The Lancashire manufacturers, startled by an export of cotton from
Liverpool to America, have begun to work half time. It is calculated that should this movement become general, the stock may hold out over the spring, or longer, but the Indian cotton does not come forward so freely as it might. It is alleged that merchants are afraid of a sudden opening of the American ports, and a State guarantee of a minimum price for one year is openly recommended, but we think upon insufficient grounds. It is an arithmetical cer- tainty, as certain as that two and two make four, that the ordinary Indian cotton crop is double that of the United States. The moment the price rises so as to extinguish internal competition for the staple, the English importer can obtain any quantity he needs,—the whole crop, if it is wanted. Timidity will vanish with actual pressure. If the article is not scarce, the price will not rise ; if it is scarce, it will come over as certainly as air rushes into a vacuum. All Govern- ment can do, is to force on the cotton railway at any outlay, and by any means short of impressing labour.
