Daily Alta California, Volume 13, Number 4218, 5 September 1861 — One Bright Spot in England. [ARTICLE]

One Bright Spot in England.

MR. JOHN BRIGHT, M.P., ON THE WAR IN AMERICA HE APPEALS TO THE PEOPLE TO RESPECT OUR BLOCADE. [From the Manchester Guardian, August 2] Last evening, Mr. John Cheetham, the liberal candidate for Parliament, addressed a meeting of electors and others in the Public Hall, Rochdale. The Mayor, J. H. Moore, Esq., was called to the chair, and among those upon the platform was John Bright, Ejq , M. P. Mr. Bright, who was then called upon bj the Major, was received with enthusiastic And repeated cheering. He said : Mr. Major and gentlemen, I come forward with great satisfaction to second the resolution which Mr. Kelsall has jnst submitted to you in favor of Mr. Cheetham. * * * Mr. Cheetham has referred to another question, as to which I should like to say one or two words before I sit down ; and that is with regard to the perilous position in which this country is placed in consequence of the unhappy transactions which are now happening on the other aide of the Atlantic Mr. Cheetham did not tell you what I can tell you. He paid me some compliments, which, as I am not a candidate, will not be of much service to me just now ; but, without complimenting Mr. Cheetham, I can tell you he is a most active— l believe the moot active— member of an association formed in this district for the purpose of promoting a better supply of cotton, not from India alone, but from all parts of the world where cotton can be grown, and although perhaps it would be too much to aay that that association bad been üble to produce any great results, because so short a time has elapsed since its operations began, yet it has now sown the seed as it were of a production of cotton in very many parts of the world, where that production probably would never have been heard of, or thought of, if it had not been for the labors of that association. With regard to the supply from India, I may tell yon this, that there is no man from Lancashire of late who has been more assiduous in his attendance in London, whenever anything was to be done with the Minister for India, or with the House of Commons, with the view to promote the opening out of the iadustry of that vast country, so as to increase the production and export of cotton to this country. I think that, just now, if you can End a man who, on questions of p-eat State policy, agrees with us, at the same time having a deep personal interest in this great cotton question, and having paid so much attention to it as Mr. Cheetham has, I think there is a doable reason why he should receive the votes and hue tbe confidence of this division of tbe county. (Cneers.) Now, is this cotton question a great question, or not? I Beta spinner to-day — he does not live in Rochdale, though I met him here — and I asked him wbat be thought about it, and be said : " Well, I think cotton will come somehow." (Laughter.) And I find that there is that kind of answer to be bad from three ont of four of all the spinners you vsk. They know that in past times, when cotton has risea fifty or eighty per cent., or some extravagant rise, something has come— the rate of interest was raised, or there has been a commercial panic from some cause or aaother,and down the price has gone ; and when everybody said " There would be no cotton at Christmas," there proved a very considerable stock at Christmas. And so they say now. I don't is the least den/ that it will be so ; all I assert is that this particular case is new ; that we have never had a war in the United States between different sections of that country, affecting tbe production of cotton before ; and it is not fair, nor wise, but rather childish than otherwise, to argue from past events, which were not a tit like this, of the event which is now passing before our eyes. They say, "It is quite true that there is a civil war in America, but it will blow over ; there will be a compromise ; or the English Government will break the blockade. AW, recalled what bt taking the blockade meant. It meansa war ici!h the United Slates; and Id. n't think myself that it would be cheap to break the blockade, at a eoit of a tear with tht United State: I think that the cost of a war with tbe United States would give, probably, half wages, for a very considerable time, to those persons in Lancashire, who would be out of work if there was no cotton, to say nothing at all of the manifest injustice and wrong against all international law, that a legal aid effective blockade sLould be interfered with by any other country. It is not exactly the business of this meeting, but my opinion is that the safety of the product* on which this country depend) ruts far more on the success of the Wa thing ton government than upon its failure; and I believe nothing could be more monstrous than for us, who are not very averse to war ourselves, to set up for critics— carping, caviling critics — of what the Washington government is doing. I saw a letter the other day from an Englishman, resident twenty-five years in Philadelphia, a merchant there, and a very prosperous merchant. He said, "I prefer the institutions of this country (the United States) very much to yours in England ;" but be says also, "Ifit be one* admitted that here we have no country and no government, but that any portion of these United States can break off from the central government whenever it pleases, then it is time for me to pack up wbat I have, and to go somewhere where there is a country and a government. Well, that is tbe pith of the question. Do you suppose that if Lancashire and Yorkshire thought that they would break off from the United Kingdom that those newtpapers who are now preaching every kind of moderation to tbe Government of Washington would advise the Government in London to allow these two counties to set op a special government for themselves T Want the people of Ireland asked that they should secede, wan it proposed in London that they should be allowed to tecede peaceably t So thing of the kind. lam not going to defend what is taking place in a country that ia well able to defend itself. But I advise you, and I advise tbe people of England, to abstain from applying to the United States dectrinea and principles which we never apply to our own case. At any rate they have never fought for " the balance of power" in Europe. They bavn never fought to keep up a decaying empire. They h»ve never squandered the money of their people in such phantom expeditions m we hare been engaged in. And now, at this moment, when you are told that they are going to be ruined by their vast expenditure, why the sum that they are going to raise in the great emergency of this grievous war, U no greater than wbat we raise every year during a time ol peace. (Loud cheers.) <£ ;i 1 1 __C I ..» 111 1 They I*7 tnat they art not going to Überau

