and families upon the fruits of their labour--instead of living

upon poor-rates levied from the labours of others, or who are
forced, by want of employment, to banish themselves from their

own country, to emigrate and settle among strangers, where they
know not what may become of them--is a most honourable and

important source of influence, and worthy of every encouragement.
Look at the wonderfully rapid rise of Belfast, originating in the

enterprise of individuals, and developed by the earnest and
anxious industry of the inhabitants of Ulster!

"God save Ireland!" By all means. But Ireland cannot be saved
without the help of the people who live in it. God endowed men,

there as elsewhere, with reason, will, and physical power; and it
is by patient industry only that they can open up a pathway to

the enduringprosperity of the country. There is no Eden in
nature. The earth might have continued a rude uncultivated

wilderness, but for human energy, power, and industry. These
enable man to subdue the wilderness, and develop the potency of

labour. "Possunt quia credunt posse." They must conquer who
will.

Belfast is a comparatively modern town. It has no ancient
history. About the beginning of the sixteenth century it was

little better than a fishing village. There was a castle, and a
ford to it across the Lagan. A chapel was built at the ford, at

which hurried prayers were offered up for those who were about to
cross the currents of Lagan Water. In 1575, Sir Henry Sydney

writes to the Lords of the Council: "I was offered skirmish by
MacNeill Bryan Ertaugh at my passage over the water at Belfast,

which I caused to be answered, and passed over without losse of
man or horse; yet by reason of the extraordinaire Retorne our

horses swamme and the Footmen in the passage waded very deep."
The country round about was forest land. It was so thickly

wooded that it was a common saying that one might walk to Lurgan
"on the tops of the trees."

In 1612, Belfast consisted of about 120 houses, built of mud and
covered with thatch. The whole value of the land on which the

town is built, is said to have been worth only 5L. in fee
simple.[19] "Ulster," said Sir John Davies, "is a very desert or

wilderness; the inhabitants thereof having for the most part no
certain habitation in any towns or villages." In 1659, Belfast

contained only 600 inhabitants: Carrickfergus was more
important, and had 1312 inhabitants. But about 1660, the Long

Bridge over the Lagan was built, and prosperity began to dawn
upon the little town. It was situated at the head of a navigable

lough, and formed an outlet for the manufacturing products of the
inland country. Ships of any burden, however, could not come

near the town. The cargoes, down even to a recent date, had to
be discharged into lighters at Garmoyle. Streams of water made

their way to the Lough through the mud banks; and a rivulet ran
through what is now known as the High Street.

The population gradually increased. In 1788 Belfast had 12,000
inhabitants. But it was not until after the Union with Great

Britain that the town made so great a stride. At the beginning
of the present century it had about 20,000 inhabitants. At every

successive census, the progress made was extraordinary, until now
the population of Belfast amounts to over 225,000. There is

scarcely an instance of so large a rate of increase in the
British Islands, save in the exceptional case of Middlesborough,

which was the result of the opening out of the Stockton and
Darlington Railway, and the discovery of ironstone in the hills

of Cleveland in Yorkshire. Dundee and Barrow are supposed to
present the next most rapid increases of population.

The increase of shipping has also been equally great. Ships from
other ports frequented the Lough for purposes of trade; but in

course of time the Belfast merchants supplied themselves with
ships of their own. In 1791 one William Ritchie, a sturdy North

Briton, brought with him from Glasgow ten men and a quantity of
shipbuilding materials. He gradually increased the number of his

workmen, and proceeded to build a few sloops. He reclaimed some
land from the sea, and made a shipyard and graving dock on what

was known as Corporation Ground. In November 1800 the new
graving dock, near the bridge, was opened for the reception of

vessels. It was capable of receiving three vessels of 200 tons
each! In 1807 a vessel of 400 tons burthen was launched from Mr.

Ritchie's shipyard, when a great crowd of people assembled to
witness the launching of "so large a ship"--far more than now

assemble to see a 3000-tonner of the White Star Line leave the
slips and enter the water!

The shipbuilding trade has been one of the most rapidly
developed, especially of late years. In 1805 the number of

vessels frequenting the port was 840; whereas in 1883 the number
had been increased to 7508, with about a million and a-half of

tonnage; while the gross value of the exports from Belfast
exceeded twenty millions sterlingannually. In 1819 the first

steamboat of 100 tons was used to tug the vessels up the windings
of the Lough, which it did at the rate of three miles an hour, to

the astonishment of everybody. Seven years later, the steamboat
Rob Roy was put on between Glasgow and Belfast. But these

vessels had been built in Scotland. It was not until 1826 that
the first steamboat, the chieftain, was built in Belfast, by the

same William Ritchie. Then, in 1838, the first iron boat was
built in the Lagan foundry, by Messrs. Coates and Young, though

it was but a mere cockle-shell compared with the mighty ocean
steamers which are now regularly launched from Queen's Island.

In the year 1883 the largest shipbuilding firm in the town
launched thirteen vessels, of over 30,000 tons gross, while two

other firms launched twelve ships, of about 10,000 tons gross.
I do not propose to enter into details respecting the progress of

the trades of Belfast. The most important is the spinning of
fine linen yarn, which is for the most part concentrated in that

town, over 25,000,000 of pounds weight being exported annually.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the linen manufacture

had made but little progress. In 1680 all Ireland did not export
more than 6000L. worth annually. Drogheda was then of greater

importance than Belfast. But with the settlement of the
persecuted Hugnenots in Ulster, and especially through the

energetic labours of Crommelin, Goyer, and others, the growth of
flax was sedulously cultivated, and its manufacture into linen of

all sorts became an important branch of Irish industry. In the
course of about fifty years the exports of linen fabrics

increased to the value of over 600,000L. per annum.
It was still, however, a handicraft manufacture, and done for the

most part at home. Flax was spun and yarn was woven by hand.
Eventually machinery was employed, and the turn-out became

proportionately large and valuable. It would not be possible for
hand labour to supply the amount of linen now turned out by the

aid of machinery. It would require three times the entire
population of Ireland to spin and weave, by the old

spinning-wheel and hand-loom methods, the amount of linen cloth
now annually manufactured by the operatives of Belfast alone.

There are now forty large spinning-mills in Belfast and the
neighbourhood, which furnish employment to a very large number of

working people.[20]
In the course of my visit to Belfast, I inspected the works of

the York Street flax-spinning mills, founded in 1830 by the
Messrs. Mulholland, which now give employment, directly or

indirectly, to many thousand persons. I visited also, with my
young Italian friend, the admirable printing establishment of

Marcus Ward and Co., the works of the Belfast Rope-work Company,
and the shipbuilding works of Harland and Wolff. There we passed

through the roar of the iron forge, the clang of the Nasmyth
hammer, and the intermittent glare of the furnaces--all telling

of the novel appliances of modern shipbuilding, and the power of
the modern steam-engine. I prefer to give a brief account of

this latter undertaking, as it exhibits one of the newest and
most important industries of Belfast. It also shows, on the part