FLAX MOVEMENT IN IRELAND. 



163 



Error No. 3, where he says — "The linen trade of Ulster 

 cannot be largely increased because the produce of its looms 

 is only suitable for the wealthy/' and that "It is not likely 

 the fine linen trade, the only branch now possible to be 

 carried on with success, can ever acquire such extension as 

 would force the manufacturers to seek supplies of the raw 

 material beyond the limits of the province in which it is 

 established/' Any man who has looked at our importation of 

 foreign Flax, which increases yearly, without going back to 

 the money the Belfast Flax Society spent for years to force the 

 south and western provinces to increase Flax for their use, must 

 laugh at the absurd and truly ridiculous remarks of the 

 writer, who will be treated as non compos mentis by 

 every grower, spinner, manufacturer, and bleacher of linen 

 cloth in Ireland, as it is well known Jthat in 1848, when the 

 average -of five years' importation of foreign Flax was 68,879 

 tons, Mr. Mulholland of Belfast told the farmers at the Belfast 

 Flax Society's annual dinner, that of the £50,000 which he 

 annually sent out of the country for Flax, he would not have 

 occasion to send that year £40 from home for a supply, 

 although it was higher in price then, than it is now. 



In the face of such authority as Mr. Mulholland, the largest 

 consumer of Flax in Europe, the father of the trade, 

 may I not ask (when the writer talks of the supply being 

 limited to the province in which it is established), what could 

 possess him to write such nonsense, and in the face of the 

 market reports of Flax and linen weekly ? I am at a loss to 

 conceive ; but as such dictation might injure a cause that pro- 

 mises such success, now that the southern and western owners 

 of property are determined not to depend alone on government 

 aid or promises made to deputations that all end in smoke, 

 I, as a practical maker of linen cloth, ask those who have 

 read the Standard's remarks, to turn to my tables of instruc- 

 tions at pages 78 to 80 in this work, and judge for themselves : 



