PREPARED BY HIS PATENTS. 199 



" Being in Armagh a fortnight previous to the Agricul- 

 tural Show, with a large assortment of English and/Foreign 

 Flax and hemp, China grass, and East Indian fibres of 

 'various qualities, the greater part of which is far superior 

 in strength and fineness, for any purpose, to Russian hemp 

 or Flax when worked by my patent machines and patent 

 liquid, I was solicited by several influential gentlemen, old 

 friends of mine, to return to the show on the 9th instant. 

 I promised to do so, and on coming home I prepared 

 three mahogany and glass cases, which cost me 8 10s., 

 and 15s. carriage to the railway, with a fresh and better 

 assortment of specimens, and forwarded them by railway on 

 the 8tli, that they might arrive in Armagh on the 9th, directed 

 to Mr. Harkness, Secretary to the Royal Agricultural Society. 

 I regularly advised that gentleman of the transit, and 

 expected to follow that evening, but business of some 

 importance prevented me, and I had to abandon my inten- 

 tion. I consoled myself by presuming that the cases 

 would be safely delivered into the hands of Mr. Harkness, 

 and that the public would have an opportunity of seeing 

 in the show yard the various fibres prepared in a manner 

 superior to anything yet discovered a fact admitted by 

 'English Flax spinners, who have said that 'I make Flax 

 into silk, and hemp into Flax,' when giving me orders 

 in Preston, on my return. This was also admitted by 

 some of the most extensive bleachers and manufacturers in 

 Ireland. To my surprise and great annoyance the large 

 case, 9ft. by 3ft., with two smaller cases bound upon it, 

 large enough, one would think, to be seen (and for which 

 the rail way' company claims 3 carriage), although arriving 

 in Armagh on the 9th, were not delivered to Mr. Harkness 

 until the llth, when the show was over! 



"Now, sir, I fearlessly assert that the inspection of my 

 specimens would have been interesting, and a treat to the 



