THE COTTON QUESTION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 62, 27 January 1862, Page 3

THE COTTON QUESTION.

The hope increases that there will be little occasion for national alarm in connexion with the cotton question. Of course, there must be painful individual privations; but strange as it may seem, it would not be difficult to prove that up to this moment the country at large has been, both directly and indirectly, greatly benefited in a pecuniary and commercial sense by the consequences of the American struggle. But for that event a most severe crisis must at about this period have fallen upon the trade of Lancashire. Eighteen months back an attempt was made to warn the public that the shipments of cotton manufactures to the east and elsewhere, and the extension of mill-power in Manchester, were taking place,upon a perilous scale, which threatened to lie followed .by ruinous revulsion. Our annual exportation of Manchester manufactures amount_ to £52,000,000, and the loss to which we are liable when the shipments of a year or two prove to have been made to glutted markets may easily be conceived. That the evil on the present occasion would bave been" beyond all ordinary experience is demonstrated by the fact that, although the tidings of the American war have now for mouths past penetrated to all parts of the world, and our shippers during the same period have had every inducement to restrict their operations, there has scarcely yet. in the leading markets, been sufficient recovery to yield any satisfactory profit even on the articles shipped when the staple was only at half its present value. Of course, there is confidence now tliat each future mail will bring higher prices from all quarters, and that the end will consequently be that our over-trading will be found to have brought large gains in the place of lossas that appeared at one time inevitable. A condition has thus been averted which would, perhaps, have caused a suspension of a large majority of the weaker and most speculative firms: Perhaps it is not too much to estimate the saving from the turn in this respect at eight or ten millions sterling. Again, one stock of cotton on the Ist of January was 545,670 bales, and the gain from the realization of this, at gradually advancing rates, may be estimated as two or three millions additional. An immense advantage must also be indirectly reckoned from the_ impulse given to the prospects of India, the productiveness of her revenue, and the stability of her securities ; while there is also to be taken into account the improvement in the value of our stocks of other textile materials, such as wool, jute, &c, which has been consequent upon the diminution in the supplies of the cheap rival article. At the same time, it is to be observed that England will relatively be far less injured by the rise of price in the staple than America, or other countries, since this rise is most heavily felt on the coarser fabrics, such as the American mills, even under a higher protictive tariff, can alone create ; whils, as has been wel! pointed out, the difference which it occasions on those articles that employ the greatest degree of operative skill is slight. Finally, it is perfectly certain that up to the present inonientwe have not, to the extent of a single piece of goods, had the slightest difficulty in meeting every legitimate demand of our foreign customers, and that the world will not sustain even any great temporary inconvenience before the productions of other regions will enable us to replenish their stock?. On the whole,therefore, we may as a people look upon the winter on which we have now entered not merely without dismay, but with a consciousness that one bud crisis has preserved us from another which would have been worse. Although it is out of the question that any individual nation can in the lone run gain, by the misfortunes of any other nation, it is so ordered that, sooner or later, the main proportion of the evils brought upon the v/orkl falls upon those who are primarily responsible for them. Mankind would have been better off if America had still pursued commerce and civilisation, but if we adhere to an honest and inoffensive course our share in the common misfortune may be so email as to cause our progress to appear uninterrupted, and to lead shallow observers to assume that the doctrine that the true interests of one-country are ins iparably bound up with those of every other has at length been shown to be fallacious. — Times.

Garibaldi's Bath. —Walking about the muddy streets —which the late Government I am told liked to be rather dirty, because it hid the dilapidated pavement—induced a desire for a bath, and, in one of the back alleys, I one morning discovered an etablissement possessed of two. After ringing a species of alarm bell, an old woman came out, and told me it would take an hour to set the machinery going, and that I must come again. At the expiration of that time, therefore, I returned, performed my ablutions, and offered to pay. " How much is it ? " '• Eight carlini, Excellenza." " Nonsense ! that's too much." " Com volete, Signore? how can I charge the usual price, when the last person in that bath was Genera! Garibaldi himself;" and then she spun a long story about everything he said and did, and how much more complaisant he was than me, because she had rubbed his back with a great scrubbing brush, whereas I would not let her do mine. Garibaldi most likely thought the attendance of a nereid in the form of a copper coloured hag of sixty would not create much scandal, especially if it was the custom ; and I agree with him ; but I was quite content with the honour of bathing in the same bath, without desiring to undergo a scrubbing with the same brush. Ultimately she took four carlini, and was contented. When I walked away I felt like Rienzi, after washing in ppnstantine's porphyry vase—clean, but not a whit the better for the historic glory.— ln the ffiack of the Gurihuldiuns through Italy and jSi'p'ily. By Algernon Sidney Bluckwell.

Loss of an American Barque: in the Amqor River.—By the airival of the barque Althea at Hakudodi (Japan), ten days from I)e Castries Bay (news wliiclj we received here by the garah Chase), we have dates from the Anioor Elver to Ist September, The barque Mongol, Captain Thompsen, had arrived there in 148 days from Boston, and while proceeding up the river in charge of a pilot, got ashore on a sand-spit off Cape Katarina, about 17th August, in three fathoms of water. Before she could be got off", a gale came on, and the sea made a clean breach over. her. Voilent thumping carried away masts and her hull 1:1 ltd with water, leaving the vessel a total wreck. The captain and ereiv were lashed to the forecastle five days, but all were safely rescued and taken to De Castries. The Mongol was a new a beautiful vessel of 530 tons, on her first trip, aud was viiiueU at about 40,000 dollars, and her cargo at about 80,000 dollars more.— San Francisco Weekly Bulletin. f

•Grand Rat Battue.—Our late townsman, Mr. Skarratt, now sporting landlord of the Royal Mail Hotel, Melbourne, visited with some friends at Lowe's slaughter-home the other day, for a day's rut-hunting. The ferrets unloosed, the. sport began in real earnest, to the great discomfiture and slaughter of the rats which numbered legion. After a gallant resistance from the rats, the ferrets were drawn off, and the trophies of the " battue" counted. The official return reci rds— killed, 300 ; prisoners bagged, 53. The latter were brought into to\v:i under escort of the conqueror. Mr. Lowe was so delighted at being rid of these pests, thnt bo presented his guests with the infant progeny of a Chinese pig.— Geelony Chronicle, 14th January. Inferior Gold.—The owners of crushing machines should be careful not to allow any of their receipts to leave their possession until properly filled up by themselves. Last week a person applied to the manager of one of tlie machines at Inglewood, to be allowed to see his receipt book, stating that he wanted to tcet some printed in a similar form. The manager having consented, a further request was then made for a blank receipt as a copy for the printer. The unsuspecting manager acceded to this request also. Instead, however, of the receipt finding its way to the printers, it was shortly after presented to one nf the gold brokers in the town properly filled up and purporting to come from the machine. The gold broker, knowing the quality of the gold usually brought from this machine, readify purchased the parcel accompanying the receipt, but soon after discovered that he had been regularly'sold, the gold proving anything but a .genuine sample.— lnijleuwod Advertiser, 10th January.