branch of their ancient legal rights, whereby the schismatical party will have the pleasure of gratifying their revenge — hoc Graii voluere.
The farmer will find no relief by this modus, because, when his present lease shall expire, his landlord will infallibly raise the rent in an equal proportion upon every part of land where flax is sown, and have so much a better security for payment at the expense of the clergy.
If we judge by things past, it little avails that this bill is to be limited to a certain time of ten, twenty, or thirty years. For no landlord will ever consent that a law shall expire, by which he finds himself a gainer; and of this there are many examples, as well in England, as in this kingdom.
The great end of this bill, is, by proper encouragement to extend the linen manufacture into those counties where it has hitherto been little cultivated: but this encouragement of lessening the tithe of flax and hemp, is one of such a kind, as, it is to be feared, will have a directly contrary effect. Because, if I am rightly informed, no set of men has, for their number and fortunes, been more industrious and successful than the clergy, in introducing that manufacture into places which were unacquainted with it; by persuading their people to sow flax and hemp, by procuring seed for them, and by having them instructed in the management thereof; and this they did, not without reasonable hopes of increasing the value of their parishes after some time, as well as of promoting the benefit of the publick. But if this modus should take place, the clergy will be so far from gaining, that they will become losers by their extraordinary care, by having their best arable lands
