The Express.
London, England, 1848-09-18 00:00:00

lisi.)lo64l#B. A wet dee
son. an Wily fres& fk4 god hued or
=iaskay see nit & the soden amp of
and lifted say ether swore of supply
spa bear fir, under =eh avisitation, the
am=Laneasehe mast stand dill, and ruin to the
sad recl be the inevitable meant 01110 L
To adetensh a e ltytwo ;elects are at present be-
ide thepablie: seethe construction of railways in India,
theilliate the mom of teansit between Bombay and
tie interior .1 than Ober the establishment of a
Vied of we s mle New South Wales, and Port
in Maks, In order to supply labour
Id the entddlien sigma* in those colonies.
A elemodeedia 'aliened a short time since to Mr.
DAM% &ikon elf the Manchester Chamber of
COMIIMMV. CHAPMAN, manager of the India
Railway y, entitled " Cotton Facts," supplies
data tem that gentleman reasons very strongly
in flavor et tbe projected India Railway. He quotes
kat meets of the Board of Trade and other
papers to show the importance of
tribilistarY
erncoara,genient of cotton cultivation in British
India, which he contends could be msde to afford
a supply equal to that now received from Ame-
rica, and which, with the aid of railway conveyance
from the interior to Bombay, could be laid down in
Liverpool at gd. per lb. The saving in cost, condi-
tion, and promptitude from such mode of transit being
quite equal, according to Mr. CHAPMAN, to the freight
on the raw material from Bombay to Liverpool, while
the effect on the supply of cotton compared with its
present state " would bo not unlike placing Bombay
at the distance of Dublin." After noticing the almost
insuperable difficulties in the present mode of convey-
ance from the interior, and referring to the less fa-
vourable districts where cotton is partially cultivated,

he says :
Thera remains the central portion of India, comprising
the Deccan, the South Marotta meetly, the dominions or
the Mum of Hyderabad, and Wee of the Rajah of Nag-
pure. Draw a quadrangle, whose angles are in the follow-
ing latitudes and longitudes:
N.W.
771 &W.
S.E.
This figure includes a country which has always supplied
largely cotton to the rest af India, of which every quarter
has Woo shown capable of supplying cotton fit for
linglish am, and from which we have received,
or are now receiving it, although in emparatively
small and insufficient quantities. The extent and ca-
pabilities of the country so defined are such that to
supply 60 per cent. of our manufnctures would re-
quire but that one field in eighteen should be cultivated with
cotton for exportation to Rowland ; a supply sufficient to re-
lieve our dependeuce on America would require but one
field in thirty six. This country supplies 31 per cent. of our
consumption, and might easily supply 30. The sole reason
why it does not Is the want of suitable means of carriage;
for, oppressive as the land tan is in the Nixam's dominions,
yet, even with that land tax, it grows excellent cotton at 11d.
and often at Huh per lb.
In 1845 the "Great lodine Peninsular Hallway
Company" was formed and provisionally registered,
since which period negotiations have been going on
between the company and the court of East India
directors, without any successful issue to the present
time. Without facilities of transit from tho into rior
of India to the shore, the produce of her cotton-fields
must be alike valuate. to the native producers and to
the English manufacturers. What effete the mann-
facturere of Lancashire affects the interests of Eng-
land; and as the oourt of India directors come before
parliament in 1851 for a renewal of the campany's
charter, it would be well for them to consider whe-
ther throwing obstacles in the way of improvements,
called for alike by the interests of India and
England, is their best course for securing
their desired object. A more powerful mono•
poly than even that of the East India Company
fell before an agitation commencing with the Man-
chester manufacturers. There is a moral in the storv.
Memorials from mill-owners in Lancashire, Brad-
ford, and Glasgow wore, daring the recent session of
parliament, presented to the Board of Trade, recom-
mending the encouragement of emigration to New
South Wales and Port NataL The first-named colony,
according to the Rev. be. LANG, is cat able of pro-
decing good cotton between the latitudes of 29 de-
grees and 10 degrees south ; while Port Natal, accord-
ing to Mr. BLiiit, who has just returned after a four
years' residence in the colony, hi admirably fitted by
soil and climate for the cultivation of cotton, a sample
of which the memorialists state they had received,
that in their opinion, in point of quality, " left no-
thing to be desired."
As in the use of India, so in the case of Natal and
Australia, we see iofiuenoes at work to accelerate the
solution of the question whether these provinces are
likely to be made available sources of cotton sup-
ply. The facts adverted to in the Express
of the 14th instant, in the article on the
alarming preponderance of the " dangerous classes"
in Irish society, pointing to the necessity of oar ex-
pensive Irish emigration, may accelerate the trans-
mission of a large population to Natal and Australia.
If the climates and soils of these provinces be as
favourable to the growth of cotton as is alleged, and
if arrangements are possible by which free labour can
be made to produce cotton as economically as slave
labour, there can be no doubt that both, and especially
Natal, may soon become an extensive cotton export-
ing country.
Bat once for all we must enter our protest against
any attempt to promote cotton cultivation either in
India or in the colonies by government grants, or by re-
currence to a system of protection. If, left to the
operation of the natural laws of trade, and freed from
obstructions interposed by narrow-minded govern-
ments, the production of cotton can flourish in the
countries we have named, it will undoubtedly be at
great gain to our manufacturers—an ad:talons' se-
curity against short-oomings in cotton crops, from the
influence of adverse seasons or other causes. But a
hot-house cotton production, stimulated by artificial
regulations, manured by cart.loads of the public
money, would be a loss instead of a gain—a straw or
ruin to lean upon, not a trustworthy prop.
t,