NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ONE of the most plausible suggestions yet made for the settlement of the cotton difficulty, is to impose a high differential duty upon all American cotton, to endure for three years. That would be, in fact, a guarantee to the Indian exporter against a sudden return to low prices, and would most unquestionably exempt us at once and for ever from our present dependence upon America. Already the Indian cotton market is in commotion, and there is the strongest reason• to believe that the supply this year will reach Sir Charles Wood's estimate of a million bales. The shippers once secured against a sudden return to ruinous prices would be able to double that quantity, and to place Lancashire once more at ease. By the end of the three years the In- dian railways will be complete, the Godavery canal will be in full work, and India ready to compete on equal terms with the South. Such a step is not defensible on the ordinary principles of free trade, but as an exceptional mea- sure dictated by a necessity of the hour, it has great ad- vantages of its own. It is practicable, which most cotton schemes are not; and it is not wicked, which most cotton schemes are.
