LINEN TRADE – We are happy to find, from the following documents, that a meeting of that highly respectable body, the Linen Merchants of the County of Londonderry, is to be held on Wednesday next, to take into consideration, the propriety of Petitioning the Prince Regent against the importation by licence, of French Cambricks, &c. The general importance of the subject is so obvious, and the necessity of preserving the Staple Trade of Ireland, from the ruinous effects of this licence system, is so striking, that we not only highly commend the public spirit of the County of Derry, but hope their example will be immediately followed by all the Linen Counties of Ireland.
TO THE SHERIFFS
of the City and County of Londonderry
We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, request you will call a Meeting of the LINEN MERCHANTS of the City and County of LONDONDERRY to take into consideration the propriety of Petitioning the Prince Regent, upon the subject of the Resolution of the Board of Trade, which permits the granting of licences to import from France, &c. Linens, Cambrics, and Linen-yarn. Upon a former occasion, the importation of these articles was highly injurious to the sole and staple products of this country; and in the present reduced state of our commerce, and exclusion from Continental and American markets, we are apprehensive that a similar importation may be attended with equally calamitous consequences.
Wm. John Wm. Dysart
James Acheson
James A. Smyth
John Alexander
Arthur Kyle
Leslie, Ogilby & Co.
Conolly Boyle
Alexander Alexander
Adam Scoales & Co.
James Alexander
Robert McCrea
Richard McIlwaine
John Kelso
James Smyth
John McClury
John Campbell & Sons
James Hamilton
A. Patterson
Robert Kennedy
James Hemphill
Robert Gordon
John McCrea
Robert McCrea
William Bailey
Hugh H. Handcock
William Bond
J. Black
Thomas Handcock
James & Michael Ross
Alexander Ogilby
Henry Entwistle
Francis Horner & Co.
William Mackey
Patrick Gilmour
Carey, McClellan & Co.
Wm. A. Fletcher & Co.
James Wilson
John Boyle
John Ross
Henry Orr
John Gwynn
William Ramsay
G. McConnel
Samuel Crookshank
In consequence of the above Requisition, we do hereby request a Meeting of the LINEN MERCHANTS of the City and County of LONDONDERRY, in the Town-Hall in the City of LONDONDERRY, on WEDNESDAY the 1st day of April next, at the hour of TWELVE o’clock, at noon. – Dated this 25th day of March, 1812
JOHN MURRAY
THOS. KENNEDY, SHERIFFS