REMARKS ON THE Affairs and Trade OF England and Ireland Wherein is set down 1. The Antient Charge of Ireland and all the Forces sent thither from 1170 until the Compleat Conquest thereof in 1602 with the Returns of Forces and Treasure which have been made thence to England towards the Conquests of France Scotland and Wales 2. The peculiar Advantages which accrue to England by Ireland As also those made in the Course of Trade 3. The State of the Trade Revenue Rents Manufactures c. of Ireland with the Causes of its Poverty And the State of the Trade and Rents of Lands in England from the Reign of Ed. III. unto this time with the Causes of their increase and Abatement 4. The only sure Expedients for their Advancement with the Necessity and Utility of the Repeal as well as Suspension of the Laws against Dissenters and the Test 5. How the Reduction and Settlement of Ireland may be improved to the Advantage of England and Increase of their Majesties Revenue 1500000 l. may be raised by Ireland to the ease of England expediting of their Majesties Affairs And how Ireland may be rendred Useful towards the retrenching the Power of France By a hearty Well-wisher to the Protestant Religion and the Prosperity of these Kingdoms With Allowance LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. To His Grace James Duke of Ormond The Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington and Cork Lord High Treasurer of Ireland William Earl of Portland Sir John Lowther Baronet Vice-Chamberlain to Her Majesty Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Richard Hambden Esquire Chancellor of the Exchequer Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Sir Stephen Fox Knight Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Thomas Pelham Esquire Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Sir Henry Ashurst Baronet And Sir Thomas Clergis Knight My Lords and Honoured Gentlemen THese Papers which were writ with a more private design yet chiefly intended for the Service of Their Majesties and the Publique are now addressed to your Lordships to render them the more useful to those Ends the several Eminent Stations in which all of you are gives you the opportunity of improving whatever is herein proposed to that purpose The unhappy management of the Affairs of Ireland on every Rebellion hath made the Charge of their Reduction to England ten times more than needed Cambden observed that by long usage it was grown a mischievous Custom in Ireland that Rebels might with part of the Plunder they took from the English procure Pardon Whereby and the Lenity of England Rebellions were nourished there This is most certain that the Papists have always had such Influence on the Councils of England as on the conclusion of every Rebellion they have been left in a condition to renew them at pleasure to the great Charge of England and Ruin of the English Planters in Ireland and of their Improvements And now they the French K. and the late K. J. have their Instruments at work to that end But five Rebellions having been raised there betwixt 1567 and 1642. and now a Sixth of which two formidable and chargeable ones having happened within the memory of many yet living will if we be not doomed to Infatuation instruct us in the necessity of breaking their power and utterly disabling them for future Rebellions There are a Party of Men who while the late K. J. was in Ireland magnified both it and the Force of the Irish but upon the Tydings of the happy progress of His Majesties Arm to detract from the Glory of His Acquisitions they represent that Kingdom as chargeable and useless nay as disadvantagious to England It hath however to their Mortification already yielded Laurels to incircle His Royal Brows and will do Treasure to His Coffers with a rich Return to this Kingdom of the Charge laid out for its Reduction if the Settlement thereof be duly attended It is enough for His Majesty to Conquer it ought to be the Care of His Ministers to settle and secure There is indeed a great measure of Wisdom required to improve Victories as well as Courage and Conduct to Atchieve them It hath been observed to be the Fate of the English to lose that by Treaty which they gain by Conquest Five Hundred Years Experience hath verified it in great measure as to Ireland The Affairs and Trade of that Kingdom its Vtility and Importance to England and the Influence it hath on the Trade and Rents thereof seems to have escaped the observation of most of our Statesmen and Merchants I have in these Papers attempted to rescue them from that obscurity and to lay them before Your Honours Now that the Affairs of that Kingdom are before You in Parliament Councils and Committees For which presumption nothing can Apologize but the Zeal for the Publick with which they were written I am in all humility My Lords and Gentlemen Your most Humble Servant W. H. SIR The Substance of the First of the Inquiries you Propose concerns Ireland which I take to be this First Whether England hath been Loser or Gainer by the Conquest of Ireland the Charge considered that hath been Expended thereon YOU are pleased to require my Answer to this and the other Queries which you propose presuming that my Acquaintance with that Kingdom c. doth Capacitate me to satisfie you therein I confess I have made Observations that would at least have Contributed thereunto But my Absence from Papers that would have inabled a more distinct and satisfactory Account of those matters might have excused my Disobedience at least for the present But being you admit not thereof but use the Power you have over me in commanding a speedy Compliance I will in Obedience briefly set down what occurs to me on that Subject tho' my Sentiments in this matter being different from many others I foresee the hardiness of undertaking to contradict Common-Fame or to rectifie a vulgar Error I have heard several and among them some of the Famed States-Men of the Age wish there were no such place as Ireland and fault its nearness to England as detrimental or unprofitable As if had they been consulted they could have rectified the Creation by leaving it out or placing it better elsewhere The Error lies in not apprehending its usefulness to England Others gravely tell us both in Discourse and Print that the gaining and keeping Ireland hath cost England more than the purchase of all that Kingdom is worth But these are like him who pay'd Ten-Shillings for an Ewe kept her Five Years pay'd Twelve Pence per Annum for her keeping tho' he Yearly received her Lambs and Fleece yet believed he was Fifteen Shillings the worse by having her I confess I was once half of the mind that the Expence of England in Blood and Treasure about that Kingdom had been vast My Curiosity led me to examine whether it were so or no and I will here faithfully impart what I have
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
l. for three years to the Irish Revenue he would engage with both to defray the whole Charge of the Kingdom maintain 2000 Foot and 400 Horse Wall Seven considerable Towns Erect Seven great Bridges and Build Seven strong Castles But she comply'd not therewith However in 1585. In order to put that Kingdom into a good posture of Defence and of little Charge to the Queen the Lord Deputy appointed a gross Survey to be taken of the Province of Conaught and Thomond whereby they were found to contain 8095. Plow-Lands profitable the Proprietors of which agreed to pay the Queen a chief Rent of about 4000 l. per Annum and to find 1254 Foot and 264 Horse for the Queens Service within that Province and 347 Foot and 108 Horse at any time for 40 days in any part of Ireland A Militia also was settled in Munster of 4500 Bill-Men and 900 Shot And the Queen being Intituled to near 600000 Acres of Land by the Forfeitures of Desmond and his Accomplices his particular Rents being above 7000 l. per Anmum She granted those in Kerry Conilagh and Limerick together at 2 d. per Acre Those in Waterford and Cork at 3 d. per Acre per Annum Quit-Rent Every 300 Acres finding a Horseman and every 200 Acres a Foot-Man Armed for her Service A Militia being thus settled the Queen in 1587. Remanded 1000 Soldiers out of Ireland which she sent into Holland and that Kingdom enjoyed a kind of tranquillity for above Twelve Years In 1597. Tyrone and others broke but into