and factories are increased, as also the Portu- || guese in the Brazils, and in the south part of Africa; not only the factories of the English and Dutch in the East Indies are increased, and the number of Europeans there being increased, call for a greater quantity of European goods than ever; but even the Spaniards and their colonies in the West Indies, I mean in New Spain and other dominions of the Spaniards in America, are increased in people, and that not so much the Spaniards themselves, though they, too, are more numerous than ever but the civilized free Indians, as they are called, are exceedingly multiplied.

These are Indians in blood, but being native subjects of Spain, know no other nation, nor do they speak any other language than Spanish, being born and educated among them. They are tradesmen, handicrafts, and bred to all kinds of business, and even merchants too as the Spaniards are, and some of them exceedingly rich; of these they tell us there are thirty thousand families in the city of Lima only, and doubtless the number of these increases daily.

As all these go clothed like Spaniards, as well themselves as their wives, children, and servants, of whom they have likewise a great many, so it necessarily follows that they greatly increase the consumption of European goods, and that the demand of English manufactures in particular increases in proportion, these manufactures being more than two-thirds of the ordinary habit or dress of those people, as it is also of the furniture of their houses, all which they take from their first patrons the Spaniards.

further improved, and would thereby still further improve and increase the manufactures.

By so much as they do not work up the wool, by so much they neglect the advantage put into their hands; for the wool of Great Britain and Ireland is certainly a singular and exclusive gift from Heaven for the advantage of this great and || opulent nation. If Heaven has given the wool, and we do not improve the gift by manufacturing it all up, so far we are to be reproached with indolence and neglect. And no wonder if the wool goes from Ireland to France by whole shiploads at a time; for what must the poor Irish do with their wool? If they manufacture it, we will not let them trade with those manufactures, or export them beyond sea. Our reasons for that prohibition are, indeed, very good, though too long to debate in this place; but no reason can be alleged that can in any sense of the thing be justifiable, why we should not either give leave to export the manufactures or take the wool.

But to speak of the reason to ourselves, for the other is a reason to them (I mean the Irish). The reason to ourselves is this: we ought to take the wool ourselves, that the French might not have it to erect and imitate our own manufactures in France, and so supplant our trade.

Certainly if we could take the whole quantity of the Irish wool off their hands, we might with ease prevent it being carried to France; for much of it goes that way, merely because they cannot get money for it at home.

This I charge, therefore, as a neglect, and an evident proof of indolence; namely, that we do not take effectual care to secure all the wool in

tures.

My answer is positive and direct, viz., that notwithstanding all this, they are chargeable with an unaccountable, unjustifiable, and, I had almost said, a most scandalous indolence and neglect, and that in respect to this woollen manufacture in particular; a neglect so gross that by it they suffer a manifest injury in trade. This neglect consists of three heads.

1. They do not work up all the wool which they might come at, and which they cught to work up, and about which they have still spare hands enough to set to work.

2. They with difficulty sell off or consume the quantity of goods they make; whereas they might otherwise vend a much greater quantity

both abroad and at home.

3. They do not sufficiently apply themselves to the improving and enlarging their colonies abroad, which, as they are already increased and have increased the consumption of the manufactures, so they are capable of being much

I know it will be objected that England does already take off as much as they can, and as much as they want; and to bring over more than they can use will sink the market, and be an injury to ourselves; but I am prepared to answer this directly and effectually, and you shall have a full reply to it immediately.

But in the meantime this is a proof of the first proposition, namely, that we do not work up all our own wool, for the Irish wool is, and ought to be, esteemed as our own in the present debate about trade; for that it is carried away from our own dominions, and is made use of by those that rival our manufactures, to the ruin of our own trade.

That the Irish are prohibited exporting their wool is true; but it seems a little severe to prohibit them exporting their wool, and their manu factures too, and then not to buy the wool of

them neither.

wool they bring us, and that we could and would It is alleged by some that we do take off all the take it all, if they would bring it all. To this 1 answer, if the Irish people do not bring it all to us, it is either that it is too far for the poor peo ple who own the wool to bring it to the south and east coast of Ireland, there being no markets in the west and north-west parts of that island where they could sell it; and the farmers and sheep-breeders are no merchants, nor have they carriage for so long a journey. But either the public ought to appoint proper places whither it

No doubt but the want of buyers is the reason why so much of the Irish wool is carried over to France. Besides, if markets were appointed where the poor farmers could always find buyers at one price or another, there would be then no pretence for them to carry it away in the dark, and by stealth, to the sea side, as is now the case, and the justice of prohibitions and seizures would be more easily to be defended. Indeed, there would be no excuse for the running it off, nor would there want any excuse for seizing it, if they attempted to run it off.

