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conscientious, workmen. We are too prone to regard the human being whom we designate a mere mechanic," as one upon whom moral culture is thrown away; and the very persons who reproach the industrious instruments of their wealth, are often those who most zealously endeavour to keep them the mere mechanics" they contemn.

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We remember visiting some years ago a cotton printing mill, the property of Mr. Thomas Warner, situated a few miles from Manchester, called either "Spring Water" or "Sweet Water," we forget which it is hard to fancy a more picturesque spot. The mill is sweetly situated in the hollow of a little ravine, and we gazed with pleasure from the wooded slopes upon the industry and evident happiness of the workpeople, who looked cheerful and contented, and were, like those we have described at Sion Mills, sufficiently apart from the contagion of "a great town." The labourers in this "happy valley" had imbibed a taste for the cultivation of flowers, and it was wisely and kindly encouraged by their employers. One of the overseers of the works had an exquisite dahlia garden, which might put to shame, both in richness and variety, our London growers; and every cottage window in the immediate neighbourhood had store of sweet, if not rare, flowers-almost an invariable evidence of humble wealth, and that peculiar taste which is at once both natural and refined. Yet it was very near the "congregation of chimneys," and the misery and vice which lived around them. It is not, therefore, so auspiciously located as that upon which we are commenting,-built beside the rapid current of the River Mourne.

We hope the gentry of Ireland will use the exertions which are called for, and are easily made, to aid the agriculturist-by creating fresh consumption for the country's produce. The establishment of such factories as that of Messrs. Herdman increases a demand for the ordinary necessaries of life, and by judicious management one class might be brought to work for the other, thus combining the rural and manufacturing interests, so as to aid the prosperity of the country. We had so often grieved beside the noble waters rushing their race, with power to turn the sand they sport with into gold, that the sound became almost as "a dirge;" for wherever we went, we saw them, like strong giants, eager to wrestle with something worthy their strength. The factory in the wilds of Tyrone was so perfectly what we had often desired to see established and prospering in Ireland, that we have dwelt upon it longer than may be interesting to all our readers, though the safe working of such a system carries so much moral influence with it-induces such genuine prosperity-that we have been more than commonly anxious to satisfy our English readers of the proof being in existence-that in a peculiarly wild

district in the north of Ireland, capital may be safely and advantageously invested to any amount, and a peasantry found, not only to work, but to understand the respect due to property, and the advantage which it gives where it is diffused.

It is slander to characterise the Irish peasant as an idler; he is often idle, it is true, but it is only because, as often, his time is worth so little as to seem scarcely worthy of consideration. Not unfrequently, the waste of an hour involves the loss of but a single halfpenny; and it can seldom be said to cause the sacrifice of a solitary comfort or enjoyment-much less a luxury. A time is no doubt approaching, when hard labour will procure something more for the hard labourer than the mere means of preserving existence; habits of continuous industry and proper thrift will come with the change.

Agitation, even since we commenced this work, has been gradually but surely losing strength; causes of complaint are, every day, becoming less and less numerous and infinitely less substantial; there now appears to be but one subject left to the agitator-and that one is not only not responded to—it is scorned and scouted by all the rational and right-thinking of the country, who are "Patriots" in the true sense of the term. The agitators are like workmen who have broken their tools.

ANTRIM.

THE maritime county of Antrim, in the province of Ulster, is bounded on the north by the Northern Ocean, on the east and north-east by the North Channel, on the south-east by Belfast Lough and the river Lagan, which separate it from the county of Down; on the south by the county of Down; on the south-west by Lough Neagh, and on the west by the county of Londonderry-the river Bann, which issues from Lough Beg, dividing the two counties, but leaving the Liberties of Coleraine, as the northwest boundary of Antrim. It is therefore encompassed by water-on the west and south-west by the magnificent river Bann, and the great inland sea, Lough Neagh; on the south and south-east by the river Lagan and Belfast Lough; and on all other sides by the ocean. Hence its ancient name, Endruim, "the habitation upon the waters "-easily corrupted into Antrim. It contains, according to the Ordnance survey (exclusive of the extensive parish of Carrickfergus, "a county of a town in itself," consisting of 16,700 acres), 761,8772 statute acres; of which 466,564 are cultivated land; 53,487 are under water, and the remainder are unimproved mountain and bog. In 1821 the population was 262,860, and in 1831, 316,909. It is divided into the baronies of Upper Belfast, Lower Belfast, Upper Mazzareene, Lower Mazzareene, Upper Antrim, Lower Antrim, Upper Toome, Lower Toome, Upper Glenarm, Lower Glenarm, Upper Dunluce, Lower Dunluce, Kilconway and Cary *. The principal towns are Belfast, Carrickfergus, Lisburn, Antrim, Larne, Ballycastle, Portrush, Glenarm, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Bushmills, and Cushendall.

It is uncertain at what period Antrim was erected into a county. It was arranged into baronies by the Lord Deputy, Sir John Perrot, A.D. 1584; although the arrangement continued to be merely nominal for a long time afterwards. Prior to these divisions, the different districts appear to have been, 1st, North Clandeboy; 2nd, Bryan Currough's country; 3rd, the Glynnes; 4th, the Rout or Reuta, called also Mac Sorley Boy's country. Bryan Currough's country was originally a part of North Clandeboy, won from it by the Scots of the sept of Clandonnel (Macdonnell); North Clandeboy was so called to distinguish it from South Clandeboy, a district of Down county; and the Glynnes derived their names "from the form of the grounds," the intersection of its surface by many rocky dells. In the ancient divisions of Ireland, the county towards the south and south-west was denominated Dalaradia; the west and north-western part, Dalrieda; and the whole "Endruim."

