Men of Invention and Industry Part 18

Dublin was once celebrated for its s.h.i.+pbuilding, its timber-trade, its iron manufactures, and its steam-printing; Limerick was celebrated for its gloves; Kilkenny for its blankets; Bandon for its woollen and linen manufactures. But most of these trades were banished by strikes.[5]

Dr. Doyle stated before the Irish Committee of 1830, that the almost total extinction of the Kilkenny blanket-trade was attributable to the combinations of the weavers; and O'Connell admitted that Trades Unions had wrought more evil to Ireland than absenteeism and Saxon maladministration. But working men have recently become more prudent and thrifty; and it is believed that under the improved system of moderate counsel, and arbitration between employers and employed, a more hopeful issue is likely to attend the future of such enterprises.

Another thing is clear. A country may be levelled down by idleness and ignorance; it can only be levelled up by industry and intelligence. It is easy to pull down; it is very difficult to build up. The hands that cannot erect a hovel may demolish a palace. We have but to look to Switzerland to see what a country may become which mixes its industry with its brains. That little land has no coal, no seaboard by which she can introduce it, and is shut off from other countries by lofty mountains, as well as by hostile tariffs; and yet Switzerland is one of the most prosperous nations in Europe, because governed and regulated by intelligent industry. Let Ireland look to Switzerland, and she need not despair.

Ireland is a much richer country by nature than is generally supposed.

In fact, she has not yet been properly explored. There is copper-ore in Wicklow, Waterford, and Cork. The Leitrim iron-ores are famous for their riches; and there is good ironstone in Kilkenny, as well as in Ulster. The Connaught ores are mixed with coal-beds. Kaolin, porcelain clay, and coa.r.s.er clay, abound; but it is only at Belleek that it has been employed in the pottery manufacture. But the sea about Ireland is still less explored than the land. All round the Atlantic seaboard of the Irish coast are shoals of herring and mackerel, which might be food for men, but are at present only consumed by the mult.i.tudes of sea-birds which follow them.

In the daily papers giving an account of the Cork Exhibition, appeared the following paragraph: "An interesting exhibit will be a quant.i.ty of preserved herrings from Lowestoft, caught off the old head of Kinsale, and returned to Cork after undergoing a preserving process in England."[6] Fish caught off the coast of Ireland by English fishermen, taken to England and cured, and then "returned to Cork" for exhibition!

Here is an opening for patriotic Irishmen. Why not catch and preserve the fish at home, and get the entire benefit of the fish traffic? Will it be believed that there is probably more money value in the seas round Ireland than there is in the land itself? This is actually the case with the sea round the county of Aberdeen.[7]

A vast source of wealth lies at the very doors of the Irish people.

But the harvest of an ocean teeming with life is allowed to pa.s.s into other hands. The majority of the boats which take part in the fishery at Kinsale are from the little island of Man, from Cornwall, from France, and from Scotland. The fishermen catch the fish, salt them, and carry them or send them away. While the Irish boats are diminis.h.i.+ng in number, those of the strangers are increasing. In an East Lothian paper, published in May 1881, I find the following paragraph, under the head of c.o.c.kenzie:-.

"Departure of Boats.--In the early part of this week, a number of the boats here have left for the herring-fishery at Kinsale, in Ireland.

The success attending their labours last year at that place and at Howth has induced more of them than usual to proceed thither this year."

It may not be generally known that c.o.c.kenzie is a little fis.h.i.+ng village on the Firth of Forth, in Scotland, where the fishermen have provided themselves, at their own expense, with about fifty decked fis.h.i.+ng-boats, each costing, with nets and gear, about 500L. With these boats they carry on their pursuits on the coast of Scotland, England, and Ireland. In 1882, they sent about thirty boats to Kinsale[8] and Howth. The profits of their fis.h.i.+ng has been such as to enable them, with the a.s.sistance of Lord Wemyss, to build for themselves a convenient harbour at Port Seaton, without any help from the Government. They find that self-help is the best help, and that it is absurd to look to the Government and the public purse for what they can best do for themselves.

