ITS YALTJE. 77 



required than simply to avoid placing money into any 

 but working hands. That a country like Great Britain, 

 renowned for industry and intelligence, should expend so 

 many millions in supporting people in idleness, is an 

 anomaly that can only be explained by the determination 

 of all parties not to act in unison. We reprobate idle- 

 ness, and yet take no measures to check it, except such 

 as compel the poor to accept a most inadequate rate of 

 wages, and to supply the deficiency by theft, poaching, 

 and prostitution. [A great advantage in the culture and 

 manipulation of flax is that so much of it may be done by 

 piece-work. The more a man is inclined to be industrious, 

 the more money he has an opportunity of earning.] The 

 case of those who know not where to turn for daily bread 

 must be considered desperate ; of those who must either 

 be maintained in idleness, upon parish rates, or upon 

 plunder; whose alternative is the prison or the work- 

 house. By a humane appropriation of the means em- 

 ployed to fill our prisons and our workhouses, the unfor- 

 tunate inmates might be rendered contributors, rather 

 than burdens, to the parish, the county, or the state. 

 Were the time and money thus expended appropriated 

 to the promotion of the flax cause, failure would be im- 

 possible. 



" With respect to my own parish, idle hands, want, and 

 intolerable rates are now unknown. I am confident, 

 therefore, that were the growth of flax introduced in 

 strict accordance with my recommendations, still greater 

 results would be realised by the most populous and dis- 

 tressed districts. Trimingham at the last census con- 

 tained 510 acres, and a population of 222. Several acres 

 have since fallen into the sea, and the inhabitants have 

 increased to 236. About 55 acres, also, have been formed 

 into game-preserves, which, with ten acres of roads, and 

 at least 15 per cent, of fences, sites of buildings, &c., 

 reduce the quantity for cultivation to about 360 acres. 

 Hence it will be seen that there is somewhat less than an 

 acre and three quarters to each individual. Moreover, 

 much of the land is gravelly and ordinary ; a great pro- 



