rye, barley, and almost every other article of consumption? Her consumption of imported iron, exclusive of cutlery, exceeds 2,000,000 dollars per annum; and yet she has inexhaustible quantities of ore of the very best quality. She consumes 2,500,000 dollars worth of leather, four-fifths of which are furnished from abroad; and yet she possesses all the materials necessary for tanning in the utmost profusion. For shoes and boots alone, she expends abroad, yearly, 1,081,709 dollars. Could not this vast sum be kept at home?

Notwithstanding the importance of the subject, owing to the lucid and masterly argument submitted to the public in this place, twelve months since, I do not deem it advisable to occupy much of your time, in demonstrating the capacity of the South to compete successfully with Old or New England, in the manufacture of cotton. When we take into the account the difference in the cost of the raw material in these different markets, the price of labor, fuel, water-power and subsistence, the advantage in favor of the South is tremendous. Indeed, the rapid increase in this branch of business, within the last few years, among us, has demonstrated conclusively the practicability of the matter. If there be a deficiency in skill at present, we are abundantly able to procure it. And the many inducements we offer, when properly understood and appreciated, will bring it to us from abroad, until we have time to rear it up at home. No bankruptcy has occurred, within my knowledge, in any cotton company at the South. And while seventy-one mills are reported to have stopped, within thirty miles of Providence, Rhode Island, and numerous others have either ceased to run, or are put on short time at the North, on account of the high price of the raw material, or some other cause, some of our companies are declaring a dividend of ten per cent, on the business of the last year. These facts are sufficient to put to silence all speculations on the subject. Doubt it who may, the South is destined soon to become the seat of the cotton manufactures of the world. The competition has been forced upon us, and our people are beginning to be thoroughly aroused from their apathy.

It has become fashionable of late, just in proportion as cotton mills have multiplied at the South, for northern newspapers and periodicals to abound with essays, the object of which is, to caution the South and West against mistakes and misrepresentations, as to the profits of cotton manufactures. Not that the writers are opposed at all to their extension, but they are concerned, lest amid the powerful impulse that has been given to public opinion and the employment of capital in this business, that we should be tempted in our enthusiasm "to leap in the dark." And, a gentleman of large experience and a thorough practical knowledge, we are assured, of the whole matter, and one who bears a name not altogether unknown to fame, has condescended, through one of the popular magazines, to enlighten his countrymen, by his pen, upon this subject.

Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.

We fear the Greeks, even when they offer presents. The bitter past has taught us the painful necessity of being on our guard, even

against kindness, when thus volunteered. Facts fortify us against these fears. What has covered the rock-bound coast and bleak hills of New-England, in despite of her rugged soil and rigorous climate, with marble mansions, and all that is beautiful in art and comfortable in civilization? Her manufactures in cotton, alone, are computed to have added not less than 300,000,000 dollars to the stock of her wealth within the last thirty-five years. For the present, we are content for Europe and the North to monopolize the manufacture of prints and lawns, but the irrevocable decree has gone forth, that the South has resolved that the coarser fabrics and yarns are to be wrought here; and that we will do this, not in the spirit of a just retaliation, but in order that our own surplus labor may find employment; that we may make exchanges with India and China for our silks and teas, until we can supply ourselves at home with these articles; with Brazil for our coffee; and with all the rest of the world for the necessaries and luxuries of life, which we are unfitted to produce ourselves; and more especially that we may have a market at our own door for our agricultural products.

We find, that for our agriculture to flourish, we must have a market everywhere; and that it is people and not a place which makes the market; that the nearer this is found to the farmer's door the better; that he is impoverished in spending so much time and money in getting his breadstuffs to distant markets; and that rather than submit to existing evils, we are prepared to import the men and machinery, until we can raise up and qualify the one, and acquire competent skill to construct the other.

The recent developments in England furnish a strong inducement to the South to embark immediately and extensively in the manufacture of coarse cottons and cotton yarns. There is a settled conviction in that country, that with their present and future prospects as to the supply and price of the raw material, their manufactures must run, more than they have done in former years, on finer fabrics ; that they must yield the lower numbers of cloths to us, because we are nearer the material; and that, consequently, their consumption of raw cottons must tend to decrease, rather than increase. The same result will be true as to the continent. And it is believed, and, I think, on good authority, that this change will be permanent, and that the falling off in the consumption of raw cotton from this cause alone, will not be less than one-third.