The wealth of the ocean round Ireland has long been known. As long ago as the ninth and tenth centuries, the Danes established a fishery off the western coasts, and carried on a lucrative trade with the south of Europe. In Queen Mary's reign, Philip II. of Spain paid 1000L.

annually in consideration of his subjects being allowed to fish on the north-west coast of Ireland; and it appears that the money was brought into the Irish Exchequer. In 1650, Sweden was permitted, as a favour, to employ a hundred vessels in the Irish fishery; and the Dutch in the reign of Charles I. were admitted to the fisheries on the payment of 30,000L. In 1673, Sir W. Temple, in a letter to Lord Ess.e.x, says that "the fis.h.i.+ng of Ireland might prove a mine under water as rich as any under ground."[9]

The coasts of Ireland abound in all the kinds of fish in common use--cod, ling, haddock, hake, mackerel, herring, whiting, conger, turbot, brill, bream, soles, plaice, dories, and salmon. The banks off the coast of Galway are frequented by myriads of excellent fish; yet, of the small quant.i.ty caught, the bulk is taken in the immediate neighbourhood of the sh.o.r.es. Galway bay is said to be the finest fis.h.i.+ng ground in the world; but the fish cannot be expected to come on sh.o.r.e unsought: they must be found, followed, and netted. The fis.h.i.+ng-boats from the west of Scotland are very successful; and they often return the fish to Ireland, cured, which had been taken out of the Irish bays. "I tested this fact in Galway," says Mr. S. C. Hall.

"I had ordered fish for dinner; two salt haddocks were brought to me.

On inquiry, I ascertained where they were bought, and learned from the seller that he was the agent of a Scotch firm, whose boats were at that time loading in the bay."[10] But although Scotland imports some 80,000 barrels of cured herrings annually into Ireland, that is not enough; for we find that there is a regular importation of cured herrings, cod, ling, and hake, from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, towards the food of the Irish people.[11]

The fis.h.i.+ng village of Claddagh, at Galway, is more decaying than ever.

It seems to have suffered from a bombardment, like the rest of the town. The houses of the fishermen, when they fall in, are left in ruins. While the French, and English, and Scotch boats leave the coast laden with fish, the Claddagh men remain empty-handed. They will only fish on "lucky days," so that the Galway market is often dest.i.tute of fish, while the Claddagh people are starving. On one occasion an English company was formed for the purpose of fis.h.i.+ng and curing fish at Galway, as is now done at Yarmouth, Grimsby, Fraserburgh, Wick, and other places. Operations were commenced, but so soon as the English fishermen put to sea in their boats, the Claddagh men fell upon them, and they were glad to escape with their lives.[12] Unfortunately, the Claddagh men have no organization, no fixed rules, no settled determination to work, unless when pressed by necessity. The appearance of the men and of their cabins show that they are greatly in want of capital; and fis.h.i.+ng cannot be successfully performed without a sufficiency of this industrial element.

Ill.u.s.trations of this neglected industry might be given to any extent.

Herring fis.h.i.+ng, cod fis.h.i.+ng, and pilchard fis.h.i.+ng, are alike untouched. The Irish have a strong prejudice against the pilchard; they believe it to be an unlucky fish, and that it will rot the net that takes it. The Cornishmen do not think so, for they find the pilchard fis.h.i.+ng to be a source of great wealth. The pilchards strike upon the Irish coast first before they reach Cornwall. When Mr. Brady, Inspector of Irish Fisheries, visited St. Ives a few years ago, he saw captured, in one seine alone, nearly ten thousand pounds of this fish.

Not long since; according to a northern local paper,[13] a large fleet of vessels in full sail was seen from the west coast of Donegal, evidently making for the sh.o.r.e. Many surmises were made about the unusual sight. Some thought it was the Fenians, others the Home Rulers, others the Irish-American Dynamiters. Nothing of the kind! It was only a fleet of Scotch smacks, sixty-four in number, fis.h.i.+ng for herring between Torry Island and Horn Head. The Irish might say to the Scotch fishermen, in the words of the Morays.h.i.+re legend, "Rejoice, O my brethren, in the gifts of the sea, for they enrich you without making any one else the poorer!"

