282 THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO 



the few growers of wheat,, like the few growers of flax, would 

 alone reap a profit." 



A copy of this letter was forwarded to the editor of the 

 above-named paper, of which, for obvious reasons, no notice 

 was taken; nor do 1 expect that the "lecturers of the Anti- 

 Corn-Law League," or even Mr. Cobden himself, will venture 

 a reply. In truth, if the English farmer needed a weapon 

 against free trade, Mr. Cobden has supplied him with one in 

 the above comparison between the importation of flax and that 

 of wheat. 



It is, undoubtedly, the special province of the Legislature 

 diligently to inquire into the latent resources of the country, 

 to render them subservient to the wants of the people, 

 to uphold and protect the working classes, and to provide 

 them with every legitimate means of subsistence ; but never 

 till the present period was a member in the House of Com- 

 mons heard to revile British landowners for attempting to 

 advance the best interests of the nation, and to ameliorate the 

 condition of the poor. 



Mr. Cobden's attack upon the National Report was opposed 

 to every principle of patriotism, and contrary to sound political 

 knowledge a report fraught with information of the highest 

 importance to the state, holding out the prospect of " employ- 

 ment for the redundant population," and "a remedy for the 

 distresses of the people " a report " submitted to the ordeal 

 of the strictest scrutiny," and which, if introduced to the notice 

 of Government at all, should have been accompanied with a 

 recommendation to serious attention a report, the accuracy 

 of which, if Mr. Cobden doubted, he ought to have instituted 

 the inquiry challenged, when he would have discovered that 

 the growth of linseed, with box-feeding and summer-grazing, 

 was a far better method of promoting the "welfare of the 

 farmers of Wales, of Scotland, and of Wiltshire," than that of 

 "importing foreign beans, peas, and oats to fatten their cattle ;" 

 also, that a judicious and systematic introduction of the flax 

 crop would remove from the rural and manufacturing districts 

 all distress consequent upon the want of employment and of 

 adequate wages, because the demand for work would be sup- 



