Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1861-08-30
John Bright on Our Troubles and th
- Cotton Question.

August lst, from which We make the followin
! extract 5s
| .sNow, is this cotton question great que:
tion or not | met spinner to-day-he doe
not live in Rochdale, though met him here
! and | asked him what he thought about it an
he said. We'll, think cotton will come some
| how.n Laughter And, find that there
that kind of answer to be had from three out {
! four of all the spinners you ask They knoV
| that in past times. when cotton has risen TO 3
or 60 per cent, or some extraVagant rlse- soPle
thing has come--a commercial panic from som
! cause or other and down the price has gone
/ and when every body said, There would b
no cotton at Christmas" there proved yer.
! considerable stock at Christmas. And SO the-
say now. l don't in the least deny that 1t VII
| be so all assert is, that this particular cas'
is new that we have never had way IN th'
| United States between different sections of tina
country, affecting the production OF cotton be
| fore and it is not fair nor wise, but rather
| childish than otherwise. TO argue from pas
events, which were not bit like this, of the
event which is now passing before our eyes,
They say, sit is quite true there is civil wal
in America. but it will blow over. there will be
compromise, or the English Government will
| break the blockaden Now. recollect what
blockade means. 1t means war with the
United States, and | don't think myself that
it would be cheap to break the blockade, at the
cost of wa- with the United States. / think
that the cost of war with the United States,
would give, probably half wages, for a very
considerable time to those persons in Lanca-
shire who would be out of work if there was no
cotton, to say nothing Of the manifest injustice
and wrong against all international law, that a
legal and effective blockade should be lnterter-
ed with by another country. 1t is not exactly
the business of this meeting, but my opinion is,
that the safety of the product on which this
country depends rests far more on the success
of the Washington Government than upon its
failure :; and l believe nothing could be MOI e
monstrous than for u.s. who are not very ayeI Sc
to war ourselves, to set up for critics-carping,
caviling critics-of what the Washington Gov
ernment is doing. l saw letter the other day
from an Englishman, resident for twenty-tiv
years in Philadelphia, a merchant there, and a
very prosperous merchant. He said, Il prefer
the institutions of this country (the United
States) very much to yours in England )" but
he s Us also. IF it be once admitted that here
we have no country and no government, but
that any portion of these United States can
break off from the central government whenev-
er it pleases then it is time for me to pack up
what l have, and go somewhere where there is
a country and a government Well that is
the pith of this question. Do you suppose that
Lanca>hir ard Yorkshire thought that they
would break off from the United Kingdom, that
those newspapers ho are now preaching every
kind Of moderation to the Government Of Wash
ington would advise the Government in London
to allow those two counties to set up special
government for themselves When the people
CT Ireland asked that they should secede. was
it proposed in London that they should be al
lowed to secele peaceablyi Nothing Of the
kind. l am not going to defend what is taking
place in country that is wei able to defend
itself. But l advise you, and advise the peO-
pie of England to abstain frem applying to the
United States doctrines and principles which
We never apply to our own case. At any rate
they have never fought for the balance pow
er in Europe. They have never fought to keep
up decaying Empire. They have never
squandered the money of their people in such
phantom expeditions as we have been engaged
in. And now at this moment when you are
told that they are gong to be ruined by their
vast expenditure, why the sum that they are
going to raise il the great emergency of this
grevious war is no greater than what we raise
every year during time ef peace. The OBJ
iect of the Washington Government is to main
tain their own constitution, and to act legally,
rs it permits and requires. No man is more in
favor of peace than l am no man has de-
nounced war more than | have, probably in
the country. But l cannot for the life Of me
States are governed now-I say nothing Of the
literal word of the New Teshment-I cannot
see how the state of affairs in America, with
regard to the United States Government. could
have been different from what it is this nomel t.
We had heptarchy in this country, and it was
thought to be good thing to get rid OF 1t. and
to have a united nation. If the 81 States of
the American Union can break off whenever
they like T can see nothing but disaster and
confusion throughout the whole of that conti-
nent. | say that the war, be it successful or
not. be it Christian not, be it wise or not, IS
war to sustain the Goyernnezt and to sustain
the authority Of great nstion !; and that the
people Of England. if they are true to their
own sympathies, to their own history, and to
their own great act Of 1884 to which reference
has already been made. will have no pathy
for those who wish to build up great Empire
on the perpetual bon, re 4 millions of their
fellow men. Loud cheers.
AN taral Bridge in Wisconsin
A correspondent, writing from Pine River,
Wisconsin gives the subjoined description Of a
Natural Bridge discovered in that region
AT the mouth of the west branch Of Pine
River is a great curiosity--a natural bridge,
almost as wonderful as the one over Cedar
Creek in Virginia Here a stream, much lar
ger than Cedar Creek is spanned by bridge
of rock and earth, the handwork of nature her
self. The west branch of Pine river flows
through a most beautiful and fertile valley,
eastward until it nears the main stream, when
high bluff seems to forbid the blending OF
their waters. But where there is will there
is a w,iy,' and the braneh finds an opening
through the high bluff which skirts the western
shore of Pine river, and their waters mingle
and murmur on together towards the great
Father of Rivers Here is a natural tunnel
/ from fifteen t6 twenty feet wide. and twelve
feet high-right through a rocky hill, whose al.
titude is eighty feet, and covered over with tall
pines, and foliaged down to both rivers with
/ a dense growth of eyergreens, The bridge Is
wide enough for three teams to drive abreast,
| and. from its location, have no doubt but a
| thoroughflre will at some future time be es
tablished along this romantic way. Sufficient