But while the Irish are overlooking their treasure of herring, the Scotch are carefully cultivating it. The Irish fleet of fis.h.i.+ng-boats fell off from 27,142 in 1823 to 7181 in 1878; and in 1882 they were still further reduced to 6089.[14] Yet Ireland has a coast-line of fis.h.i.+ng ground of nearly three thousand miles in extent.

The bights and bays on the west coast of Ireland--off Erris, Mayo, Connemara, and Donegal--swarm with fish. Near Achill Bay, 2000 mackerel were lately taken at a single haul; and Clew Bay is often alive with fish. In Scull Bay and Crookhaven, near Cape Clear, they are so plentiful that the peasants often knock them on the head with oars, but will not take the trouble to net them.

These swarms of fish might be a source of permanent wealth. A gentleman of Cork one day borrowed a common rod and line from a Cornish miner in his employment, and caught fifty-seven mackerel from the jetty in Scull Bay before breakfast. Each of these mackerel was worth twopence in Cork market, thirty miles off. Yet the people round about, many of whom were short of food, were doing nothing to catch them, but expecting Providence to supply their wants. Providence, however, always likes to be helped. Some people forget that the Giver of all good gifts requires us to seek for them by industry, prudence, and perseverance.[15]

Some cry for more loans; some cry for more harbours. It would be well to help with suitable harbours, but the system of dependence upon Government loans is pernicious. The Irish ought to feel that the very best help must come from themselves. This is the best method for teaching independence. Look at the little Isle of Man. The fishermen there never ask for loans. They look to their nets and their boats; they sail for Ireland, catch the fish, and sell them to the Irish people. With them, industry brings capital, and forms the fertile seed-ground of further increase of boats and nets. Surely what is done by the Manxmen, the Cornishmen, and the c.o.c.kenziemen, might be done by the Irishmen. The difficulty is not to be got over by lamenting about it, or by staring at it, but by grappling with it, and overcoming it. It is deeds, not words, that are wanted. Employment for the ma.s.s of the people must spring from the people themselves.

Provided there is security for life and property, and an absence of intimidation, we believe that capital will become invested in the fis.h.i.+ng industry of Ireland; and that the result will be peace, food, and prosperity.

We must remember that it is only of comparatively late years that England and Scotland have devoted so much attention to the fishery of the seas surrounding our island. In this fact there is consolation and hope for Ireland. At the beginning of the seventeenth century Sir Waiter Raleigh laid before the King his observations concerning the trade and commerce of England, in which he showed that the Dutch were almost monopolising the fis.h.i.+ng trade, and consequently adding to their s.h.i.+pping, commerce, and wealth. "Surely," he says, "the stream is necessary to be turned to the good of this kingdom, to whose sea-coasts alone G.o.d has sent us these great blessings and immense riches for us to take; and that every nation should carry away out of this kingdom yearly great ma.s.ses of money for fish taken in our seas, and sold again by them to us, must needs be a great dishonour to our nation, and hindrance to this realm."

The Hollanders then had about 50,000 people employed in fis.h.i.+ng along the English coast; and their industry and enterprise gave employment to about 150,000 more, "by sea and land, to make provision, to dress and transport the fish they take, and return commodities; whereby they are enabled yearly to build 1000 s.h.i.+ps and vessels." The prosperity of Amsterdam was then so great that it was said that Amsterdam was "founded on herring-bones." Tobias Gentleman published in 1614 his treatise on 'England's Way to win Wealth, and to employ s.h.i.+ps and Marines,'[16] in which he urged the English people to vie with the Dutch in fis.h.i.+ng the seas, and thereby to give abundant employment, as well as abundant food, to the poorer people of the country.

"Look," he said, "on these fellows, that we call the plump Hollanders; behold their diligence in fis.h.i.+ng, and our own careless negligence!"

The Dutch not only fished along the coasts near Yarmouth, but their fis.h.i.+ng vessels went north as far as the coasts of Shetland. What most roused Mr. Gentleman's indignation was, that the Dutchmen caught the fish and sold them to the Yarmouth herring-mongers "for ready gold, so that it amounteth to a great sum of money, which money doth never come again into England." "We are daily scorned," he says, "by these Hollanders, for being so negligent of our Profit, and careless of our Fis.h.i.+ng; and they do daily flout us that be the poor Fishermen of England, to our Faces at Sea, calling to us, and saying, 'Ya English, ya sall or oud scoue dragien;' which, in English, is this, 'You English, we will make you glad to wear our old Shoes!'"

