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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
city_n	abatement_n	interest_n	orphan_n	24	3	14.1191	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32827	A discourse about trade wherein the reduction of interest in money to 4 l. per centum, is recommended : methods for the employment and maintenance of the poor are proposed : several weighty points relating to companies of merchants, the act of navigation, naturalization of strangers, our woollen manufactures, the ballance of trade, and the nature of plantations, and their consequences in relation to the kingdom are seriously discussed : and some arguments for erecting a court of merchants for determining controversies, relating to maritime affairs, and for a law for transferrance of bills of debts, are humbly offered.	Child, Josiah, Sir, 1630-1699.; Culpeper, Thomas, Sir, 1578-1662. Small treatise against usury.	1690 (1690)	Wing C3853; ESTC R8738	119,342	350

then particularly 1. Generally I say the Dutch low Interest hath miserably lessend us in all Trades of the World not secured to us by Laws or by some natural advantage which over-ballanceth the disproportion of our Interest of Money which disproportion I take to be 3 per cent 2. Particularly the Red-Herring Trade we retain by reason of two natural Advantages one is the Fish for that purpose must be brought fresh on Shore and that the Dutch cannot do with theirs because the Herrings swim on our Coast and consequently at too great a distance from theirs The other is those Herrings must be smoked with Wood which cannot be done on any reasonable terms but in a woody Country such as England is and Holland is not These advantages that God hath given our Land do counterpoize and overpoize the disproportion of Interest viz. 3 per Cent otherwise we might say Farewel Red-Herring as well as White The Pilchards on the West-Coast likewise come to our Shores and must be cured and pressed upon the Land which is impossible for the Dutch to do The New-found-land Fishing is managed by West-Country-men whose Ports are properly scituated for that Country and the Country it self is his Majesty's so the Dutch can have no footing there if they could 3 per Cent would soon send us home to keep Sheep As to the Turkey Italian Spanish and Portugal Trades though our vent for fine Cloth and some sorts of Stuffs be declined yet we retain a very considerable part of those Trades by reason of some Natural and some Artificial or Legal Advantages which preponderates 3 per cent such as these 1 st The Wool of which our midling and course Clothes are made of is our own and consequently cheaper to us then the Dutch can steal it from us paying Freights Commission Bribes and Cousenage and sometimes armed Guards to force it off 2 dly Our Fewel and Victual is cheaper in remote parts from London and consequently our Manufacturers can and do work cheaper then the Dutch whatever Mr Manley erroneously affirms 3 dly The Red-Herring Pilchard New-found-land and New-England Fishery by which we carry on much of those Trades are inseparably annexed to this Kingdom as before is demonstrated and by the bounty of God Almighty not by our own Wisdom or Industry 4 thly Our Lead and Tin by which we carry on much of those Trades are Natives with us 5 thly Our Country consumes within it self more of Spanish Wines and Fruit Zant Currans and Levant Oyls then any Country in Europe 6 thly Which is an artificial advantage and due to the wisdom of the Contrivers our Act of Navigation compels us or at least would do if it were justly administred to import none of those Goods but from the proper Ports of their Imbarkation and by English Shiping only The Trades to and from all our own Plantations are likewise secured to us by the Act of Navigation or would be if that Act were truly executed and if it were not for that you should see forty Dutch Ships at our own Plantations for one English To conclude this paragraph the Dutch low Interest through our own supineness hath robbed us totally of all Trade not inseperably annexed to this Kingdom by the benevolence of divine Providence and our Act of Navigation which though it have some things in it wanting amendment deserves to be called our Charta Maritima insomuch as with shame to our selves it may be truly said of us as we Proverbially say to careless Persons They have lost all that is loose When I think of these things I cannot but wonder that there should be found English men who want not Bread to eat or Clothes to wear should be yet so unkind and hard-hearted to their Country as strenuously to endeavour for private Ends the depriving her of so great a good as would be the abatement of our Interest to 4 per Cent by a Law I have lately seen a Treatise writ about thirty Years since by Lewis Roberts Merchant