The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-10-15
FREE-TRADE IN ENGLAND.

From London Cotton Ptdnf .'. 900 -..
We received the first number of Il publication
termed the Cotton Supply Reporter, issued in Man
chester, and, as it appears, with the sanction OF
the Cotton Supply Association. Before proceed
ing with our notice of this ''tree-trade (?) dOcu-
ment it may be as well to nav our respects to the
Cotton Supply Association. Be it known, then,
that we are in favor of the Cotton Supply Assoca-
tion, and hope most sincerely that any quantity of
Surat cotton may be obtained from India because
being free-traders, we conceive that the greater
the supply of Indian cottons the higher the price of
Americans. If Manchester could rely upon four
million bales per annum from India Of Surat cot
ton, at say 41%d. or Sd. per pound the English
spinner could very well afford to give Sd. or l0d
pound for American cotton to work up with the
Indian article because without our staple the Su-
rat is almost utterly valueless. In other words
under bountiful supply of cotton from India
American short staple cotton would hold the same
relation to Surat that Sea Islands now hold to the
American Middlings .. ..
Hence we are favorable to the Cotton Supply As
sociatiOn of Manchester in the sense of pounds sb
lnGs and pence. But we are favorabIy inclined to
the Association and wish it WE'LL because it is dcs
tined to clear the decks of the tropical labor craft
of much useless and unnecessary material Not
many years hereafter this society will be compelled
to make report, and we opne that the report then
made VIII bring England face to face with free
negroism Cotton lands will be found cotton eli
mate fully aScertained as existing, but labor-or-
ganized labor-will not be found The issue thus
narrowed to one point, the final solution will be
speedy. Resting upon our belief, we know what
the alternative must be- England will then he call
ed upon to abandon her cotton trade her cotton in
dustry, and the imperial interests bound up in
them or abandon tree-negroism. 1t needs no great
knowledge OF human nature and of Saxon human
nature IN particular, to anticipate what the judg-
ment will be-
Returning to the publication before us we find
the following: at is expected that the phanthro-
plst Will lind these communications to enlist his
warm sympathies, in the prospects offered for
| lp Of fbn 4
the man OF science may discover new sources of
investigation in fields hitherto comparatively un-
known
Is there merchant in Liverpool, or manufac-
turer IN Manchester who sells goods upon ''frend-
ship?' is there banker in London who discounts
paper or loans money upon benevolence? What
is the free trade of the Manchester school? Is it
not the unrestricted play of human interests with
out the intervention or interference of government?
! If the Britt Government has right-we mean n
sound, commercial, free trade right to interfere
in the supply of cotton upon the score of human
ity has it not the same right to interfere with the
"demand.'
fit is proper to declare as piracy the obtaining
"save' labor to produce ''slave" grown cotton is
it not equally proper to declare as ''piracy' the
sale of the goods made Of slave grown cotton to
pirates or ut least to heathens and cannibals? If
Government can intervene in supply it certainly
can in ''demand." If Government can be called
upon to appropriate from the taxation of the coun-
! try money to grow "free" grown cotton it can
give, III tile shape OF Donus or other drawback,
| money upon the export or re-eXport of "free''
grown cotton goods. We are looking forward
| hopefully to the time when in the United States
there will be no such relic of barbarism as a Gus
tom House. and when the present horde of revenue
collectors who consume our substance by proving
upon our commerce will be turned adrift to seek a
proper livelihood But lookingto members of the
rce-trade school of Manchester as our allies, can
we find either consolation consistency in that
spirit OF Policy versus Principle, which character
/ schedule. which
! tobacco, taxes French wines, taxes American lum-
Der and timber, and now, in the great question OF
cotton supply, introduces Government action in
the place of individual enterprise? 1t may be pre-
sumptuous in an'American free trader to make such
a suggestion; but, instead of these Associations
allow the whole question to be left to the play Of
human interests and Manchester would soon
receive bountitul supply of cheap cotton.