e produce of free labor, no doubt the
principle of supply and demand would have solved the difficulty. The
surplus of the Old World would have steadily maintained the balance
between the two in the New World. Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, the
Southern parts of France, and Portugal, would have sent their surplus
labor to the best market. As it is, the two kinds of labor--that of the
freeman and that of the slave--can not be united in the same
cultivation. The slave States of America are, therefore, dependent for
any increase of labor only upon themselves. The consuming States can
draw supplies only from the breeding States. It is, therefore, exactly
in proportion as the slave population increases that the cotton crop
becomes larger. Taking the average of three or four years at any period
of the history of the United States for the last forty years, it will be
found that the growth of cotton is equal to one bale for each person of
the slave population. The calculation is well known. When the slave
population was two millions, the average produce of cotton was two
millions of bales:--as the one rose the other increased. The slave
population is now about three millions and a half; the cotton crop of
the present year is computed at from 3,500,000 to 3,700,000 bales. The
high price of cotton, and the great profit attached to its cultivation,
have no doubt furnished the greatest stimulant to an increase of that
part of the population. In the competition for more labor, the price of
slaves was enormously increased. Some years ago the price of a slave was
about L100; now they are worth from L200 to L400. But what must be the
tendency of this fearful competition for a limited supply of human
labor--limited as long as the slave trade is prohibited--unlimited as
soon as the slave trade is legalized? What is the actual condition of
the Southern States at this moment? There is on the ground and being
secured, according to computation, the largest cotton crop ever known.
The last estimates vary from 3,550,000 bales to 3,700,000 bales. A very
few years ago it was calculated that cotton at any thing above _four
cents_ the pound for "middling quality" on the spot was a profitable
crop. Now, the price for the same quality on the spot is fully _ten
cents_ the pound;--and it has been about the same or higher for a long
time. What is the consequence? A correspondent writing by the last mail
says: 'The people of this section of the country fee