a State which can hardly miscarry in the pursuit of it Besides the Personal Dispositions of the King Active and Aspiring And many circumstances in the Government fitter for persons of that Court than Strangers to pretend the knowledg of The continual encrease of their Forces in time of peace and their fresh Invasion of Lorrain are enough to perswade most men that the design of this Crown is a War whenever they can open it with a prospect of succeeding to purpose For their Counsels are too wise To venture much upon the hopes of little gains What the aims of France are in this kind I will not pretend to judg by common fears or the Schemes of men too ingeniously politique Nor perhaps can any one tell any more than a man that leaps into the water in strength and vigor and with pleasure can say how far he will swim Which will be till he is stopt by currents or accidents or grows weary or has a mind to do something else One may judg that if France will begin a War it would be naturally upon Flanders unless discouraged by the same Alliances which prevailed with them to end the last so as the plain present Interest of France is one way or other to break the confidence or the force of that Tripple Alliance which alone seems to bound their prospect which way soever they look And if once laid open they have the World and their Fortunes before them which is enough for a Crown that has so much Force and so much Conduct to manage them Having little hopes of breaking this on the Dutch side and knowing the Swede will follow our measures in it We may be sure of all address and all the Courtship that can any way be infused and in short all sorts of endeavours and applications that can be used to break it on ours Which seems to be the present Game of that Crown and that they will begin no other till they see an end of this FLanders cannot be considered distinct from Spain in the Government but may in the inclinations of the people which must ever have a great influence upon it They are the best Subjects in the World but may have some reason to be weary of being the Theater of almost perpetual Wars and where those two mighty Crowns have fought so many Battels and seem to have still so many more to fight If the Neighbour-assistances fall in to balance their powers now so unequally matched Therefore the Interest of the Inhabitants of those Spanish Provinces seems to be either that the present Peace should be kept inviolate by the strength and reputation of the present Alliances Or else that a War when it opens should have a sudden issue Which might be expected either from the French Conquest or a Proposition of Exchange They are naturally averse from the French Government as they are inclined to the Spanish but have so little kindness for the Hollanders or esteem of their Land-Forces that they hardly either hope or care to be saved by their assistances So as the reputation of His Majesties Protection and Alliance is all that can inspire them with the hopes of a lasting Peace or the courage to defend themselves by a War FRom the Survey of all these several Interests and Forces and Dispositions that compose the present state of all our Neighbours It may be naturally and unquestionably concluded That a continuance of the present measures The opening of new ones Or an absolute revolution of all depends wholly upon those His Majesty shall take or pursue in this great Conjuncture wherein He seems to be generally allowed for the sole Arbiter of the Affairs of Christendom OUR Interest abroad must lye in one of these points Either to preserve our present Alliances and thereby the Peace of Christendom as it now stands Or to encourage France to an Invasion of Holland with assurance of our Neutrality Or else to join with France upon the advantages they can offer us for the ruin of the Dutch Upon the first is to be considered Whether with a longer Peace the Power of France and Holland with so great Revenues and such application as is seen in their Governments will not encrease every year out of proportion to what ours will do The Revenues of France arising originally from the vent of their Native Commodities and those of Holland growing wholly out of Trade and that out of Peace Upon the second Whether France will ever resolve upon the Invasion of Holland Or Holland upon its own resolute defence without our share in the War which would otherwise leave us to enjoy the Trade of the World and thereby to grow vastly both in Strength and Treasures whilest both these Powers were breaking one another Or whether the jealousie of such a design in us would not induce France and Holland either before a War or soon after it begins To close upon some measures between them to our disadvantage as We and Holland did after the last War to the disadvantage of France Upon the last Whether by the ruin of Holland we can reap as great advantages as France though perhaps greater were necessary to make some equality in our Powers And to gain a fair prospect of this it must be considered Whether Holland upon its fall would grow an accession to the French or to Us Or live under the Prince of Orange as a Soveraign Prince with our support or protection Whether France would be content with either of these last or to see us grow absolute Masters of the Sea by the fall or subjection of Holland any more than by their Conjunction and Alliance Whether we could be able to defend the Maritime Provinces either in our own subjection or in that of the Prince whilest France remained possest of all the Out-works of that State which are their Inland Provinces their Towns in Brabant and upon the Rhine Whether we could on the other side hinder the accession of Holland to France either as Subjects in a Maritime Province with great Priviledges and Immunities for continuance and