HIS MACHINES IN IRISH WORKHOUSES. 185 



LETTER XL 



ON THE SUBJECT OF PROFIT MADE BY FLAX-GROWING OVER 

 EVERY OTHER CROP GROWN IN IRELAND. 



" I might add to these statements some scores of instances, 

 where much greater profits have been gained by selling the 

 Flax-straw, and can generally refer with pleasure and pride to 

 Ulster farmers having cleared from 15 to 20 per acre, 

 where they have, in addition to their proper system of 

 cultivation, the opportunity of getting their Flax scutched 

 on their own account ; and with such an array of facts before 

 us, are we not warranted in saying, that such absentee land- 

 owners as the Marquis of Landsdowne, ought to feel how 

 imperatively necessary it is to introduce amongst the tenantry, 

 and, by every means in their power, to encourage, promote, 

 and extend FJax-culture, under which Tralee, for instance, on 

 the property of the marquis, would be so essentially benefitted. 

 It is not many years since that humanity shuddered at the 

 fact that 7,300 human beings were immured in the union 

 workhouse of Tralee ! What a mass of misery, and what an 

 enormous pressure on the tax-payers was here, all of which 

 might be effectually relieved by a wise and liberal expenditure 

 in encouraging the growth of Flax, by erecting mills and 

 introducing improved machinery for the preparation and 

 manufacture of textile fabrics, which would empty the work- 

 house (falsely named), and liberate the muscular power 

 doomed to dreary inactivity within its walls. ' Set the 

 prisoners free,' occupy them in healthy and remunerative 

 employment, and thus contribute not merely to the happiness 

 of the individual but to the permanent prosperity of the 

 commonwealth. Let us contrast any town or district in the 

 Ulster estates with Tralee, and we cannot fail to be struck 

 with the blessings which flow from landowners looking after 



