material is the growth of the country, to transport the manufactured article from the factory to the seaport with equal advantage, will, we admit, require a much better system of communication, either by extended inland navigation, or by railroads. Still there is a great open for the investment of capital in those manufactures, which encourage the local production of their own material-we allude particularly to the flax-spinning and corn-milling trades, in which capital well applied is invariably found to create a market at the mill-door. Thus an increased growth of flax, to an immense extent, has followed the investment of capital in linen-spiuning mills in Ulster and the erection of the flour and corn mills on the Suir and Barrow within the last fifty years, has increased the grain produce of the adjacent districts to an extent that will appear scarce credible. We will confirm our views in the latter instance by quoting an account of all the flour sent into Dublin from the mills of the county Carlow, in the vear 1785, now fifty years since; extracted from returns printed in the journals of the Irish House of Commons, vol. xii.; and will add a comparative statement of the quantity of grain ground in the same county within the last year, on the authority of a leading mercantile house in Dublin. It is to be borne in mind that in 1785 Dublin was the only channel of export from this county. From this statement it would appear that, taking the export of raw grain as equal in each year, (although it is certain that it also has greatly increased,) the quantity of corn grown in this county is now seven times as great as it was fifty years ago, when Carlow had the name of being one of the most agricultural counties in Ireland; and this change upon the face of the country has been unquestionably produced by the demands of an increased capital vested in mill powers on the Barrow. One illustration of the creation of a supply in the district of the Suir, is perhaps still more striking. About eighty years since, Mr. Samuel Grubb of Clonmel proposed to erect a flour mill. There was already. a small mill in Clonmel, which did the grinding of the neighbourhood; and the proprietor, looking on competition in so limited a trade as certain ruin both to himself and his rival, expostulated seriously with Mr. Grubb on the supposed unreasonableness of such a project. Both gentlemen being, we believe, members of the Society of Friends, the matter, ridiculous as it may appear, was left to arbitration, when it was determined that Mr. Grubb had the right to invest his money in the scheme if he thought fit; at the same time, the speculation was pronounced as extremely dangerous, from the fact that the vicinity of Clonmel was at that time any thing but a corn-growing country, and that in fact Mr. Grubb had no chance of getting grist for his mill. Mr. Grubb, however, persevered, and built his mill; had always ready money at his doornever sent any but a prime article to market—and the consequences are, that his grandson, Mr. Richard Grubb, now grinds annually 40,000 barrels wheat at Clogheen, and as much more at Cahir; Mr. Samuel Grubb, another grandson, grinds also 40,000 barrels in Clogheen; and Mr. Robert Grubb, a third, from 15,000 to 20,000 in Clonmel; and to supply these splendid establishments, a district which 80 years since produced little more than 5000 barrels of wheat in the year, now waves with annual harvests of white wheat for miles, and teems with a well-occupied 45,000 and happy peasantry. We could quote 45,000 numberless instances of the same kind 222,200 in this, as well as other branches of Cuts of flour sent to Dublin by land carriage and canal, for the year 1784-5, from the County of Carlow. Cwts. 48 535 201 16 8266 20,000 31,555 Cwts of flour manufactured in the mills of the Mills. Mr. Clarke, Burrin Mills, Ballyellan Mills, Cwts. 15,000 15,000 Mr. John Haughton, Barrow Mills, 22,700 Messrs J. & W. Haughton, Levetstown Mills* 10,500 Clashganny Mills, 9,000 Messrs Crosthwaite, Lodge Mills, 60,000 of * On the border of the county. trade. Mr. David Malcomson of Clonmel would furnish an example of the power of capital and industry in training an agricultural population to the successful pursuit of factory labour, The Messrs. Mulholland might be cited as the revivers of the yarn-spinning trade, which now occupies perhaps a fourth part of the capital of Belfast, and owes its present prosperity mainly to their spirited example. Mr. Henry of Island-bridge is a proof of what taste and enterprise can effect in making the labours of Irish artizans rival the most beautiful productions of the looms of France and England. Mr. Bianconi might be referred to as an example of perseverance rewarded in the success of such an establishment as, perhaps, cannot be equalled in the annals of posting. But why multiply examples? The voice of experience. unequivocally proclaims the fact, that the man of integrity and business-like habits has an open for successful exertion in every quarter of the country, in any bona fide mercantile pursuit. pointed fishing-boat of twenty tons is not to be found upon our whole western, coast. It is equally well known that there is ample employment for fleets of fishing vessels off that coast during a great part of every year. The fishermen of Clare and Galway, in their canvas-bottomed coracles, are the only labourers in the field; and they may be compared to labourers attempt ing to cut a harvest without sickles for they have neither tackle nor stowage, nor seaworthy craft at sea; nor cooperage, nor storeage, nor regular markets on shore. A company, we rejoice to hear, has been formed, and early in the season we look for a few tubs of sunfish oil in the market, from Blacksod or the Killeries; nor should we be surprised, although much gratified, to hear that some huge wanderer from Arctic seas had fallen a prey to the harpoon, and was lying high and dry on the strands of the