encouragement of Trade Or as an inferior and dependant Ally under their protection Whether in either of these cases our Government would have credit enough in Holland to invite their Shipping and Traders to come over and settle in England and so leave those Provinces destitute of both Whether it be possible to preserve Flanders after the loss of Holland Or upon the Conquest of those Countries by France For us to preserve our peace or good intelligence with that King Or upon a War to defend our selves either by our own Forces or the Alliances of our Neighbours But though these Arguments may deserve the most serious deliberations of Ministers at home Yet I know they lye out of the compass of my duty and are improper for the representations of a man the course of whose Imployments and thoughts for so long a time has lain wholly abroad AN ESSAY UPON THE ORIGINAL
a great sum of money at one or more payments than acknowledg it by a constant tribute The last thing His Majesty can demand from Holland is money for the charges of the War But unless the Justice or Necessity of it were agreed on between us that will have but a weak ground And if we expect money it must be to purchase what is to come and not to pay for what is past and it is very probable that if His Majesty should resolve with a peace of Holland to enter into a Mediation between France and Spain upon the evident points of justice between them and to joyn against that Crown which refuses the Peace both Spain and Holland would be content to part with their money upon such an agreement But the measure and manner must be left to private Treaty and would depend upon the confidence between us Whatever in any of these points or any other His Majesty should be content to release ought to be done upon the satisfaction He should declare to have received in the advancement of the Prince of Orange to the charges of his Ancestors But for His Majesty to insist upon any further advantages to the Prince than are already devolved upon him would not only raise invincible difficulties in our Treaty with the States but prejudice the Princes affairs among them in a very great measure And the Prince I believe knows their Constitution so well as to understand it so If upon good terms in these particulars a Peace can be effected with Holland the honour of this Crown will certainly be provided for and the interest of it to a higher degree than could have been gained even without the events of the War since we should be left in Peace to enjoy the Trade of the world while the House of Austria and Holland would be engaged in a long War with France and whenever they grow weary His Majesty would have the glory and advantage of mediating the Peace For the measures to be observed in all this with France and the preserving His Majesties Honour on that side First the humour of the Parliament as to this War and the interest of the Nation in the Trade with Spain ought to be represented to them as difficulties invincible unless France can furnish the charge which the War will cost beyond what can be spared out of His Majesties constant Revenue Then His Majesty may propose to them His design of Neutrality between them and Spain which I suppose was not a point that entred into any Agreements against Holland and lastly He may desire their consent since he cannot prosecute the War to make his peace with Holland upon the assurance of imploying afterwards his Mediation between them and Spain in which the concurrence of His Parliament will make Him able to effect a Peace as the want of it has made Him unable to pursue the War If France will not consent either to furnish us with money sufficient to carry on the War nor to our Neutrality with Spain nor peace with Holland it would then be considered whether France in the like case would suffer such a Conjuncture as this to escape them upon any Ties or Treaties between us or whether indeed any Prince or State would do so A conjuncture whereby the honour and interest of His Majesties Crowns may be provided for the Trade of the Nation raised to a heighth it has not reached before the passionate bent and humour of the people pleased and their jealousies in a great measure allayed the true ballance of Christendom maintained all the Princes and States of it besides France alone satisfied and in short by which His Majesty may grow again insensibly into the hearts of his people at home and into the influence upon all affairs of his Neighbours abroad It is a rude thing which is commonly said that we may come off from France with as much honour as we came on But it is a true thing that he has always the honour of the War that has the advantage of it and 't is I doubt so of a Peace too and that cannot fail us here provided we make sure of Spain in case we apprehend our losing of France to which their dispositions and interests must certainly concur with ours in all points unless that of Jamaica make an exception All the difficulty His Majesty can meet with in this pursuit will be some want of reputation and trust with the Government of Spain and Holland which have been foyled of late by the breach of our former Alliances so much as they think against our own interests as well as theirs for all Treaties are grounded upon the common belief That every State will be ever found in their own Interests among which their Honour and observance of Faith grows to be one very considerable Because while the minds of men are generally possest with a belief of God Almighty's concerning Himself in affairs here below the opinion of Justice or Injustice in a Quarrel will never fail of having mighty effect upon the successes of a War therefore our reputation cannot any way be so far recovered with our Neighbours as by their finding that His Majesties Councels return into the true interests of His Kingdoms which will make the Spaniards believe our Measures may be firm with them upon the same reason which has shaken them with France Thus much is certain that whatever means will restore or raise the credit of His Majesties Government at home will do it abroad too for a King of England at the head of his Parliament and People and in their hearts and interests can never fail of making what figure he pleases in the world nor of being safe and easie at home and may despise all the designs of factious men who can only make themselves considered by seeming to be in the interest of the Nation when the Court seems to be out of it But in running on Councels contrary to the general humour and spirit of the People the King indeed may make His Ministers great Subjects but they can never make Him a Great Prince Shene Jan. 29. 