LOOM FOR LINEN IN IRELAND. 375 



to promote meetings, (not such as was held in the Rotunda 

 round room, to give rise to a challenge between two of Lord 

 Palmerston's staunch supporters, Sir R. P. and the O'C. D.), 

 that will by my name and my purse elevate the working men 

 from 8d. to 2s. per day ; then indeed would Lord Wodehouse 

 have shown he had seriously considered Ireland's wants, 

 and to this he should have told his hearers, I am here to 

 advise, by a properly organized system of loan through our 

 government, the means to promote manufactures in Ireland, 

 as I know by history of the millions of acres of unreclaimed 

 land, that you have " virgin " soil, the best of land for growing 

 Flax, an article you can now produce and force into the 

 Lancashire market in place of cotton, such would have given 

 his lordship's cut and dry remarks, on the one, prosperous 

 trade of Ireland, a feeling of earnestness in the eyes of the 

 people of Dublin, and caused some of them to visit Belfast, 

 to see if there was not as warm hearts in the black north 

 towards the well-doing of our common country as there is in 

 the heart of their city, and far superior to the round room 

 treasonable spouters, that never have shown a disposition to 

 start anything that will elevate, by " a fair day's wages for a 

 fair day's work," the poor honest labourer. 



His Excellency told the Lord Mayor and the Dublin 

 merchants that were invited to meet him, no more than they 

 all knew before he went over, and called their attention 

 to the prosperity of Ulster, by saying: "Let us con- 

 sider for a moment what Ireland has been doing with 

 regard to ^manufactures. This is, perhaps, the point in 

 which I may most justly congratulate you. You have one 

 great staple manufacture in this country your linen manu- 

 facture. IS ow, what has been done in the last few years as 

 regards that manufacture? We should test the progress of 

 a manufacture by the number of factories and power-looms, 

 because manufacturing industry in these days depends essen- 



