The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-11 00:00:00

COTTON IN THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The Aeto York Herald of December 17 publishes a letter
from "a shrewd and experienced cotton planter in the
South," as it describes the writer, which contains informa-
tion, if in all respects trustworthy, of no little interest to
all who are seeking for means of forming a judgment as to
the yield of the American cotton crop of 1869.
The planter says that in all the estimates hitherto
made, the crop of 1868 is taken as the basis
of comparison, but in his opinion that of 1867
should rather be chosen. His reasons are that in the
spring of 1868 many of the planters were either bankrupt
or were going into bankruptcy on account of the heavy
losses which .fell them in. the preceding year, that they
regarded cotton growing with free labour a failure, that
they were unable to obtain the usual advances from the
factors, who were themselves• involved, and that,
therefore, they not only planted late, . but they
planted much less than usual. In 1867 and
1869, on the contrary, the stimulus of high
prices induced early preparations for large planting,
e3pecially in 1869 ; in both years, more particularly in the
Latter, there was plenty of capital; and, consequently, in
both all the land was planted where there was any hope of
cultivating. 1867 proved the wettest season that has been
known for one-and-twenty years--in large districts extend-
ing from North Carolina to Teias, one-half, and even two-
thirds of the crop were swept away yot there was a return of
2,500,000 bales—that is, about 150,000 bales more than iu
1363. Assuming that there was the same acreage planted
in 1369 as there was in 1867—though, the planter says,
it is generally admitted there was an increase—he claims
for the year just closed "5 per cent. advantage
for the more prosperous condition of the plant-
ing interest, the better organisation of the labour
after two years of additional I experience in
managing free negroes, the very large amount of
fertilisers used, and the improved political condition of the
country." " I claim, also," ho adds, "10 per cent. as the
difference in the growing seasons of the two years, one
(1867) being probably the worst in the memory of man,
the other (1869) being probably one of the very best.
Nineteen out of twenty men who planted both years
will say there was more than 10 per cent. in favour
of 1869. There was an 'increase of 800,000 bales
in 1859 from 1858, caused mainly by a good and bad sea-
son. And lastly, I claim five per cent. increase in 1809 or.
account of the pretty general exemption from caterpillars.
I'think four States could be named that would make up
this amount. In all, I claim 20 per cent. increase, esti-
mating the crop at 3,000,000 bales." This estimate, the planter
argues, is borne out by the receipts at the shipping ports
up to the time at which he was writing. In 1868 one-
Vika of the crop was received on the• 10th of December,
and on the 10th of December, 1869, a fraction over a
million of bales had been received. It is objected,
however, that exportation is brisker this season than last,
and that, therefore, the analogy from last year does not
hold: The planter denies the assertion. He says the
Southern people generally expect a repetition of the
last two years' experience—a sudden rise of prices in the
spring; and that, therefore, there is a disposition to hold
back cotton on the plantations. Ho adds that the-
streams leading through very extensive cotton districts
have been unnavigable, making the receipts light
where they were expected to be largest. Letters
from Charleston, Savannah, Augusta, Macon, and Colum-
bus, he states, say planters are holding ley. e, and will
not sell at the prices offered. Hence he infers that the
crop is larger than is estimated, and that the receipts will
be greater in the spring thazi they are now. He concludes
with the assertion that " in twenty-five years' observation
I have never known a very wet or caterpillar season but
what was very much over-estimated, nor a very dry season
but what was very Rauch under-estimated. 3

The liabilities of railway companies for damage
done to pictures and frames has formed the subject of an
inquiry at the Liverpool Court of Passage. A painter and
paperhanger sought to recover compensation from .the
North-Western Railway for damage dono to fifteen paint-
ings and frames, which he valued at about £4OO. The
parcel containing them was delivered to him upside
down from a lorry, and when he opened it he found
the contents were seriously damaged by water. For the
defence it was contended that the company was not liable
for the damage done to. either pictures or frames. Some
witnesses said that the pictures had been badly packed.
The jury found for the plaintiff, for £25 damage done to
the frames, leave being given to the defendants to move
in the Exchequer of Pleas for a nonsuit, as it was argued
that the plaintiff not having deciared the frames. to be di4-
#4O a9rgt4b.44.40 right to CiSl4 99W2V111491,

RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS.

