ABSURDLY CONDUCTED. 161 



increafe it in proportion to the demand ; and fhe would have 

 done that though no linen board nor bounties had exifted. 

 It is contrary to all the principles of commerce to fuppofe, 

 that fuch an increafmg manufacture as this has been, would 

 want flax or flax-feed without bounties on the import ; or 

 that manufacturers in it would not earn their bread without 

 a prefent of 55,000!. The only inftance in which thefe boun- 

 ties would certainly have a confiderable effect is, the cafe of 

 expenfive machines ; the firft introduction of which are diffi- 

 cult to individuals in a poor country. But this article, in its 

 fulleft extent, would have demanded but a fmall fum in the 

 linen trade, for it by no means goes to common fpinning 

 wheels, -the conftruclion of which is generally known. But 

 if there is any reafon to fuppofe linen would, throughout the 

 century have flood upon its own legs, how much more is there 

 for its doing fo at prefent ! I will venture to aflert, that there 

 is not one yard of linen more made on account of the thirty- 

 three thoufand pounds a year now expended. It is to fuch a 

 great manufacture a drop of water in the ocean. An object 

 too contemptible to have any effects attributed to it- It is idle 

 and vifionary to fuppofe, that a fabric which has employed a 

 fourth part of the kingdom for 70 years, and exports to the 

 amount of a million and a half annually, wants boards, and 

 bounties, and premiums, and impertinence to fupport it. I 

 have heard it faid more than once in Ireland, that a feat at the 

 linen board might eafily be worth 300!. a year ; it is very well 

 if the whole becomes a job, for it might jufl as well as be ap- 

 plied to infpectors, itinerant men, builders and falaries. 



1 before calculated the extent of wafte land, the bounty on 

 the inland carriage of corn would have improved at rol. an 

 acre, let me do the fame with the 1,300,000 expended on 

 linen. It would have improved 1 30,000 acres, which would 

 now be yielding 520,000!. a year, or a fourth part of the whole 

 amount of all the linen manufacture of Ireland ; fo infinitely 

 more productive is money beftowed on the land than on the 

 fabrics of a ftate. 



I do not mean to find fault with the eftablifhment of this 

 manufacture ; it has grown to a great degree of national im- 

 portance, but from fome unfortunate circumftances in the po- 

 lice of it (if I may ufe the expreflion) that importance is not 

 nearly equal to what it ought to be, from the extent of coun- 

 try it abfolutely fills. It will be at lead a curious enquiry to 

 examine this point ; from the bed information I can aflert, 

 that the linen and yarn made in Connaught, and part of 

 Leinfter,vaftly exceed in value all the exports of Ulfter exclu- 

 live of thofe two commodities^ which makes linen the whole 

 exportable produce of that province, or i, 600,000! . a year. 

 Ulfter contains 2,836,837 plantation acres ; Tuppofe that vail 

 tract under ILeep, and feeding no more than two to an acre, 



VOL. II, i, their 



