274 
and his agents been careful to use moderation in their efforts to 
overcome the deeply-rooted prejudices of the people, he would 
doubtless have succeeded to a much greater extent in bettering 
their condition, and improving still more the linen industry. One 
ot his proclamations to the people engaged in the linen manufac- 
ture, was to the effect that, ‘“‘any farmer, weaver, or linen draper, 
who manufactured flax fibre by any other mode than that which 
he prescribed, should be punished by the severest penalties the law 
could inflict.” In the carrying out of that most despotic order, the 
grossest outrages were committed by the Government agents. The 
poor people complained that they were commanded to work the 
flax into yarn and cloth by ways in which they were unskilled, and 
yet every case that could be discovered, where the arbitrary law 
had not been kept to the letter, was punished by forfeiture, fines, 
and imprisonment. 
After the accession of Charles II., a more prudent system of 
patronage was bestowed on the linen manufacturer. Premiums 
were offered for the finest webs. Every six months exhibitions 
were got up, and the sum of £10 awarded to the producer of the 
best cloth, £6 for the second, and £4 for the third. At that 
period the total value of all linens exported from Ireland only 
amounted to £10,000, while the exports of woollen goods amounted 
to £110,000 annually. 
The creation of the Board of Trustees in 1711 formed an 
important landmark in the history of the linen trade in Ireland. 
Whatever opinions may be entertained at the present day regarding 
the wisdom of granting subsidies, or State aid, towards developing 
industrial operations, it will scarcely be denied that at this particular 
period in the history of the linen manufacture, the fostering care 
of the State was a wise and judicious measure. In about sixty years, 
the Board had distributed over a million and a quarter sterling ; 
and about 1777 they were disbursing some £33,000 per annum. 
Thus by monetary assistance to men of ability who required capital 
to carry on their business, Irish linen soon equalled that produced 
on the continent. And before the Board passed out of existence, 
the linen trade of Ireland had been brought to such an important 
