Foresight of Great Britain--Hon. George Thompson's predictions--Their failure--England's dependence on Slave labor--Blackwood's Magazine--London Economist--McCullough--Her exports of cotton goods--Neglect to improve the proper moment for Emancipation--Admission of Gerrit Smith--_Cotton_, its exports, its value, extent of crop, and cost of our cotton fabrics--_Provisions_, their value, their export, their consumption--_Groceries_, source of their supplies, cost of amount consumed--Our total indebtedness to Slave labor--How far Free labor sustains Slave labor. ANTECEDENT to all the movements noticed in the preceding chapter, Great Britain had foreseen the coming increased demand for tropical products. Indeed, her West Indian policy, of a few years previous, had hastened the crisis; and, to repair her injuries, and meet the general outcry for cotton, she made the most vigorous efforts to promote its cultivation in her own tropical possessions. The motives prompting her to this policy, need not be referred to here, as they will be noticed hereafter. The Hon. George Thompson, it will be remembered, when urging the increase of cotton cultivation in the East Indies, declared that the scheme must succeed, and that, soon, all slave labor cotton would be repudiated by the British manufacturers. Mr Garrison indorsed the measure, and expressed his belief that, with its success, the American slave system must inevitably perish from starvation! But England's efforts signally failed, and the golden apple, fully ripened, dropped into the lap of our cotton planters.[19] The year that heard Thompson's pompous predictions,[20] witnessed the consumption of but 445,744,000 lbs. of cotton, by England; while, fourteen years later, she used 817,998,048 lbs., nearly 700,000,000 lbs. of which were obtained from America! That we have not overstated her dependence upon our slave labor for cotton is a fact of world-wide notoriety. _Blackwood's Magazine_, January, 1853, in referring to the cultivation of the article, by the United States, says: "With its increased growth has sprung up that mercantile navy, which now waves its stripes and stars over every sea, and that foreign influence, which has placed the internal peace--we may say the subsistence of millions in every manufacturing country in Europe--within the power of an oligarchy of planters." In reference to the same subject, the _London Economist_ quotes as follows: