216 



THE AUTHOR DEFENDS HIS CAUSE 



Gower^ the officiating member of the committee, is of real im- 

 portance ; because in that report a clear profit of 9Z. 4s. from 

 an acre of flax, independent of the seed, is proved. 



Did this party possess the power of a Roman Triumvirate, 

 they could not have issued a proclamation to which the British 

 farmer would have paid greater deference, nor one that could 

 have more absolutely confirmed the success of my original j)ro- 

 jects, published in the ' Suggestions,' viz., 1st, The Fattening 

 of Cattle upon Native Produce. — 2ndly, The Growth of Flax 

 for the sake of the seed as a substitute for Foreign Oil- Cake. — 

 3rdly, The cultivation of that prolific plant with reference 

 principally to the value of the fibre. 



Completely as my views have been verified^ and much as I 

 have cause to congi-atulate my country on the prospect of 

 profitable employment being found for the population, I am 

 nevertheless bound to observe, that the return furnished to 

 Mr. Rous, and to which the hon. gentleman affixed his 

 name, is a document to which he will, one day, refer with 

 regTet. 



If the letter signed W. R. Rous may be considered as a pro- 

 clamation of the value of a flax crop ; so may that issued under 

 the signature of George Gower be regarded as an edict pro- 

 hibiting the public from placing any confidence in me. I say 

 under the signature, because it is evident that the composition 

 emanated not from his own, but from the pen of a latent an- 

 tagonist, evincing a servility on the one hand, and a cowardice 

 on the other. 



Undoubtedly the arguments contained in Nos. IX. and X. 

 of my series ought to have been refuted, or the impossibility 

 of so doing candidly acknov/ledged. 



Seeing, then, that in the place of argument abuse has been 

 substituted, I calmly submit to the fate of a prophet in his own 

 country ; a fate that I anticipated when writing the preface to 

 my ' Reasons for the Cultivation of Flax wherein I observed 

 that ''Popularity was, at best, an uncertain privilege," and 

 of which the following extract is, alas ! a lively illustration 

 taken from the public journals, and addressed to the " Noble- 

 men, Clergy, Gentry, Yeomanry, and others interested in the 

 prosperity of the county of Norfolk." 



