110 



SHEEP HUSBAINDRYIN THE SOUTH. 



Ibs. From that time it has gradually increased, and in 1838 it reached 

 5,851,340 Ibs. ; in 1839; 4,603,799 Ibs. ; in 1840, 4,810,387 Ibs.* Under the 

 last year of the late Tariff, we received from England, of wools not costing 

 to exceed 7 cents per pound, 1,188,800 Ibs., and of those exceeding 7 

 cents, 28,406 Ibs.; and from Scotland, of the cheaper class*, 21,132 Ibs.t 

 This, however, only shows a surplus in kind, not in quantity. The Eng- 

 lish short wools have, as has been abundantly shown by the testimony 

 of her most eminent manufacturers, \ a harshness and want of felting prop- 

 erties which render them unfit, unmixed with a better stamp of foreign 

 wools, for any but the very lowest description of cloths and stuffs, such as 

 blankets, baizes, army cloths, flushings or bearskins, &c. Nor will they 

 make prime articles, even of these low descriptions. England, therefore, 

 after consuming such portions of these wools as she can, in the manufac- 

 ture of the above-named and similar articles, and by mixing them, in the 

 nature of an alloy, with better foreign wools in a low class of fabrics, such 

 as flannels, livery and sergeant's cloth, etc., exports the balance to su-ch 

 nations as ^YQ foolish enough to purchase it.|| 



The following Table, compiled from official sources, from Bischoff's 

 " Comprehensive History of the Woolen and Worsted Manufactures, 

 &c.," gives the imports of England every fifth year from 1810 to 1840, 



TABLE No. 8. 



* Bischoflf, Table 6th, Appendix. t Report of the Secretary of tiie Treasury, 1846. 



; See Bischoff, vol. ii., pp. 107, 153, 154, 163, 173, 175, 176, &c. The testimon/here alluded to, or nn 

 abstract of it will be given in a subsequent Letter. 



|[ If these sound like strong expressions, I have to say that I shall be prepared to prove them, and shall 

 to do, in a subsequent Letter, from the testimony of the firt manufacturers of England before a Committe* 

 of the House of Lords. Nor were the facts disputed by an interest represented before the same Committee. 

 who had every inducement to do so, if they could be sustained in it 



See Appendix of the above work, vol. ii. Misled by the title on the rover, I have nowhere before 

 given the proper desisrnation to Mr. BischofTa work. Wherever the authority of this gentleman is gives 

 fou vi *^derstand that it is derived from the work just named. Published Lcn'iou, 1842. 



