met with on that Subject which will at least lead towards an Answer if not satisfie your first Inquiry Know then that the English footing in Ireland did not Commence upon a publick but private undertaking For Mac-Murogh King of Leinster having been driven from his Kingdom gave his only Daughter in Marriage to Richard Strongbow Earl of Chepstow and Pembroke and with her his Kingdom after his Death on condition he should assist and restore him The Earl pursuant thereunto incouraged his Relations Fitz-Stephens and Fitz-Gerald to joyn in that undertaking who with near 400 brave Men put off from Milford and Landed near Wexford in Ireland in May Anno. 1170. They were soon followed by Legross with 130 more and in August following by Strongbow himself with 1200. Many of these Parties were Persons of good Quality great Valour and attended with wonderful success For notwithstanding the smart opposition made by the Natives Strongbow in a short time restored Mac-Murogh and inlarged his Dominions to such a Degree as rendred him suspected by Henry II. who by Prohibiting all Commerce with Ireland c. constrained the Earl to yield him all his Acquisitions in that Kingdom The King granted back to Strongbow the Principality of Leinster reserving all the Port-Towns and certain Tracts of Land about them to the Crown King Hen. himself some write with 4500 others that were amongst 'em say but with 500 Knights Landed in October 1172. near Waterford his Presence and Fame with the Terror and Success of Strongbow's Arms so intimidated the Natives in Leinster Munster and Conaught that Five of their Kings on Notice of his Arrival did him Homage and became his Tributaries The greatest part of his Charge was spent in Royal Entertainments and his time for the five Months he stayed there in endeavours so to settle matters as wholly in future to cut off from France the usual assistance afforded by the Irish when Attacqued by the Arms of England He had experimented the benefit the Crown received without Charge by Strongbow's private undertaking Therefore he wisely resolved by like Methods to make that part he had gained bear the charge of Conquering the whole To that end he distributed large Scopes of Land to the great Men that attended him As to Hugh Lacy the Kingdom of Meath finding 100 Knights for his Service for ever c. About four Years after the Irish yielded him or the King imposed a Tax of Twelve Pence on every House or Yoak of Oxen there which amounted to no small Summ in those days After the Death of Strongbow the King at Oxford made his Son John King of Ireland and as our own Writers tell us he divided the Lands of that Kingdom to his Subjects as well of England as Ireland to be held of him and his Son John he gave Miles Cogan and Robert Fitz-Stephens the Kingdom of Cork to whose Relief soon after Arrived there Richard Cogan with a Troop of Horse and a Company of Foot Anno. 1184. Philip de Breos as fore-runner of the young King went into Ireland with a small Party of Horse and Foot the next Year the young King followed with no Army yet Honourably attended and with some Treasure This young Counceller like Rechoboam's handled the Irish Princes that Congratulated his Arrival so roughly that they were provoked to Rebel Whereupon Eight Months after his Arrival he left that Kingdom in a much worse condition than he found it King Henry's Wars in France the unnatural Rebellion of his Sons and his other troubles permitted him not to relieve it yet to pursue his former Method he committed the Government of that Kingdom to the Renowned John de Courty and gave him a Grant of the whole Province of Vlster then unsubdued the Irish Princes thereof having not hitherto owned any subjection to England The Valiant Courcy with 3 or 400 of his friends and followers with the Forces then in Ireland not only reduced the Rebels in the other three Provinces to their former subjection but also brought Vlster under the English Yoak Richard I. was so taken up with his expedition to the Holy Land the perfidy of the French King and his unhappy detention by the Emperor That he concerned not himself with the Affairs of Ireland that I find further then that he Married Isabel the Sole Heiress of Strongbow to William Maxfield Earl-Marshal of England who was also in right of his Wife made Earl of Pembroke and P. of Leinster This Earl left Issue of that Marriage five Sons who succeeded each other to their Fathers Honours and Estate yet Died Issueless and five Daughters whose Fortunes in Ireland and Wales recommended them to the greatest Pears of England As Joyce the Eldest to Earl Warren who had with her the County of Wexford of whom came the Earls of March c. Matilda the second had the County of Catherlow and Married Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk Isabel the third Daughter had the County of Kilkenny and Married the Earl of Gloucester and Hereford Sybilla the fourth had the County of Kildare and Married William Ferrars Earl of Ferrars and Darby Eva the fifth Daughter had the Mannour of Dunmas now called the Queens County and Married the Lord Bruise of Gower whereby the Revenue of those five Counties became transmittable annually into England These Ladies Cambden tells us enriched their Husbands with Children Honour and Possessions King John having received 1000 Marks from Volois Lord Justice of Ireland to discharge him without account for the Revenue he had received of that Kingdom Soon after committed the Government thereof to Walter and Hugh Lacy who abused his Authority not only to the Oppression of the Irish but to the subversion of many of the best English Families also to that degree that our Writers say their Exactions Oppressions and Tyranny Murders might be added was intolerable yet King John instead of easing those Pressures if we believe Grafton and Fabian imposed Taxes on the People of Ireland towards his Wars with France much greater than they were able to bear So that by overstretching he crackt the strings of the Irish Harp whereon for sometime after was only heard the discordant sound of Revolt Rapin and War in every Corner To quell which the 25th of May 1210. The King himself landed near Waterford with an Army their number no where given us The Irish Kings and great Lords immediately appeased him by Submissions Homage and Tributes He granted the English Subjects in Ireland the benefit of Magna Charta and the Laws of England He setled twelve Counties appointed Courts Judges Circuits and Corporations as in England he granted vast Scopes of Land to his great English Lords in Knight Service for small Rents For 2500 Marks he restored Walter Lacy and for 4000 Marks Hugh Lacy and returned into England in August the same year In the year 1213 being threatned with an Invasion from France he received from Ireland 500 men at Arms well appointed and a great
