The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, 1861.

MRS MILNRS UPON FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

The annual soiree of the Pontefract Mechanics'
Institution was held on Monday evening at the
Town-hall, Pontefract, under the presidency of the
Mayor (Mr. J. E. Robinson). After a few suitable
remarks had been addressed to the meeting by the
Mayot acid the Vieat,
Mr. A. HALE, the hnn. secretary, read the report,
which was of a satisfactory character, and from
which it appeared that the number of members of
the institution is 15(1,

Mr. MILNES, M P., then addressed the assem-
bly, reviewing some of the leading topics of the
day. All persons, he said, had a way of fancying
that the time they lived in was the most important
the world had ever seen. This was a weakness to be
guarded against ; but, nevertheless, he thought it
would be very difficult to find, in modern history,
at all events, any three or four months which pro-
duced three such wonderful events in different parts
of the world as the three or four months of the last
year, during which time the great empire of China
had been opened to the world ; during which the
wonderful career of Garibaldi had established in
the South of Italy the same freedom for the Sar-
dinian dominions which had been already established
in the North, and during which had occurred that
event pregnant with the most mischievous conse-
quences, not only to another hemisphere, but pos-
sibly very injurious to this country—namely, the
disruption of the United States of America. On
the first of those points there were two or three
things which struck a person very much. How
strange it was the great empire of China had been
opened to the world, not by any conqueror, not by any
nation going forth for the purpose of driving out
the Government of the country and occupying the
territory itself, but by a nation whose simple pur-
pose was to be on the best possible terms with
China, to get as much tea as it could from the
Chinese, and to get them to take as much English
cottons and woollens as possible. It was trade which
had opened China to this country, not conquest.
(Hear.) He hoped that that event, inaugurated as
it had been by very little bloodshed, and only by
those ;unhappy cruelties of the atrocity of which
perhaps the authors themselves were hardly con-
scious, had established our affairs with China on a
more substantial basis than they had ever been.
(Hear, hear.) This country had broken down by
one strong blow the insane and demoniacal pride
of that people, who fancied that they were the only
people that God had created in the world, to govern
it or to live upon it, and the Chinese had now been
introduced into western civilisation. All whom
he was addressing would be very glad that the
future trade between England and China should
go on prosperously, to the increasing advantage of
both countries, and without a single shot ever again
being fired in anger on one side or the other. (Ap-
plause.) With regard to Italy, he had mentioned
the extraordinary career of the Genoese sailor who
bore the name of Garibaldi, which was, perhaps, as
well known as any name in Europe at the present
moment. (Hear, hear.) Garibaldi was a man of
great simplicity of character, more like an intelli-
gent and well-educated English merchant sea-
man than anything else, and devoted to the one
idea of making Italy one nation. He had exhibited
the greatest unselfishness of character,because at the
time when he was, as it wore, master of the whole of
Sicily—when he had in his hands the whole trea-
sure of the kingdom of Naples, he went to live upon
a little island to cultivate a farm, with a few goats,
without taking away with him ono shilling of all the
treasures which were within his grasp. (Applause.)
Besides this there was something very remarkable in
the character of the man who had gained such a
remarkable influence over the people of the various
kingdoms of Sicily; but, perhaps, the bottom of the
secret was this, that the people were very unhappy
with the political condition in which they found
themselves, and that they, too—the best of them at
least—felt a real desire with Garibaldi that the
great country of Italy, which had been broken up
into so many different governments and cities,
should become one of the great States of Europe.
(Hear.) If the Austrians had only had the northern
part of Italy, which was given to them in 1815, and
had governed it well, it was probable that they
would have been there now; but the Austrians
could not get over the old habit, which the Germane

all had, of trying indirectly to interfere with the
other States of Italy. The consequence was that the
King of Naples, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
the other Italian Sovereigns, all thought themselves
more bound to consult the interest of Austria than
the interest of their own people. That was the
real cause which had driven some of those rulers
from their thrones, and compelled the last to be
fighting for his life at the little fortress of Gaeta.
(Hear, hear.) It was a very remarkable th ing
that an. attempt should be made by the various
provinces in Italy to give up their separate
rights and power, and to join themselves to form
one great kingdom. It was a very difficult thing,
from the very shape of the country, for it to form
itself into a solid mass, as it were. It was net even