wherein he highly exaggerates and with great Reason the wonderful advantage the Dutch have by the lowness of their Customs but seeing an exact imitation in that respect is not consistant with our Affairs at present though much to be desired in due time I insist not thereupon but think it necessary by the way to make this true Animadversion viz. That 2 per Cent. extraordinary in Interest is worse then 4 per Cent. extraordinary in Customs because Customs run only upon our Goods imported or exported and that but once for all whereas Interest runs as well upon our Ships as Goods and must be yearly paid on both so long as they are in being and the Ships in many bulkey Trades and such as are Nationally most profitable are of four times the value of the Goods That old Objection about Widows and Orphans I have I think fully answered in my former Treatise but because I yet sometimes meet with it I shall say a Word more to it here viz. 1. Widows and Orphans are not one to twenty of the whole People and it s the Wisdom of Law-makers to provide for the good of the Majority of People though a Minor part should a little suffer 2. Of W●dows and Orphans not one in forty will suffer by the abatement of Interest for these Reasons viz. 1 st Of Widows and Orphans nine of ten in this Kingdom have very little or nothing at all left them by their deceased Relations and all such will have an advantage by the abatement of Interest because such abatement will encrease Trade and in consequence occasion more employment for such necessitous Persons 2 dly Many Widows and Orphans have Ioy●tures Annuities Coppy-Holds and other Lands left them as well as Money and all such will be gainers by the abatement of Interest 3 dly For all London Orphans the City gives not now above 5 and to some 4 per cent Interest so the loss to such is not worth speaking of 4 thly Many Executors are so unworthy as to allow Orphans no Interest and yet justifie themselves by Law to such Orphans it will be all one what the legal rate of Interest be 5 thly When the Law for abatement of Interest is past many more Parents will leave their Children Annuities and Estates running in Trade as they do in Holland and Italy whereby the abatement of Interest will become profitable not prejudicial to them And for the few that at first may happen to suffer whereof the number will be very small and therefore not to be named in competition with the common good of the Kingdom they have an easie means within their own Power to prevent their being one Farthing the worse for the abatement of Interest it is but wearing a Lawn-Whisk instead of a Point de Venice and for the meaner sort a Searge Petty-Coat instead of a Silk one and a plain pair of Shoes instead of laced ones And that the Ladies may not be

pounds Portion with a Daughter sixty Years ago were not esteemed a larger proportion then Two thousand pounds is now And whether Gentlewomen in those dayes would not esteem themselves well cloathed in a Searge Gown which a Chamber-Maid now will be ashamed to be seen in Whether our Citizens and middle sort of Gentry now are not more rich in Cloaths Plate Jewels and Houshold-Goods c. then the best sort of Knights and Gentry were in those days And whether our best sort of Knights and Gentry now do not exceed by much in those things the Nobility of England sixty Years past Many of whom then would not go to the price of a whole Sattin-Doublet the Embroiderer being yet living who hath assured me he hath made many hundreds of them for the Nobility with Canvas backs Which way ever we take our measures to me it seems evident that since our first abatement of Interest the Riches and Splendor of this Kingdom is increased to above four I might say above six times so much as it was We have now almost One hundred Coaches for one we had formerly We with case can pay a greater Tax now in one Year then our Fore-fathers could in twenty Our Customs are very much improved I believe above the proportion aforesaid of six to one which is not so much in advance of the Rates of Goods as by encrease of the bulk of Trade for though some Foreign Commodities are advanced others of our Native Commodities and Manufactures are considerably abated by the last Book of Rates I can my self remember since there were not in London used so many Wharfs or Keys for the Landing of Merchants Goods by at least one third part as now there are and those that were then could scarce have Imployment for half what they could do and now notwithstanding one third more used to the same purpose they are all too little in a time of Peace to land the Goods at that come to London If we look into the Country we shall find Lands as much Improved since the abatement of Interest as Trade c. in Cities that now yielding twenty Years purchase which then would not have sold for above