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COTTON: GREAT STATISTICAL ERROR.
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C1IA11XKL-11OUSE3.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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< den . ce . Many blunders were , indeed , committed by the Home -Government , in the earlier years of their history , arid for a long time .-they experienced shameful neglect and still more injurious interference . But we have at last got quite out of the grooves of the old colonial policy , and have left the Australians , to manage ftheir own affairs in the way that seems best to them . They have as full and entire self-government as they can desire . If the constitu-. tionof any colony seems defective to the inhabitants , they can alter ut in their own sense , and , as a natural consequence , they have only themselves to blame for the blunders they make . But if they do make blunders they can easil y cQrreot them , and at the worst such mistakes are far less injurious than any which might ho made by the Colonial-office at home in the plenitude of its a » norance . They have made a full , and , on the whole , wise use
of their liberties ; and if we may see something to cause a smile in their legislative proceedings , there is little to call for censure . The colonists have , consequently , nothing to get by independence , but something to lose , in the protection and aid England gives them ; so that their national loyalty and the family ties which bind them to the mother country unite with every dictate of self-interest to make them cling to the connexion . The burden , such as it is , of that connexion , - falls entirely upon England ; to whom , in many Ways , these possessions are yet a cost . But the cost , whatever ' it may be , is amply made up to us by the great iield which the Australian colonies offer to the enterprise of our rapidly increasing population , and the valuable trade which , not in virtue of monopolising restrictions , but under a system of perfect liberty , we carry oh with them .
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f ORD BROUGHAM is reported to have said in the House ¦*^ of Lords , on the 27 tii ult ., that the importation of cotton iinto . this country had increased sixteen-fold since the import duty was abolished . * The noble lord gave the figures 63 , 000 , 000 lbs . annually before the duty was abolished , and 1 , 000 , 0 . 00 lbs . now or at the find of 1858 , ' which is . the latest official account published . The noble lord made a great mistake , and we have not yet seen any correction of his error . It was in 1812 when the cotton imported was 63 , 025 , 930 lbs . ; in 1858 the quantity imported was 1 , 034 , 3-42 , 176 lbs . This qiuuititv was probably much exceeded in 1859 , as the
official returns to the end of November show an increase in the eleven months of 1859 over the same period in 1858 of 1 , 000 , 000 lbs . But the import duty on cotton was not repealed till 184 . 5 , . when the quantity imported was 731 , 979 , 953 lbs . ; consequently between the time when the import duty was repealed and the cud-of 1 S 59 , supposing the xniantity then imported to have been 1 , 100 , 000 , 000 lbs ., the importof cotton has only increased 55 per cent ., or little more than one half , instead of . sixtcen-fold , as stated by Lord Brougham . The error is gigantic . The noble lord has confounded the repeal of the Orders in Council in 1812 , in which Hen ry Bkougiia . u , being then in Opposition , took a liberal , a patriotic , and a distinguished part—and which , no doubt , still duties
protection , under which they may think we throve , and for their reluctance to follow our new and most successful course . They will be neither instructed nor encouraged to do right by the noble lord ' s mistake . . If the noble lord required an illustration of the effect . of repealing import duties , he might have found a more striking one in other articles than cotton . In 1814- the import duty on wool was repealed . It yielded only £ 97 , 174 . The quantity then imported was 65 , 713 , 761 lbs ., and it jumped up the following year to 76 , 813 , S 55 lbs . In 1 S 5 S the quantity imported amounted to 12 () , 138 , 723 lbs . Thus , while the increase of cotton imported in fourteen years was only 55 per cent ., the increase of wool in a similar period was 100 per cent . In IS 58 the import of raw silk was unusually small , owing to exceptional circumstances' - ; but if we take the average of the three years , 1856-8 , we shall find that it too , like wool , has , in a similar period , increased 100 per cent . Our cotton manufacture , therefore , great and lioble as it is , and deserving of all admiration , is , in its latter growth , so good an example of the beneficial effects of reducing import duties as wool and silk . In its earlier growth it is a better illustration , than they . of the benefits of freedom . From several causes , not now to be stated , tlic manufacture of cotton was free in relation to our internal or our own social regulations , which many persons entirely overlook ; while the woollen and silk manufactures were encumbered by heaps of old trade restrictions . Thru it flourished a great deal more than other branches of-manufacture- ; but since they and it have been placed on n niore equal footing at liome , and are alike free , they have increased faster than the manufacture of cotton . Our contemporary the -Times , which adopted Lord Biiolgham ' s error , was quite right in representing the increase of our cotton manufacture as V a giant fact , standing , head and shoulders higher than the crowd , " arid quite right in representing it as an index to an immense number " of smaller facts which stand under its shadow ; " only the sixteen-fold multiplication of in ill's , ships , freights , Sec . to which the Time * refers , has taken place in forty-six . years , —not , as that journal and Lord .. BiiorGii ^ i . represent it , by substituting 1 S 13 for 1845 , in thirteen years . Nor is ' the ¦ quantity of ' cotton- 'imported .