The opinions of our merchants ought to have formed the best of all beacons in pointing the course to be pursued by Mr Vansittart; but, even if they had been silent on the subject, the evidence of Mr Bainbridge, before the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1820, to inquire into the state of the foreign trade of the country, might have informed him of the true position of the wool trade, and directed him in so hazardous an undertaking. When Mr B. was asked whether he thought that an increase in the means of paying for our manufactures would produce an increased consumption of them in Russia, Sweden, and Prussia, he replied:--"I believe the woollen manufactures in Prussia are in such a state as to be able to compete with us completely; I speak of it particularly, because we are in the habit of having transactions with the United States of America; and I find that a very considerable proportion of fine woollens, and stuffs, are absolutely shipped from the Netherlands, and from ports contiguous, part of which I understand to come from the interior of Germany, and from Saxony in particular; so that a portion of the trade, which we have been in the habit of transacting with the United States, is finding its way from the north of Europe. I, therefore, conceive, that their manufactures are competing with the manufactures of this country, and, consequently, they would not come to us to receive a supply of those articles which they can purchase from their own manufacturers at home." In 1825, at the earnest and obviously well-founded representations of the manufacturers, Mr Huskisson reverted to the old system: and it was then wisely enacted, that all foreign wool imported for home consumption, of the value of 1s. a-pound and upwards, should pay a duty of 1d. a-pound, but when the value of foreign wool was under 1s., the duty was reduced to a halfpenny per pound. A boon was at the same time conferred upon the agriculturists, by the introduction of a new system with respect to the exportation of British wool, the growers of which were allowed, for the first time, to send it to foreign markets, on payment of a penny per pound.