164 MEANS OF IMPROVEMENT, 



large and numerous, and would have proved fuch ample mar- 

 kets to all the adjacent country, that it could not have failed 

 becoming well cultivated, and letting probably at double the 

 prefent rent. The manufacturers would have been confined 

 to their own bufinefs, and the farmers to theirs ; that both 

 trades would have flourished the better for this, the minutes 

 of the journey very generally fhew ; a weaver who works at 

 a fine cloth, can never take the plough or the fpade in hand 

 without injury to his web. 



I never heard but two objections to this : firft, That the 

 weavers would be unhealthy in towns : and fecoud, That the 

 country would be Jefs populous. 



To the firft I reply, that ill health is the confequem"-, of a 

 fedencary life and a bended pofture ; whether the man has 

 his farm or not, it is not a little work now and then that will 

 remedy this evil if he fupports himfelf by the loom. I was in 

 ieveral of the linen markets, and never faw more pallid pic- 

 tures of difeafe ; I defy any town to Ihew worfe. Robuir, 

 healthy, vigorous bodies, are not to be found at looms ; if 

 the health of the people is your object, you muft give up ma- 

 nufactures, and betake yourfelves to agriculture altogether ; 

 but this, in the prefent ftate of the world is vifionary. If the 

 weavers were confined to towns, as I propofe, there would be 

 a much greater aggregate of health than at prefent, for the 

 country would be as healthy as it always is in the hands of 

 farmers and labourers, but at prefent all is unhealthy as all 

 are manufacturers. 



The fecond objection I totally deny, for it is againft all the 

 principles of population to aflert, that a meafure, which is be- 

 neficial to both agriculture and manufactures, can be prejudi- , 

 cial to the increafe of people ; more food would be raifed 

 from well than from ill cultivated ground ; a whole race of 

 farmers and labourers would be employed in feeding the 

 towns : to think that population could be injured by fuch an 

 arrangement is an abfurdity too grofs to deferve attention. 



That the circumftances of the Irifti manufacture are la- 

 mentable, when the extent of country is confidered, no man 

 of reflection can doubt, for the value of it taken in that light 

 ( important as it is in its total amount) appears to be compara- 

 tively trivial. Fortunately the evil is not without a remedy ; 

 the landlords of the country might, with no great difficulty, 

 effect the change. Let them lleadily refufe to let an acre of 

 land to any man that has a loom ; the bufinefs would and 

 ought to be gradual j but farms ihould be thrown by degrees 

 into the hands of real farmers, and weavers driven into towns, 

 where a cabbage garden ihould be the utmoft fpace of their 

 land ; and thofe gentlemen who are introducing the manu- 

 facture into other parts of the kingdom, fhould build the cab- 

 bins contiguous, and let the inhabitants on no account have 

 any land. All encouragement, all attention, all bounty, all 



premium ? 



