Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1861-02-23
WARl&T TW.
The London Times begins tc Smell Mice
about the value of the South-Fancies
about African Cotton,


From the London Times odd
The American Revolution is advancing
with rapid strides to consummation With
in week or two we may expect to hear of
civil war between the States of the Great
Republic. Anxious as We feel to escape such
a conclusion, we do not sec how it is to be
cvaded. The North is no longer disposed to
make concessions, even if the South would
listen to compromise, and although we may
allow for a certain amount of blustcr on the
side of the SeceSSionists, nobody doubts that
Americans are ready to fight. We look upon
this prospect with unaffected horror fnde-
pcndently of our natural sympathics VIC have
enormous interests at stakc-such interests
indeed, that our charity must begin at home
We dcplorc the political catastrophe, but our
first thoughts must necessarily be given to its
commercial efforts If the Southern States
of the Union arc convulscd by war; servile
insurrcction will be only too probable an Incl
dent of the strife if the slaves rebel the cot
ton crop pcrishes and with the failure of the
cotton crop comes the paralysis of our own
staple manufacture. The question is so mo-
mentous that it cannot be too seriously urged
or too cXpcditiously entertained Lancashire
depends on South Carolina, and what South
Carolina is doing becomes terribly evident
from each successive despatch The tclc-
grams of Saturday last were the most omin-
Gus yet received, and if we compare with
those reports an article from weekly contem-
porary which we yesterday transcribed the
perls ahead of us will be distinctly appreci
atcd.
We gave insertion all the more willingly to
the remarks of the economist because they
were designed to mitigate alarm They pro
tesscd to give the facts and figures of the
case without exaggeration, and to inform the
public exactly of what might be expected if
the worst came to the worst. Such being
the spirit of the article, it may be fairly as
sumed that at least all consequences antici-
pated would really occur in the event of an
American war, and what those consequences
would be, we can now briefly cxplain The
number of people actually dependent on our
cotton manufactures for their daily bread is
estimated at nearly 1000 000-that is to say,
at about one-sixih of the entire population of
Great Britain. The eytcnt to which our cx-
port trade depends on the same branches of
industry is expressed by the fact that cotton
goods constituted more than one-t third of the
aggregate exports Of 1850. Finally the de.
gree in which we have hitherto depended for
the material of all this trade on the Southern
States of the Union appears from the state
ment that, upon an average of the last four
years, America sent US IT per cent of all the
cotton we consumed, That much is sadmttcd,
and the deduction is at once so obvious and so
alarming that we do not see how it could be
exaggerated
Our contemporary, however, has some
crumbs Of consolation for us There arc ma
ny countries which produce cotton, and when
the American supply falls short of our wants,
boe ll,,1 81 g.
other quarters increase. For instance, four
years ago the crop of the United States proved
deficient, and the consequence was that other
countries, and especially India, sent us an
amount making a respectable approximation
to the whole American yield. From the
Slave States we got ,482,0 bales while
from other sources we actually obtained al
most 100000, Of which India contributed
nearly two thirds. Assuming, therefore,
that our yearly consumption may be reckoned
at 2,4OO,OOO bales, it would not be cxtrava-
giant to suppose that the miscellaneous sour
ces of supply might be made, under the cx
traordinary pressure which would ensuc, to
furnish us with 100000; or, in other
words, with half the amount rcquired-
Here, then, we see the extreme effect which
might be produced by the suspension of cot
ton production in the slave States of the I'm.
ion, and the absolute interruption of supplies
from that quarter. All our mills would have
10 work half time. That it does not follow,
as a matter of necessity, that all our work
people would cara only half wages may be
perfectly true. 1t is also true that the con
sequences would be probably mitigatcd by
economyof consumption and various other in
cidents of the crisis, while it is certain that
the doarth of material would be only tempo
rary, and that the irresistible stimulus applied
to cotton production in other quarters of the
globe would soon stock our markets as abun-
dainty as before. All this may be true, and
it may, moreover, be admitted that the utter
destruction Of the American cotton crop is
too extreme a case to be fairly supposed In
the worst of events we should get something.
We are certainly not inclined to dcpreciate
these arguments. We prefer, on the contra
ry, to give them their full weight, and to as
sumo that the worst contingency conceivable
amounts simply to this--that for certain
period, probably a brief one, ali our cotton
mills would be compelled to work half-tme
We take that as the result to be anticipated,
according to reasonable and temperate calcu-
lation; and we ask whether any man in the
kingdom can contemplate it without terror
Look at the results of months froSt--mere
/" oldfashioned Christmas weather!' The in
terruption of a few minor trades for few
winter days has pauperized the metropolis
and driven half our authorities to become