The Sun.
London, England, 1863-06-17 00:00:00

Mr. Bright on the War in America.

A meeting of persons friendly to the success of
the Northern arms in the war now raging in
America was held qt half-past 7 last evening, at the
London Tavern; Mr. Bright in the chair. The
large room was crowded to inconvenience, and
many who arrived about the time appointed for the
opening of the proceedings were unable to obtain
admittance.

Mr. BRIGHT, after a few introluctory observa-
tions, said—lf we look back somewhat over two
years and a half, when the question of secession was
first raised in a political shape, when the news first
arrived in England there was but one opinion about
it. Every man admitted the folly and madness of
the S )uth, and protested against the belief that
there was any grievance which would justify them
in revolting. (Hear, hear.) Every man hoped
that some means might he discovered by which
the terrible calamity of war might be avoided.
While the reins of power were slipping from the
feeble hands of Mr. Buchanan into the hands of Mr.
Lincoln there was a moment when men thought
they were about to see a great question settled, per-
haps by some moderation on the one side and some
concession on the other. As long as everybody be
Hewed there would be no war everybody condemned
it ; but it was a gross absurdity for any man, with
the history of the world before him to believe that
the people of the Northern States, 20,000,000
strong, would sit down quietly while the dismem-
berment of their country was going on, and make
no answer to the war which had been commenced
by the South. (Applause.) He did not speak in
justification of war; he was only treating this
question upon the principles which were acknow-
ledged almost universally throughout the world,
and by an overwhelming majority of those who
accepted the Christian religion. (Hear, hear.)
Those principles were acknowledged as much in
this country as anywhere else, and it was only just
we should judge the Uei•ed States by principles
upon which we ourselves should be likely to act.
But the North did not like to see the dismember-
ment of their country—(hear, hear)—they did not
like to see a conspiracy of Southern politicians and
slaveowners to seize their forts and arsenals with-
out preparing resistance. (Hear, hear.) And then,
when the people of England found that the North
was about to resist, and that war was inevitable,

they turned away their eyes from the South, which
was the aggressor, and looked to the North, saying
if the North would not resist there would be no war,
we should get our cotton, and trade would go on as
heretofore. Those, therefore, who had condemned
the South at first were inconsistent now in their con-
demnation of the North. (Hear, hear.) He would
now transport them in mind to Lancashire. The

interests of Lancashire were the interests of the
whole United Kingdom, and clearly of not a few of
the inhabitants of the metropolis. (Hear.) What
was the condition of our gre, test manufacturing
industry before, secession had been practically
attempted ? Almost 90 per cent. of our cotton came
from the Southern States, and nire-tenths of it was
the produce of the uncompensated labour of the
negro. (Hear, hear.) Everybody knew we were
carrying on a prodigious industry upon a more in-
secure foundation, and it was the commonest thing
in the world for men, whether in or out of Parlia-
ment, who were discussing the future of the cotton
trade, to point to the existence of slavery in the
United States as the dangerous thing in connection
with that great trade. (Hear, hear.) That was one
of the reasons which on several occasions stimulated
him to urge the Ministers of this country to im-
prove the Government of India, and thus give us a
chance of receiving a considerable portion of our
supply from that country, so that we might not be
left in absolute want when the calamity occurred,
which all thoughtful men knew must some day come
upon the United States. (Applauee.) Our supply
of cotton being raised by slave labour, two things
were indisputable—first, the supply must be insuf-
ficient ; and, secondly, it must be insecure. (Hear,
hear.) Perhaps many were not aware that in the
slave States the extent of land employed in the cul-
tivation of cotton was a mere plot in comparison
with the whole cotton region. He spoke upon the
authority of a report lately presented to the Boston
Chamber of Commerce when he stated that the
whole breadth of land on which cotton was grown
in America did not exceed 10,000 square miles—
about the size of two of our largest counties; while
the laud of the ten chief cotton-producing States
was sixty times as large, being about twelve times
the s'ze of England and Wales. Therefore, it
was not because there was not land enough that we
teed not cotton enough in former years ; ,it was not
because there had not been a demand, for thedemand
the supply; it was not
thatwas ct ohne spt arni
price
youtstripping h
a d not been
sufficient, because the
price had been much higher of late years, and the
profit to the planter had been much greater. And
yet there had not been a sufficient supply of cotton
for the wants of the manufacturers and spinners of
of the world, or for the needs of civilisation. (Hear,
hear.) It the price of cotton in Liverpool during
the five years between 1856.60 were compared
with its price in the five years between 1841-45 it
would be found that every pound of cotton fetched
an increased price of more than 20 per cent. Not-
withstanding that we were every year in greater
difficulties with regard to our supply. And what
was the reason ? It was this--there was not labour
enough in the Southern States. We saw every day
in the newspapers that there were 4,000,000 slaves
in the Southern States. But some of these were
growing rice, some sugar, some tobacco, some were
employed in domestic duties, some in business in
towns, and there was only about one-fourth of the
whole number regularly engaged in the cultivation
of cotton. The increase in the production of cotton
must depend upon the increasing productiveness of
the labour of this one million of slaves, and on the
natural increase of the population from them. But
the natural increase of the slaves was rather less
thar.2l per cent., and the increase, therefore, from the
million of slaves would be only about 25,000 in the
year. The increase in the production of cotton
from that source, therefore, would not probably
esceed, even if it reached, 150,000 bales per annum.
There could be no remedy for that state of things
under slavery, because there was n© large immi-
gration into the Southern States. Labour was not
honourable nor honoured in the South, and there-
fore free labourers in the North were not likely to
go there. (Hear, hear.) Of all the vast emigra-
tion from this country between 1846 and 1860,
amounting to two and a half millions of people, a
mere trifle want South. V hence, then, could the
planters of the South receive an increase of labour ?
Only from the slave ship and the coast of Africa.
(Applause.) But, fortunately for the world, the
United States had never yet become so bowed un-
der the heel of the slaveowner as to consent to re-
open the slave trade. (Applause.) Therefore the
Southern planters were in this unfortunate condi-
tion—they could not tempt, perhaps they did not
want, free labourers, and they could not get slave
labour from Africa. But was it not possible that
our vast cotton industry, which had been standing
on a menacing volcano, might be placed upon. a
rock which nothing could disturb ? Imagine the
ar over, the Union restored, and slavery abolished.
(Loud applause.) Did any man suppose that there
would be iu the South one negro fewer? On the
contrary, there would be more. Many negroes now
in the North and in Canada, if the lash and the
South. There would
) would turn their
bfarcaensdtiongthierognenwiaelrsei,inaboofltihsheesd
also be a great immigration of free labour from the
Nortb, and the whole of the South would be open
to the enterprise and industry of all. With
slavery abolished and freedom firmly established in
the South we should find a rapid increase in the
growth of cotton, and not only would its growth
manewished
the
n cured.
be rapid, but, its permanent increase would be se
of (Applause)
)e
tlhna ns htohre r e vas
no greater t,h
whocotton industry to be continued under slave labour.
(Hear.) He would now turn from commerce to
epolitics. Our newspapers, statesmen, writers, and
speakers of every class were constantly telling us
of the wonderful influence which English constitu-
tional Government and English freedom had over
the position and career of other nations in Europe.
If we exerted that influence, and we prided our-
selves upon it, it would be no humiliation to ad-
mit that we Ourselves felt time of the influette,e