Volume 1 — 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.