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DICKSON ON THE FIRST POWER 



Excellency had so thoroughly expressed my sentiments on the 

 power looms and the advantages that the spread of its 

 working would give, if introduced into the south and west of 

 Ireland, I could not do otherwise but again mount my hobby 

 horse however inanimate it has been for thirteen years, when 

 I found that the representative of the most beloved sovereign 

 that ever sat on the British throne, had proved himself capable 

 of telling the citizens of Dublin what I told them through the 

 press, that as the power loom had made Lancashire the 

 mistress of the world in manufactures, Ireland's hope must 

 depend on the amalgamation of the two interests of agriculture 

 and manufacture, and on this his Excellenc} T said : — "There 

 is another subject which I concur with the Lord Mayor 

 in thinking is one of deep interest to this country. I mean 

 the progress of manufactures. (Hear, hear.) A country 

 which depends only on agriculture will always have great 

 difficulties to contend with. It is of the utmost importance 

 to this country that you should be establishing and promoting 

 manufactures, have something to fall back upon in periods 

 of distress, so that you will have some means, as my right 

 hon. friend on my right said on another occasion, of employing 

 your agricultural population, and of taking them from 

 agriculture where they do not receive wages as high as you 

 would wish them to receive, and employing them where they 

 would receive better wages." 



Now this is very excellent advice of his Excellency the 

 Lord Lieutenant, but there is too much of the quaker or 

 methodist sympathy of " be ye clothed and be ye warm/ 5 in 

 such advice, to gain for him a feeling of thorough confidence, 

 and that he has gone over to support or promote such an 

 object so essential to Ireland as a spread of manufactures. 



Had his Excellency taken advantage of his position and 

 said, I am sent over not only to tell you what I have read of 

 Ulster and its great linen trade, but I am here with a desire 



