REMEDY FOR THE NATIONAL DISTRESS. 



177 



several gentlemen were induced to inspect the extensive crops 

 of flax, and the system of grazing in Norfolk, The information 

 thus derived, added to their own experience, originated the 

 present patriotic undertaking ; an undertaking which is being 

 conducted with a spirit and decision that ensure success. 



To the Ipswich and Ashbocking Farmers' Club am I pecu- 

 liarly indebted for the prospect of personally advocating those 

 projects to which my time and my pen have been so long and 

 so successfully devoted — successfully, because the increased 

 employment afforded in the parishes where flax has been grown, 

 and the compound used, is the realization, upon a small scale, of 

 the effect that must follow a universal adoption of my plan. 



In my pamphlets and letters, independent of the present 

 series, I have shown the value of the flax crop in this, and in 

 foreign countries — that from nine to twelve millions a-year are 

 annually sent out of the country for the purchase of flax, lin- 

 seed, oil, and cake, to the encouragement of foreign agricul- 

 ture and to the support of foreign labourers — that this im- 

 portant crop can be produced from our own soil, and would 

 provide abundant employment both for the rural and for the 

 manufacturing population — that the circulation of the above 

 millions would repeal the poor-rate, abohsh union workhouses, 

 secure to the labourer a just rate of wages, to the farmer a 

 remunerating price for his produce, and to the landowner the 

 value of his property ; also that the clergyman, the manufac- 

 turer, the merchant, and the tradesman, would all reap a pro- 

 portionable benefit. I have shown that the agitations in Wales 

 for the abolition of the poor-law and tolls, in Ireland for the 

 repeal of the Union, and in England for free trade, universal 

 sufl'rage, and a paper currency, are chimerical schemes, because 

 if all were enforced, no adequate employment could be found 

 for the people. I have endeavoured to prove that the remedy 

 for our national distress can easily be derived from our own 

 soil, and that native skill and industry only require encourage- 

 ment and support to render us independent of foreign resources 

 either for food or for clothing. That, instead of being importers 

 of barley and meat in the shape of oil-cake, we might annually 

 export largely of barley in the shape of flax ; and obtain, from 

 the cultivation of this prolific plant, infinitely more tons of 



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