It is with an ardent hope that the question of the Repeal of the Union in Ireland may be tested by arguments such as these, by those who will pause to weigh it at all, that I have ventured to bring before its advocates the real condition of that country which their own leader has selected for their example and their model. And conscious of the deep interest which your Lordship has ever taken in the condition of Ireland, and your intimate acquaintance with her wants and her resources, I am anxious to recommend my exertions to notice by the prestige of your name. At the same time, as I have never submitted to you in conversation or otherwise the contents of these volumes, it is possible that you may dissent from opinions which I have ventured to express. But my object has been merely to collect facts as to the influence of the recent revolution, and I neither discuss the policy of the settlement of Holland as concluded at the Congress of Vienna, nor question the prudence of those governments in Europe, which, after the events of 1830, found it necessary to put an end to hostilities by concurring in the independence of Belgium. I remain, My dear Lord, Most truly yours, J. EMERSON TENNENT. 17, Lower Belgrave Street, Belgrave Square, London, February, 22, 1841. ANNONCE. THE details regarding the commerce and manufactures of Belgium, which will be found in the following pages, are the result of personal enquiry, corrected by the annual statistical returns, published by the Belgian Government, and confirmed by the labours of M. Briavionne in a recent work, to which I have frequently referred--“_De L’Industrie en Belgique_.” It may, also, give them some additional weight, to add, that the opinions expressed, arose out of visits made to the principal manufacturing districts, accompanied by two gentlemen of extensive practical acquaintance with the manufacturers of Great Britain; Mr. Thomson of Primrose, near Clitheroe, and Mr. J. Mulholland, of Belfast, a member of a family, the extent of whose machinery and productions in the staple commodity of Ireland--the linen trade--is, I believe, the greatest in the kingdom. And though these volumes, or their contents, have not actually been submitted to their inspection, I believe that I have their perfect concurrence in the sentiments which they embody, upon the subject of the trade and manufactures of Belgium. CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER I.