The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-11 00:00:00

THE COTTON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION.

To THE HONOURABLE COURT OF DIRECTORS OF THE
EAST INDIA COMPANY, THE MEMORIAL OF THE COT.
TON SUPPLY ASSOCIATION,
SHEIV'ETH, —That this Association includes
amongst its members the leading consumers of cot-
ton in England, and has been formed for the pur-
pose of aiding in the removal of Governmental
and other obstacles to the growth of cotton in the
colonies and dependencies of Great Britain, and
particularly for developing the resources of British
India where navigation and irrigation require to
be established, and for the extended cultiva-
tion of cotton in every country capable of pro-
ducing it, for the supply, upon such terms
as may be thought judicious, of seeds, cotton
cleaning macbines and presses, and generally by
affording information, by the diffusion of printed
directions for its cultivation, by sending competent
teachers of cotton planting and cleaning, by afford-
ing prizes for the cultivation of cotton in new fields
of culture, and otherwise, as may from time to
time be found expedient to promote the growth
and increase the supply of cotton to this country.
That your memorialists forbear to occupy the
time of your Honourable Court by statements
showing the vast extent and vital importance of the
cotton trade of this country,affecting asit does every
branch of industry and commerce, nor will they
attempt to place before you the fearful evils which
would inevitably follow, even a partial stoppage
of the supply of an article so extensively consumed,
because these are matters which, through public
and private discussion have become familiar as
household words, but they respectfully call your
attention to the alarming jeopardy in which the
manufactures and people of this country are at
present placed, by an almost entire dependence
upon the United States of America for that supply,
as such a source is necessarily subject to be affected
by a variety of circumstances beyond our control or
power to remedy; they also suggest that it is matter
for grave doubt and fear whether England has not
reached its climax in manufactures, unless a means
of further supply of cotton is provided, beyond that
which America can afford, to meet the yearly in-
creasing demand.
That it is now a notorious and well ascertained
fact that the southern portion of British India is
capable of producing cotton to an almost unlimited
extent, and more than sufficient to meet the future
wants of Great Britain, however large they may
become ; and that, at the same time, it offers
greater facilities for the formation of an earlier and
more certain supply of that article than any other
country, from the adaptability of its soil for such
cultivation, and the largo amount of resident la-
bour which its teeming population will at once af-
ford ; but these facilities cannot be taken advan-
tage of from the want of irrigation works and really
cheap moans of transit to the coast.
That it is of the highest national importance that
the most energetic measures should forthwith be
adopted by your Honourable Court for the rapid
and effectual supply of these most urgent wants of
that portion of your territories to which we have
adverted, because thereby, and by means of those
aids, which your memorialists aro willing to afford,
viz., the supplying of seeds and of cotton, cleaning
machines and presses, not only will a certain and
almost inexhaustible supply of the staple articles of
commerce upon which England is now dependent
upon foreign nations be brought into existence, and
the resources of territories over which the British
Government and your Honout able Court have con-
trol be immensely developed, but un bounded benefits
will also flow to the Governments and people of both
England and India. The quality of cotton pro-
duced in India will also be greatly improved, both
by the irrigation of the soil, and the necessity which
that irrigation will create for a different and more
careful mode of culture than has hitherto been
adopted.
That your memorialists believe that neither
your Honourable Court or the local Governments
of India can, for many years to come, provide these
urgently required works of irrigation and means of
transit, and that it is only by the aid of private
enterprise and by attracting and applying British
capital to their construction that they can be ob-
tained.
That, under such circumstances, it is vitally im-
portant that every possible facility, and the most
generous and liberal assistance, should be afforded
by your Honourable Court to those who are or
may be willing to undertake the onerous task of
raising the requisite capital and the construction of
such works.
That your Memorialists are informed and believe
that it is the opinion of mercantile men of great
experience and others, that British capitalists and
the English public will not be induced to invest
monies in an undertaking so novel in character as
the construction of irrigation works in India, and
having its base of operations so distant, unless
your Honourable Court is willing to accord terms
similar to, or even more liberal than, those which
you have already granted to Indian Railway Com-
panies, including a guarantee of a minimum rate of
dividend.
That your memorialists, and all others desirous
of increasing the prosperity of this country and of
India, will view with great satisfaction the appli-
cation of the surplus capital of England to the con-
struction of public works of such vast importance as
those just referred to, and. from the execution of
which so much good must result ; and they confi-
dently hope that your Honourable Court will not
allow the want of such terms and support as those
just mentioned to impede or prevent such appli-
cation at the present time.
Your memoralists therefore humbly pray that
your honourable court will take into their
earnest consideration the subject matter of this
memorial, and adopt such measures as will effec-
tually and immediately remove all impediments to
the cultivatio'n in British India of cotton and other
staple articles of commerce, so important to the true
interests of this country; that your honourable court
will also encourage, by all possible means, theimme-
diate application of private enterprise and British
capital to the construction of those works for the
extension of irrigation and navigation in
southern India, which are there so urgently re-
quired, as thereby the resources of that portion
of the British empire, which is placed under your
control, will be speedily and properly developed,
the well-being of its inhabitants considerably
augmented, the cotton-trade of this country
relieved from its present unsatisfactory and de-
pendent state, by the substitution of a certain
supply of its wants, and the commerce of England
will be greatly extended. And that your Honour-
able Court will not hesitate to grant to those who
are willing to raise capital in England and to apply
it to purposes of such public utility as those referred
to, liberal and generous support to enable them to
effect such objects with success, and that you will
not withhold from them your guarantee of a mini-
mum rate of interest upon such capital.
And your memorialists will ever pray, &c.
NOTE.—The above memorial was signed by the Presi-
dent of the Cotton Supply Association, J. Cheetham, Esq.
M.P., on behalf of the Association, and was presented on
the 28th November last, to the Honourable Court of
Directors of the East India Company, accompanied by a
letter stating that such memorial was meant to have
reference to the Madras Irrigation and Canal Company.
Similar memorials were previously presented to the Hon-
ourable Court by the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce,
the Manchester Commercial Association, and the Glasgow
Chamber of Commerce. Others of a like character will,
we understand, shortly be forwarded from other com-
mercial bodies.

