Selected quad for the lemma: hand_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
hand_n	acquire_v	employ_v	great_a	30	3	2.0809	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41175	A just and modest vindication of the Scots design, for the having established a colony at Darien with a brief display, how much it is their interest, to apply themselves to trade, and particularly to that which is foreign.	Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.; Hodges, James.	1699 (1699)	Wing F742; ESTC R21931	134,853	248

to be given that the general Rental of England did not in the year 1600 exceed Six Millions per annum but that thro' the help of that Wealth which had flowed into the Kingdom by Foreign Trade it had risen before the commencement of the late War to Fourteen Millions Yearly So none will have the Effrontery to gainsay but that the Rental of England was the year 1600 greatly encreased beyond what it had been about half a Century before Which the more it is seriously weighed and duly pondred by the Nobility and Gentry of Scotland it will not only both Justifie their Wisdom in procuring an Act of Parliament for Trading to Africa and the Indies and in their having joyned so freely and contributed so Liberally for the forming a Stock and raising a Treasure that may be sufficient as well to Uphold and Promote as to Begin it but it may also animate their Zeal and raise their Courage for the Maintaining and Protecting of it But to shut up this particular it is to be ascribed to the neglect of Trade and their falling below their Neighbours in Riches and Treasure which is the Natural effect of that Omission that Scotland is not only so weak as it is in a Naval Strength notwithstanding the variety goodness and conveniency of its Ports for the Ocean and Mediterranean as well as for the Narrow Seas and the Baltick but that the Nation doth make so mean and inconsiderable a Figure in Europe and that the Scots Nobility and Gentry who for their Natural and acquired accomplishments do equal most of any Country that are of their Rank and Quality and who for Bravour are Universally acknowledged to Come behind few or none are nevertheless so little Valued and Caressed by Princes and in Courts by whom and where persons are chiefly esteemed according to their weight in the balance of an Exchequer and in proportion to their Rental and Capital But the Kingdom of Scotland being at last willing and desirous to redeem it self from the Opprobry and Reproach unto which it hath so long stood exposed among its Neighbours for the having either thro' Supineness or Pride neglected the promoting and pursuing Manufacture and Trade and being now Embarked in an Undertaking that will relieve that Nation against and rescue it from the Inconveniencies and Damages which have ensued upon and accompanied their Omission of Commerce it may not be here improper to represent in a few words the several advantages that Scotland is possessed of and doth enjoy in equality with most Countries and above divers for its being qualified and enabled to succeed and prosper in this Design For the main and great things that are Antecedently needfull and pre-required in order to a peoples engaging in Manufacture at home and Commerce abroad being large Numbers of Men and Women and a Soil producing variety and plenty of usefull Commodities and convenient Ports for the Exportation of their own Commodities and the Importation of such goods from Foreign parts as they shall have either occasion to consume amongst themselves or which by carrying them forth again they can dispose of and vend else where there are few Nations in Europe that are better furnished and accommodated with all those advantages helps and Succours than Scotland is Seeing besides its having divers Harbours and those both safe and conveniently Situated for Sailing to and from the Eastern Southern and Western parts of the World It hath likewise diverse Natural Productions and may have a sufficient plenty of Artifici●l to give an Original unto and be both a Foundation and Nourishment for Trade Nor will any deny but that it actually doth or may at least speedily so abound with People as to yield and afford hands enough for Manufacture and Traffick For tho' I do acknowledge that Gold and Silver with which the Scots may probably be but indifferently and scantily furnished whereof nevertheless they may in time by this means acquire more be the measure of Trade yet nothing is more certain than that the Natural and Artificial Products of a Country are the Spring and Source of it and that the Nerves and Sinews thereof are a Multiplicity of Hands properly and industriously employed And with these Scotland doth so abound that many have not only been and still are thro' want of business and labour whereunto to apply themselves an useless and a grievous Burthen to their Native Country but great Numbers have by their Necessities been constrained either to Transport themselves into the Colonies and Plantations of other Nations or to serve Foreign Princes and States in the Wars which they have been carrying on against one another in neither of which ways hath any Benefit accrued to the Kingdom of Scotland nor is it possible that it should unless now and then casually and by accident But those Colonies where they have planted do carry away and engross the Gains of their Industry And the Potentates under whose Banners they bear Arms do reap the Glory of their Bravour and do become possessed of those acquisitions of Towns and Provinces which they purchase at the expence of their Blood and Lives And may I be permitted without giving offence to add That thro' the latter of these Methods Scotland hath had the Misfortune to have more Thousands of lusty and valiant Men kill'd and destroy'd in Wars wherein that Kingdom had no National concern that if they had been employ'd in the gentle and peaceable Arts of Manufacture and Trade would have been sufficient to have render'd it a powerful and opulent Nation Yea such has been the guilt as well as the unhappiness of those who thro' want of Business to give them a Subsistence and Livelihood at Home have betaken themselves to the carrying Arms under Foreign Rulers and Potentates that they have not only been frequently engag'd in the killing of others and expos'd to be kill'd themselves when and where the alone cause of the War hath too often been m●erly either the Covetousness Pride and Ambition of the Aggressors or the Fraudulencies and Injustices of the Aggressed But that to the disgrace of the Christian Religion and the infamy of their Country they have many times in Opposite and Hostile Brigades and Battalions been found Encountring and Slaughtring one another So that for the obviating preventing and avoiding that Criminal and Reproachful Course for the future if upon no other Prospects and Motives that Kingdom ought to apply it self more to Manufacture and Trade than it hath hitherto done For which that Nation stands not only exceedingly adapted by reason both of the Sagacity of their Nobility and Higher Gentry for the discerning and advising unto Means Ways and Methods for the encouraging encreasing and maintaining thereof and of the Mercantile Knowledge Skill and Artifice of those of the Middle Rank For adjusting conducting and managing as well what is to be Fabricked at Home as what is to be chiefly Regarded and Cultivated abroad But especially because of its

