great proficiency of the people of Ireland, in the fabrication of linen and woollen cloths, previous to the establishment of the English power in their country. The extravagant profusion of both in their ordinary dress is well known; but in those times the manufacture was exclusively domestic, and made for home consumption. As there is seldom enough where there is not superabundance, we find the Irish, according to Maddox's History of the Exchequer, exporting their surplus woollens to England, in the reign of Henry III. fifty years after the arrival of Strongbow. In 1327, Irish frizes were imported, duty free, into England; and about the same period, Lord Charlemont informs us, Irish serges were the fashionable material of Italian mantles; but, according to others, it was the make, and not the cloth, which was Irish. In 1542, however, woollen yarn was an article of considerable export; but in the reign of Elizabeth, an act being passed to prohibit the exportation of linen, flax, and linen yarn, the people turned all their attention to the cloth manufacture, in which they made such progress, that, in 1673, Sir William Temple published a formal overture for relinquishing that branch of industry, and pursuing the linen trade; for which, he said, Ireland was much better adapted. It does not appear that his advice was followed; for, at the period of the Revolution, the Liberty, in Dublin, was the residence of several English manufacturers, who first established the woollen trade in that district; previous to which it is doubtful if there had been any cloth fabricated in the metropolis. The Irish people are too soon elated, and, probably, too soon depressed. Like the Spanish adventurers in South America, they are too apt to anticipate wealth from every new enterprise; and on this occasion raised, by their vauntings, the envy of the English clothiers,§ who succeeded, in 1699, in procuring those unjustifiable restraints on the woollen manufacture of Ireland, which are supposed to have annihilated it. At We are far from wishing to justify this wanton act of power; but still we must say that too much importance has been attached to that branch of manufacture affected by it. best, the woollen trade was, in a great measure, merely experimental. The fabricators were foreigners, and had to contend with rivals in the enjoyment of three material requisitespossession of the market, ample capital, and enough for the demand. The Irish manufacturer could only hope to effect sales in a market already open to his powerful rival; and, defi An act of Henry VIII. limits a shirt to seven yards, which previously contained thirty. The linen was dyed yellow, not with saffron, as has been erroneously stated, but with a plant called Buidmor, (great yellow wild wood,) which grows wild in nearly all marshy soils, and which is used at the present day by the peasantry, for the purpose of dyeing yellow. † Anderson's Commerce. See an Essay by Lord Charlemont, in the first volume of the Transactions of the R. I. Academy. His lordship's authority is the following passage in an Italian Poem, by Fazio delli Uberti, entitled Dittamondi,' printed at Vicenza, according to some, in 1357; and others in 1474: Similamente passamo en Irlanda, La qual fra noi è degna di fama, Par le nobile saie che ci manda. § See' Commercial Restrictions of Ireland,' by the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson. Whatever injury Ireland may have suffered from the patrons of the English woollen trade, England herself has suffered somewhat more. The cruelest of our revenue laws,' says Adam Smith, I will venture to affirm, are mild and gentle, in comparison of some of those which the clamour of our merchants and (woollen) manufacturers has extorted from the legislature, for the support of their own absurd and oppressive monopolies. Like the laws of Draco, these laws may be said to be all written in blood.' By the 8th of Elizabeth, the exporter of sheep, lambs, or rams, had his hand cut off, and forfeited all his goods for the first offence; and, for the second, was hanged!! I could prove,' says Mr. Wakefield, that the woollen manufacturers of England, in consequence of the acts in their favour, pocketed annually 3,000,000l. of the income of the land-owners.' cient in all the advantages which generally constitute success, could he long contend with establishments fostered for a century by a partial and prodigal government? We are pretty certain that he could not; and the subsequent history of the Irish cloth trade confirms this opinion; for, though the home market was still open, he was undersold at his own door by the English weaver. The truth seems to be, that the domestic manufactures of the country were, at this period, and for a century afterwards, fully adequate to the home consumption. Cloth fairs were holden every where; and, even at the present day, the peasaut purchases his frize at similar places of sale. The trade of a linen-draper is almost unknown in the South; while in every fair and market are places allotted for the convenience of those who have bandel cloth* to dispose of. Let it not, however, be forgotten, that, while the legislature acted inimically towards one branch of industry, they patronised another; and it must be admitted, in a moral point of view, at least, that the linen trade is the most unexceptionable of all those manufactures which require the co-operation of many hands. Unlike most others, it is rural and domestic; and, though sedentary, yet it is not so unwholesome as those employments which are followed amidst the vitiatedTM atmosphere of a heated manufactory. The notorious Earl of Strafford, of ◄ whose rare abilities God gave him the use, and the devil the application,' was the first to deal by wholesale in the linen trade. He ventured, in 1642, thirty thousand pounds; and the event fully justified his expectations. He gained considerably by his speculation; and, from that time, linen may be called the staple manufacture of Ireland. It has thriven much more,' says Mr. Newenham, in his View of the natural, political, and commercial Circumstances of Ireland,' than the cherished and boasted woollen manufacture of England;' and he instances the fact, that, while the exports of woollens from England were little more than trebled in a hundred years, the exports of linens from Ireland had been nearly thrice trebled in a period of seventy years. The success of this branch of national industry might reconcile us to the tyrannic act which forced Irish capital into such laudable channels, did it not yet remain doubtful whether the country would not have prospered quite as well if this manufacture had not participated in legislative bounty no more than many others. Whoever attentively reviews the whole proceedings of the Irish Parliament, respecting the trade and commerce of the country, must be struck with the obstinacy they successively displayed in persisting to consider Ireland a manufacturing nation.