The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-21 00:00:00

LAUNCH 01 THE LLANDUDNO LIFEBOAT.

Seldom has any town in North Wales witnessed
such an inspiring pageant as that which delighted
the inhabitants of the modern " Queen of the Sea"
on Tuesday last, in honour of the launch of the
splendid lifeboat, presented on behalf of two philan-
thropic ladies, by the Royal National Lifeboat In-
stitution.

The munificent gift arrived at the railway station
on the previous day, when immediate steps were
taken for launching her with befitting eclat to the
noble mission on which she came.

At noon on Tuesday the town wore quite a holi-
day aspect. The shops were closed, business being
suspended for the day; and from windows and
turrets floated a liberal display of flags and banners,
while the inhabitants, in festive attic, thronged
the station esplanade, the place chosen for marshal-
ling the procession. There, mounted on her car-
riage, was the lifeboat, gaily decked in a full suit of
bunting, with the British ensign at the main, hav-
ing her gallant crew on board. The 7th Carnarvon-
shire Volunteer Rifles, under the command of Capt.
Edwards and Lieut. Farrant, were present as a
guard of honour. The guard comprised, with the
others,EnsignDarbishire's division from Pen dyffren .
A team of caparisoned waggon horses were yoked to
the carriage, and the procession, amid high and
hearty acclaim, began to move, followed by a train
of many carriages, the postilion leading on foot, and
after them an immense concourse of spectator€. The
procession made a detour through the leading
thoroughfares, and arriving at a central point of
the beach in front of the Crescent, the carriage was
backed down to the water's edge. Prior to the
boat being launched the assemblage•joined in the
service for the occasion, conducted by the rev, in-
cumbent. An appropriate hymn was first sung,
after which the rev, incumbent proceeded with
part of the 124th Psalm and a suitable prayer.
Lady Augusta Mostyn was then presented with
the bottle of wine, which was suspended to the
stern, and naming the boat the Sisters' Memorial,
her ladyship gave the signal for launching. At the
tiller stood a gallant sailor, who had lost his arm,
and as the vessel left the shore her rudder un-
shipped, but the accident served only to show how
speedily such mishaps may be remedied ; the one-
armed coxswain threw himself along the quarter-
tank, and in a trice shipped the helm. The sea
came into the bay in a heavy roll, with a strong
north-west blowing, which gave the spectators
some idea of the boat's seaworthiness, and the abi-
lity of her gallant crew, as they speedily righted
her on mounting to the top from the trough of the
wave.

