Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-03-04
THE GAZETTE.
FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 4, 1859.
KING COTTON.

The quantity of cotton wool brought into
England every year might be piled into
pyramid which would rival that Of Cheops.
The eight thousand five hundred and severn
ty.two millions Of miles Of yarn spun In Eng
land in a wear, might be round and round
the earth. rs boy winds string round
his top: or. we might throw the shuttle over
distant Uranus. and then tamgie together the
'.red planet Mars" the Earth. Venus, Mer-
curry and the sun. in our net of cotton. The
whole of the British Islands might be wraI-
ped up in cotton w"", and put up carefully
for the inspection of future ages, III not very
many years consumption OF that raw mate
rial.
Ninety years ago. at the commencement of
our manufacturing career, the population OF
Britain was about eight millions. Now it
has reached twenty-one millions. If it were
not for cotton. we could not keep our millions
in England, clustering in masses round the
central manufacturing towns. Ii 1t were
not for cotton, we could not clothe them; and
if it were not for cotton. We could certainly
not feed them.
1t is calculated that the value Of the cotton
goods retained in Great Britain, for home
use, if equally divided amongst the whole
population, would amount to fifteen shillings
and FIVE pence for each person. But it is
still more astonishing to consider that. If
our exports were equally distributed, each
of the eight hundred and seventy-eight mil
lions Of the inhabitaats of the earth would
have cotton goodss 70 the value of fifteen
pence A rise in the price of cotton is con-
siderei in Lancashire to be a national ca
lamity.
If we look to the early part of the present
century, we shall find that we then received
our supplies of cotton from upwards of thir-
ty different parts of the world, and that
amongst the smallest contributions were
those from the United States. At the pre-
sent time, from most of the thirty coun-
tries, we receive no cotton whatever. We
depend now almost entirely on the United
States; that is, we receive from them nine
tenths of our supply, and because that supply
is insufficient, cotton rises three pence per
pound
And all this time, whilst the scarcity of
cotton creates almost panic; whilst 1t is cal
culated with alarm that the entire stock of
all kinds of cotton in England Is only equal
10 consumption of four weeks: whilst our
manufacturers declare, with tragic mixture
of resignation and despair, that raw cot
ton might be and ought to be, half the price
it is at present; and whilst, in spite of this,
the price of cotton rises, and our thirteen
millions of money are as good as lost to US
all this time there lies vast and unexplo-
red territory, in which, from all times, cot
ton not only has grown, but has been cult
waited. While we-Or our predecessors
were tattooing our naked bodies, the inhabl-
tants of this land were spinning cotton cloths
and clothing themselves with certain APP
60 ap1
tine it TO the sea coast for expectation, In
caravans similar to that with which Joseph
travelled, when his brethren left him in the
pit. At this very time. whilst we seek labor
here. and land there, and cotton everywhere,
the tribes we allude to possess, not a narrow
belt. some hundred miles in width, but vast
UNEMPLOYED region, where
The cotton blooms below the barren peak;
The cotton blows by every winding creek;
40 that any man who is so inclined gathers
"a much as he needs; the rest falls and drops,
and is wasted. Labor is superintendent, and
the manufacture ofcotton has never ceased,
since the ancestors of these people brought
their rude spindle and distaf and looms out
of Egypt where the "tree-wooP' OF lierodotus
was hardly known.
The legitimate metropolisof King Cottons
territories, is undoubtedly Western Africa.
africa" saws Doctor Livingstone, "is the
very territory for cotton" And this asser-
ton, which stands good for the parts OF Al
RIGA with which he is acquainted, Is most
fully borne out for other parts. We have III
Africa, not country, but continent, where
cotton grows spontaneously, and has been
cultivated from time anterior to history;
supply of labor abundant and cheap; and
means of communication by the rivers and
paths through the bush, sufficient for our
present purpose. We seem, therefore, to
have within our grasp the one element OF
continued prosperity wanting to us-nameiy'
an important and accessible increase OF the
dominions of King Cotton. Dickens House
hold WordS.
THE PLrcxY NIScouNT" AND THE EMrER-
orr am just reminded Of Compiegne an
ecdote of Lord Palmerston, which Is going
the rounds Of the clubs. "!Stnon zero. eden
troeato." The Imperial hunting costume
de riq,teur il Louis Quintze coat. waistcoat,
and breeches, with high boots. Lord Pal.
merston turned out for one of the Imperial
parties de chosss equipped in his Hampshire
pink" we'll known in every gorse anu SPIN
nv for many mile about Broadlands. The
day was drizzly, and threatening heavy RAIN
The Emperor urged his guest t" put on a
,edinqots ooh, no your Majesty. was
Lord Palmcrston's plucky and pointed reply
..you know nothing ever gets through our
rclcoats.' This to the Nephew Of my
Uncle" with Waterloo ''undigested,
think was telling and spirited.-L""d"" Cor