259 



" this premium will not make them buy ; if they have, they will buy 

 " without the premium."* — " Of all the fabricks, fays Toiing, this (of filk) 

 " is the lead proper for Ireland, and for any dependant country. It is 

 " an abfolute manufadture of tafte, fancy, and fafhion. The feat of 

 " empire will always command thefe, and if Dublin made fuperior filks, 

 they would be defpifed, in comparifon with thofe of London. " We feel 

 " fomething of this kind, in England, with refpeft to France. To 

 " force a filk manufafture in Ireland, is to ftrive againft whim, ca- 

 " price, fafliion, the prejudices of mankind ; inftead of which, it is thefe' 

 " that become the fupport of a manufafture, when it is wifely fet 

 " up. — No linens are fafliionable in England, but thofe of Ireland, yet 

 " thofe of Holland are ftronger. — Should not the Irifi try to drive the 

 " tiail that will go, inftead of plaguing themfelves, with one that never 

 " will." 



Sect. 6. 



Of Hardware, and other ManufaSlures, where Fire is a principal Agent, 



There is a manufafture, which in England has attained fuch a de- 

 gree of profperity, that it may enter into competition with any of the 

 foregoing. I mean that of hardware j to which the founderies, and 

 the fabrication of arms are appendant. Theorifts, in difcuffing the re- 

 lative merits of manufaftures, may be dazzled, by obferving the afton- 

 ifliing progrefs of the fifter country in this branch ; the multitudes, who 

 find employment ; and the vaft treafures, which, flow into the country 

 by means of it ; but, when we debate, on the eftablifliment of any 

 given manufafture, in a given country, we fhould confider not only 

 the intrinfic merit and utility of the manufafture itfelf, but the means 



( K k 2 ) of 



• It fcarcely amounts to three pence per yard oil an average. 



