AND MACHINES IN ITALY. 239 



However, I have now new patents for Italy of a further 

 improvement for cottonizing hemp, and as Italian hemp is finer 

 and better material than the best Russian Flax for any 

 purpose, and I have proved it at least 25 per cent, better and 

 stronger than Kussian hemp for ropes, in Her Majesty's dock- 

 yard at Chatham. I shall push the matter in Italy, as having 

 by my process done away with the old method of steeping 

 Flax and hemp in ditches, I must succeed in establishing my 

 method of preparing fibres in that country. 



As I visited Cork in the summer of 1851, at the request of 

 the present Earl of Bandon, and his brother, the Hon. Henry 

 Boyle Bernard ; the proprietor of the Cork Reporter gave me 

 valuable assistance in stirring up a feeling in favour of Flax- 

 culture, and the introduction of my patent machines. He 

 knew that I laboured hard in the cause, and with his usual 

 good feeling expressed a wish for my success, and at the end 

 of seven years he gave the following notice of my new patents 

 secured in 1857 and 1858, and the result from preparing Flax 

 and Indian fibres, specimens of which I sent to Mr. Briggs, 

 then my agent in Cork, expecting, as Lord Fermoy wrote to 

 me to say, if I extended my business to Ireland, he would join 

 in a company and try and get Mr. Dargan to join in it, but 

 there is want of nerve as well as money in the south of Ire- 

 land ; they should send their young to be nursed in the north, 

 Belfast : 

 From the <( Cork Reporter? of Saturday, April 17, 1858. 



* ' FLAX MAEKET. We are sorry to perceive that yester- 

 day's Flax market was, from tardiness or carelessness on the 

 part of the growers, or some other similar cause, not so suc- 

 cessful as we had hoped it would have been. . At its opening, 

 there were but a few small lots, so insignificant as to be quite 

 unworthy the attention of buyers. When the day advanced, 

 and the buyers had left the market, some large lots were 

 brought in, amongst which were 2 tons from Mr, Fugue, of 