eight or ten at most Besides the Rent of Farms have been for these last thirty Years much advanced and although they have for these three or four last years fallen that hath no respect at all to the lowness of Interest at present nor to the other mistaken Reasons which are commonly assigned for it But principally to the vast Improvement of Ireland since a great part of it was lately possessed by the Industrous English who were Soldiers in the late Army and the late great Land-Taxes More might be said but the Premises being considered I judge will sufficiently demonstrate how greatly this Kingdom of England hath been advanc'd in all respects for these last fifty Years And that the abatement of Interest hath been the cause thereof to me seems most probable because as it appears it hath been in England so I find it is at this day in all Europe and other parts of the World Insomuch that to know whether any Country be rich or poor or in what proportion it is so no other Question needs to be resolved but this viz. What Interest do they pay for Money Near home we see it evidently in Scotland and Ireland where ten and twelve per Cent is paid for Interest the People are poor and despicable their Persons ill cloathed their Houses worse provided and Money intollerably scarce notwithstanding they have great plenty of all Provisions nor will their Land yield above eight or ten Years purchase at most In France where Money is at seven per Cent their Lands will yield about eighteen Years purchase and the Gentry who may possess Lands live in good condition though the Peasants are little better then Slaves because they can possess nothing but at the will of others In Italy Money will not yield above three per Cent to be let out upon real Security there the People are rich full of Trade well attired and their Lands will sell at thirty five to forty Years purchase and that it is so or better with them in Holland is too manifest In Spain the usual Interest is ten and twelve per Cent and there notwithstanding they have the only Trade in the World for Gold and Silver Money is no where more scarce the people poor despicable and void of Commerce other then such as English Dutch Italians Iews and other Foreigners bring to them who are to them in effect but as Leeches who suck their Blood and vital Spirits from them I might urge many other Inst●nces of this nature not only out of Chri●●endom but from under the Turks Dominions East-India and America But every man by his Eperience in Foreign Countries may easiy inform himself whether this Rule do universally hold true or not For my own part to satisfie my own curiosity I have for some Years as occasion offered diligently enquired of all my acquaintance that had knowledge of foreign Countries and I can truly say that I never found it to fail in any particular Instance Now if upon what hath been said it be granted that defacto this Kingdom be richer at least four-fold I might say eight-fold then it was before any Law for Interest was made and that all Countries are at this day richer or poorer in an exact proportion to what they pay and have usually paid for the Interest of Money it remains that we enquire carefully whether the abatement of Interest be in truth the Cause of the Riches of any Country or only the Concomitant or Effect of the Riches of a Country in which seems to lie the Intricacy of this Question To satisfie my self wherein I have taken all opportunities to discourse this point with the most ingenious men I had the Honour to be known to and have searcht for and read all the Books that I could ever hear were printed against the Abatement of Interest and seriously considered all the Arguments and Objections used by them against it All which have tended to confirm me in this opinion which I bumbly offer to the consideration of wiser Heads viz. That the Abatement of Interest is the Cause of the Prosperity Riches of any Nation and that the bringing down of Interest in this Kingdom from six to four or three per Cent will necessarily in less then twenty Years time double the Capital Stock of the Nation The most material Objections I have met with against it are as follows Object 1. To abate Interest will cause the Dutch and other People that have Money put out at Interest in England by their Friends and Factors to call home their Estates and consequently will occasion a great scarcity and want of Money amongst us To this I answer That if Interest be brought but to four per Cent no Dutchman will call in his Money that is out upon good Security

