would have set up there Not that this Severity proceeded from the temper of the Protestants of Ireland who are certainly the kindest People on Earth to Strangers that either Travel or abide amongst them but from the Bigottry of a few who too much favoured or advanced the Popish Interest And however I doubt not but that the usage those Favourers of Popery received from K. James hath opened their Eyes and possibly rectified the Judgments of such of them as are living yet I believe this Sin this Severity to the distressed French did help forward the dispersion and calamities which have since happen'd to the Protestants of Ireland for sins of this kind being committed by Authority the Guilt becomes National There are not those Laws in that Kingdom against Dissenters that are in England nor any that I have heard of for imposing the Sacramental Test and if it be the Interest of England to have those Laws and that Test taken off 't is certainly no less the Interest of Ireland to incourage all sorts of Protestants Like Liberty with what 's here proposed was one means which hath so abundantly peopled and enriched Holland And as there are not those Laws against Dissenters there as here neither are there those Animosities among Protestants of different Perswasions as there are in England nor those Prejudices against their Majesties Government So that a perfect Vnion among Protestants there is much more feasible than here And if all parties of Protestants be indifferently admitted to places of Honour Profit and Trust they will then joyntly and chearfully promote the welfare of the Publick to the great increase of their Majesties Revenue of the Church Livings and of the Advantages which England receives by that Kingdom Thirdly The Militia of that Kingdom ought to be setled in the hands of men of Courage Conduct and Integrity such as will not connive at underhand countenance or abett the Enemy give Intelligence or secretly share in Robberies and Plunderings with them c. So that the Arms of the Kingdom may neither be diverted from their Defence nor turned against them It is indeed the folly of English men that they are too little distrustful too unapprehensive of dangers and too remiss in providing against them Care should be taken that all that are able should buy Arms and that those that are not able may be provided with good Arms and be duely exercised That Kingdom is well furnished with brisk active men whose native Courage and Knowledge of the Country qualifies them for Service of which they have given good proof at Derry Inniskillen Limerick c. as also of their forwardness and zeal for their Majesties Service even beyond what England did if I may be permitted to say so The Protestants in England were more than 200 to one of the Papists yet when his present Majesty had landed with a powerful Army to rescue us from Popery and Slavery the Nobility and Gentry c. stood at gaze and it was some time before any of them appeared to own his Cause until the Lord Delamere first and then the Earl of Devon slighting all dangers appeared for the defence of the Religion and Liberties of their Country Whereas in Ireland although the Papists were five to one of the Protestants and had all the Garrisons Magazins Army and Revenue of the Kingdom in their hands yet the Protestants there first in the North then in Connaught and afterwards in Munster did expose themselves to the utmost Perils took up Arms and declared for their Majesties when no Succours appeared for them nor were indeed provided And had they then been timeously owned and supported or afterward employed according to their Merits for the Reduction of that Kingdom they had shortned that work and saved England two or three Milions of what hath and will be expended therein which was too well known to some Persons But those who wish well to King James's Interest and they whose uselesness would appear were the Kingdoms once setled were and are for doing every thing at the utmost charge that by great and continued Taxes they might if possible alienate the Hearts of the People from their Majesties and perplex their Affairs c. And to that end no doubt misrepresented both the Affairs and People of Ireland who notwithstanding all the Contempts and Reproaches cast on them and the Temptations not to say Provocations to the Contrary have almost to a man firmly adhered to their Majesties Interest For among 200000 of them upon a strict enquiry I do not hear of sixty Protestants that have taken up Arms for King James or abetted his Interest notwithstanding his Presence among them Power over them and their great Necessities which possibly if truth were known might be the true cause of their being slighted by some sort of men c. If the present Wars in Europe continue and that Ireland be once wholly subdued the putting of the Militia of that Kingdom into a good posture will save much Money to England by giving his Majesty