Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-14 00:00:00

THE COTTON SUPPLY QUESTION.

All England is alarmed by the evident fact that the
supply of cotton by no means increases proportionately to
the demand. The statement is startling, and, being made
while England is yet flushed with the apparent victory of
Free Trade principles, cannot readily obtain credence.
" The supply must increase with.the demand," say all the
wiseacres ; " pay a higher price for it and more land will
be planted, better tools and machinery will be used, and
the supply will be enlarged." k constantly advancing
price has been paid, more- land has been cultivated, and
some improvements doubtless have occurred in the
method of cultivation. Yet it has been hard to get
enough cotton to keep the mills running, and some have
been obliged to work half-time, when they would
have gladly doubled their hands. The law of supply
and demand can't be fallacious ; this difficulty is
only temporary, it continues to be said, and yet each
year's experience shows the demand to be increasing far
more rapidly than the supply. It cannot be thought that
the area of soil lying in a suitable climate is too limited to
furnish a supply to meet the demand, when millions of
acres of the richest land in the world remain in the shade
of the primeval forest in the Southern States of Ameriea.
Where, then, is the difficulty ? Is there anything in the
climate or in the character of the labour required, to pre-
vent a rapid transfer of labourers from other, and over.
supplied fields to this ? The Germans in Texas have
proved that there is not. The difficulty lies almost en-
tirely in the effect of slavery, wherever it exists, to
greatly increase the cost of a labourer's comfort. The
same labour, applied with the same skill and the same
conveniences, may produce five hundred dollars a year in
cotton culture in Arkansas, and but half that when
applied to wheat culture in Illinois ; but two hundred and
fifty dollars will house, clothe, and feed a man better in
Illinois, educate his children, and give him altogether a
more satisfactory life, as a labouring man, than 500 dols. in
Arkansas. The German labourers in Texas, although
their prosperity is universal, do not increase in number
since their settlements originally made in the wilderness
have been overtaken by the planters with their slaves.
Sixty times as many white people move from the Slave
States into the free as from the free into the Slave States.
Such facts as these are now much discussed in England,
and the law they establish begins to be recognised as a
permanent one. The system of slavery insures, in effect,
a monopoly of cotton production on an extensive scale,
to the owners of slaves. It' cotton were fifty per cent.
more valuable than it is now, the production would be
accelerated very little more than proportionately to the
reproductive power of the negroes, so long as slave labour
has this virtual monopoly of its production. We cannot
expect, say the manufacturers, while that monopoly con-
tinues, to obtain a supply of the raw material which will
enable us to meet the increasing demand for the
manufactured article. The interests of commerce,
of England, and of the world, demand now, there-
fore, that that monopoly be in some way overcome.
The only plan yet suggested for this purpose
is that of establishing colonies of free labour in
soils suitable for cotton culture. Such soils, recent
experiments give reason to believe are to be found in
Northern Africa. The cotton lately arriving at Havre
from Algeria, has not only proved of admirable quality,
but is reported to have cleared a handsome profit to its
producers, beyond any government encouragement. The
Cotton Supply Association, of Manchester, and the Liver-
pool Cotton Brokers' Association have had their attention
drawn to this fact, and much confidence is felt that the
deficiency of supply arising from the limited labour which
can be devoted to the staple in America, will thus be met.
Upon this the London Morning Post remarks :—" Now if
some extensive new cotton growths be developed, even
although the first object shall have been to secure a merely
supplementary quantity of the article, there is no saying
whether this may not speedily supplant the American
produce, instead of only covering the deficit in the market.
If investments of this nature be once obtained, they will
be limited solely and wholly to the capabilities of the fresh
plantations brought thus into existence. It is quite
possible that these may land a bale of cotton on the
wharves of Liverpool as cheaply as the American
plantations are now able to land it. It is quite
possible that they may find means of doing this even snore
cheaply." The threat is an old one to be sure, and our
Southern friends have learned to laugh at it. Yet it
cannot fail to strike sensible men that with every penny's
rise in the price of cotton, the probability of its speedy
accomplishment increases. And the mere suggestion that
Europe mar soon obtain its supply of cotton elsewhere
than from the United States is unpleasant to us. The
income to the country, arising from our present export, is
now about one hundred and thirty million dollars per
annum. Is it not possible to increase the supply of labour
in the Slave States without resorting to the re-establish-
ment of the African Slave trade, as argued in South
Carolina ? The only practical plan for this purpose
which has been proposed is that of forming communities
or neighbourhoods of free working families, who, led by
an industrial purpose and a prospect of profit, will estab-
lish themselves together in such a way as to maintain
those social, industrial, and moral advantages which the
dispersing necessity of slave agriculture renders generally
impossible at the South.—New York Times.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE

By British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph.

