The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-21 00:00:00

2HE COTTON QUESTION.

It must not be forgotten that the great question
of the day—the Cotton question—has two aspects,
and that both are of incalculable importance. We
will give the precedence to our own manufactures,
and admit that the interests of British industry are
paramount. The first object of all is to keep Lan-
cashire supplied with sufficient stocks of raw mate-
rial suitable in quality and cheap in price. So long
as that result appears satisfactorily insured we
may acknowledge without much difficulty that the
source of the supply is but a secondary considera-
tion. Commerce looks only to the best market, and
our merchants will buy their cottonfrom those who
offer the best bargain, let them come from whatever
quarter they will. There is still, however, after all
this has been granted, a most important question
behind. Lancashire calls for so many million bales
of cotton, but these bales are paid for with so many
millions of pounds. In fact, it is a trade of some
£40,000,000 a-year. It has been the making of the
Confederate States of America, and would do as much
for any other country as it has done for that. Be-
sides considering, therefore, who are to supply us
with cotton, we may also consider what people we
are to supply with money. The largest trade in the
world is open to competition, and whatever country
secures it will infallibly be enriched by the bargain.
Suppose, now, that India should succeed in send-
ing us cotton so good and so cheap, and in such
abundance, that the exports' frem Bombay got the
command of the Liverpool market, what would be
the consequence r shneld first fPel ourselves
relieved from misgivings which have been pressing
on us with increased severity year after year. We
should have the satisfaction of reflecting that we
were no longer dependent for a supply of the first
necessity upon a single country, precariously placed,
and exposed to hazards of more than ordinary magni-
tude and variety. We always knew that a crop raised
by slave labour in a country where the abolition of
slavery was incessantly advocated must needs be
liable to great uncertainties, but we have now
learnt that other causes may occur to intercept
our supplies. The Confederate States have pre-
sumed upon their monopoly so far as to make it
an engine of coercion. They have declared, though
perhaps without much sincerity, that they will hold
back their crops and leave Europe to see what can
be done without them. At the same time their
antagonists are blockading their ports, and leaving
them without an option in the matter, so that im-
pediments never dreamt of in our former calculations
are found to be very possible contingencies. This
interference, too, with our supplies may recur at
any moment. Whatever may be the issue of the
war, North and South may certainly find themselves
quarrelling again, and the first result of a fresh
quarrel would probably be a fresh blockade. With
good reason, therefore, should we rejoice over the
proved capabilities of India to send us all we wanted ;
but what would India not gain at the same time ?
Let any reader peruse the speech made by Mr.
Laing at Manchester on Thursday last, and then
conceive, if he can, t ,e destinies which may be
involved in the issue of the present crisis.
India, the most magnificent and glorious depen-
dency ever attached to a Crown, is at this moment
emerging from a state of political trouble, financial
despair, and what we may almost term industrial
barbarism. Its resources are literally unbounded,
but its population is poor, its taxation heavy, and
its prospects, though brightening, still somewhat
uncertain and distant. Though a balance has yet
to be established between the income of the country
and its expenditure, taxation, Mr. Laing tells us,
has pretty well reached its limits, and the only
hope of improvement lies in a reduction of the
public charges. In this direction, it is true, some
progress has already been made. The enormous
military establishments formerly maintained have
been resolutely cut down, and many thousands of
the population released from a dangerous service for
avocations of a more profitable kind. Happily,
the inducements to peaceful industry have been
largely increased. Wages have risen rapidly, and
the peasants of Bengal are now paid for their labour
on terms which they may well consider attrac-
tive. At the same time public works are pushed
forward with extraordinary vigour, and every-
body is anticipating a new era for India. Now,
what would be the conseqaences if at so critical a
conjuncture India should secure the command of a
