Star.
London, England, 1820-05-27 00:00:00

at least, there was a fiat= of the new duty.—
The quantity' of broad cloth allied in the West
Riding of Yorksbire.last year, appeared to be seven
millions of yards ; and he had looked through the
*hole of the former years of general public distress
in this country, and he was obliged to go as far back
as 1794 before he was able to find the manufacture
of this article at so low a state as it was in 1820.
And, he would ask, was this the state they ought to
be in, with an increased population, which undoubt-
edly ought to create a greater demand in every ar-
ticle of manufacture, that, in order to find a parallel,
for their present depressed state, he was obliged to
go back to the year 1794? It was impossible this
could be merely owing to the distressed state of the
country alone ; it must be owing to the falling off
of our foreign trade. On this question lie enter-
tained opinions diametrically opposite to those gene-
rally professed. It was often maintained, as a maxim
in political economy, that the more exportation there
was, and the less importation, the richer the country
was. He would rat, at that time, enter into that
question ; but he would undertake, any day that he•
should be called upon, to prove that the truth was
diametrically opposite to it. It was a most absurd
thing. to think of our being exporters of raw pro-
duce in return for the comforts and luxuries of life.

We must be manufacturers. We could not afford to
grow poor. We must nut only remain wealthy as
we are. but we must grow richer, in order to support
our enormous debt. This being the case, he would
ask, then, if it were wise in.the country, at the pre-
sent moment, to increase the burdens on our industry?
The value of wool imported into this country was
doubled, and in some instances quintupled by its
manufacture into cloth. The finest wool imported cost
6s. per lb. and the finest cloth exported was about 365.
per yard. In the inquiry into the subject which took
place before the Privy Council last winter, one of the
witnesti stated, that in the present state of our trade
with America, we had an advantage of 7} per cent.
over the French and Flemish manufacturers. That
was to say, that when the price of. French or Flemish
cloth was 100, our's was 92 ; adding to this the
amount of the new duties to be laid on the cluth, we
should f,c) into the American market at 98; which

would be running so close and painful a race, that
there was great risk of losing the American market
al:outlier, which would at once consummate the
ruin of our manufactures. This was a danger,
in his opinion, studio usly to be avoided—( Hear).—
Ametisa, he thought, of ail others, was the market
this country should most endeavour to retain posses-
sion of; and that we should not by any bad polity
drive America into manufacturing for itself, or in-
- duce it to prefer the Continental manufacwres, was
so obvious, that he would not detain the House by
stating even one of the reasons for it. But it was not
in America alone, but in all parts of the world, that
we were in danger of being cut out by rivals. In the
Levant the French had not long back the superiority,
and he saw no reason why they should not maintain
their grounj. We were not to suppose, that because
in time of ‘k a: we had monopolised the commerce
of the whole world, •we had only need in time 'of
peace to. rest on our oars in order to keep it. Ile
knew that great distress prevailed in the agricultural
classes of the nation, but let not the landed Gentle.
men of that House think that their tenantry, who-
were unable to pay their taxer and their rent, were
to he set up by any such expedients as imposing
a duty on Wool; for, if that had the effect of de-!
stroying our foreign trade, where could these Gen-
tlemen look for purchasers for their British wool ?
When any particular manufacture was in a state
of decadence, it was the true business of Legisla-
tion to prop it up, and not to hasten its fall,
Arguing, however, as he did on the subject, he
wished it- to be understood that he did not hold out
that the taking off the Duty on Wool would restore
to the manufacturers that trade which they had lost
from so many causes. With respect to the state of
other manufactures than the woollen, he would state,
that in the town of Sheffield the Forms' Rates were
double fur the four months of this year, in compari-
son with the corresponding period in the preceding;
but still there was more digress. hi the woollen than'
there was in the iron trade. In this situation of things,
it was grating to the feelings of the People, to see
the I louse willing to lend themselves to a project to
increase the price of the raw material on which their
industry and ingenuity were to be employed in order
to redeem their distresses. He looked upon this tax as,
a mere experiment to see how far the country could
bear an increase to its burthens, or it' it were possible
to procure a revenue from a falling trade. For these
reasons he thought himself justified to call upon the
House for the repeal of a duty which could not by
possibility be made a protection to agriculture, which
could not add to the revenue, and which was grating
to the feelings of the People, and operated as a bar
to the accumulation of capital. The Noble Lord
concluded by moving, " For leave to bring in a Bill
to Repeal the Tax upon Foreign Wool."
Mr. T. WILSON seconded the motion. He de•
eared it as his opinion, that unless there was a re-
duction of nine or ten per cent. in the price of our
Woollen 'Manufacture, we should be cut out of the
foreign markets. He offered his best thanks to the
Noble Lord for the very able and zealous manner in
which he had advocated the cause.
On the question being put,
Mr. WESTERN said, that during the periods of
the greatest prosperity of the IVoollen Trade, the im-
portation of Foreign Wool had not been to more than
half the extent it now was. The importation, for the
last six years, was upon an averae of about 17 mil-
lions of pounds annually. Durini the eight months
preceding the last four, there was an importation of
36 millions of pounds ; and this great influx would
account for the apparent decline in the importation of
that article during the four months which had been'
alluded to. The Honourable Member concluded by
declaring his opposition to the motion.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said,
Ghat whatever might be the ultimate result of the
measure taken in imposing this duty upon foreign
wool, it had not yet had any such fair trial as the
Noble Lord had declared it had. Arguing on the
same general principles as the Noble Lord bad, he
should say, that if it -were thought improper to place
a tax upon raw produce, it must at least be con-
sidered as an encouragement to domestic produce.
The Noble Lord had seemed to think it inconsistent,
that the same measure should at one time be treated