Latest foreign Details.
Discussion of American Affairs in England.
progress of the cotton famine.
By the
Asia, at New York, we have some further interesting foreign detans.
The
London papers announce that the
Confederate Commissioners,
Mann and
Yancey, dined on the 9th instant with the
Fishmonger's Company.
Mr. Robert Mair, of
Charleston, who was released from Fort Latayette on parole, reached
Liverpool in the steamer
North American.
The cotton question in England.
[From the London Times, Nov. 8]
The accounts from
Lancashire state that the paralysis of trade in the manufacturing districts, owing to the scarcity of American cotton, is becoming more visible day by day. Each succeeding return shows numbers of miris gradually being reduced in the hours of working; some that were working six days in the week being reduced in time by not being lighted up in the morning and evening, some that were working four days being reduced to three, and some being closed altogether.--From particulars furnished by correspondents of the
Manchester Examiner the following figures have been compiled, which, although not complete, are sufficient to show generally the state of empicyment in the various locallties of the cotton
[This table shows a total of 64,393 people at work on full time; 15,572 at work five days in the week; 55,397 at work four days; 28,832 three days, and 8,063 men now rule] The
Times adds:
These returns are imperfect, as there are several important districts not enumerated, and it is feared that the last item of the number of work people totally out of employment, and for whom no resource is left but the poor rates and charitable subscriptions, is below the actual state of the case, and that the total will continually increase.
With reference so the reiterated recommendations to mill owners to work only three days a week, and to the speculations as to the effect such a course would have on the cost and supply of cotton, one correspondent remarks that they show a very imperfect knowledge of the condition of the trade.
There are, perhaps, 400 to 500 mill owners in
Lancashire, but the cost of working short timed comparatively so great that it is questioned it there are more than a hundred that could afford to resort to it beyond six months. In corroboration of this, the fact is cited that humerous masters are giving notice to the works people that their mills will be entirely closed as soon as their present stock of cotton is exhausted.
In
Preston the masters having given notice of a reduction of 7 ½ per cent in the wages pard to their spinners, the latter have determined on a strike, although support in this suicidal course can hardly be expected from fellow-workmen who are on the verge of severe want.
A member of Parliament on cotton and the war.
Mr. Edmund Potter, in the course of an address at
Carlisle, where about five thousand working people are usually employed in the cotton business, remarked as follows,
I need hardly, perhaps, tell you of the position in which we are how with regard to cotton.
We get, or have got, eighty five per cent, of our cotton from
America; but you know that unfortunately the
Americans are at war among themselves, and we are not getting a bale of cotton from them; on the reverse, they are actually buying cotton in
Liverpool to send back to the States.
What is to become of us unless we can get that eighty-five per cent, very greatly made up somewhere else?
There is every probability, I am afraid, that within the next year we can get very little more than five or ten per cent, and we cannot get that very quickly.
If we cannot get American cotton on account of the civil war they are carrying on among themselves, we shall not have a bale of American cotton in
England.
Unless something occurs to settle this silly, foolish mischievous, and, I think, very wicked quarrel, I can see no prospect of the working classes in the cotton trade being kept one-half or one-third employed.
It is a fearful thing to contemplate. * * * You see the temper in which the
American war is carried on, and the state of feeling, and you can judge as well as I can of the probabilities of the cessation of this miserable quarrelling amongst themselves.
You can judge of our prospects respecting the cotton supply.
We have prospects from
India, I will admit.
If you look to
India for cotton, and if they will take our goods back for it, as they will, there is a prospect of trade; but it must be slow, it cannot come rapidly.
The quantity of bales from
India last year was 600,000; while from
America the average is 1,700,000 or 1,800,000 bales. We may get more from
India this year, but nothing to compensate for the loss of the
American trade.
Indian cotton would not keep us at work a day and a half a week, and there is no probability that we can have cotton from any other source to keep us at work, unless we get the
American war at an end. It is a question of life and death with us; it is a vital question for all, and we shall have to meet it in some way or other.
In conclusion, he appealed to the electors and non-electors to support him as a man who could represent their interests in a question, in comparison with which the extension of the suffrage and the ballot sink into insignificance.
They could afford to wait for them, but they could not afford to wait for cotton.
The bank of England Lowers its rate of Interests.
Friday Evening,Nov. 8--The bank directors at their usual weekly court yesterday morning reduced the rate of discount from 3 ½ per cent., at which it was fixed on the 19th of September, to 3 per cent. The joint stock banks and discount houses have in consequence reduced their terms for money on deposit to 6 per cent., at call, and 2 ½ per cent. at seven days notice.
The reduction was almost generally expected for the last few days, seeing that whilst the banks' reserve was enlarging, its discount business was falling off, and the price of money outside was to 1 per cent, below the bank minimum.--Doubts, however, are felt whether the new minimum can be long maintained, seeing that the exchanges are becoming rather adverse, and that the rate in
Paris is 6 per cent.
The joint expedition to Mexico — the respective Contingents.
A letter in the
Brussels Independence states that
Spain, as the power most closely interested, is to furnish 5,000 men.
France 1,500, and
England 800.
The
Constitutionnel says the
French contingent will consist of a line of-battle ship, 4 frigates, a corvette, 6 gun-boats, and an advice boat.
The number of troops will be about 3,000 men, comprising 500 Zouaves and a detachment of calvary.
The horses will be procured in
Mexico.
The
Patric also says the contingent which
France will send will number 3,000 men.
The rendezvous and the plans.
According to the
Patric, the allied squadrous have fixed upon the roadatead of Vers Oruz for their rendezvous.
The city will be immediately occupied, and should that messure not lead to any satisfactory result, the allies will successively occupy.
Tampico,
Matamoras, Tacasco, and the twon of
Carmen, in the Yucatan, and ultimately, if necessary, the city of
Mexico.
The
Paris papers of the evening of the 9th announce that the squadron will assemble at
Havana.
