APPENDIX. XI 



J. H. Dickson was agent for the firms marked thus * for ten 

 years, until coming to London, in July, 1842, with a view to a 

 Continental trade in Flax only, and the introduction of machines 

 to prepare it. 



Business having compelled me to visit Dublin in February, 

 1851, I was requested to attend meetings at the Irish Manu- 

 facture Board Rooms, Essex Bridge, and solicited to give a 

 lecture on the advantages to be derived by the introduction of 

 my process and inventions. I accepted the invitation, and 

 attended in March, before a very numerous and influential 

 meeting of landowners and merchants, when the following 

 occurred : 



At two public meetings of the Board of Irish Manufacturers, 

 held in Dublin in March 1851, Leland Crosthwaite, Esq., High 

 Sheriff, in he chair ; two lectures were delivered by me, on the 

 improved method of cultivating Flax, and preparing it by my 

 newly invented machine, were brought before each of the 

 meetings ; at the conclusion of which, a vote of thanks was 

 passed unanimously by the meeting, and presented to me by 

 the chairman ; and the matter appeared to Mr. Crosthwaite 

 (who was then the best spinner of Flax in Ireland, at 

 Chapelizod Mills) of such national importance, that it was 

 then further agreed that 20,000 copies of my lectures should 

 be published by the Board, and sent free by post to the 

 clergy of every denomination in Ireland, to be distributed by 

 them gratis in every parish, with a view to teaching my 

 improved system of Flax culture ; and several merchants at 

 the meeting sent in their names with a desire to have copies of 

 my second volume ; and the press of Ireland were unanimous in 

 opinion that the introduction of my machines were the first 

 steps in the right direction, towards developing, by increased 

 employment, the resources of the country, and they gave my 

 views their hearty support in leading articles. 



The Right Hon. the Earl of Clarendon, being then the 

 Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and the 'promoter of Flax, and 

 every other improvement in Irish industry, had only to be 