the better opportunity to employ a greater proportion of his Army against France which otherwise must be kept in Ireland to keep the Irish in Subjection Fourthly Notwithstanding the Militia should be setled as hath been proposed yet considering the odds the Papists have of the Protestants their present Inclinations to France the Ferment that is on their Spirits c. it will be absolutely necessary for the retaining them in obedience to keep up a competent standing Army in that Kingdom Yet when the Militia shall be well setled and Armed the Popish Clergy Lawyers and forfeiting Persons banished and the rest excluded from inhabiting in any of the Cities walled Towns or Garrisons the less force will be requisite For in that case the Forces which were kept up about 1680. in times of Peace will be sufficient to secure the quiet of that Kingdom which consisted only of 1363. Horse Officers included viz. 24 Troops each consisting of a Captain at 19 l. 12 s. each Calendar Month. A Lieutenant 12 l. 12 s. A Cornet 9 l. 16 s. A Quarter Master 7 l. Three Corporals and one Trumpet 3 l. 10 s. each and 45 private Horsemen at 2 l. 2 s. each making in all per Mensem for each Troop 157 l. 10 s. per Annum 1890 l. which amounts for the whole Pay of the said 24 Troops unto 3780 l. per Mensem which is per Annum 45360 l. Allowed to the Lord Lieutenant's own Troop five Horse-men and three Trumpets more than to other Troops making per Annum 252 l. An additional pay of 3 d. per diem to each private Horse-man of the four Troops doing Duty at Dublin 756 l. A Company of Foot-Guards Armed and Clad as the Yeomen of the Guards consisting of a Captain at 15 l. each Calendar Month A Lieutenant 9 l. An Ensign 7 l. and 60 Yeomen at l. 1 s. each making per Mensem 94 l. and per Annum 1128
do in any of these Cases transgress they are sure to be ruined by the Commanders of the Ships of England that watch that Trade as many have been They are by England prohibited to Plant Tobacco to employ their Lands at Home that is laid waste All which say they renders Ireland and the Merchants thereof fit Objects of his Majesty and the Parliaments Compassion which they hope will in due time be extended to them the hard Circumstances in which they we being once understood by their Brethren of England It is some Relief to those that imagine themselves under pressures to be permitted to utter their Complaints Thus I have out of their own Mouths given you part of the anxious reasonings of the Merchants of Ireland about the Cloggs laid on the Trade of that Kingdom by England Whereunto I shall add one more which by reason of the weight and importance of it to England I am not willing to omit and it is this That if these Restraints be intended to compel them to take off more Commodities from England or that they should Trade only with England They are ill designed For that according to the State into which England hath brought the Trade of that Kingdom as is before set forth it is impossible for the people of Ireland to enlarge their Trade with England For should they buy more of England than they do and have done for five years past they are by these Prohibitions rendred uncapable to pay for it Bat on the contrary England hath by these Restraints laid an absolute necessity on Ireland to take off less of the Product and Manufacturies of England than they have formerly taken off For when they enjoyed liberty to carry their Manufactures as well as Provisions to the Plantations they usually brought the Product of them into England which they Trucked for English Commodities or therewith paid their Debts here or if they paid Duty and Exported them to Holland c. they returned the proceed of them into England and applyed it to the uses before-mentioned But seeing England hath not only shut but fast lockt this Door also against them they must now though with much regret to the prejudice of England necessarily seek new Trade and supply themselves for future from Places where they can vend their Native Products and Manufactures Whatever there is in their former reasonings I am of Opinion that this last deserves due consideration as being of importance to the Trade of England But here I 'll put an end to the exercise of your patience as to that particular As to the Cloggs laid on their Trade by their own Parliament they have fallen in and been mentioned with those laid on them by England the most considerable being that Clause in the Act of Customs which imposeth one third more Subsidy on all Commodities Imported into Ireland except those Imported from England or the Plantations This they say was added to the Bill in England However it was passed by their own Parliament and is in effect or was intended by those which added it as a Prohibition of their Trade with any part of the World but England Another discouragement which they alledge is the exorbitant Fines in the Act for Excise in Ireland as loss of