SHEEP HUSBANDRY IN THE SOUTH. 123 



assert that they could drive all the European nations from the market, 

 with the two or three exceptions heretofore specified ; and with these, aa 

 well as the most favored Austro-Oriental regions, they could main- 

 tain a successful competition. The same remark is true of the Austro- 

 Occidental regions of our own continent. And it is difficult to foresee 

 the ultimate extent of this trans-Atlantic demand for wool. Vast portions 

 of the Old World, in those zones where wool must eventually become "he 

 principal article of clothing, are but just stepping within the verge of 

 civilization — -just laying aside the skins and peltry of the pastoral nomad 

 and the savage hunter, for garments of cloth. In 1771, England imported 

 1,829,772 lbs. of wool ; in 1840, the import was 52,959,221 lbs. ! In 1771, 

 the export of woolens was .^4,960,240. In 1840, the export of woolens 

 was, 625, 652,917, and of woolen and worsted yarn ,£3,796,644. Making 

 all necessary allowance for the difference in prices, the increase in the ex- 

 port bears no comparison whatever to that in the import. What seems to 

 be the unavoidable conclusion'? It is that the consuinj^tion of a population 

 of 27,000,000 (the population of Great Britain and Ireland) has thus enor- 

 mously swelled within the period of sixty-nine years ! This too in a coun- 

 try with a mild climate — which at the beginning of that period (1771) was 

 as far advanced in social and political civilization, and the mass of whose 

 people were as well clothed and better fed, than those of any nation 

 on the Eastern Continent ! It is not necessary to follow up this idea. 

 Progress is an inseparable condition of humanity,* and civilization is its 

 fruit. With the latter, new wants — a demand for greater comforts and 

 luxuries — steadily keep pace ; and with these again keeps pace the increase 

 of population.! Both the latter causes conspire to swell the demand for 

 cloths ; and both causes are at work in this Nineteenth Century, in a ve- 

 locity of ratio which would fill aMalthus and Ricardo with consternation— 

 if, indeed, it did not convince them of the fallacy of their gloomy theories. 

 I dare to predict that the time will come when the present Russian Em- 

 pire will consume a greater amount of woolens than the whole Eastern 

 Continent now does ! This may not come to pass in a day or a century — 

 but unless retarded by unnatural, not to say unusual causes, our posterity 

 in the third or fourth remove will be likely to witness it ! Away, then, with 

 those fallacious fears of over-production of cotton, bread-stuffs, etc. — the 

 opposite extreme of Malthusianism — which have disturbed the repose of 

 producers who are not content to let the great natural currents of demand 

 and supply regulate each other ; or rather, who are not content with those 

 fair and just profits which they would receive under such an order of 

 things. \ 



But the American wool-grower is not compelled to look to the European 

 market, unless he enormously increases his own production — and contin- 

 ues to increase it with the increase of the population. The Census of 1840 

 shows that the number of sheep in the United States, in 1839, was nearly 

 20,000,000. These have been steadily increasing, and probably now greatly 

 exceed that number. Yet these have never supplied the demand of oxa 



* This may not be thought to accord with preceding statements in relation to the unchangeability c/ 

 Asiatic chHracte; and customs. Particular families or races of mankind have always advanced"slo-vly bul 

 the course of the world, as a whole, is onward. The circle of civili;-.ation widens, and races whii h come 

 in contact with it, receive it, or are conquered and absorbed by the civilized races. 



1 When I speak of luxuries promoting the increase of population, I do not use the word in its invidiouf 

 icn.ee. 1 mean by it those things which, though not. strictly speaking, ntcesaaries, tend to promote human 

 comfort. 



X 1 mean this remark in no ultra spiiit. Governments must be supported and re8r)urces raised. Inci- 

 dental pr<>t(.clion may be justly atforded to the products of agricultural or mechanical skill, under certaiii 

 cirrumrstances. But the fewer of these restrictions that are found necessary, the more rapidly, as a gener*. 

 iralc. lUe wealth and tomfort of mankind and nations are advanced. 



