can be little doubt that the slave states would share more of the prosperity and progress of the North if they also were free. The tide of immigration would no longer be checked; the mean whites' would be stimulated to industry, nor is it to be supposed that the negroes would lapse into indolence. They are the minority, not the large majority, as in the West Indies, and they would have to exert themselves to compete with the emigrants. Indeed, our own free negroes work with cheerful alacrity for the sum which the planter now gives, when he has to hire slaves. Some Americans have already, as a business speculation, given wages to negroes, and permitted them to purchase their freedom; and it has paid well. Our West Indian experience proves that there is no danger of violence to life or property from emancipation; and whilst the cotton crop would ultimately improve through it, the injury which it might probably cause for a time would be far less than is threatened by the outbreaks which menace the present iniquitous system. Unnatural crime is a volcano. I tremble for my country,' said President Jefferson, when I remember that God is just, and that his justice may not sleep for ever. Any loss to ourselves is questionable; the gain is more certain in the improved condition of millions, who might prove our customers. The South, when it has abolished slavery, will no longer be inclined to pay the hush-money of a heavy tariff to the manufacturers of the North. A real free trade may result from freedom. We need scarcely confute the fallacy that slavery is a great peacemaker. On the contrary, the slave power is notoriously aggressive: it invaded Mexico; it threatens Cuba; it covets our West Indies: in many ways it provokes collision.

We have dwelt at some length on the effect of our dealings with the Southern States upon the labouring population there; because the Association, whose publications we recommend to our readers, treats the question as a commercial one. The inquiries directed to our consuls (to which we alluded) have met with a very encouraging response. Cotton plants of various kinds, yielding wool of every quality, thrive, or can be made to thrive, in numerous regions on both hemispheres. There is no lack of suitable soil or climate. Since all the cotton we receive from America can be grown on fewer acres than are contained in Yorkshire, it is not land that we want; nor is it men to labour; but the enterprise, skill, and capital which shall make land and labour productive. We send millions of pounds to America, and make the slave's bondage heavier; we might send them the money instead, where it would greatly elevate the condition of the cultivator.

Brazil, which furnishes 5 per cent. of our present supply; Egypt, which furnishes 4 per cent., are, it is true, slave States. Brazil, however, has abolished its slave-trade, through British influence.

Other

African Cotton-Mr. Clegg's Efforts.

363

Other countries might be named which may send us cotton, when enterprise is protected by good government. Most can be done. -where it is our duty to do most-in those regions which are under our protection or dominion.

This

The opponents of slavery naturally look to Africa. An African institution was formed by Mr. Wilberforce and his friends, after the abolition of the slave-trade in 1807, which offered prizes of fifty guineas to the largest importers of West-African produce, specifying a quantity not less than a ton of cotton wool. enterprise, and another which followed negro emancipation in 1833, did not meet with the success they deserved. Not onetenth of the energy was shown in procuring the produce of Africa that our merchants had displayed in robbing her of her sons. Eight years ago, however, Mr. Thomas Clegg of Manchester, in his desire to check the slave-trade, availed himself of the help of the missionaries to send to African chiefs cotton seed, and instructions for its use. He since had three African youths at his own mill, to teach them the best process of cleaning cotton, and three more are about to come, to be instructed as mechanics, &c. Two young men have just gone out, to whom the Association presented eight cotton gins. They will push the trade in the interior. The first year he received only about 235 lbs. ; but, with the help of our consul at Lagos, Mr. Campbell, the quantity has steadily increased. In 1858 he received 1,112 bales; other houses, 95: total, 1,207 bales, at 120 lbs. each, equal to 146,047 lbs. There are besides 610 bales on the way. This immense increase in so short a time is most encouraging. Progress is likely to be rapid now, as eight presses have been sent out lately, capable of turning out ten bales daily. Consul Campbell will also push the trade vigorously. The Association aids him with 5007. for machinery. The enthusiasm which has greeted Dr. Livingstone's efforts to open out the cotton resources of Africa, renders any allusion to his great work unnecessary. We have the mortifification of knowing, that if this country had devoted the money, the time, the ships, the courage and enterprise, and the men which have been employed in the warlike prevention of the slave-trade, to stimulate the civilisation of Africa, the number of abductions would have diminished, and we should have benefited the Africans and ourselves, instead of paying a bounty to slaveholding cotton growers. Our eagerness for a supply, however, must not blind us to the danger of rushing into the evils we would avoid. Consul Campbell tells us that the African's capital is invested in domestic slaves for labour; and we learn. from Commodore Wise that the president of Liberia proposes * He notices, however, that the Pagan is not so severe a master as the Christian! Cotton Supply Reporter,' p. 54.

*

to

to cultivate cotton by domestic slaves, hired from the native chiefs. There is much reason to fear that Liberia, colonised by slaveholders, inherits the spirit of its founders.* Late accounts show that the encouragement recently given to the slave-trade by European powers has had a disastrous effect on the growth of

cotton and other articles of commerce.

It will be some time before civilisation will have made such progress in Africa that we can rely on it for any considerable proportion of our supply. In 1806 the West Indies contributed about 30 per cent. of the cotton which came to Liverpool; they now send but per cent. The remedy is thought to lie in the transportation of negroes or coolies; but the greatest abuses may follow, when persons of a class which has been subjected to slavery are carried into regions recently tainted with slavery. If we look at the immense cotton fields where population now seems superabundant, we see that the want is, not so much of the rank and file, as of the captains of industry, who shall enable them to work more efficiently and profitably.