Franchises Imprisonment and the Barbarous Corporal Punishments to be inflicted thereby c. which are such That Merchant and Slave in Ireland are convertible terms and had indeed been fitter to have been imposed on Slaves at Algier than on Free-born English Men. If the view I have given you of the Trade and Condition of Ireland hath not satisfied you that it is not the Improvement of that Kingdom that hath lessened the Rents of Lands in England I presume the answer to the second part of the Inquiry we are upon will fully do it The second part of the Query is What have been the Causes that have occasioned the Rents of Lands to have abated or fallen one fifth part or considerably since the year 1662 This Query supposeth That Lands generally throughout England did in 1662. or thereabout yield considerably more Rent than now they do I was desirous to inform my self as to the certainty of it lest this unhappiness should have been only particular to your self and some few about you I had the curiosity to inquire in Survey fifteen Miles from London whether like Abatements had hapned there as in your parts of the Countrey and I had many Instances given me where several parcels of Land which in 1662. and 1663. yielded 50 l. per annum are now set upon the Rack-rent at 22 l. per annum and so proportionably for greater and less quantities of Land So that being confirmed in the Truth of the matter of Fact I have therefore the more studiously enquired into the causes thereof To resolve this Query to satisfaction it is necessary that we retrospect the Condition of England unto the time when Lands were at a very low and mean value as to the Rents of them and if we can find what it was that raised them to those high Rents they yielded about 1662. it is probable that that will direct or help us to find the true causes of their Abatement To go no further back than the Reign of Edward III. we shall find That England had no Manufactures few Ships little or no Exportation but a little Leather besides Wool and Wool-fells of which sometimes 30000 at other times 10000 Sacks was Annually Exported for Custom of which that King received 25000 l. per annum England neither had nor affected Trade further than in our own Seas and to the Netherlands or not to any purpose but lived wholly or mostly by Tillage and Pasturage of Cattel So that being destitute of Manufacture and Trade Lands yielded less Rent in England at that time than they did in Ireland thirty four years ago which was soon after that Kingdom had been depopulated by the Rebellion of 1641. when good Land was set at 12 d. per Acre This is evident by the low Rate of Provisions in London in this Reign where a fat Ox was sold for 6 s. 8 d. a fat Sheep 6 d. five Pidgeons 1 d. a Quarter of Wheat 2 s. a fat Goose 2 d. The products of the Fields being so cheap the Rents of Lands must needs be very low Stow tells us that in this Kings Reign a Tax of 5 l. 16 s. 8 d. being laid on each Parish in England That 112 l. was abated to Suffolk and the like Summ to Devonshire because of-the extream Poverty of those Counties But since they have become the Seat of several Manufactures the Case is much mended with them This Wise and Warlike King being as Masculine in his Councels as Valiant in Arms projected at once the enlarging of his Dominions and the enriching of them He observed that his English Wools were Transported to the Netherlands wrought up there and part of them returned in Draperies c. with vast advantage
Navigation which were also Acts of that Parliament were concurrent causes of the encrease of the Wealth of the Kingdom The first took off those Restraints that were on Trade The second enabled the greater Emprovements of our Land and making our Manufactures cheaper than before And the last encouraged and encreased our Shipping and Sea-men and saved great Sums of Money to the Kingdom which the Hollanders were accustomed annually to carry from England for their Ships let us to freight Yet the chief cause hereof was the Liberty given to People to serve God according to his own Word For this Liberty invited multitudes to return with their Families and Stocks from New-England Germany Holland c. but especially many of our Manufacturers who had been driven away by Arch-Bishop Laud 's Persecution c. tho too many of them by Purchases and Marriages that they had made in those places were detained to the unspeakable damage of the Kingdom However the return of the rest greatly encreased the Home-consumption of Provisions our Manufactures and Trade and employed our Poor which together advanced Lands in Purchase and Rent to that great height they were at about 1660 and 1662. Thus I have faithfully set down the means and steps by which England arrived at that high pitch of Wealth and Strength which rendred her the Terrour and Envy of all Europe And having done that it will be easie to answer the Query to assign the true Causes of