326 APPENDIX. 



LINSEED versus " GOLD OF PLEASURE." 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Journal. 



SIR, 



The turn that the controversy on the above subject has taken, I 

 must confess, both surprises and pains me. Had I made some mon- 

 strous proposition, such as the rebuilding of Babylon, or the comple- 

 tion of the Tower of Babel, hundreds would have ridden their " hob- 

 bies" to death, to aid the vain-glorious cause. Votaries, also, by 

 thousands, would have offered their " Gold " with " Pleasure" at the 

 shrine of ignorance and folly. No journey would have been thought 

 too long, or sacrifice too great. The noble design of finding employ- 

 ment for the poor by this means, would have been lauded throughout the 

 land, and difficulties would have vanished like the morning cloud or 

 the early dew. But now that I point out feasible and simple plans for 

 obtaining this National Desideratum, troubles are magnified, expenses 

 exaggerated, and profits underrated. In vain have I travelled, written, 

 spoken, during the past four years, to convince the Rev. Daniel Gwilt 

 that his " early and zealous advocacy of my speculations " was founded 

 on truth. Had the Rev. gentleman offered me a practical, rather than 

 a verbal support, few indeed would have been the words required to 

 prove the " advantages likely to arise from my speculation of growing 

 flax, and of substituting the incomparable compound in the place of 

 cake." 



First, he would have shown his beauteous flax-field waving in the 

 wind ; next, the linseed rattling in the golden bolls ; then the bullock 

 fattened in the box ; afterwards, the milk, rich from compound, and 

 the butter of matchless flavour. Mr. Gwilt would have proved by 

 ocular demonstration, the fund of employment that the cultivation of 

 the inestimable flax-plant would ensure to the able-bodied labourer in 

 the field, and to the juvenile population in the cottage. He could also 

 have pointed out the miseries that might be removed from the habita- 

 tions of the poor, and the benefits that might be conferred upon the 

 farmer, upon the landowner, and upon the clergy of the Established 

 Church. Instead of which, allured by the glittering " Gold of Plea- 

 sure," the Rev. gentleman forsook his early love, and now, supported 

 by a mere " probability," asserts that his second favourite is more 

 worthy than the first. For, he observes, "As to the probable worth 

 of the Gold of Pleasure, I shall only state what / do know. In its 