trade bringing her a return of X 40,000,000 a-year ?
What would be the effect of this prodigious stimu-
lus to the industry of the Hindoos ? Are we not
f justified in assuming that the whole aspect of the
country and its population would be speedily meta-
morphosed; that waste lands would be brought
into cultivation, railroads completed, canals con-
structed, and communications opened in every di-
rection ? There are two profits to be made out of
the cotton trade—one by the manufacture itself,
and the other by the growth of the raw material.
These are now divided between England and Ame-
rica, but if they were divided between England and
India we should be keeping them all at home.
" Our Eastern Empire," says the Manchester Cham-
ber of Commerce in its address to Mr. Laing, ought,
under improved administration, "to be no longer
a source of anxiety, but of strength, to the Crown
of England." Any Administration which made
Indian fields the feeders of Lancashire looms would
infallibly bring this result to pass. Give India the
custom now monopolized by the Slave States of
America, and that enormous territory would become
as directly valuable to England as Java is to Hol-
land, or Cuba to Spain.
Such a consummation is surely most desirable in
the interests of the British Empire at large, and the
people of Manchester have once more put on record
the conditions which, in their opinion, would bring
the end within our reach. A farmer, whatever
may be the nature of his produce, requires impe-
ratively two things for his buslnes3—land and
labour. The Indian Government rather hesitated
about the land question, alleging that the land in
cultivation was occupied by numerous small holders
under intricate tenures, and therefore not easily
to be acquired, while the waste lands were either
not suitable, or not accessible, or not available to
the extent presumed. The Cotton Association.
however, asserts that one-third or so of the whole
soil of India is at present uncultivated, and that
in so vast an extent of territory there must be
land available for the projected investment of
European capital. Mr. Laing explained that
these lands were remotely situated, and that
there would be a difficulty in getting at such
outlying tracts. But such outlying tracts are the
very spots to which the American planter repairs.
All this hankering of the South after new territories
expresses nothing but the anxiety of the cotton-
growers for fresh soil ; and why should not Indian
as well as American agriculturists avail themselves
of such means of production ? As for labour, that
is seen and felt to be a question of contracts only.
We may seem to be taking a very narrow view of
the question, but the fact is simply as we have stated
it. There are labourers in abundance willing to
work, and on reasonable terms, but they are so
poor that they require an advance from their em-
ployer before they begin. They work, in fact, by
contract, and a man who owes his labour finds that
labour rather hard. It is uphill work for them, no
doubt under such a system, but if they can work
upon no other terms it is for their interest, as well
as that of their employers, that the contract should
be faithfully performed. But the Hindoo peasant,
though docile, frugal, and laborious, is not disin-
clined to get a good bargain at the expense of his
master. If lie can evade his contract after taking
the money for it he will do so, and he is all the
more likely to make the attempt if he is encouraged
by compassionate sympathisersin thinking his posi-
tion a hard one. That it is often a hard one in
reality we can readily believe, but it must be per-
fectly clear that, unless labour is honestly given for
hire, there will be no hire offered for labour at all.
It is asked therefore on behalf of the European
capitalist invited to India, that some efficient ma-
chinery shall be established for the enforcement of
justice between workman and master, and it is ob-
vious that an enactment for that purpose would be
as beneficial to the peasant as to the employer.
The safer the bargain the better will be its terms.
So long as the result to be expected is a matter of
uncertainty the employer of labour will be cautious
in bidding for it, but if he knows that his purchase
is secure he will advance his price. On these two
conditions, however, of getting good land at a rea-
sonable cost and fair work for fair wages, English-
men will invest their money in Indian agriculture,
and
satisfied,
m en itt
t ios
sassuredl
yu
ciEhn
acesugtm eu
rint
abent on
equitable
emp the Indian
Empire
e demandsa
openedr e properly GovGov
without
e r n-
delay to an influx of fertilising enterprise.—Times.

