it becomes obvious to every Eye that doth not wilfully close it self that the exportation of Wools from England and Ireland is of a dangerous and destructive Nature to the very being of the Trade of this Kingdom What ever Objections have been made thereunto with respect to the Graziers present advantage whose loss may possibly be supposed by prohibiting exportation to be about 20 s. in every Pack of Wooll that is so exported In answer whereunto I have this to say That though it may be granted it will be so for a time in this particular Commodity yet such will thereby be the spoyl of the General Trade of the Nation that what is gotten in one will be lost in every other Commodity as Corn Beefs and Muttons on each of which with the Wools the Graziers and Farmers advantage doth much more than equally depend besides the inevitable danger of the ruine of our Trade and so consequently the starving of our Poor without some extraordinary means for their support who while the priviledge of our Trade is kept inviolate with other Nations we have Money plentifully to expend for the advancement of the Farmers and the Graziers for that is that which chiefly advanceth the Farmer and the Grazier which is Flesh and Corn and not the quantity of Wooll as will afterwards more fully appear And it hath always been observed informer times hitherto that when the Clothiers have had the best Trade at London the Farmer did not lose his share in the advantage thereof in the Country according to the dispose of Providence Who hath ordered Nations but more especially the People of every Nation in matters of this kind to depend upon each other and so to rise and fall together as they are designed either to Mercy or to Judgment by the hand of God These things considered with a little deliberation it will manifestly appear that the exporting of our English-Wooll will not only prove the spoyl of our Merchants and Clothiers Trade and so consequently expose the Poor to desperate straits for subsistence but in short time must of necessity make the Country mens employment of every kind to come to little and so make them uncapable of paying Rent For if it be so that while we have a little Trade we can hardly live one by another What may be expected if our Trade should be taken away Which is now in more danger by the French than it hath been this 300 years past And then we may consider what the price of Wooll may be in England when we by our remisness have lost our Trade by the skill and circumventing practices of Foreiners and we helping forwards for a supposed profit For there was not more art and skill in our Ancestors to bring home the work at first to the Wooll and prohibiting the exportation thereof and setling the manufacturing in England than is now to export the Materials manufactured The necessary consequence thereof will be to bring the Price of Wooll as it was 300 years agon when most was exported to be 6 d. a Pound as appears in a little Piece called The Golden Fleece written by W.S. Gent. in the Year 56. Although the Cloth then made in Flanders of our Wooll at 6 d. per Pound was sold here in England at 10 s. per Yard when at this day Cloth made in England of Wooll at 12 d. per Pound will hardly yield 7 s. per Yard which is above 30 per Cent. worse to the English Trade now than it was to the Flemmings formerly And though for the present the price of Wooll be risen by its exportation yet if the quantity lately exported being no less than 20 Thousand Packs had been kept in England the quantity if not Ten thousand Packs more would in time have been exported in the particular manufactures For if the Woolls was not exported to those places beyond the Seas there to be manufactured they must of necessity have our Woollen manufacture and then could not have those advantages as before hinted by our Wools to improve the French Wooll and short Spanish Wooll and their fine-spun Linnens By all which it is so obvious that in time to come the Wooll in England would be much cheaper because by the aforesaid means less Wooll would be used in England and besides that which would be used the manufacture would be so low that it could not bear up any price as is begun already in France and will suddenly follow here in England for it is generally reported that Wooll is as cheap in France at this Day as it is in some parts where it is used in England And if it be so now what in reason can be expected as the effects of these two things viz. The first when the great quantity that is lately exported to France with those three Additions before hinted that the Twenty thousand Packs helps to work out and especially most making Worsted Stuffs which goes as far by that means as forty Thousand Packs of Wooll would if used in England because it would be made more into substantial Cloaths which consums more Wool than those light and thin Stuffs do which is a sufficient Answer to that Objection that the great quantity of any Commodity that is exported makes a scarcity and so consequently raise its price the which I must confess if it was a consumptive Commodity but it is quite contrary in this For as our experience is when the Wooll was all used in England or very little exported the Wooll was then at 18 d. per Pound and when all or the greatest part was exported it was at 6 d. per Pound The wise Man saith What is hath been and what hath been may be again and so no new thing I shall make a short Review of the Graziers and Farmers present loss In the greatest Commodity which pays his Rent as was formerly hinted Suppose through want of Trade Mutton be sold at 6 d. per Quarter the less which is but little being 2 s. per Sheep and there being some Sheep that 100. will produce a Pack of Wool though some less that comes to 10 l. which is the worth of the Pack of Wooll and so proportionably as to the Beefs which is wholly lost to the Grazier And for the Corn as I suppose there may be about 50 ls worth as far as I can judge in my Travels to One Hundred Sheep throughout the Nation which for want of a Trade it may not at some seasons come to Thirty or Forty at most and if a good Trade it may be worth Sixty or Seventy by which means it may easily be demonstrated how the Farmers come to be impoverished For the advantage of the Tenant consists in the advance of the greatest Commodity that payes his Rent which is not in Wooll but in Corn Mutton and Beefs and it is a necessary consequence That there being so many thousand Families depending upon the Cloathing Trade as was before hinted that was