yet bound together by railways, the roads were not
good, and there were great difficulties to irrigation;
so that there were several material reasons why the
people should like to have separate governments,
and not to be joined together in one great Power.
But they were the best judges of their own inte-
rests, they seemed to wish it, and he was sure that
it was not the interest of any person whatever to
oppose them in doing so. (Hear, hear.) He said
, this because history showed that where separate
States, having subordinate interests to their
general interests, could be bound together
by common ties, that was one of the
best securities for the peace of the world.
(Hear, hear.) He knew many people said it was
impossible Italy could ever become one great nation.
They said that since the old Roman Empire it had
never been one nation, and it never would be;
but he thought the people who said this for-
got that there was hardly any other nation in the
world of which the same thing might not have been
said at some time. For instance, France was for-
merly made up of a large number of different king-
doms, such as the kingdom of Burgundy, the duke-
dom of Normandy, the kingdom of Navarre, &c.
There was a time when England was split up into
seven different kingdoms, called the Heptarchy,
and before that there were all sorts of little Govern-
ments—he believed there was a King of Leeds
once—(laughter)—yet England gradually formed
itself together till it became the great country it
now was; Scotland was alive to the importande of
the same course of action, Ireland was also annexed,
and so in time the three countries became the United
Kingdom, and had never tried to disturb that unity
since. He could see no reason therefore, histori-
cally, why Italy should not become one of the great
united nations some time or other, just as France or
England had done ; and if the Italian people were
really fit to undertake their own Government, and
were willing to get rid of any foreigner whatever,
be it Germany or. France, all the English people
had to say was—" God speed you. Yon are engaged
in a good and patriotic work; we honour all the
sacrifices which you make for that purpose ; you
have our good wishes, though we don't send you
arms and money for this very excellent reason, that
it is the business of every nation to fight out its
own independence and liberty, and if it does not do
that it does not deserve either the one or the other."
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own language, of our own people, who, with a strange
wilfulness, and urged by the worst and most unrea-
sonable passions, were breaking up the great Re-
public of the United States, leading to confusion and
civil war, and possibly to the destruction of their
unproceeded to remind the meet-
inogUnited States seceded from Eng-
ctthrayt.
s Mr.ine since
theil ne s
land, and formed a republic under that name, the
number of States had increased from 13 to 30, the
population had grown to an enormous extent, the
most astonishing progress had been made in every
direction—the whole northern continent of America
bad been peopled with intelligent men of English
blood, speaking the English language, possessing

the English literature, and the feelings and religion
of the Anglo-Saxon race, and laying the founda-
tion for one of the greatest dominions the world
has ever seen. How had this been disturbed ? By
the existence of an institution of which English-
men could not speak of even with toleration—
namely the institution of slavery. (Hear, hear.)
It was true that England was to a great degree
answerable for the introduction of slavery into the
United States, for it was while that country was
a portion of the dominions of Great Britain that
slaves were imported there ; but if the Americans
at the declaration of their independence had set

their minds to discover the best means of gettin g
rid of the evil, they would not have been witness-
ing such debasement, or such unhappy events as
were now threatening the dissolution of that great
empire. (Hear.) The little State of South Caro-
lina had made itself notorious by a precipitate seces-
sion from the Union, and had, in all probability,
been followed by three or four others, with a view
of forming themselves into a Southern confederacy,
and carrying on slavery to the fullest extent.
Between the Southern or cotton-growing- States
and the Northern or Free States there were three
or four States known as the tobacco States, in which
slavery was not a favourite institution ; and at pre-
sent it was not known whether they would unite
themselves with the South or the North ; but it
was probable that they would hold an independent
course, using their position to act as the future
mediators in the restoration of their country's na-
tionality. (Hear, hear.) The English were
often charged with rejoicing over the mis-
fortunes of other countries, but there was a
general sorrow and universal regret at this sud-
den disruption of the United States. (Hear, hear.)
Of course they had a material interest in this
matter, and could not but look with alarm on the
effects of a civil war or a servile insurrection in the
States in checking the supply of eaten, and
thereby restricting the manufacture of cotton and
the employment of labour in the manufacturing
districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire; but this
was not the only feeling which was passing through
the minds of the English people, and there was no
one of whatever party, who did not view with the
deepest sorrow the present aspect of affairs in
America. (Hear, hear.) All they could hope was
that the tobacco States might check the violent

