202 



Gower, the officiating member of the committee, is of real im- 

 portance ; because in that report a clear profit of 41. 9s. from 

 an acre of flax, independent of the seed, is proved. 



Did this party possess the power of a Roman Triumvirate, 

 they could not have issued a proclamation to which the British 

 farmer would have paid greater deference, nor one that could 

 have more absolutely confirmed the success of ray original pro- 

 jects, published in the ' Suggestions,' viz., 1st, The Fattening, 

 of Cattle upon Native Produce. —2ndly, The Growth of Flax 

 for the sake of the seed as a substitute for Foreign Oil Cake. — 

 3rdly, The cultivation of that prolific plant with reference 

 principally to the value of the fibre. 



Completely as my views have been verified, and much as I 

 have cause to congratulate my country on the prospect of 

 profitable employment being found for the population, 1 am 

 nevertheless bound to observe, that the return furnished to 

 Mr. Rous, and to which the hon. gentleman aflRxed his 

 name, is a document to which he will, one day, refer with 

 regret. 



If the letter signed W. R. Rous may be considered as a pro- 

 clamation of the value of a flax crop ; so may that, issued under 

 the signature of George Gower, be regarded as an edict pro- 

 hibiting the public from placing any confidence in me. I say 

 under the signature, because it is evident that the composition 

 emanated, not from his own, but from the pen of a latent an- 

 tagonist, evincing a servility on the one hand, and a cowardice 

 on the other. 



Undoubtedly the arguments contained in Nos. IX. and X. 

 of my series ought to have been refuted, or the impossibility 

 of so doing candidly acknowledged. 



Seeing, then, that in the place of argument abuse has been 

 substituted, I calmly submit to the fate of a prophet in his own 

 country ; a fate that I anticipated when writing the preface 

 to my Reasons for the cultivation of Flax ; wherein I observed 

 that " Popularity was, at best, an uncertain privilege," and 

 of which the following extract is, alas! a lively illustration 

 taken from the public journals, and addressed to the " Noble- 

 men, Clergy, Gentry, Yeomanry, and others interested in the 

 prosperity of the county of Norfolk." 



