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the philanthropic professions made upon that occasion ; and also, upon 

 those fundamental principles of Christianity which enjoin tlie duty of 

 bearing, of hoping, and of believing all things. 



The deepest anxiety to ameliorate the condition of their suflfering 

 neighbours, is also expressed by every class of society in the city. 

 Private assemblies and public congregations have long invoked the aid 

 of the Deity, and all parties seem disposed to merge their differences 

 in one common effort to emancipate the operatives from their present 

 degraded state. But how to obtain this desideratum remains a problem 

 that the most ardent inquirer has failed to solve. 



Consider, therefore, dispassionately, whether the Linen Trade is not 

 the answer, vouchsafed by Providence, to many prayers ? 



To your hope and charity add faith ; and be not like the disciples 

 of our Lord, who, while engaged in fervent supplications for the deli- 

 verance of Peter, charged with madness the messenger who conveyed 

 the happy tidings of his safe arrival ! 



550 lbs. of dressed flax will produce 16,500 hanks of yarn, or 210 

 webs of cambric pocket handkerchiefs, each web containing 5 dozen, at 

 21. 10s. per doz. ; employing for about 12 months 158 female spinners, 

 40 hem-stitchers or veiners, and 18 weavers, whose wages at the pre- 

 sent time in Ireland amount to 2,195/., while the cost for the raw 

 material is only 75/., leaving a balance of 354/. in favour of the manu- 

 facturer, and affording a larger amount of wages, and of profit from so 

 small an outlay, than can be derived from any other source ; therefore, 

 those hopes, so admirably expressed by Mr. Towler, are easy of realiz- 

 ation, and centre in the manufacture of linen: "A trade, not of a 

 fleeting character," but permanent as time itself, and one in which the 

 principal " part of the production is the labour of men." Can any 

 thing be more congenial to the wishes of that gentleman, than the intro- 

 duction of this prolific branch of business ? or to those enlarged and 

 generous views of Mr. Gurney, who observed, that " He would do any 

 thing in his power to introduce the manufacture of new fabrics into the 

 city, and to promote enterprise, and the application of capital to the 

 legitimate employment of the inhabitants." 



The manufacture of linen is attended by more than twenty sources 

 of employment for the human hand, independent of field labour. " The 

 Mule and Iron Man " cannot in this, as in cotton manufactures, dis- 

 place the hand-loom weaver. The services of both youth and age are 

 appreciated ; and the ingenious find ample scope for the exercise of their 

 skill, in the varied departments of the Heckling-rooms and Spinning- 

 mill — the Store-houses and Factory — the Boiling-house and Bleaching 

 grounds — until the Lapper decorates his web with golden leaf. This 

 last operation gives the finishing stroke to that new and permanent 

 branch of business, which, if once introduced, would, I repeat, find 



