to be fixed in position by divers with diving-bells. But it was finally agreed to lay the wires in a stout cable, and this was done without the use of a return wire. The first message sent over it thus demonstrated that water would act as a ready conductor in completing the electrical circuit, and almost immediately projectors were developing a plan for laying a submarine cable to France. This and the discovery of the use of ether as an anesthetic in surgery- the first painless operation. being performed on a patient under its influence by Mr. Liston in University College Hospital-were the chief practical achievements in science during a year which closed with anxious forebodings from Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland, where the scourge of famine was again smiting the people.

Experimental Researches in Electricity, by Michael Faraday, Esq., D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. From the Philosophical Transactions, Part I. for 1846.

The Irish Crisis-Famine and Free Trade-Evictions and Imports-Fiscal Policy and Small Holdings-Shocking Scenes among the Irish People-The Mistake of the Government-Lord John Russell's Relief Measure Rejected by his Colleagues-An Autumnal Cabinet Meeting-Opening of Parliament-The Queen and the Distress-The Remedial Measures of the Government-Rival Schemes of the Protectionists-Lord George Bentinck's Railway Subsidies Bill-A Rival Ministerial Scheme-The Attack on the Bank Act of 1844-The Currency Controversy-Peel on a Convertible Currency-The Effect of the Railway Mania-Blaming the Bank-The Education Question-Opposition of Dissenters-Colonisation and Emigration-Lord Lincoln's Motion-Is Emigration a Remedy for a Redundant Population?-The Cabinet and the Ten Hours Bill-Mr. Fielden's Victory-Opposition of Manufacturers-Evading the Act-The Budget-The Queen and the Duchy of Lancaster-Lord Campbell and the Queen-A Famous Duchy Dinner-Privy Councillors at "High Jinks"Death of Lord Bessborough-Lord Clarendon appointed Irish Viceroy-Death of O'Connell-Growing Weak ness of the Cabinet-Prorogation of Parliament-Dissolution-The General Election-The State of Parties -Appalling Outrages in Ireland -Another Commercial Panic-Suspension of the Bank Act-The Queen and Sir Robert Peel-Parliament Summoned-A Coercion Bill for Ireland-Ireland and the Vatican-Lord Palmerston's Correspondence with Lord Minto-Denunciations of the Queen's Colleges-Projected Renewal of Diplomatic Relations with Rome-Lord Palmerston's Objections-The Jews in Parliament-New Bishops -The Hampden Controversy-Baffled Heresy-hunters.

DISTRESS is the word that sums up the life of the nation during 1847. If there be any inadequacy in the summary, it may be made good by the addition to it of-sectarian bigotry. Famine in Ireland, two commercial panics in England, religious controversies of the narrowest and most paltry character, and over all, the wind of Socialism moaning bodefully-there, in a sentence, we have a picture of this melancholy year. It will spot black in English history as the year of the Great Irish Famine. Whether Free Trade did or did not aggravate the distress in Ireland will always be a moot point with

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writers and historians who are partisans. The Protectionists warned Parliament that Free Trade would bring hard times to the rural poor in Ireland, and in 1847 they began to take credit for being good prophets, for it was

not only famine that had to be dealt with in that country; it was famine plus pauperism and pestilence.

Looking back at the condition of affairs that obtained in Ireland in 1847, one is surprised that statesmen did not foresee what was coming. Irish industries, with the exception of the manufacture of linen, had been crushed by the commercial policy of England. It was not till 1825, a

quarter of a century after the Union, that a true commercial union between Ireland and Great Britain was effected, and absolute Free Trade was established

between the two countries. By that time English industries had got a great start, and when Free Trade was conceded to Ireland, she was no longer fit to compete with England, even in the industries that were indigenous to her soil. But as her wealth was chiefly agricultural, in husbandry, at all events, she might have been expected to hold her own. The high prices that followed the wars with France made Irish farmers, large and small, both rich and prosperous. But in 1815 the piping times of peace brought ruin to many of them. The fall in prices tempted the tenants to demand more land, so that, by carrying on tillage on a larger scale, they might be able to hold the market. This logically led to consolidation of holdings, which, in turn, led to evictions, agrarian outrage, and crime.

