The Sun.
London, England, 1861-06-20 00:00:00

2118 SUPPLY OF CO2TON.

An Association for the supply of an article in great
demand is by no means an extraordinary phenome-
non, but the case does become rather singular when
it is announced that the " supply" in question is
not to be actually effected by the Association, but
only promoted. We have companies for the manu-
facture, sale, and general supply of almost all
imaginable commodities, but in one instance only
have we a company for the encouragement of other
companies in a particular line of business. The
" Cotton Supply Association" undertakes, not to
supply cotton, but to see that cotton is supplied.
Many people might think that the best association
for this purpose was that constituted by the manu-
facturers of Lancashire, and such was certainly the
opinion of the manufacturers themselves. Yet they
have been rather at fault in the matter. They con-
tented themselves with a single source of supply,
and took no account of the chances of interruption.
They could not believe that any disturbance would
occur. They thought that if it did occur the
void would soon be filled up from other sources, and
they conceived that in any case they could not do
better than maintain the demand, and leave the
supply to regulate itself, according to naturallaws.
It is clear, however, that the risk was greater than
they imagined. The exports of cotton from the
United States must almost certainly be diminished
and if the matter had not been taken in hand
some time back the consequences must have been
truly serious. Fortunately, we are not without
other strings to our bow. It is about fourteen
years since we first called attention to the subject
in these columns, and if our security is still im-
perfect a good deal has been really accomplished in
the way of guarantee. We could afford to lose
a considerable portion of the American crop with-
out much harm, and in a few years more we may
see the sources of our supply so multiplied that all
danger of deficiency will be past. The Association
which has specially charged itself with the promo-
tion of this supply has just published its fourth
annual Report, and from that document we can
gather some very encouraging information.
Cotton is a plant which can be grown in so very
many countries that the mere selection of soil
counts for nothing in the problem. There are
hundreds of spots in our own colonial empire
which could produce cotton enough for the con-
sumption of all Lancashire ; but cotton is of various
kind; it requires peculiar preparation for the mar-
ket, and, as it is bulky in character, facilities of
communication enter very largely into the question.
It is probably not every cotton country that could
produce cotton equal to the Sea Island kind; but
the supply of Sea Island cotton is always mall. It
forms only about 1-50th part of our whole annual
supply ; so that the question of quality is not a very
critical one. The cleaning process is exceedingly
important, but that, again, depends only on instru-
ments which can be easily furnished, and dexterity
which can be quickly acquired. In the end we
come to this, that the whole problem turns upon
facilities of transport. In fact, if India had but
good roads, the question would be solved for the
present ; and that is evidently the opinion of the
Cotton Supply Association. It is easy to supply
good seeds and good cleaning machines, but it is by
no means easy to get the cotton from the field to
the coast. Carriage is either impracticable alto-
gether, or so tedious and costly as to absorb an
enormous proportion of the whole value of the crop.
Another point to be considered is the immense
magnitude of the trade, which calls for a correspond-
ing extent of organisation. That is where the
United States had so great an advantage. They
had got the trade in their own hands, and they had
gradually brought it to perfection. They supplied
the best cotton with infallible punctuality, and in
such quantities as almost to suffice for the entire
consumption of the country. To organize a com-
merce like this must needs be a work of time. It is
a question whether any one country could ever do
again what the United States have done. India would
make the nearest approach to the mark, beyond a
doubt ; but then comes another question—whether
we should not make a point rather of distributing
than concentrating our demands. India has far
greater capabilities than any other country, but
India might be troubled, just like America, and all
our anxiety would come over again. Four years
ago we should have felt a great deal of uneasiness
if all our cotton supplies had been drawn from
Bombay. The object is to insure ourselves against
all kinds of contingencies; against bad seasons and
damaged crops, as well as against political disturb-
ances. To effect this we must divide our resources,
and put our eggs in more baskets than one. Per-
haps we shall never get better served than we have
been served by America; but, unluckily, that ser-
vice was never safe to last. It was always exposed
to danger from the operation of natural circum-
stances, and now events which nobody could foresee
have threatened it with most serious interruption.
What may be the turn of affairs in America we shall
not attempt to conjecture, but if the cotton crop of
1861 has to be raised in spite of war, and exported
in spite of a blockade, it can hardly be expected to
reach us without large deductions.
To compensate for this possible deficiency, we have
many new sources of supply opened. The report of
the Association actually enumerates 58 different
ports from which cotton either never came before,
or had ceased to come, or came in insignificant quan-
tities, but which have contributed to our supplies
with greater or less success during the last twelve
months. Attention has also been paid to quality,
and upwards of 150 samples have been despatched
from various countries to the Committee of the As-
sociation for inspection and appraisement. In fact,
the Association has been doing for the last year or
two all over the world what Government within
the last few months has been doing in India.
The Committee could not speak with official au-
thority, but they "agitated," "corresponded," and
set things in motion wherever they saw a chance.
They let all manner of people understand that we
wanted cotton, and were ready to pay for it. They
described the kind of cotton required, and made
grants of the proper seed. They sent out good gins
for cleaning the cotton, and presses for packing it.
They were ready, in short, to provide everything
except roads, and that, as we have seen is more than
the Indian Government itself can do.