1674. TO THE COUNTESS OF ESSEX UPON Her Grief occasioned by the loss of Her only Daughter THE Honour I received by a Letter from your Ladiship was too great and too sensible not to be acknowledged but yet I doubted whether that occasion could bear me out in the confidence of giving your Ladiship any further troubles of this kind without as good an errand as my last This I have reckon'd upon a good while by another visit my Sister and I had designed to my Lord Capell How we came to have defer'd it so long I think we are neither of us like to tell you at this distance though we make our selves believe it could not be helpt Your Ladiship at least has had the advantage of being thereby excused sometime from this trouble which I could no longer forbear upon the sensible wounds that have
Miscellanea I. A Survey of the Constitutions and Interests of the Empire Sueden Denmark Spain Holland France and Flanders with their Relation to England in the Year 1671. II. An Essay upon the Original and Nature of Government III. An Essay upon the Advancement of Trade in IRELAND IV. Upon the Conjuncture of Affairs in Octob. 1673. V. Upon the Excesses of Grief VI. An Essay upon the Cure of the GOUT by Moxa By a Person of Honour LONDON Printed by A. M. and R. R. for Edw. Gellibrand at the Golden-Ball in St. Pauls Church-yard 1680. The AUTHOR's Letter to the Stationer upon occasion of the following Papers I Have received both your Excuses and Desires about those Papers I left in your Fathers hands upon my several journeys into Holland with a charge That none ever should see them unless I happen'd to dye before my return In that case only I gave him leave to Print them because I found it would be a satisfaction to him and he thought an advantage I will examine no further how several of them came to run abroad both in Print and Manuscript since you justifie your felf and I will not accuse your Father whom I ever esteemed a good man All I can say of the matter is That the Two Copies at first dispersed came from two of your Fathers Friends and that you confess to have Printed ten by order of one of Mine while I was abroad upon the belief he would not have desired it without my Consent But that you ought not to have concluded without knowing it from me as you might easily have done in ten days time You pretend to be sure the Press was broken after tbat number was taken off which is a thing you cannot answer for without your Printers leave nor if it were so do I make any difference between Ten and a Hundred This I am sure of that how few soever were Printed very many have seen them and more have heard of them and so many of my acquaintance prest me for Copies that I have been troubled to refuse them and to be so hardly believed when I assured them I had none Now for what you tell me of the great care and pains you have taken since I spoke to you last to discover how they went out and to call them in and that you find this last is impossible and apprehend every day that some or other will Print them without your knowledge or mine and thereupon ground your desires for my leave to do it I know not well what to say having said so much to you already upon this occasion and think 't is best troubling my self no longer about a thing that is past remedy Therefore I am content you should publish them rather than any other should do it without my leave and rather than any further mystery should be made of those that are abroad which has given the occasion of two other Books being laid to my charge that I have been so far from writing as never to have seen For the Order and Titles of the several Papers they must I doubt be the same with the Copies already dispersed since these cannot be recalled For any general Title I leave it wholly to you as well as the time nor are you to expect from me either any Correction of Press or trouble of Preface being resolved since they first run away without my consent to own them no longer and to concern my self in them no more than if they had never been mine What advantages soever you can propose to your self by them I can expect but one and that will agree very ill with yours which is That the publishing of them may possibly suppress them and that they may be talkt of no more when once they grow common since nothing but the scarcity of them can give them any vogue If this happens I shall be at quiet which is all I ask of them or of you June 12. 