of his own works, but this would be a considerable reduction from the amount of poor-rate he or his tenants must otherwise be called upon to pay. The same policy, it might well be thought, would have induced the urban authorities to look around them for works of private improvement, in some of which their first object might have been the reduction of the poor-rates. If they had supplemented the contract price by one-sixth, they would still have been easing the pockets of their ratepayers. nearly to the extent of the remaining payment for unskilled labour, to say nothing of the moral benefit thus conferred on those who had already been too long subsistent upon a charitable allowance. It cannot be doubted that all this would have been done, if the entire cost of the maintenance of this indigent population had been furnished by the poor-rates. But it was not so. The funds of the relief committees which now supported the great bulk of the unemployed were supplied from London and Manchester, and, therefore, the strong inducement to charge the local rates with the supplementary cost of private works did not exist. Had there been no gratuitous relief funds, each one of these small townships would have been eager to provide employment in their neighbourhood for their indigent poor, when borrowing powers had been given to the boards of guardians. But on the other hand, had there been no relief funds, what would have been for a long time past the fate of these men? how would they have been supported while the necessary preliminaries were proceeding, and what would have happened to the 250,000 women, girls, and children who were now in the receipt of relief? These funds were an undoubted hindrance to employment, but how much better this obstacle than its absence and starvation!

In the progress of the inquiry with reference to public works, it became evident that a large number of the indigent poor were very desirous of obtaining outdoor employment. There was no doubt that they were capable of such work. They objected to 'test' labour because they were not allowed to work all day, nor paid wages proportionate to the value of their task, and because they thought their poverty sufficiently patent without à test.' These were the results of Mr. Rawlinson's survey so far as the operatives were concerned. The course of the inquisition

as relates to the framing of the measure to be proposed to Parliament, showed that useful works would be undertaken if both money and power were provided by the Legislature, -that these improvements would afford a certain amount of employment for the distressed population,—that their cost would be borne locally,-that the best possible security existed for their being of such a beneficial character, and that no merely charitable or wasteful undertaking was to be apprehended. Mr. Rawlinson's estimate for the expenditure of 1,500,000l. was as follows:

CHAPTER XIII.

MAY-JUNE 1863.

MANCHESTER was not open to the charge of neglecting the question of Cotton Supply in 1863. There was now no longer any doubt that England must look to other sources than America. The threatening strife between the Democratic and Abolitionist parties in the North, which at one time seemed likely to issue in revolution and an abandonment of the war, now promised to terminate by strengthening the authority of the Washington Government, and increasing the ferocity of the struggle between the Federal and Confederate powers. And there was not wanting convincing evidence that the restoration of peace would not bring down the price of cotton to the level of former times. The American crop of 1862 was not estimated at more than 1,000,000 bales, while good authority did not set that of the current year at more than 800,000 bales. A considerable portion of the produce of 1861 yet remained in store, but it was known that nearly 1,500,000 bales had been damaged or destroyed, and that since that year the consumption of America had not been less that another million and a half of bales. There was probably even now as much as 2,000,000 bales stored in the Southern States, but it was far from the ports of shipment, and had they been open to European vessels, it would have been found that these stores were for the most part owned by speculatorssome in the North and some in Europe-who would take care not to bring them forward in such quantities as seriously to depress the markets to their own disadvantage. Southern partisans were bidding for the support of Lancashire against the North, on the ground that if the latter were victorious an export duty of 5d. per lb. would be charged upon cotton, while it was quite evident that the

South must follow very much the same policy when upon the achievement of independence they found themselves in want of a revenue.

The Cotton Supply Association of Manchester, though but little supported by the mercantile and manufacturing community, had long been making strenuous efforts to promote the growth of cotton in other parts of the world, and their exertions had been attended with a great measure of success. It had been seen that, failing America, India was the country from which the bulk of our supply must be obtained. Ever since the Mutiny and the transference of the government of Hindostan from the East India Company to the Crown, the Government had shown. no indisposition to promote the construction of public works, and to improve the means of internal communication. But there were two circumstances, hard to be overcome, which yet fought against the efforts of the Association, and these were the want of energy and desire to improve on the part of the natives, and the land tenure of India. The peninsula is large enough to possess many varieties of temperature, and the climatic difficulties could in a great measure be surmounted by the provision of artificial moisture and by determining from experiments the sort of seed best adapted to particular localities. Nor is it probable that the obstruction presented by the land tenure would still have existed had Lord Canning continued to be Governor-General and Lord Stanley Secretary of State for India. But the Indian land-tax is a very important item of Indian revenue, and Indian revenue has had an exhausting race to keep up with Indian expenditure. It was not perhaps altogether unnatural that Lancashire in her trouble should be somewhat careless of the financial interests of India in the prospect of obtaining a sufficient supply of cotton. Nor was it astonishing that the Minister charged with the affairs of India should give an unhesitating dissent of Mr. Bright's proposal to remit for a term of five years the tax upon all lands devoted to cotton cultivation. Yet it is not unreasonable to think that some amendment in the land tenure was demanded. It could not be necessary to the supremacy of the Government that it should continue to be the landlord of the soil of India. On the contrary, it would seem obvious that any measure

likely to attract the settlement of English capitalists would be the surest means of strengthening its hold upon the country. The Indian land-tax is an assessment upon the value of the produce of the soil. Of the three presidencies, the assessment bears the most settled character in Bengal; in Bombay the land is to a large extent leased on assessments made once in a term of years, while in Madras, where the ryotwarry system largely prevails, the assessment is, for the most part, made annually.

It would not perhaps be difficult to demonstrate that this system produces a larger revenue than could be obtained from the proceeds of an immediately equitable redemption, but it must be admitted that it is detrimental to the agricultural progress of India. Where there is no tenant right, there can be no liberal application of capital to production. The Government of India is, with merely nominal exceptions, the freeholder of the whole territory, and, to a large extent, it uses its possessions as though it were a life tenant, taking rack-rent, but without the power of granting leases. Inasmuch as cotton is grown in India in rotation with other crops, and not, as in America, until the soil is exhausted, the remission of the tax upon land devoted to its cultivation would have caused much difficulty, besides the loss to the revenue. But if India is to be a main source of the cotton supply, it would appear to he impossible that a more definite settlement of the land tenure can long be avoided.

The Cotton Supply Association, however, devoted themselves mainly to the encouragement of cultivation, whereever persons could be found willing to engage in it. Great success had attended the introduction of the New Orleans variety of cotton plants into the Indian district of Dharwar; but in Berar, long famous as a cotton-producing country, it had been found that owing to want of sufficient moisture, greater produce could be obtained from the indigenous seed. Experiments have proved, not only that the indigenous cotton of India is capable of great improvement by a more careful selection of seed and a better cultivation, but that the Peruvian and other South American cotton plants, having a longer fibre and superior quality, will thrive under the Indian climate. The growth of New Orleans cotton is said to have failed in the north