The Sun.
London, England, 1860-10-02 00:00:00

THE ARMY.

The officers, non-commissioned officers, and men
of No. 5 battery, 9th Brigade Royal Artillery, com-
manded by Capt. G. H. Colomb, were paraded in
Cahill barrack-square, on Saturday, to witness the
presentation of a valuable watch and chain to Serg.
Thomas G. Porcher. On presenting this record of
esteem on the part of the battery, Captain Colomb
alluded in eloquent terms to Serg. Porcher's long
services, as pointing an example worthy of being
held up to imitation. Serg. Porcher, who seemed
deeply affected, briefly but gratefully returned
thanks.

Col. St. John G. Browne, Royal Artillery, arrived
at Pembroke dockyard on Thursday last to take
command of the artillery in the district, in succes-
sion to Col. Burnaby. who leaves with his corps.
Yesterday the whole of the medical students for
commissions as army surgeons, who have been
ordered to join the new army medical school esta-
blished at Fort Pitt, arrived at head quarters, Chat-
ham, in order to be present to-day at the formal
opening of the school.
With the view of encouraging: the cultivation of
a knowledge of the Hindustani language among
the officers and troops belonging to the East Tndia
depots at Chatham, the authorities at the Horse
Guards have appointed a teacher of that language
to be stationed at the garrison, in order that those
officers and men who choose to avail themselves of
the opportunity may place themselves under his
instruction. A garrison order has been issued by
the general in command, directing the various
commanding officers to forward the names of those
men desirous of being taught the language,in order
that they may undergo the necessary instruction to
enable them to become teachers of Hindustani.

Frequent reports having been made to the mili-
tary authorities at Chatham of the great danger of
accidents occurring to the public and military from
the want of caution exhibited by the parties en-
gaged in rifle firing at the practising ground, St.
Mary's, an order has been issued by ajor-General
Eyre to the troops under his command, directing
that no rifle matches are to be made without notice
having been first given to the instructors of mus-
ketry of the several battalions, who will fix the day
and hour at which such matches may take place.
The Antrim Artillery are under orders to replace
the llampshire Artillery at Pembroke Dock. It
was intended that they should arrive previous to
the departure of the latter corps, but as no accomo-
dation existed for quartering them, save by billet-
ing, they have been ordered to Newport, Mon-
mouthshire, until the Hampshires vacate the bir-
racks. The volunteering from the llampshire
Artillery was concluded on Friday evening, and
resulted in 34 men volunteering for the 15th Bat-
talion Royal Artillery, and five to the 12th Lancers
and 14th Dragoons. This, with 43 given last year
to the Royal Marines, makes a total of 82 men
since their present embodiment. A rather novel
feature occurred in several men wishing to volunteer
into the navy. Many still express a similar wish,
and a sort of compromise, advantageous to the ser-
vice might be made by allowing them to enter the
Royal Marine Artillery. It speaks well for this
corps to state that not a man of the batch of volun-
teers was under the influence of liquor when start-
ing for their new regiments.
The Bedfordshire Light Infaptry, under the
command of Colonel R. T. Gilpin, received its an-
nual official inspection yesterday on Southsea-com-
mon. The troops marched out of quarters at the
conclusion of the men's dinner hour, and formed in
review order on the common. Major-Genera'. Lord
Paulet, C. 8., commanding the South-West
District, accompanied by his staff, soon afterwards
arrived on the ground, and was received by the troops
with a general salute. After his lordship had closely
inspected the whole of the men, the regiment
marched past in slow and quick time, wheeled into
line upon the original alignment, and performed
several other evolutions. The regiment, at Lord
Paulet's desire, was then drawn up at quarter dis-
tance column, right in front. His lordship advanced
to the front and said—
" Colonel Gilpin, I can but say how pleased I am
with what I have seen to-day of your regiment,
more especially as your inspection was quite unex-
pected, you only having notice of it last evening.
The steadiness and soldierly bearing of the men in
the field, and the manner in which they have gone
through their work this day, are beyond all praise.
The internal economy of the regiment is equally
good. Your books are well kept; your barracks_
are in first-rate order, and in a thorough stat!_ 0:
cleanliness ; in fact, nothing could be better.._e
they
conduct of the men of the Bedfordshire
lvlvh
have been in this garrison reflects a
and the county to which you belon
credit on you, your officers, your ine,n, themselves,
haTvehegißveednio6r4doshmierne,
tsointcheethtetneh,avaengiaerne embodied,
d i
onlyed,
33 short of their assigned complement.

