EMPLOYMENT CAUSED BY FLAX-CULTURE. 267 



No. XVIII. 



SIR, 



IN addressing this letter to the public, through the 

 medium of your Journal, I feel a degree of satisfaction that I 

 am unable to express, because the fruit of my labours are 

 every day becoming more and more apparent. A present 

 reward! heightened by the prospect of future and complete 

 success ! For why should not those benefits now enjoyed by the 

 village of Trimingham, through the preparation of flax, be 

 realized by every other parish in the kingdom? And why 

 should not the whole agricultural community reap the same 

 advantage from the use of linseed, that my numerous corre- 

 spondents are now deriving? Let it suffice, that, notwithstand- 

 ing the inclemency of the season, the poor of my parish are 

 well employed, with the addition of ten flax-dressers from the 

 adjacent villages ; and that no instance of failure has occurred 

 from the substitution of native instead of foreign produce to 

 fatten cattle, where the system I recommended has been strictly 

 adhered to. 



That the cultivation of flax and the use of the seed are gra- 

 dually and surely gaining ground, there can be no doubt ; but 

 the distresses of the poor, and the exigencies of the farmer, 

 demand a more rapid promulgation. On these accounts, re- 

 gardless of every private consideration, I desire to be confronted 

 with a public meeting in the metropolis, in order that I may 

 enforce by argument, and prove by ocular demonstration, that 

 the difficulties under which the nation labours through the 

 unemployed population, might be effectually removed. 



Evidently, the two main sources of employment arise from 

 the necessity of food on the one hand, and of raiment on the 

 other. It is equally clear, that infinitely greater numbers are 

 required to provide the latter than to secure the former. 



Unhappily for the rural population, and for the country at 

 large, attempts are only made to find employment for the able- 

 bodied labourer, through the production of food, while the 

 claims of that far more numerous class, comprised of weaker 

 hands, are disregarded ; but were only half the zeal displayed 



