The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-19 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

THIS DAY. Morning, 2h. sm.—Afternoon, 2h. 20m.
To-moßßow.-Morning, 2h. 37m.—Afternoon, 2h. 50m.

THE WEATHER.-SuN OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 19, 1861.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
62—highest since noon yesterday.
47—lowest this morning and during the night.
65—thus day at noon.
BAROMETER-30.22.
WIND - South-Westerly moderate ; with cloudy
weather. Heavy fog yesterday morning.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, THURSJ?AY, SEPT. 19, 18M.

England has one great interest in the American
war, to show the falsehood of the American cry,
that " COTTON Is KING." The South relied on their
King to compel European States, France and Eng-
land at least, to break the blockade, and by pur-
chasing their cotton, leaded with an export duty,
at once to Ell the pockets of individuals and their
National Exchequer. The North relied on the
power of cotton to procure moral support for the
Washington Government, that a speedy termina-
tion of the quarrel might open the cotton supply
to Manchester this autumn. Both parties are,
as they ought to be, disappointed. The
angry North turns round and upbraids us
with want of sympathy in their determination to
be one monster nation, instead of two large ones.
The South alternately half threatens, and half
cajoles. No cotton for yon, it says, unless you
break blockade for us, for we prohibit its shipment
except at Southern ports ; but cotton and a free
trade tariff too, if you only load your cotton at our
wharfs protected by the guns of your navy,
France and England are, however, provokingly
indifferent to both. They adhere to the obvious
duty of neutrality, and fulfil it honourably. Nei-
ther, however, England especially, can afford to be
indifferent to cotton itself. The bread of mil-
lions of its people can never be an object
of unconcern to a nation and its rulers, and Eng-
land is bracing herself to meet the difficulty. Al-
ready she has begun with the first palliative—to
spin and weave a little less. Both masters and men
understand, when the supply is obviously dimi-
nished, that they better betake themselves in time
to half rations. Very conveniently for them, they
have been rather overworking themselves of late.
The great foreign markets are overstocked, and im-
proved prices for what is already made will par-
tially compensate, in many cases, for doing less
business for a time. The operatives will, of course,
feel the slackening of business most, but they
very wisely for themselves aim rather to keep up
the rate of wages than to work longer at lower
wazes. The latter would only hasten the day, when
at the present rate of supply they would have no-
thing to work upon at all.
The best operation of the war and its conse-
quences on England is, however, that it compels
attention to India. There are several sourcei of
supply, indeed, such as Queensland, Jamaica, Cen-
tral America, and others, from which supplies
might be obtained ; but none can be mentioned with
India, as the land of prompt resource under the
Pressure of the occasion. There we have at
once, an actual growth of cotton which would,
without feeling it much, meet all our wants,
and which a little additional inducement
would increase till We
and all Europe could be
amply supplied. Mr. LAING, who stated at Cal-
cutta that he regarded America's difficulty as India's
opportunity, meets the Cotton Lords at Manchester
to-day, prior to his return, 'With
renovated health
we trust, to India. And the Cotton Supply Asso-
ciation is busily at work, sending out its agents and
implements, and corresponding with the Indian
Government.

Some of its correspondence has just been' pub_
lished, and it is on the whole creditable to both
parties. The association points out to the Govern-
ment such hindrances as it thinks the Government
might remove, and the Government, even when it does
not fully concede the correctness of the statements
placed before it, meets then all in a candid spirit.
There is in the Indian official's communication, none
of the old hauteur with which that class of gentle-
men used to treat all " oltsiders" and " interlopers'
who ventured to suggest any course of conduct to
the Civil Service and the Government. The asso-
ciation points first to the necessity of improving the
quality, cleaning, and packing, of the cotton, as the
indispensable condition, in the absence of which no
increase of -
quantity would be of any avail. This, I
however, the Government observes with truth, is
is the province or agents and capitalists alone. The

Government cannot possibly facilitate such work.
At the sometime it does acknowledge that to im-
prove the roads and means of conveyance is its duty
and that all which the finances of the country per-
mit in that way shall be done.
More to the point is the complaint of the Asso-
ciation, in regard to the want of courts of justice
and the burden of the Stamp Acts. The land in
the cotton districts is chiefly held by poor ryots.
They need advances of money to enable them to
grow the crop. For this purpose a contract is ne-
cessary, and the Government requires it to pay a
heavy stony duty, which makes it practically dif-
ficult to issue the contracts at all in the manner re-
quired. Then, when the contract has been made,
there are no courts all over the country to enforce its
observation ; hence the flow of English capital
among the cotton growers, is doubly checked—the
contract is heavily taxed, and when made, is
inefficient. The reply of the Government on these
points by no means, meets the case. To encourage
cotton cultivation, they ought at once to have
abolished stamps on cotton-growing oontracts for
some years at least; and they ought to pledge
themselves to find means to enforce the contracts
promptly, and not leave cotton planters, as they
have indigo planters, to be victims of the roguery
of the most cunning race of sharpers in the world.
The land tenure is also brought bofore the Go-
vernment again: The reply promises: fairly, but

