Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1885-07-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

IRISH INDUSTRIES.  Evidence has been given before the Select Coin. mittee of the House of Commons on this question by Mr. W. H. Keating, owner of a smalt estate in Ireland, and well acquainted with the industries of that country. He stated that the whole condition of Ireland was verging closely on collapse; almost every industry was on the decline. The chief decline had taken place in the great industry of the land. Land had been for some time going out of cultivation, sometimes into grass, sometimes lapsing into entire sterility. That was due to emigration, which had drawn away the labour which was required to make the land fertile. The town of Birr, which in 1840 was a prosperous place in woollen and stuff goods and had two breweries, was almost blotted out of sight altogether. There was one distillery doing only half the work it did forty years ago. In another town wool-combing and weaving had disappeared. Formerly small holders grew half an acre or a quarter of an acre of flax; but that had now ceased. Generally speaking all minor industries had disappeared. Boots and shoes catne from Leicester. Beaver hats, formerly made extensively in Dublin, had given place to the cheaper silk hats made in England. The furniture trade was almost extinct. The carriage industry, formerly famous, had sunk to the making of tax-carts and outside-cars. The country was too poor to maintain carriages. Household ironmongery was imported. Native manufacture could not compete with the cheap articles America sent over. Light woollen manufacture had almost ceaset Irish wool from Cheviot sheep was bright and longhaired, and was exported to Bradford. More shelter was required for the sheep. Asked by Sir Eardley Wilmot, the chairman, hls opinion as to the causes of decline, witness said the first was insecurity of land tenure. This prevented both progress and accumulation. Asked by Mr. Justin McCarthy to define the latter term, witness said he intended to convey that the insecurity prevented the accumulation of capital in the farmers' hands. The country was never without little famines, and when a great famine came there was no reserve. Another cause of declension was the want of sympathy by the higher class with the lower.  MARCHANDON having been found guilty of the murder of Madame Cornet, in Paris, has been sentenced to death. On judgment being pronounced the prisoner fainted. AT the Sevenooks Police-court John Ambrose Douglas, a farmer, of has again been charged, on remand, with attempting to murder Mr. William White, a corn dealer, by shooting him with a revolver at Bt. John's, Sevenoaks, on the lot of May. Dr. Alliott, who has attended Mr. White since he received his injuries, stated that he was now in a fair way of recovery, if there was no relapse. Mr. White could not possibly attend the court that day, and witness could not say when he would be able to do so. Evidence as to finding the loaded revolver in a ditch near Cobham, in Surrey, was given, and the prisoner, who made a rambling statement, was then committed for trial.  Tim Speaker of the House of Commons has been entertained by the Lord Mayor at a banquet at the Mansion House, when a distinguished company of gentlemen Was invited to meet him.