"Of linen we have now produced about 150 yards; of towelling, 120; canvas for rubbers, 130; flannel, 600 yards; linsey-woolsey, 120; blankets, 100 pair (the two latter are in course of manufacture for the workhouse of the Middleton union); frieze, 60 yards; cloth for gentlemen's trowsers, 30 yards, in course of manufacture; nets, 30; socks, 200 pair.

"The next branch, the flannel, we deem most interesting. Of this we have sold 550 yards-150 to parties not connected with the place, for cash; the remaining 400 to the poor of the district, on loan, on good security, repayable at one shilling in the pound per week, for which they are charged ten pence per yard. We cannot describe how great is the demand for the article on these terms. As fast as we can manufacture, it is taken by the poor, on these loans; and most happy we are to testify to their regularity and promptitude in repayment. As a remarkable proof of this, we may mention, that our flannel loans began in July, and that one-fourth has been already (1st September) repaid.”

Again, Mr. Hingston thus writes, on the 17th November, 1848:

"We ordered half a ton of hemp, and set the females we employed to work thereon, in making nets; according as they were made, they were given out on our usual plan by way of loan. The result of this experiment of our confidence in the resources of our bay, and in the integrity of our people, exceeded all anticipation. The demand for trammels, in particular, has since then been so great, that we cannot keep pace with it. Providentially, too, the fishing season improved most opportunely, and during the last six weeks immense shoals of hake have filled the bay. Still only for the well-timed provision we made, in the way of nets, this wealth would have been thrown away, the fishermen having no means of procuring hemp, although the families of every one of them are well able to make them.

"We would also mention that, besides a large quantity of linen and other articles manufactured for the upper classes (among whom we have found many kind friends), we have made for the people of the place about fourteen hundred yards of flannel, which, like the nets, is given out on

loan, at the same rate of repayment. As fast as we can produce we sell the flannel on this plan, and we cannot describe the comfort it is administering around."

There were other valuable instituions-a loan-fund and a clothingfund, established by these gentlemen. Mr. Hingston has, moreover, favoured us with a strong and sensible remonstrance against the proceedings of the fishery commissioners, a subject which would be much too extensive for us to enter upon in this number, but of which we may say, that Mr. Hingston's censure of these commissioners is one in which we believe he is supported by every individual connected with the fisheries in Ireland. But the sketch which we have given of these industrial proceedings at Ballycotton goes to confirm the results of the other cases which we have noticed, and makes the conviction irresistible, that there is nothing either in the habits, the conduct, or the natural capacity of the Irish peasant, to unfit him for any industrial employment to which his energies may be directed.

Yet another instance in support of this truth we would lay before our readers. The following communication is from the Rev. Dr. Martin, of Killeshandra :

"In the year preceding the famine, Mrs. Martin began to teach the method of ornamental knitting to one destitute girl in Killeshandra, and in a short time her success in the manufacture of a scarf of Pyrenean wool was so great, that an order was sent for three dozen of the same description, upon which Mrs. Martin taught three or four girls additional, supplying them with a variety of patterns which she obtained from books, from her own invention, and which she was able, upon trial, to execute. The girls so instructed were required to communicate their experience and acquirements to others, and a remarkable degree of proficiency had been acquired, and a tolerably good market secured, when, in 1846, the famine raged. An immense demand, chiefly from motives of charity, and particularly in England, then arose for goods manufactured by the poorer classes of the Irish, of which demand Mrs. Martin took advantage, and accordingly, during the nine most severe months of

distress, or from October, 1846. tr July, 1847, she was able to give an average daily employment to one hundred and fifty poor females, which number, for several weeks, rose to over 200, and to support an avera e weekly expenditure of £25, whit sum, for many weeks, exceeded £30, expended upon knitted scarfs, and shawls of Shetland, or Pyrenean wool, and gloves of silk, all of which at length obtained a high degree of celebrity and perfection, as well as on woollen socks, polkas, and other articles of coarser manufacture. The experiment clearly proved that there is no want of skill or industry amongst Irish females, and that all they want to make them comfortable and happy, in things temporal, is employment, or a market for their work. In this experiment above £2,000 has been expended, with but little loss to the employer.'

And yet the better classes of Irish society will recklessly, cruelly, and improvidently, deprive the poor Irish girl of this market for her labour, by supplying themselves from abroad, and pretenders to the science of political economy will tell them they do wisely. There is one branch of manufacture in which the Irish have shown a deeided superiority to anything that can be produced in Great Britain, namely, the net and line manufacture. For

these articles there is an immense demand from the fisheries, and yet it is a branch of industry which is comparatively neglected. We have seen some line produced at Glandore, in the county Cork, in a manufactory which originated in a grant of hemp from the ever-generous Society of Friends. We have compared it with the very best manufacture of Bridport, at the same price-one shilling per pound-and nothing could be more decided than the superiority of the Irish line. And Mr. Deane, from whom we have already quoted, mentions that he employed the boys in the schools in making fishing-nets, and adds " It was remarkable to observe the quickness with which they received instruction in the occupation, and the progress they made ;" and any one who has seen the nets which are made at Miss Pim's school at Kingstown, will admit that nothing has been

produced which can surpass them anywhere.

