BEL 



174 



BEL 



under hii grant dispersed, and the conditions of his tenure 

 remaining unfulfilled, the estates escheated to the crown. 

 Waller, first Karl of Essex. wa the next to attempt the 

 plantation uf this intractable district, but he was still mure 

 unsuccessful than his predecessor. After the expenditure 

 of much blood and treasure, he abandoned the undertaking 

 in the course of the first year, and shortly afterwards died. 

 Essex had, however, already seen the advantages of making 

 Belfast a chief place in Ulster; and his recommendations 

 to build there and erect a dock-yard were repeated by Sir 

 John Perrot, when he visited that country, still lying waste, 

 ten years afterwards. For more than a quarter of a century 

 i.ite i't' things continued, until at length, in 1604, 

 Sir Arthur Chichester, then lord deputy, procured from 

 James I. the final grant, from which the prosperity of 

 Antrim and rise of Belfast, as a town, may be said to date. 

 Ti.i- active and politic governor immediately set about 

 planting his estate with emigrants from his paternal posses- 

 sions in Devonshire. In addition to this, the general 

 settlement of Ulster, which took place about four years 

 afterwards, brought in a multitude of Scotch and English 

 colonists. All this gave such security and countenance to 

 their undertaking, that, in 1611. those who were settled in 

 Malone had raised a town about Sir Arthur's castle of Bel- 

 l,i-i, which had been rebuilt ; and this town was already so 

 considerable, that it obtained a charter, erecting it into a 

 borough, with sovereign burgesses and commonalty, and 

 the privilege of sending two members to the Irish parliament. 

 It has been generally supposed that the prosperity of Bel- 

 fast ought to date from the year 1 637, when the Earl of Straf- 

 ford, after purchasing certain monopolies enjoyed by the 

 adjacent port of Carrickfergus, threw open the competition to 

 its better-situated riral, which thus prospered at its neigh- 

 bour's expense : but it would seem that, long before this 

 event, Belfast was a prosperous and rapidly-improving town, 

 the central mart for the colonists of both Down and Antrim, 

 and, from its vicinity to the woods, the seat of many trades 

 and manufactures, which could not have been carried on in 

 a place so ill supplied with fuel as Carrickfergus had long 

 been. It was the prosperity of Belfast that forced the 

 purchase of these monopolies by the Earl of Straflbrd, and 

 lor that unexampled prosperity Belfast is mainly indebted 

 to the enterprise and liberality of the house of Chichester. 

 Never perhaps has there been an instance of success so 

 sudden and so complete as that which attended the under- 

 taking of Sir Arthur Chichester in 1604. In seven years 

 the most desert spot in Ulster was a corporate town, which, 

 before it was half a century in existence, had gained a 

 superiority over the oldest foundations north of Dublin. 

 And now, but for the unhappy differences on the score of 

 religion, which soon began to distract the minds of these 

 thriving colonists, all would have been well. The Scottish 

 clergy, men deeply imbued with the severe spirit which 

 then characterized their national church, had been not only 

 tolerated but encouraged under the liberal ecclesiastical 

 administration of Usher. They enjoyed the tithes and the 

 immunities of the then establishment, were ordained and in- 

 ducted by its bishops, and were under its general jurisdiction. 

 Their dislike of prelacy, which had slumbered while 

 advantages were yet uncertain, broke out as they acquired 

 confidence in thoir confirmed possession; and even before 

 the tyrannical measures of Lord Strafford, which are gene- 

 rally alleged as the prime cause of their discontent, had 

 finally justified their opposition, disputes, complaints, and 

 recriminations were frequent between this body of the 

 northern clergy and their spiritual superiors. The sub- 

 sequent interference of Wcntworth and Laud, and the 

 attempt to force the already indignant Presbyterians into 

 a further conformity to the prelatic church, completed tho 

 breach ; petitions and remonstrances went forward on all 

 hands, and the resisting party had at length the gratification 

 of mainly aiding in the overthrow of their great persecutor, 

 when, in the midst of their triumph, the rebellion of 1C4I 

 threw the whole country once more into tumult and dismay. 