But I am called upon to answer the objection mentioned above, namely, that the manufactures in England do already take off a very great quantity of the Irish wool, as much as they have occasion for. Nay, they condescend so far to the Irish, as to allow them to manufacture a great deal of that wool which they take off; that is to say, to spin it into yarn, of which yarn so great a quantity is brought into England yearly as they assure us amounts to sixty thousand packs of wool; as may be seen by a fair calculation in the book above-mentioned, called The Plan;' in a word, that the English are not in a condition to take off any more.

Now this is that which leads me directly to the question in hand; whether the English are able to take off any more of the Irish wool and yarn, or no. I do not affirm that, as the trade in England is now carried on, they are able; perhaps they are not; but I insist that if we were thoroughly resolved in England to take such wise measures as we ought to take, and as we are well able to do, for the improvement and increase of our manufactures, we might and should be able to take off and work up the whole growth of the wool of Ireland; and this I shall presently demonstrate, as I think, past doubt.

But before I come to the scheme for the performance of this, give me leave to lay down some particulars of the advantage this would be to our country, and to our commerce, supposing the thing could be brought to pass; and then I shall show how easily it might be brought to pass.

1. By taking off this great quantity of wool and yarn, supposing one-half of the quantity to be spun, many thousands of the poor people of Ireland, who are now in a starving condition for want of employment, would be set immediately to work, and be put in a condition to get their bread; so that it would be a present advantage to the Irish themselves, and that far greater than it can be now, their wool, which goes away to France, being all carried off unwrought.

2. Due care being then taken to prevent any exportation of wool to France, as, I take it for granted, might be done with much more ease, when the Irish had encouragement to sell their wool at home, we should soon find a difference in the expense of wool, by the French being disabled from imitating our manufactures abroad, and the consumption of our own would naturally increase in proportion. (1.) They would not be able to thrust their manufactures into foreign

our manufactures must necessarily be abated; and (2.) They would want supplies at home, and consequently our manufactures would be more called for, even in France itself, and that in spite of penalties and prohibitions.

Thus by our taking off the Irish wool, we should in time prevent its exportation to France: and by preventing its going to France, we should disable the French, and increase the consumption of our own manufactures in all the ports whither they now send them, and even in France itself.

I have met with some people who have made calculations of the quantity of wool which is sent annually from Ireland to France, and they have done it by calculating, first, how many packs of wool the whole kingdom of Ireland may produce; and this they do again from the number of sheep, which they say are fed in Ireland in the whole. How right this calculation may be I will not determine.

First, they tell us there are fed in Ireland thirty millions of sheep, and as all these sheep are supposed to be sheared once every year, they must produce exactly thirty millions of fleeces, allowing the fell-wool to be equal in quantity to the fleece-wool in proportion to the number of sheep killed.

It is observable, by a very critical account of the wool produced annually in Romney Marsh, in the county of Kent, and published in the said

It is

Plan of the English Commerce,' that the fleeces of wool of those large sheep generally weigh above four pounds and a half each. computed thus: first, he tells us that Romney Marsh contains 47,110 acres of land, that they feed 141,330 sheep, whose wool being shorn, makes up 2,523 packs of wool, the sum of which is, that every acre feeds three sheep, every sheep yields one fleece, and 56 fleeces make one pack of wool, all which comes out to 2,523 packs of wool, 23 fleeces over, every pack weighing 240 pounds of wool.-Vide Plan,' &c., p. 259.

I need not observe here, that the sheep in Ireland are not near so large as the sheep in Romney Marsh, these last being generally the largest breed of sheep in England, except a few on the bank of the river Tees, in the bishopric of Durham. Now if these large sheep yield fleeces of four pounds and a half of wool, we may be supposed to allow the Irish sheep, take them one with another, to yield three pounds of wool to a fleece or to a sheep, out of which must be deducted the fell-wool, most of which is of a shorter growth, and therefore cannot be reckoned so much by at least a pound to a sheep. Begin, then, to account for the wool, and we may make some calculation from thence of the number of sheep.

