and Extension of the Merino Breed of Sheep. 387 



superfine and valuable wool." So also, when, in the middle of the 17th century. 

 Merino wool first made its appearance in England, where were the thousands of 

 persons, only approaching to old age, who exclaimed, " Yes, this is the wool. 

 •which, forty years ago, when I was a youth, employed half the population, and 

 supplied half the wealth of the kingdom ! ' Instead of this, we find it, in 1 676, des- 

 cribed as "another sort of wool," which nobody recognized, and which " was 

 within these few years started up among us." 



The loss of the Merino breed of sheep during the last period was, therefore, 

 morally and physically impossible ; and if any farther arguments were wanting to 

 prove its improbability during the two former periods, they might be readily 

 supplied. If, in the common transactions of life, with no view of averting or 

 removing any evil, or obtaining any benefit, a man were voluntarily to relinquish 

 a possession, from which he derived his chief enjoyments and even his subsistence, 

 who is there, that would not instandy determine him to be either an ideot, or 

 a lunatic ? The fine wool of England was such a possession ; and yet, according 

 to this wild notion, every farmer, every land-holder, every manufacturer, every 

 person connected with these different orders, every man interested in the comforts, 

 dependent on the wealth, or proud of the honour, of his native country, suffered 

 this inestimable possession to be lost, and lost even without a complaint. 



The fact, however, is, that we could not lose that which we never possessed. 

 Our triumph was founded on ignorance. At the very moment when we exulted 

 most, we knew not that wool existed in Spain, which, for sixty years, had been 

 selling to other countries at nearly twice the price of our's. It was not till after all 

 other nations had learned to employ, and prefer this wool, that we yielded our slow, 

 and cold assent to its superior excellence. 



Then, the language of querulousness succeeded to that of boasting; till, at 

 length, amused like children, and lulled by the fictions of our political nurses, we 

 gradually sunk into the slumber of contented acquiescence. 



But, it will be argued, if the Spaniards were already in possession of sheep with 

 finer wool than ours, why were they so desirous of obtaining our rams ? 



To this argument I begin with answering, that the facts themselves are extremely 

 doubtful. 



With regard to the earliest ; in the midst of a verbal altercation between the 

 relations of two Spanish grandees in 1437, °"^ accuses the friend of the other of 



3 D 2 



