HIS SPEECH IN ADVOCACY OF THE FLAX CAUSE. 



45 



find a remedy ? It is true, the Poor Laws afford a temporary 

 relief, but they oflPer no cure for the national disease. The 

 wound still bleeds, and will continue to bleed until the bread 

 of idleness is displaced for that of honest industry. Gentlemen, 

 I firmly believe that it is in our power to heal this wound by 

 the simplest of all means, namely, the cultivation of flax. This 

 will find employment for the people, and prove a remedy that 

 legislators have failed to discover. And when we consider 

 that too much land, money, and labour are appropriated to 

 the growth of turnips and of barley, I think we may justly 

 assume that a partial substitution of flax, upon these grounds 

 alone, will be a very profitable crop to the farmer ; and 1 ex- 

 pect that we shall hear no more of a starving population and 

 of burdensome rates. Tlie market for labour is over-stocked ; 

 and as the poor man has nothing else to offer, he is compelled 

 to accept the lowest rate of wages. Under our present mode of 

 husbandry his position can never be altered, nor his condition 

 mended. But by an alteration of that mode in the way pro- 

 posed, wages would advance, agricultural produce become of 

 more value, and trade revive ; because, with adequate wages, 

 our labourers would be enabled to purchase those articles 

 at our shops which are supplied by the manufacturers of 

 Norwich, Leeds, Sheffield, Birmingham, Manchester, Stafford- 

 shire, Stroud, and many more. In this way would they con- 

 tribute to the maintenance and support of many thousand 

 artisans, whose only hope, in fact, rests on the prosperity 

 of agriculture. These, in their turn, would become greater 

 consumers of farm produce, and, by the united employment 

 of town and country, the consumption of home produce and 

 of home manufactures would be immense. Thus should we 

 emerge from our present difficulties, and England live again ! 

 Gentlemen, let it be our endeavour to cherish that which 

 every Briton ought to hold most dear, namely, his native land. 

 Let us stir up her latent resources, and carry out those de- 

 signs to which the Providences of God have so clearly directed 

 our attention. I'he soil and climate of this country are 

 evidently adapted to the growth of flax. The superiority of 

 the seed to fatten cattle is placed beyond a doubt. The acre- 

 able value of linseed is equal to the average value of other 



