Foreign Details by the Africa.
Awful Calamity in
Turin — Destructive Fire in Lenden — Public Anxiety with regard to the
Cotton Supply in
England, &c., &c
The
Cunard Steamship
Africa,
Capt. Shannon, which sailed from
Liverpool at 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 31st ult., and from
Queenstown on the 1st inst., arrived at New York at 10 o'clock on the night of the 12th inst., bringing passengers and the
European mails dated on the 31st of August.
Dreadful Calamity in Turin.
A letter from
Turin, of the 28th of August says:
‘
A very awful calamity has befallen
Turin this morning.
A fire broke out in the Via diPo, which resisted for a few hours the efforts of the fire brigade, aided by the regular troops.
These latter were carried away by their zeal for the public cause, and ventured into the burning buildings with a rash courage, to which about a dozen of them fell victims.
Colonel Trotti, a brave Piedmontese officer;
Major Fiore, of the Carabineers, and another
Major of the Forty-sixth infantry, while endeavoring to check the ardor of the troops, were crushed by a falling wall.
’
Great fire in London.
The London News, of the 31st of August, says:
‘
At five o'clock last evening an extensive fire broke out on the premises of
Messrs. Harrison &
Wilson, sugar bakers and refiners, situate in Upper Dock street, East Smithfield, and within a few yards of the
St. Katharine Dock.
The premises consisted of an immense block of brick buildings, covering more than a quarter of an acre of ground, about eighty feet in height and fifty feet in width, containing nine stores.
The loss of property is estimated at £30,000.
Messrs. Harrison &
Wilson are insured, but whether to the full amount of their loss is not known.
’
Strike in the Iron trade.
The strike in the iron trade in the north of
England still continues, and seven thousand men are reported to be off work in one concern alone — the Consett and Der went Iron Works.
At Consett the reduction proposed is in the case of puddlers 6d. per ton, and in the case of rollers ten per cent. In
Wales the rate of wages is considerably below the northern district, and in
Scotland the workmen have accepted the reduction proposed.
The London Post, of the 31st August, says:
‘
The private letters addressed to some of our first house, connected with
Mexico, describe the situation of affairs as very deplorable.--Nobody buys, nobody sells, and nobody pays.
Beyond the capital there is in fact no Government, and the position is said to be far worse than during the last three years, when, at any rate, sixteen out of the twenty States were in favor of
Juarez, while at present the republic is divided into three factions.
The cessation of diplomatic intercourse by
Sir Charles Wyke with the Juarez government (although for the moment the former could perhaps not have acted otherwise) is considered as calculated to retard matters instead of advancing them.
The co-operation in that respect of the
French Minister,
M. de Saligny, is looked upon with mistrust, since
France's claims upon
Mexico are but trifling.
Spain, after
England, has the largest claim, and then follows America.
’
Absolute necessity of a cotton supply in England.
[From the London Times, August 30.]
The supply and the consumption of the last two years have been unexampled.
All the markets are glutted with cotton goods.--We are expecting an immense increase from
India, and the extraordinary step of the detention of next year's cotton crop in the
United States need have no other effect than to reduce our consumption for one year to two-thirds of the late average.
With one year's notice, it is considered we may easily make ourselves safe for the future.
The great fact we have to deal with is one independent of tariffs, of blockades, of combination among merchants or manufacturers, and of every artifice for steaming or meeting the tide of calamity.
It is the great fact of the war itself.
That war must employ, on both sides together, at least half a million men. There is not far from that number already under arms, and the cry is continually for more men. The apology for every reverse is the want of reserves to relieve the long engaged, to protect the guns, to save the position from being outflanked, and to keep up the numbers to the programme.
Battles to decide the future of a whole contenent, and to figure, as New York papers vainly boasted among the decisive victories of the world, are not to be fought with a division of 20,000 men. Dominion is not so easy; glory is not cheap.
The
Americans have to screw up their scale of ideas much higher than this.
How they are to raise the men and the money is another question, but the men must be raised, and if the eloquence of the New York journals is worth the villainous paper upon which it is printed, the men will be raised, and we shall see every man capable of bearing arms responding to the call.
But all that will be so much strength and so many hands taken away from all the reproductive industries of
America, from cotton, sugar and tobacco, among the rest.
Where the disarrangement of labor will stop it is not easy to say.
England and the neighboring countries of
Europe have seen trades and manufactures rise and fall; fly off to more tolerant shores, or better affected populations; flourish and disappear.
Who shall say whether the
United States we used to admire, and even envy, may not before long be a page of history?
It is not our province to appeal much to the enterprise of manufacturers and the cupidity of capitalists.
Were we to advise our moneyed or mercantile readers to ‘"hold"’ cotton, loud indeed would be the complaints and dark the insinuations, if cotton were to fall.
We can appeal, however, as the
Manchester Cotton Company has appealed,
to the recognized duties of the State, and to the public spirit which inspires and assists it. The State has accepted the office of collecting information for commerce, of smoothing its way, and rendering more substantial assistance where none other is to be expected.
Now is the time for straining every nerve to develope the cotton cultivation in
India and other soils pronounced favorable.
