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42 INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION, 1876. The same apparent decline, though perhaps not in the same degree, is witnessed in most other manufacturing nations. Superfine broad cloths are now used only by a limited class, and by that class rarely, except for dress coats, which last for years. The coats are made by fashionable tailors, who, as a rule, prefer foreign cloths. As the fine cloths are principally used by the easy classes, the duties upon the fine foreign cloths are no impediment to their consumption, while the specific or weight duty is less onerous upon them than upon common cloths. The capacity to manufacture the finest broadcloths in this country was proved, many years ago, by the celebrated Middlesex Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts,—in age, influence, and continuity of excellence standing at the very front of our cloth-mills. In ceasing to give promi nence to the fine broadcloth manufacture, it has manifested no failure in skill, but simply an adaptation to the wants of the times. The diminution in the American manufacture of fine broadcloths has been attributed to the effect of the tariff of 1846. It has also been materially influenced by the constantly diminishing domestic supply of superfine wools, the Saxon wool-culture, as we have seen, having nearly ceased; for it is well established that an abundant domestic supply of raw material is one of the most potent of the influences which give a special character to the manufactures of a country. But the principal cause of the decline referred to is the popular demand for other fabrics, hereafter more fully referred to. In a word, our manufacturers have ceased, as a rule, to make fine broad cloths, because they find ample and more profitable employment for their looms in the production of the lower cloths which enter into general consumption. It has been observed that a similar decline, or more strictly speaking, diminution, of the fine-cloth manufacture is observed in other countries. Although a few excellent broadcloths and satins, or doeskins of remarkable beauty, were exhibited by Bel gium and Germany, the Judges of large experience in dealing with woolen fabrics failed to find, in the exhibits of Belgium and especially of Germany, that competition for excellence in the production of superfine cloths which they had been led to expect from the former reputation of Belgian and German manufacturers. In the production of plain-faced goods of a lower grade, adapted for special uses,—such as blue and gray uniforms for soldiers, police officers, newsboys, and watchmen,—there were evidences of much progress, both in fabrica tion and cheapness, on the part of American manufacturers. Our regular soldiers, wearing American fabrics, are declared by our army authorities to be better clothed than any in the world. The beauty