262 



DICKSON ON THE HISTORY 



£1,000,000 sterling of Flax from Eussia and Holland, 

 and to pay down this sum in hard cash, and we may 

 fancy the farmers in the north are in a much better condition 

 than those in the south and west of Ireland, where 

 dwell, if we believe the reports of the Times commissioner, 

 few landowners or merchants that ^possess a spirit of 

 enterprise. 



I shall conclude my observations on the cultivation of 

 the Flax plant, and the benefit derived by the farmers and 

 working classes from the demand for this staple article; but, 

 before I do so, I think I may ask the British farmers to take 

 another look at our continued increase of importation in this 

 article, notwithstanding Ireland now grows so much for her 

 own use. Look at our imports in 1839, 60,805 tons; in 

 1842, 55,113 tons; in 1844, 79,791 tons; and in 1856, 

 84,352 tons. Again, look to the importance and acknow- 

 ledged benefit of linseed-cake, an article that you now cannot 

 get pure, or free from adulteration, even at an advanced price. 

 If the landowners and farmers in the south and west of 

 Ireland are men without nerve, or spirit of enterprise, and 

 prefer to see contentedly their shamrock hills doomed (like 

 the peasantry) to poverty, it does not follow that you must 

 imitate their example. You can grow Flax equally as well 

 as the Dutch, and better than Eussia; therefore I call on 

 you, one and all, to think of the millions you may keep at 

 home by its production. 



To give a just idea of legislation in 1750, I would call 

 attention to the following fact. Cotton yarns could not be 

 used as icarp, and therefore large quantities of linen yarns 

 were imported from Ireland, Scotland, and Germany ; and 

 the linen manufacturers of Ireland complained of the yarns 

 being bought up at a high price out of their hands by the 

 agents to be sent to Manchester. It was even proposed in 

 the Irish parliament to lay a prohibitory duty on the export 



