Star.
London, England, 1831-09-05 00:00:00

TRADE.

Estracts irons a Letter to the Right Hon. Earl Grey,
proposing the Appointment of a Board of Trade for
Ireland. By JONATHAN SISSON, Esg.
I can, says Mr. Sisson, state of my own knowledge, that
it was (amongst other causes) in consequence of the want of
attention in the Legislature to Irish interests, that the
cry fora Repeal of the Union has been raised ; for, bad the
great injuries that Ireland received through the loss of pro-
tecting duties, bounties, &c. and finally completed by the
introduction of French and foreign manufactures, been at-
tended to in time, and a remedy proposed, the principal
foundation would have ceased to exist on which that ques-
tion has been raised ; but instead of this course, legislative
enactments have continued to be passed, to the great preju-
dice of Ireland, while scarcely a voice has been raised against
them in the Imperial parliament.
But, my lord, the enactments already specified, relative
to manufactures, are not the only evils of which Ireland has
to complain. The acts of what are called assimilation,
made between (treat Britain and Ireland, are another cause
of the existing distress ; and however England may now
suffer under local grievances, those sufferings would be much
increased, but for the great consumption of her manufac-
tures in Ireland, creating employment in Great Britain to
hs consequent decrease in Ireland. It was assimilating
riches with comparative poverty, establishments complete in
all respects with buildings, machinery, cheap fuel for steam,
vast and long-tried experience, abundant capital, resident
landlords, with establishments in Ireland, that, in compa-
rison, generally speaking, scarcely deserved the name—airs-
fined capital, fuel at nearly three times the price to that of
English and Scotch manufacturing towns, a heartless race
of absentees, who, (if dwelling on the Continent) drained
the United Kingdom of its wealth, without contributing to
the support of the state, or the indigent inhabitants of their
native country.
" The rich, and they that have an arm to check,
The license of the lowest in degree,
Desert their office, and themselves intent
On pleasure, haunt the capital, and thus
To all the violence of lawless hands,

Resign the scenes their presence might protect."
By such preposterous acts of assiwilitation, the natural
consequences have occurred to Ireland that would happen
were the small and great beast to be loaded with the same
burden, or was the little skiff that skims the coast, to at-
tempt the distant voyage with the well-equipped and stately
vessel. _ _

Assimilation acts (so called) have, by an excise duty, de-1
stroyed the glass manufacture of Ireland ; its glass houses
are mostly in ruins, or converted to other purposes. Of
Irish salt-works, the same may be said, and which was the
great support of the Irish provision trade. Irish fishery
bounties have ceased this year, for the encouragement of ;
that interesting pursuit. The Irish linen trade is fast re-
ceding
to England and Scodand—the encouragement pro-
mised by Mr. Pitt, to retain that staple manufacture in Ire-
land, as the very basis on which the measure of Union was
fixed, appears to have been forgotten by his successors.
The Irish paper manufacture has been reduced to about
one third of its former trade, the few public establishments
remaining in Ireland are now supplied from England with
stationery ; and the circulation of a large annual sum in
Dublin is, in consequence of the removal of such establish-
' ments, transferred to the metropolis of Er.gland. Six or
seven extensive sugar 'manufactures which existed in Dublin,
are altogether given up, as well as several other manufac-
taring pursuits.
Nor is it an argument to be supported, that Dublin alone
has been injured by the enactments referred to. Silk, cotton,
l and woollen manufactures, were extending north, south, and
' west of Dublin. the linen trade was extending from the
north to the south and west of Ireland, where market-
houses were erected 3n several market towns, and other re-
munerating and interesting pursuits alluded to, were ex-
tending to the harbours, and spreading over the face of the
country.
The assimilation of Irish currency with British has been
another cause of poverty to a large class of the people of
Ireland; it has decreased the income of many, without au
equivalent; it has facilitated the sale of English manufac
Sure in Ireland, and acted in the reverse way on her exports,
while it has also removed a barrier of inconvenience, if not
of loss, which, before that measure, existed against remit-
tances to the absentee, and has consequently proved an en.,
couragement to absenteeism.
As to the falling off in Ireland, 1825, of the silk, cotton;
and woollen manufactures, it is too notorious to argue on
fur a moment ; accounts have been laid before the Royal
Exchange Committee of Dublin, in 1826. and again,
before the 'Mansion-house Committee of 18211, of both of