266 



Throughout my pamphlets, and innumerable letters both 

 public and private. I endeavoured to show that the soil of 

 Great Britain possessed resources adequate to the wants of 

 the population ; and that the flax- crop was to be the medium 

 of developing those resources. As yet, no one has successfully 

 refuted my theory or disproved my statements. The last 

 attempt was made by Mr. Cobden in the House of Commons, 

 whose observations, upon that occasion, were weak and incon- 

 sistent, a mere echo of the Anti-Corn-Law League. But flax, 

 instead of being rejected as worthless, is now cultivated more 

 systematically in Norfolk and Suffolk than heretofore ; and, if 

 I may judge from an extensive correspondence, will be grown 

 this year in every county of England ; also in Scotland, North 

 and South Wales, Jersey, St. Agnes, &c. 



The congeniality of our climate to the growth of flax, the 

 non-exhausting effects of the crop, the extraordinary produce 

 of seed per acre, and value as cattle-food, the profits derived, 

 and the fund of employment afforded, are facts of more weight 

 in favour of the flax cause than a multitude of arguments, and 

 prove incontestably the soundness of my advocacy. Of these 

 facts Mr. Cobden was, or ought to have been, aware, when he 

 introduced to the notice of Parliament the Report of the Na- 

 tional Flax and Agricultural Improvement Association, for 

 they were recorded in the report itself. 



That " most deadly weapon, furnished to the lecturers of the 

 Anti-Corn-Law League," to which Mr. Cobden alluded, was 

 first wielded against landowners, in a paragraph published by 

 the League in the Manchester Guardian of the 9th of October 

 last, and which I successfully encountered in No. 14 of my 

 series. Mr. Cobden 's arguments being couched in the same 

 terms, and implying precisely the same questions, are as easily 

 refuted, which the inquirer will perceive by the following 

 e.Ktract : — 



" 1st. How can the English grower afford to sell flax for 

 the same price at which the foreigner imports it, free of duty, 

 at less cost for labour, and unburdened by a national debt, 

 poor, highway, and county rates ? 



" 2ndly. Why cannot the English grower afford to sell wheat 



