The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-07 00:00:00

strengthened. Now that other nations eoincide
with our views in this respect, there seems every
reason to expect a happier issue to the troublous
times that have so long afflicted this State. It may
be asked, " Could not all this outcry have been
silenced earlier, and this endless and irritating sub-
ject have been settled in a satisfactory manner P"
There was much to militate against such a de-
nouement. In the first place, there is always
so great a delay in taking a decisive step
on the part of our statesmen. They go on
arguing and speechifying ad infinitum, but
when it comes to a case in which half a dozen
words uttered with promptitude would have ter-
minated the complication, then all is left in abey-
ance, and things suffered to take their own way
until confusion worse confounded ensues. Again,
another evil that often occurs is the extraordinary
style in which the communications are made to
the States which are involved in these imbroglios.
Earl RUSSELL has rendered himself conspicuous on
more than one occasion for these anomalous pro-
ductions. It is, however, a matter of congratula-
tion that this specially " vexed question" of
Schleswig-Holstein seems likely to be settled in a
decided form, and that all sides appear to concur
in bringing no false ideas to tae settlement of it,
but are willing to modify and, concede when occa-
sion seems to require it.

" The extension of the trade in cotton," says Mr.
M'HENRY, in his recent work on the Cotton Trade,*
"has been the most wonderful circumstance in the
history of commerce." Comprehensive as this re-
mark may seem, it is nevertheless substantially true
of the change which transformed the despised ma-
terial into one of the chief staples of export and
manufacture of tWo of the foremost countries of the
world. In the volume just referred to Mr. M'HENRY
gives a complete tabular statement of the rise and
progress of the trade in the Southern States, from
the export of 801bs., in 1748, to the 1,490,000,000
valued at 178,800,000 dollars, of 1860. Three-
fourths of the quantity grown by the Southern
States was exported to foreign ports, and two-
thirds of the other quarter went to the Northern
States. The trade, though subject to many ductua
tions, has increased with surprising rapidity. At
the commencement of the century the export was
about 5,000 bales—fifty years later the number of
bales exceeded five million. Great as has been the
wealth accruing to the Southern States by this
flourishing export trade, the profits of the North
were scarcely less considerable. According to Mr.
M'HENRY'S calculations, the total value of goods
manufactured in the New England States in 1849
was over eighty million dollars, and in the middle
States more than twenty-six million. The sum
total shows an increase of 76 per cent. in the ten
years ending in 1850; and an American journalist,
writing on the same subject, speaks in strong
terms of the profits derived by the Northerners
from the position they occupy as manufacturers,
importers, brokers, and commission agents for the
South. "Historians," says Mr. M'HENRY, "will
record the Northern crusade against the South as
the greatest folly ever committed;'' but, in truth, it
is the fear that the rich prize is slipping through
their fingers, that fires the determination of New
York to "uphold the Constitution," and quickens
the zeal of the New England States for crushing
slaveholders. An independent South manufacturing
and exporting its own cotton, to say nothing of
other branches of trade, is a most unwelcome vision
to the busy Northerners, through whose hands
hitherto the profits of commerce have passed. A 6
yet the loss of their Southern custom is not felt,
owing to the prodigious expenditure entailed by
the war; but the struggle for supremacy cannot
go on for ever, and when Mr. CHASE'S greenbacks
grow less plentiful, and " Finis" is put to the blood-
stained record of fratricidal war, the day of reckon-
ing will come, and the great Northern States of the
old Union will have to go through a period of
collapse not only from the terrible expenses of a
protracted war, but from the loss of the custom of
their chief importer of raw material and exporter
of manufactured goods. The whole face of Ameri-
can trade will undergo a change. The South hav-
ing discovered new energies, new capacities, in the
time of trial will never sink back into the old
indolence which suffered so large a proportion of
the profits of their trade to pass through Northern
hands. President DAVIS, in his inaugural message,
observed that, as an agriculteral people, whose chief
trade was the export of a commodity required in
every manufacturing country, the policy most
favourable to the South was Peace and Free Trade.
There could be little rivalry, he said, between such
a country and its manufacturing or navigating
neighbours of the North-Eastern States ; but if these
States should fail to perceive that their mutual
interests were goodwill and friendship, they must
prepare for the emergency. This, as we know, they
have done, and have found in the resolution and
spirit of their people some compensation for the
sudden loss of all the manufactures and commo-
dities of the North. Mr. M'HENRY gives an inte-
resting account of the relative value of landed pro-
perty and manufactures in the North and South at
the time of the Census of 1860. At that time the
assessed value of real and personal property in the
North was 6,541,027,619 dole. ; in the South,
5,465,808,957 dots. All the naval stores, rosin,
pitch, tar, turpentine, &c., were produced in
the South, and much of the timber used for ship-
building came from the Southern forests. Of course
Mr. M`HENRY, in commenting on these statistics,
draws triumphant auguries from them of the future
of the South, but it is difficult to foretell accurately
the immediate results of so vast a change. Mean-
while our Lancashire cotton trade has been under-
going a similar revolution, being forced to transfer
their custom abruptly from one quarter of the globe
to another—not, however, with the loss to the
mill owners that awaited the American dealers.
The loss has fallen with us principally upon the
mill hands, the excessive stock which was on
hand having enabled the manufacturers in many
instances to find profit instead of loss in the
catastrophe. It is not often that the spirit of rash
and heedless speculation brings about such fortu-
nate results to the speculator, but however high
the price of cotton may rise the manufacturers'
prices rise higher, leaving room for the necessary
profit. The long continuance of the war and the
consequent suspension of American supplies have
of course necessitated a considerable outlay in
India and other parts—and the effect of the with-
drawal of so much capital from the country may be
seen in the rise of the rate of discount which, thanks
to the absurd restrictions of our currency laws,
naturally follows it. It would be well if our finan-
ciers would in this matter take a lesson from Mr.
CHASE and his greenback6* which like many other
thingslare as good when "used" as dangerous when
"abused." All the money that leaves the country,
however,‘. •
ior the purpose of stimulating trade in
India will infallibly return to it, speedily we hope,
in the
form of cotton
-bales, which shall supply the
need of
Lancashiremid more slowly in the develop-
ment of thou,
ec sources
eoefsof
supply.our Indian empire which
shall hereafter
her to one of our chief cus-
tomers, and seruraise

* The Cotton Trade, by G, WI-'wary. Saunders and
Otloy,