BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXIV. APRIL, 1850. VOL. LXVII. CONTENTS. THE MINISTERIAL MEASURES, 377 BRITAIN'S PROSPERITY. A NEW SONG, 389 MY PENINSULAR MEDAL. BY AN OLD PENINSULAR. PART V., 393 THE DWARF AND THE OAK TREE. A VISION OF 1850, 411 FESTUS, 415 CASH AND PEDIGREE, 431 CAIRD'S HIGH FARMING HARROWED, 447 THE CLEARING OF THE GLENS, 475 DIES BOREALES. NO. VI. CHRISTOPHER UNDER CANVASS, 481 EDINBURGH: WILLIAM BLACKWOOD & SONS, 45, GEORGE STREET; AND 37, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. _To whom all communications (post paid) must be addressed._ SOLD BY ALL THE BOOKSELLERS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH. BLACKWOOD'S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. NO. CCCCXIV. APRIL, 1850. VOL. LXVII. THE MINISTERIAL MEASURES. At length signal-guns of distress have been fired from the Liberal fleet. Albeit stoutly denying the existence of any extraordinary suffering in Ireland, Ministers have brought forward a measure, based upon the admission of a distress there much exceeding anything which their opponents have alleged. Concealing or evading the loud cries of Colonial discontent, they have announced a policy implying a total revolution in Colonial government, and which never could have been conceded but from the consciousness of a vast amount of former maladministration. The Irish Reform Bill and the New System of Colonial Government are, _par excellence_, the measures of the session. We are not surprised they are so. They are the natural complement and unavoidable consequence of three preceding years of Free Trade and a fettered Currency.