The Rev. the Vicar of CONWAY, by the invita-
tion of his brother clergyman, then addressed the
assembled. concourse. The eloquent clergyman
observed :—We are engaged in a blessed work.
The very name of it—a lifeboat—warms our hearts.
We hear every day of inventions for the destruction
of life, here are means for the preservation of life.
Look at the ocean before us ; even now it wears
a sullen frown, and a little more would lash it
into: fury. You have seen ere now, its waves
ascending mountain high, and dashing against
your very doors—you have seen whatever vessels
chanced to be within your view, driven on
those jagged rocks or engulfed in the treacher-
ous sand. You have heard cries from the riggings
of these ill-fated vessels which have pierced your
very hearts. At such a moment, what would you
not have given for the means of rescuing. your fel-
low beings from a watery grave ? But no lifeboat
was at hand. The whole coast from Penmen ma.wr
to Llandudno was one blank, offering no friendly
response to the cry of distress. But that God, who
brings good out of evil, did even by the awful catas-
trophe, which happened on the coast of Anglesey
by the loss of the Royal Charter, awake us to a
sense of duty. Probably no lifeboat there would
have proved of any avail, but we were led to think,
what it might effect under other circumstances.
Accordingly steps were instantly taken to secure
what had been so long required—a lifeboat for this
coast. That noble institution in London—the Na-
tional Lifeboat Institution—promptly furnished
every requisite information and aid to the com-
mittee which was here formed ; and two sisters of
mercy, in the truest sense of the word, deter-
mined that the memory of a departed sister should
not be only perpetuated by stone or marble, but by
living monuments—by the grateful hearts not only
of rescued seamen, but by fathers, mothers,brothers
and sisters like themselves ; and if the spirit of the
departed sister be allowed to look down on earthly
scenes, we fondly trust that it sympathises with us
in the work of this day. And in regard to the ex-
cellent lady, who is beloved and esteemed by all
who know her, and who has this day kindly con-
sented to name the boat as " The Sisters' Memo-
rial," must we not feel that she will derive a double
satisfaction from the good work she has performed
when she reflects that this precious gift is the tri-
bute of sisterly affection. And now you gallant
crew, how we envy the work you have taken
on yourselves—arduous and perilous as it is—can
there be a more glorious one ? Can there be one
requiring more hardy courage ? When launched
on the foaming ocean amidst the roaring artillery
of heaven, you will neither hear the tempest nor
see the lightning, for your eyes will be fixed upon
the small dark point before you, whence the cry of
distress proceeds. and you will strain every nerve
to reach it. And when you have received into your
ark of safety those who have long been between
life and death, and are now well nigh exhausted
with anguish and despair, with buoyant hearts you
will retrace your course to the desired shore, and
when you have deposited there your precious charge
in safety, and hear from them the heartfelt excla-
mation, "Thank God we are saved," you will then
have your reward.
After rowing some time in the surf, the crew re-
turned, and the boat was speedily brought ashore.
The Sisters' Memorial is one of the R.N. Institution's
best double-banked lifeboats. _

" God save the Queen" having been sung with
much animation, the interesting proceedings of the
day were brought to a close.
The cost (£200), as has been said, is defrayed by
two ladies resident in Liverpool, in memory of a
departed sister. A commodious and substantial
house has been built for the reception of the life-
boat, her stores, and carriages. In fact, there is
probably not a more complete lifeboat's establish-
ment on the whole coast than that now at Llan-
dudno.

THE DISRUPTION OF THE UNIO
AS IT WOULD AFFECT ENGLAND.

(From the Economi•st.)
We last week promised our readers that we
would take the earliest opportunity of considering
the bearing of the dissolution of the American Re-
public on the interests of our country, both political
and commercial. We will suppose that matters
will go on as they have begun—that the other
Slave States will join South Carolina, and that a
Southern Slave-holding Confederation will be
formed as an independent nation, prepared to enter
into relations with other States.

The first question that arises is, " Will England
recognise the independence and sovereignty of the
new State ?" The natural and spontaneous answer
is, of course, in the affirmative. Our principle is,
and has long been, to recognise and enter into ami-
cable relations with all de facto States and Govern-
ments. The moment the severance is complete and
admitted, we have no concern either with antecedent
causes or proceedings. But here a difficulty arises.
What is our actual relation to the new Republic ?
Is the whole Union dissolved, or has there merely
been a separation of a portion of it ? Are our
treaties and engagements with both sections
'of the Union dissolved by the dissolution of the
Union itself ? or do they still hold with the Norta
as with the original body with which they were
made ? Do the Southern States, in seceding, still
remain bound by the engagements entered into by
the Confederation of which they formed a part at
the date of those engagements ? Or will they
hold themselves liberited from all foreign contracts
by the same act which has severed them from their
domestic connexion.

