16 INTRODUCTION. 



tial change in the form or nature of the 

 substance : the bulk is lessened, the 

 dross thrown off, the fibre disintegrated, 

 but it is a fibre still ; it is flax, not a yarn, 

 nor in any scientific sense a manufactured 

 product ; it is unfit for use in any art, and 

 is therefore strictly a raw material, and 

 nothing more. In this sense it was always 

 regarded and legislated upon before the 

 passage of the Act of 1870, when by spe- 

 cial pleading and sophistical ratiocination, 

 suggested by the exigencies of a private 

 need and particular interests, it was sought 

 to attach to hackled flax a different char- 

 acter from scutched flax. That this is an 

 unnatural, far-fetched designation, a " dis- 

 tinction without a difference," will be ad- 

 mitted by those who candidly analyze the 

 nature of the material, who study and re- 

 flect upon the methods of manipulation to 

 which it is subjected, and who, throwing 

 aside that prejudice which is born of a 

 restricted vision, regard the elements and 

 principles at issue with the single desire to 

 judge aright, and form a just conclusion. 



