The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-04 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TlMES.—Although the visit of the Prince and
Princess of Wales is, -whatever may be insinuated
or argued to the contrary at this dull season of the
year, when every event is made to bear at least as
heavy a superstructure of conjecture as it is possible
for it to support, entirely without any political sig-
nificance whatever, it is impossible for the people of
this country not to regard with sincere interest the
reception of this young and illustrious pair, and to
feel an almost domestic interest in their proceedings
and adventures. The expedition to Denmark, it may
be conceded, now that it is over, was rather a
hazardous experiment. It was much to expect that
these good Danes, in the midst of the unparalleled
misfortunes which have recently fallen upon them,
should distinguish between the Prince and the
nation of which they believe they have so much
reason to complain. It is a strong proof of the
generous hospitality of the national character, and
also, we may add, of the affection which the young
Princess has conciliated for herself among her
father's subjects, that their reception in
Copenhagen has been marked by so much kind-
ness and cordiality. We could not have been
angry, we could not have been surprised, had
some outburst of popular feeling clouded the
splendour of the reception accorded to the heir
apparent to the Crown. Nothing of the kind, how-
ever, seems to have occurred, and, on the contrary,
the Danish nation seems to have forgotten for a
while its sorrows and its anxieties, in the presence
of its beloved Princess. The extension of the joura
ney to Stockholm was liable to none of these incon-
veniences; there was no reason whatever to expect
anything but the utmost kindness and cordiality.
The visit had besides an interest of its own.
Friendly as have been our relations with the Swe-
dish Monarchy, we do not remember any visit to
Stockholm by any part of our Royal Family. For
some reason or other oar connection with Denmark
has been much closer, and instances will occur to
every one of the frequent intermarriages between
the two Royal families. Yet whatever may be said
of the glories of ancient times, there is no kingdom
of the North that has filed so large a space in the
eye of the world as Sweden. Her daring has ever
been greater than her power, and her valour has
never failed to answer the heaviest demands which
her race of Sovereigns, not over-sparing of the lives
of their subjects, have made upon.it. The names of
Gustavus Vasa and of Gustavus Adolphus and of
Charles XII. stand out like beacons in modern his-
tory, and the fact that the Crown of Sweden is now
held by the descendant of one of Napoleon's Genes
rals, the only one who was able to come unscathed
out of the tremendous vortex in which the First
Empire went down, adds romantic interest of its
own. But Stockholm has other attractions than
those associations which Swedish history so largely
supplies. Though the climate is severe and the
situation remote, there is no city possessed of a more
beautiful site or calculated to make a more vivid
impression on the mind of a visitor than Stockholm.
Imagine the countless islands in Clew Bay, on the
western coast of Ireland—which live, as Thackeray
says, like golden dolphins in the setting sun—to be
multiplied to almost any c ,nceivable extent, and
imagine a beautiful city, with vast and splendid
public buildings, to be spread over this wonderful
archipelago, with all the animation of boats and
shipping which the western coast of Ireland un-
happily wants, and you may gain some faint idea of
the charms which the Venice of the North display
in lavish profusion. The rough breezes of the Baltic
are no courtiers, and it unfortunately happened that
the voyage of the Royal yacht was protracted by
adverse weather. It was the desire of the Prince
of Wales to visit S weden under the incognito of his
well-known title of Baron Renfrew, but this by no
means accorded with the wishes of the kind and
hospitable people whom hecame to visit. Nothing,
indeed, could be less like a private visit than the
reception which was prepared for the Prince and
Princess of Wales. The whote city seems to have
turned out to meet their Royal guests, but hour
after hour passed away, daylight was succeeded by
the long twilight of the North, and twilight in its
turn faded into night, and still they did not come.
In this emergency the Swedish authorities showed
an energy and power of adapting themselves to cir:
cumefances which we aro not always accustomed to
observe. Torches were distributed, the Palace was
in some measure illuminated, and blue lights were
sent up so as to show the landing with a clearness
scarcely inferior to that of day. The Prince of
Wales was. induced to renounce his intention of ap-
pearing in plain clothes, and assumed, at the re-
quest of Prince Oscar, a dress better suited to the
publicity of the occasion. A dinner and a visit to
the theatre, where the Swedish National Anthem
was performed—which we are told closely resembles
our own—and a return home amid the applause of
the multitude, concluded what must have been an
exciting and fatiguing day. To the theatre, which
the Prince and Princess of Wales thus visited almost
immediately on their arrival, attaches a gloomy
historic interest. It was the scene of the assassina-
tion of King Gustavus 111. by Anarketrom, just at
he time when that adventurous and romantic

monarch was meditating a crusade against that very
French Revolution which was destined to place a
new dynasty on the throne of Sweden. Nothing
seems to have been wanting to do honour to their
guests on the part of the King and Queen, and
the whole affair of the reception seems to have
passed off with a heartiness and cordiality which
we are not in the habit of always attributing to
persons filling the highest place among mankind.
