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A44612
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A discourse on the woollen manufactury of Ireland and the consequences of prohibiting its exportation
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Hovell, John.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing H2950; ESTC R24081
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13,755
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16
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Treasure but now to reap the full benefit of all their former Costs be better than to have Ireland an useless Limb chargeable and hazarding the Health of the whole English Frame then certainly 't is England's great Profit and Advantage to encourage this Enlarged part of England for 't is no other now with all Natural Affection Tenderness and Care and so I can't believe but England will do being thereto obliged by the Laws of God which take great care of Mankind by Natural wisdom and Polity and true Love even of themselves Prop. III. That the Woollen Manufactures of Ireland are a considerable Security to the Peace and good Government of England Since Ireland after her late almost Mortal Distemper for whose Body the Devil and all his Angels fought with Michael and his is blessed be God and praised be his Glorious Instrument King William not only restored to her former Health and Vigour but her very Youth re-commenc'd and all the latent Seeds of Disorder are irradicated and removed She may truly boast that her Protestant Inhabitants are as sound a Body of People to their Prince Country Religion and Laws as are to be found in the Universe A Jacobite Protestant is now one of those Venomous Animals that will not endure Irish Earth Wolves indeed we have and Foxes but these are now rather Game and Diversion than noxious or hurtful If an Irish Tory or Rapparce prey now but on an English Lamb we have our Hounds ready for him and a full-mouth'd Outlawry gives him Chase and his Head becomes of more value than a Wolfe's so that they are forc'd to wear Sheep-skins themselves for fear of disturbing our Flocks Seeing then that Ireland is so perfectly at Unity in her self that we have not the least Faction or Division among us that our Sun and our Shield are the Protestant Religion and King William we are a very great addition to the Loyal Party in England with whom and for whom we must live and die Would to God England were so free from Noxious Humours but perhaps her Cure was too soon and too easie and therefore only Time and her Healthy Constitution must wear 'em off Ireland now is without doubt the Envy of the Jacobites who out of pure Malice would be glad that the Irish Papists were more considerable than they are as being on their side and therefore we do not wonder if under pretence of England's Interest they desire to have the Protestants recall'd or banisht hence This Country would then be a good Meeting place for the French and Irish to renew their interrupted Projects and Councels and Correspondencies with the Highlanders and they well know that English Protestants will not live if they can help it without Imployment whereby to live decently They can't live with a Cow and Potato-Garden on a Mountain side in a Cabin built in a Days time which the Irish naturally do and there is no other Imployment for so great Numbers of Protestants as God be praised are now in Ireland but that of Woollen Manufactures Therefore says the Jacobite in England Cut away that Root and they 'll all wither No no instead of taking away the Honest Means to get our Bread here our Gracious King William will keep a good Protestant Army here where they 'll be welcome and this Country will maintain 'em without any Charge to England or prejudice to it self but will be the better in having so many the more English-men especially when the intended Baracks are made amongst us But suppose the worst that this Project to put down our Weoken Manufactures should prevail and consequently force the English Protestants to withdraw from this Island The best then that could be hoped for would be that the Scots would succeed in our rooms Now pray what better security can England have that those Industrious and Hardy People won't make Serges and Bays and through Scotland send 'em where they please Ay but the Scots are a meek harmless People that will not pursue their Interest their Common and National Advantages without leave from Mr. C y and some other of the West of England therefore there is no danger of them For though Mr. C y can't Bridle nor Saddle much less Ride 'em in Scotland yet if he catch 'em on Irish Ground he will tie 'em to Rack Staves and take away their Oats and Meal However I hope England will not try his Experiment least his Notions prove too Metaphysical to be of any Use and too sine for Practice Then let us conclude that England had e'en as good foster and cherish her own Legitimate Issue as to adopt those of other People who may perhaps in time forget that single piece of Bounty and go on to do themselves all the good that occasion may present them with Or shall we suppose that in regard Europe is so Canton'd out into petit States and Principalities that England strictly so called is more than a Match for any one of them and therefore scorns to be enlarged by any new accession of Strength which the Kingdom of Ireland would if encourag'd in Woollen Manufactures surely be to her But Safety and Victory are never to be hazarded where they can be got without it It 's much more than probable to me that had Ireland in the Reign of King Charles I. Been so happy as to have been so fully Inhabited by Protestants as blessed be God she is now there had been no Massacre of the Brittish Nations here in 1641 nor had that Dismal and Bloody Rebellion ensued nor had the Earl of Strafford thought it good Policy as he did some time before that to hold the English who had the Artificial and the Irish who by their Numbers at least had the Natural Strength of the Kingdom in a Ballance which he held in his own Hands that both the one and the other might depend on his Arbitrement His vast Ambition of Power was not less than his very great Parts To humour which as he was resolved to serve his Master without reserve so he expected by that Machine to compel Ireland to serve him But Story too sadly relates the Unhappy Catastrophy of this Policy For his Arbitrary Proceedings produced a Legal Act of Attainder against his Lordship's Head And the Irish with their Natural surprized the Artificial Strength of the English in most places of the Kingdom using them with ineffable Cruelty which mightily encreased the Confusion and Flame in England that ended not till some Years after Neither do I believe that the late King James had ever form'd the Design to Reign Despotically in England had Ireland been so replete with Protestants as God be praised over and over again she now is Tyrconnel then would not have durst taken the Sword of Ireland into his Romish Paws in Contempt of our Manifold Laws against it he would not have dared to Disband an English Army to Enlist Irish Enemies in their room and to put the Civil