Rebellion Whereupon General Norris with 3000 Men were sent thither But the successes of the Rebels required greater Forces so that 100 Horse and 2000 Foot more were sent thither Three Years after In 1598. The Government of that Kingdom was committed to Robert Earl of Essex with Power from England to encrease the Army there which were about 8000 men unto 20000 Horse and Foot Yet this Brave but Unfortunate Earl effected little The Lord Mountjoy succeeded in that Government who with 15200 Horse and Foot that he found there and 2000 Men that were sent him in 1601. from England expelled the Spaniards suppressed the most general and formidable Rebellion that untill then had happened in that Kingdom And therewith finished the entire Conquest of that Kingdom wherein this Queen imployed more Forces and spent more Treasure than all her Progenitors For we are told that it cost her Eleven Hundred Ninety one Thousand two Hundred Forty Eight Pounds Sterling besides the Revenue of that Kingdom Cambden suggests it was the ill choice of Officers Lenity and Parsimony of the Queen and some about her that occasioned her great Expence for that had the work been effectually set upon with competent Force and Treasure it might have been perfected with a quarter of the Charge The English in Ireland at this time being generally Papists were very backward in granting Supplies against such as broke out into Rebellion For tho' by the vigilance of the Government many of them were awed and hindred from joyning with those in open Rebellion yet were their Hearts so much with them that they not only obstructed the granting of Money to the Queen but parted with much to Rome where they purchased Pardons for not Actually and Openly joyning with the Rebels The Principles of that Religion Teaching them that it was Sin not to Rob Murther and Rebel However the chief Governour and Protestant Party prevailed so far as to gain their Parliaments in the Second of the Queens Reign to grant her the First Fruits and Twentieth Part of all Ecclesiastical Livings In her 11th Tear a subsidy as also a Custom on Wines and at several times many large Scopes of Lands on the Attainders of Arch-Rebels The chief Governour there indeed by Antient usage did on every March of the Army c. Cess the Country discretionarily for their support which was some help The Result of what hath been hitherto said is this That Strongbow Conquered most of the Province of Leinster Hugh De Lacy Conquered Meath Cogan Fitz-Stephens Bruce and Poer the Province of Munster Bourke and De Claro part of Conaught and Thomond Sir John De Courcy Conquered much of Ulster That all this was done with little or inconsiderable Charge to the Crown for the first 400 Years which reached to the middle of Queen Elizabeths Reign except in those expeditions of Henry II. King John and Richard II. the last of whom only carryed over an Army capable of doing any considerable Service The most part of that there was no standing Army kept in that Kingdom at the Charge of England except what was paid by the Irish Revenue That when Armies were Raised they seldom exceeded a Regiment or two and were only kept up during the chief Governours being upon Service against some particular Rebels for at his Return to Dublin or in the beginning of Winter they were usually Disbanded That the whole Charge of the Civil List of which I have the particulars in Edward III. his time was but 308 l. per Annum Towards the latter end of whose Reign in a time of Rebellion when an Army was sent thither the whole Charge of both Civil and Military Lists were but 11213 l. 6 s. 8 d. per Annum That in 1442. That Kingdom being weakned drained and impoverished by the supplies afforded thence to England Their Parliament represented it to Henry VI. as a mighty evidence of the deplorable condition of that Kingdom That the expence thereof in that wasted condition surmounted the Revenue 1456 l. per Annum That in Edward IV. his time that Kingdom was Defended only by the Fraternity of St. George who were wholly paid out of the Customs there That in the latter end of that Kings Reign the Earl of Kildare did undertake for 600 l. per Annum to keep the whole Kingdom in Peace That in 1543. The standing Army was but 525 Horse and Foot and the whole Charge of the Kingdom but 10500 l. per Annum The certain Revenue thereof was then 8700 l. per Annum besides Customs First Fruits Tributes c. which could not but make up the Revenue so as to surmount that Charge That considering the numerous and frequent Supplies of Men Provisions and Money that our Kings from time to time received from Ireland against France Scotland and Wales it is not easie to determine whether Ireland received much more from England than England received from the English Planters of Ireland That for a great part of the first 400 Years the Revenues were great that our English Land-Lords Yearly drew thence for the Rents of the vast Scopes of Land that they were seized of in that Kingdom That Ireland being almost from the first Conquest to the end of Queen Elizabeths Reign in a State of War was wholly supplied with all Commodities in a way of Trade from England whereby this Kingdom received considerable advantages That if we Allow that the Government of England hath been
having the advantage of the Exchange we receive in Ireland 106 l. or 108 l. for every hundred Pounds we part with in England So that at 6 per Cent. for exchange we part but with 37600 l. and yet receive 4000 l. per Annum Interest thence Of the same Nature and Advantage is the Rent that our Noblemen Gentlemen and Merchants yearly receive for their Lands in Ireland which are yearly transmitted thence hither Instances of this kind are too many to be enumerated I will set before you some considerable Instances of Profit that we receive from Ireland and which that Kingdom particularly yields us in three Schedules First by Rent of Lands in Ireland belonging to Persons that wholly or for the most part live in England and are therefore frequently transmitted hither  per Ann. Rents of the Lands posssessed by the Duke of York the late K. 7000 l. City of London and the 12 Companies 6000 l. Erasmus Smith 2400 l. Ald. John Smith deceased 400 l. Sir Charles Lloyd 0800 l. Sir Wil. Barker Brewen and others 2500 l. Maurice Thomson 400 l. Several Adventures 5000 l. Sir Will. Temples Estate and Office 1400 l. Heirs of Earl of Essex 1200 l. Sir Will. Courtney 2000 l. Lord Fitz-Harding 1000 l. Lord Berkely 800 l. Lord Arlington c. 2000 l. Earl Anglesey 4000 l.  36900 l. Earl Strafford 1800 l. Darcy of Platton 700 l. D. Albemarl 1500 l. Lord Conway 2000 l. D. Buckingham 2500 l. Sir 〈◊〉 Wandesford 1200 l. Mr. Pugh 250 l. D. Ormond 17000 l. Lord Ranelagh and Lady Dowager 3000 l. Sir James Shane 500 l. Lord Lisburne 2000 l. Earl Thomond 3500 l. Sir Edward Scot 300 l. Earl Cork 14000 l. Earl Londonderry 1000 l. Earl of Kildare 3500 l.  54750 l.  36900 l.  91650 l. The second List of Persons resident in England that did receive Pensions out of the Revenue in Ireland in 1685. and since  per Ann. Lord Lisburn 300 l. Earl Sunderland 5000 l. Lady Fr. Keightly 400 l. Countess of Portland 500 l. Mrs. Hublethorn 100 l. Earl of Rochester 1600 l. Earl Dorset and Tho. Felton 800 l. Sir Edward Scot 500 l. Tho. Sheridan 550 l. Cha. Laburn 100 l. Capt. Beversham 117 l. Mrs. Knight 200 l. Mrs. Cusels 200 l.  10367 l. The third List is of other Advantages that we receive by that Kingdom  per Ann. For Students that come thence to the Universities and Inns of Court 8000 l. Attendants and Expectants at Court and Travellers hither 8000 l. Profit made by the Chief Governours that are sent hence thither above their Expence 6000 l. We usually have three Commissioners of the Revenue there that are sent hence at 1000 l. per Annum each allowing 1000 l. for their Expence 2000 l. Profit by the Post-Office 6000 l. Interest of 40000 l. that is put out by our People in Ireland 4000 l.  34000 l. The Revenue there in 1686 was in the total 334575 l. 17 s. 6 d. Allow for Insolvencies 10912 l. 11 s. 3 d.  323663 l. 6 s. 3 d. Total of the Establishment viz. the Charge of that Kingdom 243663 l. 6 s. 3 d. Remains 80000 l. This overplus was transmittable to England The overplus for Anno 1683. was but 40000 l. Insolvencies allowed as above in Anno 84. and 85. but 60000 l. I will therefore reckon it