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

Mr. Bright

in America.

A meeting of persons friendly to the success of
the Northern arms in the war now raging in
America was held at 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 introductory 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 South, 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 be 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-
lieved 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 ware acknowledged as much in
this country as any where else,
and it was only just
we should judge the Uoi'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 greatest manufacturing
industry before secession had been practically
attempted ? Almost 90 per cent. of our cotton came
from the Southern States, and nine-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. (Applause.) 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 land of the ten chief cotton-producing States
was sixty times as large, being about twelve times
the size of England and Wales. Therefore, it
was not because there was not land enough that we
had not cotton enough in former years ; it was not
because there had not been a demand, for the demand
was constantly outstripping the supply ; it was not
that the price had not been sufficient, beeause 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.) If 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
than 2/ 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
exceed, even it it reached, 150,000 bales per annum.
There could be no remedy for that state of things
under slavery, because there was no 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 went South. Whence, 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. Bat was it not possible that
be placed upon a
our vast cotton industry, which had been standing
on a menacing volcano, might
rock which nothing could disturb? Imagine the
(Loud applause.)
negro faenwyenr
war over, the UnionD riedsatonryedm, aanndasulpapveorsye
that there
re.
ePgroOens now
wouldbe
contrary,ia the North and in Canada, if the lash and the
wouldScul South
e onem o
branding iron were abolished, would turn their
there e rt eh e
faces to the genial sun of the South. There would
also be a great immigration of free labour horn the
North, and the whole of the South would be open
to the enterprise and industry of all. With
slaveryouabowlisehsehdoaunldd
fifrnededoamrafiprimdly
increaseestablished
in
then
the Sth
growth of cotton, and not only would its growth
be rapid, but its
permanent increase would be se
cured. (Applause.) In short, there was no greater
enemy of Lancashire than the man who wished the
cotton industry to be continued under slave labour.
(Hem) He would now turn from commerce to
politics. 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 some of the infinenca

exerted upon us by the great American Repub-
lic. (Applause.) American freedom acted upon.
Europe, and there was nothing better known.
at the west eid of this great city. (Laughter
and applause.) He had left the House of Com-
mons about 7 o'clock, just as they were proceeding
to a discussion on the ballot. There was not in.
general much discussion, because the whole question
was conceded. (Cheers.) There was no practical
argument against the ballot; but if there was it
was one which its opponents dared not use. But if
this argument were used—that in the United States
at the recent elections in several States by means of
the ballot returns were made which were hostile to
the existing Government, and the popular will was
freely expressed even in the face of a Government
with 600,000 or 800,000 men in the fie!d—the oppo.
nents of the ballot would wish somehow or other
that the United States were ever so far off: because

it might, unhappily, come to pass that th© people
of England might think that that which saved
people in America from the power of indiviLirial
oppression or Government dictation might have
precisely the same beneficial effect in England.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) The people of England
bad an interest in everything which happened
in America, and when he spoke of the people of
England he did not mean the wearers of coronets
and crowns, but the 20,000,000 of the people who
lived upon their labour, and who having no votes
were not counted in our political census, but with-
out whom there could be no British nation at all.
(Loud applause.) These had an interest, as great
and almost as direct an interest as though they were
living in Massachusetts or New York, in the tre-
mendous struggle for freedom which was now
shaking a whole continent. (Applause.) During
the last two years there nad been much said, much
written, and something done in this country to gain.
us the hate of both sections of the American nation,
the North and the South. (Hear, hear.) He be-
lieved a course of policy might have been taken by
the English press and Government, and by the in-
fluential portion of the American people, that
would have bound us to the hearts of the
20,000,000 of the North, that would have
obliterated all remembrance of the war of the Revo-
lution and of the war of 1812, and we should in
heart and spirit have been for all time virtually one
nation. (Applause.) He could only hope as time
passed and our people became better informed they
would become more just, that ill feeling of every
kind would pass away, and that in future all who
loved freedom here would hold friendly con-
versation with all who loved freedom there, and that
the two nations, separated as they were by the
ocean, but come as they were from one stock, might
in the future be united in soul, making together
every possible effort for the advancement of the
the liberties and happiness of mankind. (Loud,
applause.)
Mr. BRIGHT then introduced to the meeting Mr.
Conway, a gentleman from Eastern Virginia, who
gave an account of his experiences both in the South
and North.
Other speeches were made and resolutions passed,
and the meeting separated.

1 LONDON GAZE T TE—Yesterday.

WAR OFFICE, JUNE 16.
The Queen has been graciously pleased to give orders
for the appointment of Rear-Admiral the Hon. Edward
Alfred John Harris, her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary
to the Swiss Confederation, and Horatio N. Lay, Esq.,
employed with the special mission of the Earl of Elgin to
China, in the years 1857 to 1858, to be Ordinary Members
of the Civil Division of the Third Class, or Companions of
the Most Honourable Order of the Bath.
FOREIGN OFFICE, JuNE 12.
The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr. Ludwig
Wiese, as Consul at Victoria, Hong Kong, for his MajestyWiese,
the King of Sweden and Norway.
JUNE 13.
The Queen has been pleased to approve of Mr. B. R.
Hebeler as Consul-General in the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland fer his Royal Highness the Duke
of Nassau.
The Queen has also been pleased to approve of Mr.
Walter Graham as Consul at Cape Town for the United
States of America.
- -

DOWNING-STREET, JUNE 15.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Edward Rogers
Griffiths, Esq., to be Stipendary Magistrate for the Falk..
land Islands,
WHITEHALL, JUNE 15.
The Queen has been pleased to nominate the Rev. Her-
man Douglas, M.A., to the perpetual curacy of the church
of Newborough, in the county of Northampton, and diocese
of Peterborough, void by the cession of the Rev. John.
Watson.

JUNE 16.
The Queen has been pleased to present the Reverend
Henry Christian David Chandler, 8.A., to the rectory of
Narbeth, with the chapelry of Robeston, Watham, other-
wise Robeston East, annexed, in the country of Pembroke,
and diocese of St. David's, void by the death of the Rev.
William Lloyd.
The Queen has been pleased to present the Rev. Walter
Gregor to the church and parish of Pitsligo, in the presby-
tery of Deer, and county of Aberdeen, void by the death of
the Rev. Edward Hume.