number of other Horse who came to his assistance at Barkham Down Henry III. during his 56 years Reign was so fully employed by the French in the Bowels of England the Welsh and Scotch on his Borders and his great Lords at home That he neither assisted nor minded Ireland further than to draw powerful Assistances of men thence which he received against France Anno 1230 and 1254 and against Wales in 1245 in 1256 c. as he had done of Victuals in the beginning of his Reign having received thence 1000 Bacons two Ships load of Corn and one of Oats The Clergy of Ireland granted him a Subsidy and he received Aid thence towards paying a Debt to the Dauphin of France He made his eldest Son Edward Lord of Ireland The 17th of his Reign the King of Conaught exhibited a Complaint That although he had ever since King John subdued him duly paid his annual Tribute of 5000 Marks yet he was disturbed by John de Burgo Edward the First being in War with Scotland and the Irish generally in Rebellion the Scots invaded Ireland and committed all manner of Barbarities but were not only expelled but followed by the English of Ireland who severely revenged the Injury they had received and therein did acceptable Service to the Crown of England In Anno 1293. The King drew Succours from Ireland against the French as he did against the Scotch when Balliol the Chair and Marble were taken and the two latter brought thence Two years after another considerable Army from Ireland met the King near Edinburgh and tendred him considerable Service as did a third Army from thence at the Battle of Falkirk Soon after which Tho. Bissel with a party from Ireland invaded Scotland and possessed himself of the Isle of Arrain which the King gave to him and his Heirs as an acknowledgment of his good Service This King received the whole Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Revenues in Ireland for seven years and one Fifteenth of the Temporality towards the holy War Also Aid towards the Marriage of his Sister and several times pressed them for other Aids The Scots soon after they had given Edward II. that great defeat at Bonoksborne encouraged by that Kings Male-administration took the opportunity to revenge the Mischiefs they had received from Ireland in the former Reign Edward Bruce twice invaded Ireland and notwithstanding the opposition he met with over-ran and sacked a great part of it destroyed Men Women and Children Towns Churches and all that came in his way and excited the Irish to almost a general Rebellion while the Scots King made a like havock in all the North parts of England This Edward Bruce was Crowned King of Ireland but though his Rage was great his Reign was short it being but one year The Cruelties committed by the Scots were so many as caused even the Irish to abhor and abandon them who therefore joyned with the English who at last defeated Bruces's Army cut off his Head and as an acceptable Present sent it to King Edward In this War the Scots lost 30000 and the Irish-English 15000 fighting men besides others The whole Land was almost wasted impoverished and depopulated yet the King was so far from relieving or succouring it That he required and received thâ—nce the â—th Penny from all the Temporality towards defending England against the Scots In his 16th year he was attended at Curlee by the Earl of Louth with 6000 foot and 300 men at Arms and 1000 Hoblers all well appointed and by the Earl of Ulster with 300 men at Arms and in the 17th year of his Reign he was supplyed thence with 5000 Quarters of Corn sent him to Aquitain I do not find that there was any standing Army in pay in Ireland When Edward III. first ascended the Throne nor for several years after the whole charge of the Civil List then amounted but to 308 l. 2 s. for a year and it was because the chief Governor was a great Favorite that he had 500 l. per Annum for his Entertainment out of which he was to maintain twenty or thirty Horsemen In the 6th year of this Kings Reign the Lord Darcy with a potent Army from Ireland invaded Scotland So that as our Writers express it what by the King on the one side and by the Irish on the other Scotland was subdued and Baliole placed on the Throne And two years after the same Lord Darcy over-run part of Scotland and the Isles which he might have possessed had they been worth keeping Notwithstanding which this King the 15th year of his Reign recalled all the Royal Franchises and Liberties and resumed all the Lands and Signories that had been granted by him or his Father which put the English born there into almost as bad a Condition as the Natives and tended to unite them as fellow sufferers and laid the Foundation of innumerable Mischiefs Yet an Army went thence to help the King then in France and did him good Service and were with him at the Battle of Cressey as did another party from Ireland go to him to the Siege of Calais Anno 1347. In 1353. Sir Tho. Rokerby carried over into Ireland ten men at Arms and twenty Archers In 1361 the King made his third Son Lionel Duke of Clarence Lord Lieutenant he married Elizabeth de Burgo whose Fortune was 30000 Marks per Annum In her right he was Earl of Vlster Lord of Meath and Conaught Here I must dissent from a truly worthy learned and scrutinous Enquirer into the Affairs of that Kingdom who will not allow her Fortune to be above the Moiety of that Summ because that what thereof lyes in Vlster being seized into this Kings hands from the 5th to the 8th of his Reign by an odd account yielded but about 0900 l. But he neither considered the Frauds of Concealors and Collectors nor remembred the late devastations made by Bruce whereby not only all Vlster but a great part of Ireland was laid waste and unpeopled and the English by Dissentions in Arms against one another in those very years so that the instance affects not the Case for those Rents and Profits were of very great value and might have been a thousand times more in setled times notwithstanding there was received no more in those three years This Duke carried over with him 1500 men chiefly to recover his Wifes Inheritance yet he was so far from using them solely to that purpose That he only recovered part of Meath and of the Sea-Ports of Vlster for the Condition of the Kingdom requiring he employed them with good Success in Leinster and Munster therein as in many other Respects he preferred the publick good to his particular Advantage in acknowledging of which and other good Services the Clergy and Laity gave him two years full Profits of their Tythes and Lands William Winsor was sent Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and with him a party of men but their number being as I suppose but small is no
where given us He undertook for 11213 l. 6 s. 8 d. per Annum to bear the whole Charge of that Kingdom both Civil and Military During his Government he obtained 5000 l. of the Parliaments of that Kingdom towards maintenance of the Kings Wars which I presume was those with France Richard II. Anno 1384. committed the Government of Ireland to Robert Vere Earl of Oxford and Duke of Ireland during his Life with Power to receive the whole Revenue without Account and to keep an Army of 1000 Archers and 500 men at Arms for two years But I do not find that either he or his men went thither for the Kings Affections to him were such that he would not bear his absence Yet he continued Lord Lieutenant seven or eight years during which he constituted several Deputies and received most of the Profits of that Government to his own use The King being reproach'd abroad That he could neither rule England keep his part in France nor finish the Conquests of Ireland he resolved to retrieve his Reputation in respect of the last To that end he took Shipping in October 1394 and landed at Waterford with an Army of 34000 Men but to little purpose partly for that he suffered himself to be cheated as were his Predecessors by the feigned Submissions of most of the Irish Princes and great Lords who on his arrival humbled themselves Some of whom quitted all Title to their Estates in Leinster and conditioned with their Swords under the Kings Pay to carve out Estates for themselves in other parts of the Kingdom with which the King was constrained to be satisfied by reason of the Clamour and Importunity of the Clergy of England Whose constant hatred of Reformation and fear that the