54 
THE SHEEP. 
WOOL. 
machinery, and consists in pressing the cloth in water along with clay, the aluminous matter of which combines with the oil of 
the cloth. It is in undergoing this operation that the threads and filaments cohere together, so that the cloth becomes more 
thick, and does not unravel when cut. 
From this account, it will be seen that, while the facility of felting is an important property in the case of all wool designed 
for the manufacture of cloth, and prepared by the card, it is not required in the case of wool intended for worsteds, and prepared 
by the comb. Certain kinds of wool have this property in a higher degree than others, and are consequently better adapted for 
the making of woollen cloth. In general, the shorter kinds of wool having also fine filaments, are those of which the laminae 
are most numerous and distinct, and are those accordingly in which the felting property is the greatest. The property, however,, 
is not in proportion to the tenuity of the fibres, since certain short and slender wools possess it in an inferior degree. Of all 
known wools, that derived from the Merino race possesses the felting property in the greatest perfection, and is accordingly the 
best adapted of all others for the making of cloth; while the long and tough wool of the larger Sheep is imperfectly adapted 
to the preparation of woollen yarn, and accordingly is never prepared by the action of the card. It is, therefore, the short and 
felting wools which alone are fitted to this process ; and until a period comparatively recent, they were, with few exceptions 
in this country, never prepared by any other means. This gave rise to a popular distinction, long in use, and not yet 
entirely abandoned. The long wools were termed Combing wools; the short, Carding wools. But these designations are no 
longer applicable. By improvements in the woollen manufacture, the means have been found to prepare the shorter and more 
delicate wools by the comb as well as by the card; and now a great proportion of all the short wools of this country is converted 
into worsted yarn. The South Down wool, which was formerly, and until a recent period exclusively, prepared by the card, is now 
in a still larger degree prepared by the comb for the manufacture of worsted. It has fallen in price, indeed, from its being no longer 
used for the finer cloths, but the range of its utility has been greatly extended. Thus it is also with the wool of the Cheviot, the 
Norfolk, and other Short-woolled breeds ; and there cannot be a doubt, that, although individual interests may have been inju¬ 
riously 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 com¬ 
modity has become more steady, and the trade been placed on a surer basis, by being founded on an enlarged demand, and sup¬ 
ported, not by artificial regulations and fiscal restraints, but by an extension of the woollen manufacture. Soon after the peace of 
1814, alarm was raised amongst 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 produce, under the 
specious pretext of encouraging British agriculture. 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 giving 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 restore the former restrictions. This, in 1828, led to a parliamentary 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 
raw material of a manufacture which could only be sustained by freedom of trade and production. It was proved by the concur¬ 
rent 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 us should have dared to demand that the manufacturers of the country 
should be prevented from procuring the materials of their manufacture where these could be obtained cheapest and best; nay, 
should not only be prevented from exercising this natural and necessary right, but compelled to take from the wool-growers at 
home, and at a price enhanced by fiscal regulations, what was absolutely unsuited for the purposes of commerce. The disgraceful 
law of 1819 had already shown, that, by refusing to take the wools of other countries, we depressed the price of the raw material 
abroad, and thus gave an indirect premium to the foreign manufacturer; and that by forcing our manufacturers to employ wools 
of inferior quality and higher price, we directly unfitted them for competition in the general market of the world. It was of the 
repeal of the law of 1819 that the wool-growers thought fit to complain, as having produced the depreciation which had taken 
place in the price of the clothing wools, not perceiving that, in admitting the depreciation from this cause, they admitted at the 
same time the magnitude and injustice of a burden, which had been so heavily taxing the manufacturing industry of our own 
country, and fostering that of others. 
* Remarks by the Author aliunde on Wool. 