So long as this duty seemed to depend on the problematical and unfriendly assumption that America might one day keep her cotton to herself, in order to destroy our manufactures, Government might be excused from interfering in the matter.
We are now called on to act, not on a bare possibility or unwarrantable suspicion, but on a plain matter of fact.
At this moment the export of cotton from the
United States is actually prevented and effectually hindered by the presence of cruisers, as well as by measures taken by the belligerents directly for the purpose.
Both sides believe it to be necessary to prevent the sale and export of cotton in order to starve out the foe. Into the wisdom and practical character of this proceeding it is useless to inquire.
It is at least a notice to us to take care of ourselves, and, if the Governments of
North America are taking measures to keep all their cotton at home, the
British Government surely has an equal obligation to procure it elsewhere.
In concert with the
Manchester Cotton Company, it is arranging for the immediate completion of roads, the construction of landing and shipping piers, the erection of cotton gin factories, pressing houses, offices and stores, the scientific investigation of the cotton districts, the opening up of the Godavery, and, by the way, an increase of the cultivation in
Egypt.
The
Manchester people are strong in hope that
India only wants a little attention to supply every possible gap in the
American supplies.
In behalf of the
State, we think we may say that all the scruples against interference in mercantile affairs will be walved when the prosperity of the country and the subsistence of millions are at stake.
If the merchants and manufacturers only know and say what ought to be done, there will be no lack of will to do it on the part of government.
Surat cotton from England for America.
[from the London News Aug. 30.]
In a paragraph under the above heading in our publication of Tuesday, it was stated that fifteen thousand bales of
Surat cotton were last week exported to New York.
We have reason to believe that the following are the circumstances which gave rise to the statement: Some time since about twenty bales of
Surat were sent to the
United States by way of sample.
On Saturday last an eminent firm purchased fifteen thousand bales Surat on speculation, but as yet not one bale of that lot has been weighed over.
A short time since five hundred bales American were shipped to New York, and several small orders have been executed on American account, probably with the expectation of shipment at a future period.
Mr. Hemming,
Consul of
Venezuela in
London, writes to the London News on this subject.
He says:--One gentleman who had sent a cargo to
Liverpool informed me that he was quite satisfied with the result.
In addition to the above I have the advantage of the best possible authority on this subject, Senor Linden, the Belgian naturalist, who is the present director of the botanical department of the
Zoological Garden in
Paris, and was many years resident in
Venezuela, having recently given the opinion that there are several provinces in that country, each of which is more favorable for the cultivation of cotton than the
State of Louisiana, and that in the aggregate they could grow three times as much cotton as is produced in the whole of the cotton-growing districts of the late
United States.
A commercial Cure for the cotton difficulty,
[from Gore's commercial Advertiser, Aug. 29.]
Our present stock of American cotton is, say 580,000 bales. Taking the average weekly consumption, at the end of seven weeks this stock will be reduced to 300,000 bales. In the
meantime trade improves; our millions prosper; there is peace on the continent; our commerce is unrestrained, except as regards the ports of the
Confederate States.
What will be the consequence of all this?
There will be a large demand upon manufacturers for their stuffs, and upon merchants for their cottons, which must then shoot up to a price, which, if named now, would only raise a laugh.
Let us bring a strong and conclusive argument to settle the matter once and forever.
Suppose unprecedented high prices were given for manufactured stuffs, and the stock of cotton so low that nothing but working short time could secure the raw material for a month at the most, why should spinners hesitate to convert it into yarns?
When the present stock of American is exhausted, their value will be immensely augmented.
Then surely there is no earthly reason why spinners should not spin so long as they can buy cotton.
It will at once occur to every spinner who has a stock of cotton that it is the safest and most profitable course to turn it into yarn with the utmost dispatch, because, should the
American war be suddenly terminated, his cotton would show a loss, but his yarns would immediately increase in value on the re-opening of the
American trade.
Then what must be done to modify the consumption of that staple upon the supply of which four millions of our poorer classes depend upon for their daily bread?
There is nothing for it but the establishment of a higher scale of prices.
Consumption can only, thus be stayed.
Lord Palmerston's observations on the Bull Run fight.
[from the London Times, August 29.]
Yesterday Lord Palmerston was formally installed in his office of Lord Warden of the
Cinque Ports, with much pomp and circumstance, and amid every demonstration of popular enthusiasm.
The banquet was held in the
Maison Dien, which has been recently restored and decorated.
The building, which was formerly a religious house of the or er of the Templars, is now used as a town hall.
It is the very edifice in which, according to local tradition, the recreant King John delivered his Kingdom to the
Papal Legate, Pandulf, and undertook to do homage for it as a vassal of the
Pope, paying 1,000 marks as annual tribute.
The
Chairman rose to introduce the toast of the evening.
Having referred to the ancient glories of the ports, and enlogized the character and merits of their distinguished guest, his Worship gave the health of
Viscount Palmerston, their new Lord Warden.
The toast was received with vehement and prolonged cheering.
