New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-07-11
ENGLISH COTTON POLICY.

ENGLISH COTTON POLICY.
We are about to write on q subjec
which may be too remote to attract presen
attention, but which must sooner or late
enter into our commercial and agriculture
calculations here.
The New York Herald sent ''commis
sioner" who accompanied the Russia
Khivan expedition, at least to the fortified
stations on the Russian frontier, ant
thence wrote an authentic account of tn
military movements and diplomatic actor
of the Russian government.
Recently the Herald published lette
from correspondent, writing from Lon
don, in which the extent of the Russian
possessions is defined, so far as they hav
extended toward the British possession
in the East Indies. The same letter de
scribes the Russian railroad system, nov
one of the most extensive and systematic
in the world, whether for commercial o.
strategic purposes. This system cal
converge upon the Caspian or upon tn
Sea Of Aral any military force that eight.
millions Of people may choose to furnish
1t can also deliver, with or without The
aid of the Volga, any extent Of materia
which war of defense or invasion may
demand upon the southern frontier. We
will not give a minute statement of the
distances or physical impediments which
intervene between the southern outposts
of the Russian empire and the Anglo-In.
dian possessions 1t is sufficient to say
that neither the intervening space, deserts
nor mountains offer any serious impedi-
ment to modern facilities of transporta-
ton. Sherman's march from Nashville
to Savannah presented in the physical and
military opposition far more serious diff
Guilty than a column of Russians need an
ticipate on their march to Hindostan.
In the event Of such an invasion the
Indian possessions OF the British must be
in a very precarious position. Russia
needs tropical market, and while the
ironclads of Europe may continue to close
the Dardanelles against her, there neither
is nor can be any military force placed or
sustained in India which can offer serious
resistance to the Russian advance in that
quarter.
England has, by paying court to the
Persian Shah, and in al intermarriage
with the imperial family, sought to inter-
pose diplomatic and family complications
to the further progress of Russia upon the
continent of Asia. To those who regard
the traditional and ancestral policy Of
Russia, carried out by generation after
generation, these frivolous obstacles have
no significance. The domestic alliances
Of monarchs have little effect upon the
policy of nations. England has often had
royal intermarriages with France and with
Spain, but they have never compelled any
cordially of relations between those coun-
tries. Napoleon put away a wife Of his
own nation to conciliate the kings by
marriage with an Austrian princess, but
it did not save him from the alliance Of
kings that sent him to st. Helena.
We may look, then, to Russia avenging
Sebastopol at Benares and Bombay. She
has it in her power; the world can judge
how far she will relent in the execution of
her interests and the vindication of her
fame.
In this statement of the position and
purpose Of Russia it may become impor-
tant for the statesmen of the cotton States
and ports Of the Union to look somewhat
at distant and possible consequences. If
Russia shall occupy the English possess
sions, Great Britain will Of course lose the
control of cotton production in India.
She will become purchaser in that mar
ket, as in any other. She may be at any
time excluded from the market which she
has created. She will in that case be
compelled to rely upon some market less
precarious than that from which she may
be evicted. What was the reason why Eng
land developed cotton production in India?
Solely because the threatened abolition OF
slavery in America rendered the future OF
cotton production in those States too
precarious for manufacturing nation
to depend on. But the cotton produc-
ton of America is now established
upon permanent and undoubted
foundation. The culture of cotton
in British India is in precarious
condition. Why then should not England,
in view of the possible interruption of her
cotton supply by the Russian invasion of
India, pursue the same policy as in view
of the possible abolition Of slavery in
America?
1t will be very easy thing for England
to guard against the possibility of short
supply of cotton in India. She need only
direct her surplus labor and invest her
capital in the cotton States Of the Union,
especially in the cotton belt on the Missis-
sippi and it's affluents. With the protec-
ton of the alluvial basins within this
region there can be made a crop OF
5000, 900 bales. The lands are more in
exhaustible than those of the Nile.
Let England, instead Of directing her
surplus labor to Canada and India, en-
courage it to seek the Mississippi. Let
her thereby cultivate a cordial alliance
with the sentiment a nd interests of the
cotton States. 1t will be worth more to