the naked English were massacred therefore it is the Interest of this Kingdom it should be penal in the Officers of the Army to inlist and muster any of the settled Inhabitants capable of serving in the Militia for thereby the Country is weakned in its Military strength and the King disappointed of a marching Army whereas were all persons thus qualified disbanded and the Officers prohibited listing such without special License from the General you would soon have the Foot Companies filled with young brisk Lads who would throng out of England for Entertainment which would more tend to increase and strengthen the English Interest in Ireland than any other Expedient that can be proposed As it is the Interest of Ireland to give incouragement to English Protestants to come and enjoy Military Imployments and Preferments among them so is it the same for Civil and Ecclesiastical Imployments provided still they settle and abide with us But that which is the Grievance of this Kingdom is that either Military or Civil Imployments should be enjoyed by Nonresidents or otherwise persons who only come over to enjoy the Profit of their Office and so soon as they have received what Benefit it affords to return for England and carry their Gains with them of which sort Ireland has most suffered by English Chief Governours and English Farmers and Commissioners of the Revenue and their Attendants and Dependants coming and returning with them the Damage sustained by this Kingdom in the period of 15 years thereby is computed in the Chapter of Irelands involuntary Charge and Expence And that which I shall further endeavour to demonstrate is that it is not only its damage in respect of the Charge Ireland sustains but many other ways inconvenient and prejudicial 1. For the chief Governour though there might be some reason of State in times past why they should not only be of English Blood but English by Birth and Interest yet the case is altered now and the Act of Parliament in the 10th of Hen. 7th that none but such as were born in the Realm of England should be Constables of the Castles of Dublin Trim Athlone Leistipe Carlingford Wicklow c. had no respect to the civil politick Government but the Execution of penal Laws upon Offenders those Castles being made use of as Prisons to secure dangerous persons in which is declared in the body of the Statute viz. Which Castles have been negligently kept and such as have been committed to the Constables or Keepers of them for Treason Felony c. suffered to escape wilfully to the great prejudice of our Soveraign Lord and of all the said Land therefore be it ordained and enacted c. so that other Act 23d of Hen. 8th to regulate the Election of the chief Governour by the Council on the death of the Lord Lieutenant c. until the Kings pleasure was known did not respect preferring English by Birth before English by Blood but to secure the Sword from unfit Hands who by their powerful Interest might awe their own Election and be mischievous before the King could declare his pleasure as appears by the said Act * Irish Stat. fol. 214 215. as followeth The said Counsellours have full Power and Authority by vertue of this Act to elect and chuse one such person as shall be an Englishman and born within the Realm of England being no spiritual person to be Iustice and Governor of this Realm of Ireland during the Kings Highness Pleasure if there shall be at that time any such person within this Realm c. if not then to elect and chuse two persons of the said Council of English Blood and Sirname being no spiritual person c. which I cite to refute that vulgar Error that the Lord Lieutenant c. must be born in England because otherwise he is not capable of governing in the Castle of Dublin whereas the Office of Constable is a distinct inferior thing from the Governor of the Castle but whatever reason of State former times might have the case is otherwise now for as it is shewn in the Chapter of Englands Interest in Irelands Prosperity the state of the English Interest in Ireland is changed from a weak infirm state that needed Physick to a strong healthful state that only requires Food the Propriety of Lands the Plantation of Cities and strong Towns inhabited and governed by English the Countries so planted with English as all our High Sheriffs Justices of the Peace c. all English and the English Laws are duely and equally in all parts executed by English Judges and Officers c. 〈◊〉 â—jâ—rity of both Houses of Parliament Engl◠〈…〉 was never the case of Ireland â—â—fore that 〈◊〉 â—ow needs nothing but diligent 〈…〉 câ—â—roborate and improve its advantag◠〈◊〉 which none but such who are acquainted with 〈…〉 and Constitution and thoroughly 〈…〉 prosperity are capable of 〈…〉 1. Being unâ—â—quâ—iâ—â—â—â— with intelligent persons of the several Parties they 〈◊〉 understand the various and different â—â—â—nouâ— and Interests of the people indeed if the Inhabitants were all Irish Papists or all English Protestants or were these two grand parties of entire Interest among themselves their work were more easie but as they have each their grand Interest and bond of Friendship the Papists the Interest of their Church by whose aid and countenance they expect their Succour and the Protestants the Interest of their Prince by whose Authority and Favour they enjoy all they possess yet they have each amongst themselves their different and peculiar Interests both Religigious and Civil as I shall after shew And a Chief Governour unacquainted with persons and things will find it difficult work to carry himself to the equal satisfaction of all parties with Security to the Government and Incouragement of Trade c. 2. The short continuance sometimes two sometimes three years rarely four we had three in less than eight years viz. from the Lord Roberts entring September 18th 1669. to the Earl of Essex's surrender August 24th 1677. so that by that time they understand their Work they are called from it saith Borlacy The vicisitude of Governours hath been observed by some to be exceeding prejudicial to the publick private Respects often introducing notable things in the State according to their Interests who governed not the publicks diversi Imperatoribus mores diversa fuêre studia sometimes to the degenerating of the old English into the Irish customs through their negligence and indulgence other times to the alienating the Irish by their severity from the benefit of a well tempered and orderly Government both equally destructive to the Prince And yet too long a Residence in so eminent a Place may over-heat a great Spirit if not bounded with excellent Principles Whence the Romans those great Masters of Government rarely admitted their Vicegerents to brood on a Province that their Continuance there might not increase Self-interest The longest time any continued in this Government how