as full of English Protestant Inhabitants as England is and as rich Would not England then have double the Power both in Men and Money of what she now has to support her Wars Would not her Vent of her own and her Plantation Goods be vastly greater than if Ireland were Desert oâ— Protestants or which is worse be in an Enemies Hands But suppose it 's objected Ireland is Peopled by the Depopulation of England and gains no more in Trade than she loses but this is evidently false English are not so fond of their own Country tho' a good one but that an English Man will as well as a Scot who has a bad one Travel abroad rather than live in a poor and painful manner at home If there were no Ireland he would find the way to New-England Virginia Maryland or some other place but Ireland lies rather fit to save them from being carried utterly away and lost from England to which he or his encreased Progeny may be restored on any Emergency For the Man of Devon may be as well forbid to go thence to York and say it depopulates England as to prevent his going to Dublin whence he may be as soon back or if be think sit to stay here he is still an English-man and ready for the Defence and Service of his Country whether it be attempted on this or that side And 't is very Unnatural to hinder Men to Live where they can live best especially if under the same Government and Polity As to the Gain Ireland makes by a Trade so prejudicial to England This is indeed a common Topick whereon many declaim against Ireland but have very little cause for it as appears by what has been said already Does no Country make Woollen Goods but England and Ireland Yes they do namely France Scotland Holland Flanders and many more Well then all these may as well rail against Ireland for lessening their Trade also But the truth of it is that Ireland coming into Conjunction with England in this Trade they mutually strengthen each other which may indeed be a great disheartning to Forreign Nations but is no less an Encouragement and Support to England for that she not only gets her own but our Money also and keeps her Sons about her tho' not in the same House yet planted within Call whose Voice they must and will readily Obey Now that we have seen the good Effects that England will surely have by cherishing her Children planted in Ireland let us take a View of the Damage that would befal her should she not suffer 'em to dwell there or which is all one not let 'em use that Industry there which is necessary for their convenient Support and this we will chiefly suppose to be done by Prohibiting our Manufactures Assoon as this fatal stroke is struck which God avert as deadly to the Protestant Interest in both Kingdoms the Poor Widdow and her Helpless Children sit down and lament for want of Bread The Cities then have too many Houses for their Inhabitants and are breaking up House-keeping and going not for England except that in America but to Pensilvania Carolina Holland Germany any where Scotland it self rather than be so shamefully and hopelesly brought back to their Angry Masters in Devon and Summerset Well then this done here is to be an Army at England's Charge or to live on Rapine who will Intermarry with and degenerate into Irish Rebel and perhaps not so easily as heretofore if at all reduced But suppose it better How shall the King's Revenue arise for Payment of the Civil and Military Lists For support of the Magazines and remittance of a considerable Over-plus into the Exchequer of England For tho' before the Woollen Manufactures took Root here Ireland was a great Charge to England yet she was paying her Old Debts apace when she found a way to Employ her People How little Tillage and Cattle will serve this Country when they who are the chief Buyers and Consumers are gone How small a quantity of English and Plantation Goods shall we import when we have no way to get Money to pay for them The Revenue of Ireland will very soon if our Woollen Manufactures be encouraged amount to more than 500000 l per Annum Let not this seem strange for according to the Advances it made after the Act of Settlement and Explanation in Ireland altho' tempered with extraordinary Lenity to the Irish Papists it rise as I take it from 160000 to 340000 l without any new Grants or Impositions nay contrarily many great Sums reserved on Papists Estates were wholly and for ever acquitted and discharged This great Improvement of the Revenue owed its chief Cause to the Woollen Manufactures which continually furnish'd the poor Spinner and Comber with daily Money to Smoak and Drink So that in all the Towns where the said Manufactures were the Inland-Excise as we term the Imposition on Ale Beer and Vsquebaugh advanced incredibly Will Taunton Exeter and Teverton pay all this Damage No they would indeed rather see Ireland Drowned Annihilated Therefore we are lead to hope that neither the King nor his Great Council in Parliament will think it adviseable to treat the Protestant English Subjects thus severely so immediately after having made a Law to incourage their coming hither as to deprive 'em of the most proper Means of getting a Livelihood decent and sit for English Protestants To please some mistaken Gentiemen and Clothiers in the West of England and the Factors at Blackwell-Hall The Poor French Hugonots that are for the Cause of a Good Conâ—â—â—ce Banisht their Native Soil and Invited here by the Clemency of his Most Gracious Maiesty and Laws newly made in their favour will think themselves miserable indeed when instead of following their respective Trade they find themselves condemned to go to the Mountains to feed Cattle and to Plow neither of which they at all understand Surely care must be taken to assign 'em Lands in Shares as is done in Fez and Morocco For when the Trade is gone who will buy their Corn and Cattle But to all this it is answer'd You shall have the Linnen Trade We thank you for your kind intention If we were sit for it as we in all the South parts are not where are the Forreign Markets Can England prohibit Holland German c. to forbear that Trade in favour to Ireland at least not to under do us Now if it be more prosit for England to receive vast Revenues out of Ireland both Publick and Private to receive very great Benefits by furnishing her with Native and Plaâ—â—at on Goods to have her deserting People settle and Plant so near her that they can't properly be said to have left her to have a Country that was full of most inveterate Enemies Enemies to their Religion Nation and Government changed into the most Faithful Friends and Relations that they can hope for and to be at no more expence of Blood or