""---------- .
yin
aP hi
TILE BALLOT SOCIET .—Notwithstanding the
adjournment of the executive committee (which will shortly
resume its sittings) the exertions of the society are con-
tinued. Measures are being taken to secure the return of
ballot man for HOnitoll, in the room of Mr. Joseph Locke,a
M.P., who was a supporter of the ballot. Mr. Moffatt
tyls w.chanenvaspsrienvgioufoslr
Locke, Mr. Herbert
Similar measures are being taken in refrento the va..
voted ot ed memberf
o for of
fhle the
ballot,a ie
cancy at Boston, created by the death
Ingram. The deceased member, like Mr.
the Ballot Society. Tracts on protected voting ewbaesena
supporter of the ballot ; Mr. Ingram was also a member of
sent by post to each elector on the re •
and Buckingham, with a view totohfe vaciur'wseehi:
createsteys of Abingdon
question in those constituencies ; and theinquiry on the
abcint tv be pnrgied in the capi, of same course is
mazty other Inrcnigla.

It is a great se> :action to receive such accounts
as Mr. Bour.ne-sent us last week of the possible
Pi
production of cotton in the West Indies,All the
evidence that reaches this country from alr quar-
ters tends to prove that our dependence on one
country for cotton is a piece of gratuitous rash-
ness which we cannot too soon reform ; and it is
true that the West Indies alone would afford us
much more of the raw material than we could at
present use. This was asserted at the meeting at
Manchester on the 14th ult., and if the West
Indies are not brought into the scheme of the new
company, it is fur other reasons than their capacity
to grow cotton. The chairman expressed his
satisfaction at the reviving disposition in
Jamaica to grow cotton ; and he read an interesting
letter from a missionary, describing the ease and
certainty with which the product can be grown,
and attributing the small supply hitherto obtained
to the neglect of the mother country. The people
are always applying for cotton-seed, have every dis-
position to furnish the produce; but they have
never yet got much by it,. however urgently
pressed to try their hands at it. They need in-
struction in dressing the cotton, a steady market,
and a way of getting at it. Such is the testimony;
and it is not surprising that of 40,000 bags a week
used last year in our manufacture, only 132 bags
were from the West Indies. It was satisfactory to
the meeting to whom these fact 3 were related to
find that efforts were making to form a company
for growing cotton in Jamaica; and no doubt it
would at any time be good news that the whole
group of West India colonies, qualified for the ob-
ject was included in the scheme. It suits the pur-
poses of the new Company, meanwhile, to con-
centrate its activity upon India and Australia. In
India labour is cheapest : in Australia the best
cotton in the world is produced. Government is
ready to make concessions of land and to give aid in
obtaining labour ; and in those countries there is
the amplest certainty of a vast commerce as an
immediate result of an effective and steady de-
mand of cotton on our part. Under these cir-
cumstances, it is proposed to devote nine-tenths
of the Company's capital to India, and the remain-
ing tenth to Australia. It will be admitted on
all hands that one main condition of success in
such an enterprise is to propose a distinct and cir-
cumscribed aim. In the present case this is done.
India affords cotton, fit for a good many, but not
all purposes, at Id, per lb. on the spot, and sus-
ceptible of improvement up to a selling price of
11d. per lb. in Manchester. Further on in the
same direction—in Australia—there are vast
areas (one larger than France in Queensland
alone) which can produce the finest sorts in which
India is deficient. In both these dependencies,
Government can help by grants, or a nominal
lease of lands, by encouraging public works con-
ducive to transport; and, in Australia, by aug-
menting the supply of labour. In India the labour
is on the spot—cheap, docile, and willing. These
are sufficient grounds for the choice of a field of
action : but the further consideration of the vast
extension of commerce through this new demand
of an Indian and Australian commodity has been
very powerful with the leaders of the movement.
We have seen what a trade has been created by
the Australian export of wool ; and we are told
that more than as much again might accrue from
an export of cotton, if India did not beat Aus-
tralia in the cheapness of some kinds, as Australia
beats India in the excellence of others. We are
told that with moderate enterprise and skill these
countries would not only take a vast amount of
manufactures from us, but would so reduce the
price of cotton as to enable us to get cotton and
" breadstuffs" together from America for the
same money that we now pay for the cotton alone.
This statement supposes such an extension of the
demand for cotton as would make us still cus-
tomers of the United States, however much we
may get from our own territories. In such a
case there can be no fear for the West Indies.
They could assuredly produce cotton more cheaply
than the slaveholders, and their being able to do
so is the ground of the effort now making (as an-
nounced at the Manchester meeting) to form a
company for the revival of cotton-growing in
Jamaica. Reference was made to Africa also,
where Mr. Cleigg's exertions have effected all that
could reasonably be looked for in the time. These
several movements are not antagonistic. The
leaders of each are friendly and helpful to the rest ;
but the large effort now proposed has its own aim
and its own field, and assigns its reasons for the
choice.
It seems incredible that we should not be pre-
sently relieved from our miserable and perilous
dependence on a single producing country, now
that so many agencies are at work for our rescue.
Last year only 8 per cent. of our cotton supply
came from the Queen's dominions, while four-
fifths of the whole quantity came from the United
States. Two or three years hence we may hope
the proportions will be very different. In order to
make them so—in order also to guard ourselves
from the consequences of accidents in America,
and from the commercial dishonesty there which
mulcts our importers of nearly one-third of the
cotton they pay for, there must be an active sup-
port of measures for getting cotton elsewhere. The
money we are paying for the sand and stones
shipped from New Orleans with the cotton, and
for the cost of slave labour in comparison with
' free, would obtain supplies from our own de-
pendencies. Hitherto there has been no channel
through which the effort could be made. The
previous association, now merging in the new
Cotton Company, has done good service within
its own scope ; but its scope was not that of the
company now starting its great enterprise.
The proposal is, as our readers may have seen,
that the capital shall be .£lOO,OOO ; and that the
work shall begin when half that amount is sub-
scribed. The returns of profit are expected to be
very large ; and a reserve fund of a million is
proposed to be formed out of them, after paying 10
per cent. Such is the prospect held out ; and it is
for our manufacturers, before any other men, to see
to their duty in regard to it. The speakers at the
meeting expressed themselves very strongly in
regard to this duty. They think that men who
have made their fortunes (and such fortunes ! ) by
the cotton manufacture can never be justified in