This is remarkably the case with India. Its exports of cotton to us have increased, it is true, from 7,787 bales in 1806 to about 463,000 bales in 1856; from 3 per cent. to 19 per cent. of our whole imports. In 1818 it furnished 247,659 bales (40,000 more than the United States), but in 1822 it only sent 19,263 bales. On looking over the table of imports for a series of years, we are struck by the fluctuations. They partly arise from the fact, that, owing to the facilities which their free neighbours have imparted to the slave states, American cotton, in proportion to its quality, has been the cheapest in our market; and it is only in dear years that large importations from India have been profitable. No considerable amount of land is cultivated there on our account, and any unusual export is attended with distress to the native manufacturers, who are deprived of their usual supply. The slaveholder whom we rebuke points scornfully to the condition of that vast empire. From the evidence of Mr. Mangles, chairman of the directors of the East India Company, we learn that, whilst it professed to be the steward of the country for the development of its resources, out of 300,000,000l. which it had received from 1834 to 1848, only 1,400,0007.-little more than 1d. a pound-had been spent on roads, works of irrigation, &c., which are absolutely essential for its fertility and trade. It is questionable which has caused most destruction-what has been done with that immense revenue, or what has been left undone. Meliora' has spoken with no uncertain voice on the opium curse. Whilst we were enjoying

*See the Edinburgh Review,' for October—‘Slavery and the Slave Trade,' and The London Cotton Plant,' p. 227.

+ The East India Company and the Opium Trade.'-' Meliora,' pp. 28-46.

peace

Philanthropy and Commerce.

365

peace at home, war was continually raging there. Meanwhile ancient reservoirs of immense cost are in ruins, regions which were once luxuriant have been suffered to lie waste, and famine has been as fatal as the sword. We hope that after the tempest which has filled us with horror, a brighter era has dawned. The people of India are now our fellow-subjects. The war system has not produced the happiest results; but something may be hoped from commerce cherished by good government. Ceylon has been better ruled than India, and the result has been remarkably encouraging. Lord Stanley, the Secretary for India, has shown, by his speeches before the Cotton Supply Association, and on other occasions, that' he knows what is wanted; and we hope he will be able to cope with the difficulties which retard its accomplishment. If half the 25,000,000l. of English capital which is now invested in American railways-if the 10,000,000l. which is annually lost to this country from our dependence on American cotton-were directed to the improvement of India, the mutual benefit would be great indeed. An Englishman at home can scarcely realise the immense waste which arises from neglect in India. When the vast area now lying useless is cultivated; when the fields which now yield only 40 lbs. of clean cotton, far too dry and crisp, produce, through irrigation, 200 or 300 lbs. as fine and long and silky as any in the world; when the bales that are now conveyed for hundreds of miles on the backs of bullocks are borne to the port on steam-boats and railroads, our cotton lords will no longer be the servants of the slaveholder. Public works are not all that India wants. From the slovenly and adulterated state in which Indian cotton comes into our market, it is usually worth 25 per cent. less than American. The carelessness and dishonesty of the natives must be remedied by intercourse with men of probity and business habits. As we improve the men we deal with, we shall improve their dealings; and as their moral and physical condition is raised, the market for our manufactures will expand beyond calculation.*

We have scarcely done more than introduce this subject to the notice of our readers. We think that they can scarcely peruse the works to which we refer them without being astonished at the apathy which has prevailed. An enlightened self-interest imperatively calls on cotton manufacturers to obtain new fields, without which they are at the mercy of a foreign nation, and free trade is a shadow. But we do not suppose that selfishness is the only motive by which British traders are influenced. If our people sacrifice millions every year on the indulgence of their passions, we believe there are those who would sacrifice no less to the claims of justice and benevolence.

* In the first half of 1858, 386,478,095 yards of calico were exported to India. Vol. 1.-No. 4. This

20

This we know, that those who labour for us are, in one sense, our labourers. There is a link between those who grow our cotton, those who manufacture it, and those who consume it. Distance cannot break this link, nor the ocean dissolve it. Our love for America-for, next to our own land, no other is so dearkindles our desire to see it free from its curse; our pity for the slave calls on us to remember his bonds as bound with him, and not to be partners in oppressing him; our interest in the millions of India prompts us to the enterprises which may turn those who are dissatisfied, listless, and half-starved, into willing, skilful, intelligent, and active labourers. A more earnest regard for the destitute and oppressed abroad, will remove many of the causes of distress at home. Social science and enlightened philanthropy must widen and clear the gaze of commercial wisdom. A warm heart and a courageous spirit must sustain the perseverance which is needed for success.

ART. V.-The Times, November 6th, 1858. Article on the Speech of Mr. Hutt, M.P., before the Gateshead Temperance Union.

THE

HE modern gods are very human; at once inconstant, cruel, and indolent. They would fain strangle every demigod in the cradle, out of sheer jealousy, or even mere aversion to contribute a salute of thunder to his honour. Frustrated in this, however, they will, with a flunkeyism excessively terrene, laud and glorify the genius which they have failed to destroy, adore the fate which is stronger than themselves, and bow their heads to all the favourites of fortune who have achieved success. Hence it comes to pass, that the Jupiter Tonans of the diurnal press, who, in perfect keeping with his treatment of all infant questions, has so frequently fulminated his ridicule and hurled his bolts against the Temperance. Society, is now pleased to patronise its friends and even to expound its philosophy! No event can be more significant of the vast social influence attained by these organisations; but the immediate occasion of this alteration of tone and treatment-the proximate impulse to the patronage and eulogy of mere moral suasion-is the formidable attitude which prohibition has recently assumed in the political sphere. Our political Jove, from the pinnacle of his Olympus, clearly discerns the signs of the times,' foresees a coming tempest in which his thunder will have to play a distinguished part. Politicians and statesmen cannot much longer ignore the subject, or safely postpone its discussion; vague generalities, and effete worn-out remedies have ceased to content the popular mind; and that evil which is the acknowledged source of three-fourths of our social vices and crimes, is not only a topic of permanent