The above is a good example of the pernicious influence of trying to regulate production by Act of Parliament; you have the power to limit the hours of labour by law, if you wish to do so; but you cannot go against the "laws of nature" without paying a most fearful penalty. I unhesitatingly assert -that unless the modern system of "grandmotherly legislation "-this interference between employer and employed, landlord and tenant, debtor and creditor, scientists with their experiments, &c. - be stopped, and the Act of 1874 be repealed, we shall lose by degrees our export trade, and the nation will be on its road to ruin. By the operation of this same Act of 1874, we find that the exports of woollen manufactures, which for the five years ending 1874 were £129,381,441, hail fallen in the next five years to £85,800,289, and the imports had risen from £3,362,656 in 1870, to £7,747,444 in 1880. The exports of woollen and worsted yarn, which for the five years ending 1874 amounted to 188,722,864 lbs., declined in the next five years to 148,859,096 lbs. The imports of the year increased from 10,294,415 lbs. in 1870, to 15,069,831 lbs. in 1880. People watch the increase of " imports," but, to get a correct opinion of the case, you must watch both exports and imports. We want the " foreign " as well as the home trade to keep our factories going. The increase in "imports" shows that our traders are compelled to buy goods from abroad; and the decrease in the exports is a proof that our foreign competitors are supplying the continental and other markets that we used to supply. It must be very galling for Bradford and Belfast spinners to be,