200 



two cases, on account of their publicity, to prove the immea- 

 surable advantages that must accrue from the employment of 

 the people, whether the profits, in future, be one or nine 

 pounds per acre. Immeasurable, because I am convinced that 

 had all the flax grown last year in this part of Norfolk been 

 prepared for scutching, it would have afforded employment, 

 during the winter months, for more able-bodied men than are 

 now confined in the overflowing workhouses of the North and 

 South Erpingham Unions. 



And here I cannot forbear referring to the admirable address 

 of Robert Copeman, Esq., of Aylsham, that appeared in your 

 paper of last week, respecting the lamentable state of Buxton 

 workhouse, and the desirableness of finding employment for 

 the poor ; an address which will be received with interest 

 from the known ability of that gentleman, and I trust will be 

 the means of stirring up the philanthropy of the neighbour- 

 hood to carry out his humane propositions. 



It is, as Mr. Copeman observes, "Unquestionably much 

 better to keep men employed, even if not in very productive 

 labour, than to support them in idleness.'' Hence the neces- 

 sity of cultivating, in every parish, small proportions of flax, 

 the various ramifications of which would provide employment 

 for the able-bodied labourer during the cessation of other 

 work ; and for the juvenile population throughout the year. 

 Thus would the necessity for enlarging old workhouses, or 

 building new ones, be obviated, and the burden of such esta- 

 blishments be mainly removed. 



Were about two acres out of every hundred of cultivated 

 land sown with linseed in the latter part of March or the first 

 week in April, the crop would, in most seasons, be secured in 

 time to sow the land with turnips ; herein no loss could accrue 

 to the farmer, while an invaluable benefit would be conferred 

 on the community at large. For, as * Idleness is at the root 

 of all evil, so is employment at the root of all moral, civil, and 

 religious order." 



I am, your obedient servant, 



John Warnes, jun. 

 Trimingham, Feb. 6th, 1844. 



