If the slave trade is brisk, much cotton is made, and they have wages
with which to support their wives and children. If the crop is large,
the planter may be ruined, but they themselves are fed. "The weekly
mail from America," we are told--

"Is not of more moment to the great cotton lord of Manchester, than
it is to John Shuttle the weaver. * * * If he ever thinks how
entirely his own existence and that of his own little household
depend upon the American crop * * * he would tremble at the least
rumour of war with the Yankees. War with America--a hurricane in
Georgia--a flood in Alabama--are one and all death-cries to the
mill-spinner and power-loom weaver. * * * When the cotton fields of
the Southern States yield less than the usual quantity of cotton, the
Manchester operative eats less than his average quantity of food.
When his blood boils at the indignities and cruelties heaped upon the
coloured, race in the 'Land of the Free,' he does not always remember
that _to the slave States_ of America _he owes his all_--that _it is
for his advantage_ that the _negro should wear his chains in
peace_."--_Household Words_.

"If his "blood boils" at the sufferings of the negro in Brazil, or of
the Hindoo in the Mauritius, he must recollect that it is at the cost
of those sufferings that he is supplied with cheap sugar. If he be
shocked at the continuance of the African slave trade, he must
recollect that if negroes ceased to be imported into Cuba, he might
have to pay a higher price for his coffee. If he is excited at the
idea of the domestic slave trade of this country, he must calm himself
by reflecting that it is "for his advantage" it is continued, and that
without it he could not have cheap cotton. The labourers of the
various parts of the world are thus taught that there is among