VOL. III.

H

We entered the county of Antrim at Lisburn, a pretty and flourishing town on the Antrim side of the river Lagan. It consists principally of one long street; at the eastern end of which is the picturesque and interesting

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church-containing two very remarkable monuments, one to the memory of Lieut. Dobbs, who was killed in an engagement off the coast with the famous Paul Jones*; the other to that of the great and good Jeremy Taylor, some-time Bishop of Down and Connor, who died here in the year 1667.

There is probably no town in Ireland where the happy effects of English taste and industry are more conspicuous than at Lisburn. From the Drum Bridge and the banks of the Lagan on one side, to the shores of Lough Neagh on the other, the people are almost exclusively the descendants

The action took place on the 24th of April, 1778, off Carrickfergus Bay. Paul Jones commanded the Ranger, an American vessel. The famous buccaneer had been amusing himself for some days previously upon the coast; and on the 23rd, landed a party near Kirkcudbright, in Scotland, with the intention of taking Lord Selkirk prisoner; but finding his lordship from home, he "walked for some time on the beach," while his men visited the Castle and took from thence the plate, which was delivered to them by Lady Selkirk. On his subsequent arrival at Brest, this plate was sold for the benefit of the crew, but was "bought in " by Jones, who returned it safely to Lord Selkirk, paying even for the carriage of it to Scotland. The Drake, an English sloop-of-war, was in harbour at Carrickfergus; and on the 24th, she bore down upon the Ranger, when an engagement ensued about mid-channel. "Captain Burden, who commanded the Drake, was killed early in the action; Lieutenant Dobbs was mortally wounded; and the vessel being much cut up in her rigging, the men, who were mostly young hands, got into confusion, and she was forced to strike to the Ranger, after an action of one hour and fifteen minutes. The Drake had two men killed, and twenty-five wounded; the Ranger three killed, and five wounded. The comparative force of the vessels, with respect to guns, was nearly equal. The Drake carried twenty guns, four-pounders: the Ranger eighteen six-pounders, besides swivels. On board the Ranger were 155 able seamen, some of whom were Irishmen-one a native of Carrickfergus: the Drake had fewer hands, most of whom were ordinary seamen,"

of English settlers. Those in the immediate neighbourhood of the town were chiefly Welch, but great numbers arrived from the northern shires, and from the neighbourhood of the Bristol Channel. It is interesting to trace their annals from existing facts; which may be easily done, even were they not duly recorded. In the village of Lambeg, situated only a few perches from the Belfast road, the old English games and pastimes were regularly celebrated on Easter Monday, within the last twenty years. The English language is, perhaps, spoken more purely by the populace in this district, than by the same class in any other part of Ireland. The names of the places are modern; as Solders-town, English-town, the Half-town, Stonyford, &c. &c.; and the people of all ranks have, for their stations, high ideas of domestic comfort. The neatness of the cottages, and the good taste displayed in many of the farms, are little, if at all, inferior to aught that we find in England; and the tourist who visits Lough Neagh, passing through Ballinderry, will consider it to have been justly designated " the garden of the north." The original pursuits of the adventurers of the Plantation, have been transmitted from father to son; those who settled from the cider counties having invariably an orchard of some extent attached to their dwellings. The multitude of pretty little villages scattered over the landscape, each announcing itself by the tapering spire of a church, would almost beguile the traveller into believing that he is passing through a rural district in one of the midland counties of England*.

The ancient name of Lisburn was Linsley Garvin (probably from the founder), and till 1641, when the town was burned by the Irish, it was called Lisnegarvy. Since that time it has been named Lisburn. From its geographical position, Lisburn was naturally regarded as an important station by the English of the Pale, and by the native Irish. It was on the leading road southwards, and here was the bridge by which the Lagan was passed. Hence during "the '41 wars,” as well as the previous and succeeding" risings,” Lisburn was the scene of considerable excitement. Its inhabitants are in general social and well educated; and the class of shopkeepers and other business people, will, at least, bear comparison, for intelligence, with the same class in any other provincial town of the kingdom. Its chief points of attraction are the Castle gardens, in which are the remains of the castle, and two gigantic elm trees, called "the two sisters,"-the damask factory of the Messrs. Coulson, and the extensive thread manufactory of Mr. Barber, in the neighbourhood. The ironworks, so frequently alluded to in Captain Lawson's account of the rebellion, 1641, do not now exist. It is doubtful if even their site is known, though from the quantity of fuel and other property destroyed, they must have been conducted on a large scale.

The manufacture of damask table-linen was established at Lisburn, by the late William Coulson, the father of the present proprietors, about seventy years ago. It advanced to its present state of improvement under the particular patronage of George the Fourth. Two of the firm of the Messrs. Coulson, the late Walter Coulson and one of the present proprietors, William Coulson, devoted much time and persevering application to the devising of designs, which obtained deserved approbation.

Many of the looms of this establishment are not inferior in capacity of single work, or in number of designs, to those of Germany; in some parts of which country the manufacture has been in progress for centuries. The damask linen of Germany may have been considered as unrivalled, and certainly was so under its old draw-loom system. The Jacquard frames are, however, in many cases, more particularly common

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