The great Loss and Damage to ENGLAND by the Transportation of WOOLL to Forreign Parts THere is no King nor Prince in the World known by experience or upon Record that hath such means to support their Splendour and Greatness as his Majesty of Great Britain nor has any Country on Nation such variety of Staple-Commodities within it self and in such abundance as hath the Kingdom of England So that if those Advantages were duly improved England might be a general Mart for the whole World and then by consequence be the Glory thereof That those Advantages are not improved is too too obvious to all that look into it By the fore Complaints that are frequently made of the great Poverty and decay thereof And indeed which is worst of all by that general desperation of Spirit which will not put forth a hand to help support or prevent the Total desolation of our Country upon a prepossest Opinion that all Endeavours will be rendred Fruitless and Abortive The Consideration whereof hath greatly prompted me who must confess my self the meanest of thousands more concerned to use the utmost of my little skill and unwearied diligence though but as the Woman's Mite to the right management of so great an Undertaking that the threatned Ruine of all may be prevented and if possible some good part of that which is Lost may be recovered I shall confine my self to those things only whereof I have had not only credible Information but a considerable though a sad experimental knowledge and in a more particular and especial manner that of the Manufacture of Wooll in England which amongst Many is the Richest Treasure in his Majesties Dominions the flower strength and sinews of this Nation a Band uniting the People into Societies for their own Utility It is the Milk and Honey to the Grazier and Country Farmer the Gold and Spices of the East and West Indies to the Merchant and Citizens the continued supply of Bread to the Poor and in a word the Exchequer of Wealth and Staple of Protection to the whole both abroad and at home and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance defence and encouragement for the most advantageous Improvements thereof The Wool of England before it was manufactured within it self was always of great account and esteem abroad sufficiently testified unto by the great amity which it begat and for many hundred years unviolably maintained between the Kings of England and Dukes of Burgundy only from the great benefit that from that Commodity did accrew to that People insomuch that the English Wools they received at 6 d. per Pound they returned again through their Industrious Manufacture thereof in Cloath at 10 s. per Yard to the great inriching of that State both in the advancement of the Revenues of their Soveraign and in a full employment thereby continued among the People whereby the Merchants of this Nation were occasioned as a People unwilling to be wholly dispriviledged of so great a benefit to transport themselves with their Families in great numbers into Flanders from whence they held a constant Commerce with most parts of the World This continued without Intermission between England and Burgundy until King Edward the 3 d. made his mighty Conquest over France and Scotland and as a sutable improvement of so great a mercy did wisely project and also accomplish the manufacture of Wools within the Bowels of this Kingdom to the great inriching of his own People and also to the peopling of his new Conquered Dominions The memory of whose wisdome and care for his People is worthy to be had in Remembrance by English Men unto the Worlds end The said King having thus setled the manufacture of Wools within the Kingdome of England confined it by a penal State which at first reached not only to Goods Chattels and Lands but also to Members and Life it self but in a short time repealed the two latter thereof continuing the other in its full force to remain to future Generations Which exceeding great advantage to the propriety of the English Trade hath now continued this Three Hundred years by the vigilancy of the Kingdoms Monarchs and the protection of its Laws in the continued careful execution thereof upon Offenders with more than a little diligence to provide against the thirsting desires of Foreiners to wrest this Nations Priviledge of so great a moment out of English hands which by the providence of God through the care of our Ancestors has been for many Ages enjoyed by the Nation as it is indeed its proper right But so it is that for some years past the diligence of Foreiners to enrich themselves upon us has so much exceeded our care to preserve our selves that it 's now come to if not beyond a question Who have the greatest benefit of the manufacture of English Wools They who have no Right unto it or They to whom of Right it doth belong That this is indeed so will appear by considering that not only Holland Flanders and Zealand have long