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

THE GROWTH OF CoTTON.

The magnitude and urgency of the question
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 questions
which concern us more vitally. At the bottom of
our power and prosperity lies our manufacturing
industry, and how vast a proportion 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 despatched 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 means that millions more are learning

the same lesson. There is nothing factitious about
the matter, marvellous 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
are 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 dependencies of our own, it becowesof extreme
importance to take up in good time a matter at
once so important and so practicable. It is all 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 ommerce 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 furnished 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 ? 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 t°
be revived again. The second and third will 1
better comprehended after a little explanation. In
our own country, as in most countries of Europe,
labour is an obligation imposed upon the great mar
of mankind by the very conditions of their &WY
life. Food, clothing, fuel, and shelter are nature's
own requisitions; 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
negro life can be obtained through a large per •
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 ""
treme, and the rest of their wants can be satisfied
without any more 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 is little inducement to labour, and lit-
tle labour to be obtained.
But why not import free labourers ? or why, al
any rate, object to their importation ? Even 1
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 suPPIY
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 numbers
to assimilate the conditions of daily existence to
those prevailing among ourselves, or they must be
landed on such terms as would invest the emploYel
of tabour with the power of exacting it in fill
measure. Now, to these terms the philanthropists
who had been most active in procuring the sur
pression of slavery entertained strong objections.
They held that any arrangements communicating
such a character to the labour market would equi-
valent to the re-introduction of slavery in disguise'
so the end of it was that labour was not forthconr
in,,e that the Demerara estates were not cultivated
and that no cotton is sent from those parts to Eeir
land.
But these arguments only place in a stronger
light than ever the value of the cotton-fields of
India. There, at any rate, we escape all the em-
barrassments of the labour question ; for there, owi,eb
to the peculiar character and density of the pop
tion, labourers ca'i be procured in any numbers with-
out any talk of slavery. The aspect of this matter
at present is very far from satisfactory. When luri
Vernon Smith claimed for Government, as he all,
on Tuesday and Wednesday last, the credit ' °L:
sympathising with those who desired to pronto'''.
the cultivation of cotton in India, his •allegations
were doubtless well founded, for it is absurd tcci
suppose that any Administration could be Win
to the true bearings of such a question. But tb°
actual progress of the work is not what 3
361
should have been, considering how long 2,
importance has been acknowledge. Very possibly
e
Sea Island cotton may not thrive well in the 1)%
can, but that cotton of very good quality can °,6
produced there, and to an unbounded extent,
beyond a doubt. Mr. Vernon Smith acknowledge°
too, that the article produced was capable of 01,1:i
siderable improvement by the expenditure
greater pains upon the production. Why, then,
should not so good a work be carried vigorouslYo
forward ! The committee which sat nine years egt
to consider this question reported that the grea,
obstacle consisted in the defect of the coromunir,°o
tions, and the absence of proper facilities in it
way of transport. This obstacle, however, is n°o
in a fair way of disappearing, and there can be
na
~u 0
reason why India and England should not
speedily brought into a new connexion of infin''
advantage to both countries alike. —Times.