Lord Palmerston then rose and said:‘--
Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, it is really not one of those commonplace expressions which are usual on these occasions, it I say that no words can adequately express the smallest portion of the gratitude which I feel for the kind, the warm, the cordial reception which I have met with, not only in this hall, but in every part of the precincts of
Dover through which I have passed during the proceedings of to-day.
Colonel McMurdo truly observed that recent events in
America should teach us a valuable lesson.
The example of what has happened across the
Atlantic shows that you may collect thousands of men together and put uniforms on their backs and muskets in their hands, but you do not thereby convert them into
soldiers or into an army--(hear, hear)--
here must be discipline. It is not enough that there should be individual bravery.
Why, our cousins in
America,
as individual men, are as brave as any that tread the earth. They are of the same stock as ourselves, they are descended from the same parents, are animated by the same spirit, and prepared to encounter equal dangers.
But when thousands of men as personally courageous as any race in existence get together, each man wanting that confidence in his comrade which discipline and training can alone supply,
they exhibited to the world that unfortunate rapidity of movement which took place at Bull Run. (Laughter.) That, I say, is no disparagement to the valor of the
Americans, but affords, I repeat, a lesson which we curselves may usefully ponder and remember — viz: that discipline and organization are indispensable to make any army efficient in the field.
’
The abolition aspect of the War.
[from the London News, Aug. 30.]
The Confederates, in fact, settled the fate of slavery when they drilled and armed their two negro regiments; and the
Government merely corroborates that settlement by authorizing the formation of a similar force on the other side.
The difference is that the
Southern leaders do not know what they are doing, while the
Government is perfectly aware of the import of what it ordains, and thoroughly conscious that it cannot recede from its position.
The position is, however, manifestly and avowedly a provisional one; and the necessary conclusion is that the
Federal cause is henceforth identified with the abolition of slavery.
Bad Prospect for the Federal loan in England.
[from the London Herald, (Derby organ,) August 31.]
When war broke out a blockade was established with a view to destroy the trade of the hostile States, and this prohibition of ingress and egress necessarily put an end to all the fisoal receipts which had been estimated in the budget.
The very commerce which was to have been the fruitful source of taxation was sought to be annihilated; and the commodities raised for the express purpose of export, by means of which corresponding imports would have been paid for, were condemned to remain in the warehouses of the
South.
Thus the authorities at
Washington destroyed the very revenue on which they had calculated.
Mr. President Lincoln has now taken a step even more decided, having issued a proclamation suspending ‘"all commercial intercourse with the
South,"’ so that by land as well as by sea eleven States are completely severed from the remaining twenty-three; and to this sweeping enactment it is evident that the
Federal tax collectors cannot form an exception.
The mails of the
South are stopped, and the smuggler alone remains to carry on any precarious intercommunication.
It is plain that the budget of the last session of the
Congress is mere waste paper in the seceded States, and the
North is now thrown on its own unaided resources — The banks of New York and
Boston have subscribed for the present loan, and just now they are well stocked with bullion; but there is no certainty that what departs will return — indeed, it only can return through the channels of trade, and these must be choked by war. The exports of the
South are stopped, and they who cannot sell have not the means of buying, while the new
Morrill tariff must restrict the trade of the
North.
There appears, then, no source from which the stream of bullion will continue to flow into the banks.
New loans, then, must be sought for in
Europe; but can they be raised in that quarter?
Granting that seven per cent, is a tempting bait, it is counteracted by the character of the borrowers, for though the federation has ever kept good faith with its creditors, many of the separate States have repudiated, and
Philadelphia bonds have become a bye-word for dishonesty.
If we do not insist on the immorality of loans knowingly granted to prolong civil war, it is because experience has taught us that in the acquisition of wealth virtue imposes no restraint which selfishness is willing to obey; and it would be vain for us to urge that every five-pound note embarked in this quarrel might multiply the sad list of widows and orphans and of young men maimed for life.
All that we have attempted is to warn the cupidity to which the tempting lure of seven per cent. is now being offered, that the security is decidedly bad; and though the loss of principal and interest would be the befitting punishment of the crime, we hope the penalty may be avoided by rejecting the proposal.
Miscellaneous.
Prince Napoleon was expected at
Martinique and Guadaloupe, at the date of the last advices in
Paris.
A Parisian correspondent writes to the semiofficial Spanish Correspondencia:
‘
Lord Palmerston has decided to co-operate with the
Italian Government within the limits of the principle of non-intervention, for the purpose of pacifying the kingdom of
Naples.
The French Government, in its turn, has closed the
Roman frontiers to the
Neapolitan rebels.
Meantime an English squadron prevents maritime contraband, and lends a moral force to the
Government of
Victor Emanuel.
This arrangement may be considered as the forerunner of still more important events if
England prevails upon
France to evacuate
Rome.
The English Board of Trade returns for the month of August, and the seven months ended on the 31st July last, were issued.
The total value of British exports in July, show a decrease of $2,438,000, when compared with the corresponding period of 1860.
The exports for the seven months show a falling off amounting to £4,305,000, the total value of the goods being £70,237,000, against £74,342,000 in the first seven months of 1860.
’
