I 5° ] 



mifecturer of cloth would be a gainer, by Tiaving 4Tb. of wool for 

 the same money as 31b. and he eould not complain of a propor- 

 tional reduction of price ; a benefit might therefore, but no possible 

 injury could accrue, to this party in the business. Let us now ad- 

 vert to the farmer, who not only represents himself, but the nation 

 at large as being deeply interested in the increased produce of land, 

 not only in this, but in every possible variety of its application. 

 Enquire of the farmer, and he will tell you, that on an acre of cul- 

 tivated land, by the aid of turnips and grasses, he can keep four 

 sheep instead of one on waste, or land in common, and this too 

 with an undoubted augmentation both of fleece and carcase. He 

 has therefore four fleeces and four carcases instead of one, with a 

 manifest improvement in the value of each. Must he then, from 

 a mere phantom of a grievance which bewilders the imagination of 

 the manufacturer, relinquish advantages of decided and unspeak- 

 able importance both to himself and the public ? Surely not. 



The foregoing remarks apply principally to the small breed of 

 sheep producing the finest English wool ; but this sort is apparently 

 on the decline in favor of the improved breeds of Dorsetshire, South 

 down, and other larger sorts, as being more productive in wool, 

 (quality and quantity considered) in size of carcase, and in requi- 

 ring a less given time to graze. Let it be admitted from these con- 

 siderations, that in course of time the former breed should become 

 extinct. What then ? Should a real degeneracy of the quality of 

 wool, magnified by the fears of the manufacture, be permitted to 

 militate against the solid benefit enumerated as above ? The quality 

 of cloth as to fineness is comparative. Distinction would vanish, 

 pride and vanity would cease to murmur, if the wool destined to 

 the manufacture of cloth were of the same quality, however coarse. 

 The more opulent classes of society might still be gratified with cloth 

 made entirely of Spanish wool ; the middle with a mixture of Spa- 

 nish and English, and the lower with that wholly manufactured of 

 English wool. But all this being uniform in its operation and 

 effect, and being evidently calculated to advance national prospe- 

 rity, as well as individual advantage, could create no symptoms of 

 mortification or disgust. Let us contemplate the subject under the 

 ptill more interesting claims of humanity. Can the little farmer 

 &nd the artificer, the labouring manufacturer, and the husbandman, 



be 



