placed perpendicularly, the reed fell with the weight of at least half a hundredweight, and the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to have thrown a Congreve rocket. In short, it required the strength of two powerful men to work the machine at a slow rate, and only for a short time. Conceiving, in my great simplicity, that I had accomplished all that was required, I then secured what I thought a most valuable property, by a patent, 4th of April, 1785. This being done, I then condescended to see how other people wove; and you will guess my astonishment, when I compared their easy modes of operation with mine. Availing myself, however, of what I then saw, I made a loom, in its general principles nearly as they are now made. But it was not till the year 1787 that I completed my invention, when I took out my last weaving patent, August 1st of that year."

The great impulse thus given to manufactures by the inventions and improvements of Arkwright and Watt, as well as Cartwright and others, stimulated their extension in every department, and every branch of agriculture, as well as manufacture; it infused a spirit of emulation amongst agriculturists of every rank, and in all parts of the kingdom, while the encouragement they received by the increasing prices of the produce of the soil, as well as the very high prices paid for stock, amply remunerated them.

CHAPTER VII.

FROM 1800 To 1804.

Irish Union-Laws respecting the Woollen Trade with Ireland-Proceedings in Parliament Examination at the Bar of the House of Lords-Mr. Law's (Lord Ellenborough's) Address to the House of Lords-Witnesses Examined -Mr. Wilberforce's Amendment in the House of Commons-Observations on the Objection to the Exportation of British Wool, by Lord SheffieldAn Address to the Woollen Manufacturers of Great Britain, by Alexander Williamson-Jacob's Travels in Germany and Holland.

THE year 1800 was of great importance, from the bill introduced into Parliament by Mr. Pitt's Government, for the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, giving them one Parliament and the same laws. An alteration of the laws which existed as to the trade of wool and woollens, formed part of that plan, and the woollen manufacturers of Great Britain gave it their most strenuous opposition.

In order to understand the position in which they then stood, and the arguments they brought forward in opposing that part of the Act of Union, it becomes necessary to give extracts from the resolutions of the two Houses of Parliament in Ireland, so far as regards wool and woollens, and which were the groundwork of the measures carried in the Parliament of Great Britain :—

"Resolved, That it would be fit to propose as the sixth article of the Union, that his Majesty's subjects of Great Britain and Ireland shall, from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, be entitled to the same privileges, and be on the same footing, as to encouragements and bounties on the like articles, being the growth, produce, or manufacture of either kingdom respectively, and generally in respect of trade and navigation in all ports and places in the United Kingdom, and its dependencies, and that in all treaties made by his Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any foreign power, his Majesty's subjects

of Ireland shall have the same privileges, and be on the same footing, as his Majesty's subjects of Great Britain; that from the first of January, 1801, all prohibitions and bounties on the export of articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country, to the other, shall cease and determine, and that the said articles shall thenceforth be exported from one to the other without duty or bounty on such exports; that all articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of either kingdom, (not hereafter enumerated as subject to specific duties,) shall from thenceforth be imported into each country from the other, free of duty, other than such countervailing duty as shall be annexed to the several articles contained in the schedule; and the woollen manufactures shall pay on importation into each country, the duties now payable into Ireland."

"That all articles, the growth, produce, and manufacture of either kingdom, when exported through the other, shall in all cases be exported subject to the same charges as if they had been exported directly from the country of which they were the growth, produce, or manufacture."

These resolutions excited the fears of the woollen manufacturers of Great Britain, and the following petition to the two Houses of Parliament was presented :

"The Petition of the Merchants, Factors, Warehousemen, and others, concerned in the Wool and Woollen Trade, residing in London,

"SHEWETH, That your petitioners observe, with inexpressible concern, that in the projected arrangements of the Union with the sister kingdom, she proposes that the existing laws, prohibiting the exportation of British wool, should be repealed, so far as relates to herself, whilst on her part she claims the continuance of protecting duties for her woollen manufactures. That your petitioners humbly conceive and believe, that the growth of wool in Great Britain is not sufficient to supply the manufactures thereof with a quantity equal to the present demand for home consumption and foreign markets, so that if any part be suffered to be taken away, your petitioners and the manufacturers must experience very great injury.

