The Sun.
London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BUN.

Sin,—The whole controversy between the advocates
for convertibility and nor.-convertibility hangs upon the
wording of the Bank note issued.
If the note is to run " I promise to pay," of course,
unless a fraud is covertly intended, gold must be retained
in sufficient quantities to honour every note. In this
case let us adhere to Peel's Bill, for it carries out this
intuition as far as is practicable, with the very existence
of the nation, and to the uttsr prostration of trade every
five years.

But it the note is to be inconvertible into gold, let it
say so on the face, and lA it run as follows :—" Know,
all men, that this note is legal tender for all debts and
taxs."

As for the middle men, who wish to issue more paper
promising to pay gold, their logic is only equalled by
their honesty.

JAMES HARVEY.

NATIONAL DISCOUNT COMPANY.

Yesterday afternoon the first annual meeting of the above
company was held at the London Tavern; Mr. F. W. Russell,
M.P., chairman of the board of directors, in the chair.
The following were the principal heads of the report, viz. :
" The directors, have the pleasure of submitting to the
shareholders a statement of the affairs of the company, on
the 31st of December last, together with an abstract of
the profit and loss account, which shows a net profit of
7,7661. 14s. 10d., after the payment of current expenses,
and providing for bad and doubtful debts. The directors
recommend that a dividend of 3s. per share on the original
shares, with a proportionate dividend of 3d. per share on
the deposit upon the now shares, together amouiting to
6,3761. ss. 3d., be declared, and the balance, 1,`3901. 9s. 7d.,

be carried forward to next account. It is suggested that the
liquidation of the preliminary expenses shall be spread over
a series of years ; no appropriation towards them is proposed
at this early period, but they have been held in view iu the
amount of the balance to bo carried over. The directors
have to express to the shareholders their satisfaction with
the progress of the business, the bills discounted to 31st
December Laving amounted to 5, 926,4131. 16s. ld., and the
number of accounts opened being 845. The results would
have been still more favourable but for the sudden advance
in the rate of interest in October, and the great scarcity
of money which has since prevailed. It must also be
kept in mind that the growth of every business is gra-
dual, and the forming a connection a work of time, while
the expenses of an efficient establishment are immediate
yet indispensable, The capabilities of the office have been
necessarily adapted to transactions of a much greater ex-
tent, but as tho business increases the expenses will each
year become a comparatively lighter burden on the profits.
The offices at present occupied by the company, though
sufficiently central, are most inconvenient, and the access to
them has been much complained of ; but the directors are
happy in being able to announce that after several protracted
and ineffectual negotiations they have at length secured a
most eligible site in Cornhill, on which they propose to erect
a building which will afford suitable accommodation for the
business of the company,"

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the report, ob-
served that if the directors had so desired, they could have
put the company forward in a more favourable light had they
delayed the meeting, for, in point of fact, their business ope-
rations extended over seven months only. Under those cir-
cumstances, the results were most satisfactory ; when the
company commenced business, interest upon money stood
at 4 per cent. ; but later, in the month of October, that
rate suddenly rose, and continued high, and thereby
the profits of the undertaking had been diminished, It
would bo seen, therefore, that the business had been
steady and progressive ; and, considering the prejudices that
first prevailed on the subject of limited liability, he thought
the shareholders had good reason to congratulate themselves
upon their early operations. With respect to the assets of
the company, the auditors had gone fully through them, and
found them to be perfectly safe and correct, while the share
registers had also undergone an equally searching examina-
tion, and they also were found to be perfectly straightfor-
ward.
Some dis:ussion took place upon the subjectof the preli-
minary expenses set down in the capital account at 5,6141.
10s. 2d., the item in the profit and loss account of 8,032/.
15s, for current expenses, directors' remuneration, and re-
serve fund to meet losses on unpaid bills, and the cost of the
proposed new offices in Cornhill, but ultimately the report
was adopted and the dividend declared.
Tho retiring directors were re-elected, and thanks having
been voted to the officials, directors, and the chairman, the
proceedings terminated.

THE GROWTH nE e;•TroN.

The magnitude and urgency of the ques!ion
touching our supplies of cotton may be inferred
pretty plainly from the fact that, even among the
exciting topics of an Address, the subject emerged

successively to the surface on the first two nights

of the session. Few indeed are the questiorls
which concern us more vitally. At the hi,' torn of
our power and prosperity lies our manufacturing
industry, and how vast a proporidon of this in-
dustry is fed with cotton we need not stop to
explain. More than half of the entire exports of

the United Kingdom was deTatched last year
from the port of Liverpool, and of this total
a very large amount consisted of manufactured