its Declension and the abatements of Rents c. since 1662. The most material I conceive to be these that follow viz. The principal Cause thereof was that violent Storm of Persecution raised against the Non-compliers with Ceremonies Liturgies c. pressing the Act of Vniformity whereby ten thousand persons since 1662. perished in Gaols and by hard and cruel usage and very many thousand Families mostly sober useful industrious People have been ruined and exposed to beggary or compelled to seek that Liberty in Forreign Countries which was denied them in their own How the Dissenters have been used the World hath seen but if the doubtful curious or inquisitive desire to be acquainted with some of the particular methods by which so great a number were ruined they may find a Specimen of them given by a good Samaritan in the fourth part of the Conformists Plea for the Nonconformist beginning at page 29. It hath been one of the great infelicities of the Kingdom during the three last Reigns that a sort of Men few of whom have had Title to one foot of Land of Inheritance have assumed to themselves a power to dispose Liberty and Property our Lives and Fortunes at pleasure They have indeed been very liberal of them to those Kings in whom they Vested the whole in hopes they would bountifully reward so good Benefactors either with high Preferments or large Portions out of that great Stock But as ill-gotten Goods seldom continue long with the Possessors neither did these with those to whom they were given for as the great Lord Falkland observed to Charles I. That never did Prince lose more by this Pulpit-Law than he Yet all this exorbitant Power which that sort of Men cloth Princes withal is only that it may be employed for their use and that they themselves may have such shares as may enable them to domineer to fleece and flay all that dissent from them I have as I presume clearly demonstrated That it was our Manufacturers chiefly that raised the Kingdom to its late opulence and greatness and that our Manufacturers were at first attracted hither by Liberties Immunities and Priviledges Things being best increased nourished and preserved by the means by which they are gotten obtained or gained we ought to have continued all those unto that sort of People But that part of the Imposing Men I have been speaking of have been no less pernicious to the Kingdom than to those Kings whom they seemed to Idolize by their flattery For they have by falling on our Manufacturers damnified the Kingdom to a greater degree than I am capable of estimating After-Ages may possibly be better able to do it Yet to give you a little light into this matter consider that one pound of Wooll sold for fourteen pence and one pound of Iron sold at first hand for two pence If they be thus Exported the Kingdom gains little by them But if the former be wrought up as it may be into three pair of fine Womens Hose worth 18 shillings and the latter into fine Scissars Locks c. they may yield three or four shillings according to the Workmanship and that they be Exported the Kingdom gains fifteen times the first value in the first and twenty four times the value in the latter besides the much greater Duty to the King Employment of our People our Ships and Sea-men c. By what hath been said you may see the usefulness of this sort of People to the Kingdom Now if by a modest computation we reckon that only 40000 of the fore-mentioned number that were driven out of this Kingdom were Manufacturers it requires greater skill in Manufactures and knowledge in Arithmetick than I am Master of accurately to assign the vast damage the Kingdom hath annually sustained thereby However the Effects are visible in the Abatements of Trade and Rents The losing of our Trade to other Countries who have thereby gained upon us in those Manufactures whereon we mostly value our selves and which were in a manner until these Persecutions began peculiar unto us And all this only to support and please a Party and keep up the use of two or three unnecessary Ceremonies The lesser concurrent Causes of the Abatement of Rents since 1662. were the two Dutch Wars which were fomented by the Papists Abetted and carried on by the Tantivy Party and the Destruction made by the Burning of London which Ruined many Merchants Tradesmen and Manufacturers Yet had not the same Party by Stifling the Discovery thereof discouraged and by Persecution driven great numbers of them out of the Kingdom we had easily by our Manufactures and Trade retrieved those disadvantages For the Woollen Manufactures being then in a manner peculiar to Us Forreign Countries must have been Supply'd from hence had not our Merchants Tradesmen and Manufacturers been deny'd the Liberty and incouragements at home which they were Courted to and did receive abroad Hereby we laid the Foundation of the decay of Trade and Abatement of Rents by making other Countries sharers with us in our most profitable Trades Thus I have set down as the means whereby Rents were advanced to what they were about 1662. So likewise the unhappy Causes of their Abatement since which concludes my Answer to the third Query The Fourth Query is Whether the State of Trade through Europe considered as it stood before the present War it be the true Interest of England that Rents should generally advance above what they were about 1662. and by what Methods may they
