Year: 1865

Nothing in the marvellous history Of
the American War is more marvellous
than its incidental operation on the Cot
ton Trade Of this country. AS Presi-
dent Johnson said in America, so we
may say in England, that if any person
had attempted four years ago to predict
events as they have actually occurred,
his prophecies would have been regard


ed as the utterances Of madman. TO
begin with, this Cotton question really
counted for much among the manifold
causes in which the war itself ori ginated.
Except for cotton it is more than proba-
be that secession at the swords point
would never have been proclaimed. The
Confederate leaders believed, and not
without a certain degree Of reason. that
in controlling the supply Of cotton they
controlled the policy Of w estern Europe,
and that they could put such a pressure
upon us as would produce an interyen-
ton favorable to their views. This was
the first delusion dspelleu. w refused
to interfere, and boldly faced the alter
native Of a Cotton Famine but though
we did so it was with the deepest alarm
and misgiving We fully anticipated
such shock to the trade of the nation
and such terrible convulsion Of our
whole social system as had never before
been experienced, in fact, the prospect
before us appeared almost equivalent to
impending ruin. This was the next err
ror that vanished. To ur unbounded
astoni shment we found that cotton was
no king at all, that the great cotton in
dustry itself could be lost without being
missed in the enormous aggregate Of the
national business; that our revenue
would still be ample and our resources
abundant and that we should have a
surplus of profit disposabe for the relief
of local suffering. What was even more
surprising was that this very local suff
ering proved unexpectedly light and en-


durable verishment there certain
ly was, but there was neither destitu-
tion nor disease, and the cotton opera


tives actually discovered that their loss
Of work was not without its compensa-
tions and advantages. The mortality
Of the manufacturing districts positively
decreased and the public health improv


ed as the Cotton Famine advanced, and
we are now told. strangest news Of all,
that many Of these workmen have no
wish to resume the occupation from which
they were suddenly debarred Itis said
they actually prefer the outdoor labor
to which they have become accustomed,
and set It's superior healthfulness against
It's lighter wage. Ifsuch spirit should
commonly prevail, and if the old cotton
hands should voluntarily return to the
agricultural labor from which it was
thought that more intellectual and re
muneratiye employment had permanently
raised them, it would be one of the
stfangest results of the whole struggle.


However. we need anticipate no such
phenomenon Sooner or later and in
some way or other, our manufacturers,
who have been less at fault than any
other class in their speculations on the
future, will regain, we have no doubt,
their old trade. 1t may appear in an
altered form and under new conditions.
but it will be there, and there the Lan


cashire mill owners, always expected it
to be. In the very darkest hour of the
famine they enlarged their mills and
built new ones, dissuaded the emigration
Of the unemployed hands, and waited