290 DICKSON ON THE 



to cotton or other fabrics, to the serious injury of Ireland's 

 staple manufacture. 



It behoves our merchants, therefore, to be wise in time, and 

 at once set their houses in order, ere it be too late. 



From the above returns, it appears the imports of foreign 

 Flax and the growth of Irish Flax stand thus : 



Tons. 



Foreign Flax Imported in 1824 . . . 27,875 



Do. 1834 . . . 48,044 



Do. 1844 . . . 67,718 



Do. 1856 . . . 84,352 



Irish Flax grown in 1851 . . . 33,861 



Do. 1854 . . . 35,606 



Do. 1857 . . . 14,475 



If the object of the British Association's annual meetings be 

 that of promoting trade and grappling with subjects that are a 

 drawback on industry, surely the above facts should have been 

 brought before them in Leeds. 



However, as the Leeds Flax-spinners thought proper to leave 

 their cause in the hands of one man in the trade, and that man's 

 wealth enables him, when markets are low, to lay in two years' 

 stock of Flax, they cannot be surprised at his not going into the 

 cause of the enormous rise, this year, in the price of Flax, com- 

 pared with the price for years back, as it was not his interest 

 to expose the trade further to the lt British Association," any 

 more than the dry detail as to the spindles employed in 

 Yorkshire. And as to the falling off of a supply, he could not 

 well get over noticing it ; but the falling off in the growth of 

 Flax in Ireland was never hinted at, nor was a remedy for the 

 case suggested or laid before the c; British Association." 



The Flax-spinning and weaving in Scotland, being of vast 

 importance in Dundee, Kircaldy, Arbroath, Dunfermline, 

 Aberdeen and Glasgow, and several other places, were entirely 

 unrepresented. This, before a society composed of noblemen, 



