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A45667 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 ..., 2. the peculiar advantages which accrue to England by Ireland ..., 3. the state of trade, revenue, rents, manufactures, &c. of Ireland, with the causes of its poverty ..., 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 ... / by a hearty well-wisher to the Protestant religion, and the prosperity of these kingdoms. Harris, Walter, Sir. 1691 (1691) Wing H886; ESTC R13627 68,949 83

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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
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
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
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
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