1679. A SVRVEY of the Constitutions and Interests of the Empire Sweden Denmark Spain Holland France and Flanders with their Relation to England in the Year 1671. And then given to One of His Majesties Principal Secretaries of State upon the ending of my Embassy at the Hague THE Decay and Dissolution of Civil as well as Natural Bodies proceeding usually from outward Blows and Accidents as well as inward Distempers or Infirmities it seems equally necessary for any Government to know and reflect upon the Constitutions Forces and Conjunctures among their Neighbouring States as well as the Factions Humours and Interests of their own Subjects For all Power is but comparative nor can any Kingdom take a just measure of its safety by its own riches or strength at home without casting up at the same time what Invasions may be feared and what Defences expected from Enemies or Allyes abroad 'T is certain That so advantageous a Scituation as that of His Majesties Dominions in these Islands of Great Britain and Ireland makes any forreign consideration less important to us than to any other Nation Because the Numbers and Native courage of our men with the strength of our Shipping have for many ages past and still for ought we yet know made us a match for the greatest of our Neighbours at Land and an over-match for the strongest of them at Sea Whereas whoever hurts us without our own Arms must be able to master us in both those Elements Yet in regard there are the names of several Conquests remaining still upon Record though all of them the meer effects of our own divisions or invitations when Trade is grown the design of all Nations in Europe that are possest of any Maritime Provinces as being the only unexhausted Mine and out of whose Treasures all greatness at Sea naturally arises When instead of a King of France surrounded and bearded by Dukes of Brittany and Burgundy as well as our own possessions in Normandy and Guienne Instead of a Count of Flanders or Holland who served for no more than like the smaller weights to make the balance sometimes a little even in the greater scales of the English French and German Powers We now behold in France the greatest Land-Forces that perhaps have ever been known under the Command of any Christian Prince And in the United Provinces the greatest numbers both of Ships and Mariners that were ever yet heard of under any State in the World And which have hitherto been only awed by the strength of our Oak the Art of our Shipwrights and chiefly by the invincible hearts of our Seamen When the prospect of these two Powers brings us to consider that any firm conjunction of them either by Confederacy or the Submission of Holland will prove the nearest approach that was ever made to our ruine and servitude It may perhaps import us in this calm we enjoy to hearken a little more than we have done of late to the storms that are now raising abroad and by the best Perspectives we
of which whenever they are Masters of the field they march in four or five days up into the very Isle of France To compass these two Interests either of defence or a war in Confederacy they would fain engage Sweden but will endanger this Aim by the fear of venturing their money before the Game begins They reckon themselves sure of Holland as far as their defence but know they will never be brought to begin a War with France And the old rancours between Spaniard and Dutch are not yet enough worn out of the dispositions of the People or the Governments to make room for such an absolute turn Their great hope is in England where their inclination carries them as well as their interest Besides they think our old as well as fresh quarrels with France and the jealousie of their present growth will temper us for their turn at one time or other so that their measures will ever be fair with us But no more towards preserving their Peace because they think our Interest as well as our Treaties will be enough to engage us so far without other motives Though to head a War against France wherein both Sweden and Holland would as they think follow our paces There is no advantage which the Crown of Spain could make us in Trade nor money they could spare from their own necessities in the share of the quarrel which they would not willingly furnish us and trust to the events of a War how uncertain soever THE State of Holland in point both of riches and strength is the most prodigious growth that has been seen in the world if we reckon it from their Peace with Spain before which time though their Forces were great both at Land and Sea yet they were kept down by too violent exercise And that Government could not be said to stand upon its own legs Leaning always on their Neighbours who were willing to support them against Spain and feared nothing from a State so narrow in compass of Land and so weak in Native Subjects That the strength of their Armies has ever been made up of forreign Troops But since that time What with the benefit of their Scituation and Orders of their Government The Conduct of their Ministers driving on steddy and publick Interests The Art Industry and Parsimony of their people All conspiring to derive almost the Trade of the whole World into their Circle while their Neighbours were taken up either in Civil or Forreign Wars They have grown so considerable in the World that for many years they have treated upon an equal Foot with all the great Princes of Europe and concluded no Negotiation without advantage And in the last War with Us and Munster were able at the same time to bring above a hundred men of War to Sea and maintain threescore and ten thousand men at Land Besides the Establishment or Conquests of their Companies in the East-Indies have in a manner erected another subordinate Commonwealth in those parts Where upon occasion they have armed five and forty men of War and thirty thousand Land-men by the modestest computations Yet the frame of this State as of most great Machines made for rest and not for motion is absolutely incapable of making any considerable enlargements or conquests upon their neighbours Which is evident to all that know their Constitutions But needs no other argument besides their want of Native Subjects to manage any such attempts What men they can spare being drawn so wholly into their trade and