their Antiquity and so frequently challenge our Protestant Divines to shew them where our Religion was before Luther should imbibe a Religion they cannot shew where it was before Loyola so many years his junior is hard to give the reason of unless it be this one that since the Light of the Gospel hath shined in the world their Deeds of Darkness could no ways be hid nor defended either by Scripture or Reason only by bloody War and cruel Inquisition by destroying the Lives of their Opponents in order to shut their eyes and stop their mouths And having thus far endeavoured to vindicate my self against the censure of Presumption in treating upon Politicks and from uncharitable Severity in my Descants on Religion I shall submit the whole to the Judgment of the charitable judicious and for the rest as much slight their Censure as they despise my Labour THE CONTENTS PART I. CHAP. I. Shewing the reasons why Ireland is so little improved in Trade and Wealth I. FRom the Impediments it is subject unto not common to other Countreys Pag. 1 1 Impediment The unsetledness of the Countrey p. 2 3 4 2 Impediment From the perplexity of the minds of the people p. 5 3 Impediment From its plenty of Provision p. 5 6. 4 Impediment From the height of the Interest of Money p. 7 5 Impediment From the lowness of Farming and purchasing Land p. 7 6 Impediment From the low esteem the generous and worshipful Calling of a Merchant is of in the Countrey p. 8 9 7 Impediment is from the lowness of the Credit of the Tradesmen of the Countrey p. 10 1. Arising from the delatoriness of Law-proceedings ibid. 2. From the smalness of their Stocks ibid. 3. From the bad payment the Gentry c. make to the Tradesmen ib. Expediences proposed for remedy of this grand obstruction p. 11 12 13 Honourable Titles are made contemptible by dishonourable qualities p. 15 Theodosius the Emperor made severe Edicts to reform it p. 16 Our Virgin Queen was careful of the Virginity of Honour ib. The Institution of Baronists by King James with their qualifications p. 16 17 CHAP. II. SHews the second Head of the Causes of Irelands not improving in Trade c is from its excessive consumption of forreign growth and Manufacturies p. 18 Why some Countreys may consume more than others with much less damage p. 19 The vast consumption of our Wealth by forreign Silks c. exceeding twenty to one above our Grand-fathers which ruine our own Manufacturies p. 20 21 France gains by their gay Attire and modes ibid. If poor Ireland imitate rich England in Garb it will be begger'd p. 22 Englands care to prevent their ruine by excess in Apparel by sumptuary Laws p. 23 24 25 The spruce Garb especially of the meaner sort besides the consumption of our Wealth is attended with many other intollerable inconveniences p. 26 27 28 Not only England but the Jews and Heathens had their sumptuary Laws by which Harlots or Women of ill fame were prescribed their Attire p. 29 30 The contempt put upon gay Clothes by the most Puissant and Wise Emperors and Princes p. 30 31 32 We consume more by riot and excess than the Kings Revenue amounts to p. 32 33 The opinion of Mr. Fuller Luther and Bishop Hall of this Childish vanity of gay Clothes p. 33 34 35 CHAP. III. OF Wealth-consuming and Trade-obstructing Debaucheries p. 37 1. Profane Oaths p. 38 39 Bishop Hall's Censure p. 39 40 Profane swearing is the preparatory cause of false swearing p. 40 The viciousness of the Papals in point of Perjury p. 41 Whilst profane Swearing passeth for a venial false swearing will never be esteemed a mortal sin p. 42 2. Wealth-consuming Debauchery is Gaming p. 42 1. High Gaming amongst the Gentry pag. 42 43 2. Chiefly peasantly and mechanick Gamesters that consume their time and money in Bowling-Alleys p. 43 3. Wealth-wasting Debauchery is Whoreing p. 44 1. The wealthier sort in their costly Misses alias Strumpets p. 46 48 It fills the Countrey with Bastards to the great charge of Parishes p. 45 The several motives to Strumpets to prostrate themselves p. 46 47 This Vice effeminates a people and unfits them for warlike Employment p. 48 Several Instances of the ruining nature of this vice p. 48 49 The severity of the Laws and punishment of this Sin by Turks and Pagans p. 49 50 CHAP. IV. Of the most Wealth-consuming Debauchery of Drunkenness THe dismal effects of it p. 51 Bishop Hall's Sentence p. 52 53 Luther's opinion p. 54 The great consumption of Wealth by our Wine-bibbers p. 54 By our Ale-topers ibid. The loss of the labour of many persons able to work employed as Drawers and Tapsters c. p. 55 The damage of our Manufactures by Drunkenness ibid. Youth debauch'd by drunken Masters and Masters undone by drunken servants p. 56 Drunkenness a sin oft inflicted upon a Nation in judgment and a fore-runner of destruction p. 57 Expedients proposed for remedy p. 57 1. Statutes against it to be executed upon Tiplers and Taverns ibid. 2. Observes how the lives and healths 〈◊〉 many persons are destroyed by it 3. The ensnaring practice of healthing t◠be restrain'd and rejected especially a◠the Tables of Magistrates and persons 〈◊〉 Quality p. 58 59 The practice of Healthing sinful both in the Provoker and Accepter p. 60 Heathens abominated and severely punish'd Drunkenness of which several Examples p. 61 Drunkenness hath been the ruine of many great Kingdoms and States instance p. 62 63 64 The opprobius Epithetes given of Drunkards by Heathens p. 64 65 Drunkenness fatal to Armies p. 65 66 67 68 CHAP. V. Observing the spring from whence all the Debauchery of Christendom flows DEbauch'd Christians worse than debauch'd Pagans p. 69 Debauchery in Christendom proceeded from the Fountain of all filthiness Rome p. 70 Holy Places holy Ceremonies c. crowded holy lives out of the Church ibid. Confest by their own Prelats p. 71 Declared by Luther in his Genealogie of the Pope as Anti-Christ p. 72 73 Consciences once seared by a custom of Immoralities can never long struggle for truth in Divinity p. 73 The present generation of Debauches in Christendom exceed all we ever read of in former ages or Pagan Nations p. 74 Some live as if they had abandoned all thoughts of future State all belief of a God Judgment Heaven or Hell They turn all seriousness either in Divinity or Morality into a Ridicule p. 76 CHAP. VI. States the intollerable charge Ireland is at by maintaining Foreigners to its peculiar interest in the most profitable Employments 1. BY the Court of Claims p. 79 2. By Farmers of the Kings Revenue p. 80 3. The Contracters for the Treasury p. 81 4. Pensions and Annuities to Absentees p. 82 5 Foreign Merchants and their Factors p. 82 83 6. Trading in Foreign Ships p. 83 7. By Absentees drawing over the Rents p. 84 85 86 87 8. The Attendants of our Nobility