communibus Annis but 40000 l. Brought from above 34000 l.  74000 l. If in the first List the Estate of any man be over valued 't is most certain that many of the others are under-valued and that there are several Persons of less quality not named whose Estates are in Ireland and that spend them in England I have not wilfully erred I have a List of Particulars in my Hands drawn up by the Council of Trade in Ireland in 1672. whereby the Absentees Estates then living in England are valued to 116040 l. per Annum Nor is this a late Advantage that England reaps by Ireland for both the Histories and Laws of this and that Kingdom do complain That from the first Conquest they have been impoverished by their Nobility and Gentry's spending their Estates in England As to the Second List of Pensioners I do not find that there hath less than 10000 l. per annum been paid for many years past to Persons in England Upon the Establishment Anno 1676. The Pensions then payable to Persons in England was 10500 l. per annum All the Persons mentioned in this List but three were certainly in England and I am informed the other three were resident here also However the Summ payable to those three amounts but unto 5â—0 l. in all As to the Third List it depends on Estimates wherein as to the two first Articles and the fourth fifth and sixth I have been careful to keep much within what they really are As to the third Article 't is certain that the Annual Profits our Noblemen make of that Government doth much exceed what I have set down And as to the last which concerns the Surplusages of the Revenue whoever consults the Establishment of that Kingdom will find that for many years past there has been an Article in it appointing a considerable Summ to be returned Annually into England In 1676. it was but 20000 l. per annum In Charles II. time there was great Summs raised in that Kingdom that never came into the Exchequer there nor as I am informed is there any account how they were disposed Whether they were distributed to Irish Rebels as a reward for cutting Protestants Throats in 1641 or transmitted for England I cannot say but possibly it may one day prove worth his present Majesties Enquiry when once that Kingdom tends towards a Settlement if he thinks good to have a retrospect so far Here I am likewise to take notice that when Forces have been sent from Ireland hither or to Tangier they have constantly been paid thence By the particulars of this last instance it is evident That we not only reap the common advantages usually made in the course of Trade between one Kingdom and another but that we also make many other considerable ones by Ireland which that Kingdom peculiarly yields us and is like yet to do to a greater degree if we put it into a better condition of Trade and Improvement which I shall hereafter make out The three Lists I have set down before you do shew That we receive 176017. l. per annum in those particulars 75000 l. that they pay us annually for Fraight of our Ships which makes 245017. enough of itself for ever to Cure us of our Jealousie That that Kingdom will be prejudicial to us in point of Trade for these very Out-lets of their Treasure will infallibly keep them low And the very encrease of their Trade and Consumption will encrease the Revenue there and make them liable to send so much more as that shall happen to be annually to England which helps
both hinders their being Manufactured and advances the price of them when Manufactured that they cannot be afforded so Cheap at Forreign Markets as the like Manufactures raised where interest of Mony is low If here it be Objected that the Cheapness of Wool as to the Woollen Manufacture will countervail the disadvantage of high interest It 's answered that it will not for 12 Pound of Wool which costs but two Shillings dearer in England than there will make a piece of Serge that may stand some in 3 l. some in 4 l. or two pieces of Stuff that may together stand in as much the price of the Wool being so small a part of the Disburse will not countervail the high interest on the rest But besides this there being but little Manufacture there and not full work for Tuckers Dyers Dressers Calenders Hot-Pressers c. there as there is here the rate of these there is double to what it is here and so is their Oyl Dying Stuffs and Forreign Materials most of which they carry from England for which at a high value they pay 10 per cent for Customs and Excise on their Importation It is the least skilful of our Workmen that go thither and even the skilful there meet with a great inaptitude in the People to Manufacture tho' they ought to be content with them for their own use yet they cannot perfect them so as to be able to Sell them as to any Tolerable price in the same Market with ours A pregnant Instance whereof we had a few Years since Some of our Merchants thought to make considerable advantage by Buying Bayes like those of Colchester in Ireland and gave Commission for large quantities which were bought up whereupon there was a great spurt of Trade for that Commodity for a little time But notwithstanding Colchester Bayes is the easiest part of the Woollen Manufacture to be made imitated and perfected yet when those made in Ireland came to be compared with the true Colchester Bayes in Spain they differed so much for the worse that on a sudden the Irish Weavers lost their Trade and some of them were Ruined by those that were left on their hands not being able to find a Market for them Here you also see one reason why they Export most part of their Commodities Raw and Unmanufactured 6. A sixth Cause of Irelands Poverty is the Cheapness of Lands in that Kingdom and easiness to subsist with the difficulties that attend Trade there which makes their Merchants turn Purchasers as soon as they have gotten as much as will maintain their Families whereby the stock in Trade there is small For it 's observed that tho' many there gain a Livelihood by Trade yet very few of the Merchants of that Kingdom have acquired considerable or competent Estates for the reasons before mentioned and because of the many Cloggs that lie on this Trade which will herein after be observed 7. Add to these their improvidence the prodigality and excess of the English there in the Consumption of Forreign wares mostly superfluities which they might well be without As fine Cloath Stuffs Silks-Laces Haberdashery and the rest that I have before enumerated which they derive wholly from England As also some that they have from other Countries Above 3000 Tuns of Wine and Brandy have been Imported and Consumed in that Kingdom in one Year Some Vices and some Vertues seem to adhere to the Soil of most Countries however the Inhabitants are changed Thus Luxury and Hospitality to most plentiful Countries and so to Ireland especially in Housekeeping wherein they exceed us as far as we do the Frugal Dutch and so are no Savers by the great Plenty of the Country 8. The uninteressed and frequent change of the chief Governors who are mostly sent them from England who transmit all that they get above their necessary Expence into England 9. The frequency of Rebellions in that Kingdom which discourages and destroys all Improvements occasioned by the folly and negligence of England and the influence the Papists have always had on our Councils so that on their reduction they have constantly found such Favour as to be left in Condition to renew their Rebellions at Pleasure 10. Cause of Irelands Poverty is the Clogs and Restraints on their Trade partly by England partly by their own Parliament who by a perpetual Law have incapacitated the growth or increase of their Trade especially so as that it cannot interfere with the Trade of England The Truth is both Parliaments have been imposed on partly by some Commissioners of the Customs here who to fix themselves the better in their Seats and at once to ingratiate themselves at Court and with the English Merchants that deal to the Plantations pretended they could greatly encrease that branch of the Revenue by imposing hard things on Ireland Partly by two sets of Men who designed the farming of the Customs and Excise in both Kingdoms and actually did Farm part of them here These by their Creatures in that Parliament wherein were some Pensionaries under pretence of advancing Trade and the Rents of Lands