These are somewhat difficult questions for inter-
national jurists to decide. Probably, as far as re-
gards the Northern States, they will continue to
call and consider themselves as still the United
States, and as holding their former position and
treaties—none the less that they have lost a por-
tion of their territory. The real, immediate practi-
cal problem that lies across our path is this—
' " Will the Southern Confederated States con-
sider themselves bound by those mutual en-
gagements as to abstinence from and suppression
of the slave trade, entered into and still subsist-
ing between the United States and Great Britain ?"
Probably not—since one of their chief motives for
seceding is to be able to renew the slave trade. If
they hold themselves freed, we do not know bow
we can bind them, or make themselves regard
themselves as bound. But supposing our diplomacy
were able to obtain this point, the only consequence
would be that they would give us formal notice of
their intention to abrogate those treaties and
engagements after a certain date. We might
remonstrate ; we might negotiate ; but we do not
know that we could refuse to accept such notice.
The practical shape, therefore, in which the ques-
tion will come before us is this :—" Shall we recog-
nise their independent sovereignty, without
requiring as a condition that they shall renew and
observe the anti-slave trade treaties which subsist
with their Northern brethren, or even accept more
stringent ones ?" Doubtless we shall endeavour,
and in consistency and as a matter of duty ought to
endeavour, to make this condition ; since we cannot
stint our eyes to their notorious and avowed design
of reviving the abominable traffic, and to pretend
to do so would be to surrender the most passionately
and pertinaciously pursued object of our national
policy. We shall urge upon them that the trade is
prohibited by international agreement and by
municipal law in every civilised nation in the
world, and that we can recognise and treat with
no nation as civilised which persists in upholding it.
They will, of course, refuse to accept such a condi-
tion, as it would defeat one of their principal pur-
poses, and will insist on unconditional recognition.
What are we to do, then ? It might seem that we
are simply helpless in the matter. Three courses
are open to us—none of them entirely satisfactory.
We may recognise their independence at once, in
accordance with our usual practice; and, when we
have done so, may proceed to make the best terms
that we can as to the anti-slave-trade treaties. But
this course, though the simplest and easiest,
would be very painful to our feelings of
humanity, for we cannot disguise from our-
selves that it would be nearly equivalent to
unconditional surrender. Or, secondly, we may
formally refuse to recognise them, and abstain from
all diplomatic intercourse with them unless or until
they shall consent to abstain from and prohibit the
slave trade; but it is scarcely necessary that this
negative proceeding would bring them to terms, as
it would not prevent commercial intercourse, and
would at most inflict some trifling 'inconveniences
which might be felt as much on one side as on the
other. If we choose slightly to vary our course and
to ignore the fact of their separation, and to con-
tinue to regard and treat them as still part of the
United States (which would be rather a childish
mode of action), all that we could gain would be
the right of forwarding formal remonstrances, as
against a violation of existing engagements, in case
of any of their citizens being discovered to be
ensngea in the slave trade—remonstrances which
they . would,- of course disregard, and which the
treaties give us no right of following up by any
active measures. Or, again, we may take up the
matter in a high-handed way, and, while refusing
our recognition of their independent national exist-
ence, treat any of their citizens whom we detect in
carrying slaves as pirates, sailing under no known
flag, and protected by the nationality of no known
State. As to the advisability of so decided a pro-
ceeding, we will not yet offer an opinion. But
there is a fourth and a preferable alternative—viz.,
a cordial agreement between ourselves and the
Northern Federation to prevent the renewal of the
traffic at all hazards and by ail means. Such cordial
agreement may now be attainable, but, even with
it, we must bring our forcible interference within
the limits of international morality and, usage, by
procuring from all other civilised nations a cnn-
sentaneous deelkration rendering the slave trade,
like piracy, a crime against humanity and the
world's law. and, as such, punishable by any wit-
ness and pursuer.
Apart from this perplexing question, we see no
reason for anticipating that a severance of the
Union, once effected peaceably and without
catastrophe, will be in any way injurious
to Great Britain. On the contrary, we are not
sure that it may not indirectly be rather bene-
ficial than otherwise. In the first place,
we may expect that America will be some-
what less aggressive, less insolent, and less irritable
than she has been. Instead of one vast State,
acting on every foreign question cum Coto corpore
regni, we shall have two, with different objects and
interests, and by no means always disposed to act in
concert or in cordiality. Instead of one, showing
an encroaching and somewhat bullying front to the
rest of the world, we shall have two, showing some-
thing of the same front to each other. Each will
be more occupied with its immediate neighbour,
and therefore less inclined to quarrel with more
distant nations. Then, too, for some time at least,
that inordinate, though most natural sense of un-
rivalled prosperity and power, which swelled so
flatulently and disturbingly in the breast of every
citizen of the great Transatlantic Republic, will
receive a salutary check. Their demeanour is likely
to become somewhat humbler and more rational,
and it will therefore be easier to maintain amicable
and tranquil relations with them than it has been.
In place, too, of Europe being obliged to watch and
thwart their annexing tendencies the two federa-
tions will probably exercise this sort of moral police
over each other. Neither of them will look with
much complacence on the annexation of States or
territories which will add power and dominion to
the other, and so disturb their relative equilibrium.
Unprincipled and reckless Southerners, like Mr.
Buchsnan, may talk of seizing on Mexico, Nicara-
gua,and Cuba; unprincipled and inflated Northerners,
like Mr. Seward, may talk of seizing on Canada; but
there will be some hope that we may leave them to
each others' mutual control, and smile at the villa-
nous cupidities of both. With the Northern Federa-
tion, too, we may look to maintaining more cordial
relations than we have often heretofore been able
to do; not only will the embarrassing question of
slavery, which has caused so much righteous indig-
nation on our side and so much bitter resentment
and irritation on theirs, be for ever removed from
between us. but the immediate and marked improve.
ment which we may look for in the tone and work-
ing, if not in the form of the institutions ofthe North,
when Southern Democracy, complicated as it has
been with slavery, shall have ceased to poison and de-
grade them, can scarcely fail to bring them more into
harmony with English feeling, because to command
more of English confidence and respect. The more
they civilise (they must pardon us the word, for
assuredly they are getting rid of a barbarizing ele-
ment), the more friendly and cordial shall we in-
evitably grow.
_ _

