The Lacemak,ers. Sketches of Irish Character, with some Account of
the Efforts to establish Lacernalzi g in Ireland. By Mrs. Meredith.
(Jackson, Walford, and Hodder.)—Mrs. Meredith has written about lacomakers because they will soon exist only on paper- This is the reason she gives. Lacernaking is coming to an end in Ireland, and of
course Government is to blame. Government is to blame if the lacemakers will not take the necessary trouble to produce the better
kinds of lace, and if there are not found amongst the ladies of the higher classes some who will assist in the cultivation of the abilities of their less fortunate countrywomen, for both of which negatives the authoress is responsible. Fickleness of temperament and want of per- severance both in the employers and the employed seem to have been at the bottom of this, as of most Irish failures. At the same time justice must be done to the efforts that were made at the time of the famine, and the fineness that temporarily attended them. An insight into this will be got from the stories, which are three in number, and contain much - amusing illustration of Irish character and habits, at the same time presenting a graphic picture of the difficulties attending industrial opera- tions amongst the lively-witted Celts—the delight of poets, the despair of political economists.
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