in England c. gained several Acts to be passed very disadvantagious to Ireland and the Plantations and of little or no advantage to England Particularly those that bar the People of Ireland from carrying any Asian African or European Commodities to any of the Plantations but Provision Servants and Horses except they be brought into entred and pay Custom in England and be bound to return hither with the proceed likewise As the Plantations heavily complain of these Acts so do the People of Ireland I have seen certain Reasons drawn up in Ireland against those Acts too many and too long to be here inserted Yet being they fall in with the present Subject I will mention some of them viz. That as Ireland is the Antientest and noblest so is it the most beneficial Acquisition of England Not only by taking off annually great Proportions of the natural and artificial Commodities thereof But also of Asian and African Commodities two thirds of the Importations of Ireland being from England by employing considerable numbers of English Ships by the yearly Rents of the Estates of such as live in England and of Absentees transmitted hither by the Charge of Students at the Universities and Inns of Court Income of the Post-Office Summs carried away by chief Governours the surplussage of the Revenue c. much of all which is carried into England in Cash That the Commodities exported from Ireland to England are all necessary or useful to England But that the Commodities imported thither from England are superfluous and such as Ireland may or must be without to the prejudice of England except there be a relaxation of the present Severities put on that Kingdom That Ireland being planted with English or those of English Extraction under the same Sovereign under almost all the same Laws with England in some respect under the same Legislative Power for
think the Laws at least unkind That it seems hard that an English man because he goes to inhabit in Ireland or is sent thither to help to secure that Conquest to England should therefore lose a great part of the Priviledge of an English man and be treated as a Forreigner That these Restraints tend towards untwisting or weakning our threefold Cord by alienating if it were possible the Hearts of the People from England and seem rather to be designed by France than to flow from the generous temper of an English Parliament That the same Parliament that Enacted those Laws were so sensible of the Advantages England reaps by Ireland and that it is the Interest of this Kingdom to cherish That that they comprehended Ireland in the Act of Navigation and allowed the People and Ships thereof the same Priviledges as to the People and Ships of England As an acknowledgment whereof the Parliament of Ireland by their Act of Navigation granted all the like Privileges to the People and Ships of England as to their own That as to the Virginia Trade which brings greatest Advantage to his Majesty the Merchants of Ireland are in a manner wholly cut off from that Trade except they will drive it to the utter Ruin of the Kingdom which they resolve not to do For neither Provision nor Horses will go off at Virginia nor are Servants to be had to such numbers as to enable that Trade And the Export of their Manufacture is prohibited So that if they will drive that Trade they must do it with Cash and turn all the little Money they have into Smoak or be at the excessive charge double hazard and expence of time to come unto and return through England with that as all other Plantation Commodities which hath occasioned frequent loss of Seasons and of Ships and Cargo's to the loss of the Duty to his Majesty and Ruin of many Merchants as they made appear in very many deplorable Instances too long to be here inserted They say That whereas by an Act of the 25. Car. 2. For better securing the Plantation Trade It is Enacted That if any Ship or Vessel which by Law may Trade in any of the Plantations shall come to take on board any Plantation Commodities and that Bond shall not be first given with sufficient Surety to bring them to England Wales or Barwick That there shall be paid there on white Sugars 5 s. per Cent. on Muscovados 8 d. per Cent. on Tobacco 1 d. per Pound c. which afforded some ease to the distressed Merchants of Ireland in returning without being necessitated to come to England to enter Yet that door also hath been shut against Ireland by the Artifice of the Arbitrary Commissioners of the Customs in England For contrary to the plain Import of that Law There was a Ship of England which paid that Duty in the Plantations seized and condemned under pretence that that Act was only intended for the Trade between Plantation and Plantation although there is nothing in the Act that gives Countenance to that Construction That tho' the Manufactures of Ireland are few and that the most considerable of them is Linnen which interferes not with the Manufacture of England and that the quantity exported in times of Free Trade to the Plantations was but small yet the Sustenance of a good number of the most necessitous of their People depended wholly on that little and that they cannot subsist barely by Air more than the People of England That by reason of the easiness to subsist in Ireland the Restraints on Trade the difficulty if not impossibility now to grow rich by ' Trade and the cheapness of Land Merchants are inclined to purchase rather than Trade That from hence and the mean way of living of the Natives paucity of Inhabitants little demand of the Native Commodities in Forreign Markets the want of any peculiar Commodity as Tinn is to England c. It appears there is little reason why the Gentry and Merchants of England should be so jealous as they are of the Improvement of Ireland or the growth of its Trade and less why they should bear so hard on it That albeit Liberty is granted to the Merchants of Ireland to send Provisions Servants and Horses to the Plantations yet Provisions and Horses being of great stowage and small value It requires two Cargoes of them to lade one Ship home And it is not to be expected that the whole proceed should in the same Voyage be turned into Commodity for return Hence it becomes absolutely necessary for them to carry some small parcels of the Manufacture of Ireland with Provisions Servants and Horses to enable a Cargo for the Ships return or to return half or one third empty which doubles the Charge of Fraight and Charge on the Commodities returned Or if they will not do this they must carry Money to England to buy and take in some Manufacture there which doubles the hazard and charge and by loss of time and contrary Winds occasion loss of Seasons and often of Ships and Goods And if any of the Woollen Manufacture of Ireland be brought to enter here in order to send them to the Plantations the half duty on them in England is in some the whole in others the half of their first Cost Which how hard soever yet they must not as the case stands upon any easier terms trade to those parts tho' part of the Dominions of their natural Prince and in a great measure peopled and supported by themselves That since the Prohibition of Cattle to England and as an effect thereof the Merchants of Ireland have in return for Beef Tallow Hides c. supplyed that Kingdom with many Commodities from Forreign Parts which before that Prohibition were brought only from England And that if the restraint be continued on their Manufactures to the Plantations They will be necessitated to truck their Manufactures in Spain Portugal c. for Plantation and other Commodities which they used to have from the Plantations and from England Where if once their Manufactures be brought into demand the prejudice to England will be a thousand times greater than can arise from their carrying small quantities of them to the Plantations That the Condition of Ireland in the forementioned respects is very deplorable For notwithstanding the English there are liable annually to England for those vast Summs before mentioned yet they are prohibited to send their Sheep Cattle Beef Pork or Butter the product of their Land hither Nor can they send their Manufacture the only Employment of their People hither nor to any of the Plantations no not so much as Cloaths for their Servants If they send Servants they must not send Cloaths with them for one year nor so much as handsomly to recommend them to a Market nor Brandy sufficient for their Voyage lest any should be left at their Arrival If they send Horses they must not send a new Bridle If they
