by the thinkers of America, but by the merchants of England.  The real danger of the Cotton dynasty lies not in the hostility of the North, but in the exigencies of the market abroad; they struggle not against the varying fortunes of political warfare, but against the irreversible decrees of Fate.  It is the old story of the Rutulian hero; and now, in the very crisis and agony of the battle, while the Cotton King is summoning all his resources and straining every nerve to cope successfully with its more apparent, but less formidable adversary, in the noisy struggle for temporary power, if it would listen for a moment to the voice of reason, and observe the still working of the laws of our being, it, too, might see cause to abandon the contest, with the angry lament, that, not by its opponent was it vanquished, but by the hostility of Jupiter and the gods.  The operation of the laws of trade, as touching this monopoly, is beautifully simple.  Already the indications are sufficient to tell us, that, under the sure, but silent working of those laws, the very profits of the Southern planter foreshadow the destruction of his monopoly.  His dynasty rests upon the theory, that his negro is the only practical agency for the production of his staple.  But the supply of African labor is limited, and the increased profit on cotton renders the cost of that labor heavier in its turn,—­the value of the negro rising one hundred dollars for every additional cent of profit on a pound of cotton.  The increased cost of the labor increases the cost of producing the cotton.  The result is clear; and the history of the cotton-trade has twice verified it.  The increased profits on the staple tempt competition, and, in the increased cost of production, render it possible.  Two courses only are open to the South:  either to submit to the destruction of their monopoly, or to try to retain it by a cheaper supply of labor.  They now feel the pressure of the dilemma; and hence the cry to reopen the slave-trade.  According to the iron policy of their dynasty, they must inundate their country with freshly imported barbarism, or compete with the world.  They cry out for more Africans; and to their cry the voice of the civilized world returns its veto.  The policy of King Cotton forces them to turn from the daylight of free labor now breaking in Texas.  On the other hand, it is not credible that all the land adapted to the growth of the cotton-plant is confined to America; and, at the present value of the commodity, the land adapted to its growth would be sought out and used, though buried now in the jungles of India, the wellnigh impenetrable wildernesses of Africa, the table-lands of South America, or the islands of the Pacific.  Already the organized energy of England has pushed its explorations, under Livingstone, Barth, and Clegg, into regions hitherto unknown.  Already, under the increased consumption, one-third of the cotton consumed at Liverpool is the product of climes other than our own.  Hundreds of miles