A S INFL UENCED B Y LEG I SLA TION. 7 5 



try there has been stimulated by the course 

 of the English Government, in vigorously 

 discouraging all other branches of manu- 

 facture except linen. At the end of the 

 seventeenth century Parliament restricted 

 the exportation of all woollen goods from 

 Ireland except to England, where pro- 

 hibitory duties were laid on their importa- 

 tion. This action ruined the woollen trade 

 in Ireland. Several thousand manufac- 

 turers left the kingdom, and some of the 

 southern and western districts were almost 

 depopulated. 1 The course of England was 

 doubtless influenced by the fact that the 

 Protestants in the North of Ireland were 

 engaged in the linen industry, while the 

 Catholic part of the population was mostly 

 engaged in other industries. About this 

 time an Act of Parliament allowed flax and 

 linen produced in Ireland to be imported 

 into England free of duty (stat. 7, 8, Wil- 

 liam III., chap. 39). This stimulated the 

 growth of flax ; and for several years 

 ,20,000 was appropriated annually to 



1 The Linen Trade, p. 391. 



