EARLy LEGISLATION ON THE FLAX CROP. 



71 



specification of his invention was ordered to be deposited in 

 the Court of Chancery, to be kept secret from the public for 

 fifteen months, and then to be produced only by order of the 

 Lord Chancellor, and by him to be examined whenever occasion 



required Messrs. Hill and Bundy, in the year 



1817, likewise patented an ingenious machine for breaking 

 and rubbing flax 3 but though this was said to have consider- 

 able merit as regarded its mechanical arrangement, the machine 

 has not been found of greater practical utility than that of 

 Mr. Lee." 



For centuries past the legislature made repeated attempts 

 to establish an extensive cultivation of flax and an improved 

 method of preparation throughout the kingdom^ without effect. 

 The attempts to render us independent of other countries, 

 however feeble and incomplete, savoured of sound political 

 knowledge; for, had they proved successful, England would 

 not now have been compelled to pay an export duty to the 

 Belgian Government for the privilege of purchasing their flax 

 — a duty that has only been imposed since the alteration of 

 our tariff ; a circumstance that Englishmen in general^ and 

 agriculturists in particular, ought well to consider, because 

 the price of the raw material must necessarily advance, cause 

 the home-cultivation to become a more lucrative business, and 

 obtain for the cultivator a reward far exceeding any premium 

 Government could offer. 



Now, w^hat legislators failed to accomplish in former periods 

 has, within the last three years, been actually achieved in 

 Ireland, through the instrumentality of the Flax Improve- 

 ment Society of that country. Our sister kingdom can now 

 vie with foreign states in the production of the finest and 

 most profitable description of flax. This they effected by 

 engaging first-rate Belgian instructors,^' and by sending young 

 men abroad to learn the best methods of culture and after- 

 management of the crop. 



The causes of failure in former times may be traced to 

 various circumstances that do not now exist. In truth, many 



* Two of whom are now in my own '^serviee, viz. Jonas Clai'k and Joseph 

 Fieux. 



