58 



DICKSON ON THE KESIN-BOUND FIBRES OF 



woollen cloth, there cannot be a doubt of their felting qualities ; 

 and as our mode of dying permanent black must make such 

 fibres help considerably to supply the want now felt for raw 

 material in Leeds, Dundee, and Belfast ; the following 

 will show the necessity for a supply of new material : — 



Indian Fibee. 



' ' We have been favoured by the chairman of the Chamber 

 of Commerce with a copy of the following correspondence, 

 containing the reply of the council of India to the memorial 

 from the Chamber relative to the growth of Flax m India. If 

 those connected with the linen trade in Dundee, Belfast, and 

 Leeds, were to join in forming a Flax Supply Association, 

 we believe it would be of more service than any appeal to 

 Parliament on the subject, as there is little doubt Parliament 

 would abide by Lord Stanley's decision. The chief service 

 that Government could render at present, would be in 

 publishing in the Government organs in India the memorial 

 of the Dundee Chamber : — 



"Baldovan House, Dundee, 18th Oct., 1858. 

 " My Loed, — I have been requested by the Chamber of 

 Commerce, of Dundee, to forward to your lordship the 

 memorial and the printed report of a meeting on the subject 

 of procuring a supply of Flax from India, which accompany 

 this letter, 



(< In transmitting these documents to your lordship, I beg to 

 remark that it has for a long time been obvious to those 

 engaged in the linen trade of this country that the sources 

 from whence the raw material is at present derived will, in 

 future, prove altogether inadequate to the demand of this 

 rapidly increasing branch of industry, and that, therefore, the 

 question of how an increased supply of Flax is to be obtained, 

 has naturally forced itself upon the attention of those most 

 directly interested. 