Perhaps it will be asked how far all this was
really called for, and which was in the right—the
manufacturing interest, which was disposed to leave
things to themselves, or the Association, which took
them thus under control ? We have no he,itation in
saying that the doctrines of the Association have
been justified by events. The committee explain
their own position by saying that their object was
not to interfere with the law of supply and demand
but to remove certain obstacles in the way of its
free operation. The truth was that the whole case
was exceptional—exceptional, not only from the.
magnitude of the trade, but from the institutions of
the country which had got a monopoly of the sup-
ply. The manufacturers were right in saying that
their demand would insure a supply in the ordinary
way, but they forgot that the supplies they needed
were more than ordinary supplies, and that their
trade was too important to endure ordinary inter-
ruptions. The Americans, no doubt, were just as
anxious to sell as the Lancashire men were to buy,
but there might come a time when they could not sell,
and then what were we to do ? Wait till fresh sup-
plies rushed into the vacuum ? That would be the
ordinary course, no doubt, and in due time the sup-
plies would certainly have come; but what would
have been our condition in the meanwhile ? That
is where the case differs from ordinary cases. The
trade is so immense, and the interests involved in
it are so incalculably great that we cannot take the
risk of even six months' interruption. It is no easy
matter, as we have found, to deal with the distress
of a single city, but the stoppage of our cotton mills
would throw a fourth part of our population out of
the work from which their daily bread is earned.
So long as the Americans monopolised the supply
no other people felt the operation of the demand.
Now people in all quarters of the globe have been
told that we are anxious to receive cotton, and cot-
ton is coming in accordingly —not a day too soon. It
would have come in, of course, in any case, at some
time or other, but, except for the timely agitation
of the question, it would have come too late.— Times.

• BLED TO DEATIL—When the announcement of
the three bleedings was made in the columns of the daily
press, Cavour was in our mind doomed to death. The
feverish reaction which almost inevitably resulted was en-
countered by more bleeding, in accordance with ordinary
Italian practice ; and after that, what could we expect but
that he would be bled again ? So he was. We were then
informed that there was congestion of the brain, that he was
occasionally delirious and had a slight attack of typhus
fever. How could it possibly be otherwise after all this west
of the life-sustaining material ? Bleed any other man in
the same way; coup sur coup, whose nervous centres had
been long over-excited, and would he not be delirious too ?
Of course, a patient who has been bled four times will be
bled five, as Cavour was, six times, and the final result of
death from hemorrhage will be attained. The Italian
physicians were probably surprised at such a conclusion of
their efforts, but it will not astonish anybody else. It is
possible that this great calamity may induce the profession
in Italy to reconsider their practice—a practice that has
been abandoned as pernicious in every other civilized coun-
try.—Medical Circular.

DEER CROSSING LOCH NESS.—The other day the
Plover, steamer, picked up a fine roebuck, of two years old,
making its way boldly across Loch Ness. What had allured
the animal out of its native element, says the Imverness
Advertiser, does not appear, although we believe that an
adventurous buck has b,-,en known occasionally to cross
Loch Ness, r.lld shift its feeding ground to the opposite
hills.

THE KINGSWOOD NU.RDER.

KINGSWOOD, Wednesday Evening.

