The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1850-07-24
\ sslavery ana the. cotton culture.

esAtAsSAJ ekAtSS S1ASs. ASSStSki SNlSWS.
The British merchants and manufactur.
ers connected with the cotton trade, have
made great efiarts Of late to obtain the CO.
operation Of their government and the East
India Company, to enlarge the cultivation
of cotton in India. The last attempt of
this kind was made through Mr.. Bright,
ono Sof tho repre- from Manches-
ter, for the appointment of q "commission
to proceed 10 india, to inquire into the OBJ
stacles which prevent an Increased growth
OF cotton in that country, and to report up
OF, any circumstance that may iniuriously
affect the. condition Of the native cultivation
of the soil in the PscsdeRcies Of Bombay
md Madras This motion was nega,ivcd.
ltWas opposed by the President of the
Board OF Centrol, Sir James Cam Hob.
house, the representative Of tho govern
mert, in the affairs Of the East India Com
,pany, on the ground that such commits
sioniWas useless. Sir James, who quoted
the language ofa DR.. Royle, All authority
of great weight on East India questions,
and who is reported to have said "that tho
great mass Of Cotton produced in India is
unfit, from the shortness OF the staple and
It's dirty state to sustain competition with
American. Besides this, l2D,000,0O0 Of
natives arc clothed with cotton, aud after
they are supplied, the surplus is not like
lyto be very great"
But it has appeared from tables careful
ly complied from the British exports from
India, of raw and manufactured cotton res
pectively, from 1888 to 1916, that large
part of the 120,000,000 inhabitants Of In.
da, are clothed with goods manufactured
from cotton Of American gro~th. From
1888, when the bonds of the East India
Company's monopoly were relaxed, to 1916
the export of plain calicoes from Great
Britain to India increased from less than
{ lS,0OO,O0Oof yards TO upwards Of l79, ,OO0,-
UGO OF yards, whilst the average annual i'm
port of cotton into Great Britain from Indh
was no larger in 1876 than in 1888. 1t ia
a known fact in the history Of the cotton
trade that India exported in former years
many millions of yards of fine cotton goods
10 Great Britain, the balance of payments
being largely in her favour, whilst il is no
less fact as remarkable in the history of
productive industry, that inventive power
in Great Britain, in the superiority of her
machinery, has enabled her ar,izans to un-
dersell the East India Cotton manufactur-
ers in their own markets. The course OF
trade being reversed, SO is the commercial
balance which has long ceased to send sill.
yer to the East Indies, but requires specie
adjustment tho other way
But the political results Of this failure to
procure tho support of the British govern
ment IN sending commission, such as Mr..
Bright's motion contemplated, with the de.
cIsire evidence adduced by Sir James Cam
Hobhouse, are of much Importance in DO.
litical view. The fact that upwards OF one
hundred millions Of the inhabitants of India
are clothed from cotton produced in the
United States most strikingly slcws tI,.
commercial dependence of Great Britain on
the Southern section Of the Union. This
dependence is not international. 1t is limi-
ted to that geographical division of the Uni.
ted States embraced in the cotton region;
but the fact OF this dependence has recently
been brought out with SO much prominence,
IN consequence Of the failure of cndeavors
to extend the cultivation of cotton in the
british West Indies, that with calcula-
ting people like the British. i,s tendency
must he TO quiet slavery agial.ou in Gresl.
Br'talni A and diaarm the ugitatofs in thai
schoot cf Whtch Mr. BraRt Is himself
se Gems alHslss memhe' British
54.,ss. government havu had severe lesson
laad 10 them on this subject in thcin> West
Iadia scheme of emancipation, by which
they hare wasted one hundred millions of
dollars and destroyed their mos, beautiful
colonial possession in the Antilles. They
are looking back on that policy with re-
gret, the bitterness of which is increased
from the reflection that the blundcr is ire
mediable. The party Of slavery agitators,
whose influence drove them first to enlanci-
patton in the West Indies, and then to
blockade of a part Of the coast OF Africa, to
suppress the slave trade. are now closely
watched in all their proceedings, among
which the scheme of extending Ike cotton
culture in the East is part and parcel. un-
der, the plea of commercial Independence
The influence Of the Anti slavery party
will decline in England, and that this
will have salutary reaction on the same
party in the United Statcs.-Erc Nems.