vable that those who support this proposition give
the same reasons that have been offered here, within the last week,
against the duty which we propose on the same article. They say that
their manufacturers require a cheap and coarse wool, for the supply of
the Mediterranean and Levant trade, and that, without a more free
admission of the wool of the Continent, that trade will all fall into
the hands of the Germans and Italians, who will carry it on through
Leghorn and Trieste. While there is this duty on foreign wool to protect
the wool-growers of England, there is, on the other hand, a prohibition
on the exportation of the native article in aid of the manufacturers.
The opinion seems to be gaining strength, that the true policy is to
abolish both.

Laws have long existed in England preventing the emigration of artisans
and the exportation of machinery; but the policy of these, also, has
become doubted, and an inquiry has been instituted in Parliament into
the expediency of repealing them. As to the emigration of artisans, say
those who disapprove the laws, if that were desirable, no law could
effect it; and as to the exportation of machinery, let us make it and
export it as we would any other commodity. If France is determined to
spin and weave her own cotton, let us, if we may, still have the benefit
of furnishing the machinery.

I have stated these things, Sir, to show what seems to be the general
tone of thinking and reasoning on these subjects in that country, the
example of which has been so much pressed upon us. Whether the present
policy of England be right or wrong, wise or unwise, it cannot, as it
seems clearly to me, be quoted as an authority for carrying further the
restrictive and exclusive system, either in regard to manufactures or
trade. To re-establish a sound currency, to meet at once the shock,
tremendous as it was, of the fall of prices, to enlarge her capacity for
foreign trade, to open wide the field of individual enterprise and
competition, and to say plainly and distinctly that the country must
relieve itself from the embarrassments which it felt, by economy,
frugality, and renewed efforts of enterprise,--these appear to be the
general outline of the policy which England has pursued.

Mr. Chairman, I will now proceed to say a few words upon a topic, but
for the introduction of which into this debate I should not have given
the committee on this occasion the trouble of hearing me. Some days ag