French Kings Revenue and keep a considerable part of our Money from being carried into France it ought to be the more acceptable to us In the forementioned Ballance of our Trade with France drawn up by the French they do compute That Linnens Canvas Diapers c. which we yearly import from France do amount to 400000 l. But by the Ballance drawn out of our Custom-house-books in 1675. we find the imported Linnen from France in one year did amount to 528248 l. 16 s. whereof the Particulars are as followeth viz. Â l. s. d. 60000 pieces of Lockrams and Dowlas at 6 l. per piece 360000 00 0 17000 hundred Ells of Vitry Noyals Canvas at 6 l. per C. 102000 00 0 8000 hundred Ells of Normandy Canvas at 7 l. per Cent. 56000 00 0 2500 pieces of Quintin at 10 l. per piece 1250 00 0 1500 pieces of dyed Linnen at 20 s. per piece 1500 00 0 7600 yards of Diaper Tabling at 2 s. per yard 764 00 0 33896 yards of Diaper Napkening at 12 d. per yard 1694 16 0 1376 pieces of Buckrams at 50 s. per piece 3440 00 0 2800 pair of old Sheets at 5 s. per pair 700 00 0 1200 bolts of Boldavis at 15 s. 900 00 0 Â 528248 16 0 Now were these Linnens raised in Ireland as they easily may be although the whole value of them should be transmitted thither in Cash instead of sending it to France it would yet be of greater advantage to his Majesty and to England First to his Majesty By augmenting his Revenue not only by the Duty on Exportation of them out of Ireland which in that case might be the same which the French King lately received out of them in France but also in the encrease of the Inland Excise in Ireland by enabling a greater Consumptioh of Liquors Tobacco c. the Irish being a People that spend freely when they have wherewithal Secondly To England In begetting a greater intercourse of Trade between the two Kingdoms The Irish are naturally prodigal and love Gaities and were they enabled they would soon be induced to take off more of our Manufactures and natural Products so that there would be no need of parting with our Money in Specie to Ireland as now we do to France And whatever advance it would occasion of the Revenue above the charge of that Kingdom it would be transmitted hither to lessen the Taxes in England and yearly add to the Capital Stock of the Kingdom Thirdly It would be advantagious both to the King and Kingdom in lessening the Revenue of the French King and impoverishing his Subjects As the Manufactures of England have enriched it and yielded a great Revenue to the Crown to enable the keeping a powerful Navy at Sea so the vast quantities of Manufactures which is yearly exported out of France into many parts of the World and especially to England do as well by the Duty paid out of them enable that King to keep up several formidable Armies c. as imploy and inrich his Subjects and enable them to pay other Taxes Now so far as we divest France of its Manufactures and lessen the Exportations so far do we abate its Power and disable the keeping up of such powerful Armies c. The Events and difficulties of War are great and uncertain but this is a sure way to weaken any Prince and to bring any Country into a languishing Condition If to what hath been here proposed any shall say That it will be more the advantage of England to have this Linnen Manufacture set up here than in Ireland I answer That the other Manufactures before mentioned with which we are supplyed from France will much more profitably and agreeably imploy our People than the spinning of Linnen which in this case must be done at a very cheap rate or it will not prevent the bringing of them from France And Ireland in the forementioned respects seems much more proper for that purpose than England And if we would prevent their growing into the Wollen Manufacture it is but just they should be encouraged in some other which may imploy and maintain them for they can no more than our People live only on Air though they are content to work cheaper and fare harder To avoid Prolixity I forbear to set down the proper way in which the Linnen Manufacture may be set up and the Improvements which may be made of the distinct Branches of their Majesties present Revenue in Ireland Thus Sir I have in answer to your Queries set down as the Ancient Charge of Ireland and Forces sent from England thither from our first footing there until the compleat Conquest thereof So likewise the considerable returns of both that have been made thence Some of the Advantages we