(From the Anglo- Amerwan Timm)
The Report of the Hon. Moen? A. WELLS has
been published, and we now learn under his own
hand his views on the resumption of specie pay-
ments. He considers that unless resumption implies
contraction, little good can accrue. Were it possible
to substitute seven hundred million dollars of coin
for seven hundred million dollars in paper there
would be the same inflation of prices, the same dis-
proportion between imports and exports, and the
same inability to dispose of the products of domestic
industry in fore,,; markets, if, which is impossible,
the gold could be retained in the country. That it
would rapidly be exported is certain ; and wherein,
asks Mr. WELLS, would that reduction differ from
' the reduction of the present paper currency through
a judicious and well-ordered withdrawal. IL is this
tendency to move abroad which constitutes the
difficulty, not in resuming, but in continuing specie
payment. The last dollar, Mr. WELLS adds, would
long ago have left the United States had not the
bonds of the national Government been available
for the adjustment of adverse foreign balances.
This is a wild statement, and one we regret to see
made by such an authority. As the import duties
must be paid in gold, gold must be retained in the
United States to pay them, or, importations cease,
when there would be no adverse balances, and as
the United States is a gold and silver producing
country, the precious metals would then accumu-
late. They are only wanted by the Republic to pay
the import duties imposed expressly to secure the
means of paying the gold interest on the bonds and
to settle any foreign indebtedness. But gold, like
other commodities, is an article of barter, with a
tendency to flow to that spot where the de-
mand is greatest. There is no great demand for
it in the United States, but whenever that de-
mand does arise, and the Republic has anything, other
nations value to give in exchange, it will flow there
' fast enough, therefore the country could never be
depleted iu the way Mr. WELLS describes. It is a
curious fact, that in an elaborate statistical pa-
per from so skilful a financier, he should wholly
have overlooked a consideration of vital import-
ance. He has estimated the excess of freights
' carried in foreign bottoms and the personal expen-
diture of Americans travelling abroad, but no where
can we see in the report before us an allusion to the
large influx of coin brought into the country by
immigrants. Had Mr. WELLS instituted a search-
, ing inquiry he would have found a portion of his
adverse balance met in this way, and a very large
and growing portion met in another ; that is, by
European investment in America, otherwise than in
the purchase of the national bonds. An increasing
1 foreign indebtedness with a country of boundless,
undeveloped resources like the United States is a
sign of progress, not of decay, and its healthiest
. period is while foreigners most freely embark their
capital, though a proceeding signifying an increase
in American foreign indebtedness. Mr. WELLS
argues that seven hundred million dollars in paper
could not be kept redeemable with less than seven
hundred millions dollars in gold, because that
amount is an inflation, of which the effect is to de-
preciate the paper whereby its holder is urged
to exchange it so as to realise the premium on
gold. We cannot see this, for the realization
would very quickly annihilate the premium, gold
speedily partaking of the depreciation of the paper
in accordance with the rule correctly laid down by
the Commissioner. The difference simply is, that
gold being the circulating medium of the world,
and greenbacks being confined to the Ueited States,
the one would flow abroad leaving the other, where-
by a disparity would be created which would again,
and in proportion to the disparity, raise gold to a
i premium, after the inevitable discontinuance of re-
sumption. It is this tendency of gold to leave the
country which is the barrier to American finan-
ciers in the way of specie payment. The Nation
i
I says the ability- of the Treasury or the backs to
resume specie payments does not depend upon the
Treasury, or the Banks, or Congress, or the will of
the whole people, but simply on the amount of gold
likely to be required for export ; and it also argues
• that nothing can enable the United States to main-
tain resumption, except an annual produce of gold
(
i in excess of its annual export. The same reason-
ing is used by the Nation as by the Commissioner,
1 that the ability- of the country to maintain specie
payments can only be regulated by the export of
gold ; it is in discussing the means for resumption,
that where they differ is apparent. Mr. WELLS con-
siders $700,000,000 in paper to be inflation, while
$400,000,000 is not in his estimation beyorat the
wants of commerce ; it is not the ratio between
gold and paper that needs to be regulated, but the
paper circulation with the volume of production
and exchange, of which it is the instrument. His
object is so to reduce prices that foreign nations will
find their interest in exchanging product for pro-
duct, to accomplish which there must be contrac-
tion, for with $700,000,000 of irredeemable paper
prices cannot be permanently and equitably re-
duced. Hence he advocates direct and undisguised
contraction as the one necessity of the situation. Now
itisevidenttheCommissionerbelieves that contraction
would so lessen the cost of producing certain American
staples that they could be exported with profit, the
usual adverse foreign balance being thus adjusted.
The Nation, on the contrary, considers the amount
of gold to be exported, roughly stated, is the amount
by which the imports alone do not make up the dif-
ference. " It: is necessary that the exports continue
the same. If the exports diminish as much as the
imports the balance to be covered by the export of
gold would remain unchanged. Now nothing can
be more certain than that the ability to export
largely depends on a large domestic production ;
that the only stimulus to domestic production is
found in the prospect of a profitable sale; that con-
traction and forced economy diminish. the prices of
all products, and diminish conEquently the prospect
of a profitable sale of products; diminish the
stimulus to production, and consequently diminish
production itself. But if the ability to export
largely depends upon s large production, will not
diminished production diminish our exports,and will
not smaller exports of products compel a larger ex-
port of coin? It is evident that contraction will
not diminish the export of coin." The Nation
wrote before the publication of the Report, and has
arrived at an opposite conclusion to a political eco-
nomist it holds in high esteem. It is certain that
contraction will have the effect of enforcing eco-
nomy in the style of living. Indeed, it has already
had this effect, for trade is greatly depressed ; im-
ports arc declining, the consumption of foreign
luxuries has been much curtailed, and as gold, in
consequence, is not required to adjust adverse
balances it is accumulating in the United States.
That Mr. BOUTWELL so far agrees with Mr. ELLS
in considering it desirable gradually to contraee the
currency is shown by his own Report, and it was the
principle upon which his predecessor.: Mr. M'CUL-
men, steadily worked. Senator Sueinit's plan
for resuming specie payments is contraction dis-
guist d, and it may be concluded that those most
conversant with the subject agree in considering
contraction of the paper currency to be the prin-
cipal step on the way to specie payment. But is
there not a very effective contraction already in
operation in the dissemination of greenbacks into
new channels? What was an inflated currency for
the North before greenbacks were in circulation in
the South, must be less so after a large portion has
been drawn off to supply the total want of currency
1
, for so considerable a part of the Republic; and.
1 according to Mr. BOUTIVELL'S Report, the depletion
of the North is increased through the demand on
the Pacific slope canted by the Union Pacific Rail-
road, through which California and her slater
States are gradually substituting greenbacks for
coin. Be this as it may, the fact is undeniable that,
from whatever cause, the value of greenbacks has
greatly risen within the last two months, and in
their rise prices have so shrunk that the people have
half realized the coming change from an inflated
currency to specie payment. Although the best
known financiers in the United States urge con-
traction to produce the very effects now being pro-
duced without one dollar of contraction, there are
many able men who maintain the proposed remedy
to be a delusion. They point to the fact that affairs
are settling themselves, and that any aid or inter-
im= might precipitate a calamity which the.

