The Sun.
London, England, 1823-12-03 00:00:00

CORK AUXILIARY SOCIETY, &c.

REPORT of the CORK AUXILIARY to the BRITISH
and IRISH LADIES' SOCIETY, read at the Aesettibly
Rooms, Cork; on Friday, the 28th Nov. for the Subscribers
and Female Friends of this Society.
The Cotk Centrat Committee present to the Subscriberi and
the Public the first Annual 'Report of. the progress and success
of a Society which has exceeded their most sanguine expecta-
tions. This Institution, Auxiliary to the British and Irish
Ladies' Society for ameliorating the condition of the Female
Peasantry, commenced its operations on the 22d Nov. 1822, when
rules were entered into for the direction and regulation of the So-
ciety, which have already appeared before the public, and hare
met with their approbation. Seven Committees were formed for
the different parishes in the City, composed of Ladies of diffe-
rent religious uenominations, who visited almostevery part of the
Town, to discover the exact state of the poor, whose misery
exceeds the power of description—Thousands of our peasantry
are living under circumstances so • wretched, that unless the
visitors were eye-witnesses to their sufferings we should be
tempted to doubt whether human nature could support life
under the 'privations the Irish experience.—An immense popu-
lation without capital, or other means of exerting their industry
tteany really useful occupation—a City containing upwards of
one hundred thousand inhabitants, forty thousand of whom may
be considered paupers, or tradespeople, whose poverty is daily
increasing, while they live in such dirt, idleness, disease,
and vice, that they are subject to every discomfort and disad-
vantage, and the difficulties that stand in the way of improv-
ing their wretched condition become daily more and more ap-
palling, did not the hope sometimes arise, that when things are
ut the utmost extremity a re-action may take place and pro-
duce unforeseen effects. The efforts of the many benevolent
females in the upper and middle ranks of life, who are devoting
time and talents to relieve the suffering of the poor through the
medium of their own industry, may shortly produce a moral
re-action and check this overwelming flood of human misery.
On the first inspection of our visitors they were nearly
plunged into despair, because they found distress increasing in
many instances apparently hi woportion to their wishes to re-
move it, without any adequate means to afford relief, or even
alleviate it. Thousands of women and girls were most anxious
to be employed if they had wheels, flax, wool, or hemp, satis-
fied with even two-pence per day in many places, aSid conten.
tent to .part with a portion of that small sum in weekly instal-
ments, (it being considered the most judicious mode of supply-
ing by loan, until the wheels were paid for.) The Cork Cen.
teal Committee have to mention with gratitude that the Linen
Board supplied fifty weds and eight reels for the use of the
City, which are ust now ilbeributing, and have also made
grants to some off the County Associations : but we confidently
hope that the Honourable Members of that Board will direct
their attention more particularly to the South of Ireland, and
encourage by every means in their power the growth and ma-
nufacture of flax by the erection of Public Markets in the small
towns in the County_for so long as these are wanting, no en-
couragement is given to industry. For the promotion of regu-
lar Markets, Premiums should be offered for the public sale
and growth of Flax, and saving the seed.
Almost every part of the County of Cork is considered capable
by proper cultivation, to producalax of the best texture, and the
Ladies Association are all engaging in. this, and the Woollen
manufacture, and have made many articles in imitation of the
British clothing—Fishing Nets of a superior kind are manu-
factured by the Kinsale Society—Myross Clone, Clouakilty,
Rosscarbery, Charleville, Bantry, Bander), Newmarket, &c.
tie. arc all actively promoting the manufacture of coarse and
some of fine linen and diaper. Garrycloyne has established
a manufacture of hearth and foot woollen rugs, equal if not su-
perior to those imported, besides other articles. Many of
Obese have also engaged in the Leghorn imitation plait.
Association have likewise opened schools in may places, where
the children are diligently taught spinning, knitting, needle-
Work, and the Leghorn imitation plait. The annexed state-
ments from the 58 different Commatees formtel in the county
and city of Curk, during the past years, will be most eatisfac.
tory evidence in the Parent Society in London of the co-ope-
ration of the Irish Ladies; and here the Committee would ex-
press their gratitude to that Society, who were not satisfied with
giving food and clothing when distress nearly overwhelmed the
Kingdom, but most generously bestowed 6211!. British, for the
purpose of promoting manufactures, and giving a stimulus to
the Ladies of our County to begin the good work, and follow
the bright example of so much excellent and exalted benevo.
levee.
All the Associations in the County received a share of the
British Clothing; those formed in the City were excluded; 1001,
were granted for the use of the manufacture of flex in the City.
The Repository is a branch of the Institution, highly calcu-
lated to be serviceable to the peasantry, in supplying them with
cheap and useful clothing manufactured chiefly by the Associa-
tion, and by ulting small weekly sums in payment, it induces
the poor to save the money that alight otherwise be badly tbs.
pose(l nt, and-thus often leads to, the isavina's J. and re.
doublet( diligence and anxiety fur work. But the" want of sales
sufficient to supply the thousands who are out of employment
has hitherto retarded the progress of industry and cleanliness,
and consequently the improvement of the City branch has been
less visible, because the distress Is eo much greater than that of
the County, and the want of markets; want of 'employment,