--an exact index to the ' . increase ^ of- mills an d of -people . In the interval much new and improved machinery-has boen ' uit . ro'duced , and it is probable that , mill for , mill , every mill in existence iiow works aip in the year twice as muc . li cotton as it worked up in 1812 . In adhering to correct statistics , we must not forget the progress in . knowledge , and skill , and its consequences . No cause is . benefited , no truth can be promoted by mistakes and exaggerations , and therefbre we have thought it right to ¦ point out the error of a great orator and a great journalist . We innv notice , as a somewhat extraordinary -circumstance , that , surrounded as thc . T / W * is by rivals a :. id opponents , not om ; of them should have fastened on it for the error into which it was led by Lord Brougham . The journal said expressly , the increase had taken place since the import duty on cotton was abolished , and on this fact built a very striking lender . In the majority -of the remarks we concur ; but while we consider them well-timed and appropriate , we regret that they were all run up on an erroneous foundation .
occupies a large p lace in his mind—with the repeal of the on raw cotton , which was not conceded to the reiterated prayers of the manufacturers till 1845 , Over the successive administrations which managed our affairs between 1812 and 1 S 45 , including the Administration of which Lord B rough am formed a part , the frequent representations of the manufacturers and merchants , especially of Mr . Baking , afterwards Lord Ashbvkton , that rtlie Americans wore boating us out of the foreign market for heavy goods , hud no effect . In defiance of the teaching ot science and the evidence of the senses the import duty on cotton , yielding less than £ 200 , 000 at the early part of the period , and ' only £ 682 , 012 at its close , was obstinately preserved for thirtythree years after the period to which the noble lord has assigned the extinction .
This historical fact is of great significance , besides correcting a very egregious mistake . It removes to thirty-three years later than is perhaps commonly believed the date of the practical conversion of our Government to tlio wholesome doctrines wo are now trying to teach the rest of Europe . When it was so slow in leuynin ' g to do right , even when administered by Lord Buoughajj , in conjunction with the Whigs , we ought not . to be surprised at tho French manufacturers , and the French
Government ; , still lingering behind in the race of improvement . If the great increasp of pur cotton manufactures bo a just subject of congratulation , it will be observed that between 1812 ami 18 Ji 5 , while the raw material was subject to an import ( July , tho import of cotton increased nearly clovon fold . We know that this great increase was , wholly independent of political causes , and took place in spite of the duty ; but when ' other nations notice the iuet , they way bo excused ' for their continued adheronco to old
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IT is necessary to call attention to a subject m which all are ooiieerned , but upon , which at this moment all appear apathetic . In tho Quarterly Report of the health of the City of London , presented a fortnight ago , Dr . Lethisjj y makes allusions to the state of the church vaults and burial-grounds within his jurisdiction — seventy-one in number — which have been carefully examined . The vaults are , in soine eases , gorged witii , corruption , and all along the * aisles and porches of the sacred edifices are . graves filled witli human remains . In most instances , the only partition between the living ami the ( load is a thin slab of stone and a lew inches of erirth . These
oHVr but a very imperfect barrier to the escape of noxious eftluviu ; and " ' slowly , therefore , but Incessantly , the gnspous products of decomposition are effused into the atmosphere of the church . But at the night services ,, or during the winter season , when tho air is rarefied by tho warmlh of the . fires or burning gas , nud the rank vapours are drawn out in uncontrolled profusion , it is impossible to say what mischief has been done by this , and how many while worshipping within the sanctuary liuvc sickened unto ckath . "
Howj very few of the thousands who are living' m tho very contact witli this abomination , and of the tons ofitliouaimds who arc daily exposed to its influences , ore nware of the danger they incur thWobv , must be obvious IVoin tho little' exertion that is made to escape from this - imminent peril . To supjwsu that tho Legislature will interfere without tho pressure of tho people , or
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I \ eb-. 4 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 111
Cotton: Great Statistical Error.
COTTON : GREAT STATISTICAL ERROR .
C1ia11xkl-11ouse3.
CHARNEL-HOUSES .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 4, 1860, page 111, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2332/page/11/
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