fanaticism of the Seuth, and so mediate between
the North and the South as to reduce the evil to its
smallest compass, and prevent any long and con•
tinuous civil war. (Hear, hear.) Tie perfectly
agreed with Mr. Seward that it was quite impossible
to imagine a peaceful secession of the United States,
and that as long as those secessions continued civil
tumults and civil war would continue, so that
perhaps the present state of affairs in America was
only:the beginning of one of the greatest disasters
that had ever come upon the human family. What
a warning did the present aspect of America give
of the truth of the decree that the sins of the
fathers should be visited on the children ! Here
was an institution, begun, perhaps, with no great,
sense of its wickedness—with no clear feeling of
what an abomination it was—carried on until men
came to be treated like beasts, and placed abso-
lutely in the power of other men, and which had
brought on a great calamity that threatened to
destroy a magnificent empire which had grown up
under a beneficent Providence, establishing the
freest institutions among all diversities of men, and
accompanied with more material happiness than
had, perhaps, existed in any other portion of the
globe. (Hear.) Mr. Milnes next observed that the
three great topics to which he had alluded were fit
subjects to speak upon at a mechanics' institution
meeting, because they were closely connected with
one of the branches of instruction taught by such
institutions—namely, geography, without a know-
ledge of which his remarks would have been utterly
unintelligible and uninteresting to the audience.
(Hear.) He rejoiced to hear of the prosperity of
the Pontefract Mechanics' Institution, and expressed
a hope that year by year the importance of acquir-
ing knowledge would be more fully appreciated.
He trusted that it would be more and more felt that
to send a young man into the world uneducated
was to send him unprepared and unarmed into the
midst of a hostile population. (Hear.) Englishmen
went forth from their own country into every part
of the world, and it depended upon the education
which they received whether the influence which
they exercised would be for good or evil. (Hear.)
He urged them, therefore, to promote in every way
they could in their family circles, in their schools,
and in their mechanics' institutions the blessed work
of education ; and he hoped the time would soon
come when the disgrace which hung over the Eng-
lish people would be obliterated—namely, that of
having a large portion of the children of the coun-
try unprovided with any means of education, and
sending them forth into the business of lifc with all
the disadvantages which want of education entailed.
(Hear.) As an illustration of the beneficial influ-
ences of education and proper training, Mr. Milnes
mentioned that the juvenile crime of the country
had already been diminished more than half by the
operation of the Reformatory movement, and he
concluded by remarking that all the rising genera-
tion ought to have a good and sound education con-
ferred upon them, and impressed with the fact that
honesty was not only the best policy, but that with-
out honesty, without truth, without temperance,
without self- control, no person could succeed; but
that if he had those virtues, under the blessing of
God, in this free country, he might become both
useful and eminent. (The hon. member resumed
his scat amid warm applause.)
Other gentlemen subsequently addressed the
meeting, and the proceedings terminated with the
customary votes of thanks.

MR. BUXTON, 31. P., ON 71IR UNITED
STATES AND THE COTTON" SUPPLY.

