The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-03-16

| specie.
LONDON, February 2S-opening priccs-Consols m
| 91H6k. f'
LONDON CLOSING PRIcEs.-ConsoIs, money, 91Ka5
| Consols, account, 9l8g4. New threes 9l%(0%.
-=zzzzan-==z=@=z4I
IMPORTANT FROM FRANCE.
| THE AMERICAN CRIsIs-NECEssITY OF A RECoGYIrTo
| OF THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY IN EURoPE-TH
! VALUE OF SOUTHERN TRADE TO FRENCH ISTEH
EsTs, &C, &C,
We copy the following article from the Heralo
translated from lie Pays, of Paris which also style
itself lie Journal de PEmpirc. The policy of thi
paper is by no means extreme, but tends rather t
conservatism, and from its supposed connectio
with some of the friends of the Emperor-althoug
Cassaignac himself one of the leading editors,
not much respected-it is regarded as being ortei
semi official in its character. When the repor
was lately circulated in Paris that the French troop
were about to be withdrawn from Rome, lie Pan
was one of the first papers to deny it.
Th rapidty with which the American crisi
progresses obliges us, in order to prevent publ
opinion being surprised by events, to abandon tn
discussion OF secondary points and arrive at ono
at by lar the most important question which
proceeding rapidly from moment to moment to
wards being submitted to the decision of the gov
ernments of Europe.
The American Union exists no longer Soutl
carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
IeXas and Florida are, at the moment at which W.
write, assembled in Convention at MONTGOMERY
with the object of forming new confederation
In entering on his functions Mr.. Lincoln will find
himself face to face with another confederation
regularly constituted which he will be obliged to
recognize as an independent nation or reduce by
force of arms.
The time for recrimination is past; philosophic
aspirations however seductive they NAV be, must
vanish before reality; reason commands us to mas
ter them, that she may set before us situation of
affairs IN which more general interest is involved,
tor soon the new confederation will be knocking at
the doors OF Europe demanding the recognition of
its independence, and claiming place among the
nations of the globe.
In presence of that approaching eventualitv if
appears to us indispensable to give a rapid sketch
of the Importance of this new confederation.
The Southern States, to the number of fifteen
comprise a supertices of million of square miles
without including the portion of common territory
to which the separation will entitle them They
extend, on the ocean coast, from the Chesapeake
to the Gulf of Mexico, into which the Missssippi
empties itself, after a of 100 miles through
Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mis-
souri, and Arkansas, presenting the only normal
and economic means of transport for the produc-
tions of considerable portion of the Western
States.
Their population, entirely deVotedto to agriculture
oh q id sCde, dLnOunIS TO more tnan twelve mil
lions of inhabitants. Their principal productions.
besides building timber, very much esteemed at
the North and even in Europe, are tobacco, sugar
rice and cotton. The cotton crop is annually on
an average, 100000 bales, representing the sum
600 COOf $3.50, 900 OOO
Slce.. e.................... % 000f. 5000, 900
Iooacco. .............. 100, 600, ,0G0f 10000 :OC
2uS5r =. 15OOO,0OOf 5000, 900
roou anu MUNITIONS OF Wartoo,OOO,OOOt 5000, ,O0O
Total l.............1, ,13O OOO, ,0OOf s226 OOO, 900
large portion of these products figure now in
the export trade from the ports of New York.
Boston and Philadelphia, where they are stored be
fore crossing the Atlantic.
The importation trade of the Southern States is
not less than eight millions of francs Isl 600 OOO)
taking together European importation and that
from the Northern States, which manufacture an
enormous quantity of cotton. These figures are
far from being exaggerated.
The increase of population on a soil where the
uninhabted and uncultivated parts far surpass the
quantity of reclaimed lands, being unimpeded it
is reasonable to suppose that in future, more or
less remote the fig ures of expectation and import
alton vii follow progression parallel to the in
crease of population.