Enormities of their Lives and Corruption of their Doctrines should be exposed by the Wickl fits caused them to send the Bishops of York and London to hasten the Kings return The truth is they wanted the Royal Authority for persecution of the Innocent and suppression of the Truth To gratifie their Importunity the King returned at Shrovetide or Easter following having sufficient Power but not time to do any thing considerable At his departure he left Roger Mortimer Earl of March his Lord Lieutenant who in right of his Wife was Earl of Vlster Lord of Conaught Meath and Clare and next Heir to the Crown He was murdered there four years after It was customary until near this time for the Lord Chancellor to pay annually 2000 Marks into the Exchequer for the use of the great Seal which went a great way towards bearing the charge of that Kingdom in peaceable times But the Fees being much abated that branch of the Revenue did so too In Revenge of the Murder of the Earl of March King Richard went thither again in April 1398. with such an Army as with their Necessaries and Followers took up a Fleet of 300 Ships The Irish generally mollified him by their old Method of Submissions The obstinate he intended to have subdued But the Tidings that the Duke of Lancaster afterwards Hen. IV. was landed in England and claimed the Crown called him back so that he landed in England the 24th of June following and soon after for his Male-administration lost first his Crown and Liberty by Order of Parliament and then his Life by the hands of Villains The Clergy nor Parliaments of those times had not imbibed the Doctrine of Non-resistance or Passive Obedience or that the Crown could not be forfeited by Male-administration or that it could not for the good and Preservation of the Community be transferred or that any Legal Possessor of it might disseize the Subject of his Liberty or Franchises or take away and dispose their Estates at Pleasure You must know that from the time of King Hen. II. his Expedition into Ireland until this time Ireland was of the same use to the Crown that Tangier and the pretence of a War with France was to Charles II. Richard II. had often and now Hen. IV. began to desire Money from the Parliament of England for supply of Ireland and had a Subsidy granted for three years of 50 s. for every Sack of Wool Skins and Woolfels from every Denison and 4 l. from every Stranger Also one Tenth and one Fifteenth for support of his War with Scotland relief of Calais and Ireland but he found so much use for it in England that I do not find that one Penny of it went thither But on the other side being in War with Scotland the English of Ireland fought the Scots in his quarrel at Sea where many of the first were killed and drowned In 1405 They took three Scotch Ships and their Commander and twice in Favour of England invaded Scotland with good Success and the same year invaded Wales did much harm to the Welch and carried away good Booty This King made the Duke of Lancaster Lord Lieutenant of Ireland for seven years He went thither in 1401. and returned into England in 1403. his Entertainment or Salary was but 666 l. 13 s. 4 d. per Annum And it was because he was the Kings Son that it was so much So inconsiderable were the Armies that were kept up in Ireland that it was an honour placed on this Duke that he was permitted to have an Army of 1500 men in all Ireland though many of the Irish were in Rebellion and so frugally were the Affairs of that Kingdom managed that this Duke was limited to keep up that Army but for three years About Lammas 1408. The Duke Of Lancaster went into Ireland a second time and narrowly escaped being killed by some of the Rebels At his arrival there he compelled the Earl of Kildare to pay him 300 Marks for his Male-administration He had a Tallage granted him by the Parliament of Ireland and returned into England next March after his landing in Ireland Whoever looks into the Troubles of this Kings Reign will see that he could supply Ireland neither with Men nor Money Hen. V. was so fully taken up with his Conquests in France that he minded Ireland no further than to draw Supplies thence which he did Anno 1412. under the Earl of Ormond And in 1417 the Prior of Kilmainham with 1600 in Mail with Darts and Skeyns all tall nimble men arrived at the Camp before Rouen and joyfully accepted the most dangerous Post wherein they so acquitted themselves that our Writers tell us no men were more praised nor did more harm to their Enemies For by their Agility of Body and swiftness of Foot they did more mischief the Enemy than their barded Horses did hurt to the nimble Irish And in the seven years of his Reign the French Historians tell us that the Irish did over-run all the Isle of France did innumerable damages to the French and daily brought Victuals and Preys to the English Army which so terrified the French about Paris that they fled and left the Country desolate The Parliament of
Ireland granted this King 1700 Marks at several times towards the maintenance of his Wars The English in Ireland being wasted with the Supplies they had yielded to England against Scotland Wales and France and the frequent Rebellions there the Parliament there represented the ill Condition thereof in 1442 to Hen. VI. and that by reason thereof the Publick Revenue was 1456 l. per Annum less than the necessary Charge The Cardinal of Winchester the better to engross the King and that he might rule at Pleasure caused Richard Duke of York Earl of Vlster to be sent Lord Lieutenant thither to induce his Acceptance he gained the King to promise the Duke all the certain and casual Revenue of Ireland and 2666 l. 13 s. 4 d. for the first year to be paid out of of England and 2000 l. sterling per Annum for seven years more but this was ill paid However he had several Successes against the Rebels gained the Hearts of the English made good Laws and governed so worthily That out of Gratitude and Inclination to him he was assisted in his Pretentions to the Crown by Kildare and several great Parties out of Ireland as was the King by another Party thence under the Earl of Ormond in the 34th and 38th years A great Party thence was cut off and fell with him at the Battel of Wakefield as many from Ireland did on the other side at Mortimer's Cross these great Losses furnished the Natives with opportunities to enlarge their Borders and streighten the English About Anno 1474. the 14th of Edward IV. The Parliament of Ireland erected the Fraternity of St. George consisting of Thirteen Noblemen who were yearly to chuse of themselves a Captain of the Brotherhood who for his year was to command 120 Archers on Horseback at 6 d. per diem forty Horsemen at 5 d. per diem forty Pages at four Marks per annum to be paid out of a Subsidy of 12 d. per pound laid on all Merchandize Imported or Exported And these were all the standing Forces in pay at this time Six years after Richard Duke of York being Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Kildare his Deputy did undertake to keep that Kingdom in peace with eighty Archers and twenty Spear-men all on Horseback for 600 l. per annum The Infancy of Edward V. gave his unnatural Unkle the opportunity of Murthering him together with his Brother in the Tower whom he succeeded under the Title of Richard III. Anno 1483. but a period was put to his Tyranny Usurpation and Life in 1485. Henry VII held himself under no obligation to do much for Ireland because two walking Spectres thence Lambert and Warbeck disquieted a great part of his Reign yet in 1487. he sent over 500 Men under Sir Richard