To-day's telegram is brought to us with lightning speed
by magnetic force. The same power, and with the same suc-
cess, is employed by Mr. Herring in his magnetic brushes.
Dr. Hassall reports, "I regard them as the most perfect
brushes hitherto made, as respects their mechanical con-
struction, and their mapietical action." They are the re-
medy for grey hair, neuralgia, rheumatism, Sm. N.B. —Coun-
terfeits are being made. Offices, 32, Basinghall-street, Lou-
don.

THE POSITION OF BRITISH SHIPPING.

(From the Steam Shipping Chronicle.)

Outward freights have receded further, and homeward
freights have advanced further, and on the whole the posi-
tion of British shipping is tolerable, while the general pro-
spects were never better, both with respect to steam and
sailing vessels. This is the substance of the shipping cir-
culars of the month, but there are at the same time ques-
tions raised, which it will be alike interesting and instruc-
tive to consider. Why should outward freights continue to
decline until measurement goods are carried by the best
vessels on the berth from London to Bombay for 7s. 6d. a
ton of 40 cubic feet, while the railway carriage from Man-
chester to London is something like 255. for the same goods.
This i- a most unusual state of things, and should at once
dispose of the question of cotton transit in India, which ma-
nifestly must be by steam flotillas, and not by railways, the
charge by the latter absorbing the whole margin left for pro-
fit. Then there is the equally important question of the high
rates current for homeward cargoes, which is also unusual.
This last possesses an interest outside of shipping circles,
inasmuch as it is a kind of open question whether it is the
sender or the receiver of goods on whom the freight falls,
the effect being that if it is the receiver, the buyer of our
compact, manufactures, virtually at the moment, pays
nothing for carriage, while British manufactures of every
kind are just now burdened with the whole expense of the
round voyage. Then there is the question of the deficient
French harvest, and there are those claiming to be well in-
formed among ourselves who believe that excellent as the
quality of our own crop is, and prime as is the condition in
which the wheat has been carried from the field, still the
yield will be disappointing, and that the grain imports into
this country will therefore continue large. Lastly, there is
the several American questions raised, namely, the buying
and selling of American ships, the exclusion of American
ships from the European trade, and the blockade. On all
these questions it is desirable to touch briefly. Beginning
with the American questions, which are, of course, upper-
most, and really the most important, a case is put before us
of the vitiated papers of American ships sold in this country.
One of the shipping circulars informs us of the case of an
American vessel being sold to a British subject when,
after payment of the purchase money, a claim was
set up by a third party for payment of a large
sum secured by mortgage registered in America, but not
appearing in any way on the ship's papers ; and as might
bo evraotarl from our eeneral experience of American deal-
ings, the seller of the ship has in tne vanisned,
and the new claim must of course be satisfied. To guard
against the recurrence of similar swindling it will be neces-
sary to insist on a substantial guarantee from the American
sellers that there are no mortgages in the background, and
to make safe, buyers of American ships should offer low
enough to leave a margin. This they may safely do, as from
all present appearances a considerable portion of the Ameri-
can mercantile marine is about to pass permanently under
the British flag on her own terms. For this the energy of
the Southern privateers is, we need scarcely say, to be
praised or blamed, it being unsafe to take up an American
ship on any terms. Anywhere the American merchant ves-
sel may now be dropped on and made a prize of the armed
vessels under the Palmetto flag, and hence the practical
and increasing exclusion of American ships from competi-
tion with our own mercantile marine. For the same reason
also the blockade of the Southern seaboard becomes daily
more ineffective, the blockading ships being necessarily
withdrawn from their stations to protect American ships
on the coast and in the gulf. By and by their attention will
be required in Europe, and possibly in more distant parts,
and then it will become impossible to maintain even the ap-
pearance of a blockade, the whole available navy of the Fede-
ral Government being inadequate for the protection of Ame-
rican commerce.

