BY THE NON-ERECTION OF HIS FLAX-MILLS. 243 



man in Dublin offered to join me, and to give security for 

 the £2,000 which was offered by Mr. Frewin, on eighteen 

 houses in one of the principal streets in the city of Dublin, 

 worth ten times the amount required by me. Flax has since 

 risen in price more than one third in Ireland, whilst other 

 agricultural productions of the kingdom are one-third lower 

 in price. 



After reading the above facts, is it not Malum en se to 

 appoint a minister of any church a receiver of rent, or a 

 director of bailiffs, to seize and distress, not the rich, but the 

 poor f 



I anticipated the growing demand for Flax would increase, 

 and that this additional crop being brought into the course 

 of rotation, and generally adopted by Cork farmers, would 

 be a greater boon than the protection the Corn-laws was 

 thought by many to confer on home-produce. It will, there- 

 fore, be admitted by every man interested in the linen-trade 

 in Ireland, that my views were based on sound principles, and 

 a thorough knowledge of the trade. As a proof, I quote the 

 following from the Cork Reporter, December 17th, 1858 : — 

 " CULTIVATION OF FLAX IN INDIA. 

 " The attention of firms engaged in the linen-trade is 

 being directed to the importance of promoting the cultivation 

 of Flax in India. The deficiency of the supply from present 

 sources has been of late felt seriously, the quantity imported 

 in the first ten months of the present year having been only 

 51,174 tons as compared with 79,746 tons in the corres- 

 ponding months of last year. The crop in Ireland has 

 fluctuated greatly during the last ten or twelve years. In 

 1846 the quantity produced was 28,000 tons, but in 1848 

 it fell off to 13,466 tons. In 1853 it increased to 43,874 tons, 

 but in the present year it is little more than 21,000 tons.- 

 The foreign supply has also fluctuated. In 1835 the quantity 

 of Flax imported was 37,092 tons; in the year following 