sucked the sweetness of the Sinews of our Trade but France is likewise learning to be too hard for us as is manifest by the great quantities of Wools that of late years have been Transported from England and Ireland thither How injurious it must be to us is also unquestionable if we consider the consequence thereof which was without question much in the eye of our Ancestors as appears by what is above hinted in Edward the 3ds time and in several Kings Reigns since Every Pack of Wooll sent to France doth prevent us not only of the benefit of the manufacture thereof but of two Packs more besides it self viz. Thus It being Combing and Combed Wooll for the most part exported thither The French having no Wools of their own but such as are very coarse are not able to make Cloth or fine Stuffs without the conjunction of ours therewithal there being none to my best information in all the World fit for that purpose but ours only except in North Holland and that a small quantity of fine Worsted Wooll all other being likewise coarse but Spanish Wooll and that much too fine especially for worsted Stuffs and not in any wise fit for Combing so that without English or Irish Wools there can be no quantity of fine worsted Stuffs nor a middle sort of Cloth made in the whole World Neither will any Wools be all mixt together but English and Spanish for Cloth only because the Spanish is with the English of one nature being formerly English Sheep though now much finer for the alteration of the Climate and the nature of the Land whereon it is fed as by good Experience appeareth here in England both near and at a further distance Wherefore the Exportation of English Wools into France must of necessity be greatly prejudicial to this Nation not only in the quantity sent over but also in the advantage which is thereby given to them to manufacture
a double portion of their Wooll which formerly was little worth into such commodities as spoils us of the advantages of our proper Trades not only thither but also into other parts viz. in these three Respects First The Combed of the English Wooll makes Wooff for the Warps of the French Wooll or rather of the Turkey Sheep and so takes up it may be as much as the quantity above specified to every Pack of English Wooll without which they can only with their Wooll make Ruggs and at the best Cloth for Sea-men and the like 2dly Their Combings or Pinnions viz. the short Wooll that 's combed out of the Worsted serves for their Linnen warp to make some of their Druggets because their Linnen being sine spun and coloured is not discernable to all persons to be that we call Linsie-Wolsie 3dly The finest short English Wooll is mixed with the lowest of Spanish Wooll called short Wooll for some of their best Druggets that is wove upon worsted Chanies and also for a middle sort of Broad-cloth about 10 s. or 12 s. per Yard This is the cause I judge that short Spanish Wooll is so scarce here in England Now if we consider these things together the dammage of exporting of one Pack from England to France at about 10 l. or 12 l. Sterling preventing the manufacturing of two Packs more in England which would be worth 100 l. Englands loss in the whole by the exportation of one Pack of Wooll can be little less than 60 l. It being generally combing Wool as before binted that is exported to France which makes Worsted Stuffs and Stockins and besides the advantage given them as above asserted by one Pack of rough Wooll it 's obvious to all Manufacturers that a Pack of Worsted or Cumbed Wooll worth 20 l. at 12 score to the Pack which is 20 d. per Pound and to make it more easie to every ordinary capacity that in Stockins to speak within compass A Pound of fine Wooll would make at least two pair of Hose worth 5 s. a pair that is 10 s. per Pound of Wooll or reckon thus to ordinary Hose three pair to a Pound of Wooll at 3 s. 4 d. per pair come to the same sum and 12 score Pound of Wooll making a Pack so many pence for the Pound of Wooll so many Pounds for the Pack and a Pack of Wooll making 480 pair of Hose which 12 score Angels being cast up is 123 l. without any respect given to the advantage given them in rough Wooll as before asserted This an instance for all moreover In it's first exportation considering the Custome when it is imported the product of all these Charges augmenting the 100 l. when sold there laid out in another Commodity beyond Sea the Custom thereof being paid there with Frait and Custom when imported in England it 's much if it do not more than double the first principal Now if so be that the exportation of one Pack of English Wool exported at 10 l. or 12 l. be neer 200 l. dammage to the King and Kingdom in general by the consequence What will be the loss of exporting 10. or 15 Thousand Packs into France besides many to other parts in two years time is easily accounted by such as are concerned in these Affairs and although this Evil is almost incredible to many yet it is too manifest to such as have made it something their business to enquire into it and not only so but these further Inconveniencies must by this means arise upon us First The spoyling of our Trade with France in all our Wollen manufacture as doth already appear by the Impost put upon the same there from 20 to 40 per cent since the great quantity of our Wools is exported thither whereunto woful experience may be a sufficient witness And secondly In time it will capacitate the French as well as the Dutch if not much better to under-sell our English Merchants in Forreign Parts nay possibly in our own Country To this I shall only mention the words of a Merchant in Flanders by Letters to another here treating of this matter thus We English have our Throats cut with