they must There are many Commons in England that have many hundred of such Families living on them in this the Commons in England are fruitfull for they send forth yearly many thousand idle wandring beggers which have not done a daies work to the benefit of the Common-wealth in their lives for indeed if they have not attained to the use of labour in their youth they seldome ever betake themselves to it when of riper years The remedies will be in taking away the occasion and in putting oportunities of being rich into their hand whereby they may be incouraged to labour but if neither of these will do then the means must be constraint The first and greatest remedy will be the suppressing of many thousand Alehouses in England and that by apportioning a certain number to each County a small number will serve unlesse on Roads and Market Townes not to be exceeded upon a great penalty to be on the Justices of Peace for every Alehouse licensed above the number appointed to that County all Alehouses to be licensed at a Quarter Sessions and not otherwise and there to be registred that so they may be sure to keep within the number and let there be Certificate sent to the chiefe Officer in every Parish of the number and the names of all such that shall be licensed in the said Parish If any sell without such license or lesse then measure in any Parish after notice given to the chiefe Officer he neglecting to afflict the punishment which shall be appointed for such offenders shall have a penalty laid on him the one half to go to the informer the other to the poor of the same Parish And let the informer have the third penny of all fines that shall be set on Alefellers Tiplers or Gamesters A second remedy will be inclosing of Commons that so there be no room left for idlenesse and that those now Cottagers may have such a competent measure of land laid to their Cottages that may invite their children to labor A third remedy is the erecting of workhouses and setting up such a manufactory that may invite to labours not by force but where you meet with resolute idle persons such constrain to the mill or some other hard labour then he that will not work let him not eat mans nature is more easily drawn then driven I have often seen in and about London Porters take up such burthens for the rewards sake that would have broke a good horses back and poor men that carry sacks of coals from the water side that make their knees to buckle and their backs to bend and these voluntarily taken up for the pays sake is done with much willingnesse but if halfe that weight should have been forced on them by authority they would have fallen down under it crying out upon oppression and cruelty as not possible to be undergone therefore my advice is that such works be found out and such wages given that may invite them to a willing indeavour If in these workhouses they earne but half their livelihood it will be a great saving to the Common-wealth as I have already showne in Section the ninth And I believe if they were but for some time unwonted of their idle course they would then be quickly ashamed of it and as well find out imployment themselves as the poor in the Netherlands or any other place do The severall wayes of imployment were too long here to insist on and should I come to particulars fitter for a debate then a pen yet there must be a large latitude still left to the wisdome of those that shall be intrusted in the ordering of this affaire For respect herein must be had to each commodity of an English producture and that what of that is transported doe not procure an over-balance and so that be said of us on this account what was said on another by a great master in humane affaires to wit that England is a great Animal and not to be destroyed but by it selfe Prov. 27. 23 24 25. Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds Thy hay appeareth and the tender grasse sheweth it self and herbs of the mountains are gathered The lambs are for thy cloathing and the goats are the price of thy field And thou shalt have goats milk enough for thy food for the food of thy houshold and for maintenance of thy maidens FINIS
that God hath given but one ralent of ability unto in this way of improvement wrap it not up in a Napkin but exercise your parts and be at some little cost in setting poor labourers on work to enclose by ditching and setting Quick let there be but care taken to make choice of such kinds of sets your ground is most apt for as also to plant it at fit seasons of the year and trust God with the blessing For there 's no ground in England but with good Husbandry will bear some kind of wood or other except it be some land neer the Sea-side The benefit that will come to many hereby will be seen quickly to hasten the encrease of all Husbandry Manufactory Trade the greatest Merchandise Therefore my desire to all my Country-men is that you would not content your selves to hear or see these improvements afar off but labour to bring it home with your owne hands and your enjoyments shall be very great Petition those that are in Authority that they would Commission such that may with wisdome and all indifference draw out the lines so to make the Divident that there may be no complaining but all might rejoyce to see the poor made rich and the rich yet more rich How pleasurable and how profitable would it be to see one part of the Commons converted to Corn another part to Meadowing another to Pasture and another part to dainty Groves and pleasant Woods and to see the man that lived very poor and his many children wandering from door to door begging their bread now all of them employed some plowing some planting some milking Cows of their own and joyfully eating the fruit of their own labour SECT VIII Which treateth of Forests and Chases A Sixth sort of Commons are those of Forests and Chases Of these I need say but little all mens eyes are on them and every mans judgement can reach to say that