The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-01 00:00:00

With an immense and very superior STOCK of
CABINET FURNITURE. UPHOLSTERY,
FEATHER AND FLOCK- REIS, ATA TTRESSES.
LOOKING GLASSES, DOOR MATS, &c.

q i.~r:

Parties furnishing. are reareetpally7,4nvited •to visit these very
extensive and magnifi ent"Show Itonms, four of them rut touring
58 feet in length by XS 'feet wide, arranged ►with Goods of val loos
qualities end 'designs, highly suitable „for the Country Ccttage or
11lansi••n.
COUNTRY ORDERS pronript:y a,tEATled"to, and Packed Free
of Charge.

N.B.—smrs CABINS FITTED,UP.
FRANCIS STYA N, PILOPBIETOR.
WODliqllOl.S.:
CHESTER STREET AND BRANDON STREET.

•

BOYS' CLOTHING MADE WITH GREAT TASTE,
At LEWIS & COMPANY'S Ranelagh street.

£35 REWARD.

LOST, on. TUESDAY EVENING, the 3rd March,
at the Fancy Dress Bill, held at St. Geores Hall,
I.iverpool. a DIA3fOND BROOCH, set', In Silver, with numerals
Lame Duneends, in the firm of a Flower. The &Awe
reward (being half value of the Brooch) will be paid cn the article
being left with Mr. Joginew MAC. jeweller. ac.. Lord-street,
Liverpool.

if* IQ ortijan

FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1857.

THE DAY'S NEWS.

Parliament met yesterday, and, as was antici-
pated, Mr. Dennison was unanimously elected
speaker. Lord Palmerston on entering the House
was loudly cheered. Of course, the only business
transacted was the election of the speaker. The
swearing in of the members will he proceeded with
to-day.
Another of the Royal family has paid the great
debt of nature. Yesterday morning. Her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Gloucester expired a few
minutes after five o'clock. She had completed her
81st year, after a long, quiet, and unostentatious
life, she is gathered in like a shock of ripe corn.
We present our readers with an important docu-
ment this morning, namely, the report of the
Water Committee upon the memorial presented to
the Town Council respecting the regulation of the
supply of the Rivington water to the inhabitants.
The document is exceedingly voluminous; but,
considering' the importance of the subject, we have
Tto doubt that all the statements which are put
forth will be attentively perused, and not a few
must feel disappointed at the line of argument
which the directors adopt to make up an excuse for
resisting the fair and reasonable request of the
rate payers, as embodied in the memorial to the
Town Council.

The usual weekly meeting of the Dock and
Health Committees were heia yesterday. The

. „
principal matter brou:*. !.. .re the former was
the state of the law leAards the duties and
r-sponsibilities of rnß.ter porters. frl,l urged that
ire c, usequene, of their being so ill i!efit.-A it
would be d:::sini.ble that they should be set forth in
some more practical manner than at present.
Several members of the committee made some
observations on the subject, but nothing definite
was agreed upon. At the Health Committee, Mr.
M•Crowan reported that he had not been able to
take any further steps with respect to the Necro-
polis affair. The health of the town was reported
to be goo 1, but at the same time the number of
deaths exceeded by 18 the corrected average for
the same week of the last nine years.
At the police court, yesterday, Mr. Mansfield
delivered judgment in the case preferred by the
churchwardens against Mr. Carne, late church-
warden, for parochial rate dues by him, and refused
to issue the warrant to levy the rate by distress.
The question will, no doubt, form the subject of
further litigation, Several interesting police cases
are reported at length in other columns.
The affairs of the British Bank are still under
going investigation. The examination of Mr.
Humphrey Brown is a revelation in itself; and
that honourable gentleman may rest assured that
by his evidence, if by no other act of his life, he
has reared for himself an enduring monument of
fame.

Yesterday, in the Court of Queen's Bench, a rule
was granted to show cause why a criminal infor-
mation should not issue against the publisher of a
libel on the Bank of London.

'e have one day's later news from the United
States this morning, but it does not contain any-
thing of the least importance in addition to our
former intelligence. The report that Lockridge's
troops in Nicaragua had been defeated is con-
firmed.