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
to the Manufacturers and to those Provinces And understanding that some of the Corporate Cities and Towns where the Weavers had Seated themselves had by hard and unkind Impositions and usage disgusted many of their Brethren that dwelt in Country Villages The King took the advantage thereof and by the offer of many large Immunities and Priviledges invited several of them to remove into England where they were sure to Buy Wool Cheap and Sell Cloth dear For their further encouragement the King paid the Charge of their Transportation gave them Freedom in Corporations with many peculiar priviledges House-Rent free for some Years defray'd the Charge of their Families out of his Exchequer until their Labour brought in a competency for them and Prohibited the wearing of any Course Forreign Cloth This had its desired effect for thereon many of the Clothiers with their dependents removed and settled in England Whereby the Scale of the Trade of the Kingdom did much alter for the better by the 28th Year of that Kings Reign for by that time Cloth was made in England not only in good measure for home supply but also some Course sort for Exportation as appears by the following Ballance of the Trade of that Year Recorded in the Exchequer By which we may see as the State and smalness of the Trade of the Kingdom so also the great Parsimony of those times Exportations  l. s. d. 31651 Sacks and a half of Wool at 6 l. per Sack 189909. 3036 Hundred 65 Fells at 2 l. per Hundred of 120 006073. 1. 8. Custom of both amounts to 81624. 1. 1. 14 Last 17 Dicker and 5 Hides of Leather at 6 l. per Last 89. 5. whereof the Custom amounts to 6. 17. 6. 4774 Clothes and a half at 40 l. per Cloth 009549. 8061 Pieces and a half of Worsteds at 16 s. 8 d. per Piece 006717. 18. 4. The Custom of both amounts to 215. 13. 7. The Summ of the out-carried Commodities in value and Custom amounteth to 294184. 17. 2. The Importations into England 28th Ed. 3.  l. s. d. 1832 Clothes at 6 l. per. Cloth 10992. whereof the Custom amounts to 91. 12. 397 Quintals ¾ of Wax at 40 s. per Quin. 795. 10. whereof the Custom amounts to 19. 17. 5. 1829 Tun ½ of Wine at 40 s. per Tun 3659. whereof Custom 182. 19. Linnen-Cloth Mercery and Grocery wares and all other Merchandize 22943. 6. 10. whereof the Custom 285. 18. 3. Summ of the in-brought Commodities in Value and Custom 38970. 3. 6. Summ of the in-plusage of the out-carried above the in-brought Commodities amounteth to 255214. 13. 8. The bringing in of these few Manufacturers instantly put the Kingdom into a thriving condition for although it added but 16266 l. 18 s. 4 d. to the Exportations of this year yet it so far decreased the Importations as that there was 255214 l. 13 s. 8 d. added to the Stock of the Kingdom Thus was the Foundation first laid of the Succeeding Trade Wealth and Opulence of England Henceforward this Kingdom encreased in Trade Shipping and Wealth Lands yielded better Rents and the products of it a better price for in 1520. the beginning of Henry VIII's Reign a fat Oxe in London was commonly sold for 26 s. a fat Wether 3 s. 4 d. which allowing for the different value of the Coin is twice as much in the first and above three times as much in the last For Silver and Coin was 20 d. per Ounce in Edward III's time and was advanced to 40 d. per Ounce and no more in 1520. The second step was the dissolving of Abbeys and Monasteries By this and the casting off the Popes Supremacy the power of the Clergy and their concern in Civil Affairs abated to the great benefit of the Kingdom Until this was done the Drones suckt most of the Honey and starv'd the industrious Bees But when those Livings came into Lay-hands the Rents and Money which before was hoarded up in Coffers came into the Publick Stock of the Kingdom and circulated I am against stripping the truly worthy reverend painful Clergy I think they deserve good pay and double honour I would not have the labouring Oxen muzzled nor the Labourers hire lessened Let them preach the Gospel prosper and live honourably by it Yet I am of Opinion they do always best and are most happy where they keep within their own Province There is more required to accomplish a States man than School and Book-learning the retired Education of the generality of the Clergy-men begets a temper unfit for Civil Government Christ was so far from committing that to his Disciples that he cautioned or prohibited their intermedling in it Not only the Subjects but even the greatest Princes in the Land have been shocked and made unhappy by the Pride and Ambition of Popish Prelates Becket and others But now that Yoke and the Popes were in a great measure cast off to the unspeakable advantage of Prince and people In most places where Clergy men share in the Government the people are unhappy as in Italy and other Kingdoms but where ever they govern Solely the people are miserable as in the Popes Dominions If the pregnant Instances hereof given by Mr. Bethel in his present Interest of England stated do not convince all Mankind of this Truth surely the late Improvement of those Instances by Dr. Burnet in his five Letters will do it The third happy step towards the enriching of this Kingdom was the Reformation of Religion for this contributes to the enriching a People not only by the Blessing of God which hath always attended the National receiving and conscientious practice of the true Religion but also in that the nature of it is to civilize and moralize Men to make them sober and diligent and so tends to enrich them The Protestant Religion as it makes men more diligent sober and industrious in their Callings than the Popish Religion so it tends more to the enriching of them in that it enjoins as hath been observed fewer Idle days which expose men to expence breeds and begets ill habits and an inaptitude to business and labour c. which are the Companions of Superstition and Idolatry Suppose the working people of England to be but four Millions and that the Labour of each Person be valued but 6 d. per day their work for one day amounts to one hundred thousand pounds which for twenty four days that they keep in a year more than the twenty nine days observed by the Church of England amounts to Two Millions and four hundred thousand pounds Sterling per Annum which of it self is sufficient on the one hand to impoverish and on the other to enrich a Kingdom Another advantage we received by entertaining the Christian Religion and casting off of Popery was That the greatest part of that Money which went yearly to Rome for Pardons and Indulgences was saved to the Kingdom which was no small Summ. The
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
be advanced HAD we duly improved the advantages we had of Trade and Manufacture about 1662. and carefully kept our Manufacturers Skill and People to our selves it is difficult to say what advancement might have been made of Rents by this time But now that by our own Folly the Netherlands some parts of Germany and even France it self are become sharers with us in our most profitable Manufactures not only for their own Supply which they were wont to derive from us but also to that degree that they Vie with us in many Forreign Markets it is high time seriously to consider what is the true interest of the Nation both in respect of Trade Rents and Manufactures In Order hereunto let it be considered that the Strength and Security of England next under God consists in its Navy Its Welfare and Prosperity depends on its Trade Natural Products and Manufactures The Strength of its Navy depends on Forreign Trade and the profitable part of Trade to the Kingdom results solely from our Exportations It is therefore the true Interest of the Kingdom by all due Methods carefully to preserve incourage and augment all these Those who get their Livelihood by Trade and Manufactures are many more than those who live by Cattle Pasturage Corn and Fruits Our Natural Products which we Export are not computed to be above one Fifteenth part of our Exportations and tho' they that live by these must not be neglected but encouraged yet our main