But what will be the consequences to Great Bri-
tain, in a commercial point of view, of the disrup-
tion of the Union, if that disruption should be accom-
panied by war, and should be followed (as in that
case would be not improbable) by such a general
insurrection of the slave population as would inter-
rupt for a longer or a shorter period the growth of
cotton in the Southern States ? This catastrophe
would be so terrible, its accompaniments so shock-
ing, and its results everywhere and in every way
so deplorable, that we most earnestly pray that it
may be averted ; but the danger of it, if a civil con-
flict does break out, is so obvious and so imminent
that it would be simple folly to shut our eyes to so
possible a contingency. How, then, would it affect
this country ?
It is not easy to over-estimate the extent or gravity
of the consequence to Great Britain of a cessation,
or even of any large or sudden diminution, of the

supply of cotton from the United States. But even
in facing a danger of such vast and admitted mag-
nitude, it is important to be exact as to our facts
and reasonings, and to avoid all exaggerated ter-
rors. Let us recall to our reader's minds the precise
bearing of the case. The cotton manufacture, from
first manipulation of the raw material to the last
finish bestowed upon it, consitutes the employment
and furnishes the sustenance of the largest portion
of the population of Lancashire, North Cheshire,
and Lanarkshire, of a considerable number in Der-
byshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, and York-
shire, and of scattered individuals in several other
parts of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The actual
number of hands directly enrployed was stated by
M‘Culloch in 1854 to be rather more than 500,000 ;
there can be no doubt that k now greatly exceeds
this figure ; and if we take into account the sub-
sidiary trades and occupatons, coal mines, ma-
chine works, &c., and add tle unemployed families
of the workmen, we may safely assume that nearer
4,000,000 than 3,000,000 are dependent for their
daily bread on this branch of our industry.
The total aggregate valueef British produce and
manufactures exported in 1859 was £130,440,000 ;
of this sum cotton goods and yarns constituted
£48,200,000, or more than one-third. Of this sum
the United States took £4,6:5,000.
Let us now see to what extent we are dependent
on the United States for our supply of the raw
material for all this enormots production. Many
countries contribute to our consumption, but none
so largely as North America. In ordinary years
she supplies us with about three-fourths of our con-
sumption ; and we take off "lore than half her pro-
duction. During the last bur years of which we
have full accounts, 1857-1860, our consumption was,
of all sorts, 9;062,700 ; of the United States' cotton,
7,140,000 bales, or rather more than 77 per cent.
But although we usually receive 75 per cent. of
our supplies from North Atrerica, we must not con-
found this with being actually dependent upon that
country for this amount. The practical question,—
if we wish to measure the precise degree of dearth
to which we should be sutjected in case of the
American supply being interrupted,—is, what pro-
portion of our supply could we, under the pressure
of high prices, and stimulated mercantile enterprise,
obtain from other quarters ? To answer this ques-
tion we must look back for exceptional years. It
is true that the West Indies send us little, and send
us all they grow. Brazil and Egypt might send
us somewhat increased supplies, especially by send-
ing less to the Continent. India can send us a
very much larger amount than she really does,
because vast quantities are always grown, and they
are shipped here or consumed at home according to
the ruling prices of the year. Now we find that
in one year (1857) when the crop in the United
States fell short, India sent us 680,000 bales, and
other quarters 255,000* • while America supplied
only 1,482,000 bales. It will, therefore, we think,
be fair and moderate to assume that under such
extraordinary pressure and inducements as would
be presented by Is cessation of the American supply,
we should be able to obtain from India, Egypt, Brazil,
and miscellaneous quarters, at least one-third more
than we did in 1857,—0r a total supply of about
1,200,000 bales. Now, in 1859 our actual consump-
tion (after deducting re-exports) was 2,300,000
bales ; and in 1860 (an extraordinary year) 2,630,000
bales. The extreme effect, therefore, of an entire
cessation of the production of cotton in America
would appear to he this—that our mills would have
to work about half time, as long as the dearth
lasted in full intensity. What would be :the effect
