that the whole growth and produce of
their sheep is wrought up by them, and that they buy a prodigious quantity
from Ireland and Scotland, and work up all that too, and that with this
they make such an infinite quantity of goods, that they, as it were, glut
and gorge the whole world with their manufactures.

My answer is positive and direct, viz., that notwithstanding all this,
they are chargeable with an unaccountable, unjustifiable, and, I had
almost said, a most scandalous indolence and neglect, and that in respect
to this woollen manufacture in particular; a neglect so gross, that by it
they suffer a manifest injury in trade. This neglect consists of three
heads:

1. They do not work up all the wool which they might come at, and which
they ought to work up, and about which they have still spare hands enough
to set to work.

2. They with difficulty sell off or consume the quantity of goods they
make; whereas they might otherwise vend a much greater quantity, both
abroad and at home.

3. They do not sufficiently apply themselves to the improving and
enlarging their colonies abroad, which, as they are already increased, and
have increased the consumption of the manufactures, so they are capable of
being much further improved, and would thereby still further improve and
increase the manufactures. By so much as they do not work up the wool, by
so much they neglect the advantage put into their hands; for the wool of
Great Britain and Ireland is certainly a singular and exclusive gift from
Heaven, for the advantage of this great and opulent nation. If Heaven has
given the wool, and we do not improve the gift by manufacturing it all up,
so far we are to be reproached with indolence and neglect; and no wonder
if the wool goes from Ireland to France by whole shiploads at a time; for
what must the poor Irish do with their wool? If they manufacture it we
will not let them trade with those manufactures, or export them beyond
sea. Our reasons for that prohibition are indeed very good, though too
long to debate in this place: but no reason can be alleged that can in any
sense of the thing be justifiable, why we should not either give leave to
export the manufactures, or take the wool.

But to speak of the reason to ourselves, for the other is a reason to them
(I mean the Irish). The reason to ourselves is this: we ought to take the
wool ourselves, that the French might not have it to erect and imitate our
own manufactures in