Another pamphlet, to a similar effect, 'The Royal Fis.h.i.+ng revived,'[17]

was published fifty years later, in which it was set forward that the Dutch "have not only gained to themselves almost the sole fis.h.i.+ng in his Majesty's Seas; but princ.i.p.ally upon this Account have very near beat us out of all our other most profitable Trades in all Parts of the World." It was even proposed to compel "all Sorts of begging Persons and all other poor People, all People condemned for less Crimes than Blood," as well as "all Persons in Prison for Debt," to take part in this fis.h.i.+ng trade! But this was not the true way to force the traffic. The herring fishery at Yarmouth and along the coast began to make gradual progress with the growth of wealth and enterprise throughout the country; though it was not until 1787--less than a hundred years ago--that the Yarmouth men began the deep-sea herring fishery.

Before then, the fis.h.i.+ng was all carried on along sh.o.r.e in little cobles, almost within sight of land. The native fishery also extended northward, along the east coast of Scotland and the Orkney and Shetland Isles, until now the herring fishery of Scotland forms one of the greatest industries in the United Kingdom, and gives employment, directly or indirectly, to close upon half a million of people, or to one-seventh of the whole population of Scotland.

Taking these facts into consideration, therefore, there is no reason to despair of seeing, before many years have elapsed, a large development of the fis.h.i.+ng industry of Ireland. We may yet see Galway the Yarmouth, Achill the Grimsby, and Killybegs the Wick of the West.

Modern society in Ireland, as everywhere else, can only be transformed through the agency of labour, industry, and commerce--inspired by the spirit of work, and maintained by the acc.u.mulations of capital. The first end of all labour is security,--security to person, possession, and property, so that all may enjoy in peace the fruits of their industry. For no liberty, no freedom, can really exist which does not include the first liberty of all--the right of public and private safety.

To show what energy and industry can do in Ireland, it is only necessary to point to Belfast, one of the most prosperous and enterprising towns in the British Islands. The land is the same, the climate is the same, and the laws are the same, as those which prevail in other parts of Ireland. Belfast is the great centre of Irish manufactures and commerce, and what she has been able to do might be done elsewhere, with the same amount of energy and enterprise. But it is not land, or climate, or altered laws that are wanted. It is men to lead and direct, and men to follow with anxious and persevering industry. It is always the Man society wants.

The influence of Belfast extends far out into the country. As you approach it from Sligo, you begin to see that you are nearing a place where industry has acc.u.mulated capital, and where it has been invested in cultivating and beautifying the land. After you pa.s.s Enniskillen, the fields become more highly cultivated. The drill-rows are more regular; the hedges are clipped; the weeds no longer hide the crops, as they sometimes do in the far west. The country is also adorned with copses, woods, and avenues. A new crop begins to appear in the fields--a crop almost peculiar to the neighbourhood of Belfast. It is a plant with a very slender erect green stem, which, when full grown, branches at the top into a loose corymb of blue flowers. This is the flax plant, the cultivation and preparation of which gives employment to a great number of persons, and is to a large extent the foundation of the prosperity of Belfast.

The first appearance of the linen industry of Ireland, as we approach Belfast from the west, is observed at Portadown. Its position on the Bann, with its water power, has enabled this town, as well as the other places on the river, to secure and maintain their due share in the linen manufacture. Factories with their long chimneys begin to appear.

The fields are richly cultivated, and a general air of well-being pervades the district. Lurgan is reached, so celebrated for its diapers; and the fields there about are used as bleaching-greens.