Next in importance to these American questions is the
short French harvest, and the possibility of this country
also wanting considerable supplies. The actual deficiency in
France is set down variously at from 30,000,000 to 50,000,000
bushels, but the mean betw• en these two estimates is, on
the whole, best supported. Five million quarters of grain
will therefore be required in France between the present
time and the next harvest; and, unless war breaks out,
the want must be in the main supplied from the United
States. Nowhere else is grain so plentiful, and no-
where so likely to be cheap, and of course there France
and we will provide ourselves. In ordinary times the
whole of this carrying trade, as our readers are well
aware, would have been chidofly monopolised by Ameri-
can vessels, but at present the major portion will fall
to the British flag. The French mercantile marine
is insufficient, and cannot readily be withdrawn from those
trades in which it is at the present time employed; while
the American mercantile marine, it need scarcely be re-
peated, is liable to be brought to and overhauled. If the
peace is maintained British tonnage promises therefore to
be in extraordinary demand for months to come, and it is
to be hoped that as long as the sun shines the hay will be
made. Should war, however, unhappily arise between this
country and the United States, there would of course be no
American grain trade ; but as France nevertheless must be
supplied, other markets must be found. The Black Sea ports
and the Egyptian and other ports would have to give of
their abundance, and British ships, as before, would in the
main be alone available for the trade. Whichever way
American matters turn the British shipowner is on the eve
of reaping the great advantage of carrying grain to France
from those countries in which it may be purchased ; and
there is this to be said also, that in the event of war be-
tween this country and the United States, the supplying of
France with cotton would devolve entirely on the British
shipowner. French cotton stocks, like our own, are now in a
reduced condition, and the Southern planters only wait the
forcing of the blockade to send forward the usual supplies.
The question of a high impost freight is, of course, on the
whole, a matter of not very great importance to the ship- i
owner, as he is nearly supplied on the return voyage with
what he should have had on the outward voyage. To some
the arrangement, if it may be so termed, may prove tempo.
rarily inconvenient but nothing more, while to the majority
it is immaterial whether the money is made out or in, so long
as it is made. But to Manchester, for example, the charge
is a heavy one, the freight on a cotton cargo from Calcutta
being now quite a serious matter. Manchester is, in fact,
at the moment burdened with the charge of bringing to
hand the raw material from which its manufactures are
produced, while little more than year ago the case was the
other way. When the shipowners cried out so bitterly
against the unfair and injurious competition of the un-
reciprocating vessels of the United States, it will be
remembered that outward freights were high, and in-
ward freights unusually low. Manchester, of course,
then had its raw material practically without freight,
while the high rares charged on the compact and
often costly products of its looms is at the worst
but a scarcely perceptible fraction on the value of the
commodity carried. Hence the present disadvantage to
Manchester, and to all other manufacturing interests draw-
ing raw materials from abroad. But, strange to say, the
circumstance does not appear to have been noticed, but if
noticed, we need hardly say that nothing whatever could
be done. The demand of supply and tonnage must be left
to adjust themselves, although the prospect of change to
the advantage of Manchester is anything but hopeful. With
a still increasing demand for tonnage for homeward car •
goes higher rates will soon be current, and the tendency wil
continue to be towards decline in the rates demanded for
outward freight, although it is scarcely possible that less
than 7s. 6d. a ton from London to Bombay for fine Man-
chester goods will be ever charged. The increase in home-
ward freights must pass into the pocket of the British ship-
owner, where it deserves to go. Thus the prospect of ship-
owners are most encouraging. Look where we will there is
the prospect of plenty of cargo and of high freights. We see
also that there is a practical monopoly of the carrying trade
of the world before the British shipowner. The American
competition has broken down, and is not likely to give us
further trouble for years to come. How different the fact
from the anticipation. Not long ago, it will be remembered,
the limes complacently informed its readers one morning
that the necessity must be accepted of the Americans be-
coming the great carriers of the world. They were a peace-
ful, indefatigable, and prosperous people, and while they
had no domestic troubles, they avoided mixing themselves
up with what took place in Europe. The balance of Euro-
pean power was to them a weakness and delusion, and when
the time came that England should have a naval war on
its hands, the Americans, as neutrals, would keep our trade
going, and go on year after year adding indefinitely to the
tonnage of their mercantile marine. If we are not mistaken
it was regretted that British shipowners were not Ameri-
can shipowners, as then there would have been no com-
plaining. Now the tables are completely turned. The Ame-
rican shipowner is brought to as deep grief as ever the British
shipowner suffered, and there is now scarcely an American
ship that comes to an English port without being hawked
about to find a purchaser. The American mercantile
marine, instead of annexing the marine of this country and
of other countries, is now a pitiful suppliant for annexa-
tion. And thanks to free trade in shipping, every week or
almost every day now places American ships in British
hands on the most advantageous terms. The views of the
Americans with respect to the rights of neutrals have also
undergone a .change. So long as it appeared to answer
their purpose, they claimed in their peculiar noisy way to
be unaffected by the quarrels of other nations—claimed
that there should be no blockades, or if there were any,
that American ships should at least be free to come and go
at pleasure. Now that a different policy serves them, they
insist that their paper blockade shall be respected, that aid
and comfort shall; n- ,t be given to their enemies, and na-
tions offending are threatened with immediate war. Con-
duct so contemptible and unprincipled could scarcely fail
to work its own cure; and we venture to hope that the
America that will emerge from the present trials will be
something different in character from the America that is
now suffering

[ADVERTISEMENT ]—Holloway's Pills.—Never failing
Comforters.—So soon as the human functions are disor-
dered, they should be rectified ; it is a hopeless delusion to
leave the malady to its course. Holloway's Pills always
accomplish this end with ease, safety, and despatch. A few
appropriate does at the proper period will prevent many a
serious illness. They arrest all morbid influences, and pre-
vent disease from increasing and affecting more distant
organs. Their primary action is upon the blood, stomach,
liver, kidneys, and bowels; their secondary action
strengthens the nervous Centres. No drugs can be at once
so harmless, yet so antagonistic to disease. The most per-
fect reliance may be placed upon their purifying, regulat-
ing, and renovating virtues.