"That your petitioners are most seriously alarmed, in case British wool should be permitted to be exported, that, under pretence of carrying it to Ireland, great quantities would be conveyed to foreign countries, without the possibility of prevention, especially in times of peace; and that the facility with which it might be passed from various parts of Ireland free from detection, fur

nishes strong apprehension that still larger quantities would find their way to foreign countries, whereby the British merchant and manufacturer would suffer, and the enemies and rivals of the United Kingdom be furnished with means of supplanting both your petitioners and the new members of the empire, in foreign markets.

"Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that no alteration

may be made in the existing laws, so far as they prohibit the exportation of wool, and that your petitioners may be heard by their counsel at the bar of your Honourable House."

The above petition was signed by 113 firms in London; and similar petitions were presented from Cornwall, Exeter, Totness, Tiverton, Welch Pool, Frome, Bury St. Edmund's, Huddersfield, Tavistock, Painswick, Rochdale, Huntingdon, Norwich, Somersetshire, Sudbury, Halifax, Gloucester, Bury, Preston, Market Harbro', Witney, Wivelscombe, Southwark, Bradford, Cirencester, Colne, Burnley, Banbury, Shrewsbury, Leeds, Wakefield, Haworth, Kendal, Addingham, Kidderminster, Keighley, Skipton, Salisbury.

Counsel for the petitioners were heard, and witnesses examined at the bar of the two Houses of Parliament.

Mr. Law (afterwards Lord Ellenborough), and Mr. Plumer (afterwards Sir Thomas Plumer), were Counsel.

Mr. LAW opened the business in a very long and able speech, in which he gave a history of the wool of this country, and of the woollen manufacture, from the earliest records. Speaking of the manufacture he said :—

"To state to your Lordships the extent of it, would be to state, that it is at least one-third in point of export, that it is a fourth of the national income, as derived from all its various sources. Its magnitude is so important, its connection with the vital and best interests of this country so close and intimate, that it has been a principal object of attention, in the framing of the statutes which appear upon your rolls, from the earliest period of any ascertained acts of legislation in this country. It is, however, entitled to consideration, not only on this ground of a prescriptive policy respecting it, but it is further entitled to consideration as it enriches the landowner in the first instance, by the large rent which it enables

his manufacturing tenant to pay for the land he occupies, either for the purpose of habitation or trade, and in the enhanced price of every article which the soil produces; as it enriches the manufacturer in the second place, who works up the wool, and conducts it by various hands, and through various processes, both of manual and mechanical labour, to the ultimate state in which it becomes the subject of use and wear at home, and of exportation, for similar purposes abroad; as it enriches, in the third place, the dealer and artist in every article, which every description of manufacture requires or consumes, from the habitation which protects him from the weather, to the shoes on which he treads; and lastly, as it enriches the state itself, which derives a larger revenue from the consumption of so many articles, the subject of various duties, of customs and excise, naturally occasioned by the demand of a population thus extended and encouraged. In order to give your Lordships some idea of its magnitude, I may venture to state, that there are no less than 1,500,000 persons, who are immediately concerned in the operative branches of this vast manufacture; and I may venture to assume, that the trade directly and collaterally employs double the above-mentioned number of hands. If you look at its annual produce, at its value and amount, with respect to both foreign markets and home consumption, without stating in minute detail the quantity of wool actually produced in the country, it amounts at least to 600,000 packs, each pack being of the value of £11, constituting a total of £6,600,000 of actual produce, before it begins to be manufactured; and in its manufactured state, upon the smallest and most contracted estimate, being upon an average at least tripled in its value. Some of it, which undergoes a more laboured and expensive process, is of infinitely greater value, in proportion to the raw material, than what I have stated; but upon an average, the actual quantity of annually manufactured goods is three times the amount last mentioned, that is £19,800,000, or about twenty millions.

"This is not a new trade, nor is it only a comparatively ancient trade, but it is the most ancient and the most important trade which the country possesses, which is, as my Lord Hale calls it, the basis of all commerce.' Lord Bacon,