in England because he cannot make above three per Cent of it upon Interest at home But if they should call home all the Money they have with us at Interest it would be better for us than if they did it not for the Borrower is alwayes a slave to the Lender and shall be sure to be always kept poor while the other is fat and full HE THAT USETH A STOCK THAT IS NONE OF HIS OWN BEING FORCED FOR THE UPHOLDING HIS REPUTATION TO LIVE TO THE FULL IF NOT ABOVE THE PROPORTION OF WHAT HE DOTH SO USE WHILE THE LENDER POSSESING MUCH AND USING LITTLE OR NONE LIVE ONLY AT THE CHARGE OF WHAT HE USETH AND NOT OF WHAT HE HATH Besides if with this Law for abatement of Interest a Law for Transferring Bills of Debt should pass we should not miss the Dutch Money were it ten times as much as it is amongst us for that such a Law will certainly supply the the defect of at least one half of all the ready Money we have in use in the Nation Object 2. If Interest be abated Land must rise in purchase and conseque●tly Rents and if Rents then the Fruits of the Land and so all things will be dear and how shall the Poor live c. Answ. To this I say If it follow that the Fruits of our Land in consequence of such a Law for abatement of Interest grow generally dear it is an evident demonstration that our People grow richer for generally where-ever Provisions are for continuance of Years dear in any Country the People are rich and where they are most cheap throughout the World for the most part the People are very poor And for our own Poor in England it is observed That they live better in the dearest Countries for Provisions than in the cheapest and better in a dear year than in a cheap especially in relation to the publick good for that in a cheap Year they will not work above two dayes in a Week their humour being such that they will not provide for a hard time but just work so much and no more as may maintain them in that mean condition to which they have been accustomed Object 3. If Interest be abated Vsurers will call in their Money so what shall Gentlemen do whose Estates are Mortgaged c. Answ. I answer That when they know they can make no more of their Money by taking out of one and putting it in another hand they will not be so forward as they threaten to alter that Security they know is good for another that may be bad Or if they should do it our Laws are not so severe but that Gentlemen may take time to dispose of part of their Land which immediately after such a Law will yield them thirty yea●s purchase at least and much better it is for them so to do than to abide longer under that consuming Plague of Usury which hath insensibly destroyed very many of the best Families in England as well of our Nobility as Gentry Object 4. As Interest is now at six per cent the Kings Majesty upon any emergency can hardly be supplied and if it should be reduced to four per cent how shall the King find a considerable sum of Money to be lent him by his People Answ. I answer The abatement of Interest to the People is the abatement of Interest to the King when he hath occasion to take up Money For what is borrowed of the City of London or other Bodies Politick nothing can be demanded but the legal Interest and if the King have occasion to take up Money of private Persons being his Majesty according to good right is above the common course of Law the King must and always hath given more then the legal Rate As for instance The legal Rate is now six per cent but his Majesty or such as have disposed of his Majesties Exchequer-Tallies have been said to give ten and twelve in some cases and if the legal Rate were ten his Majesty might probably give thirteen or fourteen So if Interest be brought to four per cent his Majesty in such cases as he now gives ten must give six or seven by which his Majesty would have a clear advantage Object 5. If Interest be abated it will be a great prejudice to Widows and Orphans who have not Knowledge and Abilities to improve their Estates otherwise Answ. I answer That by our Law now Heirs and Orphans can recover no Interest from their Parents Executors except it be left fully and absolutely to the Executors to dispose and put out Money at the discretion of the Executors for the profit and loss of the Heirs and Orphans And if it be so left to the Exccutors discretion they may improve the Monies left them in Trade or purchase of Lands and Leases as well as by Interest Or when not the damage such Heirs and Orphans will sustain in their minority being but two per cent is inconsiderable in respect of the great advantage will accrew to the Nation in generel by such abatement of Interest Besides when such a Law is made and in use all Men will so take care in their Life to provide for and educate their Children and instruct their Wives as that no prejudice can happen thereby as we see there doth not in Holland and Italy and other places where Interest is so low Having now offered my thoughts in answer to the aforesaid Objections it will not be amiss that we enquire who will be advantaged and who will receive prejudice in case such a Law be made First His Majesty