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find a remedy ? It is true, the Poor Laws afford a temporary 

 relief^ but they offer no cure for the national disease. The 

 wound still bleeds, and will continue to bleed until the bread 

 of idleness is displaced for that of honest industry. Gentlemen, 

 I firmly believe that it is in our power to heal this wound by 

 the simplest of all means, namely, the cultivation of flax. 

 This will find employment for the people, and prove a remedy 

 that legislators have failed to discover. And when we consider 

 that too much land, money, and labour are appropriated to 

 the growth of turnips and of barley, I think we may justly 

 assume that a partial substitution of flax, upon these grounds 

 alone, will be a very profitable crop to the farmer ; and I 

 expect that we shall hear no more of a starving population and 

 of burdensome rates. The market for labour is over-stocked ; 

 and as the poor man has nothing else to offer, he is compelled 

 to accept the lowest rate of wages. Under our present mode 

 of husbandry his position can never be altered, nor his condition 

 mended. But by an alteration of that mode in the way pro- 

 posed, wages would advance, agricultural produce become 

 of more value, and trade revive ; because, with adequate 

 wages, our labourers would be enabled to purchase those 

 articles at our shops which are supplied by the manufacturers 

 of Norwich, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, 

 Staffordshire, Stroud, and many more. In this way would 

 they contribute to the maintenance and support of many 

 thousand artisans, whose only hope, in fact, rests on the pro- 

 sperity of agriculture. These, in their turn, would become 

 greater consumers of farm produce, and, by the united employ- 

 ment of town and country, the consumption of home produce 

 and of home manufactures would be immense. Thus should 

 we emerge from our present difiiculties, and England live 

 again ! Gentlemen, let it be our endeavour to cherish that 

 which every Briton ought to hold most dear, namely, his native 

 land. Let us stir up her latent resources, and carry out those 

 designs to which the Providences of God have so clearly directed 

 our attention. The soil and climate of this country are 

 evidently adapted to the growth of flax. The superiority of 

 the seed to fatten cattle is placed beyond a doubt. The acre- 

 able value of linseed is equal to the average value of other 



