A very wise and vigorous effort is being made in
Munster by Mr. Maguire, the Mayor of Cork, and others, to get up linen manufactories, to alleviate the distress of the labouring population, and it has received generous encouragement from Belfast, a city rapidly growing wealthy under the vast stimulus recently given to the linen trade. Only thirty-four years ago the first linen mill was built in Belfast, and now they are manufacturing and selling there near 1,100 tons of flax a week, at 70/. a ton, and the popu- lation is increasing so rapidly that 1,000 new houses have been built in Belfast in the course of the last year. The true way to counteract the alleged disproportion between the agricultural popu- lation and the land in Ireland, is not to send away the people to America but to found manufactures, and we are happy to see that the Cork attempt is being repeated in Limerick.
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