care ought to be laid out for our Manufacturers as those that have raised the Kingdom to its present Wealth and Greatness which supports it and makes up the Bulk of our Expectations Now the Trade of England being mostly carried on by its Manufactures should the Rents of Land here advance suppose one fourth part above what they were in 1662. and Lands in Germany and France c. do not rise proportionably I suppose it would be very prejudicial to the Kingdom in general For I am not here speaking of what would for a time gratifie the humour of our Nobility Gentry or Landed Men but what would be their and the Kingdoms true Interest If Rent of Land should advance one fourth part or more above what they were in 1662. The Fruits and Products of the Land ought to rise in their price proportionably one fourth above what they then were or the Farmers would not be able to pay their Rents And were the Natural Products thus advanced for a continuance Provisions being so much Dearer it would be but reasonable that the Labour of the Working People should advance also And were this so our Manufactures would be Dearer which in the present State of things as hath been observed would be pernicious to the Kingdom For by such advance of Rents and the Price of our Natural Products and Manufactures we should First Lose all our Forreign Markets for that part of the Natural Products of our Lands which we Annually Export to other Countries which could in that Case under-sell us Secondly We should for the same Reason lose all Forreign Markets for our Manufacture and thereby the means of imployment for our People at home and of our Ships and Seamen abroad which would yet be more mischievous to us The Kingdom affords no Commodity that I call to mind peculiar to us but Tin nor are we sole Masters of that neither tho' we have more and better of that Commodity than any Country in Europe Therefore all things considered it is the Interest of the Kingdom that we raise both our Natural Product and Artificial Commodities and Manufactures so Cheap as that we may be able to furnish all Forreign Markets with them their quality considered some small matter Cheaper than any other Country can For thereby only can we secure Forreign Markets for our Surplusage of both and imployment for our People The Dutch and Venetians c. do in some sort Vie with us at Forreign Markets as to Fine Cloth and some costly Fabricks of Manufactures but they are not able so to do in Course Cloths and Course Manufactures because of the much higher Prices of Food and Labour among them than us which with the different Price of Wool there and here enables us to make great quantities of these Courser Manufactures much Cheaper than it is possible for them to do But if now that we have cast out so considerable a part of our Manufacturers into other Countries and that by raising our Rents Provisions Wool Labour and Manufactures should be advanced much in their Price we should be in danger of losing a much greater part of our Trade to other Countries than what we have already lost So great and ticklish is the difficulty of Regaining any part of Trade or bringing it into it's former Channel when once lost or turned out of it If against what hath been said it be objected that experience tells us that our Manufactures are raised Cheapest in Years of Dearth and Scarcity I answer that extraordinary accidents do not constitute a standing Rule That 't is true in such years the Poor are constrained to Work Harder and Cheaper than at other times Yet in those years they are constrained to run in Debt and often Sell even the very Clothes which they Earned in times of Plenty c. and did Provisions advance for a continuance Labour must do so too or many of the Poor would perish and the rest be reduced to live on Herbs wear Wooden Clogs or Shooes and like the Peasants of France look like walking Ghosts which I hope will never happen in England It is the undoubted Interest of the Kingdom to recal and allure as many of our Manufacturers home as possibly we can to set up and encourage new Manufactures for the imploying of our People for the augmenting of our Exportations and the encrease of the Revenue to improve the opportunity put into our hands by cherishing the French that are already amongst us and inviting in as many more as we can get They live more hardily and therefore can work much cheaper than ordinarily our People can Their labour may be applyed and directed to some new Manufactures or new Fabricks which we have not yet which we were wont to bring from France and which may not interfere with those we have or with the present labour of our own People A prudent management of these things would conduce more than a little to the regaining and enlarging of our Trade to the enriching of the Kingdom and advancing Rents by encreasing the home Consumption the lessening our Importations and augmenting our Exportations There are several things that may by accident and for a spurt advance the Rents of Lands But it is only the lessening our Importations and the augmenting our Exportations that can keep them up In order to these great Ends we should remove all those Bars and Discouragements which lye in the way It 's true the King and Parliament have in their Wisdom by an Act
opportunity to Rebel did purchase Pardons at dear Rates from Rome for their not having actually Rebelled And we have had a pregnant Instance of the Empire these Priests have over the People in the present Rebellion for notwithstanding Their Majesties have by three gracious Declarations invited that People to submit yet I hear not of one Gentleman that hath hitherto submitted and the People generally have chosen rather to quit their Habitations and wander thorow the Kingdom than to sit down quietly under Their Majesties gentle Government with the enjoyment of all their Possessions The Toleration of the Popish Clergy and their pernicious Religion as it would be sinful in Their Majesties so it would be destructive to that Kingdom whatever the favourers of the French or King James's Interest may suggest to the contrary For the Toleration or conniving at Idolatry is a Land-destroying sin Ireland hath found it to be so Our Church in her Articles and Homilies hath declared the Mass to be the grossest Idolatry And God who in Scripture appears so tender of the life of man that he appointed even casual Homicide to be punished with confinement or banishment until the death of the High Priest hath nevertheless positively commanded that Idolaters and even the secret Enticers to it should be put to death without mercy and the places defiled thereby to be destroyed And where Princes do not duly execute his Laws in this case he usually executes Vengeance on them and their Posterity Most of the Kings of Israel and their Posterity were rooted out for this sin and the Ten Tribes for it have remained in Captivity and Obscurity for 2400 years And this sin was one of the chief causes of the Captivity of Judah and the connivance at or toleration of it hath twice in this Age proved destructive to poor Ireland and pernicious to those Kings that granted it When King James the first granted a Toleration of Popery in Ireland famous Bishop Vsher did publickly before the State foretel that for that sin God would within forty years raise up those Papists to cut the Throats of the Protestants there and God fulfilled that Prediction in 1641. and that King never prospered in any design or undertaking after that Toleration And when his Son Charles I. would not be warned but in 1629. renewed that Toleration ten or twelve of the Bishops and Arch-Bishops of that time had the honesty and courage publickly in the Pulpit to protest against the sinfulness of it and also under their hands to declare That the Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous their Faith and Doctrine erroneous and heretical their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration of Religion and to profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitious Idolatries Heresies and in a word all the Abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy c. And as it is a great sin so it is a matter of great consequence c. How fatal it proved to him and also to Charles II. and the late King James the World hath seen Nor will it be less so to any of their Successors who shall