This morning at 11 o'clock Mr. Wm. Carter, the
coroner for the Eastern Division of the county of
Surrey, and a jury of the most influential residents
of the district, resumed and concluded the investiga-
tion, which was opened on Friday last, at the Red
Lion Inn, into the circumstances attending the
death of Mrs. Martha Halliday, aged 55 years,
who was brutally murdered on the night of the
10th inst., at Kingswood Rectory, the residence of
the Rev. Samuel Barnard Taylor, and which is
situated on the estate of Mr. Thomas Alcock,

The jury, after a short deliberation, expressed
an opinion that the premises had been burglariously
entered, and returned a verdict of wilful murder
against some person or persons unknown.

The proceedings were then brought to a con-
clusion:

REIGATE, Wednesday night.

Considerable interest was manifested in this town
to-day by the receipt of information that two
foreigners, confidently believed by the police to be
the murderers, had been apprehended walking
together a short distance from Chichester, in Sus-
sex, and were to be brought here by the first train
this afternoon for examination before the local ma-
gistrates in whose jurisdiction the murder had been
perpetrated. Accordingly about one o'clock Mr.
Superintendent Pratt, of the Sussex Constabulary,
arrived with his prisoners who were at once con-
veyed to the Reigate police station. They gave
the names of Jacob Zimmerman and Henry Myn-
fooz, and admitted they were Germans, one saying
he was a native of Hesse, and the other (as we un-
derstood) of Frankfort-on-the-Maine. In most
particulars their height and general appearance
bore a striking resemblance to the descriptions
circulated by the police authorities of the
two men supposed to have committed the
murder, while the younger of them closely answered
the description given by Madlle. Tietjens of the
person who called upon her at her residence at Grove-
end, St John's Wood. One, too, was rather shorter
than the other, while to give greater support to the
probability that they were the parties sought after,
only one of them could speak English. They like-
wise possessed striped shirts, and three different-
coloured cloth caps, all with peaks, were found upon
them. There was also a coat with pockets outside,
like one of those worn by the missing foreigners,
and various other matters of detail strengthened the
belief entertained that the right men had been cap-
tured. The- elder of the two described himself as a
sugar baker out of employ, recently residing in
Whitechapel, and the younger as a waiter, but he
added that he had been travelling through the
country, vending dried rhubarb, a quantity of which
was discovered in a box one of them was carrying
at the time they were apprehended. They had
very little valuable property about them, and one
was without his passport, which was said to have
been stolen from him by another German he met at
Winchester, and who told them he had left Ger-
many because he had murdered a man there. They
answered all questions put to them with the greatest
readiness' and did not seem at all alarmed. They
denied all knowledge of the murder of Mrs. Halli-
day, and stated that on the day it was perpetrated
they were at Ryde, Isle of Wight. They had after-
wards, they asserted, visited Portsmouth, South-
ampton, Winchester, and other places, and were
leaving Chichester when they were taken into cus-
tody. They mentioned where they had lodged in
the above towns.

Captain Hastings, Chief Constable of Surrey, and
Superintendents Coward and Parr, of the Surrey
constabulary, with Sergeant Robinson, of the de-
tective police, hastened over from Kingswood,
where they had been attending the inquest upon
the body of the murdered woman, for the purpose
of seeing and interrogating the prisoners, and
several persons who had seen the two Germans
while they remained in this town prior to the
murder, were sent for to identify the persons in
custody. Amongst them were the ostler and the
female servant from the Cricketers, where they
slept on the night preceding the murder, and also
a person from the shop where the cord found round
the murdered woman's hands and feet was pur-
chased. They, however, failed to identify them,
and the prisoners asserted that they had never been
in Reigate before in their lives; in fact, they did
not know this part of the country at all, and, in
conclusion, mentioned the names of some persons
who they said knew them in London. The prisoners
were, however, put back for the purpose of being
taken before a magistrate.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—June 19.