We shall very sincerely rejoice if this short visit and
the hearty kindness with which it is welcomtd are
the means of drawing closer the ties which unite us
to our kinsmen on the coast of the Baltic. Symp-
toms of late years have appeared of a tendency to
study with more care and attention the antiquities
and language of nations which have supplied Europe
with its aristocracy from the Orkneys to the Straits
of Messina. We are becoming conscious that the
best points of our national character and the noblest
part of our language are derived from those North-
men of whom our accesters thought so much terror
and so much involuntary admiration. Condemned
to struggle against a severe climate and against a
nature niggard of gifts and prodigal only of hard-
ships and severities, they have been outrun in the
acquisition a wealth and the increase of population
by nations possessing more fertile lands and more
temperate climates, but no other superiority. Man
is still what he was a thousand years ago—the
noblest product of the North, and those stormy and
barren regions possess a population which for
strength, manliness, and hardihood may compare
with any people on the earth. It is worth the while
of one who is one day to be himself a King of
men to visit those lands which have been from ice•
memorial time the cradle of great conquerors and
mighty nations. Such a scene must be full of an
interest that may well give rise to serious reflex ions.
Is England, in the lap of an unexampled prosperity,
and provided as she is with every contrivance for
saving the labour of her people and protecting them
from the inclemency of the elements, destined to
retain those sterner and rougher qualities which she
derives from the North, and which have been, no
doubt, the groundwork of her success ? Can any-
thing be done to unite these Scandinavian races, to
whom mankind, after all, owes so much, into a single
compact State, capable, with the assistance of
stormy seas, cold winters, and desolate frontiers, of
defending itself effectively against the great mine
tary despotisms under which Europe seems deter-
mined to range itself ? Is the catastrophe of Den-
mark only a first step towards the subjugation of
the North. or will it teach the inhabitants of Scan-
dinavia to seek in union that strength which they
never needed more than at the present moment ?
POST.—Even were the efforts of the Manchester
Cotton Supply Association to be productive of no
other result, they are at least valuable as tending
to collect and tabulate the returns which are prac-
tically the most reliable source of information
which we possess as to the prospects of our future
supply of this .invaluable staple. The Executive
Committee would now seem to be fairly recognised
as a sort of legitimate depot for all the informas
tion which can be obtained upon a subject so im-
portant to the world in general, as well as to thou-
sands of our own fellow-countrymen in particular.
The Government is willing and able to afford sub-
stantial assistance, by communicating the pith of
the Indian despatches, and the reports of our con-
suls all over the world. Private adventurers or
speculators are only too happy to have an oppor-
tunity of ventilating their own schemes through
such a channel. Even foreign potentates are glad
to take advantage cf the existence of a body through
whom they may make known their intentions as to
the cultivation of cotton, and from whom they can
obtain viouable hints as to the conditions under
which alone its:cultivation can be attempted with
a fair prospect of success, And thus it comes to pass
that a non-official association of a purely commer-
cial character is gradually invested with all the
authority, and consequently with all the responsi-
bilities, which attach to a regular statistical depart-
ment of the State. It can now no longer be doubted
that—corn, perhaps, alone excepted—cotton can be
grown over a larger area of the surface of the whole
earth than any other vegetable product. Whether it
can be grown at a profit depends, of course, upon
the market price of the raw material, on the possi•
bility of obtaining seed of the proper quality, and
upon the skill which is available upon the spot for
its cultivation. Nor will all kinds of seeds suit
every soil. Special reference must be had to the
character and chemical attributes of the land which is
selected for the experiment, and such seed must be
employed as experience has proved does well under
similar conditions. Thus, it has been found by the
Madras authorities that Peruvian cotton, although
s vastly superior in quality to " Surat," being longer

e
and finer in the staple, is, to say the least, a Ter;€
precarious crop in the cotton-growing districts of
Salem and Kistna. It requires a large amount
artificial irrigation, is much exposed to the attacks
of insects, and suffers greatl from changeable orl
unfavourable weather—all of them wants which
is difficult to supply, or drawbacks which it is ittl;
possible to avoid in India. At Natal, Egyptian see',.
