309 



A REMEDY FOR THE DISTRESSES OF THE CITY OF 

 NORWICH. ADDRESSED TO THE INHABITANTS. 



In offering this tract for your serious consideration, I avoid addressing 

 any particular party ; because the interests of every class of the com- 

 munity are involved in the subject of which it treats. 



The affecting recitals of the deplorable state of your poor, at the 

 recent meeting in the Guildhall; — the acknowledgment that no effec- 

 tual relief could be afforded except by the introduction of new sources 

 of employment ; — the earnest expression of a hope that some remedial 

 measures would be adopted ; — the assurances of zealous co-operation in 

 the establishment of new branches of business ; — and my own persuasion 

 that the Linen Trade, with its numerous ramifications, would meet 

 every diflSculty ; impel me no longer to defer the renewal of the propo- 

 sitions contained in my Letter addressed* to the Citizens of Norwich, 

 fifteen months ago. I annex that letter, because the opinions I then 

 formed have undergone no change ; and because careful investigation 

 has only confirmed the soundness of the arguments therein contained. 



In addition to my former suggestions, I now propose the erection of 

 a Flax-spinning Mill that would employ many hundreds of persons of 

 all ages, and thus render success doubly sure. 



By those who have; never bestowed five minutes' consideration upon 

 the subject, my plans may be pronounced presumptuous and chimerical. 

 But it ought to be remembered, that they emanate from five years of 

 practical research, of which the two last had especial reference to the 

 peculiar circumstances of Norwich. Opportunities have long been 

 afforded me of acquiring information as to the real condition of the 

 unfortunate operatives. But I refrain from particularizing cases of 

 distress as incentives to effort ; experience having proved that such 

 recitals, oft repeated, harden rather than soften the heart. 



The public papers have exposed the horrors consequent upon the 

 want of employment and of adequate wages, in terms too authentic to 

 be disputed, and in colours too vivid to be forgotten. To the speeches 

 of the mayor and other gentlemen at the late meeting, and to the state- 

 ments of Mr. Johnson in particular, I refer as proofs; 1st, that Nor- 

 wich has been for years, and is now, in a worse state than any other 

 manufacturing town in England : and 2ndly, as overtures, though 

 indirect, to submit the merits of my proposed remedy to the ordeal of 

 a searching inquiry — an inquiry, which I claim upon the grounds of 

 ♦ See No. 7, page 169. 