■laves. No; the object of the Washington Uovenuaent v to maintain their owa ConstiSSSIT" V° *" ••«• "*•* il »*"»*« requires No man v more la favor of peace than I an. ; no mao ha. denounced war more men, in their pnbiie life, bar, offered more obloquy— l had almott laid more indignity— in consequence of it. . Bat I eanaot for tha Ufe of ma tea upon any of those principle! upon which States an governed bow— l tar nothing of the literal word of tha Hew Testament—l cannot tee how the state of affair* in America, with regard to the United States Government, could hare been different from what it Uat this moment. We had a heptarchy in thi* country, and it wu thought to be a good thing to get rid of it and to hare a nnited nation. If the thirty-three or thirtyfour States of the American Union can break off wtenever they like. I can see nothing bat disaster and confusion throughout the whole of that continent. I tay that the war, ie it mcctuful or not, be it Chruttan or not, to it iru« or not, v m tear to mttun the Government and to tiutat* Vie authority of a great nation ; and that the/people of England, if they are true to their own sympathies, t* their own, history and to their own great act of 1834, to which reference has already been made, will hare no sympathy for thos« who wuh to build ep a great empire on the perpetual bondage of millions of their fellow men. (Load cheers.) lat«r*«ilM( Lelllr. ' . The following letter from a Savannah paper will be read with tatisCaeticn for some of its details. The notice of the humanity of oar troop* will be observed, and the example may be improved by the Rebels. It will also be seen that the writer admits the victory to hare been oars, up to the arrival of Ire ih regiment* on the other side. Nor is there any of that exaltation in the tone of the letter, which migbt hare been expected bad they thought they had anything to boast of. Mr. Lamar is well known as a disunionist of long standing : [ExtrMt from a letter d«ted Richmond. July 2», H-l ; "J. C. Fissill, Kao..,— Dear Sir : Too will scarcely believe that I, here, so near the battle, could not get an; particulars of it, except as related by President Davis' telegram on Monday morning, till Tuesday night, while your son, with the fatal news, arrived here on Wednesday morning from Savannah. I do most cordially sympathize with your loss— a great loss — of a most promising sou. But he died in a glorious battle, tor a most glorious caase, and the victory 10 dearly purchased with the best of Georgia's blood, will redound to the good and glory of the whole Soatb for centaries to come, under Divine favor and guidance, to whom be all the praise and all the glory. '•The citizens of Richmond, like those of Winchester, are exerting their utmost efforts in behalf of the wounded. A committee arranges for their distribution; they are carefully taken from the cars U> the private dwellings ; the first families In the Stale and elty have opened their doors to all, without discrimination, and their wives and daughters do the nursing, and all are vicing who shall accommodate them. This is noble, and will soon restore all that can be cored. I visited many, yesterday and to-day, of the devoted Georgians of the 7th and Bth Regiments, and, with one exception, who cannot live, I envied them the honor of their woaads. " The battle was most bloody with them, and made much more so by the anfortunata mistake of three other regiments of our own firing into them. "Bartow bravely redeemed his pledges to make the name of his State illustrious. Foremost of all, be met dangers appalling to any one else, and finally fell, leading his brigade to the charge, baring previously lost his horse, •hot from under him, and received a spent ball in his thigh. " The enemy thought, op to 4 o'clock, they bad the victory — and so t)ey had ; but tfce opportune arrival of two fresh regiments tamed the battle and gave us a glorions victory. "On oar retreat previously, oar wounded fell into their hands. They treated them kindly, lifting them into the shade, and leaving them with canteens full of wa'er, ana I am credibly informed that even then they told our men that they did not like to fight them ; they had no cause, but were compelled to do it. Hence (1 think it wu) that they fled so readily when the reverses occurred. " sty impressions are, that with proper legislation by Congress — cutting off an collusion between our enemies and Europe by letters of license to pass the blockade, by patting an embargo to endure a* long as the blockade does ; by repealing the tax on imports, and making every inlet from the Chesapeake to the Rio Grande a port of entry, so they cannot be effectually blockaded ; and by levying a direct tax on everybody, on all property, and upon all incomes, to the amount of $25,000,000 to $39,000,000 ; and by the usue of Treasury notes, receivable for taxes— the Government will have soldiery enough, money enough, and will soon have open port* and a free commerce to buy cheapest and sell highest with all the world, and enjoy peace and amity with all the world and the rest of Puritan Pilgrims. Tery respectfully, G. B. Umi%." Business Men for Stanford. — In Sacramento, 27 of the leading business men published a card declaring that though they had hitherto opposed the Republican party, they should vote for Leland Stanford. About an equal number of leading men of Stockton published a similar card. The patriotic efforts of these men and their coadjutors in this city, and in the smaller towns, has done much to achieve a thorough victory for the Union party, and give confidence to the community. Low Water in the Sacramento. — The water in the Sacramento has fallen so low that both the steamers which went up from this city on Monday, stuck fast fourteen miles below Sacramento city, and some time elapsed before they got loose. The snow has nearly all disappeared now from the mountains, and the waters will continue to fall, and the detentions of the steamer by running aground will be more numerous and of longer duration.