on wages and on profits—whether the manufac-
turers would gain half profits, or no profits at all,
and whether the workpeople would still earn half
wages, or less or more than half—would, of course,
depend upon the question whether the scarcity of
the manufactured article raised its price in the same
or in a greater or a smaller ratio than the scarcity
of the raw material raised its price—a matter as to
which conjecture would be simply idle, The result
upon our exports it is equally impossible to predict.
Very possibly the home market might takeoff a
larger proportion of the total production than here-
tofore ; if it did not, and if we exported half the
. quantity we usually do, the probability is that the
price of this quantity would be so largely enhanced
as to leave the aggregate value of our cotton ex-
ports not far short of its present amount. The in-
' fluence on the shipping trade would of course be
great—freights would necessarily fall.
We have stated what in our judgment—and
apart from the possible effects of panic—will be the
extreme effect of the worst that can ensue (viz., an
entire stoppage of cotton cultivation in America)
on our chief branch of national industry. It is
serious enough, no doubt, and may well cause grave
-uneasiness to all concerned—and who is not directly
or indirectly implicated ?—in the prosperity of the
cotton manufacture. But we may anticipate that
the effects we have described will in actual opera-
tion be mitigated by degrees in various ways. In the
first place a great stimulus will be given to the
already awakened activity of our merchants in pro-
curing supplies of the raw material from quarters
' that are only now just beginning to be thought of,
' but whence, under sufficient pressure, considerable
quantities might before long be procured. Thus, we
kno w by experiment that excellent cotton of the
t•ea Island descriptious can be grown in Australia.
The small shipments of the article that have from
time to time been forwarded to this country from
Port Natal resemble in quality the production of
the United States much more closely than do those
from either Egypt, India, or South America. The
, same observation will apply to the sample bales
bewhichlichvaevtehabt. been received
ed
stimulus
mutluhse
u West ehsitgh prices,Coastof
Africa. From both these quarters there is reason
to
' considerable quantities might be procured as soon
• as a regular traffic could be set on foot and means
• of transport be procured. It has lately become
known that cotton is largely grown in the interior,
and is even manufactured there ; and adequate in-
ducements would no doubt persuade the natives not
only to grow more for our use, but to sell instead of
manufacturing much of what is already grown. In
a few years, too, considerable quantities might
again be procured from Asia Minor, as was the case
formerly. " Smyrna cotton" was once well known
in the trade, and some is still imported.
In the second place, a considerable economy in
the consumption of the raw material would be at
once effected, under the influence of a high rate of
prices, by a general tendency among manufacturers
towards the production of the finer fabrics. Most
mills have a range of potential production (without
any alteration in their machinery) of at least 30 per
cent.—often more. Manufacturers who now use
weekly 100 bales could easily, by turning to finer
fabrics, reduce their consumption to 70 or 75 bales.
Those articles into which the raw material enters
:most largely would, of course, be those which rela-
tively would be most enhanced in price, and for
which therefore, the demand would be most cur-
tailed. " Domestics," as they are called, or strong
cotton cloths and shirtings, and coarse yarns would
be discouraged; and, as their price approached
more nearly to that of linen and woollen fabrics,
would ibe to a considerable extent superseded by
them. Tbis would cause an increase in the produc-
tion of these latter articles, and a consequent in-
creased demand for workpeople, and by this process
a considerable number of the hands thrown out of
work in the cotton trade would be absorbed, and
the suffering to the operatives, though not the loss
to the masters, would be greatly mitigated.
These palliatives would no doubt be a work of
time, but they would begin to operate immediately ;
conclusioniiiretansnheonfnosNdtecushraiogeeidrrnnhectechrevwealeyAbantlotniteooaettbfrhavemienc oae
ug,p
total
nrryoceti
yet
tesno
preferred
rauuet
cuendi
ohos
apprehended.
ttenttac
otbonit
considereofo
Int
ineasand
nT trememberedgtedeore
xoansasswatpnhtrservileaieoolbdrneey:
s,
acetdwtefvh.
production
a roea:
nnt,e;,
labour, and on many isolated plantations production
' would most probably continue—at all events for a
' time.