receive by Ireland and the usefulness of that Kingdom to England The State of its Trade and Revenue and shewed that the Improvement of Ireland for thirty five years past hath been none of the Causes of the abatement of Rents in England but the contrary with the true Causes of the advancement and abatement of Rent and Trade in England with the best Expedients for their Improvements The Methods by which our Advantages by Ireland may be secured and augmented to the greater benefit of England Encrease of his Majesties Revenue in Ireland and to the retrenching of the Power of France In doing whereof I have with my accustomed bluntness freely imparted my thoughts yet without designed Prejudice against any Person or Party I doubt not but you will excuse the harshness of the Stile and the other Defects of these Papers seeing that although they were hastily written your impatience for them did not admit them to be reviewed and that I have elected rather to expose my own weakness than to deny you this Testimony of my being unreservedly SIR Your very Humble Servant FINIS ERRATA PAge 22. line 14. after 38000 and 1000 instead of l. read Hundred Page 29. line 27. after live add in There have several other Errours happened in the Press which the Reader is requested to excuse a See Nash and Murphy's Informations concerning the Popish Plot.
to support our Charge and Enrich us For whatsoever the Revenue of Ireland amounts to yearly above the Charge of that Kingdom hath been and will be transmitted into England and is so much clear profit to the King and this Kingdom They are yearly liable to us for more than we receive in Commodity thence and therefore much of what their Merchants send to France Spain c. on their own proper Accounts is returned by Exchange or brought in Forreign Coyns into England so that they seem to subsist by Miracle However they were in a thriving condition when King James II. Ascended the Throne Nor is the advantage small to England nor to our Nobility and Gentry that whilst the elder Brothers Gentlemen of Estates here justle and scuffle for Offices and Preferments and think all too little for them That their younger Brothers have Ireland to repair unto in Shoals on every change of Government there which usually happens every three or four years where they meet with Offices Employments and Preferments both of Honour and Profit Ecclesiastical Civil and Military and frequently arrive at considerable Estates or a way of Livelihood whereby they live as plentifully and contentedly though perhaps not so splendidly as their Elder Brothers here Nor is this advantage limited to the Nobility and Gentry only For England breeds more Mechanicks than it can maintain The Surcharge of these that by their stay here would but impoverish the rest find Work and Livelihood in Ireland As do many decayed Families that repair thither yearly for Bread and are received there with great Humanity and Kindness It is Ignorance Envy French Gold or Wicked and Treacherous Designs that put Men upon Quarrelling with the Trade Situation or Improvement of Ireland as prejudicial or inconvenient to England for the fair spacious and safe Harbours on the South and South-West Coast of Ireland furnish our Merchant Ships in their Voyages to Asia Africa and return from America and most part of Europe not only with commodious shelter and refreshments in Storms Tempests and other Extremities at Sea but also retreat refuge and security from Pyrates and Enemies in times of War And Ireland by its Situation lyes conveniently not only for Security and Advice for our Merchant Fleets in time of War but also to intercept and interrupt the Trade of our Enemies And how lightly soever these advantages may be past over by those that possibly for French-gold would cut untwist or weaken our Threefold Cord yet they are obvious enough to all considering unbyassed States-men Merchants and Navigators For let it be considered That the great currant of Trade runs between England and France and that were the Ports of Ireland and France in one hand or both in War with us That either much more both would shut up and damage if not ruine our Trade in that in the latter case it might be done meerly by Privateers without the Expence of a great and chargeable Fleet as our Merchants already find in part to their great cost and loss Thus you see that Ireland is beneficial to England by employing above 300 Sail of Ships constantly together with the Hands and Trades that depend on them That it takes off considerable quantities of our natural Products of our Manufactures and of our Imported Commodities which yields Employment to our People contributes to keep up the Rents of our Lands and Enrich our Merchants That almost all the Commodities we receive thence are not only useful but necessary to us to enable our Manufacturers and employ multitudes of our People That our Forreign Trade is encreased by the Commodities