and, above all, want of money, present obstacles to your Com-
mittee almost insurmountable. Could the ladies in Great Bri-
tain open a Bazaar, in London, for the sale of Irish manufac-
ture and needle work of various kinds, it would promote the
progress of industry, and open a communication between the
two countries of mutual benefit.
The coarse Linens made in the County of Cork are consi-
dered excellent, and the improvements in the steeping and pre-
paring the flax by scutchingenills, when more generally adopt-
ed, will produce as tine flax under good management as Hol-
land or Flanders. Near Mill-street the experiment has been
tried under the inspection of Messrs. Ilyett and Salsbury, who
were deputed by the London Committee for this purpose, and
the result has been most satisfactory.
The Ladies of the Cork Central Committee are indebted to
Mr. Hyett for having made an arrangement with the Trustees
of the Loan Fund, to grant to the Ladies' Association small
sums, from 261. to RM. at 1/. per cent. interest, finding three
responsible gentlemen as a security, for the principal. Both
these gentlemen attended the Ladies Committee, and they ex-
pressed themselves much pleased with the progress of the so-
ciety, and communicated much interesting information relative
to the success of the British and Irish Auxiliaries in the Coun-
ties of Clare, 'Waterford, Tipperary, &c. &c.
To the extension of the Linen Trade in the County of' Cork,
which is now only in its infancy, your Committee cannot but
look with the greatest solicitude, for wherever it has obtained a
footing in Ireland, industry, moral habits, contentment and
tranquillity, have almost invariably followed. The want of
implements is peculiarly felt, from the poverty of the peasantry
to furnish themselves with good Machinery, wheels, scotching-
mills ; and a better mode of bleaching and steeping would soon
produce a manufacture of Linen in the South and West equal
to any part of the North of Ireland.
The Ladies' Associations lend the wheels at small weekly
installments, end in this way have supplied many of the female
peasantry, but machinery is too expensive to be enabled to
afibrd much relief from such local Institutions—and had they
not been assisted by British beneyolence, none of those active
and useful Committees could have been funned, from the state
of the country ;—the impossibility of collecting rents, and the
insecurity of property in Ireland, incapacitating the Country
Gentleman from being able to bestow much on charitable ob-
jects.
The County of Cork is thought to contain one million of
inhabitants, and the late census returned seven hundred and
two thousand depending upon charitable assistance for sup.
port I I Does not such a number of distressed objects call
loudly upon the British and Irieli Ladies' Society to interest a
generous public on their behalf ; all are willing to work, who
are capable of doing so, amid it is by her own energy and active
co-operation that Ireland can be emancipated from beg cry,
idleness, immoral habits, insubordination, and crimes, that have
stained our country with cruelty and savage barbarity, abhor-
rent and disgraceful to humanity.
Gifts wholly gratuitous and calling forth no exertion on the
part of the peasantry, will inertia° rather than diminish the
evils that exist in Ireland ; but by well-timed Loans to pur-
chase Flaxseed and Wheels at small weekly instalments, or
Flax, &c. supplied, to be repaid by labour; a shilling thus
earned by honest industry, is better than aguinea gratuitously
bestowed. Food, blankets, deflating, or fuel, will not supply
a fund for future wants; but the spinning-wheel of theft:male
in the cottage, it' constantly in motion, will soon supply food,
blenkets and fuel, anti also stimulate the male cottager to
grow the flax that affords him so many comforts, and thus
contribute permanently to renovate and soften the character, by
exciting hope mind planting habits of cheerful activity in the
i
room of sloth and nditibrence.
The Reports of 68 Associations, formed in one year in the
County and City of Cork ; for the sole purpose of ameliorating
the condition of the Peasantry, through the medium of their
own indristry, speaks in itself' such "living epistles" of active
benevolence and patriotic philanthrophy, on the part of the Irish
Ladies, that &literate their British Sisters, and amply reward
them for the Christian feelings of tenderness and pity for the
sufferings of the Irish. Peasantry, which induced them to com-
mence and carry forward so stupendous a work for female
operation ; but if the Lord blesses the means, the feeblest in-
struments are often chosen by him to carry on the grandest de.
signs of his Providence, that It might appear that the work was
His alone, that no flesh should glory in his presence, but thee
all might he constrained to acknowledge Him the author amid
giver of every good and perfect gift, and yield to Him undivid.
ed praise and glory.
Here follow abstracts of the debtor and creditor accounts
ac, of the Association.]

From the LONDON GAZETTE, DEC.

At the Court at Windsor, Nov. 25, 1823.

The King, as Sovereign of the most Noble Order of the
Garter, bath been ples,sed, by letters patent under his Royal
sign manual, and the Great Seal of tha,Order, bearing date
this day,,, to dispense with all the statutes and regulations
usually observed with regard to installation; and to grant unto
his most Faithful Majesty John the Sixth, King of Portugal,
Brazil, and the Algarves, Knight of the said most Noble
Order, and duly invested with the habit and ensigns thereof, at
the Royal Palace of Ajuda, at Lisbon, on the 23d day of Sep..
tember last, by the Plenipotentiaries nominated for that pur-
pose, full power and authority to exercise all rights and
privileges belonging to a Knight-Companion of the mat Noble
Order of the Garter,' in as full and ample a manner as if his
most Faithful Majesty, had been formally installed; any de-
cree, rule, or usage to the contrary notwithstanding.