The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-16 00:00:00

most van it varied instruction thatwas possible to
impart. Our clergy, as a whole, are by
far the beat educated portion of the com-
munity ; but if teachers, however able or esti-
mable, were taken from their ranks, persons of
different persuasions would hesitate to place their
children under their care. It would, indeed, be in-
finitely desirable that the children of the gentry, the
mercantile classes, and those intended for professions,
should be brought up at the same institutions ; any
other procedure must be productive of exclusion,
narrow, one-sided views, and distorted, abortive
conception of men and things. The Catholics, in my
opinion, make a great mistake, in conducting the
preliminary education of so influential a body as their
clergy, in a theological seminary ; and in further
debarring them from the advantage once enjoyed of
a partial residence abroad. Finally, I must regret
that public opinion does not yet appear to sanction
establishments for imparting a higher grade of educa-
tion to females than what seminaries for the young can
reasonably be expected to afford.
That estimable individual M. Theobald Mathew,
with others, has effected a most beneficial revolution
in lessening the uncalculating addiction to in-
toxicating drinks. The advantages yielded by the
Mathewite reform, I may be permitted to observe,
would be considerably enhanced by a reduction in the
duties on tea and coffee, for which civilising bever-
ages the Irish working classes have already a great
addiction. I would further attach great importance,
in the way of improving the social condition of our
labouring poor, and generally consolidating the
union, to a more perfect intercourse between the
countries., There ought to be a daily steam-boat
communication between Glasgow and Londonderry,
Belfast and Liverpool, Bristol and Waterford, as
between Dublin and one or two points there already
is. The charge ;perhaps is low enough; but the ac-
commodation for humble wayfarers is infamously de-
ficient. In the old sailing packets straw and a refuge
in the hold were always available ; but at present
even during the coldest weather, exposed to wind,
rain and drifting surge, men, with women anddelicate
children, divide the crowded decks with swine and
cattle, destitute of the accommodation which decency,
not to say comfort, enjoins.
I would have no Irish Parliament, whether inde-
pendent or federal, since I fear they would only prove
the source of strife and disunion, an arena for secta-
rian disputes, clashing interests, trashy harangues,
and petty ambitions. American federalism hardly in-
vites inntation. 'We had a Parliament once, and those
who composed it, Irish as they were, sold their inhe-
. -critance. Who is to say that successors equally un-
.+l!'.•-**t‘ . might not repeat the sale ? The shame, as
" .14 fi all, 4hoanake a trade of their country's wrongs,
s"1 "nth- inb`ee the seelling than in the buying—out upon
sletdraies'•ia-an'a £heir memory for ever! Would
that the union, however desirable, had been accom-
plished by honester means ; an honest end
neither needs nor sanctions a dishonest re-
sort. I would maintain the Union indeed, but
on the principle of equal justice ; I would maintain it,
but not to be cast in the shade, to be treated with
scorn and obloquy, neglect and poverty. Let not the
iron heel of despotism be planted in the faces of the
widow, the fatherless, the miserable. Do not further
alienate the energetic, the enlightened, and the de-
termined of the Irish ; do not push beyond endurance
the sufferings of the poor. The rattling cutlass of
the heavy dragoon, the clanking musket of the red-
coated soldier—horse, foot, artillery, are poor and
passing expedients to allay starvation and despair.
We may be trampled on, but we still would have
strength left to drag our oppressors into the mire.
Yet rancour towards Ireland is not so potent, nor the
love of order and justice so extinct, as to suffer the
continuance of ineffaceable wrong : bright and con-
fident are my hopes in the well-doing of generous
England as in the progress of our race.
If not a local Parliament however, elective grand
juries, or other similar local elective jurisdictions, in
order•to transact local business, and watch over local
interests, should assuredly be established. Bills for
particular purposes before the Imperial Legislature
might well be discussed in Standing Committees ; an
institution that we might borrow with every advan-
tage from the Congress of the United States. In
other respects, the unnecessary and expensive juris-
diction of the Lord-Lieutenant being abolished, I
would urge, with all my heart and soul, that the Im-
perial Court and Parliament should sit triennially in,
Dublin, of course, triennially in London and Edin-
burgh. It is quite absurd to say that the members:of
an itinerating Parliament, as it has been termed, could
not as readily meet in Dublin as in London.. Never
will there be happiness, never perfect peace or pros-
perity in Ireland, till this vital measure be accom-
plished. If Mr. O'Connell, with his powerful talents,
his unwearying energies, had agitated for this in place
of the dislocating expedient of repeal, he would have
had the hearty concurrence of myriads who otherwise
never will join with him. Suitable accommodations
were easily, and how cheerfully provided ; we
have a palace and houses of parliament already
constructed, with means of communicating with
London in a few hours. Absentees, one and
all, would flock without coercion homeward ; we
should be further visited by multitudes of our Eng-
lish and Scottish neighbours ; and more would be
done in a single year by this simple and constitutional
measure, which am well assured must one day be
carried, to conciliate the Irish, appease the differences,
unite the countries, and introduce order and pros-
perity, than during long years of previous abortive
legislation.
These remarks now close. Without a wish to give
offence to any party, they have been dictated by an
earnest desire to promote the prosperity of my native
land, and to secure in reality, as well as name, a tho-
rough community with England ; that we might in
all things be one with a country which in many re-
spects, as I trust she will one slay prove in all, is the
hope of surrounding nations, the bulwark of the op-
pressed, and the glory of the world.—l am, &c.
HENRY M'CORMAC, M.D.
Belfast, January,lB44.

