Selected quad for the lemma: city_n
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A62780
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To the King's Most Excellent Majesty, together with the Honourable Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament the husbandman's advocate.
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Husbandman's advocate.; William III, King of England, 1650-1702.; England and Wales. Parliament.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing T1557; ESTC R16806
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5,162
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8
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product of our Fields be so generally undervalued Shall Bread which is obtained every year by the indefatigable Industry and Sweat it may be of Millions of our people Shall Bread which indeed this year lies under the Clods but the next runs through all our Veins and is turned into our very selves Shall Bread which we dayly pray for twice and sometimes thrice in an Hour before we have it and when enjoyed shall we put so mean a price upon it only because Heaven is pleased to give it us with both hands Certainly besides the impolicy of it there seems to be ingratitude and irreligion in the Case These few things therefore are humbly propounded to our Wise and Renowned Superiors 1. Let it be consider'd what was truly said of old Res quaelibet tantum valet quantum vendi potest thô the use and goodness of many things are known by a Mark or Signature impress'd upon them by Nature yet nothing is born or produced with its price engraven upon it but is left to the determination of Mankind to whose delight and necessity they are all subservient Were all England set to Sale which God forbid what measures would the Purchaser take before he would strike the Bargain Doubtless he would inquire into the fertility of the Soil the nature of the Product but most of all what profit he could make of it Thô the Globe were never so rich and the growth of it never so good yet profit still is the Pole-star he steers by when he knows that a good Market is that which blesses all the Territory round about it If all the Corn of England be cheap the Land that bore it will be so too and then what shall we think of those Landlords but as Men contemptible and crest-fallen when we know that two lean Premises can never make a fat Conclusion 2. Let England be consider'd as one great Farm whose main concernment lies in Tillage which will manifestly appear 1st Because all the Pasture and Marsh lands all the Heath and Wood lands bear no proportion to the Arable Land of England And 2dly because Husbandry employs more Hands than any Calling whatsoever and it may be as many as all the Callings in England put together Now it is but reasonable that that which is the greater part of the Country and which keeps the greater part of the Nation employed should be kept up in its full value and reputation From hence it will easily appear how great an esteem we ought to have of the Husbandmen of England the rather when we call to mind how that among the Egyptians of old it was accounted a capital Crime to kill a Plowing Ox and the reason is given because he is Socius Coloni the Husbandman's Companion in the Culture of the Earth According to the testimony of the Ancients England was always esteemed a rich Store-house and Treasury of Corn Zozimus calls it Occidentalis Imperii quasi horreum Cellam penuariam The Granary of the Western-Empire and whence Eight hundred Ship loads of Corn were annually transported to Germany to nourish the Frontier-Soldiers and long before that in the Judgment of Orpheus it was esteemed for its fertility of all sorts of Grain the proper Seat and Mansion of Ceres her self And if so many Hundred years ago this Island was so famous for its plenty and fruitfulness What may we now think of it when the Art of Husbandry is so much emproved and so many Woods and places of pleasure and divertisement removed to give place to the Plow Now after all this that so much Art and so many Experiments have successfully been made it will be an infinite discouragement to the most industrious and far more numerous part of the Nation if some proportionable reward and price might not be allowed in so great a concernment in which so much Art Cost Labour and Necessity do all joyntly conspire 3. Might this Proposal be accepted and effectually prosecuted it would undoubtedly prevent one great Mischief which if common report be true is practised especially in the City of London which is that Brewers Bakers and others do combine together concerning what Price they please so that when the honest Countrey-man hath brought up his Corn to the City the Market immediately falls upon him who partly through Necessity and partly for the great Charge and Trouble of carrying it back again he is forced to sell it at what Price so ever they please to give him nay many times at a lower Rate than he might have had at home among his Neighbours Whence it is That a few men in Cities and Towns are daily seen to grow abundantly Rich and in the mean time by such illegal Combinations multitudes of men in all the Counties of England grow most miserably poor Certainly great pity it is to see a few men that live in soft ease and delicacy by a few crafty Tricks to acquire vast Estates in a few years whilst Thousands of honest and working men who perhaps after 40 or 50 years hard Labour and Care do many times wish for a Grave because they are in danger of a Prison 4. If it were possible that the Opinion of every individual Man of the Nation could be taken it is very probable that a hundred would be in favour of this design for one that should appear against it because all that have Land and use Land would be for it most of the Traders and Shop keepers would be no less as having Commerce with both those as easily foreseeing how their Trade would quicken upon it so that of necessity the Dissenters must doubtless be infinitely far less in Number and Quality than the former Now then Whether it be better Policy and more of Justice to gratifie the most and best part of the Nation than the fewest and meanest will easily be determined 5. The Courage and Fortitude of a Nation usually bears proportion with the Wealth of it the Poor and the Slave are not sensible of the shame of Cowardice and our wise Rawleigh tells us The Body of our Victorious Armies was made up of the free Yeomen of England and their Sons We are a Nation that have been and still are happy even to envy so long as Plenty and Wealth like Castor and Pollux shall be undivided We are not like the Nomades of old who were contented with Skins and Mares-milk but a Nation ranged into several Orders and Scales of men Honour must be supported by large Fortunes And our Annals tell us what great things our Ancestors have done in the World to whose Memory we are indebted to do the same when occasions are offered and all this presupposes a proportion of Wealth which is impossible unless the Credit of Land be maintain'd which is our common Nurse as well as Mother and by which the King Himself is supplied Last of all Such an Expedient as this will retrieve the old and famous Hospitality of England the Nobles Gentry Farmers and Tradesmen with the ingenious Artificers by a most happy and concatenated Interest like the great Intelligences will keep this our English Orb in a most Natural and Thriving Motion when Money like the healthful Blood in our Veins shall still circulate by a just and happy Distribution The Landlord shall be hospitable because his Tenant is solvent and the Tenant will be so because his Landlord is Noble and Bountiful to his Neighbours City and Country shall friendilly conspire by mutual Commerce and the whole Nation with one joint Acclamation shall Cry out God and the King God that gives the Crop and the King the Price God save the King and Parliament of England So Prays The Husbandman's Advocate LICENS'D April 5. 1690. J. F. LONDON Printed for Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard MDCXC