our own Weapons wondering at the stupidity of the English here that they should omit to possess the King's Majesty with this deplorable and dangerous Case in respect to the present and future Inconveniences thereof By reason whereof as in time the French will not only prevent our English manufactures to be sold in France but also bring theirs into England and sell them for four times the value here to the great Inriching of themselves and the Impoverishing the English only by new fantastick Fopperies for which the English pay not less than some Hundred Thousands in a Year to get themselves into the French Mode So much indeed have we been deceived in this matter to our shame as well as to our apparent loss that whereas in time of the Late War with the Dutch and French those French Druggets were thereby much prevented many English Striped broad Cloths rent through into three parts about 10 s. per yard price being put into the form of French Druggets were sold in each part at 8 s. per yard and so in the whole came to 1 l. 4 s. per yard So likewise it is certainly true that many of those Druggets made in England do go for French and in order thereunto directed to French Men in some of our Southern parts from thence been conveighed into London and there sold for French Goods to have coloured the business with the Custom-house Officers to save the Custom of French Druggets And this might have continued long before the Cheat had been discovered but being once found out by the Clothier who could not to his own private advantage conceal such an apparent injury to his Country it was soon prevented This I had an Experimental knowledg of for the merchant bespoke the same Goods of me When I understood his end I did refuse to make the said Druggets that he desired me to make whereby we may come to see with clearness the advantage that that people makes upon our English fancies by over-selling us in the same kind of Commodities that they make out of our English Wools joyned as before-minded with their own having also an advantage thereunto by the cheapness of the Manufactors thereof beyond what we can do the French being very populous and living harder than we can in England as is evident by their Linnens that paying Frait and Custom with profit to the Merchant yet can be afforded cheaper than can be made in England But so it is that the advantage we give them besides in the mixtures of our Wools with theirs is such that whereas their Wool of it self is not worth 4 l. per Pack being mixed with ours becomes so fit for Worsted Stuffs as that it comes to be worth no less than 12 l. per Pack So that all these things considered
hand if the City should be forced to keep so many thousands when all their work is done as is now in the Building it would be a great burden so the case is in England in this particular where great Trade have been formerly kept and drawn several Families thither and have raised Commodities there but when it fails it is a miserable state and condition those places are in To return in short there is such Connextion and Dependancy one upon another in England that if one fail all the rest more or less either more near or remotely are concerned as in the natural body when any Member fails the whole suffers thereby and as all Trades and Degrees of men may suffer by one failing in Trades and in none more probably I will say then this of Wooll as Merchant Articificers Farmers Sea-men Fisher-men being the people which by their study and labour do principaly if not only bring in or give occasion to the bringing in of Wealth to the Nation and other kind of people viz. Nobility Gentry Lawyers Physicians Schollars of all sorts Shop-keepers are they that receive from these and distribute it again and all are consequently concerned in this rich Treasure of Wooll because this being a Manufacture at home sets more hands at work than half the Nation May I not with modesty and within Compass say three parts of Laborious and Industrious People Considering that most of the Shipping is imployed in this Affair and also so many Trades that depend immediately upon this of Cloathing that most of other Trades are but for Provision either in Food or Conveniencies for Cloathing and so from his Majesty to the meanest all are more or less concerned The King mostly not only in that his People are by that most imployed and provided for nor in that such a Staple Trade the like whereunto the World hath not maintained with so good Advantage but because so great a Revenue comes directly into him upon the Trade occasioned thereby Thus as the King gains or suffers most so the persons that have the greatest Estates or Trades and so all proportionable to the Beggar And also considering that an accustomary thing begets such an habit that is hard to reduce as in our rough and undrest Cloath to Holland so it will be with all our Manufactures in France nay I am informed that the French hath not only imposed a great Tax upon our Woollen Manufactures from twenty to fourty per cent but have also as is affirmed besides that their Imposition absolutely prohibited our Cloaths coming there I am the more large in the Demonstration of this affair not only because this hath cost me many years labour and study to consult all sorts of concerned persons besides mine own experience about it nor because it is so hard to convince people of the meanest capacity but some of the wiser sort how to cure this dismal malady which some despairing of have rather thoughts of setting up some other Manufacture in Lieu of endeavours to prevent the exportation of Wooll and Manufacturing of that at home looking thereon as a thing not to be overcome as that of Linnens in some capable parts of