as hath been said in answer to that Objection will when he hath occasion take up Money on better terms Besides which He will receive a great Augmentation to his Revenue thereby all his Lands being immediately worth after the making such a Law double to what they were before his Customs will be much increas'd by the increase of Trade which must necessarily insue upon the making such a Law The Nobility and Gentry whose Estates he mostly in Land may presently upon all they have instead of Fifty write one Hundred The Merchants and Tradesmen who bear the Heat and Burthen of the Day most of our Trade being carried on by young Men that take up Money at Interest will find their Yoak sit lighter upon their Shouldiers and be incouraged to go on with greater alacrity in their Business Our Marriners Shipwrights Porters Cloathiers Packers and all sorts of Labouring People that depend on Trade will be more constantly and fully employed Our Farmers sell the product of their Lands at better rates And whereas our Neighbours the Netherlanders who in regard of the largeness of their Stocks and Experiences the Sons continually succeeding the Fathers in Trade to many Generations we may not unfitly in this case term Sons of Anach and Men of renown against whom we fight Dwarfs and ●igmies in Stocks and Experience being younger Brothers of Gentlemen that seldom have

was our Law against Exportation of Bullion lately repealed 5thly Such is the use of the Law at present which takes not only a Custom but 15 s. per Tun Excise on strong Beer exported being the same Rate it pays when spent at home contrary to the practice of all trading Countries 6thly Such are our Laws which charge Sea-Coals or any of our native Provisions exported with Custom viz. Beef Pork Bread Beer c. for which I think in prudence the Door should be opened wide to let them out 7thly Of the like nature is our Law imposing a great duty upon our Horses Mares and Nags exported 8. Such in my weak Opinion is that branch of the Statute of 5 Eliz. that none should use any manual Occupation except he hath been Appretince to the same 9thly Such in my Opinion is the Law which yet prohibits the Exportation of our own Coin for since it is now by consent of Parliament agreed and found by experience of all understanding men to be advantagious for this Kingdom to permit the free Exportation of Bullion I think it were better for us that our own Coin might likewise be freely exported because by what of that went out we should gain the Manufacture the Coyning besides the great honour and note of Magnificency it would be to his Majesty and this Kingdom to have his Majesty's Coin currant in all parts of the Vniverse 10thly Such are all by-Laws used among the Society of Coopers other Artificers limiting Masters to keep but one Ap●rentice at a time whereas it were better for the publick they were permitted to keep ten if they could or would maintain or employ them 11thly Such seem to be many of our Laws relating to the Poor especially those against Inmates in Cities trading Towns and those obliging Parishes to maintain their own Poor only Page 23. and 24. the Gentleman makes a large Repetition of what he had said before wherein I observe nothing new but that he saith the East-India-Company have Money at 4. per cent only because Men may have their Money out when they please which is a mistake though a small one for the Company seldom or never take up Money but for a certain time though I doubt not but that Generous Company will and do at most times accommodate any Person with his Money before due that hath occasion to require such a kindness of them although they oblige not themselves to do it In this tenth particular at the latter end of page 24. he saith I am mistaken in my Assertion of the Interest of Scotland which upon further enquiry amongst the Scotch Merchants upon the Exchange I am told is his own mistake So I must leave that being matter of fact to those that know that Country and its Laws more and better then either of us Lastly he concludes that whilst I say the matter in England is so naturally prepared for an Abatement of Interest that it cannot be long obstructed I propound a Law to anticipate Nature which is against Reason I answer it was the Wisdom of our Grand-fathers to bring it to what it would bear in their time and our Fathers found the good effects of that and brought it lower and the benefit thereof is since manifested to us by the success and therefore seeing the matter will now bear further Abatement it is reasonable for us to follow that excellent Example of our Ancestors Laws against Nature I grant would be ineffectual but I never heard before that Laws to help Nature were against Reason Touching the Gentleman's personal Reflections upon me I shall say little it appears sufficiently by what I have