Of the many valuable communications which we have to acknowledge, we have received but one which is at all of a desponding character, or which contains a record of unsuccessful exertion. But even this is valuable, as it shews that, so far from the failure being attributable to any want of ability or of disposition for industrious exertion on the part of the Irish peasant, when he is rightly directed, that it arose in point of fact, from a directly oppo. site cause. The letter which we speak of is from the ill-fated district of Skibbereen, from the Rev. Richard Boyle Townsend, Vicar of Abbey Strewry:

"The result of my effort to promote industrial employment," writes Mr. Townsend," is, that I am nearly beggared by my endeavour. I went on, like many others, certainly in the most economical way I could, but most energetically; and the work-house at the time, in order to promote homemanufacture, having called for a supply of flannels and friezes, no one thought, with such a poor population, in the most deplorable state for want of employment, that we could ever produce enough for its consumption. The consequence you may anticipateheaps were left on our hands, and the price or cost would not be given where there was such a glut. There being no market, all our industrial works have of course resulted in disappointment proportionate to the vigour with which all hands had been set to work."

Every one must regret this result, both on account of the loss sustained by Mr. Townsend himself, as well as for the cause of industry in that part of Ireland where, perhaps, remunerative employment was most needed. We rejoice to find that Mr. Townsend writes in high spirits of an admirablyarranged industrial school for females which he has established. But it is of the utmost importance to the cause which we are advocating-that of the capability of the Irish peasant for industrious pursuits-to observe the occasion of Mr. Townsend's failure; that he does not refer it to any unwilling. ness or unfitness of the peasantry to engage in any occupation to which they may be directed; that, on the contrary, he tells us that the children crowd

with the utmost eagerness to the industrial school which was established; but that he failed, simply because the people produced too much" Heaps were left on our hands, and the price would not be given where there was so great a glut." Dr. Edgar found a market in Scotland, Mrs. Martin very much in England, Mr. Gildea in various parts of the world, and Messrs. Hingston and Edwards, in the resources which their fishery supplied to one portion of their population, found a market for the other; but Mr. Townsend was not equally fortunate, and it is important that the cause of his ill-success should be observed, that men of equal energy and benevolence may not be deterred from imitating him in his attempts, but may be guarded against what led to their failure.

If we could suppose that any were so sceptical as to be still unconvinced by this cumulative evidence, derived from every quarter, of the character and capabilities of our people, we would adduce yet one authority more in their behalf-that of Sir John Macneil.

It will prevent the possibility of its being said that all the testimony which we have brought forward is that merely of charitable, benevolent men, who are unversed in the practical details of business, and that such evidence is not sufficient to establish the fitness of the Irish peasant for remunerative employment. Sir John Macneil was examined before Lord Devon's Commission, and this was his evidence :

"39. Do you find that there is an improvement in their habits, corresponding with the improvement in their condition? -Yes, decidedly so, as far as I am able to judge; and they improve in their moral habits. As soon as an Irishman gets a little better in his circumstances, and gets out of the state of misery they are generally in, they commence to get clothes a little better than they have been accustomed to; and when they get tolerably well dressed, they become totally different characters, and they are men you can trust and depend upon. There are, when this takes place, few quarrels among them. I do not know of a single instance, in which there has been any serious dispute among the workmen upon the Dublin and Drogheda Railway.

"40. Is it your opinion that the power of bettering themselves by these

public works has a tendency to create the strongest desire for improvement? -Yes, the strongest desire; it is visible in their cottages; they have attempted, and have succeeded, in making them better and more comfortable. They are better clothed themselves, and their children are better clothed.

"41. Among those who learned to work better, do you detect anything like listlessness or carelessness?—No, nothing of the kind. An Irishman is the most active fellow possible, if remunerated for his work; there is no idleness among them if they can turn their work to a fair

remuneration.

"42. Do you attribute that improvement to the stimulus of increased wages? -Yes, that is one cause; but it also the effect of a man feeling a little independence; he is anxious to continue to improve his condition, and that of his children. No man will do more, or undergo more hardship, for the sake of his children, than an Irishman.

"43. Have you found much difficulty in settling the price of work?-Not at all; and they seldom strike for an increase of wages."

His

With such universal testimony on the part of every trust-worthy witness to the capabilities of the Irish peasantwith such signal instances of success thus staring us in the face, it were cruel mockery to say that he has not every capacity for industrious exertion, if it be but encouraged and developed, if he be but taught to know what industry is, and suffered but once to experience its advantages. present position is, indeed, one of deep degradation. We say nothing of the causes which have conduced to it; but heavy, indeed, is the responsibility of every one who contributes to its continuance, and still more grievous is his offence who seeks to justify the dereliction of his own duty by heaping inconsiderate calumny on those to whom that duty is owing. Some men are, unquestionably, placed in circumstances much more intimately connected with the peasantry of the country than others. A practising barrister, for example, could never be placed in the same scale with a landed proprietor, in independent circumstances, or a country clergyman, as regards their influence on the condition of the Irish But in one respect every people. member of the community can readily effect a great deal, namely, by provid

ing a market for the products of Ireland's industry, each man to the extent of his own expenditure. It is not the will that is deficient in most men, but simply the resolution. This purpose must be formed by each one for himself: it is not to be carried out by aggregate meetings or public associa tions. Nothing of this kind can be attempted in Ireland, as it is sure to be perverted from its legitimate purposes, and to sink into a mere engine of party politics. Besides, we confess we never felt much sympathy with this habit of doing everything by associations; it leads every man to rush on with the herd, and goes far to destroy the independence and vigour of individual action.

But in addition to this mode, in which all can contribute to advance the

social condition of the country, each of us has his peculiar sphere of action, in which he is bound to exert himself as opportunities may offer. We trust that, in devoting these pages to this subject, we may be considered, to some extent, to have discharged what may be more peculiarly deemed to be our duty. But we would be sorry to rest here. On the contrary, it is our earnest desire that all who are engaged in such noble and truly patriotic efforts, as it is the object of this notice to record, will at all times supply us with such information and suggestions as they may conceive will be conducive to the ends they have in view; and they may always rely on having the fullest support that we can render by our earnest and most strenuous advocacy.

1844.

W. R. H.