The quantity of linen sold in Dublin, in 1808 and 1809, will be seen from the lollowing statement, extracted Irom the Appendix to the Linen Board Report.
The cotton manufacture is of very late introduction into Ireland. The first mill for spinning cotton twist by wa ter was erected in 1784 ; and, in the year 1800, it ap peared, in evidence before Parliament, that the cotton manufacture, established within a circle of ten miles round Bel last and Lisburn. and including those towns, employed 13,500 working people ; and that the whole number, to whom it gave occupation, amounted to 27,000. This manu facture is spreading rapidly, and scents as if it would sup plant that of linen in many parts of Ireland. Being similar, in some respects, to the latter, it made its way with greater facility among the lower classes. It also affords them higher wages, principally from the manner in which it is carried on ; for, instead of the raw material, as in the case of the linen manufacture, being purchased by the weaver, and sold afterwards in a manufactured state, the cotton yarn is either given out by the master manufacturer to the weaver, who receives so much per piece for his labour, or it is wove in manufactories. All the spinning is pet form ed by machinery. The cotton manufacture is established chit fly near Belfast, where it was first fixed. It has also spi cad to Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford, and Louth. At Colton, in Louth, there are 1300 looms employed in calico weaving ; and at Stratford, in the county of Wick low, there is also a large calico manufactory : the yarn for this is brought from Scotland, and wound and wove in the village. The manufacture of rnuslins is also carried on in some parts of the counties of Cork, Down, and Queen's Cuunty ; and, indeed, it is highly probable, that all the branches of the cotton manufacture will lix themselves in Ireland, especially in those parts where linen iG made, from the great and obvious advantage which is derived from the similarity of the manufactures, in enabling the weavers to turn their labour to the one or the other, as the demand for either is more prevalent.
In treating of the sheep husbandry of Ireland, it has been remarked, that the demand for them as mutton is very consequently not very many are kept, and of those that are, a considerable proportion are exported to Eng land. Hence it will appear, that the woollen manufacture, on a large scale, cannot exist in Ireland. We have already mentioned, in the history of this country, that it was form erly much checked and depressed by the jealousy of the English woollen manufacturers, to which the English government very unjustly, as well as unwisely, gave its sanction and support. And since the union, which placed
the two countries on the saute footing., this species of manu facture does not seem to have flourished. Besides the cause already mentioned, which perhaps ought more pro perly to be deemed the effect of the absence of woollen manufactories, there is another which operates very power full) and generally. The great mass of the people manu facture their own tt,00llen cloths. Ail the wool that is shorn is manufactured into frieze and limey by the proprietors of the sheep, who card, spin, weave, dye, and consume it. The poorer classes, who cannot afford to purchase oil for their woollen goods, extract, in the summer, the juice of the fern root, which answers the purpose of oil ; and the twigs of the alder, walnut, and oak, with elder berries, &c. are used for dyeing. In some parts of Ireland, the com mon farmers and cotters, and their wives and children, manufacture not only frieze, stockings, linse) s, flannels, petticoats, &c. for their own children, but also some woollen goods for sale.
As the woollen manufacture on a great scale is not es tablished in this country, there are few or none of those people, who, in England, prepare the wool for the manulac turers. There are no wool breakers. There are plenty of wool merchants, who buy whole fleeces, but none who un derstand the art of sorting it. As the expottation of tt ool in the yarn is pet milted by the Irish laws, the principal part of the wool, not used in the domestic manufactures, is purchased by the merchants in the south of Ireland ; and after it is spun there, it is exported to England for the Norwich manufacturers. There are, however, a few wool len manufactures of different descriptions in some parts of this country. A small quantity of broad cloth is made at Carrick on the Suir ; blankets are made at Kilkenny ; but both these manufactures are on the decline. In 180U, there were employed at Kilkenny about 78U people ; the average number of pieces wove in the year were 2500, and the greatest capital at any time employed did not exceed 36,0001. There is a flannel manulactory in the county of Wicklow, also on the decline. - Between 1794 and 18u9, the total number of pieces exposed to sale scarcely ex ceeded 55,00. A small quantity of broad cloth is manu factured at Dublin ; and very lately, in the county of Kil dare, a woollen manufacture has been established, with shearing machinery, and all the other improvements of Yorkshire. Broad cloth and blanket manufactories are es tablished no where to the north of the capital. In the neigh bourhood of Cork, and along the coast of that country, stuffs are manufactured.