Year: 1861

The Cotton Question and the Block.


- n ade. sk.a


The following important article, from the
London Times of October 81, alluded to by
telegraph, we give below entire:


1t has been evident from the beginning of
the American War, that q time must come
when the free expectation of cotton from the
Southern ports would become a'serious cues,
ton with a large class In England. All that
has been said of the supplies which may be
brought from India, Egypt, the West Coast
Of Africa, and other places is, no doubt,
true. There are great fields for cultivation,
there are races sufficiently skilled and in
dustrious to grow the plant, and there are
capital and enterprise enough at home to
turn these to account. But all this can not
be done in day. Cotton culture can not
be extemporized on a scale sufficient to sup
port the mills of England and France, and
the Rhine and the Northern States of Amer
lea as well. The people must be reused to
to new or more extended production,
seed must be obtained, machinery. however
simple, must be provided. roads. must be
improved, transport organized, and, as men
are not born cotton growers, the art OF rear
ing this variable and often disappointing
plant must be learned by at least short
time of probation. . Hg 4


In short, two years are probably the
shortest time that would suffice to bring the
worlds energies into play in the cultivation
of cotton. 1t is calculated that not fewer
than 5000, 900 souls, or a sixth of the pop
uiation of the British Isles, are interested,
in one way or other, in the cotton manufac-
ture Ali these, it has been certain from
the beginning, must one day begin to feel
the scarcity of cotton, and to cry out, if not
from actual suffering, at least fiom appre-
hension. There may be cotton at sea from
India and other parts of the world, and 1t
may be proved by complacent statisticians
that after certain time the mills of Lam
cashire and Scotland viii be independent of
the slave grown produce; but what is to be-
come of the millions of operatives in the
meanwhile? What is to become of the un-
happy families who see ''two-thirds time
dwindle down to ''half Gme," and then the
factory gates closing, one after another,
while they themselves are left to wander to
the poorhouse or ''clem" in silence? Then
there are the manufacturers themselves,
whose great establishments must be kept up
at loss, when, with all their burdens ex


cept wages the same, there are only the pro
fits of two or three days work in the week.
1t is not to be expected, therefore, that the
year will pass away without some agitation
ON the part of the anxious and terrified cot
ton world of the North.


Even now it is said that there prevails
among certain classes in Lancashire wish
to see our government take more active
part in American affairs. The manufac-
turers are beginning to be indignant that
the great staple of the world should be with
held, and all Europe brought into discom-
fort or actual want, in order that the ambi-
Al Il
their sway over people who have rejected it,
and who, according to the eanons which
American writers themselves have laid
down, should be allowed to choose their
own institutions and work out their own
destiny. As the interest of the people is,
so, for the most part, will be their princi-
Piles. Whatever may have been the feeling
of the Manchester world on slavery, what
ever may have been their opinions on En-


glish interference in foreign quarrels, they
take in this question the part of the cotton
growers of America. If the North does not
emancipate the slaves, why should it forbid
the transmission of the produce which
slavery gives 10 mankind? No principle is
involved in the contest, and so Englishmen,
they think, may with safe conscience take
which side they like. Their interests bid
them to assist the South in getting their
cargoes across the Atlantic, and as We keep
up large navy, it will be better employed
in raising the blockade of Charleston and
New Orleans than in cruising between
Mediterranean ports or lying at anchor at
Spithead. 49, .i -er


To break the blockade of the Confederate
ports is therefore likely to be the counsel of
the extreme party among the manufactur-
ers. That such step would be taken by
our government, they will, perhaps, hardly
venture to hope, but they may think that a
loud outcry, producing chance of colli-
sion between the two countries, may dispose
the people of the Northern States to come
to terms, and put an end to the war. Thus
the two communities which live by cotton


the growers in the Southern States and
the manufacturers here-may be found COM
bined in the same policy-that is, to en-
force an acknowledgment Of Southern inde-
pendence by embroiling England with the
North. It is beyond a doubt that the
Southern people have all along counted on
such demands being made in England as
those Of which we arc now speaking. The
whole course of the war has shown that the
Confederate States are ruled by men who
have deeply studied these questions before
they raised them, and who have accordingly
shown themselves generally quite right in
the judgments they have formed.


From the beginning the President and Mr..
Stephens, and after them the Southern pI ess,
have declared that the needs of the Europe
an nations would force them within 9 year


to use their influence, or even something


more than influence, to put an end OF
the war and establish Southern indepen-
dence. They are, of course, kept well in


formed Of what passes in England, and, in
deed know the temper of the Lancashire
manufacturers very probably better than the
great body of the English public know it,
1t may, then, be conceived that the propo-
sal to break the blockade. spoken of for the
present in whispers, but likely shortly to
be discussed in louder tone, win be q
strong encouragement to the ConfederateS
to persist in their resistance. At the present
time, when it seems likely that campaign
is to begin on scale such as Europe has
seldom seen, and when it is possible thai
the North may avengc Bull Run in one OF
two bloody battles, the attitude of party
| in England which holds out hopes Of foreign
interference cannot fail TO be matter Of
great importance. Adverse fortune may be
| forgotten, q doubtful fight may be turned
into victory, when it is thought that the
South has only to hold few months longer
and keep its cotton safe on its plantations
| In order to bring to its side the largest navy
1 In fha world