Edgcomb some write that he carried no Forces with him and about fifty more Anno 1492. The next year after the King by Act of Parliament there resumed all the Crown Lands that had been granted away since the first of Henry VI. In the Ninth year of his Reign he sent over Sir Edward Poyning his Deputy and with him 940 Men. He by his Policy rather than force did more Service to his Prince and good to the English there than any of his Predecessors by gaining that Parliament to Enact That all the Publick Statutes of England made before that time should be in force in Ireland That no Parliament be held there until the Bills be first certified to the King under the great Seal there and those Bills be affirmed by the King and his Council to be expedient for the Land and Power be given under the great Seal of England to call a Parliament and many other beneficial Statutes He gained the King a Tax of 26 s. 8 d. out of every 120 Acres Arable Land in Lieu of Purveyance and a Resumption of all Grants made since the first of Edward III. which in Anno 1409. was followed with a Subsidy of 12 d. per pound on Imported Commodities and a Subsidy from the Clergy and Laity and in Anno 1508 he had 13 s. 4 d. granted him out of every 120 Acres Arable Land In Anno 1515. The Parliament of Ireland granted Henry VIII a Subsidy In Anno 1520. The Earl of Surry was sent Lord Lieutenant with 200 Men some say 900 more but whatever the number was they all returned for England with him the next year The Souldiers pay at this time was 4 d. per diem In 1524. The Earl of Kildare undertook the Government and to defray the whole Charge of the Kingdom with its own Revenue which he and his Deputy held with little interruption for near ten years Anno 1529. Sir William Skeffington carried over 200 Men according to some 500. In 1534. he carried over 750 to suppress the Rebellion of the Fitz-Geralds as did the Lord Grey 200 more the next year who ended it upon which 750 of the Army was disbanded This Rebellion is said to cost the King above 20000 l. The Revenue of the Kingdom by reason of that Rebellion being but 5000 l. per annum To repay which or prevent the like charge in future The King had the first Fruits then the twentieth part of all Ecclesiastical Livings then the first Fruits of all Abbeys Priories and Colledges in that Kingdom given him Kildares Estate of 893 l. per annum and many great Estates of those concerned in that Rebellion were all given to the King as also all Lands belonging to all Abbeys Priories and Colledges there And the Estates of many Absentees Hitherto the Wars in Ireland was mostly between the English and Native Irish on the Score of Civil Interest But from the time of this Kings first Divorce and Kildares Rebellion the degenerate English joined with the Irish and pretended Religion for their subsequent Rebellions which thenceforth became more frequent and more formidable being fomented and abetted sometime by the Emperor sometime by France sometime by Spain mostly by the Pope especially from the time of the Kings assuming the Supremacy Henceforward they have been no longer Loyal than whilst they have been compelled to be so In 1539. Sir William Brereton carried over 250 Men. In 1542 the Parliament gave Henry VIII the Title of King of Ireland all his Predecessors having only had the Title of Lord thereof In Anno 1543. the Irish Revenue besides Customs first-Fruits Tributes and some other particulars amounted but to 8700 l. per annum and the whole charge to but 10500 l. The Chief Governour upon all Warlike Expedition by an antient usage in that Kingdom did Tax each County with a certain Summ of Money to defray the charge thereof So that it is not easie to apprehend that Ireland at this time could be a charge to England The standing Army was but 375 Horse and 150 Foot In 1544. 700 Men were sent from Ireland into France who greatly damnified the French and by pretty Stratagems contributed to the supply of the Army with
Laws made in England wherein Ireland is named bind Ireland c. Ireland is by these and several other ways in a manner Incorporated and become one Body with England In those Acts they note two things the ends of them and the reasons of them The ends of them are to keep the Plantations in a firm Dependance on England to appropriate the Trade to and from them to England And that England may be a staple for the Plantation Commodities They say all these Ends save in one little particular of small moment to England but of great Importance to Ireland are infallibly secured to England without these Acts of Restraint c. As to the first they say That the Merchants of Ireland are generally English or of English Extraction and having many Plantations in these Islands are part Proprietors that it cannot be imagined that their Trade and yearly sending many of his Majesties Subjects thither can weaken but rather firm their Dependance on England which confessedly in those Acts cannot be supplyed from or not without great Prejudice to England And which else must be supplyed with more Negroes to the Hazard if not Ruin and loss of those Plantations As to another End which is That England may supply those Plantations with all Asian African and European Commodities They say that Ireland hath not been accustomed to send any of these except those of the Growth or Manufacture of Ireland to the Plantations nor can they send any other if they had full Liberty For by the Act of Customs in Ireland all Wines Tobacco wrought Silks all Haberdashery Wares and all sorts of Grocery Wares imported into Ireland pay a great Custom and draw back no part of that Duty on Exportation The Law there denying the Merchant that Priviledge By which Clause England is secured that the Merchants of Ireland cannot supply the Plantations with any Wines Silks Haberdashery or Grocery And by another Clause in that Act the Merchants of Ireland are rendred uncapable to supply the Plantations or any other part of the World with any Commodities whatsoever which is once Imported into that Kingdom The Clause is this That all Forreign Commodities except Wines and Tobacco and those of the English Plantations imported into Ireland by a Denizon from any the Parts or Places beyond the Seas other than England or Wales shall for ever pay one third more in Subsidy over and above the Subsidy payable for the same according to the Book of Rates and every Stranger double c. It is to be noted That most Commodities but what Ireland constantly derives or are supplyed with from England are valued in the Irish book of Rates at a higher value than the same Commodities are valued in the book of Rates in England So that according to the intrinsick value of the Commodities all Forreign Goods pay almost 10 per Cent. Custom on Importation into Ireland except what they have from England Therefore say they he that reads the Acts for Customs and Excise in Ireland will imagine that the Parliament of Ireland was in the Conspiracy to ruin the Trade of that Kingdom For though it is known that these and other severe Clauses in those Acts were added in England when the Bills were sent into England for Approbation yet they were allowed and passed into Acts by the Parliament of Ireland So that upon the whole they conceive it clear as the light at Noon-day That England can furnish the Plantations and all the World with Asian African and European Commodities 6 if not 8 per Cent. cheaper than 't is possible for the Merchants of Ireland to do it which is a full security of that Trade to England As to the third End of those Acts in England that barr their Trade to the Plantations which