their East-Indies That they cannot so much as furnish a Colony for Surinam proportioned to the safety and plantation of that place And no Nation ever made and held a Conquest by Mercenary Arms. So that the wounds and fears they can give their neighbours consists in point of Trade In injuries or insolencies at Sea In falling with great weight into a ballance with other Princes In protecting their Rebels or Fugitives And in an arrogant way of treating with other Princes and States a quality natural to men bred in popular Governments and derived of late years from the great successes of theirs under the present Ministry It may be laid I believe for a Maxim That no wise State will ever begin a War unless it be upon designs of Conquests or necessity of Defence For all other Wars serve only to exhaust Forces and Treasure and end in untoward Peaces patcht up out of weakness or weariness of the parties Therefore the Hollanders unless invaded either at home or in Flanders which they esteem now the same case if it comes from France can have no interest to offer at a War But find their greatest in continuing their course of Traffique uninterrupted and enjoying the advantages which in that point their industry and address will gain them from all their Neighbours And for these ends they will endeavour to preserve the Peace now in being And bandy by Leagues and Negotiations against any from whom they shall fear a breach of it They will ever seek to preserve themselves by an Alliance with England against France and by that of France against England as they did formerly by both against Spain And they will fall into all Conjuctures which may serve to ballance in some measure the two lesser Crowns of Sweden and Denmark as well as the greater of France and Spain But because they believe that good Arms are as necessary to keep Peace as to make War They will always be Great in their preparations of that kind especially at Sea By which they may in all cases advance or secure their Trade And upon a War with France make up that way the weakness of their Land-Forces Which a long rust of Peace and a swarm of Officers preferred by the Magistrates in favour of their relations has brought to be very disproportioned in Force to what they are in Number They esteem themselves secure from Spain and their German Neighbours upon what has been said of the present condition of those Princes And from Us not so much upon our late Treaties with them as upon what they take to be the common Interest which they think a Nation can never run over and believe is the opposing any further progress of the French greatness Their only danger they apprehend is from France and that not immediately to themselves but to Flanders where any Flame would soon scorch them and consume them if not quenched in time But in regard of the weakness of Spain The slow motions of the Empire The different paces among the Princes of it And the distance of Sweden They esteem the Peace of Christendom to depend wholly upon His Majesty as well as the safety of Flanders in case of a War For they think France will be dared and never take wing while they see such a Naval Power as Ours and the Dutch hovering about all their Coasts And so many other Princes ready to fall in whenever His Majesty declares united by the same jealousies
Fathers themselves to believe what he teaches to follow what he advises and obey what he commands Thus the Father by a natural Right as well as Authority becomes a Governour in this little State and if his life be long and his generations many as well as those of his Children He grows the Governour or King of a Nation and is indeed a Pater patriae as the best Kings are and as all should be and as those which are not are yet content to be called Thus the peculiar compellation of the Kings in France is by the name of Sire which in their ancient language is nothing else but Father and denotes the Prince to be the Father of the Nation For a Nation properly signifies a great number of Families derived from the same Blood born in the same Countrey and living under the same Government and Civil Constitutions As Patria does the land of our Father and so the Dutch by expressions of deerness instead of our Countrey say our Father-land With such Nations we find in Scripture all the Lands of Judea and the adjacent Territories were planted of old With such the many several Provinces of Greece and Italy when they began first to appear upon the Records of Ancient Story or Tradition And with such was the main Land of Gaul inhabited in the time of Caesar and Germany in that of Tacitus Such were the many Branches of the old British Nation the Scepts among the Irish. And such the infinite variety and numbers of Nations in Africa and America upon the first discoveries distinguisht by their several names and living under their several Kings or Princes till they came to be swallowed up by greater Empires These seem to have been the natural and original Governments of the World springing from a tacite deference of many to the Authority of one single Person Under Him if the Father of the Family or Nation the elder of his Children comes to acquire a degree of Authority among the younger by the same means the Father did among them and to share with him in the consultation and conduct of their common affairs And this together with an opinion of Wisdom from experience may have brought in the Authority of the Elders so often mentioned among the Jews and in general of aged men not only in Sparta and Rome but all other places in some degree both civil and barbarous For the names of Lord Signior Seigneur Senor in the Italian French and Spanish Languages seem to have at first imported only elder men who thereby were grown into Authority among the several Governments and Nations which