Then comes Lisburn, a populous and thriving town, the inhabitants of which are mostly engaged in their staple trade, the manufacture of damasks. This was really the first centre of the linen trade. Though Lord Strafford, during his government of Ireland, encouraged the flax industry, by sending to Holland for flax-seed, and inviting Flemish and French artisans to settle in Ireland, it was not until the Huguenots, who had been banished from France by the persecutions of Louis XIV., settled in Ireland in such large numbers, that the manufacture became firmly established. The Crommelins, the Goyers, and the Dupres, were the real founders of this great branch of industry.[18]

As the traveller approaches Belfast, groups of houses, factories, and works of various kinds, appear closer and closer; long chimneys over boilers and steam-engines, and brick buildings three or four stories high; large yards full of workmen, carts, and lorries; and at length we are landed in the midst of a large manufacturing town. As we enter the streets, everybody seems to be alive. What struck William Hutton when he first saw Birmingham, might be said of Belfast: "I was surprised at the place, but more at the people. They possessed a vivacity I had never before beheld. I had been among dreamers, but now I saw men awake. Their very step along the street showed alacrity. Every man seemed to know what he was about. The town was large, and full of inhabitants, and these inhabitants full of industry. The faces of other men seemed tinctured with an idle gloom; but here with a pleasing alertness. Their appearance was strongly marked with the modes of civil life."

Some people do not like manufacturing towns: they prefer old castles and ruins. They will find plenty of these in other parts of Ireland.

But to found industries that give employment to large numbers of persons, and enable them to maintain themselves 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!

"G.o.d save Ireland!" By all means. But Ireland cannot be saved without the help of the people who live in it. G.o.d 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 enduring prosperity 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 fis.h.i.+ng 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 pa.s.sage over the water at Belfast, which I caused to be answered, and pa.s.sed over without losse of man or horse; yet by reason of the extraordinaire Retorne our horses swamme and the Footmen in the pa.s.sage 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. s.h.i.+ps 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 Yorks.h.i.+re. Dundee and Barrow are supposed to present the next most rapid increases of population.

The increase of s.h.i.+pping has also been equally great. s.h.i.+ps from other ports frequented the Lough for purposes of trade; but in course of time the Belfast merchants supplied themselves with s.h.i.+ps of their own. In 1791 one William Ritchie, a st.u.r.dy North Briton, brought with him from Glasgow ten men and a quant.i.ty of s.h.i.+pbuilding 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 s.h.i.+pyard 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 s.h.i.+pyard, when a great crowd of people a.s.sembled to witness the launching of "so large a s.h.i.+p"--far more than now a.s.semble to see a 3000-tonner of the White Star Line leave the slips and enter the water!

The s.h.i.+pbuilding 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 sterling annually.

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 c.o.c.kle-sh.e.l.l compared with the mighty ocean steamers which are now regularly launched from Queen's Island. In the year 1883 the largest s.h.i.+pbuilding firm in the town launched thirteen vessels, of over 30,000 tons gross, while two other firms launched twelve s.h.i.+ps, 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 s.h.i.+pbuilding works of Harland and Wolff.

There we pa.s.sed 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 s.h.i.+pbuilding, 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 of its proprietors, a brave encounter with difficulties, and sets before the friends of Ireland the truest and surest method of not only giving employment to its people, but of building up on the surest foundations the prosperity of the country.

The first occasion on which I visited Belfast--the reader will excuse the introduction of myself--was in 1840; about forty-four years ago. I went thither on the invitation of the late Wm. Sharman Crawford, Esq., M.P., the first prominent advocate of tenant-right, to attend a public meeting of the Ulster a.s.sociation, and to spend a few days with him at his residence at Crawfordsburn, near Bangor. Belfast was then a town of comparatively little importance, though it had already made a fair start in commerce and industry. As our steamer approached the head of the Lough, a large number of labourers were observed--with barrows, picks, and spades--scooping out and wheeling up the slob and mud of the estuary, for the purpose of forming what is now known as Queen's Island, on the eastern side of the river Lagan. The work was conducted by William Dargan, the famous Irish contractor; and its object was to make a straight artificial outlet--the Victoria Channel--by means of which vessels drawing twenty-three feet of water might reach the port of Belfast. Before then, the course of the Lagan was tortuous and difficult of navigation; but by the straight cut, which was completed in 1846, and afterwards extended further seawards, s.h.i.+ps of large burden were enabled to reach the quays, which extend for about a mile below Queen's Bridge, on both sides of the river.