If England and the continent, then, are compelled to retire from the manufacture of coarse cloths, of which the raw material forms so large a portion of the value, not only the manufacture of these fabrics, but the markets for them, must be transferred to others. Shall we succeed to them, or sit idle, while the waters are troubled, and see others step in before us?

With our capacity for this business, it would be a burning shame not to avail ourselves of the opening thus presented. A lethargy, which nothing can excuse, will alone deprive us of this advantage. The demand for coarse, heavy, cheap cotton goods, will not only be sustained, but steadily increased, as they shall be substituted for flax

and other materials in Russia, Germany, Ireland, and other parts of the world. And in this form, the great bulk of this staple will always be consumed. Let England and the continent, for the present at least, continue to spin yarns, of which the raw material costs but one-twentieth of the finished price, and to run spindles that do not produce two pounds of yarn a quarter; and the North monopolize, for a few years longer, the calicoes and dimities; but let us at once enter with hearty determination upon the work of using up the body of the crop, in ginghams, checks, osnaburgs, and coarse yarns; and the effect will be, to furnish a better market for the planter, than Liverpool or Lowell, as well as a home market for every description of produce. The trade and commerce of our sea-ports will flourish; our rivers will be rendered navigable; rail-ways and plank-roads and turnpikes constructed, not only to connect the towns and counties together by the internal circulation of trade, but to afford an easy and cheap conveyance to the ocean, at every accessible port.

It is almost impossible to realize the effect of a manufacturing establishment of any sort in fostering the various branches of trade and business, in producing comfort, refinement and intelligence, and in stimulating the growth and populousness of the surrounding country. The evidences abound in every section of the Union, where the experiment has been made. First, the factory goes up; and soon it is surrounded with a beautiful village, with its hundreds, perhaps thousands, of clean, contented and thrifty inhabitants; then comes the hotels, the churches, the schools; next, the machine-shops and mills of every variety, the stores, post office, and, perhaps, finally, the savings bank. Old debts are paid off and litigation dried up, for every body has money and to spare; lands rise in value, from fifty to one hundred per cent., in the neighborhood; for there is a market not only for grain, and articles which will bear transportation, though at a ruinous loss to the producer, but for heavy articles, that will not admit of transportation, and also for every cucumber, cabbage, and quart of milk, that can be spared. It was published in the papers, during the past summer, that one of the large hotels in the city of New-York consumed daily, besides bushels of berries, twelve hundred eggs, five hundred quarts of milk, and from five hundred to a thousand pounds of beef. Now, every manufacturing establishment is an Astor or an Irving House to the surrounding population. Let, then, the cotton mill and the cotton field, and that most formidable of all trios, and most holy of all alliances, "the plough, the loom and the anvil," be brought together.

Who can estimate the good the founders of one of these establishments has done to his species? How many politicians render equal service to the state? Such men may not have a place on the page of history with the conquerors of Mexico, but posterity will rank them with the benefactors of mankind. The friends of free trade are said to have made to Mr. Cobden, its great advocate and champion, a donation of near a million of dollars; and I rejoice at the precedent. It is high time that fortunes and honors should be

bestowed on those who have taught successfully the arts of peacethe true criterion of national glory-as well as upon military chieftains. The day is not distant-and I rejoice at the fact-when the highest distinctions will be conferred on those who have done most to multiply the means of subsistence, and to impart them to the rapidly increasing millions of the human family.

And was there ever such a people as the Americans for boldness of conception and indomitable perseverance? Their minds partake of the rivers, water-falls, and mountain scenery of the country. Every individual aspires to be the founder of a city, the conqueror or lawgiver of a nation-a Romulus, Cortez, or Solon. And there is not a pettifogger, who has fled the country for debt or crime, that cannot construct a wiser constitution than the immortal John Locke framed for the province of South Carolina. Nor is it true that covetousness alone begets this spirit of adventure. It would be folly to deny that the men who thus embark with their time, and talents, and fortune, look to remuneration. Still, there is much patriotism and philanthropy mixed up with all these enterprises. These pioneers rejoice in the thought, that they are not working for themselves alone, but are aiding in laying, broad and deep, the foundations of a glorious empire; and that they are assisting, in the best possible mode, in feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and giving eyes to the intellectually blind.