seated themselves in those Countreys upon the fall of the Roman Empire This perhaps brought in Vogue that which is called the Authority of the Ancients in matters of opinion though by a mistaken sense for I suppose Authority may be reasonably allowed to the opinions of ancient men in the present age but I know not why it should be so to those of men in general that lived in ages long since past nor why one age of the World should be wiser than another or if it be why it should not be rather the latter than the former as having the same advantage of the general experience of the World that an old man has of the more particular experiments of life THus a Family seems to become a little Kingdom and a Kingdom to be but a great Family Nor is it unlikely that this Paternal Jurisdiction in its successions and with the help of accidents may have branched out into the several heads of Government commonly received in the Schools For a Family Governed with order will fall naturally to the several Trades of Husbandry which are Tillage Gardening and Pasturage the product whereof was the original riches For the managing of these and their encrease and the assistance of one man who perhaps is to feed twenty it may be a hundred children since it is not easily told how far Generations may extend with the Arbitrary choice and numbers of women practised anciently in most Countries the use of servants comes to be necessary These are gained by victory and captives or by fugitives out of some worse governed Family where either they cannot or like not to live and so sell their liberty to be assured of what is necessary to life Or else by the debased nature of some of the Children who seem born to drudgery or who are content to encrease their pains that they may lessen their cares and upon such terms become servants to some of their brothers whom they most esteem or chuse soonest to live with The Family thus encreased is still under the Fathers common though not equal care that what is due to the servants by Contract or what is fit for them to enjoy may be provided as well as the portions of the Children And that whatever they acquire by their industry or ingenuity beyond what the Masters expect or exact from them by the conditions of their servitude should be as much their property as any divisions of Land or of Stock that are made to the Sons and the possession as secure unless forfeited by any demerit or offence against the customs of the Family which grow with time to be the orders of this little State Now the Father of a Family or Nation that uses his Servants like Children in point of Justice and Care and advises with his Children in what concerns the Commonweal and thereby is willingly followed and obeyed by them all Is what I suppose the Schools mean by a Monarch And he that by harshness of nature wilfulness of humour intemperance of passions and arbitrariness of commands uses his Children like Servants is what they mean by a Tyrant And whereas the first thought himself safe in the love and obedience of his Children the other knowing that he is feared and hated by them thinks he cannot be safe among his children but by putting arms into the hands of such of his Servants as he thinks most at his will which is the original of Guards For against a Forreign Enemy and for defence of evident Interest all that can bear Arms in a Nation are Soldiers Their Cause is common safety their Pay is Honour And when they have purchased these they return to their homes and former conditions of peaceable lives Such were all the Armies of Greece and of Rome in the first Ages of their States Such were their Gens d' ordonnance in France and the Trainbands in England but standing Troops and in constant pay are properly Servants armed who use the Lance and the Sword as other servants do the Sickle or the Bill at the command and will of those who entertain them And therefore Martial Law is of all other the most absolute and not like the Government of a Father but a Master And this brings in another sort of Power distinct from that already described which follows Authority and consists in the willing obedience of the
attendance of all private pretenders The great Estates of this Kingdom have been four or five years constantly spent in England Money instead of coming over hither for pay of the Army has since the War began been transmitted thither for pay of those Forces that were called from hence And lastly This War has had a more particular and mortal influence upon the Trade of this Countrey than upon any other of His Majesties Kingdoms For by the Act against Transportation of Cattel into England the Trade of this Countrey which run wholly thither before was turned very much into forreign parts but by this War the last is stopped and the other not being open'd there is in a manner no vent for any Commodity but of Wool This necessity has forced the Kingdom to go on still with their forreign Trade but that has been with such mighty losses by the great number of Dutch Privateers plying about the Coasts and the want of English Fregats to secure them that the stock of the Kingdom must be extreamly diminished Yet by the continuance of the same expence and luxury in point of living Money goes over into England to fetch what must supply it though little Commodities goes either there or abroad to make any considerable ballance By all which it must happen that with another years continuance of the War there will hardly be Money left in this Kingdom to turn the common Markets or pay any Rents or leave any circulation further than the receipts of the Customs and Quit-rents and the Pays of the Army which in both kinds must be the last that fail In such a conjuncture the crying up of any species of money will but encrease the want of it in general