The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-09-02 00:00:00

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the relative quantity of K nol grown and wool im-
,rted. Y.. 0 say, that a wool imported, the (pan.
in 1759. vv as 2,00,8281h0. and that in 1814

:use up to the appalling quantity of 15,712,517!b5.
dare say that this statement is correct; because
,ou had the actual account of. imports to refer to.
to the quantity of wool grown to the country, it
impossible for any one to state it with nny thing
,e precision. The wool is lint taxed r neither the

:wee 'inutile dealer nor the manuheturer is com-
peled to keep or.render any account of it. Yet, a
in • the Courier of the Sth inst., 61y3 that
your Lordship roust ha *CI acquainted, with the
noun( Or If, which. so long since as 1800, was
02.00(Y.(y,i) is," Hence he is led to ridicule your
arm st the importation of 15,712,517 lbs. in a
r.

If this statement of the quantity of the home
.iv.th were correct. •our proposed tax Mould, in-
!net!, have noloing in it very seri,)us to the manu.
•:turers.• But, besides that it is next to impossible
toil one should be able to come at the amount
the home Growth, this statement is so monstrous
to slit tit e•ven the credulity that gives a currency
Almanack. Gentleman has heard

millions-set uncountable. that he thinks orahing of
Antireile of millions. The average weight of a
tivev:pirfittece is 4 lbs. coni,,quently there must be
,WOAD() of sheep in the country, shorne every
44 or 4! to every' human being, including tke
ttielittug tovvus. Ewes are, on an average, killed
fotti4S,enrs 01(1, wethets qt three, and lambs at
r innnthv. -They are, then, killed, on an average,

,29 months old. They live one year before they
field any wool. Thus, for every cheep that is
'tome, there is on killed in every 17 months. So
it, incluo;.:g a fraction, there must he killed every
year, .34.000,C00 of sheep and lambs ; or 3f to each
.Itucnan being, mon, woman, and child, paupers,
-vpies, felons and all. The average weight of
'pep is about tap lbs. and of lambs about 36 lbs.
he number of sheep killed far exceeds that of
B it, suppose the average weight to be 50 lbs.
en tbete is for. each human being 175 lbs. of mute
ill a yam-, or very nearly half a pound a day, for
:pc:, paupers, babies and all, observe. But
is not all. The neat cattle nearly equal the sheep

amount of meat. The hogs surpass the sheep in
respect. So that here is a finund and a halt of
,eat, besidev fish and poultry, every diy in the year
• every human being, sucking babies and all, when
well known, that millions of even the fathers

, mothers do not taste a morsel of animal food
om month's end to mopth's cod, and sometimes
dly a morsel of bread, their chief diet being
► and potatoes. What monstrous absurdity !
But, the wool ! what shall we do with the wool I
Ippose it all to he made into the shape of broad
th, and that e:•.-.11 yard in length requires albs. of
wool. It would not require, so much, but sup-
pose it did. Ilere are 61,000,000 of yards iu length,
118,000,000 of square yards of cloth. There
3,0'7,600 square yards in a square mile. Loa v-
out free ions,- then here is cloth enough mado in
.yortr, without the wool in.ported, to cover -10
rare mites ! The very skins of the animals would
:er- ten squcro miles! If this statement were cor-
rio-te- :71r3 Aarraiiii4440.444444111r4...Pit/14et
veld Pot stt :Lay Ostmlid., • •
W hasp. than, no means of ascertaining. with
degree of exacttiesv, (he criatility of the h •:..P
growth. But it is rational to suppo,p, that the
- ,noo,ooo of lbs. imported, are not los., than a
ath of the whole quantity of wool manufactured
lie country. The amount of all the woollens
,ported last year was 5,600.0001. sterling, and,
Ippose only one-fourth of the woollens to have been
it abroad, leasing thre.-fourths for home coil.
imption, the whole of the manufactured woollens
mild have amounted to 22,400,0001. sterling. If
allow a third of the cost of the woollens for the

material, and put the wool upon an average of

, sterling a plund, we s'iall find, that the whole
mount of wooi Inafore it was manufactured amounted

7,400,(XM) and i•oine odd poulidi sterling, aml that
whot • yeentity of it was 54,000,000 of pounds
-eigla ;:which is not roar times as mach as the quan.
of wool imported, and which wool, 1 believe,
iearly all of the fine quality.
Whether I am wrong in my supposition that not
• than one-fourth of our woollens are exported,
that the row material amounts to not more than
te-third of the price of the manufactured goods, I
IA leave, as I do with great deference, for the
ader to deride ; but, 1 must be very wide indeed of
the mark, if the quantity of *nol imported does nut
bear a propor.ion of, at least, a sixth in value to the
ml of home growth.
It is clear, therefore, my Lord, that the im-
,tation of wool has a very great effect on the
ire of wool grown at home. But lay a tax upon
,oI imported, and the consequence is, a rise in
price of manufactured woollens; for, to suppose
you appear to do, that the manufacturer does not
,w and always upon a-t average of transactions,
at us tow a price as he can afford to sell ; to sup.
'use sit t ever active and all-seeing competition is nut
•fli,•ient upon an average of-years, to apportion
'h the most scrapirtous precision the profits of un-
lercd trade, is a ;notion so we:l known to belong
;losiv,..ly, and of Right Divine, to the mob, that'
any Gentleman 'to attempt to encroach upon it
,o set at opeu defiance every principle of justice
ced-butnaliity.
The consequer.ces of a rise in the price of manu-
lored woollens would be, first, a diminution in the
isumption at home, unless you could by, some sort
gipsy coojaring trick convey the sums into all our
rkets nerevs.,:y to meet tat: rise of price. The
roe waukd take place as to exports. But much
ire right take place as to our foreign trade; for,
you were to prohibit the importation of wool al-
;ether, it would be manufactured abroad; and as
-ice is the great and tree and everlasting regulator,
moment wool became so cheap elsewhere as to
'able* other countries to work it up and sell it at a
war price that; we, that very niument would the
;port trade disappear. What is true as to total
,hibition is true as to prohibition in part. For
legit the countries sending wool hither would not,
at oncei, begin to manufacture their own suffi-
eiently to shill tiul our woollens entirely; they would
thi; thing by degrees; and 'lo"trttly world the peo-
iiiit.n Aperate leiate not 4. friction of
use unaccounted for in the effect.