The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-07 00:00:00

judge by actual experience whether the measure
was wise or harmful—Philadelphia Inquirer.
We continue to receive evidences ofathe imperilled
condition of the woollen manufacture of our entire
country. In a letter from Franklin, Essex County,
New Jersey, dated Dec. 4, the writer says :—" I
am quite largely engaged in manufacturing woollen
goods in this State and in the State of New York,
and well know the condition of the woollen interest
of our country this day. It is extremely precarious.
I tell you that unless Congress relieves us imme-
diately there will be untold suffering. Manufac-
turers will be ruined, and operatives have to beg for
bread. What we want is help—help now. Sixty
days from this time it may be too late to do us any
good. The Tariff Bill now pending should become
a law, and when it becomes a law I want to see its
provisions honestly enforced. We are now cheated
out of the little incidental protection the existinc,
tariff should afford us, by fraudulent invoices and
under valuation. I only yesterday heard of a case
of heavy, fine Austrian cloths invoiced at $1 50c. a
yard, sold in New York by the importers at $6 a
yard ! The importations are really more than
double, yes, more than treble, what the Treasury
statements indicate." The Secretary of the Trea-
sury confesses in his Annual Report that, on account
of " a systematic under valuation of foreign mer-
chandise imported into the United States," &c.,
" twenty per cent. at least should be added to the
imports, which would make the balance for the past
year against the United States nearly $100,000,000.
From the evidence we last week published this

hen is the case :—The woollen manufacturers of

this country with aggregated capitals amounting to
$59,000,000—giving employment to 80,000 male and
female operatives—sustaining with wages directly
and indirectly 400,000 persons--doubling and treb-
ling the value of agricultural land and of farm
products in circles of from 20 to 50 miles diameter
around each and all of them—furnishing freight to
railroads, canals, and steam vessels—giving infinite
business to machine shops, foundries, mechanics,
merchants, and agents this immense industrial
interest is in immediate danger of being destroyed
by foreign importations. Whether this destruction
of a most important element of national life shall be
permitted is a question which it should be deemed
a crime to raise. To permit it Would be a wicked-
ness and a reckless madness that could only find a
parallel in the deliberate cutting of the dykes of
Holland, and letting the sea whelm in, and sweep
away the culture and wealth which centuries of pro-
tected labour have slowly built up. The concurrent
statement of the American woollen manufacturers
is that their business must inevitably and speedily
perish if the House Tariff Bill, or a bill like it in
principle and equivalent to it in protection, is not
taken up by the Senate and made the law of the
land. The political reconstruction of the country
has consumed the time and occupied the passions of
Congress and the people for 18 months continu-
ously. Will not Congress give 18 days to the sal-
vation of one of the country's most important ma-
terial interests.—flew York Tribune.

COUNTRY MARKET F.