48 THE SHEEP. 



and there cannot be a doubt, that, although individual in- 

 terests may have been injuriously affected by the fall in the 

 price, the nation has been benefited by an extension of the 

 purposes to which this class of wools can be applied. Nay, 

 the general good of the wool-growers themselves has been 

 eminently served. The demand for their commodity has be- 

 come more steady, and the trade been placed on a surer basis, 

 by being founded on an enlarged demand, and supported, not 

 by* artificial regulations and fiscal restraints, but by an exten- 

 sion of the woollen manufacture. Soon after the peace of 

 1814, alarm was raised among the British wool-growers lest 

 the price of the raw material should be reduced below what 

 they chose to term a remunerating price. The Government 

 of the day, in an evil hour, yielded to the influence exerted ; 

 and in the year 1819, heavy duties were imposed on foreign 

 wool, with the design of keeping up the price of the native pro- 

 duce, under the specious pretext of encouraging British agri- 

 culture. In six years this monstrous law was repealed, but 

 not until it had done all that the shortness of the time allowed 

 for establishing the manufactures of foreign rivals, and giv- 

 ing them the ascendency in the markets of Europe. But the 

 price of short wool continuing to decline, renewed efforts were 

 made by the wool-growers to induce the Legislature to re- 

 store the former restrictions. This, in 1828, led to a parlia- 

 mentary inquiry, when a mass of evidence was produced, 

 proving beyond all cavil the danger and evil of interfering, 

 through the medium of duties and fiscal regulations, with the 

 raw material of a manufacture which could only be sustained 

 by freedom of trade and production. It was proved by the con- 

 current testimony of witnesses from all parts, that the cloth 

 made from British wool alone could no longer find a market 

 in Europe, and was even deemed too coarse for the clothing 

 of the labouring classes at home ; and that, without a free 

 command of the wool of other countries, a great part of the 

 woollen export trade of Great Britain would be for ever lost. 

 It may well excite surprise that any class of men amongst 