Mullet, or under the cliffs of Donegal, before next midsummer. The field, we repeat, is rich and ample; there is room enough, and, work enough for all; but we willingly wait the appearance of the report before we further dilate upon a subject too important to be treated only in a section, From the manufacturer we turn to the capitalist, who vests his money in mining operations. The mines of Ire-, land have hitherto been worked to a very small extent; yet that working, limited as it is, has been, until lately, much more extensive than the capital embarked could justify. The work attempted, and the means by which it is to be done, are now much more nearly balanced, and the consequence is, a most flourishing condition of affairs, We refer with pleasure to their last report, by which it appears that the lead and copper of our Wicklow mountains compete successfully with the richest ores of Anglesea and Cornwall in the English market. There is ample room for competition: in fact the chief drawback on the early success of the present company, arose from the multiplicity of mines among which they had to choose. We trust the time is coming when the capitalist will no longer have this complaint to make of the rich veins of iron, copper, lead, and mangenese, which now solicit his attention in so many neglected corners of the country, or excite his pity going to waste in the hands of incompetent and unskilful workers. As to the general pursuits of trade, wherever we turn our attention we see men of even moderate application decidedly successful; while attention to business, punctuality and integrity command, here as elsewhere, the warmest smiles of fortune. Let any one look around among his cotemporaries: is the diligent and upright man anywhere in want? Who sees the sheriff's sale advertised on the door-posts of the active, the temperate, the punctual? Are working men briefless above, or clientless below, the bar? Is the skilful surgeon without patients? Is the fair trader without customers? Is the steady, active servant without a master? If there be any such, they are exceptions. The rule holds here, as it must continue to do wherever society exists, that the business-like man, whether his business be a service or a trade, or a mercantile occupation, or a profession, will never be at a loss for either work or wages. So far we arrogate no peculiar mercantile advantages to the country. It would be a wretched place indeed if activity and honesty had not their accustomed rewards in it. But we purpose to show that we have among us more men of the class described than the country From the report which the Board of Works are now preparing on Irish fisheries, we expect a mass of valuable particulars; but the document is not yet published. The general fact is, however, notorious, that a well ap generally gets credit for; and that every accession to their numbers must for many years to come, increase the existing inducements for others of the same stamp to join them. The prejudice against the Irish is, unfortunately, strongest in those places where its effects tell most sensibly. Give a man a doubtful name on the Exchange, and it is much worse for him in a worldly point of view, than if his next-door neighbour, nay even his own family entertained a decidedly bad opinion of him. It is thus with us: we are in disgrace in the market. In London and in New York, the conduct of our transplanted countrymen is unfortunately much worse than at home; and everything Irish suffers from a proportionate odium. Go through the streets of business in London; you will find no thriving tradesman with a Milesian name over his door. The O' is fatal. We speak it with a mixture of regret and indignation, that no man whose name marks a mere Irish origin, can look for success in any trade depending on the patronage of the westend inhabitants of London. We have heard of an adventurer called Patrick O'Shaughnessy, a fashionable bootmaker, who once made the attempt. Conscious of his danger, he did his best to neutralize the obnoxious words by the introduction of an English prenomen. It was at the time of the Marquis of Anglesea's popularity, and he chose, as the most auspicious, the family name of that nobleman, calling himself Patrick Paget O'Shaughnessy. Thus, the Paget" shone forth in golden letters over his door, while the "Patrick" at one side, and the O'Shaughnessy" at the other, were partly screened from public animad version by the friendly curve of either window. Had he lived opposite to a thoroughfare his fortune would have been made. Unhappily for Patrick, however, his shop was so situated that whether going or coming, the proscribed words first caught the eye of the passenger. He was in the Gazette in three months after. We know another instance of an Irish gentleman in lodgings in London, asking the name of his servant. The girl said her name was Jane Williams. The gentleman expressed surprise, as, he said, her countenance had assured him she was a countrywoman. The girl, after some hesitation, confessed that her real name was Jane Lynch, that she had been born in Cork, but reared in St. Giles's, and that she had been obliged to take the English name of Williams to obtain a place. The anecdotes may appear trifling such trifles have been of material injury to Ireland. How strongly does the conduct of the absentee Irish, whose heartless and cowardly subserviency to fashion, forces their own countrymen to these unworthy shifts for subsistence in a foreign land, contrast with that of the kindly Scot wherever he is to be found. But it is not in London only, nor in servile occupations alone, that the mischief of this cruel prejudice is felt. Many of the manufacturers of Dublin must cross the channel and return under fictitious names into their native market before they can conciliate the custom of our own resident gentry. Let us give the history of an English made saddle purchased some time since in Dublin. The beasts