been
meditating a new policy for this great and fertile empire, now so
desolate; but we pursue ends most patiently, letting our thoughts have
the benefit of time, before reducing them to practice. Manchester
wants cotton--wants it free-grown--that she may relieve herself from
the yoke of King Slavery; but she cannot yet solve the problem by
which the throbbings of her manufacturing philanthropy may be set at
rest. She thinks long and strong of it, but there it rests--and
there's the rub. John is blind, and Cotton is king.'

"'With us it would present no rub; give us the means, as spread out to
your hands, and the problem we would solve while you were pondering
over its intricacy. We would pay good premiums to practical overseers
of cotton plantations in Georgia and Alabama, who, with the inducement
offered, would come as instructors--cotton-growing requires the
application of the nicest agricultural science--in the art of
cultivating the sensitive plant. And to encourage private enterprise
we would offer bounties for the largest amount of best quality
produced on the smallest space. By government encouraging the best
staple, a rivalry would spring up which could not fail to produce much
good; it would open up a spirited system of planting, as well as that
enlarged intercommunication of commerce which must follow.' Let me
take leave of this subject!

"From India we sojourned across the great desert, meeting in
succession the white-robed Arab, the savage Kurd, the docile Yeeside,
and the melancholy Turk. John said we must have a staff, and a score
of guides, and no end of menials, and must put on the dignity, or it
would not be safe, especially now that Turks and Russians were at war.
Mr. Smooth took exceptions to this ruling, preferring to assume the
go-ahead, and test the virtue of a hard front, the effects of which he
was quite sure would not be entirely lost even among the Arabs. And
then, if the Turks and Russians were again at war about holy
places--places for which a deal of human blood had been spilt for the
mere gratification of a very unholy ambition--Mr. Smooth, on behalf of
Young America, might make a dollar or two by the way of proposing a
very christian plan for settling the stubborn intricacy. With this
best of all motives in view, I left John in the desert, where he said
he expected to do some good business, and, what was better, get some
good dinners. So, bidding him godspeed, I made straight headway f