The East India Coal Company have contracted with
the Indian Government for the supply of 25,000 tons of
coals annually for two years, it is said, on favourable
terms.
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GENERAL HAVELOCK'S PENSION.

(From the Times.)

The question "What is constitutional I" has some
analogy to the question " What is providential 1"
The classical poet argued that navigation was a de-
' fiance of Providence, because the sea was designed
to separate one country from another. But the
answer to that is, that if the sea is a providential
separation, navigation is a providential remedy for
it. And so now some excellent people argue against
taking morphiain surgical operations, on the ground
that bodily pain is an infliction of Providence ; the
answer to which is, that the same Providence which
sends the pain sends the morphia. In fact, this
argument about Providence, and this answer to it,
run through almost the whole of life and nature.
Twenty years ago thousands of worthy persons
thought railways impious. What business had we
to think of travelling so quickly ! Was it not a
proud aim at übiquity—an approach to assuming
an attribute of omnipotence Z And before the time
of railways old-fashioned people looked ominous on
the subject of the " Rockingham" and the " High-
flyer." Ten miles an hour was contrary to Provi-
dence when men had been accumtomed to go six.
All fhe great creations of art have thus been voted
in their way defiances of Providence—ships, rail-
ways, cities—for "God made the country, and
man made the town,"—as if the discovery was not
in any case just as providential as the original diffi-
culty which it cured or diminished, as if a wheel-
barrow could be providential if a locomotive was
not, and as if a ferryboat could be safe from the
charge of impiety if the Great Eastern was open
to it.
The same kind of argument goes on on the ques-
tion of What is or is not constitutional. Thus, in
the debate on Wednesday on the subject of Sir
Henry Havelock's pension, it was argued by Mr.
Gladstone that the " interposition of members of
the House" in the case of granting rewards to
public servants was unconstitutional, because the
constitution made the Crown the fountain of
honour. But the answer to this is, that if the con-
stitution gives this privilege to the Crown, the con-
stitution also subjects the exertion of the privilege
in any case to a vote of the House of Commons ;
and that men have a clear right to make remarks
and suggestions on an Act to which they are called
on to be parties, and to which their concurrence
is necessary. Mr. Gladstone cautioned the House
against meddling with the Royal Bounty, and so
marring its grace, and interfering with its character
as a free spontaneous act. This argument would
have had something in it if the Crown, according
to the working constitution of this country, acted
quite independently in these matters, and without
the slightest reference to Parliament. But this is
not the case. The Crown gives rewards upon
the recommendation of Ministers, and the
Ministers represent the opinion of Parliament.
That is the working constitution of this coun-
try. We do not say that it is so described
in any written statute, or that you can give
index authority for all this ; but, whether
it is or is not "De Loltue's Constitution," it is
the de facto constitution of England now. The
Crown does not act independently, even in its
executive character, but in concert with Parlia-
ment, and the Royal bounty is an act of the
nation, and not an act of the Queen alone. It
expresses the gratitude of Par!iament and the
country for particular services, and therefore it
is nonsense t I say that the freedom and grace of

this act are int;ifered with when Parliament
takes pat in the bestowal of it and offers sug-
gestions upon it. So for as it is the act of Par-
liament, E.o far it can be interfered with by the
deliberations of Parliament.

