THE great quarrel which has for months been stirring up the worst passions of the population of the vast empire that has unmistakeably expressed an intention to establish dominion over the New World, unfortunately does not affect the contending parties only. It is in vain that the leading European governments have not only refrained from interfering in favour of either, but have unequivocally expressed their want of sympathy in the cause for which they are fighting; it is equally in vain that the nations from which these belligerents have sprung, have stood aloof, regarding the contest with as much regret as reprehension. The colossal republic, split into enormous sections, has been organizing armies greater than the first Napoleon directed against Russia, and preparing for a conflict apparently as destructive to their separate pretensions to nationality as was the war of the Romans and the Carthaginians. Jefferson Davis, it is true, may not be exactly a Hannibal, nor President Lincoln quite a Scipio, but the physical force each is supposed to direct, menaces the opposing power with annihilation as complete as that which was advocated in the memorable desire to destroy Carthage, familiar to the student of Roman history. Such a contingency, however, is only one, and we are inclined to aver, the least of the evils that that dreadful contest may produce. Indeed, we are willing to allow that there may be found States, more or less remote from the theatre of action, that are likely to look on with placidity, however long and sanguinary may be the conflict. It relieves them from fear of annexation

makes filibustering impossible. Spain has already shown that she is satisfiedCuba is safe-by making a bold effort to repossess her once noble colony, Hispaniola (Hayti). The republics of South America appear, too, more at case; their fate is put off indefinitely, and they are left at full liberty to render valueless the wealth-producing provinces that filled so many rich galleons in the golden age of Spanish dominion.

An evil of incalculable magnitude to the most industrious populations of the Old World is likely to arise out of this disruption of the Northern and Southern divisions of the once United States of America. It so happens that a large proportion of the working classes of France,

Germany, and Russia, with a proportion larger than all these united of England, are more or less dependent on the prosperity of a plant cultivated in the Southern States of North America. The French are interested in it chiefly by the demand for their manufactured articles rising and falling with whatever affects the great staple of one of their most profitable customers. The Germans and Russians are affected in the same manner, but also deal largely in the raw material, and with it are, to a cciderable extent, manufacturers of certain fabrics it is made to produce. The English, however, possess an enormously preponderating interest in the produce. The transit across the Atlantic has, for many years past, been one of the chief employments of our mercantile marine; the purchase and sale of raw cotton has for as long a period been the source of profitable speculation to the large and wealthy class of brokers. first preparation of the filament is an equally productive source of income to the spinners. The manufacture of thread into cloth maintains at least a million of both sexes, when the mills are in full work. The transfer of the manufactured goods to the wholesale dealer, thence to the retail tradesman, and through him to the consumer, and the warehousing and shipment by the merchant, and exportation to almost every portion of the habitable globe, of the various fabrics for which a market can be found, swell the sum total of profitable industry to an extent that seems incredible in figures.

The

During a sitting of the promoters of Social Science at Manchester, a few months back, at the meeting of the great congress held there, under the presidency of Mr. Fairbairn, there was given a masterly exposition of the prodigious extent of wealth and labour invested in the manufacture of cotton goods in Lancashire alone; but astounding as were the results of those calculations, they disclosed only a moiety of the enormous interests dependent, in the British Empire, on an adequate supply of the raw material. From these data it is plain that we have gone on year after year rapidly increasing our manufacturing resources by investing colossal fortunes in machinery on the grandest scale, content to be almost totally dependent on one source for the material of the fabrics so produced.

This imprudence, however, has something like a justification. The planters in the Southern States of the American Union have wisely increased the advantages they possess in favourable climate and soil, combined with cheap labour, in improving, as much as possible, the cultivation of the cotton plant; the effect has been that the pod is not only fuller and heavier than it is when grown elsewhere, but the filament is longer and finer. With such a superior fibre the manufacturer knows that he can produce an article which will look better, and wear better, than one manufactured from other cotton; and the great principle in competitive trade being to make the best goods at the cheapest price, all the energies of the spinner and cloth manufacturer are bent on supplying goods that shall enjoy a high repute both in the home and foreign market.

Just as this branch of British industry has thus been expanded to dimensions that must seem fabulous to those unacquainted with the elasticity of AngloSaxon enterprise and capital, occurs this momentous American struggle, the closing of the Southern ports by blockade, and the consequent stoppage of the usual supply of cotton from the Southern plantations. Each of the parties to this fratricidal strife appears to have secretly nurtured an arrière pensée in the shape of an expectation that one or more of the great European Powers would interpose in their behalf. In particular they imagined that the adequate supply of cotton bales was so vitally necessary to the maintenance of England's principal manufacture and export, that the English Government would feel itself obliged to afford them material assistance in putting an end to the difficulty by overpowering their rival. The North put forward many cogent arguments of this kind, not for getting to dwell emphatically on the moral advantages to be derived from a crusade against "the Domestic Institution" that flourished under their opponents. The South were content with ventilating their claims to support as sole producers of an article they believed to be as essential to British prosperity as air and light. In an indirect way was added a vision of prospective benefits, to arise out of our co-operation to effect their independence from Northern domination, that they, no doubt, expected would immediately direct all our energies in their behalf.

The Federal States, however, were not long in discovering that, though we had sacrificed much and were quite willing to sacrifice more, to put down Slavery, we did not feel justified in interfering in what was purely a domestic quarrel. A similar determination to remain neutral was conveyed to the Confederated States. The former, as soon as it became clear to them that England would not endorse their views respecting the indissolubility of their union, and that she seemed disposed to acknowledge the separate and distinct rights of the several "Rebel" States, were exceedingly wroth, and some of their public journals threatened mischief; but when their powerful friend, the Autocrat of all the Russias, and that more formidable potentate, the Emperor of the French, communicated a like determination, their anger underwent a sensible diminution, and they addressed themselves to the difficult task that had been set before them of bringing the seceding States by force of arms back to their allegiance to, and dependence on, the Federal Government.

Towards the fulfilment of this design the progress of the campaign has not as yet contributed in any marked degreein truth, it must be allowed that the armies of the Confederates have been more successful in the field than those of the Federals. The latter have, however, prevented the crop of cotton in the Southern plantations from being shipped for export, and are under the impression that this will prevent "the sinews of war" reaching their opponents' military chest; that the "rebel" planters must become ruined in consequence of being deprived of their source of income, and as

Poverty parts good company," that the Confederacy must dissolve and individu ally and collectively accept the best terms that the clemency of President Lincoln may propose.

While this problem is being worked out in the New World, there is another equally perplexing set before the powers of calculation possessed by the Old World. The alarm of a deficient cotton supply is sounded by the leading journals, and attention is directed towards other sources -to lands where the valuable plant is or can be grown in very considerable quantities. It is remembered that Dr. Livingstone dilated on an inexhaustible source from the neighbourhood of the Zambesi; but on making inquiries after the cargoes landed at Liverpool, we discovered that