a very plain ground of Laziness attributed to the people for men naturally prefer Ease before Labour and will not take pains if they can live idle though when by necessity they have been used to it they cannot leave it being grown a custom necessary to their Health and to their very Entertainment nor perhaps is the change harder from constant Ease to Labour than from constant Labour to Ease c. The fourth Impediment is the Height of the Interest of Mony for Holland that hath Mony at three per Cent. and England at six eat up Traders in Ireland where Mony is difficult to be procured at ten whereby the one will underfell the other at his own doors and run them down in Manufactures at home and Markets abroad having also the advantage of better and cheaper Workmen The dearness of Provisions necessitating their poor to work the same necessity moves them to inure their Children to Art from their Cradles whereby they will perform more and better in one day than ours in two The fifth Impediment is the lowness of the rate of Land for when a man may purchase a better Rent for 1000 pound in Ireland than he can for two in England or three in Holland or proportionably Farm What prudent man will undergo the Difficulties and run the Hazards of Trade when he may dispose of his Mony with much more ease and safety to his better advantage and from hence it is we have so few wealthy Merchants in this Country for if a man begin with a 1000 pound and improve it to 9 or 10. in Trade like wary Gamesters that have won at Play they will venture no more but lay out their Mony in Land and of a rich Merchant become a Country Gentleman and then parting with a few Guineys to procure a Dub or Patent the Knights Son will blush if you tell him his Father got his Estate by conversing with Tarpolins c. Which brings me to the sixth Impediment The low esteem the generous Calling of a Merchant hath in this Countrey where every pedling Shopkeeper and Pettyfogger is stil'd a Merchant that Ireland breeds Merchants as Beggars do lice from its poverty and idleness For turning Merchant is the last shift a lasie Mechanick or a beggerly Citizen takes to whereas every Trade ought to bear the denomination of their peculiar Faculty For though Clothiers Drapers Mercers Milliners Ironmongers Grocers Haberdashers c. may be of worshipful Rank and principal Citizens yet they are not Merchants for none are properly Merchants but the Adventurers at Sea from whence the most ancient Corporation of Merchants in London was stiled the Company of Merchant Adventurers But from this degrading of the reputation of Merchants that Honourable Calling is of so low repute that few Gentlemen much less Noblemen will put their Sons Apprentice to a Merchant but rather breed them for Divines Souldiers Lawyers Physicians c. though it may happen under those Professions they never attain to be eminent that had they put another Son to a Merchant the Divine might have been glad to become his Brother's Chaplain Whereas in all Countries flourishing in Trade their Nobles and chief Citizens are Merchants as Venice Florence Genoa Lisbon Amst and Lond. where his Royal Highness many of the Nobles about Court are inrolled Merchants in the Affrican and Canary Companies c. which his Royal Highness hath Honoured with bearing Office †Blooms Geography in his Cha. of Traffick pag. 50. c. And this is no novelty for Solomon the most glorious King of Israel was a Merchant it was his Traffick not his Crown-Rents by which he made Silver to be as Stones in Jerusalem and Cedars as the Sicamore * 1 Kings Chap. 10. ver 27. And the Prophet Isaiah recording the glory of old Tyre calls her the Crowning City and Mart of Nations whose Merchants were Princes whose Traffickers are the Honourable of the Earth †Isa 23. ver 8. And this high esteem and noble reputation Merchants hath had both in ancient and modern times in all Countreys knowing the worth of Trade hath commended them for Counsellors and principal Ministers of State to Princes and chief Senators in all Common-wealths whereby the interest of Trade hath been greatly promoted and persons of Honour encouraged to study it as a principal piece of State-policy to know how to encrease their own and lessen their neighbours Trade the advantage thereof we have a notorious example in the modern Politicks of France where it is manifest the Studies and Counsels of one Colbert hath in a few years trebled the Trade and Manufactures of France whereby that aspiring Prince is not only become so powerful on Land but so formidable at Sea above all his Predecessors that he checks the swelling Trade of Holland and threatens the ruine 〈◊〉 the famous Trade of England if not timely 〈…〉 which cannot be done without espousing the Interest of Trade as the Darling of State and publick Counsels be qualified accordingly The seventh Impediment is the lowness of the Credit of the Tradesmen of this Countrey proceeding from their ill performances with their Creditors abroad which they are necessitated unto from these three Causes First from the Delatoriness of Common-Law Proceedings in our ordinary Courts of Justice where a man may be a year before he obtain Judgment upon a Specialty and much longer upon a Book-debt especially if either the Defendant or his Sollicitor be well acquainted with Quirks in Law-proceedings To prevent which all Countreys flourishing in Trade keep their Court Merchant which within a few days by a Summery way of proceeding by the Law Meâ—catore will determine a Cause * Lex Mercatoria pag. 458 c. The second Cause of the lowness of their Credit is the smalness of the Stocks of our Tradesmen A person of 500 l. Stock shall accept of 2000 l. Credit which by reason of Goods lying upon hand and Debts out he is no ways able to comply with time but what he buys at six months may be three 6 months unpaid and that intails him upon his Creditor though his Goods be bad and dear he dare not leave him being at his mercy for old scores The third and chief Cause is from the bad payment some of the Gentry make to the Trader whereby the Trading Stock of the Nation is stopt in its course like the Blood stopt in its circulation threatens the ruine of the Body by variety of Diseases For when the Gentleman pays not the Mercer and Draper he cannot pay the Manufacturer nor he his Workmen nor they the Woolman nor he his Landlords Rent That could this one obstruction to Trade be removed most others would fall in course And for removing of this Trade ruining Nation scandalizing evil I would propose that no Merchant or Retayler should recover in any of the Kings Courts any Debt contracted for foreign Manufactures but that it should be admitted a sufficient Bar against