This sort of Parliamentary prose is like a great
deal of the advice which we meet with in didac-
tic works, in letters from fathers to sons, in fic-
titious speeches of sages to young men, and in
books about education and the management of
families. With good and sensible hints every
now and then, the great mass of the teaching of
such books is, however well meant, extremely
useless, simply because it is artificial, technical,
and arbitrary. They lay down fixed rules on
subjects which do not in the least admit of them,
and make statute letter the guide in matters on
which the only true guide is common sense and
good feeling acting for the best according to the
occasion. Nothing is easier than laying down
rules, prescribing limitations, interposing vetoes,
and drawing imperious distinctions. The only
difficulty is to get them confirmed and ratified
by common sense, acknowledged and received
among men of independent judgment. Thera was
Lord Grey, the other night in the House of Lords,
laying down the law very strongly against all criti-
cism whatever upon a Governor-General of India in
times of disturbance, on the ground that such criti-
cism might weaken his authority in India, and
interfere with the effectiveness of Government.
But does Lord Grey seriously think that everybody
in this country is bound to keep solemn silence
about every act of Lord Cauning's until this whole
mu my is over and tranquillity is completely esta-
blished ? Is this duty imposed by conscience or by
Lord Grey ? There is a reason indeed given for it
—a man must be very badly off if he has not some
reason or other to give—but if we are to accept such
a reason as this for such a prohibition we must
really accept so many reasons for so many prohi-
bitions that the country and Parliament might as
well at once abdicate their privilege of speech alto-
ge.her. There is a possibility of some harm re-
sulting from such criticism. But we should like to
know what exertion of what human function or
talent in social or political life is not accompanied
by such a possibility. All freedom has risks attend-
ing it. Everything does harm—Parliament, the
press, public meetings, elections ; the only ques-
tion is whether the good does ner, overbalance the
harm. The air we breathe has deadly elements in ir,
and roast beef may be a fatal poison, but the general
effect of both is more profitable than noxious to
life. We cannot have all the advantages of a free-
dom and all the advantages of a despotism too. A
despotism can do what Lord Grey wants, and pre-
vent all the risk which accompanies the exercise of
speech, by suppressing that faculty ; but for our
own part we think that the remedy is worse than
the evil, and that the system which allows us to
criticise a Governor-General of India is ultimately
better for the Government of India than a system
which ties up the tongue of a nation. These roles,
that people are not to open their mouths under this,
that, and the other position of affairs, would soon
give us a Count do Morny's Parliament ; there
would be always some reason or other why persons
were not to speak. In the imagination of many
there is a crisis always at hand, if there is not
one actually present ; if it is present see must not
speak till it is over ' • if it is approaching we shall
only bring it nearer by speaking. These rules, in
short, are a sort of respectable recognised fudge, to
which a man gives vent when ho finds himself in
a didactic humour, or in a critical humour, or,
possibly, in not a very good humour—when a
digestion slightly out of order is appeased by the
agreeable stimulus of coercion, by the satisfaction
involved in cautions and checks to his neighbour,
telling him he must behave himself better and
must act according to this rule and. that. How
many a solemn reprimand has proceeded. from
this latent cause,—how many a grave reproof,
backed by the most oracular expression ? For-
tunately, nobody attends to these rules, nobody
cares about them, nobody thinks himself in the
slightest degree bound by them, and the adviser
himself least of all, who, after they have answered
the purpose of a temporary set down to somebody,
breaks them quite coolly the next day.
With all deference to Mr. Gladstone, then, we
must give our opinion that the house had a perfect
right to express itself as it has continued to
do on the subject of General Havelock's pension.
Such remarks were quite constitutional, and the
occasion called for them. General Havelock is now
between GO and 70, and his life is exposed to all the
risks of a sanguinary war in a trying climate. To
annex the pension, then, to his life only may be to
give him nothing. All precedent is in favour of a
continuance to the son, and certainly such distin-
guished services ought not to be made an exception
to the rule.