has been found to succeed very well, and to prodt!ca:
a crop valued at about 2s. per pound. Egypt, agaleo
seems to efiford the best seed for the whole of ta
Levant and Asia Minor, in which there is practol-
cally an unlimited field for cotton cultivatiO4
awaiting only the introduction of capital and skillun
labour. Unfortunately there has been hitherto 0,
diminution in the principal obstacle to their e 4
ploy ment ; the groundless jealousy entertained 'id
the Turkish authorities of foreign enterprise slice
foreign, ownership of property. Where lieensa,
have been granted by the Porte, and proper 0„a
chinery has been established, as at Balukisser
le
Kirkagatch, the prod uce has been doubled in a sivgef
year. There are large districts in the Island
Cyprus, and around Sidon, in which American:
seed might be introduced with the greatest advaer
tage, and where an average price of
pound only would amply remunerate the grOW
and make it well worth his while to bring all tu
available land in his vicinity under cultivatit
In Morocco there has been bat a trifling jecreail;
eightpenee Per,
owing, as in the dominions of the Sultan, t 0 en
want of European, capitalists. What has 'cot
grown, too, seems likely to be monopolised tie
home consumption, so that comparatively litto
will be available for exportation from a Var;er
from whence we had been led to entertain grea' 0
expectations. Some difficulties seem to have arise
also between the Sultan of Morocco and the Etir°n.'
pean settlers, which led to an actual embargo beil3D
placed on all cotton, and which have seriously 1,1140
terfered with a market which distance, and i,"r
peculiarities of the soil, would otherwise renae
especially available fur our purposes. It is satisci
factory, however, to find that whereas France bs,,
previously enjoyed something very like a monoPl
of the cotton grown upon the shores of the
terranean, high prices are now beginning to tel
and it is finding its way in large quantities, and,
n 6
vastly superior quality, to British ports. Creel
the Atlantic, Pernambuco has more than double
its supply in the last twelve months, and is 'ci
peated to send us this year at least one hundred se,
twenty thousand bales. Another favourable featur'
in its case is the fact that, in place of drawing urbi
us for specie, it takes a large proportion of
price paid for the raw material in the shape
manufactured articles. In Venezuela the proaue
has been trebled, although the small area pre
viously under crop renders the importance of tb
increase more relative than positive. In that con°
try, however, the want of labour must interfet
seriously, for some time to come, with any realil
large increase of production. Sur. there is an BOP,'
field now open, and it has been found that be'
the native seed and the Government imP°ll
tions of New Orleans, have done well.
is quite clear, from the above reports, that the PI
curing of an adequate supply for all our purposest
merely a question of time, and that it may ,tai
end prove to be obtainable even nearer home U),
it has been before. Beyond the objections to b:`:
shortness in staple, and to the deficiencies in gush,'
of ' Surat," the great distances which have to u
traversed from the cotton districts of Hindus°,
to the coast, and the long voyage from thence '
Liverpool, must always enhance its price, alp
render it undesirable as our only source of suPP;
If we can establish a market on the coasts of
Mediterranean within a week's sail of our ur
island we shall have materially improved oar po!
tion. As matters stand at present, all authoritil
are agreed that years must elapse before Isre,
Orleans can become again what it was to ns,
if it ever regains its former pre-eminence as a cottc
port. Those who best understand the cultivation
the cotton plant, and the delicate operation of piel
ing, have been scattered to the winds. A ue
generation will have to be trained in one of a
most difficult of all manipulative processes befel
the crop can again be sent to market, even when
has been again grown in its former perfectie
Above all, the burnt child'' proverbially " drea'
the fire," and our merchants and manufacturers,
they are wise, will be aware of again relying ej
elusively upon one source of supply. It is to Le
velope new channels of commerce in this reaps
that the Cotton Supply Association was original
formed—and we trust that no rumours of peaces
suggestions of any impending fall in cotton, W
induce those who are members of it to relax ele
tions which have been already productive of 011
stantiat benefits.