dishonouring his Fathers Bed which was approved of by the Senate Tiberius crucified the Priests of Ises and cast their Tempe to the ground for their Adulteries Purch Pilgrimage 732. The Emperor Claudius and Otho put their Empresses to death for Adulteries Langchron The Romans had their Funerals at the Gate of Venus Temple to signifie that Lust was the Harbinger and hastner of Death Plut. Multitudes of instances may you read in Clarks Mirror fol. 6 7 8 9 10. So French Academy chap. 22. Herbert Think you on this who spend your days and strength And means on Whores Dogs Parasites at length They 'l worry you before you feel their wounds Look to their Teeth shun these Acteons hounds I shall close this Head with the Advice of wise Solomon after his dear bought Experience Prov. 7. Let not thine Heart decline to her ways go not astray in her paths For she hath cast down many wounded yea many strong men have been slain by her Her House is the way to Hell going down to the Chambers of death So Proverbs the 22. She is a deep pit he that is abhorred of God shall fall therein a wound and dishonour shall he get and his reproach shall not be wiped away CHAP. IV. Of Drunkenness The most Wealth-consuming Debauchery is Drunkenness TO whom we may ascribe as the Damsels to David comparatively it s ten thousands to others Debaucherers their thousands other Vices like petty thieves steal here a Hen there a Sheep but this lays Families and Farms waste this is the Mother and Nurse of all other Wealth-consuming Debaucheries We have a Story of a young man that was long tempted by the Devil to commit one of three sins either to kill his Father ravish his Mother or be Drunk he chose the last as most innocent but when drunk committed both the other Saith sober Herbert He that is drunken may his Mother kill Big with his Sister he hath loos'd the â—eins Is outlaw'd by himself all kind of ill Did with his Liquor slide into his veins The Drunkard sorfeits Man and doth divest All worldly right save what he hath by Beast Lest the Spirit of Wine should reveal to its zealous votaries that my Arguments against this Al a mode Vice are tinctur'd with Fanaticism I shall presume to make use of the Sentence of a pious Prelate on the Subject to conduct me whose Fame in the Church of England will defie their Censure Who thus complains of this tribe of Bacchus who were but pigmies in his time compared with the bousing mighty Gyants of this age From the Tongue saith he we pass to the Pallate which together with the gulf whereto it serves the Throat and the Paunch is taken up with the beastly fashions of Gluttony and excess whether wet or dry of ments or liquors Surfeits in the one Drunkenness in the other in so much as that the Vice hath taken the Name of the Part Gula as if this piece were of no other service the Psalmist describes some wicked ones in his time by Sepulchrum patent guttereorum their throat is an open sepulchre Psal 5.9 How many have buried all their Grace in this tomb how many their Reputation how many their Wit how many their Humanity how many their Houses Lands Livings Wives Children Posterity Health Life Body and Soul St. Paul tells his Philippians that their false Teachers made their Belly their God O God what a Deity is here what a nasty Idol and yet how adored every where the Kitchins and Taverns are his Temples the Tables his Altars what fat Sacrifices are here of all the Beasts Fowls Fishes of all the Elements what pouring out yea what pouring in of Drink-offerings what Incense of Indian Smoak what curiously persumed Cates wherewith the Nose is first feasted then the Maw I could even sink down with shame to see Christianity every where so discountenanced with beastly Epicurism what Street shall a man walk in and not meet with a Drunkard what Road shall he pass and not meet some or other hanging upon the Stirrup waving over the Pummel St. Peters Argument from the third hour of the Day and St. Pauls from the Night would be now a non sequitur Day is Night Night is Day no hour is priviledged I cannot speak a more fearful word than that of St. Paul whose Belly is their God whose End is Damnation Oh woful woful condition of that damned Glutton in the Gospel Oh the Flames of that delicious Tongue which begged for a drop but should in vain have been quenched with Rivers with Oceans as ye desire to be freed from those everlasting burnings Awake ye Drunkards and howl ye drinkers of Wine Joel 1.5 Return your superfluous Liquor into tears of Repentance which only can quench that fire and for the sequel put your knife to your throats Dr. Hall Bishop of Exeter in his Contemplations on the History of the New Testament fol. 382. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overtaken with Surfeiting and Drunkenness Luke 21.34 Thus fashion not your selves to the excess of the world Every Country saith Luther must have its own proper Devil Italy hath its Devil France its c. our German Devil is a good lusty Wine-sucker whose Name is Swill and Quaff he is furnished with such a dry and thirsty Liver that it cannot be quenched nor cooled This continual Thirst in Germany I fear will remain until the last day of Judgment Luthers Colloq fol. 541. Besides the vehement abhorrency all the Prophets and Apostles with all their godly Successors in the Ministry of the Gospel expresseth against this brutish Vice It is worth our observing how all the Mahomitan and civilized Pagan Nations disdain and punish it as invading the very Law of Humanity But I shall first observe how many ways it obstructs our Trade and consumes our Wealth To let pass its stupifying Influence on mens Understandings whereby their Invention is dull'd their Strengh abated and a slothful sottish habit of Mind and Body contracted which unfits men for ingenious Arts c. 1. It consumes of the Wealth of this Nation in Wines and Brandy if we allow but three Wine-bibbers to each Parish one with another at ten pound per annum each person in 2500 Parishes amounts to Seventy five thousand pound per annum which is either paid for in Cash or in Goods of our Country as good as Mony 2. Our Ale-topers being estimated to five in each Parish one with another amount to 12500 persons our afternoon Wine-bibbers being most of them forenoon Ale-topers computing their excess in this Liquor to four pound per annum each man it amounts to fifty thousand pounds per annum consumed of the Growth of the Country which might either be exported in Beer or Corn or the Lands and the Hands imployed in breeding Cattel or in Daries to the Countreys advantage 3. The multitude of people imployed and maintained as Tapsters and Drawers c.