In one respect, however, the position of Ireland was safeguarded. The Corn Laws, which imposed a prohibitory duty on foreign grain, allowed Irish corn to enter the English market freely. Corn was therefore largely grown in Ireland under Protection. But when Protection was abandoned, Irish farmers lost the only prop they had-the tariff which left them profits in excess of rent. The effect of Free Trade in Ireland was naturally to reduce prices. It therefore did not pay after 1846 to grow corn in Ireland, and the alternative crop was cattle. But the rearing of cattle is best managed on a large scale and on large farms. Hence a movement in Ireland was set on foot for further consolidation of holdings-a movement, in other words, for a fresh policy of eviction that brought outrage in its train. Mr. Jephson has shown that "the adoption by Great Britain of free importation of food supplies from any part of the world must have revolutionised Irish agriculture and vitally affected the circumstances of the Irish, and it is not on the political connection between the two countries (which the Nationalists are now trying to break), but it is on the economic dependence of Ireland on England (which is unbreakable) that must be thrown the responsibility." A very curious and instructive table of figures might be drawn up to prove this point:

Thus it is seen that since Free Trade was adopted, small holdings in Ireland have been diminishing, whereas large holdings have been increasing ;> and that would be in favour of Lord George Bentinck's contention, which in

*Times, 13th January, 1886.

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1847 gave the utmost annoyance to Mr. Cobden and his friends, that Free Trade caused the Irish Famine. Perhaps the true view is, that in manufacturing districts, where the mass of the people did not live by selling produce from the soil, the fall in the price of grain which followed Free Trade was a boon. To a country like Ireland, on the other hand, where the mass of the people lived on the profits of tillage on a small scale, Free Trade came as a disaster. Coupled with the failure of the potato crop, it meant famine in 1847.

Literally, the great mass of the Irish people were by this time starving. Their savings were gone, and as for economising, it was hopeless. A nation that lives on potatoes alone-the cheapest and worst form of human food the earth can yield-has already lowered its standard of comfort to zero. Beggary is the only alternative to a potato diet: for potato-feeders, as Mr. J. S. Mill has observed, "retrenchment is impossible." Public works were therefore started for the relief of the people, and to these tottering skeletons dragged themselves in despair, often to die almost as soon as they began their task. A few ounces of oatmeal were reckoned a day's ration for a family, and those who survived cold and hunger were swept away by typhus. The scenes in the overcrowded workhouses recalled the horrors that are immortalised in Defoe's "History of the Plague." In the towns the sufferings of the people were not less keen and cruel. "Daily in the street," writes Mr. A. M. Sullivan in "New Ireland," "and on the footway, some poor creature lay down as if to sleep, and presently was still and stark. In one district it was a common occurrence to find, on opening the front door in the early morning, leaning against it the corpse of some victim who in the night had rested' in its shelter. We raised a public subscription and employed two men with horse and cart to go round each day to gather up the dead. One by one they were taken to Ardrahahair Abbey, and dropped through the hinged bottom of a trap coffin' into a common grave below. In the rural districts even this rude sepulchre was impossible. In the fields and by the ditches the victims lay as they fell, till some charitable hand was found to cover them with the adjacent soil." And yet during this time, as Lord George Bentinck said, the food exports of Ireland were greater than those of any other country in the world, not merely relatively but absolutely in proportion to people or area. As Mr. Henry George observes,* "grain and meal and butter were carted for exportation along roads lined with the starving, and past trenches into which the dead were piled."

During the preceding autumn the Government had quite under-estimated the gravity of the situation in Ireland. They had given a pledge that they would not disturb the food market, and they relied on the ordinary capital of the nation to obtain supplies for a starving country, in the greater part of which there was by this time neither capital nor commerce. They imagined * Progress and Poverty, Chap. II.