BELFAST'S GREATEST INDUSTRY.
1.10 THE EDITOR OP TILE SPECTATOR:1
Sue,—In your issue of the 16th ult., p. 239, you write " The shipbuilding industry of Belfast, which is its greatest 'source of prosperity." It is no doubt a most important industry, which has risen rapidly into its present prominent position ; but it is second, and not first, in the list of industries possessed by Belfast. In point of antiquity, of capital, and number of persons employed, the linen industry is by far the more important. In fact, Belfast is the chief centre of the linen trade of the world. The industry in its modern mechanical form was introduced into Belfast in the year 1829 by Andrew Mulholland, grandfather of the present Lord Dunleath. The capital in it is about 218,000,000, and the number of people directly connected with it in Belfast and district is sixty thousand. La addition, there is the large population engaged in collar- and shirt-making, in hemming, embroidering, and making up handkerchiefs, and miscellaneous articles of clothing dependent on it, as well as those engaged in making steam-engines and textile machinery. I am sending you a newspaper containing the address of the president at the recent annual meeting of the Chamber of Commerce in which the respective positions of the two industries are outlined. I should not have troubled you with this letter if it were not that at the present juncture it is of supreme importance that facts about Ireland should be accurately stated and accurately understood by our fellow-countrymen in 'England, on whose verdict will depend whether the Union between England and Ireland shall be maintained or terminated. It is appalling to meet with the false and misleading statements which are being made in the English Press even by newspapers of high standing, and therefore I feel sure that you, as a strong supporter of the Union, will desire to correct any mistake into which your correspondents may have led you.—I am, 4 Howard Street, Belfast.
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