48 



THE FLAX -MARKET AT TANDRAGEE. 



will they continue to be, as they ever have been, the largest 

 contributors to our missionary and other philanthropic institu- 

 tions. For the want of employment the funds of many societies 

 are falling off ; and our churches and chapels are neglected, 

 because the poor can neither pay their accustomed contributions, 

 nor appear in decent clothing on the Sabbath-day. As a cor- 

 roboration of this melancholy statement, I refer to the report 

 of the City Mission, to your working Clerg}", and to the excel- 

 lent Minister of Catton New Church. Ought not this lament- 

 able condition of our countrjnnen to stimulate us to relieve 

 their wants ? — wants that require no legislative enactments or 

 government interference to alleviate, but a cordial union of 

 heart and hand in the working of our Flax Society. Already 

 the corn-law has reduced the price of bread ; but of what avail 

 is the cry of cheap bread to those who have no money to pur- 

 chase it ? And how is money to be had without employment ? 

 and where is employment to be found ? Not in Norwich, where 

 so many branches of her manufactures have, from different 

 causes, become extinct ; nor yet in the country, where the 

 produce of land so ill remunerates. It is only to be found in 

 the cultivation of flax: this will speedily solve the difficulty, 

 because it will find employment in the field and work in the 

 city. The effect of this measure must inevitably tend to advance 

 the rate of wages, maintain the value of British property, and 

 preserve that proud position in the scale of nations which we 

 have so long enjoyed. It will only require a few months to 

 prove the accuracy of my predictions ; for if the country will 

 afford the necessary support, the seed will be sown in April, 

 the flax will be ready to pull in July, and the crop, if need be, 

 prepared for market in August. Hundreds of hands will be 

 required to pull and harvest the crop, and thousands more in 

 the winter months to thresh out the seed from the stalks, to 

 crush and form it into cattle-compound, and to prepare the 

 flax through all its stages for market. Methinks I see the flax- 

 market at Norwich like the Thursday market at Tandragee 

 which I lately witnessed in Ireland, and the farmers busied in 

 selling flax, and putting the ready money in their pockets. 

 It was a cheering sight, but not a very brisk day ; yet flax to 

 the amount of three thousand pounds was sold by farmers whose 