is That England may be a Staple to all the World for the Plantation Commodities The Merchants of Ireland say this also is infallibly assured to England though Liberty should be allowed them to trade to the Plantations As to all the World Ireland only excepted Not only for some of the reasons given under the former head which take Place likewise here but also because although Plantation Commodities since the additional Duties were added pay a higher duty on Importation into England than they pay on Importation into Ireland Yet on Exportation out of Ireland they leave much more of the Duty behind than they do on Exportation from England To instance only in two of them Ginger on Importation into Ireland pays 12 d. per hundred weight Custom and on Exportation draws back no part of that duty Ginger exported out of England leaves behind Tobacco which is the most considerable of all the Plantation Commodities Imported into Ireland and again exported thence leaves in the Kings hands one penny per pound behind but exported out of Engand it leaves but a half penny behind which is the eighth or tenth part of the value of that Commodity So that England will certainly remain a Staple for these Commodities to all the World except Ireland notwithstanding full Liberty of Trade to the Plantations should be allowed the Merchants of Ireland For that the English Merchants can sell Tobacco 10 or 12 per Cent. at least and Ginger 〈…〉 per Cent. cheaper than the Merchants of Ireland and so likewise all other Plantation Commodities The second thing they note in those Acts that prohibite the Merchants of Ireland to trade to the Plantations but through England c. is the reason of them which forms the Equity of them viz. That the Plantations are Peopled with his Majesties Subjects of England and that England hath and doth daily suffer great Prejudice by transporting great numbers to those Plantations for the Peopling of them To this the Merchants of Ireland say That in Fact it is most certain that a full Moiety or near it of all the working Whites and many of the Proprietors in all the Caribbe Islands and at least three fourths of the Whites on Montserat are of the People of Ireland And that if those Plantations had not for many years been supplyed with People cherished and furnished with Victuals at low Rates from Ireland they had perished or not come to what they are For had they been necessitated to have paid English Rates for Food they could not have subsisted So that say they If Ireland hath not only in a great measure sustained them but also are part Proprietors and have in a great measure Peopled them and are daily sending People thither where they are needed then Ireland is within the Reason of those Acts and as they conceive ought not to be debarred Commerce with them at least for their own Products and Manufacture which is all that they desire Liberty for They say it seems to be a great Severity being they are of the People of England that they should be treated as Forreigners And were the Tables turned and their Brethren of England in Ireland the Legislators would
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
Provisions And in obedience to the Kings commands 3000 Men were sent from Ireland against Scotland In 1547. Edward VI. to secure that Kingdom upon the Reformation of Religion sent thither 600 Horse and 400 Foot under Sir Edward Belingham who with the Forces there subdued the Demseys Connors and Moores then in Rebellion whereby Offailie and Leixe were forfeited to the Crown This King being incumbred with Wars with France and Scotland and many Rebellions at Home did as Haywood tells us draw much people from Ireland to serve him in his Wars To replenish which in the fourth year of his Reign he sent thither 400 men and 8000 l. And the next year the English from Ireland Invaded the Isles of Scotland In 1556. Queen Mary committed the Government of that Kingdom to the Earl of Sussex who carried Sir Henry Sidney with him and 25000 l. in Cash by whose assistance he finished what Belingham had so Worthily begun in breaking the power of the Demseys Connors Moores c. whereby Leixe and Offailie were Vested in the Crown and English Plantations settled in those parts now called the King 's and Queen's Counties The Irish Parliament then gave the Queen a Subsidy of 13 s. 4 d. out of every Plough-Land for ten years which was a great addition to the Revenue In 1558. This Earl had 500 men out of England with whom and the Forces of that Kingdom he Invaded the Isles of Scotland took some and sacked several others of them the standing Army there in this Reign when most was less than 1700. and sometimes less than 1100. In 1560. which was two years after Q. Elizabeth's Accession to the Crown there was 500 Foot sent into Ireland to recruit the Army In 1565. The Army in the Queens pay was but 1200 Horse and Foot The Charge of the Civil List about 1500 l. per annum The Revenue of Ireland surmounted 10000 l. per annum besides large Summs frequently gained from the Irish Lords on their Submissions and Tribute imposed on them so that the Queens Charge could be but small considering that all the Freeholders on every occasion of Marching the Army against any Rebels were obliged to send certain numbers of Horse and Foot with Provisions to attend the Chief Governour or Commander in Chief of the Army This Parsimonious Queen to avoid Expence and the sending men for Ireland ordered that every Tenant there that paid her 40 l. per annum Rent should be obliged to find a Horseman and every one that paid 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. per annum a Footman Armed for her Service to be ready on all occasions About this time O Donnel submitted to the Queen and conditioned to pay 200 l. per annum and to attend her Army on all occasions with a number of Horse and Foot as did many others of the Irish who submitted on like conditions of Compositions and Assistance which not only augmented the Revenue and lessened the Charge of the Army but helped much towards paying for their Fetters This O Donnel five years after paid the Queen 1200 l. for Delinquency and Arrears of his Composition In 1565. The Valiant Captain Randolph Landed at Derry with a Troop of Horse and 700 Foot to settle a Plantation he did great Service although at last he lost his Life in the Improvement of a memorable Victory which he obtained against the Rebels In 1569. Captain Ward with 400 Souldiers were sent into Ireland he landed at Cork The Queens great Study was to inlarge and firm her Conquest in Ireland without Charge In order thereunto she attempted to tread in the steps of Henry II. and several of his Successors who gained most of their Interest in that Kingdom at the charge of a few of their Subjects with little charge to the Crown or Kingdom of England In order thereto the Queen in 1572. incouraged Sir Tho. Smith at his own Charge to settle an English Colony in the Ards. She granted every Footman 120 Acres and every Horseman 240 Acres which then was as much as 500 Acres in England paying her one penny per Acre per annum And the year following she Lent the Earl of Essex 10000 l. on a Mortgage and gave him half the Clandeboys on condition that he should Plant 200 Horse and 400 Foot each Horseman was to have 400 Acres and each Footman 200 Acres paying 2 d. per Acre Quit-Rent Where that Noble Lord did perform many brave Exploits and had done much better had he not been countermined by the enmity and opposition of several Great Men both here and there In 1576. An Antient Tax called the Cess of five Marks on each Plow-Land which had been