writ and his Answer that I am an Advocate for Industry he for Idleness It appears likewise to those that know me in London which are many that I am so far from designing to engrose Trade that I am hastening to convert what I can of my small Estate that is p●rsonal into real supposing it to be my Interest so to do before the Use of Money falls which I conclude cannot long suspend and that then Land and Houses must rise and I doubt it will appear when this Gentleman is as well known as I am that he is more an Vsurer then an Owner of Land or Manager of Trade at present my ends have only been to serve my Country which I can with a sincere Heart declare in the Presence of God and Men And that nothing else could have engaged me into this unpleasing Controversie wherein I have given unwilling offence to all my nearest Relations and knew at first that I must needs do so most of them being such as Age and Wisdom hath instructed rather to be Box-keepers then Gamesters I have before-mentioned the Judgment of the French King and Court but intended not to recite the Edict being it is at large in Sr Thomas Culpeppers senior his last Treatise yet on second thoughts considering all Men perhaps may not come to a sight of that and finding the said Edict so comprehensive of the whole matter of this Controversie I have here recited it The King by these Edicts had nothing relieved the necessities of the Nobility if he had not provided for Vsuries which have ruined many good and antient Houses filled Towns with unprofitable Servants and the Countries with Miseries and Inhumanities he found the Rents viz. Vsuries constituted after 10 or 8 in the hundred did ruin many good Families hindred the Traffick and Commerce of Merchandize's and made Tillage and Handicrafts to be neglected many desiring through the easiness of a deceitful Gain to live Idlely in good Towns of their Rents rather then to give themselves with any pains to liberal Arts or to till or husband their Inheritances For this reason meaning to invite his subjects to enrich themselves with more just Gain to content themselves with more moderate profit and to give the Nobility means to pay their Debts he did forbid all Vsury or Constitution of Rents at an higher rate then six Pounds five Shillings in the hundred The Edict was verified in the Court of Parliament which considered that it was always prejudicial to the Commonwealth to give Money to Vsury for it is a Serpent whose biteing is not apparent and yet it is so sensible that it peirceth the very Hearts of the best Families The whole of this Controversie lies narrowly in these two short Questions viz. Will abatement of Interest improve Trade Secondly Will it advance the price of Land The collective united Bodies of the Government of our own and other Kingdoms expresly say it will do both and Experience cries aloud that so it will do and hath done in all Ages and in all Places and I never yet met with any private person how much soever concerned in Interest that had the ignorance or confidence to deny both For discourse with a Country Vsurer he will affirm and perhaps be ready to swear to it that this abatement of Interest is

a Knavish design of the Citizens to advance themselves who are too proud already and that if it go forward it will undo all the Country Gentlemen in England And if one speak with the City Vsurers they will be as ready to affirm that this is a plot carried on only by Noblemen and Gentlemen whose Estates are all in Land for their own advantage and that it will spoil all the Trade of the Kingdom being a project at one instant to take off just one third of all Mens Estates that are personal and add the same proportion to all such whose Estates are real which in effect is to Impoverish all the Younger and Enrich all Elder Brothers in England So that out of the Mouthes of the greatest and wisest Adversaries to this principle it may be justly concluded that though singlely they deny the truth of it yet joyntly they confess it To conclude there is nothing that I have said or that I think any other can say upon this occasion but was said in substance before by old Sr Thomas Culpepper though unknown to me who had an ampel and clear sight into the whole nature of this Principle and the true effects and consequences of it Truth being always the same though Illustrations may vary nor can any thing now be objected against the making a Law for a further abatement of Interest but the same that was objected in those times wherein the former Statutes past so that why my Opposer should cavil at the doing of that by a Law in England now which he seems to ●ike well if it could be done I know no real cause except it be that in truth he is wise enough to know that a Law in England will certainly do the Work as it hath done formerly and in consequence his own