The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-23 00:00:00

LONDON,

WEST
_ENGLISH N IRELANDENTERPR ISE. AS A FIELD FOR
_E*
(SECOND NOTICE.)
The great success of the linen manufacture in the
neighbourhood of Belfast, and the valuable publica-
tions of the Royal Flax Society of Ireland have lately
done much towards arousing public attention to the
vast importance of an extended cultivation of flax in
that country ; and we are not surprised at the pro-
minence which Mr. Seymour has given this plant in
his project for a land society in the province of Con-
naught, uniting the development of its agricultural
and manufacturing resources contemporaneously.
Flax and beet-root are both admirably suited for a
judicious system of rotation, as some of our most ap-
proved writers inform us. Mr. Sullivan, the Govern-
ment Professor of Agricultural Chemistry in the
Dublin Economic Museum, remarks "as land cannot
always be under green crops, it will probably be
found that properly arranged rotations of beet and
flax will be the best crops that can be grown in Ire-
land." In this opinion he agrees with Professors
Low, Liebig, and other deservedly popular autho-
rities. The humidity of the Irish climate, which is
frequently unfavourable to the production of cereals,
renders it peculiarly suitable for the growth of root
crops and textile plants. In Belgium, where the cul-
tivation of flax is best understood, the heat and long-
continued droughts of summer often cause a compa-
rative failure of the crop, and ordinarily the plant
attains to a height of scarcely more than twelve to
fourteen inches ; while in Ireland a short crop, on
account of want of rain, is hardly ever known.
"In many respects," says the Chevalier Claussen, in
a paper read before the Council of the Royal Agri-
cultural Society of England, "our climate is better
adapted for the growth of flax than even Belgium,
inasmuch as we are not subject to those severe
droughts, which, occurring in the spring in that
country, frequently inflict very serious damage upon
the young crop. Flax is grown to some extent in
almost every part of the United Kingdom. It has
been grown with success upon an Irish bog, and in the
fen districts of England, on the summit of the
Wicklow mountains, and upon the Beacon Hill of
Norfolk, in the midland counties of England, and
the western shores of Galwoy and Mayo." "The
natural circumstances of Ireland," observes Sir
Robert Kane, "are such as to adapt it in a singularly
perfect manner to the development of the flax and
linen manufacture, to an indefinite extent;"—
an opinion the correctness of which Lord Clarendon
has, on several occasions, expressed his thorough con-
viction. In an address delivered by his Excellency
on his visit to Belfast last year he thus makes allusion
to the subject i—" The great and growing importance
of flax in Ireland cannot, in my opinion, be over
estimated; and the more we consider it in is agri-
cultural, manufacturing, and commercial bearings on
our welfare, the more apparent will, I think, become
the necessity and advantage of its extended cultiva-
tion, in a country where soil and climate are so pecu-
liarly adapted to its cultivation, and I rejoice to think
that attention is now so generally turned to this subs
ject, and at a moment when flax is most likely to be
remunerative to the grower."
With such encouragements to extend the cultiva-
tion of flax, we are not surprised to learn that last
year there were about 60,000 acres under this
crop in Ulster alone, being as much as the whole
of Ireland devoted to in 1849. In Connaught,
unfortunately, where there is most need of agricul-
tural improvement, and of devising some means for
employing a redundant population, the breadth of
land under flax has always been insignificant, except
in the county of Mayo, where the persevering exertions
of Sir Richard A. O'Donnel have been crowned with
remarkable success. The annual sowing in Ulster
averages 50,000 acres, while the other three provinces
cultivate scarcely more than 4,000. Now the annual
consumption of flax in these countries may be taken
at 80,000 tons, and the value of foreign flax, seed,
and oil-cake at 2,000,0001.; and upon a careful inves-
tigation of the subject we entertain no doubt what-
ever that Ireland might not only meet this demand,
and thus put a stop to such an enormous annual drain
of our capital into Russia, but might herself be a
large exporter to France, Belgium, and America. Mr.
M'Adam, of Belfast, a well-known authority on this
question, has calculated that Ireland could produce
500,000 acres annually without more than a due
proportion being sown on every farm of suitable
soil. This would give 150,000 tons of fibre,
value 9,000,0001, and 750,000 quarters of
seed, value 1,650,0001., or in all about ten
millions and a half sterling ! Should the patent pro-
cess of the Chevalier Claussen answer all the high ex-
pectations formed of it, and his chemical preparation
of flax-fibre produce a cheap and useful substitute for
cotton, the demand for flax would enormously in-
crease. Manchester alone would be a sufficient
market for the growers in western Ireland, and render
them independent of the demand from local manufac-
turers. But it may be asked, as it often has been,
why do not the Irish people themselves take advantage
of their own much praised soil and climate, and set
