Page:The Under-Ground Railroad.djvu/202

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plish the desired object. I am glad to learn from the last report of the Cotton Supply Association of Manchester, that the subject is eliciting the attention of members of both Houses of Parliament, and has obtained the assistance of the chief department of Her Majesty's Government, the British Consuls in foreign ports are giving the scheme their attention and kind consideration. It is quite pleasing, in one respect, to see the Cotton crops have only doubled in twenty years. For the benefit of those who may read this book, and may not read the report, I extract from it the following:—"We must point to the fact, although in 1840 the Crop of the United States was 2,177,835 bales, and in 1860 it may reach 4,500,000 bales, the growth has only been doubled in twenty years. While the number of spindles employed in this country, and on the Continent was, in 1840, 27,266,000, but in 1860, 69,642,000. In other words, while the increase of growth has been doubled, owing to the high prices of almost exclusive markets; the increase of spindles has more than doubled by the enormous addition of 15,110,000, requiring an additional one million bales to give them employment, The position of the trade is therefore, in 1860, so far as America is concerned, worse by one million bales than it was in the year 1840. It is not necessary to allude to the numerous places that produce Cotton both in Her Majesty's dominions and beyond them; nor is it yet necessary to refer to what has been expended and experiments tried in the cultivation of this article, as they are before the public by other and more able pens than mine. I have spoken of Cotton because it is the giant support of Slavery, but I am quite in favour of ceasing to use all