284 



FLAX VERSUS COTTON. 



than I have years, would, if universally adopted, prove the 

 panacea for the distress both of the rural and manufacturing 

 districts. 



Mr. Cobden and his adherents, though indirectly, have not 

 been the least amongst my coadjutors; because the effect of 

 their proceedings compels many agriculturists to turn their 

 attention to the cultivation of flax, which, under a remunera- 

 tive price for corn, they w^ould for ever have rejected. There- 

 fore, should the schemes of the League ultimately prove 

 successful, the British farmer, sooner than allow his fields to 

 lie waste, wdll appropriate them to the growth of flax ; and, 

 with labourers fed upon cheap foreign provisions, be enabled 

 to produce the raw material at a price successfully to com- 

 pete even with cotton. Thus w^ould free trade be as fatal 

 to the manufacturers of that article as to the growers of 

 corn. 



We hear of no objection to the growth of flax except from 

 cotton manufacturers, who are perpetually exclaiming, *^'We 

 cannot eat flax;" while flax-spinners in particular, and all w^ho 

 are conversant with the real properties of the crop, recommend 

 and encourage its culture. Both parties are zealous advocates 

 for free trade. The cotton-spinner, however, foreseeing the 

 injurious effect that a supply of cheap linen would have upon 

 calico, endeavours to mislead the public with respect to the object 

 of the patriotic promoters of the flax cause. He also aims at the 

 removal of restrictive duties upon corn, regardless of throwing 

 a large proportion of our fields out of cultivation, and of our 

 rural population out of work. 



But the flax- spinner, on the contrary, offers, as some com- 

 pensation for free trade, the circulation of that capital at home 

 w^hich he now sends abroad for the purchase of flax; a circu- 

 lation in which is involved five or six millions every year — the 

 employment of all descriptions of idle hands — and the reduction 

 of poor-rates. 



Under these circumstances, it behoves both landlord and 

 tenant to become thoroughly acquainted with this important 

 subject, remembering "that flax is a double crop; that the 

 seed alone remunerates; and that whatever the fibre produces 

 above the cost for labour, is gain." 