Enclosures here would be of singular advantage to the Commonwealth If you would have asked the Country-man that lived neer those Forests and had right of Common therein when his honest and painful labour had raised his hopes to a crop of good Corn but thirty yeers ago whether he would have been willing to have the Forest enclosed He would have said Yea with all his heart If you had asked him whether it would have been good for the Commonwealth in general he would then have said Yes sure and would have given you many reasons for it one reason would have been We now lie under Forest-laws which are made chiefly for the preserving of Deer which is very prejudicial not only to us here living in particular but to the Commonwealth in general As for our own Enclosures we cannot make the best advantage of them we dare not for if we do what with Hunting and the Deers feeding we have most of our Corn spoiled and if five hundred Deer lie in our Corn all night and we kill any one of them it is a hanging matter And if we keep but a dog especially with claws to hunt them out upon any displeasure taken by an under Ranger we should presently be complained of and our punishment would be greater then the loss of all our corn Another reason would be that in many Forests sheep are no Commonable cattel and surely this is a great prejudice to the Commonwealth for Wool is one of the greatest riches in England and had we that benefit of keeping sheep then our servants which we are necessitated to keep all the yeer for Summers work and our children would have a full employment in the Winter by Carding and Spinning and Knitting then we should not onely make Cloth for our own families which now we buy but for others also and it would be a good means to advance our Clothing for forraign Trade and many hands would thereby be employed And were the Forests and Chases enclosed by the wise ordering of them there would be a great advantage to the Commonwealth for then there may be care taken that the Forest of Dean so famous for Ship-timber not to be parallel'd might again flourish with goodly trees which to waste comes not far short of Treason and that goodly Forest of Waltham so apt for Wood and Grass and lying so convenient to a Navigable River may abound with Cattel and gallant Timber And that Upland and now-Bushie Chase of Enfield will then be loaded with Corn and Sheep And do not those rich grounds in Needwood-Forest or Chase and that large Forest of Sherwood with many more of the like or better nature all offer themselves with abundance of fruitfulness to this Nation were they enclosed Surely the great increase of Riches to this Nation cannot but be foreseen by wise men if those fruitful grounds now lying in Common and much of it waste and unoccupied were once enclosed insomuch that those good Commonwealths-men that have their eyes upon it will say and do believe that were the Commons enclosed there would be sufficient for a third part of people more then are now in England I do not go so high Others think were they enclosed they would maintain an eighth part more My thoughts are not so lowe But many there are which do believe of which I am one that were they enclosed there would be plenty for a fifth part more and employment for many hundred thousand labouring hands more then are now in England which this Nation so apt for Procreation is now necessitated to part with for want of employment and to other Plantations they go where the Air is no whit agreeable to their constitutions and so they quickly return to their dust which for many yeers till these Commons were fully peopled by enclosing would be in a very great measure prevented and we should here at home enjoy the benefit of their endeavours with us which would greatly enrich and strengthen us for thereby if need should be there would in few yeers be added to our gallant Souldiery an Auxiliary of twenty thousand men able and ready to oppose any forraign Enemy either by Sea or Land I might have added many more Reasons for an encouragement to the enclosing of Commons and answered some toyish Objections with which I am not willing to swell up this Book for that it would make it more tedious to the judicious Reader If that which hath been said do but point out the great good to the Commonwealth which at first I laid down in my three general grounds I shall therein rejoyce when others and those many hundred thousands shall receive the benefit thereof I cannot see wherein it should be doubted of other then of a very great increase of all necessary Commodities which our Nation doth naturally afford if those many fruitful Commons were enclosed for then we should have such variety of soyls that we might very plentifully be furnished with those Commodities which come from other Countries and we now are many times necessitated
thousand Alehouses weekly is fifty thousand pounds which yearly amounteth to twenty six hundred thousand pounds Here note I reckon not as it is sold at two pence the flaggon for then it would come to neere three times this sum nor yet the many hands that are unnecessarily imployed about this work as the Husbandman the Maltster the Brewer the Victualler or Ale-seller all which would find out better imployment for the good of the Common-wealth if it were no other then to sit spinning or knitting of Nets for fishing but if they all sate down idlely and had no imployment yet then it would be lesse hurtfull to the Common-wealth then so imployed as to maintaine drunkennesse and beggery I think it needlesse here to speak of those that I have observed to come to beggery by frequenting of Ale-houses if it should reach to hundreds what would that be to the many thousand in England that fall to beggery yearly by this great evill Should I begin with Gentlemen of very good Families who make it their only businesse to sit piping and potting all the day nay all the week the yeer nay their life and when their estate will not bear the Tavern