— They appear to have been strangers to the natural and political_circumstances of the country, and consequently they blundered on from one absurd measure to another. In place of seeking to participate in the trade of England, they resolved to have a trade of their own; and, by a prodigal use of bounties, diverted the capital of the kingdom from its legitimate channel-agriculture-into manufacturing schemes, which uniformly terminated in the ruin of the proprietors, and the misery of thousands. This was the case with Mr. Brooks' cotton-manufactory at Prosperous; with Mr. Talbot's, at Malahide; with Mr.Hamilton's, at Balbriggan; with Sir John Parnell's, Lord De Vesci's, &c. &c.; and similar success seems to have awaited every attempt to establish a permanent manufacture of woollens, though aided, at once, by the Parliament and the Dublin Society. During the operation of these measures, the people were taxed to raise the price of nearly all the commodi * A bandel of linen is a piece seven yards long, and eighteen inches in width, the making of a man's shirt. In several parts of the country, however, the linen is folded in large pieces, off which any required complement is cut. + The same may be said of the silk trade; though its want of success is mainly attributable to the general and absurd predilection which the people of one country entertain for the fashionable commodities of another. This branch of manufacture never extended beyond Dublin, and was introduced by the French refugees. In many articles they excelled the English artisan. ties of life; for that has been the universal effect of bounties; and, while they were in vain struggling to compete with English manufactures, more than two-thirds of the arable land of Ireland remained undisturbed by the plough.* The progress of national prosperity has been generally from the feeding of cattle to the growing of corn; and manufactures the last resort: but this natural order was attempted, without effect, to be inverted by the Irish legislature; for, ultimately, agriculture triumphed; and, though yet capable of vast extension, its progress has been rapid within the last fifty years. To it, and not to the linen manufacture, the nation is in debted for whatever prosperity she has enjoyed. The efforts of the legislature, though mistaken, were laudable. They had to liquidate national expenses out of a national exchequer; and, seeing that England was enriched by manufactures and commerce, they thought the only way left for them to increase their revenues was by following her example. Modern economists, from the very best of intentions, have inherited their opinions, notwithstanding the material changes which have since taken place. Ireland has no longer an exchequer; is no longer taxed to pay her own expenses; and has now no interest separate from that of Great Britain. It is therefore an inquiry of the utmost importance to ascertain whether the supposed necessity of native manufactures any longer exists. Since the abolition of those duties, which were imposed upon the transit of goods across St. George's Channel, the circle of British interests includes the whole capital and industry of Ireland. In a commercial point of view, at least, the inhabitants of these kingdoms are now identically one people; and whatever benefits the one must prove advantageous to the other. Circumstances have given them dissimilar occupations: the majority of one nation are manufacturers, and the majority of the other are agriculturists; and prudence, it would appear, prohibits either party from interfering with the occupations of the other. Whatever the capabilities of Great Britain were in former days, it will be readily admitted that they are now ample. Her capital is superabundant: she is in possession of the home and foreign markets; her artisans are expert; and, what is of the utmost importance to our inquiry, she is more than adequate to the demand. Scarcely an article is required either for the conveniences or elegancies of life, either by individuals or nations, which she has not brought to perfection; and such is the extent of her fabrications, that there remains no opportunity to establish new manufactures, or increase the capacity of those already in operation. This is a state of things certainly not calculated to fill the Irish patriot with either envy or regret; for, while the British artisan is enabled to purchase the produce of the Irish soil, Ireland must continue prosperous. Fourfifths, at least, of her people, are agriculturists; and it matters little whether they find a market for their beef, grain, butter, &c. in Dublin or London, Kilkenny or Manchester. In fact, the more extensive the market, the higher are the prices obtained; and, such is now the facility of transport, that Irish commodities are sent quite as cheaply from provincial towns to Liverpool or Bristol as to Dublin or Cork. The Irish farmer is now situated similarly to the English farmer; and surely the latter would as soon reside in Wiltshire as Lancashire-in an agricultural as in a manufacturing district. As far, therefore, as it regards the majority of the Irish people, it is of no material consequence whether the weaver, who consumes their surplus produce, resides in England or Ireland; and, were it possible to re *During the first forty years that succeeded the Revolution, famine successively made its appearance in the manufacturing district of Ulster; for that province, from the introduction of the linen trade to the present time, has not been able to raise provisions enough to supply its inhabitants. On more than one occasion the whole produce of Ireland was scarcely sufficient to keep the people from starving; and Munster was often the scene of riot in consequence of the demand for corn to feed the linen weavers of the North. How silly, therefore, to talk about the absence of manufactures, when such was the state of agriculture !