BEING ERECTED IN WORKHOUSES. 131 



the best system known to him in Belfast ; unfortunately he 

 has been led astray by the reports of the Belfast Flax Society's 

 Committee, and as it has turned out that Watt's mill and 

 process have been condemned and abandoned altogether in 

 Belfast, is it now evident that either the committee appointed 

 to inspect Watt's process were incapable of the work they 

 undertook, before they made their report, or that Watt's 

 managers or work-people had managed to deceive them as to 

 the produce from the 10 cwt., I qr., 25 Ibs., said to have been 

 worked to produce 234 Ibs. of fibres ? I saw one of Lead- 

 better's partners here in Leeds, (where I am writing this, 

 Dec. 1858,) at the Exhibition in September, and on showing 

 him my samples of Flax, Hemp, and other fibres from India, 

 and yarns and cloth made from each and all, and telling him 

 I depended all, or nearly so, on the work done by machinery, 

 he admitted that their affair in Belfast was a dead failure, and a 

 great loss. In fact, Watt had nothing of machinery more than 

 what has been worked forty years back ; all he had new was 

 the steaming process hence the failure. 



I visited the works at Lisburn in July, 1855, and saw 

 nothing new but the steaming box or room, no machines but 

 those of the old school of our grandfathers ; such must 

 account for the Eev. Doctor's visit to Connaught being useless 

 up to this year, 1 864. 



