IRELAND (MANUFACTURES.) 



127 



Manufactures. The manufactures of Ireland are 

 not so extensive as the resources of the country might 

 justify. The most important is the linen manufacture, 

 but in point of antiquity the woollen takes precedence. 

 It existed in Ireland at a very early period, and was 

 the object of legislative enactment so far back as the 

 3d year of Edward IV. (A.D. 14G2.) The jealousy of 

 the English manufacturers, however, checked and 

 depressed its increase by a variety of prohibitory acts, 

 which they got passed through parliament at different 

 periods, and which were only repealed at the Union. 

 The manufacture is confined to the production of the 

 coarser description of goods ; as yet, no fabric of 

 superfine cloth has been successfully made. Flannels 

 are made in Wicklow, blankets in Kilkenny, and 

 broad cloths at Middleton and Cork. The spinning of 

 wool into yarn is much followed by the women in the 

 north-west parts of the island. There are at present 

 employed in establishments for the manufacture of 

 woollen cloths upwards of 6,500 persons ; worsted 

 stuffs, near 3000, and flannels about 3000, making a 

 total of 12,500 individuals. 



The foundation of the linen manufacture in Ireland 

 was laid by the unfortunate earl of Strafford, in the 

 reign of Charles I., and during the time he resided in 

 that country as chief governor. He sent to Holland 

 for flax-seed, and to the Netherlands and France for 

 competent workmen. The flax was sown, and suc- 

 ceeded 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. After- 

 wards, the duke of Ormond supported very much 

 the linen manufacture of Ireland, but it had not 

 gained much ground at the time of the revolution, 

 the woollen being the true and natural staple of the 

 Irish, their climate and extensive sheep-grounds en- 

 suring to them a steady and cheap supply of the raw 

 material, much beyond the home consumption : and 

 it appears from the preamble to the English statute 

 of 10th and llth William III., chap. 10, that they 

 were at the time possessed of a profitable export of 

 it. This export was supposed to interfere, and very 

 probably did, with the export from Great Britain ; 

 and a plan was in consequence undertaken there, to 

 annihilate the woollen trade of Ireland, and to con- 

 fine the Irish linen manufacture in its place. Accord- 

 ingly, an act was passed in England, 1698, for 

 inviting foreigners to settle in Ireland, as the preamble 

 recites, and, with that view, enacting, that the import 

 of all sorts of hemp and flax, and all the productions 

 thereof, should from thence be admitted duty free 

 from Ireland into England ; giving a preference, by 

 that exemption from duty, to the linen manufacture 

 of Ireland, over the foreign, estimated at the time, as 

 a report of the Irish house of commons, on the llth 

 of February, 1774, states, to be equal to 25 per cent. 



The board of the trustees of the linen manufacture 

 of Ireland was constituted in the reign of queen Anne, 

 and met for the first time in the beginning of the 

 year 1710. It has always been composed of the 

 principal personages of Ireland and Great Britain, 

 who were entitled the trustees of the linen manufac- 

 ture of Ireland. A system of laws was framed for 

 the regulation of the linen manufactures, and the 

 prevention of fraud, which for wisdom, penetration, 

 and an attention which extended to the most minute 

 articles, would do honour to the most enlightened 

 country. Considerable sums (from 18,000 to 

 25,000 per ann.) was intrusted by parliament to the 

 distribution of the trustees in premiums, for extend- 

 ing and encouraging the linen manufacture. Under 

 this auspicious influence it flourished and grew apace, 

 whilst every day new proselytes to industry were in- 

 vited to take shelter under its benignant shade. 



Distillation is another branch of industry charac- 

 teristic of Ireland, but by no means attended with 

 the same happy effects. It has hitherto been carried 

 on chiefly in defiance of the revenue and government, 

 and has given birth to a vast system of contraband, 

 equally destructive of morals and of public order. All 

 the mountains, bogs, and deep valleys of the north 

 and west abound with illicit stills, in spots where the 

 most diligent search can scarcely discover them; and 

 where detected, they can scarcely be seized without 

 the aid of an armed force. When the troops are 

 seen advancing, concerted signals are made, and the 

 small light stills are soon conveyed to a distant quar- 

 ter. The farmers and proprietors encourage illicit 

 distillation as the most ready mode of affording a 

 market for their grain. The quality of the spirit 

 was long much superior to that produced by the legal 

 distillers, owing to the injudicious restrictions im- 

 posed on the Tatter ; so that, in selling, it was con- 

 sidered the highest possible recommendation to give 

 assurance that it " never paid duty." Even in the 

 regular distilleries established in the great cities, Mr 

 Wakefield gives reason to think that, through a pur- 

 chased collusion on the part of the officers, not more 

 than half the produce paid duty. He calculates the 

 entire loss on them to be 856,000, and that on the 

 illicit distillation nearly as much ; so that, instead 

 of a revenue of 2,280,000, which ought to have 

 entered into the treasury, the amount was only 

 664,000. The most rigorous laws were enacted in 

 vain, for they only rendered the people concerned in 

 this practice more desperate and determined. Of late, 

 however, the system has been entirely new-modelled; 

 the duty, as in Scotland, has been reduced to two 

 shillings a gallon, and free exportation permitted ; 

 and the strictest measures have been taken to put a 

 stop to abuses in the collection of the revenue. The 

 effect has been remarkable ; the quantity of spirits 

 paying duty, which from 1818 to 1822 varied from 

 3,000,000 to 4,000,000, rose in 1824 to 7,800,000, 

 and in 1832 to 8,657,000; thus warranting a pre- 

 sumption that the contraband fabrication of this 

 article has been greatly diminished ; yet doubts may 

 be entertained if the cheapness of a commodity of 

 which the excess is so pernicious be on the whole 

 beneficial to the country. 



The killing and salting of beef and pork for sale 

 forms a great branch of Irish commerce. During 

 the American war, the number of oxen and cows 

 slaughtered amounted to about 50,000 annually; but 

 Mr Wakefield supposes them reduced in 1808 to 

 about 18,000 ; partly owing to the extended tillage, 

 and partly to the great increase in the export of live 

 cattle. Each animal is found to produce upwards of 