or Inns in Townes yet they may be found in some smoakie blind Ale-house if it be no more then a Cott of turfe set against a tree on some Common And how often is it seen that they take their children yea their eldest son along with them and think it well to be the best in the company though it be but with Raddle-men Tinkers and Grate-carriers making them also hereby to spend their time and neglect their markets and so this Gentleman by mis-spending his estate brings his family his it may be carefull wife and many children to utter beggery There are very few but by their own observation may more fully demonstrate the misery that such poor soules have been brought unto and who can think of it without grief to see so many good parts thus drown'd in an Ale-house And who doth not see the Country-Husbandman in whose labour consists the welfare of a Commonwealth spend more time in these pestilent Ale-houses then he doth on the plough and oft times runs so far on the score that he runs himself out of all and then he his wife and children must beg Do but look on the Tradesmen if many of them do not spend more time in the Ale-house then in their shops and if a Customer come to speak with him his carefull wife many times must hunt from Ale-house to Ale-house for her husband and many times finds him speechlesse and when he should bee carefully tending that which should keep him he is carelesly at the Ale-house spending and so hastens to beggery himself and whole family Look also on the poor Labourer that indeed labors to bring his wife and children to beggery whether Carpenter Mason or such like who oftentimes on a Munday-morning going to work are caught in an Ale-house which are placed in the way as it were on purpose which like Spiders webs do catch daily many of these silly creatures who oftentimes run more on the score before they come thence then they get all the rest of the week with their labour and if they misse this web the beginning of the week yet at the later end when they have got a little money they seldome escape but there sit drinking themselves pennilesse witlesse and their wives and children bloudlesse for indeed it is very often seen that they lie languishing at home expecting some refreshing on the Saturday night when he like a ravenous creature lieth sucking their blood at the Ale-house I may instance in many more but surely it 's enough to mind all men of what daily experience speaks viz. that the multitude of Ale-houses is the greatest occasion of the multitude of beggers in England I cannot imagine a greater wast in the Common-wealth then these Ale-houses are an occasion of Should I tell you of thirty thousand bushells of Barley daily in England thrown upon the dunghill it would not be such a wast for that would fat the earth again Should I tell you of an hundred and twenty thousand dozen of bread fetcht by a company of wicked lewd men from severall Bakers shops purposely to starve the poor of this Nation and throw one dozen in one street and another in another and so strew all the streets of England till all were thrown away and this done day by day throughout the yeer surely you would cry out on the Magistrates and say they were not worthy to live that suffer such wast as to the starving of so many thousands yet this bad is not so bad as the great waste occasioned by the multitude of Ale-houses for this bread so thrown away will find some hogs or dogs to gather it up which at the worst would be a preserving of some creature usefull but the other serves for nothing but to make men worse then dogs or hogs that drink the fruit of many mens labour and wallow in their own dung Nay let me say that if lewd wicked men should take thirty thousand bushells of wheat and throw so much daily into severall rivers in England it would not be so destructive to the well-being of this Nation as is the multitude of Ale-houses that are in this Land at this day for in the first wast there would be a saving of a great labour that goeth to the fitting of it for use which the other takes up before it coms to the drunkard for it must have the Maltster the Market the Mill besides many hedges must be torn by the Ale-seller to brew withall to the hurt of many mens Corn which many times is more then all the Malt is worth which the wretched Ale-man never careth for And what coms of the one half of the drink that is thus spent but to be excremented against the wall and so run down the channell never do more good till it come to the Sea and when drunkards drink five dozen in a day to the losse of the Commonwealth the spending of time and the wasting of his brain and spirits and then comes abroad vomiting and casting forth some at one corner of a street some at another at last the dirty wretch tumbles himself with the rest in the dirty channells yet there is no complaining against the Magistrate the saddest complaint of all for the custome in this hath made it genuine to us so that our wast is insensible though this will if well considered bee far greater then any of the other here spoken of The other great occasion of our wandring idle begger is our Commons for there poor men that happily themselves are honest labourers yet their children are brought up to idlenesse having nothing to doe but to tear hedges or some other the like pilfering imployment and when the father dieth who during life did get them bread they are altogether unfit for work and then beg