cotton. The whole consumption of the country is
at the rate of 43,000 bales a week—more than
2,250,600 bales a year. Nor is there any likeli-
hood of a decline in this respect, except from a
failure in the raw material., The demand is both
' a wholesome and a natural one, created by the
spread of civilisation and the extension of navi-
gation and commerce. Its steadiness only implies
that millions upon millions appreciate the most
convenient description of raiment, while an increase
in its rate mean; that millions more are learning
the same lesson. There is nothing factitious about
the matter, maivellous as it is. In the necessities
of life clothing comes next to food, and this clothing
it is our vocation to furnish to the world. We
possess coal, iron, labour, skill—all the energy, re-
quired for toil, and all the science required tomake
that toil effective. We want from others nothing
but the material to work with, and the simple
question is, how to insure a supply on which such
enormous interests depend.
Stating the facts broadly, we actually use more
than half the world's produce of cotton, and could
use a good deal more. Of this produce five-sixths
:ire raised in America lone, nor is there any doubt
that America will always grow as much cotton as
it can, and always supply as much as it can to its
best customers. But the productiveness of Ame-
rica, as Americans themselves confess, is limited,
and, moreover, its own manufacturers make their
demands upon the crop. Inasmuch, therefore, as
cotton can undoubtedly be grown in many other .
countries, and, what is still more to the purpose, in
many dei)end.encies of our own, it becomes of extreme
importance to take up in good time a matter at
once so important and so practicable. It isall very
well to reflect, as we can with entire complacency,
on the fact that we support without exhaustion
whatever taxes may be required for the public ser-
vice, but this strength itself arises from successful
and remunerative industry, while the chief aliment
of this industry is contained in the wool of the
cotton plant.
At the annual meeting, the other day, of the.
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce the subject, Of
course, received the prominence which might have
been anticipated, and one of the members of the
Chamber enlarged to some extent upon the re-
sources furnishe in this respect by our colony of
Demerara. The facts alleged were exceedingly per-
tinent and striking. In Demerara there are, he said,
now fewer than 490 cotton estates thrown out of cul-
tivation and abandoned. These estates, if in good
work, would of themselves yield 150,000 bales of
cotton a-year, while the virgin land of the colony,
yet untilled, and adapted to the growth of this
precious material, is sufficient in extent to furnish
our entire supply. Such was the purport of the
communication—a communication made by a gen-
tleman who had spent a considerable part of his
life in the colony in question. Why, then, is the
cotton not produced, and why, when the article is
so sure of a sale in British markets, is it not raised
and exported by British colonists l The answer to
this query involves a very serious topic.
The truth is this :—Cotton is not grown in
Demerara as it might be, because there is no
labour procurable ; and labour is not procurable,
because slavery has been abolished, because there
is no incentive to toil operating on the native
population, and because great impediments have
been opposed to the importation of free labourers.
The first of these points requires no comment :
slavery has been destroyed, and it is not a thing to
be revived again. The second and third will be
better comprehended after a little explanation. In
our own country, as in most countries of Europe,
labour is an obligation imposed upon the great mass
of mankind by the very conditions of their daily
life. Food, clothing, fuel, and shelter are nature's
own requiQitions ; after these come the calls of the
taxgatherer, and it is as much as unskilled industry
can do to meet the aggregate demand by sturdy
and unceasing toil. But in the tropics these
conditions almost vanish. What with the nature
of the climate, the fertility of the soil, and the
habits of the black, most of the necessities of
neg,ro life can be obtained through a large por
tion of the year with little or no exertion. The
apparel of the dark-skinned race, when not selected
as an expression of vanity, is scanty in the ex-
treme, and the rest of their wants can be satisfied
without any mere trouble than is involved in
squatting upon some corner of an abandoned es-
tate. The result is no more than natural. Where
subsistence is easily compatible with vagrancy and
sloth there zs little inducement to labour, and lit-
tle labour to be obtained.
But why not import free labourers ? or why, at
any rate, object to their importation ? Even if
they dd no good, and followed the example of the
native blacks, that could hurt nobody but those
who invited them, and who might be left to take
care of their own interests. Here, also, there are
special considerations involved. By a supply of
labour is meant, in the eyes of the planters, such
an aggregation of labourers as shall render work,
practically speaking, a matter of compulsion. Either
free labourers must be imported in such numbed
to assimilate the conditions of daily existence to
those prevailing among ourselves, or they must be
landed on such terms as would invest the employer°,
of labour with the power of exacting it in full
measure. Now, to these terms the philanthropiSt°
who had been most active in procuring the sup'
pression of slavery entertained strong objections.
They held that any arrangements communicating
such a character to the labour market would own'
valent to the re-introduction of slavery in disguise,
so the end of it was that labour was not forthconl"
ing, that the Demerara estates were not cultivated,
and that no cotton is sent from those parts to Eng"
land.

But these argumerats only place in a stronger,
light than ever the value of the cotton-fields 01
India. There, at any rate, we escape all the enl-
barrassments of the labour question ; for there, owing
to the peculiar character and density of the popubv
tion, labourers can be procured in any numbers with-
out any talk of slaver y. The aspect of this matter
at present is very far from satisfactory. When Mr,.
•Vernon Smith claimed for Government, as he cha,
on Tuesday and Wednesday last, the credit 01
sympathising with those who desired to promote
the cultivation of cotton in India, his allegation°
were doubtless well founded, for it is absurd. t°,
suppose that any Administration could be blow
to thta true bearings of such a question. But the
actual progress of the work is not what 1t
should have been, considering how long . its;
importance.i has been acknowledge. Very possiblf
Sea Island cotton may not thrive well in the Dec"
can, but that cotton of very good quality can • b.o_
produced there, and to an unbounded extent, 1*
beyond a doubt. Mr. Vernon Smith acknowledged,
too, that the article produced was capable of eon;
•siderable improvement by the . expenditure 0'
greater pains upon the production. Why, then,
should not so good a work be carried vigorously
forward ! The committee which sat nine years ag°
tocomider this question reported that the great
obstacle consisted in the defect of the communice_
tion s, and the absence of proper facilities in th°
way of transport. This obstacle, however, is nov‘..•
in a fair way of disappearing, and there can be n:.
reason why India and England should not
.1)1'
speedily brought into a new connexion of infinite
advantage to both countries alike.—Times.