1. If of the Romney Marsh fleeces, weighing four pounds and a half each, 56 fleeces make one pack of wool, then 70 fleeces Irish wool, weighing three pounds each fleece, make a pack.

2. If we import from Ireland one hundred thousand packs of wool, as well in the fleece as in the yarn, then we import the wool of seven millions of sheep fed in Ireland every year.

Come we next to the gross quantity of wool. As the Irish make all their own manufactures,

and factories are increased, as also the Portu- || guese in the Brazils, and in the south part of Africa; not only the factories of the English and Dutch in the East Indies are increased, and the number of Europeans there being increased, call for a greater quantity of European goods than ever; but even the Spaniards and their colonies in the West Indies, I mean in New Spain and other dominions of the Spaniards in America, are increased in people, and that not so much the Spaniards themselves, though they, too, are more numerous than ever but the civilized free Indians, as they are called, are exceedingly multiplied.

These are Indians in blood, but being native subjects of Spain, know no other nation, nor do they speak any other language than Spanish, being born and educated among them. They are tradesmen, handicrafts, and bred to all kinds of business, and even merchants too as the Spaniards are, and some of them exceedingly rich; of these they tell us there are thirty thousand families in the city of Lima only, and doubtless the number of these increases daily.

As all these go clothed like Spaniards, as well themselves as their wives, children, and servants, of whom they have likewise a great many, so it necessarily follows that they greatly increase the consumption of European goods, and that the demand of English manufactures in particular increases in proportion, these manufactures being more than two-thirds of the ordinary habit or dress of those people, as it is also of the furniture of their houses, all which they take from their first patrons the Spaniards.

further improved, and would thereby still further improve and increase the manufactures.

By so much as they do not work up the wool, by so much they neglect the advantage put into their hands; for the wool of Great Britain and Ireland is certainly a singular and exclusive gift from Heaven for the advantage of this great and opulent nation. If Heaven has given the wool, and we do not improve the gift by manufacturing it all up, so far we are to be reproached with indolence and neglect. And no wonder if the wool goes from Ireland to France by whole shiploads at a time; for what must the poor Irish do with their wool? If they manufacture it, we will not let them trade with those manufactures, or export them beyond sea. Our reasons for that prohibition are, indeed, very good, though too long to debate in this place; but no reason can be alleged that can in any sense of the thing be justifiable, why we should not either give leave to export the manufactures or take the wool.

But to speak of the reason to ourselves, for the other is a reason to them (I mean the Irish). The reason to ourselves is this: we ought to take the wool ourselves, that the French might not have it to erect and imitate our own manu

factures in France, and so supplant our trade.

Certainly if we could take the whole quantity of the Irish wool off their hands, we might with ease prevent it being carried to France; for much of it goes that way, merely because they cannot get money for it at home.

tures.

My answer is positive and direct, viz., that notwithstanding all this, they are chargeable with an unaccountable, unjustifiable, and, I had almost said, a most scandalous indolence and neglect, and that in respect to this woollen manufacture in particular; a neglect so gross that by it they suffer a manifest injury in trade. This neglect consists of three heads.

1. They do not work up all the wool which they might come at, and which they cught to work up, and about which they have still spare hands enough to set to work.

I know it will be objected that England does already take off as much as they can, and as much as they want; and to bring over more than they can use will sink the market, and be an injury to ourselves; but I am prepared to answer this directly and effectually, and you shall have a full reply to it immediately.

our own wool, for the Irish wool is, and ought to be, esteemed as our own in the present debate about trade; for that it is carried away from our own dominions, and is made use of by those that rival our manufactures, to the ruin of our own trade.

That the Irish are prohibited exporting their wool is true; but it seems a little severe to prohibit them exporting their wool, and their manufactures too, and then not to buy the wool of

them neither.

and east coast of Ireland, there being no markets in the west and north-west parts of that island where they could sell it; and the farmers and sheep-breeders are no merchants, nor have they carriage for so long a journey. But either the public ought to appoint proper places whither it