The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-02 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Lessee and Manager, Mr. Lind's.
THIS ir,VNNING, TIME TRIES ALL: Mr. H. Vezin
and Miss Constance Aylmer.
Aft, which, the New Grand CHRISTMAS PANTOMIME,
aijtmT WITH THE TUFT ; or, Harlequin and Mother
shipton." Mr. G. Belmore, Mr. C. Seyton, Misses Gray and
lindspeth, Mr. Milano, Mr. R. Power, Miss A. Collinson, and
Mr. Raiford.

The WEATHER.--Sun Office, Jan. 2, 1863.

THERMOMETER.

Highest since Noon yesterday,
Lowest during the night
This day at Noon . .. 42

Barometer-29.57.
Wind—Westerly; weather, fine and mild.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAL—Morning, 12h. 7m.—Afternoon, 12h. 36m,
To-moltßow.-Morning, 12h. 59m.—Afternoon, lh. 25m.

"a:1.1 .
,§art
4 4/0

LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 2, 1883.

The cotton year has not been a bed of down.
Not to those who work it, nor to any extent to
those who grow it. The advance in price, it is
true, has been enormous ; not less than 20 millions
sterling, for certain, is the augmented value:of the
smaller quantity sent us ; but this vast sum " has
been impounded by the successful speculators" in
the transit of the cotton from the grower to the
manufacturer. These are the men—the men of
Liverpool chiefly—whom "Special Correspondents"
should call to account. The public now know, on
the high authority of Lord DERBY and Mr. GLAD-
STONE, not to mention other channels of informa-
tion, that the millowners, who were themselves
embarrassed by the cotton famine, have shown a
most princely liberality towards their workmen—a
liberality which, the noble Earl says, throws the
most munificent of other contributions entirely into
the shade. But where are the names of those into
whose hands the 20 millions sterling of advanced
prices have gone ? We hope, for their credit, some
adequate reply will be furnished to this question.
To all classes but theirs the cotton year has been
one which has left a mark on property, on wages,
or on life and health itself, in too many cases, which
will not be soon effaced.
Numerous had been the warnings to the men of
Manchester, not to be satisfied with one source of
supply for the raw material of their enormous in-
dustry—a supply of eighty-five per cent. of all
they consumed, and secured by slave labour only.
Vainly also had the Government been warned of
the necessity of so opening India to British agri-
cultural industry, that facilities of communication
to the coast, and a tenure of land which would
attract British capitalists and investors, should
give to aux great Asiatic Empire the full benefits
of British wealth and energy. All went on
smoothly, and all were interested in supposing
that smoothly all would go on. The statesmen
were saved trouble—the monied men were saved
risks. Our cotton trade had passed unscathed
through the protracted wars with France. The
Berlin Decrees, the American war, and the Orders
in Council had left it uninjured. Till 1860 no
shock from without impaired its prosperity. It
went on with years of immense profit, and years
of depression, but with a handsome average of profit,
till no war in which we were engaged, but a
civil war between Slavery and Freedom, in unholy
union hitherto, at once cut off cur eighty-five per
cent. of the material on which Lancashire and
Cheshire lived. The plague spot, so often pointed to,
suddenly spt ead. The question whether slaveryshould
cover the yet unoccupied soil of the Federation, was
put to the ballot in 1860. The ballot declared for
free soil where it was yet free ; and forthwith one
of the parties, which had appealed to the ballot, re-
fused to accept its decision, and appealed to physi-
cal force ! Almost immediately both parties joined
in stopping the cotton supply to England. The
motives were different enough. The South said wo
will not send it ; the North said you shall not.
The Southern chivalry thought to coerce the Eog_
lisp trader. " Cotton was king," they said, and they
prohibited its export till England and France
should recognibe and support them. They never
doubted that a n Lion of traders was at their mercy.
The Northern G:,,,iL:Lunent had no objection to our
getting cotton, but it had a peat objection to " the
Rebels" exchanging their cotton for military stores
in Europe, and it therefore blockaded the Southern
ports. Thus both parties combined to deny us the
remnant of the crop of 1860, and the whole of the
crop of 1861, and we have had little from America
this year which has not run the blockade. Last
year we obtained from her 1,841,643 bales;
this
year only 72,461.

It is interesting to notice the working of this fact
throughout the year. The cotton brokers tell us

that during the first six months prices advanced

but little, and that, in consequence, the weekly de

liveries to the trade continued at about the rate of

the close of 1861—that is about twenty-nine

thousand bales. During the nett three months the

great rise in prices caused the closing of many of
the mills ; business fell off so rapidly in the latter
half year, that the' total of cotton consumed averaged
for the year but a trifle more per week than half
the consumption of 1860; and the diminution fell
upon the latter half-year chitfly. The sellers of
cotton, who ought to know what most affected the
markets, tell us that it was the press writing so
strongly on the probable cariV termination of the
war which fora long time militated against high

prices; and thus, in the first six weeks, caused

both too rapid a consumptiGn of the stocks in
band,
and too great reluctance to risk anything in orders
from India. The ~ ninety days" prophecies ag-
gravated the subsequent difficulties of Lancashire'

by preventing the operation of timl natural preyen•
tive alleviations. The effect on prices ~Q 8 such

that what is termed "Middling Orleans', began

the year at about a shilling a pound, and had