The Sun.
London, England, 1862-07-17 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, TITURSD I/ EVENING JULY 17, 1F62.

operatives of France and England are so strong
that Mr. LINCOLN has no right to set against them
the ambition of the North to rule the South, or, if
he prefers the expression, to enforce the restoration
of Federal relations between them.

It comes then to a question of policy. Looking
at India, looking at Canada, have we a right to
inform Mr. LINCOLN that with or without his
consent we shall reopen the cotton trade at the
three ports—Charleston, Savannah, and Mobile—
not now in possession of the Union ? Of course in-
forming him that we did so simply to save our
workmen from starvation, and that we should take
no part in the war, even at those ports, beyond
seeing to it that our traders went out and in in
safety.
In regard to India we see, alas ! that our hopes
have deceived us. Manchester, hankering after
American cotton, and hoping against hope for
peace, did not cover India with its agents, to teach
the natives, and to buy of them, and her operatives
need, now, a speedier help than India can furnish.
As we could not get enough cotton from America
to supply our wants for years to come, India would
still have the fairest opportunity gradually to in-

crease her supply.
But war with America, and danger to Canada,
we are told, would be the immediate result ; then,
it is added, it would be cheaper for us to support
Lancashire in idleness than to fight the North.
To that we demur. We maintain that we should
give no casus Belli to the North ; and the South has
some claim on us; but our operatives' claim to the
cotton the South is willing to sell is of such a
nature that we cannot admit the right of the
North to prohibit our purchasing it. Then, as to
the North declaring war against England, we do

not believe it dare do so. In that case our recogni•

tion of the South must be with an offensive and de-
fensive alliance ; and the South has pretty well
shown that it could furnish the North with military
occupation. Again, France would be heartily with
us, and the North would be in turn cut off from the
world—every Southern port would be opened—the
Mississippi would be restored to the States border-
ing on it, and the Northern ports would be blockaded.
We have, however, no fear of war. The North
would be but too glad to cover its defeat by the
South under the pretext that it could not fight the
South, England, and France together.
As to trade—the South is now our only hope.
The North has out off, with its own hand, the trade
of Europe, and professes to exult in the sufferings
of Lancashire, and the manufacture of all articles it
needs at home. The South, at least, is interested
in free-trade ; so in fact are the North-Western
States, for both want to sell agricultural pro-
duce dear, and to buy manufactures cheap.
We have, then, commercial hold of
the entire South, and of half the North
itself ; and it will not be easy, therefore
probably quite impossible, to unite the whole of the
Northern States in a war with two great European
powers. The main consideration is, however—
would it be right for England and France to insist
on recognising the independence of the South ; or
to insist on—what comes practically to the
same thing—a perfectly free trade in cotton from
Southern ports which are in the hands of the South
itself, it being obvious that the South will not ship
at ports occupied by Northern troops. If this be
right, as we believe it is, then we may safely do it:
We shall be justified both by heaven and earth in
taking cotton from those willing to part with it,
rather than see Manchester and Rouen starved to
death, or supported by charity.

The reconstruction of our Navy—the transfor-
mation of our hearts-of-oak into iron-plates--a
change like this so gigantic and so comprehensive
renders the actual condition at this moment of the
British iron trade a matter of paramount import-
ance. There is not a patriotic Englishman amongst
us but will turn to the consideration of this great
subject, with unaffected interest, whenever, in its
regard, there may arise an opportunity of obtain-
ing anything like reliable information. And here
upon the very threshold, as it were, before taking
another step in search of this reliable information,
the wonderfully welcome fact forces itself upon our
recognition that " for the first time in the history
of the world" the Supply of Iron Exceeds the
Demand ! Strictly speaking, then, the present may
be called with truth the Age of Iron. Far more
even than the Age of Gold—notwithstanding the
affluent outpourings of the precious metal carried
across the ocean in shiploads from California, and
from British Columbia, and from our Australian
possessions. The Nineteenth century is literally
in a double sense the Age of Iron. It is so, be-
cause of the abundant and overflowing supplies of
that once rare and costly material. And it is so,
moreover, still more, if possible, because of the
multiplicity of its means of application or employ-
ment.

Although iron has been more or less in use from
the remotest ages, from the days of TUBAL CAIN,
downwards, the iron trade as it now is, dates
back to a period, comparatively speaking, very
recent indeed. The growth of this wonderful branch
of industry has only in fact been very lately
described in any way worthily. WILLIAM FAIR-
BAIRN, the greatest authority upon the subject of
Iron living, the greatest worker or applier of iron
(we might venture to assert without any fear what-
ever of contradiction) either living or dead, is the
practical philosopher and master engineer whose
hand has but very recently traced the History of
Iron, and narrated with befitting accuracy its Pro-
perties and Processes of Manufacture. Others
with him—SCOFFERN, CLAY, OXLAND, TRIIRAN,
AITKIN, PICKETT—had previously recorded the
peculiarities as the various useful metals and
their alloys, particularising at the same time (1857)
their application to the industrial arts. But Mr.
FAIRBAIRN it is who has still more recently (1861)
penned—it should have been either with the latest
improvement in the shape of a steel pen, or with
some classic specimen of the iron stylus—the
" History of Iron," with the record, as we have
said, of its Properties and of its Processes of Man-
ufacture. Aided by all the lights that have thus
been thrown upon the past and present condition
of the iron trade, more particularly in our own
country—we arrive at the distinct apprecia-
tion of the wonderful and vitally important fact
above alluded to. Namely, that precisely at
the very epoch when such a circumstance has be-
come, so to speak, more than ever desirable, we
might say even, in a measure, an imperative neces-
sity—for the first time in the annals of the earth,
the supply of iron exceeds the demand, within the
present century ! That although the period has
actually arrived when England has been covered
over with an iron network of more than 10,000
miles of railway ! A length of iron road requir-
ing in its mere repair a daily consumption
°I nearly 500 tons of this now all but
übiquitous
spicuous,
.metal. As a circumstance con-
. 'Y indicative of the vast consump-
tion of •
trous we have mentioned these
more than ten thousand:rill:ae:Hes of iron railway
—merely to begin
machinery with! Besides those we have iron
possible; calculation ! we constructing beyond all
andiron have
ou r bridgesestuaries.
our directions spanning
We have iron houses,
and churches per.
in all