TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 207 



in it are imperilled by any indications which threaten to disturb its existence and 

 prosperity, — and that its suspension or serious curtailment would even endanger 

 the general weal, — we may well inquire what efforts have been made to sustain the 

 usefulness, prosperity, and permanency of this source of national riches. That the 

 cotton trade shoidd have rested chiefly upon the one supply of the States of America 

 for its very means of existence, every good and every wise man has deplored ; but 

 that to produce that supply the portion of the human family which is most defence- 

 less shoidd be held in the degradation of slaveiy is abhorrent to the feelings of the 

 righteous, of the humane, and of the benevolent. Most effectually to suppress 

 slavery will be to supersede the necessity for the labom* of the slave ; and if the 

 chiefs of Africa could be induced to cidtivate sugar, cotton, and tobacco upon their 

 own soil, they need not expel and degrade their laboui-ers. 



The author added remarks on the effects of the conmiercial policy of the United 

 States, and affirmed that this countiy has been paying a tribute of five Tnillion 

 poimds sterling per annum to those States in excess of the price at which cot- 

 ton coidd be remuneratively produced and sold. With the convulsion which 

 exists in America, with the adverse conunercial policy dominant there, and with 

 the inhuman system of slavery which prevails in the cotton-producing districts, 

 what are the duties which devolve upon cm" governing and mercantile classes ? If 

 by the convulsion of the States we are taught our national as well as commercial 

 duties, the lesson will be idtimately beneficial. Whether it has been wise for our 

 Government to see continually increasing the dependence of this great trade upon 

 the one chief supply of its raw material, and that som'ce adverse in interest and 

 oppressive to its own labour, we can only answer in the negative. With the East and 

 West Indies, with tracts in South, East, and West Africa, and with land in Australia 

 as extensive as Europe, capable of gTOwing cotton fi-om the lowest to the highest 

 qualities, it is a national reproach to us that we have permitted our own fields to 

 be uncultivated, and that our spinners and manufacturers have been driven by 

 necessity to consume the produce of slaveiy. Lacking the means of commimication 

 and of irrigation, the resoiu'ces of the East Indies remain in much the same dormant 

 condition in which they have been for two thousand years ; but brighter prospects 

 are opening in that gi'eat dependency, — railways are being constructed, canals 

 formed, river navigation improved, and works of imgation promoted. One great 

 defect, however, is retained with pei-verse tenacity. The teniu'e of land is obstruct- 

 ive alike to the rights of individual ownership and to its effective cidtivation. 

 Without doing the slightest wron^ to the holders of any land, its equitable transfer 

 might be sanctioned, and a landed proprietary as influential as in om" own coimtry 

 might be established. Protection to life and the rights of property, with evenr 

 other just adjunct of good government, will inevitably lead to prosperity. Small 

 supplies of cotton, as good as that obtained from New Orleans, are now received 

 from India, and the cotton of this vast dependency is certainly improving ; but 

 whilst, from a combination of circumstances and causes, the ryot of India is only 

 paid 12s. per acre for his crop of cotton, and the American cultivator can obtain 

 £12, the energy and capability of the former cannot be developed. Supposing 

 efforts to be made commensurate with indicated difficulties, all the common cottons, 

 or 76 per cent, of the consumption of Great Britain, might be obtained from India 

 in a couple of years. From Egypt the supply of cotton may increase, but there the 

 withering influence of the despot retards its extended cidtivation, though the 

 spirited, energetic, and successfid enterprise of Mehemet Ali is an example deserving 

 the imitation of better men. He introduced that agi'icultural industry into his 

 viceroyalty, and founded a fountain of wealth whence flow millions of annual 

 income to the advantage of Egypt. For all the finer, higher, and better classes of 

 cotton, from New Orleans, Brazil, and Egyptian, to the most beautiful Sea Island, 

 Queensland, in Australia, might quickly afford all requisite supplies. That territory 

 alone, besides sustaining the population of Europe, coidd easily be made to produce 

 all the cotton now consumed in the world ; but so sweeping a change and enlarged pro- 

 duction need not be deliberated upon, the facts being only referred to as illustrating 

 the powers of that colony. In seeking from the Government the development of 

 the resources of the colonies, the twofold advantage woidd arise by which that power 

 would financially be gTeatly benefited, alike at home and in the colonies. Govern- 

 ment must set its coloniad house in order. Land grants for beneficial purposes 