themselves to extend the cultivation of flax, sugar-
beet, and other " commercial plants," for which it
appears there is an indefinitely large and profitable
home market ? Why do not the farmers and land-
lords cf western Ireland at once go to work to raise
at least their quota of flax, and thus endeavour to put
an end to the enormous imports that are annually
made from Russia ? We are not surprised at the
frequency of these obvious interrogatories ; but we
must remind those who put them that such
anomalies are not uncommon in Ireland ; and that,
notwithstanding the indifference with which Irish
landlords and Irishfarmers treat these new and increas-
ing sources of wealth, they are, nevertheless, real
and not visionary, and are worthy the best attention
and the most patient investigation of Englishmen
who are seeking new channels for the employment of
their surplus capital, or who are desirous of a new
field for the exercise of their skill and labour. Until
the Encumbered Estates Act, tha difficulty of pro-
curing land in Ireland, with a good title and on easy
terms, was extremely great ; and it was no wonder
that, under such circumstances, people were slow to
seek an investment there; but now, when the title
is unexceptionable—better than nine-tenths of the
titles to English freeholds—when the price averages
but twelve to fourteen years' purchase on the Com-
missioners'ssaluations—when the unemployed and des-
titute portion of the population is greatly diminished
by emigration and other causes—when a direct com-
munication with America is being established (the
effect of which must be highly beneficial to Ireland)—
it appears almost unaccountable that comparatively
little or no English capital has been devoted to the
purchase of Irish estates ; and much as we have heard
of Scotch and English farmers settling in Western
and Southern Ireland, that so few even of these have
accepted the present favourable opportunity of making
a profitable settlement in that country.
We suspect the real cause for this singular state of
things is to be found in the old fears about the safety
of life and property on the oter side of the ChannelA,
which are so generally entertained amongst us.
little honest inquiry, however, into the true state of
the case would soon dissipate those needless alarms,
so far as the province of Connaught is concerned.
In our former notice we touched upon this subject,
and have only to add that the unfortunate but
have
peace-
able and industrious peasantry of the West
commonly been treated heretofore with great unfair-
ness, by being included in the same category of crime
with their more lawless and turbulent neighbours of
the South. Yet we have good reason to
that numerous persons, who entertained no fears of
this character, were justly apprehensive that their
individual efforts, would be thwarted and neutral-
lized by circumstances over which they could have no
control. Without convenient markets, with bad roads,la
in the midst of a pauper population, employing -
bourers unaccustomed to:any,but the;worst systems of
agriculture, who can wonder that few of our York-
shire or Lincolnshire farmers have ventured to seek
their fortunes in Western Ireland? To an isolated
settler, the difficulties and disadvantages of his position,
perhaps, would outweigh its great and numberless in-
trinsic advantages. His best efforts would be un-
availing to cope with the multitudinous obstacles that
there stand in the way of all improvement—obstacles
which may be removed only by the associated energies
and united action of numbers. Such was the convic-
tion of the late Sir Robert Peel when he made his
celebrated proposition to the Corporation of London
for the colonization of Connaught. We quite agree
with Mr. Seymour in deprecating that extensive.
Government interference which is advocated by some
persons. As a general rule, Parliamentary grants,
for the employment of the redundant labour of Ireland
in public works, have been attended with the worst
consequences, both to the country and to the unfor-
tunate peasantry whom they were designed to serve.
They have uniformly proved expensive and unhealthy
stimulants, and have but ill succeeded in affording
even a temporary relief to the destitute, while they
have done much harm in diverting labour from its
proper field into forced and unremunerating channels.
Nothing can be more injudicious (remarks Mr.
Seymour) than the system of public works in Ire-
land, with its staff of overpaid officials, and its legion
of underlings. It would be absolutely ludicrous, were
the subject not so melancholy, to describe the national
onslaught made upon the roads of Ireland some two or
three years ago, under the provisions of the Poor Re-
lief Act. There eves, unhappily, a national highway
which these myriads of labourers were busied in lay-
ing down—let us hope it will never be finished
Ireland's road to ruin ! Instead of such precipitate
efforts of Parliamentary philanthropy, how much
more good would have been effected by encourag-

" llow to Employ Capital in Western Ireland, being
Answers to a Few Practical Questions upon the Manu-
facture of Beet Sugar, Flax, and Chicory, in connexion
with a Land Investment in the West of Ireland." By
William Digby Seymour, of the Middle Temple, Bar-
rister-at-Law. Third Edition. Ridgway and Effingham
W ilson,
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