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another material, with the flax chemically treated, and so 
most novel fabrics be tried. Thus 50 per cent, of flax-wool 
and 50 per cent, of rabbit down give one kind of material, 
and different proportions of flax and wool give other results. 
I have seen samples of various articles of dress in Ireland, 
and to this society are now exhibited woven fabrics of shawls 
and cloth, executed by the fancy trades of Yorkshire, that 
attest the skill of the mechanist and dyer to produce an adapt- 
ation of such very different materials in their natural origin. 
The raw materials of the English specimens of the manufac- 
tures are from Pocklington, while samples of the varieties 
of the flax plant and fabrics are contributed from Ireland, 
Yorkshire, and Nottinghamshire. Of the importance of 
the subject of flax there can be no doubt, whether we regard 
the condition of the people, or the changes now to be intro- 
duced in agriculture and manufactures, by skill and commerce. 
Ireland, by situation, climate, and soil, by energy, by 
public societies, by grants, premiums, public meetings, insti- 
tutions and literature, has raised itself from being an import- 
ing country into an exporting country. The whole area laid 
down for flax in 1852 is estimated at 136,000 acres sown 
with flax seed, and the entire supply for the United King- 
dom would require the produce of 500,000 acres ; and as to 
the value of crops thus brought from the land, it is stated on 
the competent authority of the accomplished writer of the 
articles " On the Flax Industry," published in the Times, 
October, 1852, " That we are contributing a sum of 
£4,000,000 annually to the farmers of other countries, for 
an article of produce especially our own, and which on all 
hands is acknowledged to be, under fair management, a 
paying crop." 
Into these great financial questions I shall not go, but call 
attention to those points that may show the force of prejudice 
