AND DECREASE OF FLAX-CULTURE IN IRELAND. 245 



In 1851 I urged, with all the energy I possessed, the 

 government of Lord John Kussell> and Lord Clarendon (then 

 the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland) the advantage of keeping 

 the £7,000,000 in Ireland, by letters in the Cork Reporter 

 and the Dublin newspapers. Would it not have been con- 

 sidered, then, great presumption and egotism on my part 

 had I copied the mannerism of the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, Mr. Disraeli, and said—" I will sit down now ; but 

 the time will come when you will hear me"* I avoided 

 the rocks and breakers ahead, confident that, if I 

 lived a few years, my feeble bark would then find its way 

 through the tide of difficulties and dangers into smooth water. 

 Has not the few years (in number thirteen), told the tale. 



I shall not now dwell on the loss that Ireland has sustained 

 in her agricultural and manufacturing resources, from the 

 apathy of the representatives of the people of Ireland. 

 MJP.'s can dictare terms to ministers if they will, and I 

 ask those concerned in the agricultural and manufacturing 

 interests seriously to consider their position and disadvantage 

 now, from the decrease in growing Flax. It has been a 

 heavy national loss. By the government reports 35,800 tons 

 of Flax were grown in 1854, and it fell off to 14,475 tons 

 in 1856. To avoid this calamity I have spent time and 

 money from 1843 up to this December, 1858, being the 

 unpaid advocate of a more extended cultivation of Flax, not 

 only in Ireland, but in Great Britain. I felt confident that 

 earnest endeavours in demonstrating the national advantages 

 which must accrue to Ireland and England, must have 



* I cannot but now look back to my expressed opinions in 1851 — thirteen 

 years ago — with some pleasure, because of my having repeated the same in 

 1858, and now seeing such proof in 1864 that I was right, and that Flax can 

 be had for 5d. to 6d. per lb., whilst cotton stands from Is. 6d. up to 2s. 6d. 

 per lb. in our Liverpool markets. I think I should now have my feeble bark 

 in the anticipated smooth water, even if I should be obliged to call on a 

 government pilot, a man not easily got, unless through the rich and influential. 



