years, the importation into England from that country has risen from
12,324,200 pounds in 1830, to 77,011,839 pounds in 1840, and, finally,
to 250,338,144 pounds in 1857, or nearly twenty per cent of the whole
amount imported, and more than one-fourth of the whole amount imported
from America. The staple there produced does not, indeed, compare in
quality with our own; but this remark does not apply to the staple
produced in Africa,--the original home of the cotton-plant, as of the
negro,--or to that of the cotton-producing islands of the Pacific. The
inexhaustible fertility of the valley of the Nile--producing, with a
single exception, the finest cotton of the world,--lying on the same
latitude as the cotton-producing States of America, and overflowing
with unemployed labor--will find its profit, at present prices, in the
abandonment of the cultivation of corn, its staple product since the
days of Joseph, to come in competition with the monopoly of the South.
Peru, Australia, Cuba, Jamaica, and even the Feejee Islands, all are
preparing to enter the lists. And, finally, the interior of Africa, the
great unknown and unexplored land, which for centuries has baffled the
enterprise of travellers, seems about to make known her secrets under
the persuasive arguments of trade, and to make her cotton, and not her
children, her staple export in the future. In the last fact is to be
seen a poetic justice. Africa, outraged, scorned, down-trodden, is,
perhaps, to drag down forever the great enslaver of her offspring.

Thus the monopoly of King Cotton hangs upon a thread. Its profits must
fall, or it must cease to exist. If subject to no disturbing influence,
such as war, which would force the world to look elsewhere for its
supply, and thus unnaturally force production elsewhere, the growth of
this competition will probably be slow. Another War of 1812, or any
long-continued civil convulsions, would force England to look to other
sources of supply, and, thus forcing production, would probably be the
death-blow of the monopoly. Apart from all disturbing influences arising
from the rashness of his own lieges, or other causes, the reign of King
Cotton at present prices may be expected to continue some ten years
longer. For so long, then, this disturbing influence may be looked for
in American politics; and then we may hope that this tremendous material
influence, become subject, like others, to the laws of trade and
competition, will