160 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



Three years were spent by Mr. Corston in bring- 

 ing this manufacture to perfection, before his efforts 

 were crowned with success. It appears that he 

 was then rewarded with their gold medal by the 

 Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. His 

 exertions did not, however, meet with that success 

 which had been anticipated. For when peace at 

 length restored to Europe free commercial inter- 

 course, the demand for, and the supply of foreign 

 hats became greater than ever. Many attempts 

 have since been made to induce the English ladies 

 to wear straw hats of home production alone. But 

 causes, independent of the influence of fashion, 

 have hitherto prevented the exclusion of those of 

 foreign manufacture. It is said that the quality of 

 the foreign straw is superior to that of the English, 

 the warm sun and more genial climate of Italy pro- 

 ducing a material which cannot be equalled here. 

 The Leghorn straw is more slender, and may there- 

 fore be employed entire in the production of the very 

 fine articles, on which account the plat is rendered 

 more even, pliable, and durable than that of equal 

 fineness made of split straw ; while it has the far- 

 ther advantage that the spiral coil of Leghorn plat 

 admits of its being joined by knitting the adjacent 

 edges together, thus producing an imperceptible 

 juncture and forming all the plats into one uniform 

 whole. The nature of the English plat will not 

 allow of this, and it is necessarily overlapped and 

 sewed together in an unpleasing alternation of 

 ridges and depressions, to effect which a considerably 

 greater quantity of plat is likewise required. 



To protect our domestic manufacture, and to en- 

 courage the importation of the Italian straw, a duty 

 of 3. 8s. to 6. 16s. per dozen, according to their 

 size, is levied on the importation of hats made of 

 this material, a lighter one of 17s. per Ib. upon plat 



