articles which the millions consume.
The stuff of parti-coloured waistcoats, dear
to our youth, of wool, silk, and cotton
artfully mixed, was not to be found, fashion
having driven it into the shade,—it was
chiefly manufactured at Almondsbury, in
Yorkshire, which now languishes, because the
men of eighteen hundred and fifty-five wear
coats and waistcoats all of a-piece.

A pile of blankets of peculiar stripe led us to
a fresh apartment. England beats the world
in blankets. Until the war broke out, our
army lay beneath blankets woven from
Russian wool, which is of a shining, bright
texture, mixed with our own ancient long-
woolled breed. When the supplies were
stopped, the vacuum was filled by a
cheap, but for the purpose an excellent
wool, from the East Indies. East Indian
wool is a comparatively new article of
commerce: previous to eighteen hundred and
forty-two the quantity imported was quite
insignificant. The best blankets are made
of English wool; we send them to every
quarter of the world, to South America,
where they are often worn coloured as
ponchos. But in Leeds they also manufacture
ponchos of cotton and wool mixed, of the
ancient Mexican and Peruvian patterns, which
are more beautiful than any modern designs.
Australia is a great market, as the bushman
or gold-digger finds in his blanket the
uses of a knapsack, a tent, and a bed. ln
New Zealand, among the natives, English
blankets have superseded the native robe of
New Zealand flax. The Kaffirs formerly
wore brown cloth cloaks or karosses; they
now send to our friend's warehouse for white
blankets. The custom house of the United
States imposes heavy duties on English cloth;
to evade these duties, the material for the
uniform of part of the United States is
imported in the shape of blankets large enough
to make two uniforms; the duty on blankets
being less than on cloth.

Next to the blankets, bales of serge
attracted our attention. This is a cheap worsted
fabric, used largely for the blue shirts of
sailors in the navy, for ladies' bathing gowns,
and for gentlemen's cricketing trousers.
Recently, government having discarded cough-
creating white duck in army, after many
changes in search of something not too hot,
warm enough, and of uniform colour, in spite
of rain and sun and soldiers' washing, have
fixed on a dark blue serge for military
continuations.

Thus the woollen trade, which forty years
ago was confined to one or two materials in a
few colours—having been relieved from
protection and encouraged by the abolition of
duties on foreign wool—has been extended
into innumerable branches, from robes as
fine as muslin, to felted carpets and hats as
soft as velvet and tough as leather: the old
felted hat was iron in its texture. This vast
extension of trade would have been impossible,
had we been confined to British long
wools, which are excellent, but limited in their
application. British sheep are now kept
primarily for mutton; the mere wool-
producing breeds have disappeared, have given
way to Leicesters, Lincolns, Cotswolds, South
Downs, and Cheviots, to our great profit.

Australia was the great woollen revolutionist.
German superseded Spanish wool,
and Australian has superseded German to a
great extent. The fine wool of Spain often cost
ten shillings a-pound; we now obtain an
enormous supply of fine wool at from one
shilling and sixpence to two shillings per
pound. In eighteen hundred and fifteen, the
whole importation, under the discouragement
of a heavy duty of foreign wool, was
under fourteen million pounds weight, of
which about seven million pounds came
from Spain, three millions from Germany,
and three millions from the rest of Europe.
In eighteen hundred and forty, after the
total imports (after Huskisson's reduction of
duties, in eighteen hundred and twenty-five)
had reached fifty million pounds; in eighteen
hundred and forty-nine, after Sir Robert
Peel's total abolition of duties on raw
produce, wool importation rose to seventy-six
million pounds, of which more than half came
from Australia. There were no flocks of
fine-woolled sheep in Australia before the
year eighteen hundred. In eighteen hundred
and fifty-four, our importations of wool,
including alpaca, amounted to one hundred
and six million pounds. This increase from
the importation of eighteen hundred and forty
was caused by the East Indies sending us
fifteen million pounds instead of two and a
half millions; the Cape and South Africa,
eight and a quarter millions instead of three-
quarters of a million pounds; and Australia,
forty-seven and a half millions instead of
fifteen million pounds.

In broadcloths, doeskins, and every kind of
woollen cloth where a fine appearance is
required, Australian wool is the principal
material employed. When a cheap article
is required, this kind of wool is thrown
to the surface, and lower class wools
with a cotton warp form the rest of
the cloth; but, for the very finest cloths,
manufacturers employ the most expensive
German wools. In the same fleece, the
choicest portions will be worth six shillings
a pound, and the inferior less than two
shillings. These are got up with more
care than it is possible to bestow in a
country where labour is so dear as
Australia, and are worth from three shillings to
five shillings per pound. Soil and climate do
for Australia what in Germany is the result
of the greatest care and skill, and give a large
fine average of beautiful wool.

Manufacturers have been greatly assisted
in their consumption of foreign inferior raw
material, by the invention of machines which
can comb and produce a continuous sliver,