FLAX MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 165 



and the thunders of the press, and as I benefit in my 

 Flax movements by having always at hand similar evi- 

 dence that the march of progress supports my views, 

 it is with satisfaction' and no small degree of delight, 

 I place before the reader the very large increase in the 

 export of our linen yarns and linen manufactures over that 

 of the nine months ending September 30th, 1863, 

 2,082,182 and as two-thirds of the exports must have 

 left Ireland, a country 'that has no WOOLLEN, SILK, or 

 COTTON manufactures, COAL or IRON TO EXPORT, is it 

 fair, when one looks at the exports, to find the press lend 

 itself in opposition to Irish landowners, to the cotton trade 

 of Lancashire, and also in opposition to the only article 

 of manufacture Ireland enjoys, and to try by false doctrine 

 to prevent Irish landowners to increase the only article that 

 can elevate their country, by exportation; but as I have 

 a word in store for the Standard, from the doctrine 

 of Swift, which he once called on the people of Ireland, 

 to attend to, as one of the "greatest and wisest men 

 and truest patriots known to modern history," I bide 

 my time, and call the reader's attention to the following 

 statement, as regards the success of the linen trade of 

 the country as a rival of cotton goods, for home or export 

 purposes. 



BRITISH EXPORTS. 



"The aggregate value of British produce and manu- 

 factures shipped from the United Kingdom to foreign 

 and colonial ports, in the nine months ended 30th of 

 September of the present year, amounted in round numbers 

 to 123 1 millions sterling; compared with the returns 

 for the same period in 1863, such sum exhibits an increase 

 of more than nineteen millions, and with those for the 

 first nine months in 1862 of almost thirty millions. Of 