Chaces that are now to be sold both quantity quality and value in each division of Forrest and Chace and let the account be brought to those that shall be appointed for the sale thereof Secondly then let it be considered how many ships are fit to be built and charged yearly for thirty or forty years more or lesse and if the number of five six or seven more or lesse are yearly to be built the certain number being known then let the Commissioners of the Navy or some other send unto those which shall be appointed for sale the severall qualities usefull for shipping whether Oak Ash Beech Elme Chesnut or other wood and quantity of each quality proportioning of each quality so many load as in the whole all sorts shall amount unto the full number of loads which yearly must be expended on those ships so ascertained to be furnished out of the Forests and Chaces Then let those that shall be imployed for sale make the apportionment and fix it on each Forest and Chace so much yearly for so many years as shall be appointed for the same and thus apportion'd let the purchaser of those lands give good security by his lands to serve in so many loads yearly of good sound serviceable timber at such Wharf or Wharfs as shall be first agreed upon to be most convenient for the building of the foresaid ships if the State shall think fit this may be a kind of a rent charged on the land for ever If what hath been said be approved of these benefits will ensue as 1. The Navy will be constantly supplied for so many years as shall be agreed on without any farther charge to the State 2. Secondly the purchaser will be incouraged and necessitated to preserve his young timber at least so so much as may inable him to serve the proportion that shall be set upon him by way of Rent 3. The Purchaser will be farther incouraged so to order his land that some may be for Corn some for Pasture and some for Wood. These last Proposalls I thought good here humbly to present not that I like them best but lest the other should be disliked For surely in these weighty businesses the safest way is the best way AN APPENDIX SHEWING The chiefe cause of wandring poor in England and the remedies therof THe two great Nurseries of Idlenesse and Beggery c. in the Nation are Ale-houses and Commons The truth of the first is seen by most and the hurtfull wast that is to the Common-wealth thereby is such that it amounteth to more yearly then any Assessement for one year within these ten years last past and yet the moderate use of the creature whether respect be had to necessity or delight not to be brought into this accompt If there were an exact accompt of all that sell Ale or Beer in England there would be found an hundred thousand And that you may have some little to direct you take here what hath been done in and about London for the knowledge thereof in the yeare 1646. There were then some honest men in each Parish within the Precincts of the Militia of Westminster did bring in the number of all the houses that sold Ale or Beer in each Parish and by conference with some of the ablest to judge in the Tower Hamblets Southwark and the City of London it was judged that there were not then lesse then six thousand within the weekly Bills of Mortality since that we have little cause to believe their decrease And in my observation upon conference with knowing men of most Counties of England whose eyes have been upon this great evill it may be believed that there are not lesse than two hundred thousand in England But lest there should be any mistake in the greater number I will make use of the lesse which is one hundred thousand to measure our wast or losse by And that this may be more than probable viz. that there is no lesse than one hundred thousand houses in which Ale and Beer is sold within this Nation I thus compute it The Cities in England are twenty and six The Market Townes in England are six hundred and forty The Parishes in England besides what are in Cities and Market Townes are eight thousand at least The Cities say I have in them one with another five hundred in all thirteen thousand The Market Townes I judge to have in them one with another seventy five in all forty seven thousand The Parishes one with another have five in all forty thousand so then if this accompt be allowed the totall will be one hundred thousand Having this small measure to judge by which I believe is as small as any measure they sell their Ale by comparatively let it be either the streight laced flaggon or the narrow bottom'd pot the best of them is but the one half it should be and I believe this is the like but however the wise will easily judge of the greater by this lesse I believe there is no man that looks on the many houses that sell Ale or Beer but will say there are too many by the one half and that what is spent in such houses is too much by three parts of four nay many will say by nine parts in ten in this I agree but I will take the thoughts of them that judge the least and so take but the one halfe of what is spent in these hundred thousand Alehouses to be a wast and allow the other halfe to go for what is of necessity conveniency and lawfull delight for it cannot be denied but the calling of it self is both lawfull and necessary And our Innes on great roads in England are not only very usefull but their entertainment such that they are an honor to our Nation and therefore they and such Alehouses as are conveniently placed for the refreshing of the poor Traveller ought to have all due incouragement My endeavour here is only to shew the abuse occasioned by the multitude of unnecessary Alehouses which if considered will be found a great wast indeed I will take the least to number by and be it granted that there are but an hundred thousand houses that sell Ale and Beer besides Tavernes another wast which if considered would be found to be a very great impediment to common good but with them at this time I will not meddle and what is spent in them the one halfe shall be looked upon as wast which every drunkard in a sober fit will allow Now then grant but this that each Alehouse one with another doth sell but two barrells weekly in this I take the least and that each barrell hath three bushells of Barley Malt and each bushell worth three shillings and four pence and this be the charge before it come to be sold for two pence the flaggon then there is spent in each Alehouse weekly twenty shillings of which the wast is ten shillings so the wast in the hundred