Money current few will give ten per cent for Money when they can have Bank-credit for half that rate which will also necessitate the Usurer either to purchase Land and thereby raise the rate of it or otherwise imploy his Money in the Bank or some other Trade who now preys upon the necessities of all persons those of the best Quality not excluded who cannot on their single Bond or Mortgage of Land raise Money without double Bonds-men and they must be also Citizens with a Warrant of Atturney for Judgment besides the charge of procuration c. and Interest demanded before-hand or half yearly which is the highest Interest upon Interest whereby the best landed and most ingenious persons in the Kingdom are many times distressed and are inslaved to the most griping Usuries which this Bank credit will prevent as also lower the Interest This Bank-Credit will lower Exchange to foreign parts by increasing Traffick and thereby altering the Balance of Trade as is shewn in that Chapter and remove all occasions of Exchange for Money at home for Bank-Bills of 500 l. will not weigh one ounce but be safely conveyed from place to place by Post or otherwise without danger of robbing for the Bank-method of paying their Bills must secure against all counterfeiting or misapplications so that whosoever shall rob or otherwise obtain Bills surreptitiously can make no use of them which method of safety being only the concern of the Bank and not of the Creditors I shall forbear to publish it By this Bank our Manufacturies will be propagated this being the proper means for it and in which we are now defective which will hereby be provided against For when there are Merchants at Dublin as there are at London to buy with ready Money the Manufactures of the Countrey will abound for we neither want Materials nor Artists only Markets which will be the main business of this Bank to contrive and having Shipping and Stock of their own their Interest will prompt them unto it since they can neither traffick into the Levant nor Baltick-Seas the two chief places for the Merchants of Ireland to inlarge their Trade unto without woollen and worsted Manufacture which now when made cannot be disposed The abuses in our woollen and worsted Manufactures by which their value and credit is impaired will be rectified for they will not buy a piece but what is searched and tried by persons of their own appointment and place their own Seales as well as the Makers upon every piece which will bring our Manufacturies into credit in foreign Markets and the like they will do for Leather Butter Tallow Flesh Fish c. the want of which is the ruine of the foreign Trade of Ireland which is now under so ill repute beyond Sea that Irish Goods and Nought are terms convertible Besides in whatsoever they shall observe the Artists of Ireland defective they can easily procure a supply which will also put life into the Ingenious and Industrious when they can have Bank-credit for their Ware at any time which will inable a poor Clothier c. with twenty Pound Stock to do more than now with an hundred Pound not knowing now what to do with Goods when made which will imploy the Poor and by their labour double the value of Lands and fill the Countrey with Money as is shewed in the Chapter of Manufacture By which the Peace and Safety as well as the Wealth of Ireland will be increased for whilst the â—â—â—er sort of people have nothing but a miserable use to lose the Boggs and Rodes will be pestered with â—oâ—tes want increaseth discontent and that puts men upon desperate ways for relief which this Bank will prevent for no man need to have in his House or travel on the Rode with other than small Sums of that debast Money described in the Chapter of Coins and yet have five hundred or a thousand Pounds worth of Bank-Tickets which as was observed would not be worth a Peny to the unlawful Possessor and yet be as good as so much Silver or Gold current in their Houses and much safer than other Specialties which if lost he is in danger of losing his Money but not so in this case his Right appearing in the Bank-Books And as it will prevent Robberies so also discourage Rebellions since the Money passing current is of small intrinsick value to them Besides these Banks are the only means to rescue our Trade out of the Hands of Foreigners and will wear out foreign Stocks by which the greatest part of our foreign Traffick is now driven to the enriching foreign Merchants and beggering of our own Foreigners having Money at low Interest and gaining by their Exchange they are able to undersell us in foreign Parts so that our Merchants choose rather to be their Factors than trade with their own Stocks which is the reason we have so few wealthy Merchants and those we have after they have gained Estates by Trade instead of increasing their Traffick purchase Lands and decline Trade This Bank will also be a means to fill the Kingdom with Shipping to manage the Trade thereof which is at present the great gain of Foreigners which will hereby redound to the benefit of this Kingdom as in the Chapter of Shipping And hereby also we shall be capable of improving our Fishing upon the Irish Coast to the utmost The great advantage of which you may read in the Chapter of Fishing Nor will it be difficult to satisfie persons that this Bank-credit of paying or receiving Money will be as ready and as safe as the ordinary way of paying and receiving Money in Specia since with much case these Bills may be transferred from one person to another and the trouble and labour of telling weighing and judging of the goodness or badness of Coins and danger of miscounting hereby prevented In order whereunto every person that either receives or pays Money in Bank hath his account in the Bank-book and at the desire of the Creditor his Stock in Bank either in part or in whole is transferred to the account of such other persons as himself shall assign As for example A Clothier sells unto a Merchant or Draper an 100 l. worth of Cloth the buyer having Credit in Bank assigns 100 l. to the Seller the Book-keeper makes the Merchant Debtor and gives the Clothier credit for so much again The Clothier being indebted in whole or in part of the said sum to the Woollman the Clothier is made Debtor and the Woollman Creditor The Woollman being a Farmer c. owes the like sum to his Landlord for Rent the Woollman is made Debtor and his Landlord Creditor the Landlord is indebted or hath occasion to buy Goods in Town the Landlord is made Debtor and the said person is Creditor If the persons to whom the Landlord was indebted be Retailers that have occasion to buy Goods of the Merchant that first assigned in Bank the Retailers have Goods and