is not all that might be desired. Th,ere is much
timid old Indianism about it. Wei hope Mr.
LAING, with his business-like view of matters,
will put all this right. With the waste lands
the Government ought not to have a m( ment's hesi-
tation. Though the quantity relatively to alllndia is
small, it is absolutely large; and all that Europeans
would purchase, reclaim, and improve, ought at
once to be offered to them, and to natives too, on
reasonable terms. Then, with regard to the vast
quantity of the land of which the Go vornment is
the landlord, and of which the land-tax forms so
large a part of the revenue of the country, it is im-
possible that it can enjoy the benefit of European
capital unless the land can be purchased and
possessed in fee simple. If, as has bee a repeatedly
suggested, the purchase money were( never less
than would extinguish an amount of d ,ebt of which
the interest was equal to the tax paid by the
land, the Indian Exchequer could be so loser. It
would lose at most only the prospecti Ire or rever-
sionary benefit of any improvemen tu made on
the land. But those improvements I,sc)long in all
equity to the improver, and shortsighted must the
Government be which did not see in ti to increased
wealth of the country the means of i ;xicreased re-
venue from other taxes. An annul Ll land tax,
fluctuating with what the cultivator c 3 n make the
land produce, is the most perfect ins 1 rument for
keeping the land ill cultivated which scan well be
conceived.

The Indian Government repeats wha I it has said
before, that the Indian cultivator, in rf 31;ard to the
growth of the plant, though not in thl 3 subsequent
case of the produce, has nothing to lear n from agri-
culturists anywhere. To this the as! 3C /elation de-
mur. They think the difference betv of 3en 6001bs.
per acre in America and 1001bs. per a are in India
more than can be explained by mere , difference of

climate ; and that what has already b ten received
from India itself, under an improved s: r stem of cul-
tivation, proves that a great deal migl it be accom-

plished in that respect; and they reasi xnably trace
the miserable state of Indian agriculture to the
defective tenure of land as the chief cal

The lovers of the startling and ho r rible, those
who prefer a melodrama at the Vice toria to the
finest comedy of SHAKSP EMIR ; who turn from
questions which affect the destiny of to ations and
the annals of science and industry, to p cx re over the
ghastly details of a cold-blooded mu r der or the
dismal records of some terrible catas t rophe, will ,

have little cause to complain of the year 1861.
Public attention has been divided bet g 'een crime
and disaster. We have scarcely rece ivered the
shock of one appalling accident befo r e another
nearly as terrible carries desolation to mt ny a home.
Our attention is diverted from a crime 4 of unusual
daring and singularity committed in clos e vicinity to
one of the busiest thoroughfares of the' metropolis
to another, in some respects, equally remarkable
in the higher ranks of life. Within t lee last few
days two officers in her MAJESTY'S s ervice have
paid with their lives for the enfore• anent of a
trivial regulation, and murders of every ' kind have
been remarkably frequent. Notice has been at-
tracted to the deficiencies of our fire-en gine system
by a conflagration of fearful magnitu d. a, costing
not only wealth and property, but valuable life,
and the unusual number of lesser fires: has been
everywhere commented upon, Frequent e xplosions
and accidents of various descriptions have fillled up
the intervals between the greater cats; Strophes,
while the very elements have swelled the list,
and the latest news brings us intelligence of a
gale so severe as to peril the largest vessel in
existence. Truly it does not say much fo r the ad-
vance made in either wisdom or morals in this
our vaunted age of progress.
Among all the extraordinary events of the
current year none perhaps have more for ei ,bly veri-
fied the timeworn adage that " Truth is; stranger
than Fiction," than the remarkable case which has
lately appeared in our columns, and besiA .e which
the romances of cruel uncles and lost heirs; are tame
and uneventful. The actors in this cla ma are
members of a class which is generally sup posed to
be raised above the level of ordinary temptations.
The lady who has been the victim of a o much
suffering and anxiety, bore a na,m e well
and widely known. Miss BURDETT n lathed,
when only sixteen, Mr. RICHARD GU INNESS
HILL, the defendant in the trial before u-s. We
are not told what were the gentleman's prim ate re-
sources, but, as he belonged to a wealthy family, he
was probably not penniless. His wife, h o wever,
possessed a large fortune and a considerable testate.
Having been happily married for several; years

without family, she, unfortunately, made a will in

favour of her husband in case of her dying childless.
This intention was, however, defeated by the birth

of the hapless little heir, whose brief lire has

seen such strange vicissitude. Whether by accident
or design, the circumstances of his birth favoured
the wicked projects of his heartless father.. He

was born at a wretched little country inn at a
distance from all friends and relatives. By what
means the treacherous husband succeeded in. per-
suading his too credulous wife to entrust the child

I to other hands we are ignorant, and this is one
of the most astonishing facts in the case. Acting,
however,with a blind confidence,which she must have
afterwards bitterly regretted, she gave the child in
charge to a girl of 14, the daughter of the roman
who was nursing her. The poor little infant, at an
age when the tenderest care is generally lkvished
on the children of wealthy parents, was deeps tched
by a train, which arrived in London at midnight,
when its inhuman father was
the station. The conduct of 'lrs.
RILL inwaiting at
despatching her infant, under such suspicious
circumstances, was certainly reprehensible, but it
is difficult to speak with adequate severity of
the proceedings of her husband. The most har-