connive at or tolerate the same For the same sins and degrees of it brings like Judgments in every Age. Not only the Law of God but those of the Land also are against indulging this Religion and Interest of State the safety of the Protestants in Ireland and the quiet of England requires That all the Roman Clergy their Landed men concerned in this Rebellion and that of 1641. together with their Lawyers should be banished and not to return on pain of Death We may wish for Advantage by that Kingdom but we cannot rationally expect it whilst these three Parties or any of them are permitted to remain there for they will be fit Tools in the hands of the French King to foment Rebellions to which their joynt and several Interests the hope of regaining their Estates the Church-Livings and their Practice will prompt and dispose them and nothing less than their Banishment or Extirpation will devest France of the means of distracting us at pleasure now that they are joyned with that Enemy of Mankind As for the rest of the Papists who shall be permitted to abide in that Kingdom it is but reasonable that they be excluded from living in the Cities Walled Towns and Corporations which are the strengths of the Kingdom I am well aware that this latter tho' as considerable as any other means for the security of that Kingdom will meet with much opposition from many of the Protestants of Ireland themselves who like too many in England prefer their particular the Advancement of their Rents in those Towns and Cities to the Publick Safety to which their Private Interest ought ever to give way The Papists are already excluded from Purchasing any of the Houses in any Corporation which were forfeited by the Rebellion in 1641. But this without the other is not sufficient and indeed there is no other way to deal with them If His Majesty imagines that the Possession of their Estates Liberty for their Religion a share in the Civil-Justice will oblige and restrain them from Violence and Rebellion he will I fear in the issue find it otherways for in 1641. they had their titular Arch-Bishops and Bishops their Fryaries and Nunneries their Secular and Regular Clergy they were Justices of the Peace Sheriffs of Counties Members of Parliament Mayors and Bayliffs of Corporations c. They were seized of three fourths of all the Lands there All the Laws against them were suspended as to their Execution they had all their Grievances redressed even to the release of the forfeiture of whole Counties In a few months after which they broke out into that horrid and barbarous Rebellion wherein they Massacred 150000 Protestants in cold Blood without any provocation besides as many more that perished by Famine and Sword in the prosecution of that Rebellion which is demonstration to all the World that these People are not to be retain'd in obedience by Immunities Priviledges and Kindnesses nor restrained from Rebellion and Massacres whilst their Clergy c. are permitted to abide amongst them If against what hath been proposed the favourers of the French and Popish Interest do object That such Severity toward the Irish will disoblige the Catholick Princes of the Confederacy I answer That the chief end of the Confederacy is to retrench the Power of the French King and his Adherents as Enemies to all the rest of Europe That the Papists in these Kingdoms having above all others contributed to that Kings present Greatness all the Irish and many of the English and Scotch Papists being actually in Rebellion and in Conjunction with his Forces Their dependence being on him and
l. A Regiment of Guards containing 12 Companies each consisting of a Captain at 11 l. 4 s. each Calendar Month. A Lieutenant 5 l. 12 s. An Ensign 4 l. 4 s. Three Serjeants 2 l. 2 s. each Three Corporals two Drums 1 l. 8 s. and 90 private Foot-men at 18 s. 8 d. each which for each Company comes per Mensem to 119 l. 6 s. per Annum 1419 l. 12 s. and for the whole per Annum 17035 l. 4. For the Field Officers Chaplain Adjutant Quarter Master Chirurgion and Mate Drum-Major with a Serjeant and ten private Foot-men to four Companies per Mensem 111 l. 15 s. 4 d. per Annum 1341 l. 14. Seventy four Companies of Foot each consisting of a Captain at 11 l. 4 s. each Calendar Month. A Lieutenant 5 l. 12 s. Ensign 4 l. 4 s. Two Serjeants 2 l. 2 s. each Three Corporals and a Drummer 1 l. 8 s. each and sixty private Foot-men at 14 s. each making in all for each Company per Mensem 72 l. 16 s. per Annum 873 l. 2 s. per Annum for the whole 64646 l. 8. They were in the whole 1363 Horse and 6210 Foot the Officers c. included besides the Company of Yeomen of the Guards The Annual charge of the Horse was 46368 l. and of the Foot 83023 l. 6 s. which charge was with ease defrayed out of the Revenue of that Kingdom Although these will be sufficient to prevent or repress all Insurrections of the Papists in Ireland yet they will not be sufficient to secure the Kingdom against Invasion which is that we are to apprehend from France unless with the help of the Confederates we constrain the French King to employ his whole Force for Defence at home And here it may be considered that although the War against France should be ended yet whilst our Neighbours round about are Armed and keep considerable Forces on Foot it would be Prudence to keep up such an Army as may secure us and our Neighbours from being surprized c Now the Body of such an Army may better be kept up in Ireland than in England For the People of England have at all times been justly jealous of a standing Army in times of Peace at home and never will be easie whilst they are among them Such Army may therefore more conveniently and with less charge be kept in Ireland where by reason of the plenty of that Kingdom they can subsist with less Pay For as you may observe the private Horsemen receive there but 2 l. 2 s. each Calendar Month whereas they receive in England 2 s. 6 d. per Diem which is upwards of 3 l. 10 s. per Month and all the Foot except the Regiment of Guards receive but 3 s. 6 d. per Week which is one fourth or 14 d. per Week less than is paid the common Souldier in England so that 20000 Men may be kept there as cheap as 15000 in England which is great odds Fifthly As the Sword is to Defend a People from violence and injury in times of War so ought the Laws in time of Peace Therefore it will be requisite to settle the Civil Justice of that Kingdom in such Hands as may duly and truly Administer it c. To place such Judges and Justices of the Peace as have not been concerned in the corrupt Administrations of that Kingdom such as may not pack Grand Juries or Menace Hector and compel them contrary to their Consciences to find Bills or raise Money against their Judgments or where the Law doth not require it or to Tax the Country with more than is necessary for the occasion to subserve the Interest of particular persons or for supply of the Greedy or Indigent c. But above all such as may duly punish Murderers for Life being the most valuable thing which we possess and the security of it being the Principal end of the Law it ought primarily to be regarded by the Judges c. The remiss Execution of the Laws against Murder in Ireland hath been as a great hindrance to the Peopling and improvement of it so also a great Reproach to it And therefore remedy ought to be provided in this particular on this Settlement I have heard some judicious persons in Holland say in derision of Ireland that the Cattle and the Mares of that Kingdom are better secured by the Laws or usual Administrations thereof than the Lives of the People It is indeed the Honour of the United Provinces and a Blessing to the People that seldom if ever any person of what quality soever that wilfully Kills the meanest person escape Death Whereas they say of Ireland that only the Money-less and Friendless are Executed for Murder whilst Sheep-Stealers or Mare-Stealers Rarely Escape Murder is by Law in Ireland made Treason and because the punishment is so great during the two last Reigns few of any Interest have been Executed for it Which if true is indeed sad for where Judges or Juries neglect to do Justice in this respect or that Princes grant Pardons to Murderers the guilt becomes National Wonderful is the care which God in his Law expresseth of the Life of Man and many and Critical are the inquisitions which