The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-05 00:00:00

g)24

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPT. 5, 18G3.

Again the American news illustrates simply the
growing ferocity of the combatants. We see this
only too clearly, even through the brief fragmentary
telegrams flashed from Queenstown upon the arrival
of the China. Those telegrams inform us, with
frightful brevity, that Fort Sumter is in ruins—
that Charleston has been shelled—that Chattanooga
has been fiercely bombarded—that Lawrence has
been utterly destroyed. Again, moreover, the fury
of th 3 conflict comes from the side of the Federals
—showing how nearly they had been beaten before
the commencement of their recent successes ! Begin-
ning anew thus, this accession of fury, it excites the
Confederates themselves, as a matter of course, to a
phrenzy of retaliation. How unquestionably it is
thus, namely, that the hot blood flows first of all
southwards, and then by reason of that back again
as fiercely northwards, wo may recognise now by
the course pursued but very recently, in reference
to Charleston, by the Federal and Confederate
Commanders respectively. The former, that is,
General GILMORE, on the 26th ult. demands the
surrender of Morris Island and Fort Sumter, under,
the ferocious threat that, unless both Island and
Fort are thus surrendered, within four hours from
the time of the requisition, the city of Charleston
will he at once bombarded. To which—what is
the reply of General BEAUREGARD ? It is a response
precisely affording a case in point. General BEAU-
REGARD replies by charging General GILMORE with
inhumanity and a flagrant violation of the laws of
war, adding that, if the threat of the Federal
Commander should be really made good—well,
adding what ? Why that he, General BEAURE-
GARD, would " employ stringent measures of
retaliation !" It is in this sanguinary and relent-
less mood that leash after leash of the Dogs of War
is let slip, that again, and that yet again, in
wilder accents, the fratricidal combatants cry
havoc, now in one part, now in another, of
what was once, but what we may rest as-
sured will never be again, under any conceivable
combination of circumstances, the American
" Union." Upon the very next morning after these
ominous communications have been exchanged be-
tween GILMORE and BEAUREGARD, the former
gives notice (that is on the 23d) that he will in-
fallibly on the following day open fire upon the
fated city of Charleston. So that, the non-com-
batants have fresh warning to clear out of the
way, before the actual commencement of the
bombarding. Scarcely crediting this announce-
ment, the non-combatants remain even then in
the city. And, not until the firing has begun
in terrible earnest at midnight, do the peaceful
citizens, women and children included, begin to
stream out of the place in hurried and mournful
processions ! With 15 8-inch Parrot shells dropping
in amongst the roofs of Charleston, as they hasten
from the scene of destruction ! Notwithstanding
the determined onslaught made thus upon Charles-
ton by General GILMORE, the confidence of the
South in regard to the holding out of that city
against its assailants, appears to remain un-
shaken. "If the Federals captured the whole of
Morris Islands," says the Richmond Examiner,"they
might close Charleston as a port of entry; but it
would not enable them to take the city, as General
BEAUREGARD can maintain himself against any
force sent, or likely to be sent, against him." This,
after 600 shells, on the single date of the 22d, had
been thrown into Fort Sumter alone, upwards of
400 out of the 600 taking effect upon that fortress,
and scattering it (no wonder!) into ruins. -While
such IS the fury of the combat at Charleston,
General LEE appears to have gathered together
under his standard in the immediate vicinity of
Culpepper Court House, as many as 60,000 men—
there, with those sixty thousand Southerners
" straining ueoe
a the slip," meditating another
and a yet
more daring invasion than the
last upon Maryland. At Chattanooga, mean-
while, ROZECRANzi more pitiless than GIL-
ORE, appears, upon
the 21st nit, to have shelled
that place, without vouchsafing any previous inti-
mation of his intention so to bombard it. It is to
the relative situation, however, of
the main. armies
under LEE and MEADE, that the Chief atten-
tion of European observers is, as a matter of course,
still directed. 'The Federal Commaneer.in.c
timorously, hier,
upon
yet acting, almost
the
defensive,
while hit opponent appears every day to be mere
resllutely bent upon active operations of
most
warlike character—the Confederate head-quarters
being still kept by him at Culpepper, LoeinsTßEEl
holding Fredericksburg, and STUART guarding the
fords of the Rappahannock-.

While the friends of Lancashire are beginning to
warn us, not without reason, to prepare our help
for the coming winter, the news from other guar-
tors is by no means discouraging as to our future
cotton supply. It would, of course, be idle to ex-
pect a sudden return to the full tide of prosperity
which Lancashire was rejoicing in three years ago ;
but we have every reason to hope, under Provi-
dence, for a gradual but certain improvement in the
prospects of the trade. Cotton does not grow in a
day, and in districts where its cultivation has
hitherto been entirely neglected, we must not he
disappointed if the first crop is far inferior to the
American cotton. When cotton Was first cultivated
in Alabama and Louisiana, we very much question
whether the products of the first two or three years
equalled the bales since despatched to Liverpool ,
and in the case of Indian cotton, mere

