Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

THE CULTIVATION OF COTTON IN AFRICA.

Papers relative to the cultivation of cotton in Africa
have been presented to the House of Lords by command
of the Queen. They include two reports on the subject
from 11.1 r. Consul Campbell (of Lagos) to the tEarl of
Clarendon, dated respectively the sth of January and the
14 of March, 1857. An account is also given of-the trade
of the Bight of Benin for the year 1856, and it hence
appears that the whole of the Yoruba and other countries
south of the Niger, with the Houssa and Nuffee countries
on the north side of the sane river, have been from all
time cotton-growing countries, and that, notwithstanding
the civil wars, ravages, disorders, and disruptions caused
by the slave trade, more than sufficient cotton to clothe
their populations has always been cultivated, and their
fabrics have found markets and a ready sale in those
lands where the cotton plant is not cultivated, and into
which the fabrics of Manchester and Glasgow have not
yet penetrated. The cultivation of cotton, therefore, in
the countries already named is not new to the inhabitants ;
all that is required is to offer them a market for the sale
of as much as they can cultirate, and by preventing the
export of slaves from the seaboard to render some security
to life, freedom, property, and labour. It is estimated
that the annual cultivation of cotton in the Yoruba and
adjacent States is equal to 7,200,000 lbs. Whenever the
cotton fabrics of England are introduced, via the Niger.
to the upper part of the Yoruba and the cireumjacent
districts, the natives will probably sell their own cotton
and clothe themselves with the lighter and cheaper cloths
of Manchester and Glasgow. There is no hope of induc-
ing the natives to cultivate coffee, because it is a " new
thing " (the Africans being obstinately conservative), and
would require, care, attention, intelligence, and above all,
patience. Cotton alone, therefore, can be looked to as
an agricultural marketable production obtainable from
the interior of Africa. Meanwhile, Eng'ith cotton fabrics
I are gradually working their way into Africa, and super-
Lean the native manufacture. The two greater staples
of the trade of the Bight of Benin are Talm oil and ivory,
cotton ranking as the third. In his second despatch Mr.
Consul Campbell refers to a leading article which appeared
in the Times, on the 18th of December, 1856, wherein it
was asked whether the cultivation of cotton in Africa
would not induce the compulsory labour of slaves in that
country, and whether the only result obtained would not
be the change of the venue of slavery from the Southern

States of the American Union to the vast territory of
Africa. To this question Mr. Campbell replies at some
length, admitting that eotton grown in Africa is still the
produce of slave labour, but showing that there is an
immeasurable distance and a wide difference in effect and
influence between the compulsory labour of the
African slave in a foreign country, the property
of the white man, and his forced labour in the
land of his birth, where he is the property of
his own countryman. Without entering into details,
it would appear that the natural effect in Africa
of any commerce, based on the cultivation of the
soil, is to unshackle the bonds of the slave—not to tighten
them ; and that if any attempt should be made by the
Mahommedan African to urge an undue amount of labour
from his slaves, the latter, finding the whole country open
to them, and sure of the sympathy of their own country-
men, would make a vigorous effort to obtain their free.
dom. The Government of England and the opponents of
slavery are, therefore, strongly urged to give every en—
couragement to the developement of the great agricultural
resources possessed by Africa, in order to secure and
render permanent the victory gained o►er the slave trade,
and so shut out all prospect of its revival.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

L, AtirQuvr:B.
-Even. 1 7—Height, 17 ft. 7 in.

Ashley ..,....... ..... . Limerick

Ciancillonden Creetown
Marys . W hitehaven
;lpley Queen
.• ...... • • .. C
irlieie
►nn and Nary .. • • ...... Car 'ale
I William ..
Opal.. • •• ..... —Glasgow
Commodore ..............Cardiff
Pizarro..

August 7.

St. Andrew . Vrica

OUTPORTS.