MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT. 165 



premium, all reward, fliould go to thofe alone who lived by, 

 and attended to their looms alone, not in a feparatecl cabbin, 

 but in a ftreet. The more a perfon attends to the abominable 

 Itate of land in the North of Ireland, the more he will be con- 

 vinced of the propriety and even neceflity of this meafure ; 

 and if, contrary to common fenfe, a paltry board is permitted 

 to exift, by way of promoting a fabric of two millions a year,' 

 let them have this object, and this only as their bufmefs. 

 Let them devife the means of inducing landlords to drive their 

 weavers into towns, and they will in a few years do more 

 good to their country than all their infpectors, itinerant men, 

 and (pinning wheels, will do m a century; 



Relative to the other manufactures of Ireland, I am forry 

 to fay they are too infignificant to merit a particular atten- 

 tion ; upon the fubject of that of wool I muft however re- 

 mark, that the policy of England, which has always hitherto 

 been hoftile to every appearance of an Irifh woollen manu- 

 facture, has been founded upon the mean contractions of illi- 

 beral jealoufy ; it is a conduct that has been founded upon 

 the ignorance and prejudices of mercantile people, who, 

 knowing as they are in the fcience which teaches that two and 

 two make four, are loft in a labyrinth the moment they leave 

 their counting-houfes and become flatefmen ; they are too 

 apt to think of governing kingdoms upon the fame principles 

 they conduct their private bufmefs on, thofe of monopoly, 

 which though the foul of private intereft, is the bane of pub- 

 lic commerce. It has been the miftaken policy of this coun,- 

 try, to fuppofe that all Ireland gained by a woollen manufac- 

 ture would be fo much lofs to England ; this is the true mo- 

 nopolizing igr-orance. We did not think proper .to draw- 

 thefe bands of commercial tyranny fo tight as to interdict 

 their linens ; we gave them a free trade ; nay we import, an 

 immenfe quantity of Ruffian and German linen, and yet be7 

 tween this double fire of the Irifh and foreigners, has our own 

 linen manufacture flourished and incrcafed ; it is the fpiric 

 and effect of every fpecies of monopoly to counteract the de- 

 figns which dictate that mean policy. The rivalfhip of the 

 Irifh (if a rivalfhip was to cnfue) would be beneficial to our 

 xvoollen trade ; as a fafl friend to the intereft of my native 

 country, I wifh fuccefs to thofe branches of the Irifli woollens 

 which would rival ou,r own ; a thoufand beneficial confe- 

 quences would flow from it ; it >vould infpirit our ma- 

 nufacturers ; it would awaken them from their lethargy, and 

 give rife to the fpirit of invention and enterprise. How long 

 did our old broad cloth trade fleep in the weft, without one 

 fign of life ftrong enough to animate a new piirfuit ; but a 

 different fpirit breaking out in Yorkfliire and Scotland, new 

 fabrics were invented, and new trades opened. A free Irifli 

 woollen trade would put our manufacturers to their mettle, 

 and would do more for the woollen trade pf England tha;\ 



any 



