IRISH TOWNS.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 655, 31 March 1870, Page 4

IRISH TOWNS.

The Tmes special correspondent on the Imh land question writes as follows : — Belfast, the, centre of the linen trade of Ulster, and the chief place for the export of the manufacture, is the most flourishing town I have seen in Ireland. Dublin, half a capital and. half a seat of commerce, has a magnificent yet rather a slovenly appearance ; C >rk has a lool^ of long settled wealth, but not of daring and brilliant industry, Compared, with either, Belfast is what Glasgow and Greenock are to Edinburgh, what Leeds and Birmingham are to Bristol— a spot where now wealth and enterprise have rapidly made a noble creation, and are eclipsing the more stationary growths of older and more slow of civilisation. The town, bui'.t on the banks of the Ijigan, where it opens into its, tine estuary, was possibly of very ancient origin, but it owes its first rise to a Huguenot colony, which, after the Revocation of the Itdict of Nantes, planted on what was then a desohite moras3 the germs of a manufacture that hadthrivqu in their hauds along the slopes of the Loire and the Seine. Yet the settlement of the e^ile.3 was not very successful ; and Belfast in the days of Arthur Young was a town of some 1.5,090 souls ouly, which, though known for it 3 linen fabrics, and already possessing an increasing trade, was probably not a third the sizo of Cork. A cirquinstance not without interest to a student of the Land Question of Ireland is said to have afterwards given a sudden impulse to the prosperity of the place., and to have lauuehed it upon the pa.th of progress. Belfast ha.l previously been under the tutelage of the Donegal family, Isut towards the close of the last century it was emancipated from the restraints of short leases, the Lord Donegal of that generation having granted a number of perpetuities, and what hitherto had been a mere county town grew speedily into the capital of a province. The rjst was done by the gradual concentration of the linen manufacture into a few spots, and by the improvements made in machinery; aad at present Belfast is not only the sjcond city in Ireland in population, but i: excels all the cities of the island in the signs cf flourishing wealth and industry. The architectuie of the houses in the principal streets is pa.tculj,rly good, aid even attaa live ; the marts and shops are well laid out and gay ; and the busy hauuts of the citizens' toil lead to retired terraces and villas, occasionally admirably planned and decorated. The chief features of Belfast, however, are the rows of shipping that throng the qua3'S, and the chimneys soaring from the factories below — the material proofs of the energy and skill which have given the place its deserved renown. A few of the churches are not without beauty ; but you miss, as usnally is the case in these modern centres of civilised life, the glory of the mediaeval city, the spire, high above the square massive tower, and commanding the landscape on every side. Belfast is situate on the confines of Antrim and Down, which, almost separated into a distinct county by Lough Neagh and the lino of the Barm, form the eastern division of the province of Ulster. This magnificent tract, in ancient times the land of the O'Neill's and other Celtic tribes, was siibjngated and came under the power of the Ore w.i in the reigns of Elizabeth and James 1., Down having been colonised under the tirst Sovereign and Antrim under her Sottish successor. In both instances English and Scotch settlers took possession of tho conquered territory, the Plantation, however, effected by James being more methodical, and regnlar society grew up in a great degree upon the same type as it has done in Fermanagh and Londonderry. In Antrim and Down the invading colonists became a class of proprietors, and occupies, established in the land as landlords and tenants. The have shaped the fortunes of the whole comrau.ni!y, and here, as elsewhare, they gradually extended to the vanquished aboriginal race the benefits of fie kindly usages which . had been formed in their mutual 'relations. The result has beeu considerable social progre33, tin diffusion of civilisation and wealth, and, with rare exceptions^ general tranqiiUity.