Office and the chief Princes and Nobles of England enrolled Members as Prince Rupert Duke of Buckingham Duke of Albemarle Earl of Peterborough St. Albans Sandwich Bath Arlington Shastsbury c. and the Teritories of this Royal Company is from Sally in South Barbary to Cape de Bona Esperanza a Princely Dominion And having thus briefly hinted how the Wisdom and Experience of past ages and many Nations have set to their Seals to the rationality peculiar advantage to this way of improving Trade by united Stocks Policies I shall hint some inconveniencies attending its omission First the want of settled Correspondency for want of Intelligence is the ruine of Trade for when men grope out a Trade as blind folk do their way they stumble at many a stone and run their heads against many posts which light would prevent And few single persons at least in Ireland are able to carry on such a Trade as will maintain Servants or Factors to inform them how the Rates of Goods rule at the several parts they trade with but must depend upon the Advice of such persons upon the place whose Interest it is to encourage their Principles to confine to them let Goods turn to Profit or Loss they will deduct their Provision c. which contracts much perplexity and confusion in Trade whereas Trade in Company managed with united Stocks prevents them being able to bear the charge of able Factors in the Country they trade unto and able to bear a considerable loss which would ruine a particular person able to keep their Goods when Markets are low till they rise able to ingross the Bulk of a Commodity when brought low by unadvised clogging of Markets and thereby raise Rates for by their well governed Correspondency they are inform'd not only what Rates Goods go at but what quantity of them are in the Stores at each foreign port and what time they will probably take for consumption what kind of Vintage or Crops is in the Countries producing them c. and by these views can discourage their increase at home until their Markets mend abroad that they may make their Commodities pay Interest for their lying and without these and the like expedients no man can secure a Trade to turn to any certain Account but as a meer Lottery some Voyage brings a prize and some a blank whereby men of small Stocks are oft times undone and the best perplex'd and discouraged Secondly This Trade in Company with a considerable united Stock will preserve a Trade from ruine by Interlopers that will be nibling at Traffique they understand not as Pedlars at Land so these at Sea perplex and ruine the Trade of skilful able Merchant sand do themselves no good for as Pedlers may undersell the ablest Shopkeepers in some small Wares by living after a beggerly vagrant way paying no Rents nor bearing no charge in their Country and maintaining themselves by conditioning where they sell small Markets to have Victuals c. into the bargain so these Sea-pedlers much after the same manner maintain themselves and thereby are able to undersell the Merchants who have great Families to maintain at home besides chargeable Factors abroad great Duties to pay to the King chargeable Offices to bear in their Cities c. and if the Merchants shall have no more priviledge from the State than the Interloper he will be discouraged c. and the Trade of the Country ruined from these and the like inconveniencies c. which I have observed to attend the Trade of Ireland by the small Trade I have driven there my self 1. In the Trade of Wools one of the chief Commodities of the Country greatly damnified their Wools sometimes vended at half their value near to the undoing of the Sheep-master c. Proceeding principally from the abuse of Trade by Interlopers for although Wools must rise and fall with the Manufactures of England where they are chiefly vended yet as the principle Clothiers of England will store up their Cloths and Stuffs when Markets fail until they can sell them to profit so should the principle Sheep-masters reserve their Wools and the Wool-Merchants store up poor mens small parcels until Trade mend and then not tumble over great quantities to clog and lower Markets but to feed Markets as they observe their Trade requires by which means the Wools of Ireland were kept up to a competent Rate for 7 years together by my self as both the Sheep-masters and Skinners in the Province of Leinster and Connaght have often owned to me 2. So for Tallow and Butter c. trading in them becomes a Lottery from the same cause as my self experienced several times and perticularly in the year 1670. having occasion to buy a considerable quanty I agreed for several Tuns at 24. and it fell I bought more at 23. it still fell to 22. and in some parts of the Kingdom 21. I marvelled at it my Intelligence giving no advice that any great quantities were in the Merchants hands either at London or in foreign Markets but bore a competent rate only low in the West of England I suspected it only proceeded from our Blind man buff Merchants cloging the Market I stopt shiping my own and presently bought up all I could in Dublin at price current and writ to my Correspondents and Factors in all parts of Ireland to do the same upon my account upon which the Price presently started and rise to 24 and 25. and so held it that season By which Experience in these and several other Commodities I observed the Trade of Ireland was ruined by disorder and was preservable and capable of Improvement if rightly managed by considerable Stocks either in single hands conducted by the prudence of an experienced Merchant or in Company by a prudent Governor and Court of Assistance according to the paterns of the aforementioned Companies of England c. 3. This is the only Expedient to rescue the Government of our Trade out of the hands of foreigners at whose mercy we are whether we shall have a high or a low Rate for our Native commodities for they that command the largest Capital or Stock of a Kingdom or State will rule and govern the Trade of it and set the Rates on all Commodities exported or imported Object Englands Trade is divided into Companies which you have named as Hamborough Muscovy Levant East India c. and would you propose all the Trade of Ireland to be contained in the circuit of one Company Answ Though the great Trade of England and Holland c. may well bear and fully imploy several Companies with joint stock c. yet the Trade of Ireland will not England began with one Corporation for Trade in Edw. the thirds time and erected no more until Philip and Mary who granted their Patent for the Muscovy Company which was upwards of 200 years for Trades as well as Pastures may be overstock'd and thereby starved for no Trade thrives where the Merchant
had they been permitted quietly to enjoy this small part they so rightfully possest they had gone no further But instead thereof Roderick King of Connaght then sole Monarch of Ireland raiseth the whole Kingdom to drive out Mac Morrough and his Welshmen upon which he appeals to Strongbow and renewes former contracts who hasts over with about 1200 fresh Men by them wars with the Waterfordians who were in Arms against him took the City and married the Kings Daughter with an assurance of the Reversion of the Kingdom and soon after disperses his Enemies then surrendred all his Conquests to the King who came over with a new Force to secure his Interest which so terrified the Irish that all their Kings and great Lords proffered to to be tributary and swore Allegiance and had they so continued they had felt no farther damages But no sooner was the Kings back turned but they are again up in Arms to disposess the English of what they had so justly atchieved who still subdued them and gained ground of them and obtained Grants of their new Conquests until all the Irish Kings and great Lords were vanquished and their Lands c. possest by the English Victors the Heirs of Ulster and Connaght married to the Kings Subjects whose successive Heirs in process of time were married unto the Royal Family and so their Lands and Honours came Hereditary in the Crown who of right disposed of them at pleasure Now had it not been the Interest as well as the Duty of the Irish to have submitted to their first Concessions Then Dermot Mac Morrough had sustained no wrong his right Heir had enjoyed his Dominion and the rest of the Irish great Lords had enjoyed their particular Rights none pretended to disturb them until constrained in their own defence So if