for while there goes not out commodity to ballance that which is brought in and no degree of gains by exportation will make amends for the venture what should money come in for unless it be to carry out other money as it did before and leave the stock that remains equal indeed in denomination but lower in the intrinsique value than it was before In short while this War lasts and our Seas are ill guarded all that can be done towards preserving the small remainder of Money in this Kingdom is First to introduce as far as can be a vein of Parsimony throughout the Countrey in all things that are not perfectly the native growths and manufactures Then by severity and steddiness of the Government as far as will be permitted to keep up in some credit the present peace and settlement And lastly To force men to a degree of industry by suffering none to hope that they shall be able to live by rapine or fraud For in some diseases of a Civil as well as a Natural body all that can be done is to fast and to rest to watch and to prevent accidents to trust to methods rather than medicines or remedies and with patience to expect till the humours being spent and the Crisis past way may be made for the natural returns of health and of strength This being premised as peculiar either to the Government in general or to the present conjuncture I shall proceed to such Observations as occur concerning the ways of advancing the common and standing Trade of this Kingdom The Trade of a Countrey arises from the native growths of the Soil or Seas the Manufactures the commodiousness of Ports and the store of Shipping which belong to it The improvement therefore of Trade in Ireland must be considered in the survey of all these Particulars the defects to which at present they are subject and the encreases they are capable of receiving either from the course of time the change of customs or the conduct and application of the Government The native Commodities or common easie Manufactures which make up the Exportation of this Kingdom and consequently furnish both the stock of forreign Commodities consumed in the Countrey and that likewise of current Money by which all Trade is turned are Wool Butter Beef Cattel Fish Iron and by the improvement of these either in the quantity the credit or the further Manufacture the Trade of Ireland seems chiefly to be advanced In this Survey one thing must be taken notice of as peculiar to this Countrey which is That as in the nature of its Government so in the very improvement of its Trade and Riches it ought to be considered not only in its own proper interest but likewise in its relation to England to which it is subordinate and upon whose weal in the main that of this Kingdom depends and therefore a regard must be had of those points wherein the Trade of Ireland comes to interfere with any main branches of the Trade of England in which cases the encouragement of such Trade ought to be either declined or moderated and so give way to the interest of Trade in England upon the health and vigor whereof the strength riches and glory of His Majesties Crowns seem chiefly to depend But on the other side some such branches of Trade ought not wholly to be supprest but rather so far admitted as may serve the general consumption of this Kingdom lest by too great an importation of Commodities though out of England it self the Money of this Kingdom happen to be drawn away in such a degree as not to leave a stock sufficient for turning the Trade at home the effect hereof would be general discontents among the People complaints or at least ill impressions of the Government which in a Countrey composed of three several Nations different to a great degree in Language Customs and Religion as well as Interests both of property and dependances may prove not only dangerous to this Kingdom but to England it self Since a sore in the leg may affect the whole body and in time grow as difficult a cure as if it were in the head especially where humours abound The Wool of Ireland seems not to be capable of any encrease nor to suffer under any defect the Countrey being generally full stockt with sheep cleared of Wolves the Soil little subject to other rotts than of hunger and all the considerable flocks being of English breed and the staple of Wool generally equal with that of Northampton or Leicestershire the improvement of this Commodity by Manufactures in this Kingdom would give so great a damp to the Trade of England of which Cloths Stuffs and Stockins make so mighty a part that it seems not fit to be encouraged here at least no further than to such a quantity of one or two Summer-stuffs Irish-freeze and Cloth from Six shillings to Fourteen as may supply in some measure the ordinary consumption of the Kingdom That which seems most necessary in this branch is the careful and severe execution of the Statutes provided to forbid the Exportation of Wool to any other parts but to England which is the more to be watched and feared since thereby the present Riches of this Kingdom