T.A.TT MO.& Li ti
LATEST BETTING.
LIVERPOOL CUP.
10 to 3 agst Rogerthorpe (4 to 1 taken freely)
5 ... 1 .. Bashi Bazonk (taken and offered)
9 1 .. Newton-le-Willows (taken)
10 ... 1 . Grey Pyrrhus (taken)
100 8 Pantomime (taken and offered)
12 ... 1 Janet (taken)
14 .. 1 Gulliver (taken)
15 .. 1 .. Movie (taken)
Goonwoon CUP.
5 to 1 agst An on (taken)
9 .. 1 .. Florin (taken)
9 1 Gemma di Vergy
GOODWOOD STAKES.
10 to 1 agst Martinet (taken)
20 .. 1 ... Gunboat (taken freely)
20 ... 1 .. Vomerset
25 .. 1 .. Aleppo (taken)
sr. LEGER.
3 to 1 agst Ignoramus (taken)
5 .. 1 B ink Bonny (taken)
20 ... 1 .. Dramor (taken)
20 .. 1 .. Adamus (taken)
40 .. 1 .. Sir Cilin (taken)

LIVERPOOL-YESTERDAY.

PAID FORFEIT.—For B(ntinck Testimonial, Glfeculus
Esuriens ; for Licensed Victuallers' Handicap, Master
Bagot and Forbidden Fruit ; for Lancashire Oaks, Morra

THE ARTS AND SCIENCES.

MEETINGS FOR TfLE ENSUING WEEK.

Tuesday.—Zoological, 9 p.m.
Wednesday.—United Service Institution, 8 p.m.—
(The Rev. F. R. A. Glover, Euclid rendered Practically
Available to the Exigencies of Military Service in the
Uses of the Instrument called the Polymeter.)
Friday.—United Service Institution, 3 p.m.—(Lieute-
nant D. C. Walker, R.E., on Military Tactics.)
A general meeting of the Society of Arts will be held
on the evening of the 22nd, for the discussion of the
Decimal question ; T. Weguclin, Esq., M.P., in the

chair.
The members of the Society of Arts pay their visit to
the Art Treasures Exhibition, at Manchester, on the 3rd
of next month. Members will have the privilege of in-
troducing two friends, either ladies or gentlemen, to join
the party, to whom cards will be is.aed on the application
of a member.

Mr. Gould, who left Landon on the 4th of May, for the
purpose of observing the habhs of the North American
humming birds in the United Sates, returned to Liver-
pool on Monday week, bringing with him two living
specimens of this beautiful bird (Trochilus colubris).
They were c)ptured in the State of New York, about four
weeks since, and up to the time of their arrivai in London
had been successfully managed by Mr. Gould, who kept
them continually near him, and accustomed them to teed
from his hand. The birds, however, unfortunately, float
the change of climate, or from some other cause which ,is
not apparen', only survived their arrival in London for a
fev., hours.
Yvon's large picture of the " Taking of the Malakoff,
September 8, 185.5," has jest been hung in the Exhibition
of the Works of Living Artists, at the Palais de l'indus-
trie, Paris. The moment chosen is when the Zouavaa have
just entered the tamed Malakoff, and the spectator is sup-
posed to he standing in the interior of the defensive works.
Colonel Collineau, wounded in the head, is leading on his
company, savagely employed in driving the Rus-ians from
their guns, which suggests a variety of picturesque and in.
teresticg groups ; in tact, the composiiien is crowded with
exciting incideats. Above the bustle of fierce contention
rises the highest ground of the Malakoff—and there calmly
and firmly stands young Libaut, the Gonave, whose fortune
it was to plant the first victorious eagle on the enemy's
ground. The distant making up of the picture is formed
of the wild landscape scenery of the Crimea, with troops
who are advancing in storming parties to support their
comrades already in action. Galignani says :—" The
power of M. Yvon, as a draughtsman, is triumphantly
evident in many passages of this picture, and nothing can
be truer than the action—the life of the figures. The type
of the French and Russian soldier is also admirably given ;
in fact, there is a portrait truthfulness about the whole
picture which entitles it to be called painted history. The
colouring is admirable. The picture is full of atmosphere,
and yet everything looks distinct. Tae flesh of firearms,
the glare of exploding shells, the dust of the earth, and
I the smoke from powder are all given with wonderful,
truth,"

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN
IRELAND.—This court commenced its annual sittings on
Monday evening, in May-street Presbyterian Church.
"1 here was a very large attendance of ministers and elders,
and the public generally. The meeting was for the pur-
-IMe of electing a moderator for the ensuing year. There
were two candidates—Dr. Gaudy and Mr. Johnston—t.io
I former being chosen by a large majority.