no pretext should be left for idleness. Thus, in Egypt, governors were charged to set on foot, each in his district, some public works, on which all persons who had no occupation were obliged to labour.* Those celebrated pyramids which remain to excite our admiration, though the names of their founders are forgotten; those canals by which Egypt was intersected, and of which traces are still to be seen; and those catacombs or wonderful subterranean structures, which served as repositories for the dead, even including animals, were, in part, as is generally supposed, the result of the exertions of workmen collected in this manner.

This method of causing vagabonds, mendicants, and idlers, to labour on public works, and in manufactories carried on and directed by government, is still successfully pursued in some countries of Europe. It is employed by the Chinese, among whom no beggars are to be seen. Every person in China is occupied on some work or other, not even excepting the blind ;+ and it is well known, that in that country, manufactures of various kinds have been long established, and carried on to a very great extent. We may boast of our superiority to the ancients in the arts and the sciences, and, in some, we far excel them; but we are indebted to them for many useful inventions, though we are ungrateful enough not always to be willing to confess our obligations.

But if manufactures and their accompanying arts have the advantage of giving employment to a numerous population, they contribute also to enrich a country, by rendering labour as highly productive as possible. The author of the Spirit of Laws says, speaking of industry, "An estate produces annually to its owner, only the twentieth part of its value; but, with colours worth a pistole, a painter can finish a picture which will bring him fifty. 'The case is the same in regard to goldsmiths, manufacturers of woollen and of silk, and to artisans of every other description." This principle is exemplified in a most striking manner in some branches of the hardware manufacture carried on at Birmingham, and in other parts of England, where a piece of metal, worth only a few pence, is, by the labour and ingenuity of the workman, converted into an article which, when finished, is worth as many guineas.

LINEN MANUFACTURE.

The foundation of the linen manufacture in Ireland was laid by the unfortunate Earl of Strafford, during the time he resided in that country as chief governor.

♦ Hist. Critique de la Pauvreté par M. Morin, Mem. de l'Acad. des Belles Lettres, tom. iv. p. 299. + Hist. da Commerce des Egyptiens, p. 296-300.

Montesquieu, Lettres Persanes dans Oeuvres, tom. v. p. 325.

The following is an extract from his Lordship's letter on this subject, giving an account of the report be

had made to the king and council. The latter is dated July 25th, 1636.

"That there was little or no manufactures among them, but some small beginnings towards a clothing trade,

which

Having observed that the soil, in many parts, was suited to the production of flax, that the women were chiefly bred to spinning, and that the price of labour was cheap, he conceived that linen might be made there at such an expense as would enable the manufacturers to undersell, twenty per cent at least, those of Holland and France. Impressed with this idea, he sent to Holland for flax-seed, and to the Netherlands and France for competent workmen. The flax was sown, and succeeded according to expectation; spinners and looms were set to work; and his lordship, to animate others, embarked himself in the business, and expended in promoting it, £30,000. of his private fortune.*

By the troubles, however, which soon after broke out, an entire stop was put to this useful enterprise, until it was again revived by the Duke of Ormonde, who procured several acts of parliament to encourage it, and also for inviting protestant strangers to settle in the kingdom. He dispatched skilful persons to the Netherlands, to make themselves acquainted with the method of cultivating flax in that country; the manner of preparing and weaving it, as well as the process employed in bleaching the cloth, and likewise to engage workmen experienced in the different branches of the art, to settle in Ireland. At the same time he wrote to Sir William Temple, whom he had recommended to the king, as a man fit for the purpose, and who was then ambassador at Brussels, to send him over from Brabant 500 families, who had been employed in this manufacture: he procured others from Rochelle, and the Isle of Rhé; and Sir George Carteret supplied him with a considerable number from Jersey, and the adjacent parts of France. He built tenements for some of these people at Chapel Izod, near Dublin, where in a little time, 300 hands were at work, under the direction of Colonel Lawrence. Cordage, sail-cloth, ticking, and linen, made of Irish yarn, equal in quality

which I had, and so should still, discourage all I could, unless otherwise directed by his Majesty and their lordships; in regard it would trench not only on the clothings of England, being our staple commodity, so as if they should manufacture their own wool, which grew to very great quantities, we should not only lose the profit we made now by in-dressing their wools, but his Majesty loses extremely by his customs, and, in conclusion, it might be feared they might beat us out of the trade itself, by underselling, in which they were able to do. Yet I have endeavoured another way to set them on work, and that is, by bringing in the making of linen cloth; the rather in regard to the women who are naturally bred to spinning; that the Irish earth is apt for the bearing of flax, and that this manufacture would be, in conclusion, rather a benefit than other to this kingdom. I have, therefore, sent for the Blax seed into Holland, being of a better sort than we have, and have sown this year, a thousand pounds of it, (finding, by some I sowed the last year, that it takes very well here). I have sent for workmen out of the Low Countries, and south of France, and set up already six or seven looms, which, if it pleases God so to bless us this year, I trust so to invite them to follow it, when they see the great profit arising thereby, as that they shall generally take and employ themselves that way, which, if they do, I am confident it will prove a mighty business."

to any in Europe, and which could be sold at a less price than that of country.