The Honourable Charles Murray arrived, with
his mission, at Bacigad, on the 25ih March, and he
will await in that town the ratification of the treaty
concluded between Feroukh Khan and Lord Cow-
ley. On receipt of favourable intelligence, he will
proceed at once to Teheran, and resume his func-
tions as Minister to the Persian Court.
Intelligence from Vienna leads to the belief that
the attempts made by the reactionary party to oust
Baron de Bach, Minister of the Interior, whose
liberal tendencies has excited its aversion, will
shatter against the influence commanded by that
Minister, and other practical members of the
Cabinet over the mind of the Emperor. The com-
munal law, drawn up with great care and patience
by Baron de Bach, has not been rejected by the
Supreme Council of the Empire, as at first
rumoured, and as was the intention of the
reactionary party at Court; on the contrary, the
Baron has so far triumphed as to witness the
adoption of the general principles which prevailed
in his law, and only certain modifications, of
secondary importance, will be introduced, by way
of a sop, to the powerful party which proposed the
rejection of the entire measure. The triumph of
the liberal element in the Austrian government is
mainly to be attributed to the existing relations
with the Court of St. Petersburg; also, it is
devoutly to be hoped in the interest of Austria
and of her inhabitants, that this state of matters
may continue, for hostility to Russia is synony-
mous in Germany to the encouragement of liberal
ideas.

The Canton incident will probably terminate in
a general crusade of Europe against the Chinese
race. Even Russia, who should have been con-
ciliated by that cruel and debased population in
its own interest, has been compelled to draw the
sword in the defence of her flag. On the 11th
March the Russian frigate Aurora arrived at Hong
Kong, from a cruise along the coast of Mant-
chourie ; a few days before, the frigate had de-
spatched some boats to take in water,
but no sooner were the crews landed, than an
attack was made upon them by the Chinese
population, and they escaped with much
difficulty ; several men were very severely wounded
and others grossly ill treated. The commander of
the frigate landed a detachment of marines and
sailors, who gave the inhabitants a lesson which
may prove wholesome in future. On another side,
the Russian Government has received a despatch
from the Governor General of Siberia, acquainting
it that the latter has despatched a body of troops
to the Chinese frontiers, in order to maintain tran-
quillity, and to be prepared for unexpected events.

The supply of Cotton, is just now, a subject
which engrosses much public attention. It is
one of scarcely less interest to the country, than
the supply of food was some two years ago.
When we reflect, that upwards of 700,000
persons are engaged in Cotton manufacture—
that, at least two millions of the population are
more or less dependent on this important branch
of national industry, and that two of the greatest
and most prosperous emporiums of trade and
commerce in the United Kingdom—Manchester
and Liverpool—not to speak of Preston, Bolton,
Blackburn, Wigan, &c., &c., would be plunged
into distress and difficulties by any sudden
derangement or collapse of the Cotton Trade,
some idea of the momentous importance of the
subject can be formed. A crab-fish-like move-
ment of the kind alluded to, would throw us
back on the road of commercial and industrial
progress, something like half a century, and the
blessings of free trade, abundance of food, and
its attendant plenty of employment, would
become but a tempting farce to tease a needy and
half starved population, seeing that millions
would be deprived of the means by which they
are enabled to procure and purchase the common
necessaries of life. The intimate relation be-
tween food and cotton, shows that the latter has
become one of the main elements by which the
people of this country may be said to live. It
enters into almost all our commercial transac-
tions. And both at home and abroad, it seeks
for a constant, steady, and increasing supply.
This is borne out by the facts eliminated in the
following figures :—According to the statistical
returns of the Cotton Trade since 1841, we find
that the supply of cotton has more than doubled
in sixteen years In 1841, the imports into the
United Kingdom, from all quarters, amounted to
487,992,355 lbs. Last year the figures were
102,386,528 lbs, Of this quantity, no less than
780,040,000 lbs were the production of the
United States. Comparing the last named
figures of the receipts of American Cotton in
1841, then 358,240,964 lbs., we have an increase
from that quarter, of 421,799,036 lbs. It will
be perceived from these statistics, that our main
source of supply of this valuable commodity is
from the United States, and that her contribu-
tion of the article approaches to four fifths of the
entire import of the United Kingdom. America
has also gone on in the increase of her cotton
culture. A large extension of suitable soil,
abundance of slave labour, and the general
energy and enterprise of the American popula-
tion, are among the chief agents which have
stimulated and secured this vast and rapid deve-
lopment, of cotton. Nevertheless, productive
though the cotton regions of America may be,
extensively as the plant has been cultivated, we
have at length arrived at a crisis which cannot
afford us the necessary supply, unless we pay

