1993° on the woollen manufacture. = - 32 
may be presumed if that body, afsisted by the advice 
of other able mechanics, were to superintend the 
working such machines as may be produced, till 
their merits were fully ascertained, and the compa- 
rative excellence of one over the others, decidedly 
proved ; it is, I say, to be presumed, under such 
circumstances, this most desirable end, might, in 
the compafs of a few years, be obtained, to the uni- 
wersal benefit of this country. The parliament have 
already bestowed rewards on ingenious persons for 
their discoveries ; but no object hitherto brought be- 
fore them, whether considered with respect to mag- 
nitude or utility, has been in any degree comparable 
with this now mentioned ; the reward therefore 
fhould be proportioned accordingly : and if it succeeds, 
there is not, adoubt but the staple trade of these 
kingdoms, will receive from it such benefit, as will 
eternize the memory of those who proposed it, or in 
any degree contributed to the bringing it to perfecti- 
on*, D. G. 
* The great object pointed at in the above disquisition is now ac- 
complifhed. A machine for spinning wool is now going in Edinburgh, 
and performs its work much better, than it ever could be done by 
hand. ¢ 
_ Add to this that the socjety instituted of late for the improvement 
ef Britifh wool, by turniag the attention of the nation to this impor- 
‘tant branch of economics, promises to effect the happiest improvements. 
When this society first hinted that as fine wool might be reared in 
Scotland as in Spain, some manufacturers in the south of England 
sneered atthe proposal. The fact is now ascertained experimentally 
beyond a doubt ; and I have just now in my pofsefsion as fine wool of the 
fhert Spanifh sort reared inScotland, as perhaps any that ever came out 
efSpain. ‘the only perceptible difference in the quality of this wool 
VOL: xvil. $s + 