discretionarily levyed by the Chief Governours there from Edward III's time to this under pretence of Prerogative had by this time been Arbitrarily stretched to eight or nine pounds a Plow-Land being now complain'd of as a publick grievance was reduced within its first Bounds Yet notwithstanding this and other Regulations the worthy Sir Henry Sidney who governed there augmented the Queen's Revenue 11000 l. per annum above what he found it Until this time according to the best of our Writers England gained and maintained its footing in Ireland with very inconsiderable Charge to the Publick But henceforward the Charge became much greater mostly occasioned by the Queens great Parsimony who always employed incompetent force for subduing the Rebellions that were raised whereby they were lengthened to trebble the time and charge that would else have served I know not whether it ought to be reckoned as expended for the Conquest of that Kingdom tho' that was the Issue of it because the greatest part of it was occasioned by the King of Spain The Queen to divert that King from attempting England employed and fought him in the Netherlands mostly at the cost of the Dutch and he to divert her from assisting the Dutch or Invading his Dominions fomented Rebellions in Ireland and assisted them with Men and some Money yet fought her mostly at the cost of the Irish In 1579. There was 600 Men sent out of Devonshire into Ireland yet they made up the Army there in the Queens pay but 1100 Horse and Foot But the Rebellion of Desmond and others and the Spaniards that joined them did require the augmentation of the Army To that end three Companies were sent from Berwick and 150 Horse under Capt. Norris And in 1580. Six Companies under Capt. Berkley and 150 Horse under C. Russel which in 1582. were followed with 400 under the Earl of Ormond These with the Militia of that Countrey killed Desmond destroyed his Confederates in that Rebellion expelled the Spaniards and restored such measure of Peace to the Kingdom that the publick Revenue of it for the year 1583. amounted to about 24000 l. and thenceforward it encreased mightily by the firm Settlement of Estates and Enlargement of Trade insomuch that in 1584. the Lord Deputy proposed to the Queen that if she would add but 50000
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
at Ten Thousand Pounds per Annum Charge for the Support of Ireland from the first Conquest thereof unto the time we are upon which no way appears probable yet if the Kingdom did Annually give Fifty or one Hundred Thousand Pounds by Trade and Rent of Lands which our great Men were Seized of in Ireland England was however a considerable Gainer by Ireland If upon the whole matter it doth not plainly appear that England hath been profited by Ireland yet I conceive it is evident that the Conquest of that Kingdom hath not cost England the Tenth part of what most imagine and that through this whole Tract of time the English there have readily powerfully and nobly assisted England against all its Enemies Here I will conclude my Answer to your first Enquiry in doing whereof I have Troden in an unbeaten Path which rendred it the more troublesome and difficult I have diligently searched and faithfully set down all the Forces and Treasure that I find mentioned in any of our or the Irish Writers to have been sent into Ireland from Anno. Dom. 1170. to the Year 1602. which concluded the entire Conquest of that Kingdom and the Life of the Famous Queen Elizabeth The Second Query is In what Instances if any doth it appear that Ireland is Beneficial or Necessary to the well-being of England HEre Because Generals prove little or are liable to Cavils I will for the clearer Illustration instance only in such particulars shall be undeniable I. Consider that England being an Island our outward strength for Defence against Invasion for offence of our Enemies and for security of our Trade lies in the numbers of our Ships and Seamen That Trade that employs also enables the encrease of these and is necessary to our well being That Money that we gain purely for our Ships let to Fraight to Merchants of other Countries is one of the clearest profits to the Kingdom and as advantagious to the Publick as any other not only in the forementioned respects but also for that we part with nothing in Lieu of this Money but the Labour of our Men and the Wear and Tear of our Ships yet hereby at the Charge of others we encrease and employ our Shipping breed and pay Seamen Thus the Netherlanders by being the Carriers of Christendom have in a great Measure raised themselves to their present opulence Now that I may make it evident that Ireland Contributes to our Strength Security the encrease of our Shipping and Seamen and that we are yearly considerable Gainers in other respects also by that Kingdom you must know that the People of Ireland have but few Ships of their own That at least two thirds of their Exportations and Importations are made in our Bottoms In the Year 1668. I was in that Kingdom and did see a Computation that was delivered in to the Council of Trade there by one of the Members thereof who made it out that tho' the Exportations of that Kingdom about that time amounted but to 450000 l. per Annum that yet most or all their Commodities being Gross or Bulkey they paid for Fraight to Ships of England for the Exportation of them and for Importing the Proceed thereof 130000 l. per Annum which seemed incredible to the other Members of that Society Yet being strictly examined it was found to be near 10000 l. short of what our Seamen received yearly thence But this Scale of Trade between this and that Kingdom having suffered a considerable alteration by our Folly in Prohibiting their Cattle and forcing them to carry several of their Commodities to Forreign Markets and thence to supply themselves with many things that till then they wholly derived from us whereby they have encreased their Forreign Trade and Shipping yet so as that there is not Ten Ships belonging to Dublin their Metropolis I will now present you with a small Scheme of the Trade between England and Ireland as it stood about 1685. before the less-considering scented the Game that was playing for 29 Years past for introducing Popery and Arbitrary Government and drew in their Stocks from Trade There was about that time and before constantly employed to and from Ireland and usually Fraighted by the Merchants of Ireland these Ships following which belong to England Ships belonging to London Plimouth Apsom or Exceter and Cornwal and the Ports between these 15 Ships belonging to Barnstable Biddiford Combe Minhead Bridgwater Bristol Forrest of Dean and the Ports between 70 Ships belonging to Swansey Milford all South and north-North-Wales 20 Ships belonging to Chester Dawpool Nesson and Mosson 30 Ships belonging to Liverpool-water 150 of which employed in the Trade of Ireland 110 All the Coast of Lancashire and Carlisle 5 Ships belonging to White-Haven and Workington 60 Â 310 That you may the better comprehend the benefit we Annually receive by this Article of the Irish Trade I will set before you how these Ships are usually employed in and by the Trade of Ireland and will set down but one Voyage in a Year for such as they send to America Spain and France tho' to the two latter they frequently make two Voyages in a Year 20 Sail employed yearly to America one with another of 60 Tuns besides the Ships Store at 5 l. per Tun out and home is 300 l. per Ship 6000 l. 20 Sail yearly to Spain of 60 Tuns at 3 l. per Tun out and home 180 per Ship 3600 20 Sail yearly to France of 