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   emiuence over ali other tentile fabrics. Nor, as-suredly, (loes auy other branch of mauufactures, more thaii this one of cottoli supply so maiiy va-riecl conveuiences to ali classes of society, from the poorest to the richest, so that it daily beco-mes always more and more one of the greatest uecessities of our existing civilisation. Nothiog, perhaps, can make us better undestand how the cotton manufacture is capable of turning to account improved methods of working, tban the successive diminution in the prices of its products. Between the time of Orompton, in 1779, and 1860, there are the following ditferences in the prices of spun cotton:
   VALUE OF A POUND OF SPUN COTTON.
   COUNT Y i A B 8
   1779 1860
   L. s. d. L. 6. d.
   40 1 0 9 0 1 1
   60 1 14 0 0 14»/,
   80 2 14 3 0 19
   And, in general, ali articles of cotton manufacture have proportionally decreased in value, so that at the present day, with ali the great profits obtaiued by the tracie' the consumers are stili sopplied at a price of 95 per cent, below what was paid eighty years ago. Sources wW
   We must now direct ourselves to the inquiry co raw cotton « , . , , , , ro^v be ootai-
   trom what quarters there has hitherto been ob- ned*
   tained, and from what quarters there may in
   future be obtained, the immense quantity of raw
   cotton of which we stand in need. Previous to
   1780 the European cotton trade was a compara-
   tively trifling metter.