he appointed to be made for the Discovery of Private Murder before the place where it was committed could be deemed acquit c. And his command is positive that whosoever taketh away the Life of another should be put to Death and none may hinder lett or stay him c. And the reason is given because that Blood is a Land-defiling Sin And that the Land cannot in any wise be cleansed from the guilt of it but by the Blood of the Murderer Therefore great care ought to be taken to prevent future abuses of this kind and to supply and rectifie the defects and abuses of the Laws in this particular It is dangerous to the Community to suffer Criminals to Escape with impunity but the worst and most intolerable Robberies and Murders are those which are committed by the Abuse of the forms of Laws when thro' the corruption of Judges the Laws made for security of Life Liberty and Property are perverted to the Destruction of any of them Sixthly What hath hitherto been proposed hath been for preventing future charge by Ireland and for the securing the advantages which comes thence to England I am now to shew that it is the Interest of their Majesties and of England to put that Kingdom into a thriving condition and how that may be done That it is the Interest of England and their Majesties is evident by what hath been already observed The Revenues of Ireland before the breaking out of the present Rebellion did surmount the charge of the Kingdom And the Surplusage was transmitted yearly into England Now if by Trade or otherwise the Revenues of that Kingdom had been augmented or doubled to what it was in 1685. Then the Annual advantage to England or to the late
King would have been so much more As suppose for the Year 1685. The Revenue had surmounted the charge by 40000 l. more or less and that in 1686. it had amounted to 150000 l. more than it did the preceding Year In that Case there had been 190000 l. transmitted thence to England for that Year c. In this respect you see it is the Interest both of the King and this Kingdom to put Ireland into a condition of continual improvement Our Trade with France being the greatest out-let of our Money and France being the only Kingdom of the World capable of Annoying us We ought long since to have stopt that yearly Drain But it hath been our infelicity that during the two last Reigns our Councils being Influenced by France we ran Counter to our Interest in Trade as well as Politicks For instead of regulating our Forreign Trade in preserving and gaining more Markets for our Natural Products and Manufactures the hindring and abating the Importation of unnecessary Commodities and encouraging our Manufacturers which are the industrious Bees of the Nation we have been put upon driving the latter from us and restraining the Intercourse and Commerce between us and Ireland and the Plantations and Ireland to the advantage of a few but great detriment to the Publick not to say oppression of our own People abroad while we have given France the opportunity of drawing away our Money and to run away with a considerable part of our Trade and have thereby paid his Pensioners amongst us at our own cost But his Present Majesty being come to deliver us from such Malevolent Councellors it is to be hoped he will not by imploying the Instruments of our past Calamities furnish them with fresh opportunities to Betray the Kingdom or Ruin himself It is the endeavour of almost all the Princes of Europe to Retrench the Power of the French King and 't is no less the concern of England And if I mistake not the present conjuncture of Affairs doth furnish us with some special advantages above the rest to that end It is certain that in times of open Trade France did yearly Gain one or two Millions Sterling by Trade with England which was so much clear loss to this Kingdom Neither was that all but we did thereby yearly strengthen and inrich our mortal Enemies To give some evidence to this I find by a Ballance of one Years Trade between England and France said to be drawn out of our Custom-House Books for the House of Commons about October 1675. That by the certain Ballance thereof we Imported from France 969105 l. 2 s. 8 d. Sterling more in Commodities than we Exported thither but by the supposed or probable Ballance 2105255 l. 6 s. 8 d. I find likewise that about 1676 or 77. That King having some thoughts to Prohibit all our English Manufactures from being carried into France the Ballance of Trade between both Kingdoms being laid before him it did thereby appear that the yearly Exportations of France to England was 2640000 l. Sterling and that the Importations from England to France did not exceed one Million So that by their own shewing France Gained 1640 Thousand Pounds Sterling by England which being the over-Ballance of Trade went out in Cash Amongst the particulars in this last Ballance of Trade said to be Imported into England the Tissues Velvets Sattins Armozines Tabbies Ribons wrought Silks Stuffs Laces Serges Hatts Fans Cabinets Pins Combs c. which we bring yearly from France are valued to amount to 1140000 l. Sterling All which may be Supplied by the Labour of our own People and the French Protestants that are and would come amongst us were due Liberty and Encouragement given and care taken to put things into the right way c. For the doing things of this Nature I am perswaded it would be of singular use if His Majesty would by Order of the Council c. constitute a standing Council of Trade consisting of a great number of the most knowing experienced Merchants of London who or a Quorum of them might meet weekly in some one of their Halls having a Secretary Door-keeper and Messenger allowed them where they might consult how to remove all obstructions of Trade how to regulate it what Manufactures may be set up to the best advantage of the Kingdom and how others may be improved c. Which as they shall have matured may be represented to His Majesty and Council or to both Houses of Parliament as occasion shall require Now as the Idle hands of the Kingdom together with the French Refugees may profitably and agreeably be imployed in the forementioned Fabricks of Silk and other Manufactures which we were wont to bring from France so may the People of Ireland even the very Natives be aptly employed in the Linnen Manufacture for which that Kingdom is in several respects much more proper than England 1. For that Land is Cheaper in Ireland and where good Seed is had the Country yields excellent Flax. 2. The Female Natives who are averse to any Robust Labour are much inclined to the Spinning of Flax which they can do with their Rocks or Distaves as they sit at their Doors or under a Hedge tending their Cattle 3. They are a People that live on a courser and cheaper Dyet nearer the manner of France than the English do or can and therefore can afford their Work cheaper which is a particular of great weight in an Affair of this Nature For except the Commodity be made at least as cheap as we have it from France it will be brought thence in spight of all Prohibitions 4. This is a Labour to which they have been greatly accustomed for before the Commencement of the Present Rebellion there was a considerable quantity of Course Linnen Diapers and Damasks made in Ireland much stronger than those which we usually have had from France 5. There is an Act of the last Irish Parliament still in Force for the raising of Money to set up a Bleaching Yard in each Province of the Kingdom for the Encouragement of the Linnen Manufacture If we consider the concurrence of these things viz. the cheapness of Land and Labour the aptness of the Soil Inclination of the People c. There seems no place so proper for this Manufacture as Ireland Many thinking men of good Sence have been jealous that Ireland by reason of the plenty and cheapness of Wool would in time fall into the improvement of it into Manufactures to the prejudice of England And though their fears at least as to this present Age are groundless yet 't is Wisdom to provide against even remote possibilities of detriment c. This may be done effectually in this Case by setting up and encouraging the Linnen Manufacture and such others in Ireland as may fully and profitably imploy that People and yet not interfere with the Manufactures of England Now if this can be done in a way which will lessen the