60 Tuns at 2 l. per Tun out and home 120 l. per Ship 2400 Â 12000 l. 70 Sail of 50 Tuns each in the home Trade out and home Passengers these make 20 s. per Tun 50 l. per Voyage these frequently make 8 Voyages in a Year but I reckon but 6 that is 300 l. per Ship 21000 l. 180 Sail are yearly employed in the Coal-Trade between England and Ireland and that the Computation of this Article may be beyond contradiction I will keep to an Estimate given in to the King and Council in June last by the White-Haven and Workington Men viz. That they have 60 Ships continually employed in the Coal-Trade to Ireland from 70 to 150 Tuns but I reckon them at 80 Tuns one with another which for one Turn is 4800 Tuns and for Eight Turns in a Year is 38400 Tuns at 12 s. 6 d. per Tun is 24000 l. They Alledge that they pay Colliers Carters Porters Carpenters Rope-makers Smiths Seamen c. per Annum 7443 l. 1 8. And I allow they pay otherways 2556 18 4. Both which is 10000 l. which deducted from 24000 l. they receive 14000 l. per Annum Fraight for their 60 Sail and reckoning proportionally for 120 Sail more employed in the same Trade from other parts of England and Wales it makes 28000 l. and for the whole 42000 l. Sterling paid yearly by Ireland for Fraight of the Coals They take off besides 30000 l. for the before mentioned particulars Here you see we
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
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
of Indulgence suspended the Execution of those severe and unkind Laws with which Dissenters have been so long plagued and which have been so prejudicial to the Kingdom Yet they are not repealed but seem to be kept like Rods in pickle and the Instruments of our past Miseries and which procured them are many of them still in being longing endeavouring and daily threatning the Repeal of that Act of Indulgence and Suspension In such a State of things no man of sence that is tolerably setled abroad will be induced by a Liberty that 's so precarious to return home especially when he observes that if he do return and that he hath not stretched his Conscience larger than it was at his going abroad he must be content to be a Slave in one of the freest Kingdoms in the World incapacitated to serve God or his Country in any Office Civil or Military and like Issachars Ass be used only to bear a greater share of the publick burthen and charge and do a greater part of the publick drudgery than his Neighbours but must not be employed in any place either of Honour or Profit but be like the Silk-worm permitted to spin out his Bowels for others It is a scandal to our Nation and Religion and a thing abhorred by very many sober Christians That the receiving the Sacrament the most solemn Ordinance of our Religion in a mode never instituted by Christ nor practised by his Apostles should be made a qualification to the bearing of Office or Arms selling Ale or keeping a Victualing-house The great end of his Majesties glorious undertaking being to restore Liberty to every of the oppressed Protestants in these Kingdoms he seems in Interest as well as Inclination concerned to take off all these Incapacities from the Dissenters and legally to put them into as good or a better Condition than they were in under King James who arbitrarily compelled them to take Offices c. upon them seeing the most criminal and culpable part of the Kingdom have been pardoned indempnified and at least rendred capable of bearing Office c. There can no good reason be given why so great a part of the Nation that contribute so much to its Prosperity and Welfare and bear so great a part of the publick charge should stand exempted from the Priviledge of Subjects unless their greater Enmity to France their firm adherence to his Majesties Interest to that of the Kingdom and Protestant Religion bs made one and that our Divisions in favour of France ought to be perpetuated be made another Until those Clouds which intercept the benign Rays of Government from shining indifferently upon all Protestant Subjects are removed the King seems to be only King of a Part and not of the whole of his Subjects As it is the Interest of all the Princes of Europe to joyn against France so it is no less the Interest of all the Protestants of every Perswasion in this Kingdom to unite for their common defence against that Enemy of Mankind the French King For if he hath for so long a time withstood or kept the united force of almost all Europe at a Bay what are we to apprehend if any occurrent should dissolve the Confederacy and that he should have opportunity to attack us singly in the divided distracted Condition in which we are especially considering how great a Party he hath already amongst us But his Majesties Interest and Honour falling in so aptly with that of Europe the Safety and Prosperity of the Kingdom and the Advantage of our Landed men it will undoubtedly put him and them upon removing these Stones of stumbling and Rocks of Offence in a Parliamentary way and that the rather because had not this sort of People in the two last Reigns to the Irritation of the Court against them and the Ruin of many of them joyned with the sober part of the Church of England in electing such Members for Parliament as boldly asserted our Religion Liberties and Properties we had in all probability long before this been made Slaves to Popery and Arbitrary Government And had they not fallen in to do the like in this last Revolution in Electing Members for the late Convention or Parliament the Crown and Kingdom had in all likelihood been unsettled until this day Thus you see the sure way to advance the Rents of our Lands depends on the taking off all Restraints and giving due liberty to Manufacturers and alluring them Home in incouraging and improving those advantages which are in a manner peculiar to us in discourageing and clogging those Trades which draw away our Treasure In keeping a good Correspondence with those Kingdoms and Countreys whence we derive Materials for our Manufactures and those which take off our Natural Products Manufactures and Artificial Commodities All which are things worthy the consideration of the Great and Sage Council of the Kingdom the Parliament The Fifth Query How may the present Rebellion in Ireland and the Reduction thereof be improved to the future Security and Encrease of the Advantages which we receive by Ireland and of Their Majesties Revenue future Charge thereby to England be avoided and that Kingdom rendred useful towards bringing down the Power of France IT hath already been demonstrated That besides the Supplies of Men and Money which Ireland Antiently yielded us towards the Conquest of France Scotland and Wales That we did Annually before the present Rebellion utter considerable quantities of our Natural Products and Manufactures for which we had no other Markets into that Kingdom That we were furnished thence with several necessary Materials for our Manufactures and Commodities for Forreign Trade which we could not have elsewhere That some of their Ports are of great consideration to us the want of which our Merchants to their great loss have in this War experienced That besides the profit which we make by Ireland in the ordinary course of Trade we do receive thence yearly above 200000 l. All which Advantages had been much more had we not by prohibiting their Cattel and debarring their Trade to the Plantations interrupted the course of Commerce between the two Kingdoms compelled them to more Forreign Trade than they were otherways disposed to seek However you see that what remains is well worth the securing and improving and if we be not under Infatuation and still fond of our Errors the present Conjuncture of Affairs furnisheth us as with the opportunity to rectifie them so also to secure and improve them in order to which it will be necessary First That the Lives Liberties and Estates of the Protestants in that Kingdom be well secured Whilst these remain at uncertainties both publick and private Affairs will drive on but heavily It hath been the hard fate of the Protestants of Ireland as hath been said that the Papists have had such favour in and influence on our Council in England on the conclusion of every Rebellion that they have been left in a condition if