private Gain will be retrenched Before I concluded I think it necessary for caution to my Country-men to let them know what effects these discourses have had on others when I wrote my first Treatise Interest was in the Island of Barbadoes at 15 per centum where it is since by an Act of the Country brought down to 10 per cent a great fall at once and our weekly Gazets did some Months past inform us that the Sweeds by a Law had brought down their Interest to 6 per cent neither of which can have any good effects upon us but certainly the contrary except by way of emulation they quicken us to provide in time for our own Good and Prosperity I have now done with this Controversie and therein discharge my Duty to my native Country and though Ignorance Malice or private Interest may yet for some time oppose it I am confident the Wisdom of my Country-men will at length find their true and general Interest in the Establishment of such a Law which as to my own particular concernments signifies not two Farthings whether they do or not CHAP. II. Concerning the Relief and Employment of the Poor THis is a calm Subject and thwarts no common or private Interest amongst us except that of the common Enemy of Mankind the Devil so I hope that what shall be offered towards the effecting of so universally acceptable a Work as this and the removal of the innumerable Inconveniences that do now and have in all Ages attended this Kingdom through defect of such provision for the Poor will not be ill taken although the Plaister at first essay do not exactly fit the Sore In the Discourse of this subject I shall first assert some particulars which I think ar●●greed by common Consent and from thence take occasion to proceed to what is more doubtful 1. That our Poor in England have always been in a most sad and wretched condition some Famished for want of Bread others starved with Cold and Nakedness and many whole Families in all the out Parts of Cities and great Towns commonly remain in a languishing nasty and useless Condition Uncomfortable to themselves and Unprofitable to the Kingdom this is confessed and lamented by all Men. 2. That the Children of our Poor bred up in Beggery and Laziness do by that means become not only of unhealthy Bodi●s and more then ordinarily subject to many loathsome Diseases whereof very many die in their tender Age and if any of them do arrive to years and strength they are by their idle habits contracted in their Youth rendered for ever after indisposed to Labour and serve only to stock the Kingdom with Thieves and Beggars 3. That if all our impotent Poor were provided for and those of both Sexes and all Ages that can do Work of any kind employed it would redound some Hundreds of Thousands of Pounds per annum to the publick Advantage 4. That it is our Duty to God and Nature so to Provide for and Employ the Poor 5. That by so doing one of the great Sins for which this Land ought to mourn would be removed 6. That our fore-Fathers had pious Intentions towards this good Work as appears by the many Statutes made by them to this purpose 7. That there are places in the VVorld wherein the Poor are so provided for and employed as in Holland Hambrough New-England and others and as I am informed now in the City of Paris Thus far we all agree The first Question then that naturally occurs is Question How comes it to pass that in England we do not nor ever did comfortably Maintain and Employ our Poor The common Answers to this Question are two 1. That our Laws to this purpose are as good as any in the World but we fail in the execution 2. That formerly in the days of our pious Ancestors the work was done but now Charity is deceased and that is the reason we see the Poor so neglected as now they are In both which Answers I humbly conceive the Effect is mistaken for the Cause For though it cannot be denied but there hath been and is a great failure in the Execution of those Statutes which relate to the Poor yet I say the cause of that failure hath been occasioned by defect of the Laws themselves For otherwise what is the reason that in our late times of Confusion and Alteration wherein almost every Party in the Nation at one time or other took their turn at the Helm and all had that Compass those Laws to Stear by and yet none of them could or ever did conduct the Poor into a Harbour of security to them and profit to the Kingdom i. e. none sufficiently maintained the Impotent and employed the Indigent amongst us And if this was never done in any Age nor by any sort of Men whatsoever in this Kingdom who had the use of those Laws now in force it seems to me a very strong Argument that it never could nor ever will be done by those Laws and that consequently the defect lies in the Laws themselves not in the Men i. e. those that should put them in Execution As to the second