England and a better improvement in the product of Forreign Plantations which may also be set upon together herewith as an Addition so as several sorts of Persons maybe set better on work not capable of this employment and yet no prejudice to this of Cloathing For all other Countries have the Advantage of England or are equal to us in other Manufactures proper to their Countries but not in this of Cloathing and it will be found that all Trades in England wholly distinct from this of Cloathing bring not the tythe of Advantage that this doth Since men cannot rationally believe the effects to be greater than the cause the most of other Manufactures either is in being or brought to use by the Manufactures of Wooll even from the Farmer to the Merchant all are concerned in this of Wooll as may hereafter more appear It now remains that we sum up Englands Loss by the Exportation of our Wooll to Forreign Parts not only in the Advantage we might have by the Manufacturing thereof here in England as formerly noted but also in the importing of Dutch Cloath and more in French Manufactures because England improves not their own Wools and of the humour of English people in putting such a value upon French Fancies when themselves are in a better capacity if improved to produce the like or better and save the following Sums 1. One Million of Pounds Sterling yearly in the Exportation of our Wooll 2. Five Hundred Thousand Pounds in Rough Cloath which is but half what Sir Walter Rawleigh observes in his time 3. Many Thousands of Pounds by the Importing of Dutch and French Woollen Manufacturies And lastly the evil consequences thereof in loosing our Shipping which would be encouraged thereby and are the strength or Walls of our Kingdom as more particularly doth appear hereafter Having now discovered the Dammage it is to England in the transportation of Wooll from the King to the meanest I shall endeavour also to discover the methods how it is done before I shall prescribe a Remedy for it is not enough to know Distempers especially such that are so Consumptive it is requisite to know the Cause of these Distempers or else the supposed Remedies will in time come to be a disease as it is too much in this case at this day in England Where the Causes are mistaken the Remedies are consequently misapplyed whereby a disease in supposition becomes one in Fact the methods or ways of this evils are First in Rumny-Marsh in Kent where the greatest part of rough Wooll is exported from England put aboard French Shallops by night ten or twenty men well Armed to guard it some other parts there are as in Sussex Hampshire and Essex the same methods may be used but not so conveniently The same for Combed Wooll from Canterbury they will carry it ten or fifteen miles at Night towards the Sea with the like Guard as before but for other parts it must be done partly by the Remisness of the Officers of his Majesties Customs and easie Composition for the Forfeitures of the Bonds as more shall appear anon And then for Combed Wooll in other Parts some is Shipped off from London for Bales of Drapery nay some at Lime and also at Exon where there is ten thousand Pounds Sterling weekly laid out in the woollen Manufactury which is most for Workmens Wages I know no place clear and then another reason why persons are not detected is because all the Wools that have been taken in those Parts where most hath been exported have been suffered to go off at the same place after Judgments past and by the Officers to the same Persons at a low rate being under rated to those very men that intended to Ship it at first so that the evil is never like
to be avoyded that way only that which is taken happily may be a little the dearer to keep the Trade going for I have enquired and cannot understand but of two parcels of Wooll that have been seased on in Kent that have been used in England but all sent away and so his Majesties providence is cheated who keeps Servants at great Wages to prevent such abuses And then another Cheat is under a pretence of Wooll from Hampton to the Islands of Jersey and Gernsey and sometimes from other Parts which is against the Law for there is no Wooll to be exported to those Islands but only from Hampton and that by Law should be by weight but now it goes by gross by the Pack when it should be weighed but I believe not one Pack in Ten is weighed for three Packs is put into one Then from Ireland which is the greatest mischief of all to England and much increased since the Act was in force against Cattel the Irish Wooll can be sold as cheap in France Holland and Flanders as it is in those Places where Wooll is used in England which is a great augumentation to us of prejudice for Foreiners to have our Wooll so cheap as we in England having other Conveniencies to underwork us as formerly hinted The ways there must be by the carelesness of the Officers in not taking solvant security and exactness in the weight of Wooll and true examination of the returns of their Certificates and partly by easie Compositions if not before Bonds are forfeited and happily much Combed Wooll there packt up as before as Bales of Cloath or Barrels of Beef and Shiped as Irish Cloath and in all points so cunningly carried as they are seldom discovered and never Sealed as the Statutes in that case made and provided do strictly require Here see what W. S. faith Now to shew you more particularly these abuses how the Laws are crossed and daily obstructed to such as endeavour to serve their Country by such as ought to encourage the Persecutors sure there will be very many practises of evil consequents discovered for first in the Custom-House where Bonds are taken to the intent that these prohibited Commodities