ight to
6s. a quarter, wheat cannot _now_ be landed here in bond under 66s.
The suspension of the corn-law would tend to confirm the panic abroad,
and would therefore increase the difficulties of our corn-merchants,
in making purchases of wheat for this market. It seems to us very
strange that sensible men of business should be so credulous as to
believe every idle rumour that is broached in the newspapers, so
evidently for party purposes; for the current report of the immediate
suspension of the corn-law originated in the papers avowedly inimical
to the Ministry. The character of the League is well known. That body
has never permitted truth to be an obstacle in the way of its
attempts.

So much for corn and the corn-laws. But there is a more serious
question beyond this, and that is the state of the potatoes. If we are
to believe the journals, more especially those which are attached to
the cause of the League, the affection has spread, and is spreading to
a most disastrous extent. Supposing these accounts to be true, we say,
advisedly, that it will be impossible to find a substitute for the
potato among the vegetable productions of the world; for neither wheat
nor maize can be used, like it, with the simplest culinary
preparation. There can be no doubt that in some places this affection
is very prevalent, and that a considerable part of the crop in certain
soils has been rendered unfit for ordinary domestic use. It is
understood that the Lord-Advocate of Scotland has issued a circular to
the parish clergymen throughout the kingdom, requesting answers to
certain queries on this important subject. The information thus
obtained will no doubt be classified, so that the government will
immediately arrive at a true estimate of the extent of damage
incurred.

In the mean time we have caused enquiry to be made for ourselves, and
the result, in so far as regards Scotland, is much more favourable
than we had expected, considering the extent of the first alarm. We
have seen accounts _from every quarter of the kingdom_, and the
following report may therefore be relied on as strictly consistent
with fact.

It appears, on investigation, that no traces whatever of the complaint
have yet been found in the northern half of Scotland. The crop in the
upper parts of Forfarshire and Perthshire is quite untainted, and so
across the island. When we consider what a vast stretch of country
extends to the north of Montrose, the point beyo