we take a further view of their many Insurrections and perfidious Rebellions since they held their Honours and Lands from the Crown of England it will appear they were tempted to it by the weakness of the English Interest as in times of troubles in England by the Barons Wars and Struggles betwixt the two Roses c. When the Kings of England drew over part of their Army for Ireland some taking one side and some the other which did not only weaken Englands Strength in Ireland but divided what were left into powerful Factions betwixt the great English Lords of Ireland which became the cause of the ruine of that great Family of Desmond with several others of good Rank who though degenerated from their English Civilities yet after they turned Rebels against their Prince they fell wholly off to the Interest Manners and Customs of his and their own former Irish Enemy whereby Ireland was to be new conquered and replanted for the degenerate English were more stubborn Rebels and with more difficulty subdued than the rebellious Natives for although their Minds and Manners were degenerated they had so much English Blood left in their Veins as gave them English Courage and Resolution whereby Tho. Fitz Giralds and Desmonds Rebellions became harder work to subdue than any before them they also receiving great Incouragements and Aids from the Pope and King of Spain upon the account of Religion they became obdurate the same Indulgences that were granted to the Souldiers fighting against the Turk in the holy War being sent them whereby their Consciences were not only released from their Obligations of Allegeance to their Prince but strongly engaged on the behalf of holy Church to extirpate that mad and venemous Doctrine and Hellish Opinion as the Protestant Faith was then termed in a Pamphlet then publish'd intituled A Declaration of the Divines of Salamanca and Vallidolid dispersed through Ireland by O Sullivan a Spanish Priest which with divers other practices of the Irish to shake off the English Government is rehearsed and press'd by that pious Prelate Primate Usher the Glory of the Irish Protestant Church in his elegant Speech to an Assembly of all the States of Ireland April 1627. in which he defends my Assertion that it is the Interest of the Irish to aid and support the Prosperity of the English Interest amongst them and had they had Grace to have believed him some thousands of Irish Families now utterly ruined might have been in a prosperous state And after he had minded them of their traiterous tendering the Regency of Ireland to the French King and upon his refusal to the Spaniard which was by him accepted for although Henry the fourth of France was not Apostate enough to invade his Protestant Neighbours yet Charles the fifth of Spain and his Son Philip were Papist enough to admit the Popes Donation which the Irish obtained for them Title good enough not only to claim Ireland and invade it with several Armies of Italians and Spaniards who landed at Kinsale and Kerry to their cost but also to attempt England by their supposed invincible Armado in 88. but the invincible just God did not only deliver us from their power the Sword destroying his Land Souldiers in Ireland and the Sea swallowing up his Naval Force assayling England but also from that time blasted the Counsels and Successes of that aspiring Monarch that their Fame and Potency hath ever since dwindled away Portugal and the Low Countries soon after revolted and the stately Don who then talk'd and acted as proudly as Monsieur doth now was so far from beeing able to invade his Neighbours he hath been put to his shifts to secure his Hereditary Countries and as old as I am I hope to live to see it the case of Monsieur who though now stiled the most Christian King hath declared himself the most inveterate Enemy to the most Christian Faith and Profession in the Christian World and let but the Defender of the Faith turn his Subjects loose with his Commission in their pockets they would soon covince him of it and let him know that the English Blood that inspired their Ancestors at the Battel of Agincourt c. is boyling hot in their Veins and that Charles the Second may be as dreadful to France as ever was Henry the fifth c. when he pleaseth if our God hath not given us up for our impious provocations to be a prey and a spoil as he did Israel to the Assyrians a bitter and hasty Nation But to return to my Argument that it is the Interest of the Irish Papists to further the Protestant English Interest in Ireland I shall return to my reverend Author saith he They put me in mind of the Philosophers Observations that such who have a vehement respect to a few inferiour things are easily misled to overlook many great things so saith he they have so deep a sense of their present burthen of contributing small matters towards the support of the Kings Army to secure us from foreign Invasions that they overlook all those miserable Desolations that will come upon them by a long and heavy War which the having of an
Epistle 3.17 If I be censured for this part of my Discourse by the peevish and censorious of both sides for a Digression from a Subject of promoting Trade and Wealth yet when the more moderate and judicious consider the influence of our Divisions and Jealousies fomented by rigid uncharitable persons of both parties they will vindicate me and allow that the uniting of Interest in point of Religion so far as to beget a mutual confidence in each others Integrity to the common Protestant Cause will tend much to the strengthening the â—ands of our Protestant Governors and also remove Jealousies and beget a satisfaction betwixt Assenters and Dissenters that they will never be dangerous one to another and till this be obtained I see no ground to expect the Protestant Interest of Ireland can ever be potent nor ever flourish in Trade and Wealth for these Reasons 1. The common Enemy to our common Religion and civil Interest will still be hoping the Divisions amongst our selves will at last open a door for them to destroy us all and that expectation deters them from that Industry in Manufactury and Traffick which otherwise for present profit sake they would more vigilantly promote and the more moderate of them joyn Interest with the united Protestants in preserving our common Peace 2. No greater Discouragements can lye in the way of foreign Manufacturers and Merchants coming to settle amongst us than suspicion our Divisions should cause a disturbance of the Peace which the least apprehensive must discern would be an evident ruine to the whole and consequently to themselves if they should settle with us 3. Nothing more disheartens the English from engaging in such Manufacturies and Trade as would fix their Estates on a spot they could not remove from than a sense of danger from our Divisions lest some particular Dissentors or Sect should so misbehave themselves towards the Government as to provoke them to put a general Restraint upon the Liberties of the whole and thereby necessitate them to quit the Country and so lose all their Improvements I might multiply particulars to manifest the Damage our Jealousies and Animosities on the account of our Divisions in Religion threaten and the great Advantages a charitable Union would produce to the security and prosperity of the common English Interest of Ireland But being satisfied all moderate and charitable Christians are of the same opinion I shall submit what I have offer'd to their Judgment and howsoever I am censured for this weak Essay I shall comfort my self in the Integrity