so closely of thi● Affair and to examine it with that accuracy which they ought to do may be inclined and ready to imagine seeing that upon the whole North-side of the Isthmus from the River Darien to the Bastimentos the Spaniards are not in possession of one foot of Ground nor ever were save for a little while at first of Nombre de Dios which they soon relinquish'd And it is against both all the Topicks of Argumentation and all the Measures of Law and Justice that from the Spaniards having made some Settlements on the South-Sea and their having so far as they have obtain'd possession there restricted and confin'd the Natives to narrow bounds to infer and conclude from thence their having a Propriety in and a Jurisdiction over all the Northern Coast. And such a pretence is the more unreasonable and absurd in that the Isthmus of Darien is naturally divided by a ridge of Hills that runneth from East to West Nor can any allegation whatsoever more avowedly offer violence to common Sence and more notoriously attempt the putting an Affront upon the Understandings of Men than from the Spaniards being possessed of and having dominion over one part of Isthmus to deduce and conclude from thence that therefore they must have a Propriety in and a Soveraign Jurisdiction over the whole And from their Title and Right of Prescription upon long Occupation unto some of the Southern Boundaries of that Streight to infer and plead their having in the vertue of that a Title to the Northern parts thereof of which as they were never in possession so the People of the latter are wholly independent upon them of the former and the Rulers of the one altogether Absolute within themselves without deriving the least Authority from or paying any kind or degree of Subjection and Obedience unto the other And for the Spaniards to pretend that thro' their possessing Porto Bello on the South of Darien and Carthagena in a small Island on the North-side of it that therefore and by consequence they ought to be acknowledg'd to have a right of Propriety in and of Jurisdiction over all the adjacent Country which is between two and three hundred English Miles in Dimension and Extent is not to Argue but to Banter and to Ridicule and Lampoon Mankind instead of endeavouring to instruct satisfie and convince them Especially seeing that as all the Settlements and Plantations which the Spaniards have upon or near unto that Isthmus whether upon the Southern or the Northern Oceans were all obtain'd without the consent of the Natives so the Indians who live and inhabit in the interjacent and intervening Countries between the Spaniards Plantations on the South and North-Seas have still preserved the possession of those Territories without the having ever become subject unto or the having any ways acknowledg'd the Soveraignty and Dominion of the Spaniards over them And should we submit to that Way and Method of Reasoning what a Claim would the Kings of France have had long ago to all the Countries Provinces and Dominions which the Catholick King doth possess and bear Soveraignty over in Europe in that all the Spanish Provinces are situated and do lie between the Countries which the French King possesseth upon the Ocean and those which he hath right unto and Soveraignity over on the Mediterranean Nor can any thing carry more intrinsic and self-evidence along with it than that when a People were not the first Occupiers and the original Inhabitants their Title unto and their Tenure and Property in that case in a Country can extend and reach no farther than as they are got into possession of it either by the consent of the Natives or by conquest in a lawful War or by Prescription thro' long Occupation upon an unjust one None of all which do in any manner obtain or hold or can any ways be pleaded by the Spaniards in reference to the Peninsula on the Isthmus of Darien where the Scots are settling and establishing a Colony Moreover to all that is already said under this Head let me further subjoin that no Nations being meerly in actual possession of part of a Country that had not been originally their own hath been accounted sufficient in Equity Law or Justice to preclude and debar others from seeking to settle themselves in such places as those Strangers who had come first to plant there were not in actual possession of whereof it were easie to assign many Instances but it being a matter whereof none that are acquainted with Books of Voyages and Navigations can be ignorant I shall content my self with the mentioning of a few but in the mean time shall be careful that they may be adapted to the case that is under present debate Let it then be observ'd in the first place That notwithstanding the English had planted upon the Continent as well as in several Islands of America and did particularly possess upon the Terra firma from New-England to Carolina without the interposition of Colonies belonging to any European Princes or States whatsoever nevertheless the Dutch finding Long-Island that is since come to be call'd New-York and which lyeth within the foremention'd Limits unoccupy'd yet environ'd and surrounded on all hands by English Plantations they did in a time of full and entire Peace betwixt the Crown of Great Britain and the Belgick-States sit down and establish a Plantation upon it which without any disturbance from the English or their quarrelling with them upon that account they continu'd to possess until the Year 1667 when after a Treaty of Peace between King Charles II. and the States General for the putting an end to that War which had commenc'd between those two Ruling Powers Anno 1665 Long-Island was exchang'd by the Dutch for Surinam Moreover whereas the Spanish Plate Fleet must of necessity pass between Florida and the Bahama Islands unto both which the Spaniards do likewise lay claim by challenging a property in and a dominion over them yet notwithstaning of this the English possessed themselves of the said Islands and tho' the Spaniards both complained and did highly resent it and so far as they had strength and power did as well Barbarously as Injuriously treat those English whom they found settled there nevertheless the Spaniards being no ways able to Justifie their Right and Title to those Islands the English continued to assert and maintain the Possession which they had acquired as long as they themselves found there Intrest in it and thought it convenient so to do Yea notwithstanding that the Spaniards plead a right unto and a propriety in Jucatan and if the having over-run a great part of a Country which is above 300 Leagues in compass and the having Massacred a prodigious Number of the Native Indians give them a legal Title unto and a Dominion over all the Territories and Districts of it It must be acknowledged that they had them Nevertheless the English have not only Sailed frequently thither