Oct. 30, 1861

Oct. 30, 1861: The New York Times re-prints a story from the London Times:

THE COTTON DIFFICULTY.; SUPPLIES FAILING IN SPAIN. PROMISING NEWS FROM JAMAICA. SHALL THE BLOCKADE BE BROKEN?
The large factory of cotton goods at Tarragona in Spain, had been obliged to suspend operations owing to the scarcity of the raw material.

From the London Times.

The advices by this packet continue most favorable The agent of the Cotton Company had put in an additional 22 acres [in Jamaica] since the last packet sailed. The Egyptian seed which the Company sent out by the steamers turned out very good, and was in line growth. Some of the cotton planted in May was putting forth blossoms. The Governor was about to plant 40 acres on his estate, adjoining that on which the Company's agent had planted, and was continuing to plant. The season for planting continued favorable, and there was no want of labor. The crop of corn planted with the first cotton was ripening fast, and would soon be stored. The covering of the cobs would serve for making paper pulp, and this, together with the wasting plantain and other such fibres, with which the country abounds, would supply the materials for paper in large quantity. A great number of small settlers had obtained some of the Egyptian seed sent out by the Company, and although discouraged by some of the local papers, very large quantities had been planted by the small settlers in all parts of the island.

A movement is on foot in England, chiefly recommended by anonymous contributors to newspapers, recommending British intervention to destroy the blockade, and release the cotton crop. In commenting upon such a communication, the Manchester Guardian declines to approve the suggestion. The London Star says:

"The price is too heavy -- for it is that of guilt. We have no more right to force our way into American harbors than has a hungry crowd to pillage a corn-store or a baker's shop. The law of nature may entitle the famishing to wrestle with the luxurious, but it does not permit the improvident to release themselves by violence from the grasp of want. It is improvidence of the grossest and most reckless kind that has brought us to our present need. We have voluntarily made ourselves dependent upon America for that which we now allege to be indispensable to our existence. The world was all before us where to choose the sources of our supply. Our own fields were crying out to us for hands to gather their almost spontaneous harvests. We have preferred at once to maintain the slavery of the negro and the poverty of the Hindoo, rather than put forth our strength where it was first due, and would have been most rewarded. Now, are we to take our kinsmen by the throat, and compel them to yield to our will that which is lawfully as well as actually subject to their power? Happily, for our National character, the crime is as nearly impossible as it is wholly indefensible. . . . We should have upon our hands a war stretching from Canada to Mexico, and lay ourselves at the mercy of our European neighbors. The unemployed operatives of the manufacturing districts would have not only leisure enough but motive enough to render any amount of trouble to the rulers that had so madly aggravated distress by crime. And whatever of moral or religious feeling there may be in the country would assuredly be roused into rebellion against a policy that made Britain the ally at once of Slavery, and rebellion, and civil war."