The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-05 00:00:00

THE SUPPLY OF COTTON PROM AMERICA.

More than six months have elapsed since the war closed,
still the quantity of cotton in the Southern States is as
much a matter of dispute as when General Grant was be-
sieging Vicksburg and General Leo holding the Federal
army at bay on the Rappahannock. Reports are plentiful,
bu these are more remarkable for the darkness which they
throw around the question, and for their omissions, than for
that correct information which might now be expected,
and which is fully due.
As an illustration of the omissions continually met with,

I shall just refer to the recent circular of Messrs. W. P.
Wright and Co., of New York. These omissions are :
Ist, the consumption of the Northern manufacturers from
May Ist to October 31st, 1865 ; 2nd, the stock on Oct. 31st
at the Northern mills. 3rd, the estimated consumption of
the American manufacturers from Nov. Ist. to Sept. Ist,
1866, when next next year's crop will be ready. Unless
the American consumption from May to Oct. is got at, and
also the stock in the American manufacturers' hands, as
well as the export stock in port and transit, it is impossible
to get at the correct quantity of cotton already received
from the South. Fortunately, all these facts are ascer-
tained, and, when put together, far exceed Messrs. Wright's
estimate of 742,756 bales as the total receipts.

The American manufacturers are estimated to have used
from May Ist. to Oct. 31st, on an average, 10,000 bales per
week, which is no doubt, if anything, under the mark,
when their prosperity is considered, and also the fact that
they cannot manufacture fast enough. How im•
portant the omissions are, and how they tell. I will jus
put the following facts together :

Bales.

Consumption of cotton in United States May
Ist to Oct. 31st (20 weeks), 10,000 per week 200,000
Exported to Europe in same period 296,000
Stock in ports and transit Nov. 7th (last return) 372,762
Stocks held at the mills of New York and New
England Manufacturers Oct. 31

960,752
Receipts as per Messrs. Wright's circular

217,986

Messrs. Wright have not only under-estimated what has
already been drawn from the hoards of the South, but
whilst omitting what the American manufacturers will
want for the future, they also carefully omit committing
themselves to what is to come, and at tho same time lead
you to suppose not only is the present stock on hand
372,752 bales to come to Europe, but that to a great extent
all the rest of stock in the South may be expected to follow.
I wish it was so, for it would be good news for Lan-
cashire. But unfortunately the American manufacturers
must be first served; and after they get what they want,
Europe will got the balance. How much then will that
balance be ? The best information which I have been able
to obtain from parties in America, who, as I said before,
have gone to considerable expense to get at the true facts,
states that the old stock and the new crop will be from
1,250,000 to 1,500,000 bales. This is confirmed by the
official letter of Mr. M'Culloch, the Secretary of the
Treasury, who, of course, has the best means of getting
at the truth, who can have no intention to mislead,
and who is certainly incapable of stating what is incorrect
or false.

Mr. M'Culloch's estimates, as your readers well know, is

1,300,000 bales. However, I will take the extreme•figure,
and even put 100,000 bales to it for what high prices and
destitution may bring forth.

Old stock in South at tho and of tho

Bales.
1,600,000

war and the new crop
Less consumption in States, May Ist

. _
to Oct. 31st 260,000
Loss estimated consumption in States

Nov. Ist, 1865, to Sept. Ist, 1866 ;
43 weeks, at 12,000 bales per week 516,000
Less exported to Europe Oct. 315 t... 236,000-1,012,000

Remain for export to Europe from
Nov. Ist, 1865, to Sept. Ist, 1866

588,000

That this is the outside may be seen at a glance in
another way. It is estimated, and I am afraid, under-
estimated, that the American spinners will from November
to September next consume 12,000 bales per week. If so
the present stock in all the ports from Maine to Texas and
their present stock of 92,000 bales will not supply them ;
and as nearly 1,000,000 bales is already accounted for,
there remains only what is now in the interior for Euro-
pean consumption. This all authorities unite in saying
cannot be over 600,000 bales, or 14,000 bales per week from
the Ist November till the Ist September next, when
the crop for 1866 will begin to come to the ports for ship-
ment.

We have been permitted to read a letter from a very dis-
tinguished American citizen to a gentleman residing in this
town. The writer is an intimate friend of the Hon. David
A. Wells, the chairman of the commission appointed by the
United States Government, last spring, to revise their
revenue system, both external and internal, and which has
been busily engaged upon its duties since last March. In
a coversation with Mr. Wells on the 22nd of October last
that gentleman informed him that the commission had
been engaged in an examination of the great cotton
question, with a view to determine what is the tax Govern-
ment may place upon it, and that the new crop this year
would not exceed 300,000 bales; and then, after comment-
ing on what was in the States, and on the crops from
India, Egypt, Brazil, and China, stated that we were
nearer a cotton famine than we ever had been before. The
writer regards Mr. Wells, and probably correctly, as being
better informed on the subject of cotton, from the thorough
investigation he has made, than any man in the United
States. Coming as this does from an official source, and
confirming the statement of the Secretary of the Treasury
contained in his letter published in our columns on
Thusrday last, and being a matter which so deeply affects
the whole community, we have felt it to be our duty to
place it before them.—Liverpool Post, Nov. 29.

DEATH OF JACOB COLLAMER.—Hon. Jacob Collamer
the well - known and greatly-respected Senator from
Vermont, died at Woodstock, in that State, on Nov. 14,
at the age of 73. He was a son of Samuel Collamer, who
was a native of Scituate, Mass., and a soldier of the Revo-
lution. In childhood he removed to Burlington, and was
graduated at the University of Vermont, in 1810. Ile
studied law at St. Alban's, and was admitted to practice at
that place in 1812, after which he made the frontiern
cam-
paigni as a lieutenant of artillery in the detached militia
the United States service. He accomplished his course of
preparatory collegiate and professional studies without any
other pecuniary means than his own industry supplied.
Until 1833 he practised law in Washington, Orange, and
Windsor counties, commencing at Barre. In 1821, 1822,
1827, 1828, he represented the town of Royalton in the
General Assembly. In 1833 he was elected an Associate
Justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, and was con-
tinued on the bench until 1842, when he declined a re-
election. In 1843 he was chosen to represent the Second
District in Congress, was re-elected in 1844 and 1846, but
in 1848 declined to be again a candidate. In March, 1849,
he was appointed Postmaster-General by President Taylor,
but on the death of the President he, with the entire
Cabinet, resigned. He was soon afterward made Supreme
Judge of his own State, holding that office until 1854, when
he was chosen United States Senator, which office he
filled up to the time of his death. The death of Judge
Collamer deprives the Senate of one of its oldest and most
useful members. He was a man of clear and acute intel-
lect, and of great integrity of character. His principles of
political action were well defined and were held with tena-
city ; they wore the result of his own independent reflec-
tion rather than of party relations, and though not
pressed with anything like undue obstinacy were never
yielded to considerations of mere expediency. His train-
ing had been that of a lawyer and a judge, and this some-
times gave perhaps too much technicality to his views of
public questions—but he was never overweeningly wedded
to his own ideas, or disposed to thwart practical action
by insisting unduly upon his own opinions. Though re-
presenting one of the most decidedly anti-slavery States
in the Union, he was always moderate and conservative
in his views, and always enjoyed the lull confidence of
his constituents.