Yesterday evening Mr. C. Buxton, member for
Maidstone, addressed a crowded meeting in the
Working Men's Institute, upon the disruption of
the United States and its probable effect upon the
supply of cotton to this country. Mr. Buxton,
who was warmly received, observed that it was
somewhat remarkable that we should at the same
moment be looking at two movements' in
two leading countries—one in Italy, VtLf.3
junction for the first time since the
Roman empire of the various States into one king-
dom—the other in North America, the fall-
ing asunder of those which had been, so long joined
together. The latter event was unquestionably one
of the saddest, one of the most mortifying, that had
ever occurred in our time. We might have hoped
that across the Atlantic, where freedom had a fair
field and no favour, where a new and vigorous society
had pushed itself forward with such amazing rapi-
dity, where the oh' grievances of Europe were still
unknown, where there were no ambitious neigh-
bours to threaten the horrors of war—we might
have hoped to see that people rising from height to
height in the greatness of power, and showing to
the world what boundless blessings freedom and
peace could shower upon mankind. But it was mor-
tifying to find that in less than 100 years from
their first declaration of independence these fair
prospects were so darkly clouded that already the
mighty fabric was rent asunder, and that possibly
war might break forth—war of the most dreadful
kind—civil war among brethren. One fatal crime
had wrought all this evil—the stain of one sin had
been enough to cloud all the greatness and glory of
the United States, and to withhold them from set-
ting a noble exampletto the world—the curse of
enslaving their brother men had been strong dough
to ruin all their greatness. But for slavery they
might have remained great and independent beyond
any empire in the world. Mr. Buxton, after de-
nouncing slavery in strong terms, proceeded to re-
mark upon the supply of cotton. He said they were
not at all likely to have the whole supply of cotton
from the Slave States brought to a sudden termina-
tion. If the worst came to the worst they might
still, in all probability, expect to obtain at least one-
third or one-half their present supply. Now, in
ordinary years they obtained fully one-fourth of
their supply from elsewhere. Supposing they ob-
tained only one additional fourth from North Ame-
rica, instead of the three-fourths they now obtained
—still even in that extreme case they would have
hftlf their ordinary supply. (Hear.) But, beyond

this experience had shown that whenever the crop
in the United States fell short the small rise of price
that took place at once created an immense influx
from other countries. Only three years ago India
sent us half as much as the United States sent us.
(Cheers.) If the falling off from the United States
were still greater there seemed little doubt that
India could send a very much larger supply than
that which she furnished two years ago. Egypt,
Brazil, North Africa, West Africa, and many other
quarters of the globe would also furnish their quota,
and from all he could learn it seemed clear that the
deficiency at the very worst would not amount to
more than a quarter of our usual supply. (Hear.)
That, no doubt, would be a serious evil, but the ca-
lamity would not be a crushing one. The general
prosperity of the country would remain untouched,
and after a year or two enormous resources would
be opened in different parts of the world. As an
illustration he might mention that a few years ago
a lady of his acquaintance sent out £5O to a mis-
sionary in West Africa, with the request that ho
would spend it in promoting the growth of cotton.
This trifling beginning soon produced so fair a pro-
spect that Mr. Clegg, one of the great cotton mill-
owners of Manchester, and two or three other gen-
tlemen, took the subject up warmly, and already
the trade from Abbeokouta in West Africa had be-
come a very considerable one. (Cheers.) There had
now been sent out some hundreds of cotton gins,
which had been purchased by the native negroes,
who had learnt to clean their own cotton. Four of
the chiefs had ordered out from England and had
themselves paid for hydraulic presses to press the
cotton for exportation ; and in fact there could be
no question that, unless the slave trade should in-
terfere, in a few years the quantity of cotton ex-
ported from that part of Africa would be of great
magnitude, and he need not observe how it would
be stimulated by even a small enhancement of the
price of American cotton. He felt no doubt himself
that in the long run the prosperity of the world
would be largely increased by any event that would
hinder the production of cotton in the United States
and thus stimulate its production by free labour in
other portions of the globe. (Cheers.) In conclusion
he wished to express a hope that the facts, dry as
they were, which he had laid before them would
make them rejoice more than ever in the thought
that England had cleared herself of the great crime,
the great folly, and the great misfortune of holding
men and women in bondage, and he thought the
survey he had taken of the results of that crime in
the United States must tend to impress upon them
more deeply than ever the truth of the maxim that
in the life of nations, as well as of individual men,
" wrong never comes right." (Loud cheers.) At
the close a vote of thanks was unanimously passed
to Mr. Buxton for the address he had delivered.