FLAX-SPINNING. 



287 



We see from this table that the export of linens has nearly 

 doubled in quantity and value between the years 1831 and 

 1855. The export of thread has increased more than four- 

 fold. The export of yarns increased with very great rapidity 

 up to the year 1845, since which time it has been nearly sta- 

 tionary, being checked by the high tariffs on the Continent 

 before spoken of. The next table gives a comparative view, 

 so far as can be made out from returns and the most reliabe 

 estimates, of the total extent of Flax-spinning in foreign 

 countries, as well as in the United Kingdom, in the year 

 1852 : 



England . . . 



Scotland . . . 



Ireland . . . 



United Kingdom 



France . . . 



Belgium . . . 

 Germany . 



Spindles. 

 391,568 

 295,125 

 456,000 



1,142,639 

 350,000 

 100,000 



, 80,000 



Spindles. 



Eussia 50,000 



Austria 30,000 



United States . . 14,550 



Switzerland . . . 8,000 



Holland .... 6,000 



Spain 6,040 



1,731,283 



I must now conclude my sketch of the remarkable rise and 

 growth of Flax-spinning in England, and of which the town 

 of Leeds has been to so large an extent the birth-place and 

 centre of improvement, and which has since spread so widely, 

 not only over the three divisions of the United Kingdom, but 

 into all quarters of the world. If the extension of Flax- 

 spinning has of late been more rapid in other quarters than in 

 the town of Leeds, we must accept that as a warning at once, 

 and a friendly challenge to the renewal of the exertions by 

 which Leeds was distinguished in former years. 



The Leeds Flax-spinner, having finished his ''long dis- 

 course" on the importing of Flax, and the exporting of linens 

 and yarns, overlooked the necessity of noticing the most 

 important feature of the subject, viz., the deficiency of supply. 