undisturbed natural course of events would avoid.
The actual circumstances give weight to their asser-
tion ; hut a close inquiry might devolope the fact
that these effects have in truth been produced by
kind of contraction ; for is it not c‘intraction, if
the growing wealth of one-third of the people has
enabled them to absorb and retain for their own
use a considerable amount of the $700,000,000 of
paper before confined to the Northern and Western
States ? and is it not also true, that new States and
Territories have almost been created since the con-
clusion of the war, requiring their share of the cir-
culating medium ? The real question is, What
amount of currency does the United States require?
a question more easily asked than answered, nor
when fixed will the question be finally settled, for
the Union is like a groq jog child, whose well-
fitting garment of to-day is out of proportion next
year. Perhaps the wisest course would be to leave
the currency alone, and await events, for this is
evident, that no one foresaw the late rapid rise in
the value ( f the irredeemable paper, and no one pro-
fesses to tell what will be the result.

BRITISH COLUMBIA.

(From the Anglo-American Times.)

The telegram from Washington, of the 31st Decem-
ber, with its details of a memorial from British
Columbia to President GRANT praying him to open
negotiations with Great Britain to procure the
transfer of that Province to the United States, has
been received by London journals with incredulity,
or as a bogus petition got up by resident Yankees.
To us it bears a very different aspect ; partly for
the reasons specified by the memorialists, and partly
for other weighty reasons which we have for years pro-
pounded in these columns. Any one who glances at
the map will see that British Columbia must, as as-
serted,in cur many political and commercial disadvan-
tages, from its present isolated position. To the
north-west lies the newly-purchased American ter-
ritory of Alaska ; to the south is Washington Ter-
ritory, and back, eastward, is the impenetrable wil
derness which separates British Columbia from the
nearest civilization acknowledging the sovereignty
of the QUEEN. British Columbia then is shut off
from all real connection with other British territory,
while it is almost everywhere bordered by that of
the United States. Nor is this all ; the similarity
of their products would, as the memorialists state,
lessen the value of any connection with Canada
which could be established. Canada may desire
the erection of an empire rivalling the United States,
with itself as the central power, extending from
the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the United
States to the North Pole ; but British Columbia may
not be at all fascinated by the picture so attractive to
Canadians. In the first instance, the same objection
would arise with the Columbians, as with the Red
River settlers, to being the colony of a colony.
Next, they have no connection, no sympathy, no
trade with their eastern fellow-subjects, and never
could have much, therefore the successful establish-
ment of the Dominion would neither gratify a sen-
timent nor benefit them in a material way. Nor do
we think a well-connected Dominion can be created
out of such territory as the British Possessions, to
make up an homogeneous empire. The Union em-
braces the cream of North Auasrica, and the British
Possessions, although they may be a fine field a cen-
tury hence to the increasing population of the
States, are now but skimmed milk which people can-
not be induesd to take s,, long as the cream is obtain-
able. Through so iuhospitable a region, that system
of communication cannot be established which ena-
bles a central Government to rule over a very wide•
spread domain. It can and has been established in
the United States, for nature has not there raised
her winter barriers, and no district is better ac;
quaints d with the fact, that Canada is in pursuit of
a chimera in its empire, than these British Colum-
biana who now decline to have lot or part in it.
On the otter hand, their trade, intercourse, aspira-
tions are all with their Southern neighbours of
Washington Territory, of Oregon, and California;
the capital, the enterprise, the progress are all
South. Behind them is a howling wilderness, to the
right are SEWARD'S icebergs stored in Alaska, but
before them spreads out the broad Pacific, and down
