ght be
increased at home, and in some places also abroad, and so far that fishery
is not so fully pursued; but I do not see that the increase of it can be
very considerable, there being already a prodigious quantity cured more
than ever in Ireland on every side of that kingdom, and also on the west
of England; but if it may be increased, so much the more will be the
advantage of the commerce; of which by itself.

But from this I come to the main article of the British trade, I mean our
wool, or, as it is generally expressed, the woollen manufacture, and this
is what I mean, when I said as above, spin and live.

In this likewise I must take the liberty to say, and insist upon it, that
the English people cannot be said to be idle or slothful, or to neglect
the advantages which are put into their hands of the greatest manufactures
in Europe, if not in the whole world.

On the other hand, the people of England have run up their manufactures to
such a prodigy of magnitude, that though it is extended into almost every
part of the known world, I mean, the world as it is known in trade; yet
even that whole world is scarce equal to its consumption, and is hardly
able to take off the quantity; the negligence therefore of the English
people is not so much liable to reproof in this part, as some pretend to
tell us; the trade of our woollen manufacture being evidently increased
within these few years past, far beyond what it ever was before.

I know abundance of our people talk very dismal things of the decay of our
woollen manufacture, and that it is declined much they insist upon it;
being prohibited in many places and countries abroad, of their setting up
other manufactures of their own in the room of it, of their pretending to
mimick and imitate it, and supply themselves with the produce of their own
land, and the labour of their own people, and indeed France has for many
years gone some length in this method of erecting woollen manufactures in
the room of ours, and making their own productions serve instead of our
completely finished manufacture: but all these imitations are weak and
unperforming, and show abundantly how little reason we have to apprehend
their endeavours, or that they will be able to supplant our manufacture
there or any where else; for that even in France itself, where the
imitation of our manufactures is carried on to the utmost perfection; yet
they are obliged to take off great quantities of our finest an