would be mightily encreased and great advantages might be made by the connivance of Governours whereas on the other side this would prove a most sensible decay if not destruction of Manufactures both here and in England it self Yarn is a Commodity very proper to this Countrey but made in no great quantities in any parts besides the North nor any where into Linnen to any great degree or of sorts fit for the better uses at home or exportion abroad though of all others this ought most to be encouraged and was therefore chiefly designed by the Earl of Strafford The Soil produces Flax kindly and well and fine too answerable to the care used in choice of seed and exercise of Husbandry and much Land is fit for it here which is not so for Corn. The Manufacture of it in gathering or beating is of little toyl or application and so the fitter for the Natives of the Countrey Besides no Women are apter to spin it well than the Irish who labouring little in any kind with their hands have their fingers more supple and soft than other Women of the poorer condition among us And this may certainly be advanced and improved into a great Manufacture of Linnen so as to beat down the Trade both of France and Holland and draw much of the Money which goes from England to those parts upon this occasion into the hands of His Majesties Subjects of Ireland without crossing any interest of Trade in England For besides what has been said of Flax and Spinning the Soil and Climate are proper for whitening both by the frequency of Brooks and also of Winds in the Countrey Much care was spent upon this design in an Act of Parliament past the last Session and something may have been advanced by it but the too great rigor imposed upon the sowing of certain quantities of Flax has caused and perhaps justly a general neglect in the execution and common guilt has made the penalties impracticable so as the main effect has been spoiled by too much diligence and the Child killed with kindness For the Money applyed by that Act to the encouragement of making fine Linnen and broad which I think is twenty pounds every year in each County though the institution was good yet it has not reached the end by encouraging any considerable application that way so that sometimes one share of that Money is paid to a single pretender at the Sizes or Sessions and sometimes a share is saved for want of any pretender at all This Trade may be advanced by some amendments to the last Act in another Session whereby the necessity of sowing Flax may be so limited as to be made easily practicable and so may be forced by the severity of levying the penalties Enacted And for the Money allotted in the Counties no person ought to carry the first second or third price without producing two pieces of Linnen of each sort whereas one only now is necessary And severe defences may be made against weaving any Linnen under a certain breadth such as may be of better use to the poorest People and in the coarsest Linnen than the narrow Irish Cloth and may bear some price abroad when ever more comes to be made than is consumed at home But after all these or such like provisions there are but two things which can make any extraordinary advance in this branch of Trade and those are First An encrease of People in the Countrey to such a degree as may make things necessary to life dear and thereby force general industry from each member of a Family Women as well as Men and in as many sorts as they can well turn to which among others may in time come to run the vein this way The second is a particular application in the Government And this must be made either by some Governour upon his own private account who has a great stock that he is content to turn that way and is invited by the gains or else by the honour of bringing to pass a Work of so much publick utility both to England and Ireland which circumstances I suppose concur'd both in the Earl of Strafford's design and when ever they meet again can have no better copy to follow in all particulars than that begun at the Naas in his time Or else by a considerable sum of Money being laid aside either out of His Majesties present Revenue or some future Subsidy to be granted for this occasion And this either to be imployed in setting up of some great Linnen Manufacture in some certain place and to be managed by some certain hands both for making all sorts of fine Clothes and of those for Sails too The benefit or loss of such a Trade accruing to the Government until it comes to take root in the Nation Or else if this seem too great an undertaking for the humour of our age then such a sum of money to lie ready in hands appointed by the Government for taking off at common moderate prices all such pieces of Cloth as shall be brought in by any persons at certain times to the chief Town of each County and all such pieces of Cloth as are fit for Sails to be carried into the stores of the Navy All that are fit for the use of the Army to be given the Soldiers as Clothes are in part of their Pay And all siner pieces to be sold and the money still applied to the encrease or constant supply of the main stock The effect hereof would be That people finding a certain Market for this Commodity and that of others so uncertain as it is in this Kingdom would turn so much of their industry this way as would serve to furnish a great part of that Money which is most absolutely necessary for payment of Taxes Rents or subsistence of Families Hide Tallow Butter Beef arise all from one sort of Cattel and are subject to the same general defects and capable of the same common improvements The three first are certain Commodities and yield the readiest Money of any that are turned in this Kingdom because they never fail of a price abroad Beef is a drug finding no constant vent abroad and therefore yielding no rate at home for the consumption of the Kingdom holds no proportion with the product that is usually made of Cattel in it so that in many parts at this time an Ox may be bought in the Countrey-Markets and the Hide and Tallow sold at the next Trading-Town for near as much as it cost The defects of these Commodities lie either in the age and feeding of the Cattel that are killed or in the Manufacture and making them up for exportation abroad Until the Transportation of Cattel into England was forbidden by the late Act of Parliament the quickest Trade of ready Money here was driven by the sale of young Bullocks which for four or five Summer-months of the year were carried over in very great numbers and this made all the