our Merchants Ship off from Ireland which they can have no where else and lyes there conveniently for our Ships to take in in their way to their proper Markets That we receive thence yearly above 240000 l. besides many other advantages That many younger Brothers and supernumerary Artizans and Families that fall to decay and that cannot subsist here are received and entertained with kindness in Ireland where they grow Rich or at least Subsist That the Situation of that Kingdom is so far from being prejudicial to England That it is commodious for the shelter security and enlargement of our Trade That were there no such place we should want Employment for at least 300000 of our People and Sale for a good part of our Products and Manufactures That should Ireland continue in the hands of our Enemies many of our People would be beggared most of our Forreign Trade be greatly indangered and obstructed if not ruined So that without further consideration of this matter I do conclude That as Ireland is the antientest so it is the most noble and profitable Acquisition that ever England made though it is but little more than twenty years since the standing Revenue of that Kingdom did considerably surmount the Charge of it yet our Kings ever since King John's time have drawn large Supplies not only of Men but also of Money from Ireland K. James and K. Charles the First received several Summs of Money thence which with the advantages by Trade and most of the fore-mentioned particulars have rendred Ireland considerable to England for near 500 years past You take notice that our Nobility Clergy and Gentry have imbibed a Notion that the abatement of the Rents of Lands in England for twenty six years past have been occasioned by the Improvements of Ireland in that time And thence you raise your Third Query Whether the Improvement of Ireland was not the cause of the Abatement of Rents of Lands in England Or whence else hath it come that Rents of Lands have fallen one Fifth part since the Year 1662. TO set you right in this matter it 's expedient that I lay before you the true state of that Kingdom and its Trade whereby you will be able to see the folly of our suspicions and the difficulty if not impossibility of receiving prejudice by the Improvement of Ireland at least in this or the next Age unless we enforce it by bearing too hard on them as we did in the business of Cattel and compel them to better Husbandry at home and to more Forreign Trade than they are any way disposed to or prepar'd for And then I will shew you whence it is that our Lands have fallen so much in their Rents Ireland is indeed an Island that for extent of Acres richness of Soyl salubrity of Air numerousness of good Rivers and Havens variety of Fishings native Products and materials fit to be improved into Manufactures Scituation for Trade c. comes behind few Islands in the World Yet it hath hitherto advanced but very little in Trade Riches or Improvement Although it hath for 518 years owned Subjection to England and been in great measure Inhabited by Brittains to that degree That three fourths of the present Papists there are of Brittish Extraction who yet by the influence of that pernicious Religion are as much disposed to Mischief and
Barbarity as the native Irish yet I say the Trade and Improvements thereof are inconsiderable The Causes whereof I apprehend to be these 1. That the Popish Religion is retained by about five sixth parts of the Inhabitants which not only enjoins about 26 Idle or Holy-days more in a year than our Church by expence on which the loss of so much time and of what might be gained therein the ill habits and indisposition to labour contracted by such Idleness and the spungings of their Clergy by which and the displeasure of God on that Religion being that abomination that causeth desolation they are kept Poor Hereby they are liable yearly to send much Money to Rome to purchase Absolutions Pardons c. and they actually do so And are also at the Charge of training up their Youth at St. Omers Doway Valadolid and the Jesuites Colledges in France which is a real drain to their Treasure where they are fitted for all Villany and instructed how to trouble Church and State And by Gods just Judgment for permitting that Religion whilst without compulsion it is so easie to reform them they are made Thorns in our sides These I say make up one cause of the Poverty of that Kingdom and will remain so as long as their Idolatry is connived at 2. The Second Cause of the Poverty of that Kingdom is the paucity of the Inhabitants the whole number being reckoned to be but 1200000 Souls whereof 300000 are Children many by their quality exempt from Labour and the rest are few enough for Tillage and Husbandry there being Ten Acres of Land English measure profitable and five unprofitable in that Kingdom for each Soul in it Hence it is that in the Fishing Season the Merchants of