far for the interest of the British empire; and the commerce of the British empire absolutely requires and demands no restraint throughout the whole; and even the real and lasting interest of the English manufacturer, and the English landed gentleman, requires and demands the extension of the common liberty of commerce to all the dominions of Great Britain; because, though their immediate profit or gain confounds their judgment: in truth, and in the end, their welfare, the extension and duration of their trade, depends upon the full and free employment of the whole.

"The climate of Ireland, the situation of Ireland, the manufactures of Ireland, are the same as those of England.

"If England, therefore, prohibits any of the commodities of Ireland, being such as serve for the foundation of manufactures, it is furnishing the materials of trade to foreign nations, and our most dangerous rivals, for they will get them if England does not take them; or, if not commodities that are the premiums of manufactures, they will hurt England more by being imported to other nations than to England, because, if England re-exported those commodities, or, by consuming them, exported more of her own, or exported both, the tonnage and advanced profit would redound to England; and England, being possessed of the whole profit of both nations, could fix her own price upon the whole the same advantage would accrue to England upon the re-exportation of Irish manufactures from England.

"And if England prohibits the importation of any one manufacture of Ireland into England, which is Ireland's chief market, the Irish must do one of two things,—

"1. They must either take up some other manufacture, which would still interfere with another manufacture of England, and so recoil, time after time, upon England, with the same force, and produce the same evil, if it be an evil.

"2. Or they must, if hunted from one manufacture to another, till they are left quiet in none, fly the country, and settle in the provinces of France or Spain, &c., to which countries the encouragement given concurring with the sameness of their religion, too naturally leads them, and this will produce the same effect, as in the instance of the woollen manufacture before mentioned.

"3. Or at the best, they will transplant themselves and their manufactures to America, where there is more liberty, more property to be easily acquired, and where it is presumed their manufacture, or rivalship, will not be contented to be less dangerous, but for very many reasons are to be apprehended a great deal more.

"But the pursuit of measures upon this principle has had an effect compounded of all these circumstances, and will have it much more, if farther continued.

“Is it not a fatal discouragement of all arts and industry in that kingdom, that the moment they turn themselves to any one manufacture, and have brought it to some perfection, the English manufacturers, by their clamour, and the local interest of particular boroughs and counties, are able to drive them from it, though expressly countenanced by it, and invited to it at the beginning by the English?

"Is it not absurd to forget, that if you destroy Ireland as a rival in the English trade, you cannot destroy France and other countries, which will work as cheap as Ireland, and will force their commerce by much greater helps, and support it by a power you often dare not resist ?

"Is there even common sense in restraining Ireland, in particular as to these manufactures, which neither England nor Ireland together can jointly supply?

"This proceeding, in respect to the trade of Ireland, manifestly tends to keep the common Irish still idle, still dangerous, and still popishly inclined (for the laws against popery can lay no hold on beggars) and to continue them estranged to the English government. What reason can be given to encourage trade and manufactures in Scotland, with a view to enrich and civilize the people there, which does not hold at least with equal force in regard to Ireland? Certainly the importance of finding employment for them is still greater, because their poverty is equal, and their number infinitely more. Of two millions of souls in Ireland, one million five hundred thousand are papists, and live on potatoes and milk; the whole food of one family of that class of the people, is the milk of one cow, and the roots produced from half an acre of land; their labour (if they can find employment) but fourpence per day. It is reviving old prejudices

between England and Ireland, which have slept for a long time, and ought to sleep for ever. It is cruel that a people, who, by the balance of their trade, which all centres in England, by the rents of one-third of their kingdom, which are spent in England,—should be abandoned by the English, with whom they have every tie in common blood, language, laws, and interest."

VOL. I.

CHAPTER III.

FROM 1752 To 1757.

Petitions to Parliament on branding Sheep with Pitch and Tar, and on false and deceitful winding of Fleeces The names of Towns and Districts from which Petitions were sent, showing where the Woollen Manufacture was carried on in England-Witnesses examined-Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons-A Review of the Manufacturers' Complaints against the Wool Growers, in Two Pamphlets, by Smith, Compiler of the Memoirs of Wool-Mémoires sur les Laines-The Fleece, by J. Dyer-Breeds of Sheep suited to various Soils and Climates-On the Process of Sorting Wool-Wools adapted to different Purposes-On exportation of British Wools-Smuggling of Wool-Process of the Woollen Manufacture-Improvement in Spinning-Spinning Machines-WeavingFulling-Factories first erected for the Employment of Parochial PoorPaul's Spinning Machine The Manufacturing Towns and Villages in Yorkshire--Foreign Trade in Woollens.

HAVING now given the purport of various pamphlets published before and about the period when Smith's Memoirs of Wool was written, as regarded Ireland, and taken thereby a review of those measures which tended to restrict and shackle the manufactures of that country, and to continue that feeling of distress and consequent dissatisfaction, till more liberal and just measures were pursued, I shall now revert to the measures adopted in England with respect to the woollen manufacture.

In the year 1752, petitions were presented to the House of Commons from the manufacturing districts, praying for the interference of the Legislature, in order to prevent the custom which then prevailed of branding sheep with pitch and tar; also to prevent false and deceitful winding of the fleece, and complaining of the dearness of wool.

The purport will be best explained by a copy of the petition which was sent from Leeds, stating,

"That the woollen manufacture is the most extensive and

interesting branch of commerce, and the most certain source of riches to these kingdoms, as it contributes more than any other to the employment and comfortable support of the poor, to the increase of the people, and to the advance of the value of land, by the ready consumption of its produce; and that the wool of the natural growth of our country occasions, through the great demand for our goods abroad, a balance in our favour, more than all the other branches of our trade, are truths so incontestable, that the merchants and the manufacturers of woollen goods, assuring themselves that whatever is offered to Parliament conducive to the improvement of their manufactures, will meet with a candid and cordial reception, and that it is but needful to represent their grievances, in order to secure their effectual redress, are induced to lay before the Honourable the House of Commons an account of the present practices of the wool growers, in the marking of their sheep, and the winding of their wool, of the pernicious consequences attending such practices, and of the methods proposed for the remedying of them.

:

"In order to distinguish each grower's sheep feeding on common grounds, it has been the ancient custom to put a mark of pitch, tar, and other ingredients, capable of enduring the severities of the weather upon some conspicuous part of the sheep but of late years they have in many places loaded the fleece, as well on the sheep feeding on commons as in inclosed grounds, with such excessive quantities of marking stuff, in order to increase its weight, that the manufacture has been rendered universally difficult, and too frequently unprofitable. That in order to make it workable, the manufacturer is obliged to clip off, with the mark, so much wool as occasions a very great waste of that valuable commodity, whereby the employment of the poor, and the quantity of goods for exportation are much lessened; and, notwithstanding the greatest attention of the most careful manufacturers, the marking stuff is wrought up into goods of all sorts, which, when finished, (those especially of light colours) are so spotted and stained thereby, that their value and credit are greatly impaired, both at home and abroad, and in woollen cloths it is impracticable to discover many of those spots before the piece comes from the press fitted for sale.