The prosperity of the new confederation is then
intimately bound up with European interests in
e eneral, and French interests in particular. All
those States, we have said producers of neces-
sarles and consumers of manufactured productions
In time they will extend their production and con-
sumption.
the world, ard if France knows how to profit by
that favorable circumstance, which facilitates the
putting in practice of her new commercial policy
inaugurated by the Emperor, her trade may, not
withstanding distance, become a formidable
competitor with that of the Northern States; for
her productions, always in demand in foreign mar
kets, will find, besides, in the difference of the
manufacturing price, an advantage which, with the
custom duties which will be undoubte ly and by
way of reprisaI, levied merchandise coming
from the Northern republic, will insure a consider
able market to French goods.
The Southern Confederacy is, besides, destined
to become natural ally, capable, if need be, of Civ
ing to Europe II circumstances should ever require
it, powerful aid in exchange for simple recog-
milton, which will very probably suffice to keep the
anaticism of the North in check and preserve from
almost certain destruction the Southern marts
which Europe could not do without lust now
We are no longer in an age, thank God, when
it was made boast of having been said from
the tribune, "Perish the colonies, rather than a
principle"
To recapitulate: the developments to which we
have called the attention of readers and econo
msts may be classed and arranged under certain
interrogatories:-
l. Can Europe to-day do without American cot.
ton? She already entertains friendly relations
with Brazil, Porto Rico, the Island of Cuba, Ma
nila, countries which their prosperity to SINH
lar institutions; and moreover, ought she to refuse
cotton because it is the product of labor system
which she disapproves? Evidently not, for there
would result from it danger to the providing for
her manufactures and the employment of the work
ing classes whose moral and material condition has
proceeded, since the commencement of this CEN
tury, in direct ratio with the increase of cotton
Is not the cotton trade of England, and especially
that Of Lancashire, in a sufficiently critical con
ditiOn already to inspire fear of the serious
disorders resulting from the distress of her opera
tves?
2. Do there exist another soil and another eli
mate so well adapted to the culture of cotton?
For many nations, no; England has long sought
in vain for solution of this problem.
For France, yes; which, more fortunate, pos
sesses Algeria, but which cannot count on a crop
sufficient for her own consumption until after the
peopling of that colony, and series of agricultu
raj studies and experiments in the accimatzation
of cotton on African soil.
3. Ought we to deprive our commerce and trade
of the certainty of exchanging its productions, and
transporting them directly between France and
the Southern States, and sacrifice interests so i'm
portant, to question of false philanthropy ? No.
France ought, on the contrary, seize this opportu
nifty of extending her commercial relations with
them, with view to employ the influence result
inr from it. which would be the obtaining by
degrees and in more humane and polite manner a
change in their system Of labor, inStead of proceed
ing like the Northern States, and making it aues.
tioneo ruin and annhilation. In that les the en-
tire An aGican question, which sentiment alone can
not resolve In manner satisfactory to all the .ea
interests at stake.
But in awaiting these results, which would flow
from the cordial welcome given by Europe to the
new confederation, let true phianthropists be as
sured they are wonderfully mistaken in regard to
the real condition of the blacks of the South. We
willingly admit that their error is pardonable for
they have learned the relations of master and slave
only from the work of Mrs. Beecher Stowe. Shall
we look for that condition in the lucubrations of
that romance, railed to the Importance of a phio-
sophie dissertation, but much rather inspired, un-
to the author by the desire of leading
public opinion astray, Of provoking revolution and
of necesstating incendiarism and resolution A
romance is work of fancy which cannot re-
flute, and which cannot serve basis to any ar
gument. In our discussion we must seek elsewhere
for authorities and material. Facts are eloquent,
and statistics teach that, under the superinten
dence of those masters cruel and SO terrlole, II
we are to believe Mrs Stowe, the black population
of the South increases regularly in greater pro-
portion than the white; while in the Antilles, in
Africa and especially in the so very philanthropic
States of the North the black race decreases in
proportion. How could Mrs. Beecher
Stowe reconcile this fact with her extraordinary
assertions
The condition of those blacks is assuredly better
han that of the agricultural laborers in MANY
parts of Europe. Their morality is far superior to
hat of the free negroes of the North the planters
marriage; and thus endeavor to deveope
among them sense of the family relation with |
he view of attaching them to the domestic hearth,