134 



DICKSON ON THE 



If this be true — and who shall gainsay it ? —it is not to be 

 expected that persons who have been reared in a filthy hovel, 

 steeped to the lips in poverty and want, can know or 

 appreciate the comforts that are enjoyed by the manufacturing 

 people of Ulster, whose feeling and 'desire of independence, 

 under kind and moral employers, make them at all times 

 obedient to the law ; and this I know from experience as the 

 following facts will prove. 



''Having been obliged, during the years 1838, '39, '40, and 

 '41, frequently to visit the cottages occupied by our weavers, 

 in the counties of Armagh, Antrim, Down, and Derry — for 

 our house had them at work in four counties — I often remarked 

 the air of greater neatness and comfort that pervaded the 

 houses of those who had two or three looms at work, com- 

 pared with the houses of those who had but one. The 

 difference arose from the additional income derived from 

 increased employment in weaving. The sons and daughters, 

 as they grew up, were all taught to weave; and I knew 

 many instances where, there not being looms sufficient for 

 all, the sons wove by night and the daughters by day, 



"Our best lawn-weavers in Lurgan were young girls and 

 lads from sixteen to seventeen years of age ; and I have known 

 girls to earn from twelve to fifteen shillings per week, making 

 for us 4-4ths linens in Ballymena, where our best weavers were 

 young girls and boys. 



' ' Now, sir, mark the good results of such employment, 

 and this without the aid of British gold, for the industry 

 and perseverance of the linen-manufacturers and bleachers 

 in the north enable them to draw the hard CASS from 

 America, in payment for their productions. There is above 

 £30,000 per week paid in the Ballymena market for linen 

 goods by Messrs. Chain and Sons, Messrs. Gihon and Son, 

 Messrs. J. and K. Young, and the Messrs. Carrells, and 

 others ; and three-fourths of all the cloths bought and made 



