' and admirably harmonise with the sentiments which pervade 'the correspondence before mentioned.

The parties in these proceedings will readily understand that the attempted revolution in the United States sensibly 'affects this Government, and American society itself, in many ways which it has not fallen within the province of those parties to examine. While the interests thus naturally, and not improperly, overlooked in Europe furnish the strongest ' possible motives to the people of the United States for suppressing the insurrection and maintaining the Constitutional 'Government received at the hands of their fathers, the Pre'sident readily accepts and avows, as an additional and irre'sistible motive, the suggestion made by the friends of our country in Europe, that the success of the insurrection 'would result in the establishment, for the first time in the history of the human race, of a State based upon the ex'clusive foundations of African slavery.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your very obedient servant, 'WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

'Thomas Bayley Potter, Esq., Manchester, England.'

It is sheer nonsense in Mr. Seward to say that the success ' of the insurrection (i. e. secession) would result in the estab'lishment, for the first time in the history of the human race, of a State based upon the exclusive foundations of African 'slavery.' As to slavery, there is not a particle of difference between the old Federal and new Confederate Constitutions, as adjudicated by the Supreme Court. The Southern Constitution, to be sure, provides that the master shall have the right of transit with his slave through any of the States, while there is no such express provision in the Federal Constitution. But it is an implied right, however, repeatedly decided as such by the highest tribunal in America, and likewise as an international right by the verdict of the English Court in the case of Grace. The express provisions in both Constitutions in reference to slavery are as follows, viz. :

1. Representation and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States according to numbers, to be ascertained by adding to the whites three-fifths of the slaves.

2. In the Federal Constitution there is no prohibition of the African slave trade; but after 1808 Congress had the power to abolish it, if it saw proper. In the Confederate Constitution there is an absolute prohibition of that trade; and a further provision, giving Congress a discretionary power to prohibit the introduction of slaves from the United States.

3. In each Constitution are provisions to render up fugitive slaves to masters, and to use the military power to suppress all attempts at rebellion by the slaves.

The simple truth is that both Constitutions embrace the same fundamental principle, namely, the supremacy of the white over the black race. Mr. Seward's representations to the contrary are nothing less than hypocrisy and an attempt to deceive the European public in regard to this matter. Here are his own words, delivered in the Senate Chamber on March 11, 1850, in contravention of his present statements:

'The population of the United States consists of natives of 'Caucasian origin, and exotics of the same derivation. The 'native mass readily assimilates to itself and absorbs the exotic, ' and these constitute one homogeneous people. The African race, bond and free, and the aborigines, savage and civilised, 'being incapable of such assimilation and absorption, remain 'distinct, and, owing to their peculiar condition, constitute 'inferior masses, and may be regarded as accidental if not 'disturbing political forces.'

This is a clear confession that the maxim set forth in the Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal,' referred only to the white race, who alone framed and adopted the constitutions of all the States, as well as that of the United States. And it is also an admission that the negro, although a man,' is not a brother.' But Mr. Seward is guilty of an absurd blunder when in his ethnological display he seeks to place the Indian upon the same level with the negro. The 'aborigines' of America, unlike the natives of Africa, are capable of high mental culture, and are not debarred from political privileges in either section of the late Union.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE AMERICAN COTTON CROPS-SOUTHERN WEALTH AND NORTHERN PROFITS.'

THE extension of the trade in cotton has been the most wonderful circumstance in the history of commerce, and it is very clear that it has been mainly owing to the cultivation on the Western continent. While the moist climate of the British Isles is so well suited for its manufacture by machinery, the peculiar soil and atmosphere of the Southern States is the best adapted for its culture. The subjoined table gives a statement of the number of pounds of cotton yielded by those States from the earliest period, the average annual price, the value, and the quantity exported each year:

The total value of the cotton crops of the Southern States of America, from the earliest period to the dissolution of the Federal Union, allowing for 5,000,000 pounds, the estimated weight of that grown anterior to 1789, amounted to thirtyseven hundred and sixteen millions, two hundred and fifteen thousand dollars ($3,716,215,000), of which twenty-eight hundred and ten millions, four hundred and twenty-two thousand, six hundred dollars ($2,810,422,600) in value, or about threefourths the whole, was exported to foreign ports, and two-thirds of the remaining one-fourth were sent to the Northern States. These crops formed the basis of a commerce, the aggregate amount of which it is difficult to appraise. Cotton, from the time it leaves the pod until it is converted into paper, goes through a greater number of hands than any other production of the vegetable or animal kingdom. It will be observed that prices of cotton have gradually cheapened, incidental to the usual mercantile fluctuations. The trade has been subjected to several interruptions-the embargo in 1808, followed by the Non-intercourse Act, the war of 1812-14, and the present partial blockade of the Southern ports. On these occasions prices have, of course, been very high at the consuming points.

The foregoing tables and remarks bring the history of the American cotton trade down to the period of the secession of the Southern States from the Federal Union, which, beginning with the State of South Carolina on December 20, 1860, was followed by the other cotton States in January and February 1861. The shipments of cotton, however, were continued to the close of the season-July; the trade therefore does not show much falling off for that year. The business since then has been confined to the produce reshipped from the North and that which has eluded the blockade.

The rapidity with which the cultivation of cotton increased in the Southern States is truly astonishing. In the beginning of the present century the annual exportation was about 5,000 bales; in 1849 the quantity grown had reached 2,445,793 bales of ginned cotton of 400 lbs. each; in 1859 it had further advanced to 5,196,793 bales, or more than 100 per cent. in ten years. The whole crop is the product of twelve States, but is chiefly obtained from eight of them. Prior to the production