--See Young, Wakefiebl, &c. move all the manufactories in Manchester to Balbriggan, the nation would not benefit an iota by having spinning jennies nearer home. The reason must be obvious to all. A thousand looms effectively employed in Ireland must cause an equal number in England to remain idle; and, as the artisans of both kingdoms can pass to and fro without interruption, an establishment of manufactures in Ireland would be only a transfer of hands and materials from one part of the empire to another. More beef and butter might, indeed, be then consumed in Ireland; but that circumstance would not put a penny a year more in the pocket of the landlord or farmer, because less would be consumed in England. Neither would it increase employment; for the operatives, who are now engaged in English factories, would then find their way to Ireland, and soon place the labourer in a situation similar to the one he occupies at present; for, it is always to be borne in mind, that existing manufactures are adequate to the demand, and that those who can not find employment in one kingdom are at liberty to seek it in the other. The local advantages of Ireland, though many, are much overrated. Labour is now fully as cheap in England as it would be in Ireland, were factories established there; and, considering that land is only about fifteen years' purchase, he would be an ideot indeed who should neglect to secure an ample annuity, and invest his money in the precariousness of trade; and, such is the system of cooperative labour, that without an almost immense capital, no man can hope to succeed as a manufacturer. Whatever, therefore, Ireland may have suffered, when she was a separate nation, from the jealousy of English manufacturers, she has nothing now to apprehend from their monopolizing spirit. Without regret, she can behold them the weavers of the world; conscious that they are toiling in unwholesome pursuits to secure the means of purchasing the natural productions of her soil. But Ireland is not devoid of manufactures. Able men have deprecated their extension; and while a market, which she is unable to supply, is open exclusively for Irish agricultural produce, let Irishmen apply to agriculture. England must look to them for the necessaries of life;† and,while the present situation of things continues, they will possess the greatest of all advantages-that of an industrious frugal people, administering to the wants of a luxurious nation, without suffering from the connexion.‡ Agriculture will be sufficient to absorb all the capital that may come into the kingdom for a century. Millions of acres are yet to be reclaimed, and ten millions more will admit of improvement. While these demand the people's care, let them dismiss all ideas of manufactures. The unthinking may declaim on their ignorance of spinning jennies; but the cause is easily found, and, when found, excites neither wonder nor regret. The arguments in favour of native manufactures do not apply to Ireland. She is an integral part of the British empire; and Nature seems to point out the proper pursuit of her inhabitants. The history of the world demonstrates the superior advantages which agriculture possesses over manufactures. A parallel might be easily drawn between them; but, as that is an inquiry unconnected with our present purpose, we shall not enter upon it, but rest contented with having proved that Ireland owes none of her grievances to the supposed absence of trade and manufactures-in neither of which is she deficient; for, while she continues an agricultural nation, inland commerce the best species of commerce §-and its concomitants, must flourish. The linen trade may be said to be * I will not hesitate to assert, that the general extension of this (the linen) manufacture would carry with it an extension of poverty and famine; and that, if it could be effected, even for a short time, it would prove the greatest curse that could be entailed on an unfortunate people.'-Wakefield. + It is to Ireland Great Britain must look for corn.'-Ibid. The English, without the importation of foreign grain, would be reduced to a state of famine.-Ibid. Paley's Philosophy. S ́Adam Smith. indigenous to the country; and, while England is obliged to draw from her the necessaries of life, the price of labour must continue such as to afford individuals great advantages in several species of manufacture, which must flourish, though in a subordinate degree, through the kingdom. To the speculation of individuals, therefore, Ireland, without apprehension, may commit her manufacturing interest; and, if weavers, &c. can be employed, and mines worked, to greater advantage than in England, the self-interest of capitalists will always be sufficient to put both in operation, without any other inducement than the hope of gain. A variety of causes, however, too numerous to par ON THE BURNING OF MOSCOW. CALM is the evening, the western sky There's no sound on earth, no sound on high, Save the streams as they struggle to flow. But though the West glows with the setting ray, And still is the evening as night; In Moscow the flames shall be clear as day, In the firmament now the stars arise, And the earth is lit with the moon's pale beam; Oh! what are the wailings that float on the breeze, Oh! what are the groans that the streams of life freeze, In the pillars of flame there are forms that appear— There is nought in the scene that the soul can cheer, Fairest of angels, soft Pity, advance, And sigh for the deeds of our race; In a sense of deep sorrow our feelings entrance, Hark to the moans! how they rise to the sky! Oh Moscow thy glory, thy wealth, is gone by, And the flames of a night have destroyed thy sons all! In thy broad spacious streets the long grass may now grow, Though under thy ruins thy sons are laid low, Yet thy glory shall rise o'er the flames that now burn! Though the fate that awaits them be death and the grave, F. G. |