of 751,331 cwt., and amounting, by the last printed returns of the House of Commons, for 1838, to 1,626,276 cwt.[22] It is manifest, that a trade so valuable to us as our linen manufacture, can never be said to be safe, so long as we are thus dependant for the very means of its support upon those whose manifest advantage it is to destroy it. In order to remedy this evil, it seems to me, to require only a vigorous exertion on behalf of our own farmers, and those whose direct interest it is to give them encouragement to lead to such an improvement in our process of cultivation and dressing, as would speedily render our flax of equal quality with that of our rivals in the Low Countries; we may thus safely rely on its augmented value in the market, to ensure its production in sufficient quantity to meet our demands, and relieve us altogether from a dependance upon foreigners. For the landed proprietor and the farmer, not less than the manufacturer, there is a mine of unwrought wealth to be secured in this important article, and my earnestness upon this point arises from the fact that from all I have seen myself, or can possibly learn from others, the field is equally open to England as to the Netherlands--she obtains the seed from the same quarter, her soil and her climate are equally suitable; the plant up to a certain stage, is as healthy and promising with us, as with them, but there the parallel ceases, and in all the subsequent processes, the superior system of the Belgian gives him a golden advantage over us. Still notwithstanding all our disadvantages, Irish flax, for the strong articles, to which alone it is suited, produces a firmer, and in every respect, a better thread than Flemish or Dutch of the same character. One source of superiority which the farmer of Holland and the Netherlands enjoys, is derived from the fact of his _saving the seed_ of his own flax. In the first instance, he imports, as we do from Riga, seed which yields a strong and robust plant, during the first year; its produce is then preserved and sown a second time, when it becomes more delicate in its texture, and the seed then obtained, is _never parted with_ by the farmer, but produces the finest and most valuable plant. As this, however, in time deteriorates, it is necessary to keep up a constant succession by annual importation of northern seed, which in turn become acclimated, refined, and are superseded by the next in rotation. The sagacious Hollander thus obtains for himself a seed for his own peculiar uses, of twice the value of any which he exports; an advantage of which England cannot expect to avail herself, till the process of saving the flax-seed for herself, becomes more generally introduced, instead of annually importing upwards of 3,300,000 bushels, as we do at present.