CLERKENWELL.--DARING ROBBERY AND
CHARGE OF VIOLATION.--Robert Hawkins and
John Flaherty, two ill-looking fellows, well known
to the police, were charged with being concerned,
with others not in custody, in stealing a brooch
and £1 55., the property and moneys of Ann Cole-
well, and also with feloniously assaulting her.
The prosecutrix, who is a servant at Colney
Hatch, came up from that place on Monday morn-
ing last for a holiday, and when she arrived at
King's-cross she fell in with a gang of fashionably-
dressed thieves, who treated her to something to
drink. Unfortunately, she went with them the
whole of the day, and in the evening she went into
a public-house with the prisoners and some of their
companions, and there had some beer. There she
was seen to be robbed of her purse, and the parties
who were serving advised her to go home, as she
was then the worse for liquor. The prisoners and
their companions then took her to a beer-shop, and
had some beer, and one of the witnesses said that
the prisoner awkins took a bottle from a female,
and pouring the contents into the pot, gave it to
the prosecutrix to drink. She did so, and imme-
diately afterwards became insensible, and was then
carried by the prisoner Hawkins and another
man into a low brothel, in North-place, St.
Pancras—one of the worst places in the parish,
and a perfect disgrace, cases of robbery being of
almost daily occurrence there—the prisoner Fla-
herty leading the way. As soon as they got into
the house the window blinds were pulled down,
and cries of " murder" being heard the police were
communicated with, and Ball, of the E division, and
police-constable Towes, 185 S, succeeded in appre-
hending the two prisoners. From the appearance
of the complainant's dress there could be no doubt
that a serious offence had been committed, but no-
thing could be learnt from her, as she was then and
for some time afterwards in an insensible state. She
was examined by Dr. Hopton, of Judd-street,
Brunswick-square, who, though not going to the
extent of saying that a rape had been committed,
said that violence had been used towards her.
Police-constable Cook, 198 S, said that the pri-
soners were the worst of characters, and that
Hawkins had been previously convicted of felony.
Mr. D'Eyncourt said it was a very serious charge,
and one that ought to be fully investigated, for
there could be no doubt that the young woman had
been sadly Mused. He should remand the case for
a week.

The parties prosecuting were told that they had
better apply for assistance to the Associate Institu-
tion for Improving and. Enforcing the Laws for the
Protection of Women.

WANDSWORTH.—SHOCKING CASE OF DE-
PRAVITY.—Henry Newall, a respectably-dressed
youth, in the employ of Messrs. Price, candle manu-
facturers, Battersea, was brought up on remand,
charged with indecently assaulting Rosina Eliza-
beth Allen, a little girl aged six years.
Mr. Edwin, on this occasion, appeared for the
prisoner.

The evidence taken last time was to the effect that
the child was placed out at nurse with a married
woman named Terry, living in Meadow-buildings,
Wandsworth road, and the prisoner was one of Mrs.
Terry's lodgers. The little girl was too ill to appear
on the first examination, but she now attended and
gave her evidence in a very clear and intelligent
manner.

The evidence of two medical gentlemen were
taken, and the whole case was one of unusual de-
pravity in a youth of the prisoner's age.
At the request of the court, the prisoner's mother
(Mrs. Mary Ann Newall), a very respectably-
dressed woman, who appeared very much affected,
was called to give his age, and she stated that he
was 15 last January.
Mr. Edwin addressed his worship in-mitigation,
and said the prisoner's friends were highly respect-
able, and he had previously borne an excellent
character.
Mr. G. H. Spicer, foreman of the candle-works
at Battersea, said the prisoner had been under him
for 15 months, and he always considered him a
moral youth.
Mr. Edwin sail he was not prepared with any
other witnesses, as he was led to believe that the
case would have to ao for trial.
Mr. Ingham said the medical evidence relieved
him from the necessity of sending the prisoner for
trial, and in consequence of his youth and promise
in life he was induced to deal summarily with him.
Two cases of assault had been proved, and they were
of so serious a nature that he felt it was his duty
to inflict the full term the law allowed. He sen-
tenced him to be imprisoned for six months for the
first assault, and on the expiration he would be
months, making together
flu2rtinhoenrtihms,prwisiothnedhaferld•
silftbour. He regretted ex-
ceedingly that it was his duty to inflict so severe a
sentence, but he could not properly do otherwise.
The prisoner was removed to the cells and the
mother left the court crying
bitterly.

LormoN : Printed and Published by 3IURDO YOUNG, of
No. 112, Strand, Printer, at TnE Sux Office, N o. 112,Strand,
in the Precinct of the Savoy, hi the County of
Thursday, Juno 20, 001.