But it is objected, that these manufacturing establishments will become the hot-beds of crime, where it will shoot up in alarming luxuriance, to corrupt and destroy the public morals. But I am by no means ready to concede that our poor, degraded, half-fed, half-clothed, and ignorant population, without Sabbath-schools, or any other kind of instruction-mental or moral-or without any just appreciation of the value of character, will be injured by giving them employment, which will bring them under the oversight of employers, who will inspire them with self-respect, by taking an interest in their welfare. My own personal experience and observation are directly the reverse of the opinion which I am combating; and I could state many interesting facts, in corroboration of the belief which I entertain. After all, the most powerful motives to good conduct, is to give suitable encouragement to labor, and to bestow proper rewards upon meritorious industry.

Did time permit, I should take great pleasure in urging upon my fellow-citizens the propriety of engaging extensively in various other industrial pursuits; believing confidently, as I do, from careful investigation, as well as upon the experience of the most enlightened and practical men, both in the feasibility and profitableness of these branches of industry.

Is there any good reason why the leather and shoe business should not be extensively prosecuted at the South? It ranks as the fourth, after cotton, wool and iron, in Great Britain; and it is questionable if it be not superior to the latter, even there. In this country, it holds a still higher rank; and we have a natural guaranty that this business never can become unfashionable, or be overdone. With

our forests for bark, and facilities for conducting this branch of manufacture advantageously, why, I would earnestly inquire, should it not be undertaken at once? All the experiments hitherto made at the South have proved eminently successful. All that we lack is a few Zadock Pratts, to lead in this business. When we reflect to what a variety of uses leather is applied, in the implements of war, husbandry, and the mechanic arts, the structure of machinery, the furniture of houses, articles of clothing, books, hats, caps, harness and carriages, there is no single material, it has been truly remarked, except cotton, which is so much needed, or needed in so much plenty. Without it, or without it in the plenty which we have it, what would the world do? What a wide field for commercial enterprise-to exchange our cotton goods for the raw hides of Texas, Mexico, and South America!

I have no means at hand of ascertaining the value of the leather and shoe manufactures in the United States. In England, it is estimated at upwards of 60,000,000 of dollars; and it is computed that more than 250,000 persons are employed in its various departments. And it is in the way here detailed, that she has built up Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Sheffield, and scores of other towns, constructed her India docks, and other commercial wonders, which overshadow, by comparison, the proudest monuments erected by ancient kings and emperors.

The iron and paper business, and sheep-husbandry, to pass over all other commodities, for which our climate and invaluable resources are so admirably adapted, have been too long overlooked and neglected. As it respects wool, it has been triumphantly shown, that millions might and ought to be realized at the South from this one article; whether we consider the health and longevity of the sheep, the texture and weight of the fleece, the cheapness of subsistence, or the great profits which would result to this section, from this business; that we can compete successfully at it, if not outstrip any other region of the country.

ART VI.-THE LATE HENRY A. BULLARD.

SEVERAL years ago, when publishing the various documents appertaining to the Historical Society of this state, we introduced in our pages some extracts from an eulogium, pronounced by Judge Bullard upon the Hon. F. Zavier Martin, President of the Society. Judge Bullard having since paid the debt of nature, occupying the same position, we feel that it is but just to his memory, associated as it is with so large a part of the History of Louisiana, to incorporate the following biographical sketch, prepared by our friend, V. H. Ivy, Esq., at the instance of the law graduates of the University. Neither Mr. Ivy nor ourselves agree with the political tenets held by Judge Bullard; but find nothing in that to militate against our high appreciation of his learning, his talents, and his constant and unwavering services to the state. The gloom of the grave covers up every honest difference, and leaves in our hearts but the vivid memory of the scholar—the jurist—and the man.—[EDditor.