As to the consequences of the severance of the
Union on our trade with North America, in case
the severance is peaceably effected and no extensive
slave insurrection ensue, we do not apprehend that
any material change will be felt, as soon as the
monetary derangement shall have subsided, and
the existing organization of draughts and payments
shall have been modified as far as is necessary to
meet the altered circumstances. We shall of course
continue to receive from the planting States all the
cotton that we wish to buy and that they have to
sell. Our exports will not probably be much, if at
all affected. It is probable that the Northern States
will raise their tariff as much as the Southern
States lower theirs; we shall send more manufac-
tures to New Orleans, and less to New York than
we do now. What would be the consequences to
our aggregate commerce with America of a general
negro insurrection, or of negro emancipation, it is
idle to speculate and impossible to estimate.

AT It is true that a considerable part of this was re-ex-
ported ; but we have assumed, as the most probable result,
that in such a peremptory demand as the case supposes,
we should retain all we import, our necessities being more
imperious than those of any other country.

[ADVERTISEMENT.] - Holloway's Pills. Sceptics
Silenced.—Many persons who have doubted the wonderful
curative and purifying powers of these pills, and afterwards
witnessed the beneficial effect produced by them in diseases
of the digestive organs, have been constrained to admit
their efficiency, have adopted them as their own domestic
aperient, and graciously recommended them to friends.
Holloway's pills act primarily on the stomach, which they
thoroughly invigorate . they then exercise a most whole-
some influence over the liver, from which they immediately
remove any congestion or temporary stagnation of the bile
or blood. The discovery of these pills was indeed a
triumph ! How much sadness and sorrow have they
banished ? Holloway's pills have relieved thousands from
habitual pain and confirmed ill health.