of railroad in India are opening to the market vast regions to share in our profits and break down our monopoly.  To-day, India, for home-consumption and exportation, produces twice the amount of cotton produced in America; and, under the increased profit of late 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 cease to threaten our liberties by silently sapping their very foundation.  As in the course of years competition gradually increases, the effect of this competition on the South will probably be most beneficial.  The change from monopoly to competition, distributed over many years, will