The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-15 00:00:00

COST OF INDIAN COTTON.

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A new apprehension appears suddenly to have struck the
cotton trade. They have hitherto relied unwillingly, it is
true, but still re' d, upon high prices attracting a supply
of Indian cotton to our shores, sufficient at least to save us
from the horrors of a cotton famine. Surat is not the cot-
ton they like, and in whatever quantity it may come, they
will still regret their shipments from the South, bet brown
bread is far better than starvation. But what if the cotton
should not come after all, if high prices should for once lose
their efficacy, if, in short, the difficulties of transit should
prove absolutely insuperable at any price the dealers can
profitably pay ? In that case, we should be reduced to the
produce of the coast districts, and there are signs that three-
quarters of a million bales is the maximum quantity those
districts can afford, It is an odd thing, we hear it re-
marked, that previous high prices should never have
brought us the yield of new and untapped cotton-fields.

We will not assert that we can answer all these questions
peremptorily, or with the amplitude of information Lord
Canning could secure upon the spot ; but we can, we believe,
give an approximate estimate, and proofs of that estimate,
sufficiently accurate to form a basis for reasonable calcula-
tion. The points to be settled are, we apprehend first, what
price will attract cotton from the interior in any quantity
and with certainty of supply F and secondly, will the means
of carriage suffice for a demand wholly without precedent
1. The:district, from which new cotton, i. c. cotton in
excess of the coast supply, must come, may be most readily
defined as Berar. Berar is not the only great cotton field,
but it is the largest, the richest, the most centrical, and for
many reasons the one which affords returns least favourable
to buyers in Europe. It is, for example, as far from a port
as a district in India can possibly be, is only partially under
British rule, and is occupied by a comparatively untrained
race of cultivators. The central depot of Berar is Hingun-
ghat, and at Hingunghat the price of packed cotton must
be taken at 3d a lb all round. Much lower figures are some-

times given, but they are all, we believe, for unginned cot-
ton. Mr. Mackey gave 2id per lb as his estimate for Guze-
rat, and we know of nothing which should make Berar
cheaper. Wages also have increased more than 50 per cent.
since his time, our taxation is heavier than the native, and
we must allow for an excessive demand. Altogether the
figure given in the official report for 1854-3 d. per lb.—
must, we fear, till European buyers live on the spot, be ac-
cepted as accurate. This cotton generally travels by a fair
weather road to Mirzapore, on the Ganges, at an expense
estimated by Capt. llaig, the singularly able engineer of the
Godavery, who, in 1856, predicted the very calamity which
has occurred, and pointed out the means of remedying it,
and who was in possession of all the information obtainable
on the spot, at 80 rs. a ton. or in round figures :Id. a lb. At
Mirzapore the fibre is transferred to boats, and though the
subsequent voyage to Calcutta adds but a fraction to the
actual carriage, still the exposure, and the frightful propor-
tion of accidents—a proportion which has broken up the
native insurance or bona system—adds at least another id.
We have then to add Calcutta profit at 25 per cent., and
freight to England at £4 10s. a ton, and the account will
then stand thus : _

Price of packed cotton
Bullock carriage, 420 miles to Mirzapore
Boat to Calcutta • . t /7
Profit to merchant I ~
Freight i per lb. 1
4 ),

Total price on board ship
Add the English importer's profit, and the enormous addi-
tion great pressure for carriage makes to the price of bul-
locks, and cotton from Berar is not, at less than Sid per lb,
a very profitable article of import. As a matter of fact, we
believe Calcutta dealers are apt to look in times of pressure
for 6d., a figure the Indian cotton has just touched. That
price once secure, we believe Central and Southern India may
be swept of its crop and its hoard ; the latter, we believe—
and we are partly snpportcd by Mr. Mackey—larger than
is co manly supposed. The merchants must, however, be
made tolerably secure, for the interval between the issue of
the order in Calcutta and its ;ulfiiment is at least ninety
days—a long time to stand the chance of a breach in the
American blockade. The money must go from England, for
Calcutta has not zhe capital, and, besides, looks to quicker
returns.