ar advanced price, cc: ~or g t 1;(: in-
creased production of the co:,_!',ry. i Li -:th of
this statement is verified by the fact, that some
ten or a dozen years ago, good American cotton
was purchasable at something like 41d. per lb.,
now it is Bd., nearly cent. per cent dearer.
Within the last year, the rise has been no less
than lid. per lb. But, although the price of
the raw material has advanced to such an
extent, we do not find that there has been
a correspondent advance in the value
of the manufactured article. Hence, we
may legitimately conclude that there has
been no small curtailment of the manufac-
turer's profits, as well as the wages of labour.
Arguing from these facts and figures, we arrive
at the inference that it is only at a monopoly
price that the United States are likely to supply
the wants of the United Kingdom, so that a
failure of the crop, an e»zeute among the slave
population, or social disorders of any kind in the
Southern States, would be attended with the
most disastrous consequences to the manufac-
turing interests of the British Empire.
Considerations such as these have aroused the
merchants of Manchester, as well as others in
various parts of the manufacturing districts, to a
full sense of the undesirable position which they
occupy, in being obliged to rely to such an
extent upon the cotton productions of America.
With a view to obviate in some degree a portion
of the perils attendant upon the existing state of
things, the people of Manchester have formed
themselves into a " Cotton Supply Association,"
the objects of which are fully indicated in the name
of the society. We approve of this movement
because it is imperatively necessary for the best
interests of the country, and that the necessity
is of such a character as renders it an exception
to the ordinary principles of political economy—
supply and demand. Private enterprise and

commercial competition in such a case canno'

meet our requirements, hence it is that this is a
case where the law of free trade, single handed,
cannot accomplish all that is requisite for the
benefit of mankind. It should also be borne in
mind that the countries in which cotton can be
produced are for the most part greatly back in
civilization ;—without roads,markets,or a popula-
tion accustomed to toil and drudgery. In such
a quarter, and with such a population, the condi-
tions under which self interest can operate have
to be established. This can only be effected by
an exercise of influence, and through means and
agencies out of the ordinary course. The Man-
chester people purpose to promote these im-
portant objects, not to enter on the possession of
vast tracts of land for the purpose of becoming
cotton planters. Their grand aim is to remove
obstacles out of the way, to introduce the best
methods of cotton cultivation, as well as to
devise means for promoting and increasing the
facilities of shipment to this country. Mr.
CHEETHAM, M.P., who presided at the meeting
held in Manchester last week, thus stated the
modus operandi of the society then formed—
" The steps of the Association will be to send
out an intelligent agent to give information, in
one case ; to send supplies of improved seed in
another, improved cleaning machines in a third,
and so on. By these means he believed that
great benefits would be secured,and that in a few
years we might hope to see the result in some-

thing like an adequate supply of reasonably good
and cheap cotton."
In an undertaking of this kind, the Cotton
Supply Association will have to consider where
and by what means the cultivation of cotton can
be introduced into other countries than the
United States. On this point they will have but
little difficulty. They need hardly travel out of
our own possessions. The East Indies only
require the removal of the difficulties of transit,
and these are fast disappearing with the exten-
sion of the railway system there, to produce us
immense quantities of cotton wool. The report
of the late lamented Mr. MACKAY, who went out
there at the instance of the Manchester Com-
mercial Association, has demonstrated the nature
and extent of the supplies which can be drawn
therefrom. The imports of cotton from the
British possessions in the East Indies last
year were 180,496,000 lbs., being not much
under one-fourth the total receipts from the
United States, in the same period, and
and as near as can be double the quantity
received from the same quarter in 1841. Again,
there is Africa, which is said to be one of the
finest cotton growing regions in the world.
Australia, too, has given evidence that this much
needed article—the cotton plant—can be culti-
vated, with prospects of an abundant yield, in
the northern portions of the Colonies.
The production of the West Indies and
British Guiana should not be lost sight of,
These regions supplied us in 1841 with
1,533,197 lbs., but this has fallen off to an
incalculable extent—the quantity imported last
year being only 462,824 lbs. What was grown
in 1841 can surely be produced in 1858. To
all these sources, irrespective of America, we
may add Algeria, which, it is said, is a splendid
field for the growing of cotton. There is no
doubt but from our intimate relations with France,
independent of commercial advantages, the
Government of that country would give every
facility and encouragement for the growth of
the cotton plant throughout her Algerian
territories. It is evident that there is no lack of
countries with soil and climate suited for the
cultivation of cotton. It only wants an ener-
getic, and, we might add, national movement, to
ensure complete success. Cotton must be
cultivated in any country and clime where it
will grow, and every means must be taken to
render us less dependent on that produced in
the United States, the planters of which have a
peculiar method of their own for making an
annual start in prices.

As we have already remarked, Liverpool is
most deeply interested in this movement. The

curtailment of our cotton supplies would affect
us even before Manchester felt the unwelcome