1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



517 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CORN" AND COTTON— "WHICH IS KING? 

 BY JUDGE FKENCH. 



If any of our readers have a suspicion that there 

 is any danger that England may interfere with 

 the controversy between our government and its 

 refractory subjects at the South, we ask their at- 

 tention to a few facts which should satisfy them 

 that rebellion will receive no aid from that quar- 

 ter. The cry of the South has been, "Cotton is 

 King, and we are his prophets." The argument 

 was short and conclusive. England depends on 

 her manufactures, and without cotton her mills 

 must stop and her operatives starve. She can 

 get cotton nowhere else ; therefore she will raise 

 the blockade, even at the cost of war with the 

 United States, and take our cotton. The first 

 and obvious answer to this argument may be 

 found in the fact, that were England to attempt 

 to force the blockade, she would indeed get a war 

 but no cotton, for we must accept war if she thus 

 forces it upon us, although we much prefer peace, 

 and when war has commenced with England on 

 the sea, how is the cotton crop to go out ? 



In addition to an efficient naval force now 

 afloat, we should at once cover the ocean with our 

 privateers to capture whatever British ships we 

 could find. It requires a large fleet of merchant- 

 men to transport the cotton crop, and supposing 

 the cotton were all in bales and at Southern ports 

 ready to ship, and a war going on with England, 

 it would seem that freight and insurance would 

 be rather high on cargoes outward bound. Eng- 

 land wants cotton next winter and spring, if ever. 

 After that, she can supply herself in India and 

 elsewhere. The cotton is now on the plantations, 

 most of it in the seed, for want of bagging to cov- 

 er the bales. The cottonocracy dare not carry 

 it to their ports ready for shipment in any quan- 

 tity, because if they do, they know we shall seize 

 it, and so supply the demand. How is England 

 to obtain the cotton, even were she willing to 

 make the attempt? No, England can have war, 

 but cotton she cannot get in season for her most 

 pressing need, with all the force she can com- 

 mand. Looking at the question then, as a mere 

 question of expediency, England will not attempt 

 to obtain cotton in that way. England looks to 

 her own interest wisely. She has no wish to bow 

 down to King Cotton, or to be dependent for the 

 prosperity of her manufactures upon the caprice 

 of rebels. Does not she see that, if the Confeder- 

 ates had now their ports open and under their 

 own control, they would load their cotton with 

 export duties enough to pay all the expenses of 

 the rebellion ? Cotton is too arbitrary a master 

 to relieve English necessity without full pay. But 

 the manufacturers of England are not planning 



how to raise our blockade, or how to get Ameri- 

 can cotton. They are busily engaged, like good, 

 industrious, thrifty people that they are, in 

 schemes for doing without our cotton. They are 

 organizing companies for raising cotton ; they are 

 building roads in India for transporting cotton, 

 and sooner than they could get a crop from the 

 Southern States by forcing the blockade, they will, 

 through the arts of peace, supply their wants from 

 other sources- 

 Then will John Bull disrespeotfully twirl his 

 fingers about his venerable nose at Mr. Jefferson 

 Davis, with the suggestion that though cotton 

 may be King of slaves, it is no longer King of 

 Great Britain. And where will then be King 

 Cotton ? And what will then be the market val- 

 ue of King Cotton's colored bipeds in those days ? 

 In a single year of this blockade, the South will 

 have upon its hands two crops of cotton and the 

 demand for one essentially lessened, and a new 

 supply springing up from abroad. Then, instead 

 of demanding of the nations to come through 

 blood and carnage and take their cotton at any 

 cost, poor Rebellion, if he lives so long, will be 

 very grateful for a blanket and pair of shoes for 

 as much cotton as anybody will please to take. 



No ! Cotton is no longer King ! Now let us 

 look at a humbler and more republican power, 

 Corn may not be King, but at least he is a prom- 

 inent candidate for the Presidency of the Uni- 

 verse. Great is war, and very useful are soldiers ; 

 but by the arts of peace only can war be main- 

 tained, and the spade and the plow are more pow- 

 erful than rifle and cannon. 



Look at England once more. Though her ag- 

 riculture is the best in the world, only about one- 

 tenth of her population are engaged in it, and 

 they cannot supply the whole with food. England 

 imports three hundred thousand bushels of grain 

 a clay, throughout the year. This year her crop 

 is short, and she needs much more. The London 

 Mark Lane Express of September 16th estimates 

 that England's crop of wheat this year will fall 

 short of her supply by sixty-four millions of bush- 

 els, and that France will be compelled to purchase 

 eighty millions of bushels. This enormous quan- 

 tity of wheat, says that paper, will make nine 

 thousand cargoes of one hundred and twenty- 

 eight thousand bushels each ! Spain, Holland 

 and Belgium, it is said, will all be buyers, as well 

 as France and England. France is already buy- 

 ing largely in American markets. From August 

 25th to August 28th, 800,000 bushels of wheat, 

 and 9000 barrels of flour were shipped from New 

 York to Havre. The American crop, though not 

 very heavy, is abundant, far beyond our wants at 

 the North. The English papers are exhorting 

 their government and their merchants to look 

 these facts in t*ie face, and to secure at once, in 