2. That price, then, we believe, on the best information
we can collect—and Capt. Haig's is absolutely reliable—
will suffice to bring all cotton now grown to England ;
there remains the means of carriage, a point upon which
no man alive can give an absolute opinion. But there is one
broad fact patent to everybody, and that is, that whatever
the crop, it does already go somewhere. The means which
disperse it all over India will carry it to Mirzapore. Prices
may rise, and drivers may grow contumacious, but we have
allowed for their rising 200 per cent., and Indians knew
their own interests. Government might in this matter do a
good deal—its commissariat being accustomed to such little
arrangements as preparing 15 miles of carriage to travel 200
miles ; and a strong hint to the magistracy to keep a horse-
patrol on the road, and flog every policeman who levied an
illegal transit duty—i. e. every policeman on the line, un-
less watched—would do yet more. There may still be diffi-
culty, but not, we believe, greater than would cause a del,y
of perhaps two months in the regular despatch of the crop.
It is not the conveyance of masses of goods, but the time
taken in conveying them, which puzzles Indian speculators,
and the area over which export would extend is equal
to a good many Irelands full of flourishing and bullock-
keeping villages.
The quantity obtainable has still to be ascertained, and
upon this point all assertions, except one, must be mere
guesswork. The exception is this, that the minimum pro-
duce of India is always sufficient to export to England and
China 600,000 bales, without sensibly affecting the regular
supply left to clothe two hundred millions of natives. The
supply is a good deal more scattered than can be pleasant to
dealers, but there are no provinces so far from available
water communication as Berar—though the Godavery in
American hands would be a thronged highway—and for
whatever cotton there is, the native certainly cannot, and
for one year will not, compete with his English rival. In-
deed one reflex consequence of a real pressure for cotton in
India would be an enormous increase on the demand for the
English manufactured article, and the development of a
trade which contains possibilities that might startle even
Manchester. There is one little certainty connected with
Indian commerce which to us has always seemed to bear
slightly on the condition of England, and it is this : If
India took head for head the amount of British goods, which
Ceylon takes head for head, our export trade to India alone
would be 300 millions sterling, or greater than our exist-
ing export trade with all the world. There is no difference
of.soil, climate, population, or anything else, except that
Ceylon was never under the company, that English and
Roman laws make life and property tolerably secure, and
that the island is owned by British settlers.—Spectator.

THE LATE VISCOUNT FORTH AND MRS. LLOYD.
—A paragraph, copied into our columns yesterday from the
Bristol Mercury, headed " A Sad Story," was, we are in-
formed by Captain Lloyd, inaccurate in that portion which
related to him. Captain Lloyd states that on his marriage
the lady was only 19. She had not had any children, and
no scandal had attached to her name. He obtained no pe-
cuniary benefit or assistance from the marriage; indeed, the
settlement made by his father was, he states, far larger
than that on her side. Lord Forth met Mrs. Lloyd last
year after the proceedings in the Divorce Court, and not as
stated, in the Queen's Bench.
PRINCE LEOPOLD.—We believe that his Royal
Highness Prince Leopold will not pass the ensuing winter
in Southern Italy, as was originally intended. A house
has been taken for his Royal Highness at Cannes, close
to the villa of Lord Brougham, and the young Prince will
proceed thither in a few weeks in charge of Sir Edward
Bowater.
RESPITE OF THE MURDERER FRASER.—The
Lord Provost of Glasgow received on Sunday Morning a
respite, until the further signification of her Majesty's
pleasure, of Daniel Fraser, who was sentenced to undergo
the extreme penalty of the law at the recent Court there for

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the murder -of a man named Patrick M'Kenny. His
Lordship immediately proceeded to the North Prison, where
Fraser is confined, and intimated to him the receipt of his

respite.
Mr. M'Cormick, M.P. for the city of Derry, en-

tertained his constituents in splendid style, on Thursday,
at a place about seven miles from the town, where the hon.
gentleman has reclaimed 2,000 acres from Lough Swilly,
and has not only made it terra firma, but made it produce
excellent crops, and has on it some 500 of the finest speci-
mens of cattle, sheep, pigs, &o, He has a steam plough at
work, which takes seven men to attend it, and turns up
six acres per day. When the company had satisfied their
curiosity in examining the crops, stock, machinery, &c.,
about 150 gentlemen sat down to an excellent dinner pro-
vided in a marquee. Mr. M'Cormick promised that the
Derry and Lough Swilly Railway should b e finished in
May next at a cost of £2,500 per mile. It
is expected to
confer great advantages on Derry and on the district of
Donegal, which it will open up.
THE GREAT EASTERN.—The following is for-
warded to us, as comprising an abstract of the proceedings
at the conference which was held by the directors of the
Great Ship Company with a large number of the principal
proprietors, on Friday last :—" The Chairman (Mr. Baker)
stated that notwithstanding the severe trial to which the
ship had been exposed, the result of careful surveys was
perfectly satisfactory in respect of the hull and machinery ;
that, excepting the damage sustained by the rudder, the
loss of the rudder-post and paddlewheels, and the damage
to furniture and other articles, the ship remained in a per-
fect state. That the estimated cost for repairing all the
damage did not exceed £B,OOO, and that to complete the
ship for another voyage, with coals, stores, and provisions,
and to maintain a proper floating capital, a further sum of
£17,000 should be raised. Confident opinions were expressed
by proprietors of the value of their property, and Mr. J. S.
Russell refuted the many fallacies that have been circulated
as to the causes of the accident. He forcibly explained to
the proprietors the great qualities of the ship, and that alte-
rations were not necessary. His opinions were unanimously
approved, and the following resolution passed That
whatever funds be needed for the repair of the ship, esti-
mated at £B,OOO, and to provide working capital for her out•
fit foranothor voyage (not exceeding £25,000 in the whole),
be raised by debentures bearing interest at the rate of 1
per cent. per annum, covered by a second mortgage of the
I ship:"