230
   GIUSEPPE DETIXCIKZI
   cotton culture marked and measured,  the p0-pulation available for its cultivation counted,  » the railways and roads required for its conveyau-ce marked out,  the obstacles to its cultivation inquired into, and means devised for overcoming them, and conimissioners appointed to inquire into and to test its cultivation there, and to make inquiries in this country about the cottons we require  the qualities and quantities. The very businesslike mode in which these conunis-sioners are doing their work, by ascertaining wliat cottons we require, and also by investigatine the cottons seut by other couutries, with which they will have to compete: and I could not but feel that if the English Government had pursued a similar eourse in India employng coni miss ioners to develop the cultivation of cotton there, Eti-gland and India would have enjoyed a very diffe-rent condiiion to their present state. » !)
   Cut, before proceediug further, it will not be an idle task to recali to miud certain general principles in relerence to the cotton trade, for the purpose of discerning more easily the benefits which the cultivation of cotton is now capable of conferring upon Italy. o{>oUrt^DtUre 0f a11 the ^reat bra"clies of European trade, brief hwtoiy that in cotton is at once the greatest and most modem. At a time when the sister arts of wool and silk were already bestowing wealth and power on so many nations, the cottou manufacture was very far from being able to sustain a comparison with them. Cotton was manufactured in Europe, especially on the shores of the Mediterranean and in Italy, many centuries ago. The fustians and
   ') Beporl on the Samples of Cotton in the International Exhibition, made on behalf of the Cotton Supplì/ Asaodation. Sy a Member of the Committee, p. 6. (Sto ApptndU E.)