492 [Assembly 



The following table of linen exported from Ireland, taken from 

 official returns, will show the increase of trade at various periods: 



Year. Yards. 



1710, - 1,688,574 



1750, - 11,200,771 



1775, 21,502,000 



1800, J. 35,676,908 



1820, ^- 43,613,218 



1825, 55,113,265 



1835, ---- 60,916,592 



Since 1835 the exports have increased in about the same ratio. 



The continental nations engaged in the linen manufacture, still re- 

 tained the hand spinning, but began to import very largely of the 

 British and Irish mill spun yarns. In 1842 the French Chamber of 

 Deputies increased so greatly the duties on these imports, that cer- 

 tain capitalists in that country were enabled to import machinery 

 from England, to erect mills, and to realize, until the present day, 

 very large profits on this trade. A large number of factories conse* 

 quently sprung up in France, Belgium and Switzerland. The result 

 has been, that the consumption of Irish linen has been kept down on 

 the Continent, by the tax thus levied on the consmners. 



The capabilities of Ireland for the manufacture of the finer quali- 

 ties of goods, in this branch of industry, is shown in the speech of 

 Sir Robert Peel, on the tariff. Before the removal of the duty, the 

 manufacture of Irish cambric sold, as compared with French, was 

 100 to 1,0J0 dozens. In the next four years, from 1830 to 1834, 

 the Irish manufacture was in the proportion of 300 to 1,000 dozens; 

 from 1834 to 1838, as 900 to 1,000; from 1838 to 1842, as 4,000 

 to 1,000, and from 1842 to 1846, 16,000 to 1,000. All this was 

 for the supply of the home market, as the demand had been suffi- 

 cient to keep the manufactures employed without looking further for 

 a vent for their goods. 



The flax manufactured in the United Kingdom, divides itself into 

 two sections — the one consisting of yarns exported to the linen ma- 

 nufacturing countries of the Continent, where they are wrought into 

 cloth; the other comprising the yarn made into linens of all fabrics 

 in Ireland, at Dundee, at Barnsley, &c.; bleached and exported to 

 the markets of the world. In spinning the yarn to supply these two 