#.5

THE 'NOTTINGHAM TRADE.
CHINA LACE.

she state of the most extol' ,ive branch of the
hosiery manufacture—wrought cotton stockings—
has very little varied for some tin ,A, past, the frames,
with the exception of those ► Love forty guage,
being in general fully employed. The cut-up
cotton hose branch continues brisk, and as most
of. the firms are coming gradually in to give
the penny advance, the hands have some hopes
that another rise in wages may be obtained.—The
drawer and pantaloon branch, we are sorry to report,
is worse this week than it was the last, the masters
coming from the warehouses with empty bags. An
al#idgment of the labour in some cases has been
adopted by the workmen being directed to widen
up the thighs of the drawers by taking the thread
round the needle, instead of removing the troops,
in the usual manner. These articles are not
like the drop-offs ; they are perfectly sound,
hut the selvages are raw and unsightly.
The hands complain that too much is deducted
:from their wages for this abridgment of labour.—
'The silk glove branch is in a better condition. The
..articles generally made are cut-up, and of the most
inferior kind, but still the increased demand is felt
most beneficially. A new fashion is coming into
-vogue, of making long-armed mits. These are made
from the shoulder to the hand on wide frames; they
are then run on narrow frames, to ornament the
hands. The fancy bobbin-net trade is dull, more es-
pecially the plat and other ornamented laces. Yet
there are few or no machines standing, the nets being
in general consumed. The plat-net machines keep
going, though the sale prices are extremely low.
;Lace has been for some years much cheaper than
anuslin, and will wear longer, being made of hand-
ts2un two-thread yarn, of the best quality. Muslins are
linade of single yarn, the shoot being very slightly
twisted. We have been favoured with the sight of a very
singular production, namely, cushion bobbin lace made
in China. This article was obtained by a British
soldier,wlyi was a lace-maker, at the time the armament
advanced up the great river, to obstruct the
grand canal, and to attack Nankin. It was near this
place that the soldier saw the women at work, and
conceiving it to be a great curiosity, he took out his
knife, and without ceremony, cut off a yard, which he
ibrought to England. The ground is that of a
2nechlin, a sort of Brussels, being plaited at the
close, and twisted on the (Aker sides of the hole.
1.. t is coarse, having only about four holes to the
in ch—a scallop pattern is worked into it, by shoot-
jn g the threads cross-wise, near s three quarters of
gat inch. It has large -prominent spots, which
fie
the hole is closed with no less than e
eenitbouts
round the pillars. To the naked
tie appearance of being made of yellow
-Bengalhas
lk, in the gum, but no sooner is the microscope
applied, than this vanishes, and it has all the reserii-
iblance of being a vegetable substance, as though corn-
siosed of a sort of fine basket twig. Several experi-
assents have been made, to ascertain its real quality.
Upon being boiled, it produced It thick, foetid, glu-
Vilma substance, and the material had all the
of • twisted cotton, though not the
len▪ d
twist can be observed in the thread
stvlien in the gum. At a distance it has
Pomewhat of a shining appearance, as though
jr were a metallic substance. . This is considered
t saber important to this district, as it demonstrates
Ilbat the Chinese wear and use lace, and that such
articles will be in request in that extensive empire,
'et hich is said to contain a third of the human
race.—There is no material alteration in the
cotton warp lace trade, the hands being fully em-
Voyeci.—The silk blond hands are, however, confined
to certain limits, nor does there appear much prospect
at present of a renovation taking place in that-branch.
to—Nottingham Review.

'•aunt Baptiste Metax* has arrived from Greece, at