that Kingdom pay 20000 l. per Annum to Scotch Fisher-men that go from Scotland to take the Herrings and other Fish that present themselves to their Netts in the Irish Harbours To which may be added the poor and mean way wherein above three fourths of them live their Food tho' they live the midst of plenty being mostly Milk and Potatoes their Cloathing Course Bandle Cloath and Linnen both of their own making A Pot a Griddle whereon to Bake their Bread a little Snuff Salt and Iron for their Plows being almost all that they trouble the Merchant or Shop-keeper for A little Hut or Cabbin to Lodge in is all that the generality of them seek or have Ambition for 3. A third Cause of their Poverty which is also an evidence of it is the Raw and Unmanufactured condition of the Commodities they Export The Bulk of their Exportations besides Fish is Wool Raw-Hides Flax Linnen-Yarn Cony-Skins Sheep-Skins Pelts Hogsheads and Barrel Staves c. Add hereunto the few Markets that they have for these They are Prohibited carrying their Wool and Yarn to any Market but England The Carribbe Islands were their best Market for Beef Pork and Provisions which tho' we have left them Freedom to carry thither together with Servants and Horses yet 't is under such hard conditions that they are in a manner wholly cut off from that Trade These being so Bulkey and of so little Value that it requires two or three Cargoes of them to Lade one Ship back with Plantation Commodities And we have Prohibited them to carry any of their Manufactures which would have help'd in this Case thither except they enter and pay the Duty for them in England which on some Goods is twice on others the whole value of the first cost 4. The small quantity of Coin that is in that Kingdom and the great disproportion between that and the Payments of the Kingdom To clear this I will give you a rough yet near and probable computation what the Rents publick Payments and Trade there doth require or of what Money is necessary to put that Kingdom barely into a thriving condition 1. There ought to be in it as much Money as one Years Rent of near Eight Millions of Acres profitable Land which are in that Kingdom and the Houses doth amount unto which suppose to be 1100000 l. This is the Land-Lord and Tennants share of the Cash of the Kingdom 2. It is necessary there be also so much Coin as one Years value of the Natural Products of the Kingdom does amount unto at least as the Commodities Exported in that time do come to This is the Merchants and Trades mens share of the Money and in Ireland should be about 500000 l. 3. So much Money as one Years Revenue and Taxes does amount unto which in Ireland is about 300000 l. or at least so much as is the Charge of the Kingdom which including Pensions was 243663 l. 4. So much Cash as the Tythes and Church Livings amount unto which for 27 Bishopricks Deanries c. and about 2200 Parishes I 'll reckon 200000 l. per Annum 5. It 's needful that there be Manufactures in a Kingdom to employ the Indigent and keep them from Rapin and Violence and if so it 's necessary there should be so much Mony for that use as one Years Manufacture doth amount unto for which because they are so few in kind and little in quantity we 'll reckon but 40000 l. These five make up a necessary Capital of two Millions and 83663 l. Now did the Cash of the Kingdom equal these requirements Rents Taxes and Tythes might be well and duely paid the Scale of Trade move nimbly and some Manufactures be carried on But where the Cash of a Kingdom doth not exceed the first third and fourth forementioned uses such Kingdom is incapacitated to advance in Trade Shipping Manufactures or Improvements Such Deficiences of Cash according to the Degree of it occasions cheapness of the Natural product of such Kingdoms ill payment of Rents and Debts and necessarily impose a low value upon Lands both in purchase and Rent The Passant Cash of that Kingdom in its most flourishing condition was never estimated to be 400000 l. but grant it be so much yet that is less than one Fifth of what is necessary to enable the payment of Rents Taxes and Tythes and to carry on the small Trade of that Kingdom Here you may see the Fundamental Cause of the ill payments Cheapness of Lands smallness of Trade and Poverty of that Kingdom tho' not the only one The want of Stock in Trade is the reason why the most of the products of that Kingdom are Exported by our Merchants and not by the Merchants of that Kingdom whereby the profit made on them in Forreign Market accrues to England 5. Another Cause of the Poverty of Ireland is the high interest that Money is at there being by Law 10 per cent besides Procuration and Continuation Money c. which the needy pay also This is a consequent and proof of the former and that which cuts the Nerves and Hamstrings of Industry For as Scarcity of Coin keeps the Natural Products of a Country at a low rate so high Interest