from whose hides the greater part of it is made, were probably reared in Connaught, sold at Ballinasloe, slaughtered and skinned in Cork, and the hides tanned in Dublin. The leather was then sent to England to dress, and returned to Dublin to be manufactured; was again reshipped to England in its manufactured shape, to get a name, and has been a third time sent back to Dublin to command that market under false pretences, which it dared not solicit in its genuine character. If the statement seem too startling, we will corroborate it with another. A fashionable Dublin lady purchases a dress at a high price as a French or Swiss mustin; the piece from which it has been cut is the produce of an Irish loom; the yarn was spun in Belfast, the fabric was woven in Dublin; the pattern was designed and stamped upon it on the banks of the Liffey; yet the goods have been regularly consigned from London or Bristol to the retailer. Let us give another anecdote. There is a metal billiard table manufactory in Dublin. The metal platform of the table is planed by machinery which shaves it as smooth as a plate of glass. The tables are supplied for sale to a London house. Some months ago, a Galway gentleman came to the ingenious and enterprising proprietor, and priced a table. The sum asked was fifty pounds. The Connaught man demurred, thinking it better to give more money for a superior article in the English market The manufacturer, who knew his business, made no abatement, and the customer went his way. In less than a month after, the same table brought seventy guineas in a London warehouse, and the purchaser was the identical gentleman from Gal way. It is thus the country loses the credit of the little industry it possesses. It must be plain that every accession to that industry will tend to make the Irish manufacturer more confident. The character of being Irish-made nust soon cease to be an objection to any article in the market: if the article be good enough to pass for French or English now, it will surely be good enough to hold its own when brought into the market in quantity sufficient to warrant open competition. True, many branches of trade have declined, but these were supported by a fictitious system of protective duties, before they fell away. The old system of copyright gave peculiar advantages to the Irish bookseller. Many large works were accordingly published in Dublin in an expensive and creditable manner. After our capitals were put upon a literary footing, the publishing business of Dublin declined, and many thought it never could revive. What is the fact? We refer with confidence to the advertising sheet appended to our Magazine; we refer with pride to this work which is the vehicle of our views, for proof of the fallacy of this, as well as of every other speculation founded on the assumption that equal means In fine, whether we consider our country as a scene in which the tourist may converse with nature under her most agreeable forms; or as a theatre in which the philosophic traveller may study society under its most interesting and characteristic aspects; or as a field of commercial adventure, in which the practical and the moneyed man may look for a fair reward for industry, and a compensating return for capital, in the prosecution of meritorious labours and benevolent speculations, we see on every hand good cause for hope, and honest pride, and self-congratulation. « Previous to the consolidation of the copyright acts, the copyright of books printed in England and Scotland, extended to Great Britain and its colonies, but not to Ireland; while, vice versa, the copyright of books published in Ireland, was circumscribed within the limits of the island. At the Union all this was changed, and the copyright of a book printed in any part of the British islands was extended throughout the whole empire. This, of course, materially damaged the publishing trade of Ireland, because most of the books hitherto printed were piracies of English and Scotch works, thus saving to the Dublin publishers all risk in the purchase of copyrights, and inducement to encourage native literature. But this change in the law gave ample equivalent in extending the property in Irish publications to the whole of Great Britain and its dependencies. Had some bookseller possessed intelligence, as many had capital enough, at this time, to retain at home the productions of Edgeworth, Moore, and a mass of Irish genius, then as well as now, floating on the surface of the world, Dublin might have occupied a very different position in our literary history: but, from whatever cause it arose, this desirable event did not happen, and the publishing trade of Ireland fell to the lowest ebb-periodical literature was extinct, and the productions of the Irish press were confined to school-books, and a few pamphlets of political or theological controversy even our local guide books were the property of a house in Paternoster Row," (The Picture of Dublin,-Curry and Co.; 1835-pp. 72-3.) Hence, in a great measure, the decrease of occupation at our custom-house, so much lamented, but really beneficial to the interest of free trade in the country. How calm thy waters travel to their rest! And crushed reeds murmuring, alone betray Thy youth was bold and daring,—in wild war Now, thou hast hushed thine angry roar asleep, Hear in what gentle tones it chides thy stay: And shapes of ill and earthy taints arose To stain the first pure freshness thou didst bring "Come from the haunts of poverty and care, "Here shalt thou find but images of heaven, The starry skies, the golden clouds of even, Here shalt thou rest-while the true moon doth keep And thou art murmuring back, O gentle river, Oh there is nothing here of care or pain, No trace of age, or weariness, or woe: Scarce the soothed spirit feels life's fettering chain, And can we marvel old religion gave Celestial habitants to every bower, Heard in the gush of each low-murmuring wave |