South are the sunny climes of- California, the gay
and busy city of San Francisco, the centre of
Pacific commercial life, and the spot whence radi-
ates the telegraph, whence steamers ply, and
from which they must take their departure if they
desire to cross the Continent to the Eastern States.
It is vain to suppose that a province thus situated
could look for a connection in any other than a
sou:heru direction. Canada is nothing to the in-
habitants of British Columbia ; California is every-
thing, and it means, the United States. 'There are,
I, too, other obvious considerations which must weigh
heavily with the property-holders of the colony.
Why should this isolated tract be subjected to inva-
sion and conquest from a quarrel occurring be-
tween a European nation and the Eastern States, of
which they know nothing, and in the settlement of
which they have neither voice nor interest? Yet this
might occur almost before they were aware that
such a difficulty had arisen. Why should they have
their trade hampered by the restrictions imposed upon
foreign commerce with the country where their trade
mainly centres ? Why should they be deprived of
the advantages derived by the U. S. Territory to the
south and Alaska to.the north, from the fostering
care of the Washington Government? England
can do but little for them ; Canada, nothing; but
the Republic can do a great deal. Is it, then, sur-
prising, as some London papers appear to think,
that the inhabitants should endeavour to get the
Province enrolled into the territory of the Union?
They must, too, see that Great Britain, under no
circumstances whatever, can derive a shadow of ad-
vantage from extending its sovereignty over their
country. There is no part of that dominion, upon
which the sun never sets, more isolated from the rest
than is British Columbia. By two ways only can
it be reached—either through the United States or
by that longest and most difficult of all passages
round the Horn. With the great chain of the
Rocky Mountains rising along its north-eastern bor-
der, its back, with an impassable barrier, is turned
towards the British Empire, while but an imagi-
• nary and disputed line separates it at its most popu-
lous spot from the United States. The most satisfac-
tory point of the memorial is the feeling expressed in
it towards the old country. It is the force of cir-
cumstances which makes the memorialists desire
the change; no grievance against British rule, and
this is openly avowed in the attachment and loyalty
professed for the QUEEN. Such is the spirit we
desire to see accompanying the inevitable transfer
of colonial dominion, and in it England will as-
suredly reap her reward. The colonial policy, of
GEORGE 111. was the most injurious blow ever given
to the Anglo-Saxon race, and the remedy, after a
century of bickering as well as of war, may be found
jn such friendly severance of the colonial con-
nection as the inhabitants of British Columbia
now propose. On this point we have often and
earnestly endeavoured to express our views, and
although it will take many years to change a deeply
rooted feeling in England, yet with a more
America,
knowledge of the Continent of North
advantage of the policy will, we hope, be unids colony
before it is too late. To Great Britain this
is worse than Useless,thoumghploetfinvgalutehetior tchoeasSttalitenes
of the Pacific slope, as co
Islandfrom B e hri n
must g'
ofs
course Strait
hDiego,it.
Tf ohre Vv aa
Inuceo uo vf et rh'
the
possession to the Eastern States
doubtful
however,bul taadvaanuotigtee.r
matter, and one perhaps of outf
The Pacific slope must soonl becomes
connection, a ve very
its p olvcr
u 1 section of the Union.
trad-
ing ports, the races with whom it comes into con-
tact, differ altogether from those of the Atlantic
aertbeard. The former looks west and sees one
view, the latter looks east and sees quite a different
view ; hence the necessity for a strong bond of
union to
preserve the unity of the Continent, of
patriotic devof foil to the flag, of moderation and
good muse in legislation. The task to fuse all the
Continent into compact nation
is perhaps the
highest ever gii' to statesmen to achieve, and it
M
in, as weell as people
a
can only be achieved by cultivating
law,
th
a love of equity and respect for
cupugh at all times (not
national sentiment strong
merely during a great peril
to the Country) to forego
selfish designs '0494 411 gtaiud- 13 L'ue way c f the
public wall,