The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-03-06

Year after year Conventions have been held to
take into consideration the industrial interests of
the Southern States, and to provide some means
whereby they may he emanniratad from their do
pendence upon Northern shipmasters and manu-
facturers. At those annual gatherings many eo-
quent speeches were made and many patriotic re-
solutions adopted, and at the close of each session,
the delegates retired to their several homes i'm
pressed with the belief that although they had
been under the painful necessity of rousing the
people of the South to a sense of their unhappy
condition. they had also been so fortunate as to
devise appropriate measures for their relief. But
whether the main bulk of their patients had
confidence in their selfconstituted advisers,
whether they were deferred by pecuniary consid-
erations from taking kindly to the remedies pro-
posed, it is a matter of history that beyond few
spasmodc efforts nothing has been done, and that
they remain quite as much tributaries to the
North, at this day, as they were before any of
their poitico-economical doctors met in annual
consultation. Yet the prescriptions were good
and a portion of the advice undoubtedly
sound. The former called for the encouragement
of domestic manufactures and a direct trade with
foreign ports. The latter conveyed the intimation
that the Gods help those who help themselves, and
that before calling upon our modern HERCULES, the
General Government, for assistance, it was neces-
sary they should put their own shoulders to the
wheel The shoulders were not forthcoming. 1t
would be wrong, however, to say that nothing
was DONE Several efforts certainly made to
induce foreign capitalists to open direct trade
with Southern ports. Those efforts were at least
al lv A
ed to establish line of steamers to ply between
the port of St. Nazaire and Norfolk. The sane
ton of the French Government was obtained, and
for a while every thing looked promising. Sub
sequenty, from some cause or other, the enter
prise was either delayed indefinitely or abandoned
altogether for of late we have heard nothing of it.
Then came Mr.. Dudley MAINS project for
what he called Steam Ferry. It looked feasible;
was highly Landed but the money that he re-
quired to carry it into effect not to be had
Negotiations were next opened with Belgian capt.
talists, who went, to work in earnest, and now
that organization has been perfected for the pur-
pose of trading directly with the South, they call
upon he people of the Southern States to show
that they seriously desire to sustain the movement
by subscribing Tor shares in the Company The
Begians declare at the same time, that they do
not actualy want the money, except as tangible
evidence that the South will cooperate with them
in sustaining the enterprise. Sums as low as
TWENTY-FIVE dollars will be received but no sub
scriptions for a less amount than four hundred
dollars will be entitled to a voice in the manage
ment Such is the substance of the letter, written
by NJ. JULIEN RECQUET, Secretary of the Continen-
tai and Southern Direct Trade Association, of
Brussels and sent by the Hon. HOWELL COBB to
the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, for publication The
shrewd and cautious Belgians have boldly resorted
10 the erperimentum critciS. The proposition is
certainly fair one, and, we take it for granted
that the parties who make it are not only men of
substance, but are acting in good faith, as they
refer all who desire any further information upon
the subject, to the Belgian Legation at Washing
ton, and to the American Legation at Brussels
But, however advantageous to the Southern peo-
pie direct trade with Europe might prove we
fear that they will fail to give practical response
to the Belgian test, and that the Brussels Associa-
ton will either have to furnish the whole of the
capital that may be necessary to establish the line,
or else to abandon the project altogether 1t
to be altogether in the usual course of things
signed to promote Southern interests, should be
received with favor in the first instance, and
finally fail, for the reason that by the time an op-
porunity occurs for putting it into operation, the
temporary enthusiasm with which the scheme was
originally hailed has degenerated into apathetic
indifference.
We do not attribute these fluctuations of the
popular mind at the South to any peculiar tickle
ness of temper, but to that natural hesitancy
which arises from want of experience in CONNER
cial matters, and, perhaps equally to the fact that
the great bulk of the capital in that section of the
Union is proftably invested. But if direct steam
communication between the Southern States and
Europe may not yet be accomplished, there is
another enterprise of kindred character but of
lesser magnitude which, if it be sustained, might
eventually prepare the way for such a.result At
the last session of Congress, COL BuTTERFrELD SUBJ
mited a project for establishing frequent and
regular steam communication between New Or
leans and Mobile and. the several ports on the
Mexican Gulf by which the lucrative trade we