APPENDIX. 



xix 



with Mr. Lripton, I am happy to be able to inform you, that the attention of 

 his Eoyal Highness the Prince Consort was particularly directed by Mr. Lupton 

 to your case. I am, sir, your obedient servant, 



J. Hill Dickson, Esq. J. C. KNIGHT. 



At the Leeds exhibition I was enabled to have, through the 

 courteous attention of Sir W. Hooker, from the Royal Gardens, 

 Kew, a great variety of fibre yielding plants, which I prepared 

 by my patent machine and liquid, by keeping one end in the 

 green unprepared state, whilst the other ends of many were, 

 when prepared, as fine as silk. My next exhibition was in 

 1862 at 



THE BOARD OF TRADE, WHITEHALL. 



I submitted a box filled with my specimens in every stage, 

 and a book containing on every leaf, yarns and cloth in great 

 variety, from rheea, plantain, wild hemp, Flax, &c , to Her 

 Majesty's Privy Council for Trade, which had their inspection 

 for six months, up to the 26th May, 1862, when all was 

 returned to me with a letter of expressed confidence in the 

 value of my production, and I regret to add, that there, all my 

 successful labour ended, as no member of Her Majesty's 

 Government could be worked on to countenance or give any 

 encouragement to the introduction of the new material. 



I must now in conclusion do that which I rejoice in saying 

 every man has the right to do in this free country, to express 

 in a respectful manner his opinion on the capability or incapa- 

 bility of public men, especially if they are the paid servants of 

 the Crown, and as what I know of the great abilities of one 

 who is my much respected countryman, and I have watched 

 with pleasure his movements and read his speeches on every 

 subject he thought worth grappling with for the last thirty 

 years, I am thoroughly convinced that if " the right man was 

 in the right place," Sir James Emerson Tennent would be, 

 either as President of the Board of Trade or Secretary of State 

 for India. If such a gentleman of real talent and official business 

 habits were selected, the manufacturing interests of Dundee, 