leaving another generation to the chances of a
failure of supply which would destroy a third of
our commerce. They have called up around them
an industrial population equal in numbers to the
whole population of Belgium ; and, having grown
rich by that manufacture, they are bound to lay
out a fractional part of their wealth in rendering
the basis of the manufacture secure. As it happens'
the investment will be a profitable one ; but t it ,
were not sure to bo so, there could bo no essell:
from the obligation of the case. Such i_uftae_
openly-expressed opinion of the leading Tau
disputed.
turers ; and its soundness will hanily
Others might add the consideratio
one which
tion of our manufacturers is not p c.,
're feelings. They
ilsetibhyeat the posi-
tion
be agreeable to Englishmeen
Atsiantic, as the real
are regarded, on both sides th
avoidably or other-
supporters of American
tion to the United
wise. By their recent slavery,
d eepaunl a
be done about the
States, to ascertain what_llers, they show how vexati-
frauds of the cottonh
sellers,
are on fhose of whom alone
naThbelyinmdnuesstsbteoass facts- are
ously •dependent
eialret.nercieaTla.hey
they can buy theirt
cannot but know
that the time
...
iforoinves
and prospects is them to make all safe ; and
that it rests
with
hat, in making all safe, they
cannot but fee! ! they will
Peel of independence
recover a
been and personal
which hastoo long forfeited. The
dignitY
f ro•stavery Americans about
taunts 0 P our taking
•
all we ~n get of their slave-grown cotton are simply
foolish. They have no relevancy but in the case
of a commodity which can be grown only by slave
labour; whereas cotton is actually better when pro-
duced by free Germans than by negro slaves. But
our manufacturers would be 'ad
vantageous
position an
position in every way if they could derive their
material from various sources. Not only would
they have all they want, all in good condition, and
all cheaper, but they would cease to be regarded
as implicated in
the greatest social scandal which
exists in Christendom.
- Very possibly they may
indignantly and sincerely spurn the imputation of
abetting American slavery more or less, but they
may than fairly claim to have disconcerted and dis-
countenanced it more effectually than anybody
else. Duty to others and to themselves coincides in
a very remarkable way, in this matter; and we
trust the result will he seen in the immediate re-
moval of the greatest danger which impends over
our national fortunes.—Daily News.

SALE OF THE. PERTH THEATRE.—This
which was erected about 40 years ago, at a cost of upwards
of £2,000, but which for many years past has been an un-
profitable speculation for the shareholders, was on Friday
exposed for sale by public roup, in the Royal George Hotel,
at the upset price of £550. grocer a brisk competition 13J-
tween Mr. Robert Stover, grocer, and Mr. Spotiswoode,
solicitor, the theatre was knocked down to
tothe latter
the
£586. The purchaser, it is unslerstood, is conort t"
tc) other purposes,