pass not by means of Mariners out of the Nation but only from Port to Port for accomodation of such Parts as want such Commodities they are very Remise and careless in taking of the Sea-mens discharge of their Obligatory Conditions where also it is usual with the Sea-men to bring fraudulent Certificates and so to cheat the Kings Providence who keeps Servants at great wages purposely to prevent such abuses or if there be a regular return of their Bonds yet there is commonly a fraudulency in giving them for the Masters of Ships will so continue their designe as he who is Master at giving the Bonds and is legally bound shall immediately pass his Interest to another man who taking charge of the Vessel and Voyage is notwithstanding not engaged in the Poart Bond and therefore neither is he accountable for breach of their condition Again when the Port-Bonds are justly taken and as justly returned yet to prevent the true and real detection of the Offender and to dishearten the legal Prosecutor some Friends of the Offender will clap an Information against him purposely to hinder and divert others and soon after will let the Prosecution fall at his pleasure nay it hath been said and peradventure not unjustly that such preventing Informations have been antidated to the over-throw of the real Information but when all is granted and a full and formal hearing and decree passed to the just condemnation of the Offender Yet when judgments and inquiries are granted and do without Errours of the Clarks which is not always impower the Sheriffs and their Baliffs to see Execution thereof made it is familiar with those Officers to return a Non est inventus or a Mortuus est viz. Not to be found or dead even then when the Offenders and the Officers have been known to have been drinking together at that very time when the Writ should have been executed After all this one step farther will shew how Charity it self abaseth Justice for let all the former Proceedings be granted and be candid and clear and that the Law be indeed justly and legally executed the Offender in custody and nothing remaining but that he honestly discharge himself with money seeing Bail will not be admitted nevertheless upon a lamentable Petition and urging a great charge of Children to the Bench the Offender is usually admitted to compound for Ten in the Hundred or less when by his offence he hath gained a Hundred for Ten or more and peradventure hath undone a hundred Families or more in so doing Yet all this while the honest Prosecutor the only man that appears for the good of his Country who ought by the Law to have the full benefit and advantage of the Law gratis it being enough that he spend his time for the promotion of the publick Wealth after it hath cost him several great sums of money and large expence of time to bring the Offender to Tryal and Conviction is dismissed with little or no satisfaction unless he be rewarded with the brand of an Informing Knave Surely they who made these Laws for the benefit of themselves and their own Country did intend a more current and just passage towards them than thus to be obstructed and baffeled Such abuses as these made Theodosius say as it is Recorded that a wise man did himself Injustice by hazarding his Wisdome and Estate for the benefit of his Nation And therefore some have not spared to urge that Customs and Impost and Toles and Taxes might be taken away from honest laborious hazardous Trades and Adventurers and be put upon litigious Suits at Law and such as make benefit of their corrupt breath that is to say upon such Lawyers as abuse their Clyants and such malicious Clyants as abuse the name of a just innocent Defendent Nor is the Loss in these by their Transportation all the injury but when honest men well affected to the good of their Country do detect these Caterpellars of the Common-wealth who make so vast gain as hath been denoted upon the materials so carefully prohibited when they do endeavour by due course of Law to make stoppage thereof and to have the Offender's punished so many are the evasions such combinations and interest in the Officers who ought to punish the Offenders such favour have they in Courts of Justice and deceptions in the Return of Writs and in general such affronts and discouragements as the dearest Lover of his Country or most intrusted in Trade dares not attempt to prevent that mischief which his eyes behold to fall upon his Nation or which his own person feels to pick his Pocket Thus far Mr. W. Smith not to mention the very same things above asserted that I have met withall From hence it s to be lamented to see what the consequence of those things are I did think to have propounded some things for Remedy but time not permitting must beg the Readers excuse only this by the way that if there was never such effectual ways propounded yet if those wayes and means was never made use of it is but beating the Aire For the Life of the Law lies in the practick part For if there was more care in this business when less Law then hath been since more are extant the Fault then cannot be for want of Law but only the want of Faithfulness in impartiality in the Execution of those Laws And this in short is the principal Cause of the continuance of this evil practice of Transportation of Wooll and was very engenuously confest to me by some of the Transporters of Wooll within this few Dayes in these very words viz. That if we had been prosecuted at first according to Law we should not have acted the second time For if the Transportors did but rightly consider the danger they are in they would desist for I dare say although some may escape for a time you may be met withal first or last and then are exposed to ruine