many adventitious circumstances have assis'
red in
depreciating the value of new experiment s. The
difficulties attending its transit throng' a the in-
terior, the rough modes of conveyene,e, and the cha-
racteristic Eastern dishonesty i packed dirt
and rubbish in the bales, all 'conspi" red to disgust
English manufacturers of ce;tton of. Indian growth.
Matters are now mendin`g. Roe.ds, railways, and
canals are opening the 'means cif intercourse between
the ports and the, interior, and affording cheap,
easy, and careful, methods of conveyance, while
due precautieres are taken to avoid the tricks
practised by 'the packers. In consequence of these
changes, an d of the increasing confidence felt in the
prospects 'of this branch of the trade, the cultivation
of cettoei in India is assuming new features. The
new cr op is considerably greater than that of pre-
view, seasons; and, although that which has
hitherto been brought to the markets is only of
average quality, large quantities of superior quality
are said to be now en route. A gentleman residing
at Lacknow has sent some beautiful specimens
grown from New Orleans seed, and expresses his
desire of sowing 200 acres with it in the Oude dis-
trict. At the Calcutta Agricultural Exhibition, to
be held next year, it is proposed to exhibit the
various implements required in cotton cultivation
free of charge, and we may hope that this will con-
duce to the employment of the best mechanical ap-
' ce accounts. Cotton
pliances in future. The West Indies and Southern
America also furnish encouraging
was formerly grown to a great extent in Grenada,
West Indies, and in some of the small islands
of the group it is still cultivated. It may
therefore be expected to resume its old impor-
tance in this locality, and as a proof that the West
Indian cotton must not be despised, we may men-
tion that cotton grown in Trinidad has been valued
in Liverpool at 4s. per lb. Buenos Ayres and the
neighbourhood of the River Plate also promise well.
From the latter district great things may be ex-
pected. The conditions of soil and climate are all
in favour of the crop, and the native quality is ex-
pected to rival the cotton of New Orleans and Mo-
bile growth. The inhabitants have not been slow
to perceive the favourable opening for the exten-
sion of their trade and commerce. They have
manifested a warm interest in the question which
is rroved by the great number of persons embark-
ing in cotton plantations. It has been proposed to
form a Cotton Plantation Company, with the Go-
vernment of the State at its head. As the planting
takes place between August and October, and the
crop is gathered at the opening of the year.
we may hope before the terrible winter is over
to receive a considerable supply from this quar-
ter. Another source of supply is also opening
which may entail important consequences. The
Executive Committee of the Cotton Supply Asso-
ciation have received a letter from a gentleman
residing at Havannah, who stated that, after tra-
velling through the United States, he resolved on
his return to Cuba to commence the cultivation
of cotton, and to demonstrate that free labour
might be introduced with great advantage to the
country. Could such a fact be established in the
very stronghold of the slave trade, it would be,
indeed, a triumph, and there is no natural reason
to the contrary. There is nothing in the situation
or climate of Cuba which excludes it from com-
petition with the American products. Tobacco is
common to both countries, why should not cotton
be the same. If Havannah and Virginia are both
dear to smokers, why should not Cuba rival the
Southern States in the value of her cotton plan-
tations. The experiment as yet promises well.
The enterprising projector of the scheme has
planted 100 acres, selecting different varieties of
soil. The plants are bearing luxuriously, having
an average of 50 pods on each stalk, and pro-
mising to produce three times that number.
Cotton has been planted in Cuba before, and pre-
vious planters say that the first year does not
pay, but that as the plant is perennial, the second
year repays the planters. The first season or
two is seldom a fair test of the ultimate success
of the experiment, and it is this that has dis-
heartened so many persons with regard to our Lan-
cashire prospects. Because all our efforts have failed
to supply the full amount required of equal value
to the American cotton they lament over the ruin
of one of our staple manufactures and the hopeless
impoverishment of our mill hands. A little patience
will show a different state of things. Even now
the state of things is different from what it was at
this time last year, and another winter, under
Providence, will
have seen us through the worst.
At the opening of the next year we may hope for
increasing
Supplies, which will gradually go on
g
gwraorw,
if it last so long, in number and value until the American
tion of humanity. It wialloluornolywnaffefeatulutsifasthaeqmueiss:
takes of a long series of years cannot be remedied
in a day. We have suffered fertile lands to lie
idle, glowing suns and softening dews to shine and
fall unheeded, while all our fortunes were resting
on one stay which
Even if the bloodiestmi civilh t
war of modern times had
g fail us at any moment.
been averted, there was no security that the pride
and insolence of American statesmen might not any
day have drawn us into a war •
which would at, least
have suspended our cotton supply- The attempt to
introduce free labour into Cuba paints another
moral to our Manchester philanthropists.
We
hear a great deal about the duty our
Government
owes to Abolitionists, and the horror • with which
we ought to regard the rebellious South. We are
told that the sympathies of English men and
women should be exclusively on the Northern side,
and that every Federal success should be looked
on as a triumph of right over wrong.
How comes it that the conscience of
Manchester has grown so suddenly sensitive'
How comes it that the gentlemen who did not
scruple to employ slave-grown cotton, nay, would
use nothing else, when they might have encouraged
free labour in the colonies, are now so indignant at
any countenance being afforded to the South.
COWPER'S fable of the boy and the stolen apples is
as apposite to slave-grown cotton as it was to slave-
grown sugar—

"Ho blamed and protested, but shared in the plan,
He joined in the plunder, but pitied the man."
If the Manchester school are so ready in their de-
nunciations they should at least be consistent.
Meantime let our manufacturers remedy as far as
Possible the errors of the past by affording every
encour
agement to the new fields now opening to in-
dustry and enterprise.
The lettr

Times of yesterday is
letter on ti 0
well-deserving of perusal, and
Small Birdr," addressed to the
a good cause, if it is attentively dwelt
upon by those who have'
against the
hitherto carried on their
may serve
the Frencela department of
in
nibitionfeathered tribe. It
predatory attacks
display
of all birds. To
this collection was appended a paper with
theref e to
Internationalthedisp
a written
description of the contents found in the stomachi"
birds, the time of the year in which the bird
Nvas
taken, and other particulars. This was the Work
of M. FLORENT PREVOST, the celebrated French
naturalist. This gentleman has been engak,a
during the last thirty years in the praiseworthy
endeavour to persuade his countrymen of the mis-
chief they are doing and the injuries they are in-
flicting in the persistent ehlughTer of thee Tittle' Rni- ,