 The Presbytery of Belfast, after seeing their town succes- 

 sively occupied by the troops of the Royalists, the Parlia- 

 mentarians, and the Irish, forgot their ecclesiastical griev- 

 ances in the dread of civil extinction, nnd throughout the 

 succeeding wars were invariably well affected towards the 

 royal and episcopal cause. The fir.it expression of their 

 attachment to these principles was made at a time which 

 ,il peculiarly honourable. On the cxrculi.'ti 

 i.feliarles I., ill 1643, the Presbytery of Belfast put forth 



their ' Representation of the present evils snd imminent 

 danger to religion, laws, and liburliet, arising IVoni the 

 late and present practices of the sectarian party in England,' 

 &c., in which they freely express their n.diu- '. <lis 



gust at the conduct of their old associates in nnli-prelatie 

 zeal. This brought down the vengeance of Milton, v. 

 reply is written with great acrimony ; luit rkish 



Presbyters of Clandel unhallowed )>: . 



the 'unchristian synagogue' at lii-lia-i, * : 

 publican calls them, evinced the sincerity ol t 

 by enduring, with exemplary fortitude, throughout all the 

 troubles that succeeded, the conscquei 

 the crown. Such, however, was the respevt in whi, 

 can tile body of Belfast washeld by all parties, that, <li 

 wars, the town suffered little more than tin .jury 



of being, for a time, retarded in its prosperity. It \\ 

 or taken, time after time, by the troops of all tho p.,. 

 which, for the next fifty vears, made the rest of Ireland one 

 scene of desolation, and was respected anil Un 

 lively unplundered by them all. At length, in IG'JO. the 

 arrival of \Yilliatn if I. restored Belfast to the 

 of tranquillity. To reward their loyalty, the Prefix Icrian 

 ministers of Ulster received from the king a gn. 

 1200/. per annum. Trade and manufacture : t on 



with increased vigour, and, in the beginning of the 

 century, we find the commercial progress of the ; 

 so considerable, as to place it in the first rank, on a 

 of credit appended to the names of the different con: 

 cial towns of Europe, in the Exchange at Amsterdam. In 

 1708 the castle was destroyed by fire, and throe of tho 

 Ladies Chichester burned to death. An anonymous tourist, 

 writing of the town at this time, speaks in terms of high 

 admiration of its commerce and manut.icti. i :ly of 



its superior potteries. Printing had now been intro*; 

 and Belfast, in 1704, had tho honour of sending forth 

 one of the earliest editions of the Bible printed in Ireland. 

 The first newspaper printed in Ulster, the Belfast News- 

 letter, which still has a large circulation. was i 

 here in 1737. A local militia was also called into bcini: !>y 

 the Scottish rebellion of 1715; and the inhabitants of Bel- 

 fast, having onco accustomed themselves to look to their 

 own resources for defence, have ever since been ready to 

 take up arms when necessary, whether against i. 

 invasion or intestine revolt. In 1758 tho first census of tho 

 town was taken: it then contained 1779 houses, inhabited 

 by 7993 Protestants, and 53fi Roman Catholics, in nil 

 8549; of whom 1800 were abk to bear nrms. The number 

 of looms in this year was 399. Tho introduction of the 

 cotton-spinning trade, in 1777, opened a new field for in- 

 dustry. In twenty-three years, from its commencement, at 

 which time there was not one cotton-loom in Ulster, it num- 

 bered no less than 13,500 operatives ; while in a circ.uitof ten 

 miles, including the flourishing town of Lisburn, the number 

 connected with it in every way amounted to 27,000 indivi- 

 duals. Prior to this, however, the linen manufacture had 

 become, as it still is, the staple trade of the district ; and we 

 may form an idea of the wealth and enterprise of thi;- 

 gaged in it from the fact, that in 1782 the merchants of Bel- 

 fast, experiencing the want of a proper hall for the transac- 

 tion of their business, at once subscribed a sum of 17,. r >50/. 

 for that purpose, the subscription list exhibiting very fow 

 contributions under from 100/. to 300/. The spinning of 

 linen yarn by machinery, a trade which now rivals either 

 of the other great branches of manufacture, was introduced 

 into Ulster about 1806 or 1808; but so prosperous has it 

 latterly become, that at present it employs perhaps more 

 capital and labour than tno cotton trade itself. Tin 

 ten factories of this description in the town and \ieiniu, 

 driving upwards of 65,000 spindles, and several others am 

 in course of erection. Damask r.nd diaper of a superior 

 quality are also manufactured in this district ; i; 

 Belfast linen fabrics, of all do'-riplions. have long main- 

 tained the highest character. In ITM ship-building 

 first commenced here: previous to this time, tin- craft 

 required were purchased and generally re-pain ,1 m the 

 Scotch or English ports; and when we find that, in 17S5, 

 the shipping of Belfast so supplied amounted only to 5.5 

 vessels, or 10,040 tons, tho backwardness of early 

 prise in this direction appears very remarkable. Tl, 

 dock-yard employed only 10 workmen: the shipwrights, 

 block makers, sail-makers, rope-makers, and smiths now 

 engaged in the constant building, rigging, und repairing uf 

 vestels, exceed 200. In 1811 the numbers employed wcro 



