214 LIFE OF BENJAMIN SILLIMAN. 



y 



met with there You will have seen by the papers 



that even new potatoes, sprung from apparently healthy 

 tubers of last autumn's sprouts, evince the deadly malady, 

 the cause of the disease is as inexplicable as that of the 

 cholera, and apparently as irremediable. Hitherto the 

 London markets (that is, the best) have had good potatoes ; 

 but of late, our potatoes, purchased of the first-rate dealers, 

 have proved so bad when brought to table, that for the 

 first time in my life I dine without potatoes. In Ireland 

 the evil will ultimately be a great benefit ; more whole- 

 some and less precarious vegetables will supersede the 

 solanum, which Cobbett, with a shrewdness and sagac- 

 ity he so often evinced, declared would prove a national 

 curse, from the habits of idleness it permitted. In the 

 midst of all the suffering of the poor, the discontent of 

 the lower middle classes, the slaughter of our armies in 

 India, and the dreadful pressure of the taxes, and the in- 

 quisitorial mode of their collection, the wealth and luxury 

 and gorgeous pomp of this mighty Babel are as great as 

 ever. As I came through Piccadilly this afternoon in my 

 humble carriage, scores of the most superb equipages, laden 

 with bevies of servants in the most splendid liveries, rolled 

 by me on their way to the Queen's drawing-rooms, held to- 

 day at St. James's Palace ; and yet the Mall and the Park 

 were thronged as much as ever with carriages and eques- 

 trians ! The extremes do indeed meet ! Abject penury 

 and excessive riches ! And now, while I am writing, every 

 place of amusement is crowded to excess ; and such amuse- 

 ments ! I quite long for the " peaceful hermitage." I 

 long to see Mr. Dana's work on corals, few subjects in- 

 terest me more. 



TO DR. MANTELL. 



BOSTON, May 1, 1846. 



I AM very much obliged to you for the very 



lucid sketch of Faraday's lecture, which is very interesting 

 and very surprising. Some of the results are indeed such 



