136 ENGLISH STRAW PLAT. [No. 



Q,. The Society will want nothing from me, nor 

 from any-body else, to convince it of the importance 

 of this matter; but I cannot, in concluding these com- 

 munications to you, Sir, refrain from making an ob- 

 servation or two on the consequences likely to arise 

 out of these inquiries. The manufacture is alone 

 of considerable magnitude. Not less than about^ve 

 millions of persons in this kingdom have a dress 

 which consists partly of manufactured straw ; and a 

 large part, and all the most expensive part, of the 

 articles thus used, now come from abroad. In cases 

 where you can get from abroad any article at less 

 expense than you can get it at home, the wisdom of 

 fabricating that article at home may be doubted. But, 

 in this case, you get the raw material by labour per- 

 formed at home, and the cost of that labour is not 

 nearly so great as would be the cost of the mere car- 

 riage of the straw from a foreign country to this. If 

 our own people had all plenty of employment, and 

 that too more profitable to them and to the country 

 than the turning of a part of our own grass into 

 articles of dress, then it would be advisable still to 

 import Leghorn bonnets ; but the facts being the re- 

 verse, it is clear, that whatever money, or money's 

 worth things, be sent out of the country, in exchange 

 for Leghorn bonnets, is, while we have the raw ma- 

 terial here for next to nothing, just so much thrown 

 away. The Italians, it may be said, take some of 

 our manufactures in exchange; and let us suppose, 

 for the purpose of illustration, that they take cloth 

 from Yorkshire. >top the exchange between Leg- 

 horn and Yorkshire, and, does Yorkshire lose part 

 of its custom? No: for though those who make the 

 bonnets out of English grass, prevent the Leghorners 

 from buying Yorkshire cloth, they, with the money 

 which they now get, instead of its being got by the 

 Leghorners, buy the Yorkshire cloth themselves; and 

 they wear this cloth too, instead of its being worn by 

 the people of Italy ; ay, Sir, and many, now in rags, 

 will be well clad, if the laudable object of the Society 

 be effected. Besides this, however, why should we 