not wholly to extirpate yet at pleasure to annoy and ruin the Estates of the Protestants I wish Their Majesties Councils may be more happy It is indeed high time to grow wise dear bought Experience instructeth the weak much more the Wise Two very chargeable Rebellions having hapned within the memory of many yet living will if any thing instruct us what measures ought to be taken for preventing Rebellions for the future for it is not reasonable that every thirty or forty years England should be at the Charge of Reducing Ireland nor that the Protestants there should be exposed to the Mercy or Barbarity of those who think they Merit Heaven by cutting their Throats I am as much against Cruelty and Severity as any Man but to what end doth God give us Victory over his and our Enemies if we have not common wisdom to improve it for security from future danger by them As the safety of the People is the highest Law so is it a great Encouragement to Industry For who will lay out his care and pains for obtaining that which he hath no prospect of enjoying Until the Lives and Estates of the Protestants of Ireland be put into some good way of future security we can rationally expect neither advantage by them nor assistance from them The People of Ireland have been accurately computed to be about twelve hundred thousand Souls of which the Papists are one Million and the Protestants but two hundred thousand Women and Children included so that there being five Papists to one Protestant in that Kingdom the Protestants must therefore have many advantages put into their hands and the Papists be laid under several incapacities or else the Protestants can never be secured as 130 years sad experience hath verified And it must be considered that now the Irish are fallen in with the French Interest and lye under the influence of so Potent and Restless a Monarch they will for this Age be more dangerous and apt to Rebel than ever Therefore we ought to have as the more jealous Eye so also the stricter hand over them For which end their Landed Men having by their present Rebellion forfeited their Estates The whole forfeiture ought to be taken as well for reimbursing part of the Charges of their Reduction as the better to incapacitate them for new Rebellions This though it lessen not their number in general yet it will in great measure the Interest and Influence of this Party on the People They are seized of above 2800000 Acres of profitable Land whereof if 200000 Acres belong to Minors and Innocents there will remain 300000 Acres which may be lest to His Majesty to gratifie such Officers as have Merited in that Service 200000 Acres may be applyed to the Reprisal of the poor Protestant Farmers who have been plundered and ruined by both sides And 2100000 Acres to be sold to Adventurers at an encouraging price at six or seven years purchase near two Millions may be raised to reimburse the charge of the Reduction of that Kingdom to the ease of England and expediting of Their Majesties Affairs Some pretended Well-wishers to Their Majesties Interests but real Engines for K. J. and the French K. are at this time endeavouring to hinder the Attainder of the Rebels and the Selling of their Estates under pretence that the value of them is inconsiderable the Right of Innocents Minors Protestant Mortgagees and Creditors being preserved whereas in truth it is otherways For 1. As to Innocents that is such as have all the time of this Rebellion been in England they are very few upon inquiry I do not hear of three and those of no considerable Estates neither as for those who have continued in France that being an Enemies Countrey it seems but reasonable that they should be accounted Rebels and Agents for the rest 2. As to Minors they are few also I mean those under Age whose Parents were dead before the commencement of the present Rebellion As for the Children of those in Rebellion their Parents have ruined many thousands of Protestant Minors and Children in their Fortunes and if any Consideration ought to be had of them it seems Equitable that rather the Children of Rebels than of Loyal Subjects should be made the Sufferers 3. As to Mortgages and Incumbrances on the Papists Estates where they are between Papist and Papist it seems but Just that the Forfeiture should be taken for the Rebellion is general As for those between the Papists and Protestants they are not the sixtieth part of what is pretended though possibly many Mortgages and Incumbrances are now in forging c. but a course may easily be taken for their detection if it be not already thought on but allowing all that can reasonably be taken off upon the foregoing pretences there may demonstrably 1500000 l. be raised by those Forfeitures if they be rightly managed and their Majesties Revenue be augmented by the Quit-rent that may be reserved on those Forfeitures The Irish Lawyers for whom the People have great veneration have in all times by mischievous Constructions of the Laws disposed the Irish to Rebellions whilst they remain amongst them they will hinder the Settlement of that Kingdom therefore they ought also to be expelled It is likewise necessary that the Souldiers that have taken Arms for King James should also be transported to the Plantations or to Hungary or be Banished For they have lived so long by Rapine and Plunder that they can never be reduced to live regularly if they be permitted to continue in that Kingdom they will always disturb the tranquillity thereof If His Majesty would keep that Kingdom from Rebellion it is necessary that their Priests Fryars and Clergy of every sort be banished from amongst them They have been the chief Incendiaries to Rebellion in all Ages The Author of the Politicks of France suggests to that King the facility of distracting England at pleasure by setting the Popish Clergy upon fomenting Rebellions in Ireland And we must remember that that Prince seldom neglects any means so obviously serviceable to him And whatsoever may be suggested to His Majesty concerning the Innocency of the Secular Clergy yet it must be allowed that they are only less mischievous than the Regular because of less skill to do evil For according to their ability they have always disquieted that Kingdom They have the Conduct of the Consciences of that poor blind bigotted People and are under Oath blindly to obey not only the Pope but their Diocesans Had they no disposition to move Rebellions of themselves yet if they be commanded thereto as undoubtedly they will be they must and will readily obey For the Irish as all other ignorant People are Priest-ridden and their Priests make them believe that they shall be damned if they do not lay hold on every occasion to destroy the Hereticks and that they shall certainly merit Heaven if they do In Queen Elizabeth's time those that had not the
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
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.