1756
Page 11 of 23.
Introduction page vii.
most valuable Acquisition, the Utility of which needs no Comment to illustrate.
The last particular Advantage I shall mention affects principally the Landed Interest in our populous Parishes, and the Mill-owners in general, more especially those that lie most contiguous to the Part of the River proposed to be made Navigable. The low State of our Manufacture of late is well known, and that the Poor have been ill employed in general for some Time past; and, should this Declension be still greater, which is not improbable, (unless a War, by distressing the Trade of the French, should give to Vigour to our's) the Consequence will be sensibly felt by the Landed Interest, by swelling the Poor's-rates to an enormous Degree; And this would not be the only Evil attending to Mill-owners, but they would still receive a heavy Stroke for want of their Mills being employed. Both these Evils, which are at present felt in Part, and may be more sensibly experienced, would in all Probability be avoided, should this Scheme succeed. For, supposing the Trade to the Levant, East-India, &c, should not again revive and flourish amongst us, Nature hath given us many Advantages in our Situation which may be improved in other valuable Purposes. Our Mills, already erected, are capable of being converted into various Uses for the Employment of the Poor, which the Execution of this Undertaking may render expedient; and we neither want Riches, Spirit, nor Men of Ability, to improve it.
Whatever further Reasons, or Observations, may be necessary to place this Scheme in its proper Light to the Publick View, will be annexed to the Scheme itself. What has hitherto been said concerning it is bu an Abstract of what might have been advanced only to do the Subject Justice; Yet I hope it may suffice to convince my Readers, that making the Stroudwater River Navigable will be particularly beneficial to this Country, that in its Consequences it may tend to a Natural Advantage, and that the Scheme proposed sets forth a sufficient Encouragement, and if put into Execution will be a good Security, to those that shall be willing to become Proprietors in it.
And I cannot help concluding that, as the laudable Scheme, some Time since begun in the Neighbourhood, for fitting up and supporting a Dispensatory in Stroud, (by the Encouragement and indefatigable Labours of many worthy Gentlemen of this County, whose Names deserved to be transmitted to Posterity) was afterwards the Means of establishing One of the most noble Charity (considering its Infant State)