any other

His Grace erected another manufactory at his own town of Carrick, assigning to the workmen one half of the houses in the place, with 500 acres of land contiguous to the walls, for three lives, or thirty-one years, at a pepper corn for the first, and afterwards at two-thirds of the old rent. All plans of improvement among a people just beginning to emerge from barbarity, meet with formidable enemies from prejudice and inveterate habits. It was not therefore to be expected, that this new branch of industry could be introduced among the Irish without considerable labour and exertion. The indolence of the inhabitants, and their ignorance of the art, were the greatest obstacles to the progress of the infant manufacture; but the Duke's perseverance surmounted every difficulty; by his example and encouragement, a spirit of enterprise, to which the country had before been a stranger, was at length excited, and he had the satisfaction, before he quitted the government in the year 1669, of seeing the linen business fully established, and in a promising condition.*

The importance of this branch of industry, soon attracted the attention of parliament, and considerable sums of money were from time to time voted for its support. That the business might be better superintended, a board of trustees, who first met in 1711, was established,+ and in order that no encouragement might be wanting, bounties on the exportation of Irish linen were offered, and in 1743 they were distributed.

Under the direction of the above-mentioned board, the cambric manufactory was also introduced in 1737, by a Mr. De Joncourt, who brought over workmen for that purpose from France. from France. It was first established at Dundalk, on the estate of Lord Viscount Limerick, afterwards Earl of Clanbrassil, and being supported by a voluntary contribution of £30,000. was, in the year 1770, in a very thriving condition The author of a pamphlet on the Absentees of Ireland, published at Dublin in 1767, says, that at that period, there were upwards of one thousand five hundred looms employed in weaving cambric in the northern part of the country.

The preparation of the flax plant, and the various operations it undergoes before it is made into cloth, gives employment to so many people in Ireland, and brings into the national coffers so large an annual income, that the linen which is formed from it has, with great propriety, been called the staple manufacture of the country. To give the reader a clearer idea of its extent and importance, I shall subjoin the follow

Carte's Life of the Duke of Ormonde, vol. ii. p. 342.

+ Crump's Essay on the best Means of providing Employment for the Poor, p. 75. Lord Sheffield's Observations on the Manufactures of Ireland, p. 75.

Boulter's Letters, vol. II. p. 166.

List of the Absentees of Ireland, with Observations on the Trade, Manufactures, &c. p. 57.

Connaught.

Munster.

Leinster.

Ulster.

ing table, which shews the number of acres sown with flax in the year 1810. It is copied from a return made to the trustees of the linen board; but it appears by a note of the secretary, that it includes pieces of land less than an acre, and as the quantity of small patches employed in raising flax in Ireland must be immense, I am of opinion, that they may be fairly estimated at least at 20,000 acres. If this number be added to the result given by the table, the sum total will be about 100,000 acres, which allowing the average produce to be 30 stone per acre, at 10s. 6d. per stone, the average price in the last seven years will give an annual produce of the raw material worth £1,500,000.

Sir Charles Coote, in his Survey of Monaghan, has given a detailed account of the culture and preparation of flax in the north; but as the account is too long to be inserted here, I must refer those who may be desirous of further information, to that work.

A very intelligent manufacturer* who was applied to for information on this subject, in a memorandum transmitted to one of my friends, says, “The spinning of linen yarn by machinery was not practised in Ireland till within these few years; this improvement was introduced into the county of Down by Mr. Cruikshank, who first made the experiment on a very contracted scale. He afterwards tried it at Cork, and at present, (May, 1811), there are several manufactories on this principle in the northern part of the country, though not so many as might have been expected.

"The leading cause against the extension of machinery, is the low price of labour; yarn spun by women is sold here much cheaper than the same article manufac tured by machinery in England. In the latter country, the labouring classes have a choice of employments, in consequence of the variety of its manufactures. If one fail them, they can apply to another; with us the case is different; when trade is bad, its worst effects are felt by the poor women, who must sell at the prices of the day, or remain unemployed; and it frequently happens, that they dispose of the worked article for less than the raw materials cost them.

"To one unacquainted with Ireland, the small earnings of the poorer females, frequently not more than two-pence per day, working diligently from morning till night, for months together, must appear very extraordinary, and under such circumstances, it is unlikely that this trade should increase so much as it might, though spurred on in the beginning by offers of large premiums from the linen board.

"With the aid of machinery, one person is fully equal to do the work of ten, and in this the advantage in its favour appears to be great; yet when it is considered, that women are fully competent to bring any description of yarn which we spin, to double the fineness that machinery can, this advantage is much lessened.

"Another thing against us is, that we cannot with any material, let its quality be what it may, exceed the fineness of three hanks, or thirty-six leas in the pound; whereas women, when the flax is good, can run it from twelve to twenty hanks, or from 144 to 240 leas in the pound.

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“Our yarn, from the better quality of the raw material is superior; it sells, therefore, considerably higher, and is commonly used as warp for yarn spun by the hand. On balancing the account, we believe the advantages are in favour of millspinning; and we are of opinion, that this improvement will one time or other be come a source of prosperity to the country.

"The wages in the factories may on an average be eight-pence per day, and spinners could not be procured for much less; in their own houses they are satisfied with four-pence or five-pence.

* Mr. Joseph Nicholson, of the county of Armagh.