Daily Richmond Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1865-1869, 1865-10-07

We republish the subjoined extract from
sh editorial article Of the London Times,
Yhicl was published in this paper on the
9th ultimo:
1.-THE BRITISH COTroN TRADE.-Or lbs
the British cotton trade, the LondonA rey
k0f September 5 SAYS: NNel
sour imports have now reached ma
nine hundred million hundred weights. y
nearly three quarters of what they were al
the climax Of the cotton trade in 1860; our
exports are only six millions short of the
amount in that famous year. But if the gross
amount Of the trade is recovering its former
condition, nothing can be more remarkable
than the revolution which has taken place in
its course.
''In 1860 the United States sent US the
enormous sum Of Ills million hundred
weights Of cotton out of total of l 800 mil
lions. In 1864, out OF a total of 1913 millions,
the United States sent US only IA millions,
and India, which sent US in 1860 only 200
millions, sent us last year 500 millions. IN
dla In fact, is now the principal source OF
the cotton supply, and occupies place little
inferior in proportion to that which was for
merly occupied by the United States. Other
coun ries, however, display the influence of
the same stimulus.
can increase in the value of our imports
from Egypt Of from sixteen TO nineteen mil
lions sterling is due almost entirely to an in
crease in the cultivation of cotton. China
has added SIS, 900 hundred weights, or more
than three millions in value, to the amount
of her Importation and, though the amount
received from Japan is small, 1t has increas
ed in the enormous ratio of 200 per cent.
The high price Of cotton has attracted f.om
many countries the re-exportation to our
shores Of the stocks they had imported Tor
themselves, and this plant, which was
thought so difficult to raise and so delicate
that We could not endure the failure Of our
American supply, now comes to Us probably
from more parts OF the world than any other
article Of commerce"
The American press, North and South.
has very generally sustained the opinion
that Great Britain has, through innumera-
bic agencies, been promoting and eneourag-
ing the dissolution Of this Union, ever since
the period Immediately succeeding the
American Revolution. The reason for per-
suing this course, it was said, more espe-
cially in these latter days, has been sufficient
ly obvious. Great Britain depended almost
solely upon this country for her supply Of
cotton, while at the same time her possess
pms in Asia were capable of producing the
article in limited quantities. At the same
time the American cotton was of a oualitv
so superior to any that could be produced in
India, as to render it certain that as long as
1t could be procured, it would always rule
the market. Nothing short Of the absolute
destruction of the cotton industry in this
country, therefore, could secure TO India
that trade which for many years it has been
the object Of British policy to obtain. That
industry could only be destroyed by revo-
luton, which, let it terminate as it might,
would at least result in the abolition of slave
". IL such were the views of the British
Government, it must be admitted that they
have been prosecuted with entire success.
Now that the war is over, and men have
leisure to breathe and cast their eyes back
wards, the deluSion under which the entire
Southern country labored so long with re-
gard to the efficacy CT cotton as q sovereign
remedy for all eyilS-pOlitical, commercial
aud acknowledgements to US to be stupendous
above all others of which We have any &C
count. The Tulip mania Of Holland was a
harmless madness in comparison with it,
While the fever still ragged, and during the
whole time it was at its height, the sdapta-
ton of cotton to innumerable soils and eli
mates was fully as well understood as it is
now, yet men persisted in believing that it
could be cultivated with success no where
but in the Southern States OF this Union
We well recolleet delusion quite as stupid
and quite as extensive, although it was very
far IRON producing the same disastrous eff
feets. We sllude, of course, to the NOrus