of my heart to the common Welfare of the Protestant Interest of Ireland and submit the Blessing to God CHAP. III. The third Expedient to recover the languishing state of Ireland in its Trade and Wealth is to assert Irelands Interest in its own Government THat it is not only the Interest of Ireland but of the Crown and Realm of England that Ireland be governed by its own members or persons peculiarly interested in its prosperity is manifest Although it will be granted to be Irelands great advantage to have not only their Lord Lieutenants but most other Ministers of State sent from England provided they then purchase plant and settle themselves and Families in the Country for no other Expedient will advance the Prosperity and strengthen the English Interest in Ireland like it for if the Noble and Worshipful Families of Ireland would examine the original of their first Ancestors in that Kingdom few would be found that came over on purpose to purchase or plant but rather incouraged to transport themselves for the sake of publick Imploys either Civil or Military but most by the later every new Rebellion called over new Troops and Companies to strengthen the standing Army to suppress it and at the end of every War were garrison'd and quarter'd in those Countreys where the Insurrection was first raised or had been most powerful and in places most convenient to secure the future peace where they obtain'd Grants of forfeited Lands and from thence after some time of settlement of themselves and Familys their Soldiers would marry and take Farms or set up Trades and so erect English Plantations in the most dangerous Irish Countries where none but Souldiers with their Swords in their hands or others under their shelter durst adventure to plant Therefore it was a rational project at the end of the last War in order to promote the English Plantations 1. In the disbanding part of that Army to pitch upon such Troops and Companies as were best acquainted with the Country and most likely to plant their Lots and then to give some of them peculiar advantages by select places for their incouragement whereby many of the reducted Troops and Companies had the advantage of the standing Army who were confin'd to their Lots 2. To contrive the planting of the Country by the standing Army by instructing the Officers to encourage their Souldiers to marry and plant about their Garrisons and Quarters especially if Tradesmen and past their middle age and then once in 2 or 3 years to change their Quarters at a good distance from the place whereupon the married Souldiers that had settled their Familys would petition to be dismist which much increas'd English Plantations who for their incouragement were continued in Muster six months Duty free and whilst Pay is to be had a General shall never want Souldiers and young beardless Lads that have nothing to care for but to keep their Arms sixed and their Knapsacks furnished are the best Souldiers for a Field-Army and so esteemed by all Authors I have read and whilst a Troop or Company retains one half old Souldiers viz. File-leaders Half File-leaders and Bringers up the young Souldiers will do as well as others to fill up Files and after a few months careful Exercise will be as ready for any Service and perform their parts equal with the rest for though Experience and Skill is necessary in Officers yet Courage and Subjection are the more necessary Qualifications in private Souldiers which none like the young stripling who is lately come from under the severer Discipline of Family Government to whom Military Discipline seems easie and these having no Wives nor Children to cry after them c. are the freest from care and consequently the readiest at the Beat of the Drum to march where and whensoever they are commanded The neglect of this was the ruine of the English Interest the last Rebellion the standing Troops and Companies consisting much of the Officers Tenants c. could not be drawn together at short warning without exposing their Families and concerns to the merciless mercy of the Enemy whereas had they been qualified as beforementioned the King might have had a marching Army and the Country a standing Militia consisting of the same Inhabitants march'd from them in the Kings Pay to have stood by them and defended them at least against the small parties of straggling Cut-throats by whom the greatest number of
Stephen and Miles Cogan Adventurers with Strongbow in the first Attack and possessors of Lands for their Service succeeded him next to them succeeded Hugh de Lacy and Robert le Power both interested persons in Ireland Le Power being then Governor of Waterford and Wexford was possest of a great Estate in those Countries * Cambden of Ireland and Hugh de Lacy marrying the Daughter of Rodorick King of Connaght had a considerable Interest in Ireland by her right the King still approving interested persons fittest to govern Ireland that designing to send over his own Son John he first made him King of Ireland to give him a peculiar Interest in that Kingdom †Hovenden p. 77. from his time being anno Dom. 1185. until Lionel Duke of Clarence 1361. near 200 years that Edward the Third's Son was sent over who by right of his Wife was Earl of Ulster and Lord of Connaght I find Ireland governed for the most part by Butlers of the House of Ormonde Fitz Morris Fitz John Fitz Gerralds c. of the Houses of Kildare and Desmond with Woggans Barrys Powers Bourkes Burminghams c. and in intervals by Dignitaries of the Church or other Ministers of State in Ireland I find very few but either had considerable Interest in Ireland or otherwise settled on them at their sending over or purchased by them in the time of their Service and settled there with their Families In all which time we read of very few Factions until that of Desmond who raised a Dissention betwixt the English of Blood and English of Birth which bred such ill Blood in his own Families Veins as boyled up to the ruine of it afterwards in the Queens days 1583. and from the time of the Duke of Clarence 1361. until 1385. the Earl of Oxford was created Duke of Ireland and Marquess of Dublin at his coming over of Twelve Lord Lieutenants and Deputies c. in that time not above two or three at the most but Butlers Gerralds c. Next Richard the Second sent over Mortymer Lord Lieutenant but first created him Earl of Ulster Lord of Trim Clare and Connaght 1398. from him until the year 1449. I find not above four or five viz. Sir John Stanly Scroop Sutton de Gray c. and they but short times but persons of Ireland viz. Talbots Gerralds and Butlers the later six times in this short space of about fifty years Then was Richard Duke of York being Earl of Ulster Lord of Connaght and Meath by Descent from Lionel Duke of Clarence Lord Lieutenant But for a more distinct Account of Irelands Chief Governours since the Conquest I shall refer the Reader to the ensuing Catalogue as I find it recorded by Borlacy Spencer Campian Hanmer Marlburroughs Hooker c. wherein I have only noted some few remarkable things that happened under some of their Governments designing only a brief Catalogue of both sorts to make good my Position that the Policy of England hath still found it best to govern Ireland by its own Members or persons peculiarly interested in its prosperity But this is observable when Noblemen c. were sent out of England to govern Ireland it was not of choice but rather of necessity as in these and the like cases First to ballance Factions amongst the English Lords of Ireland when their animosities grew so high that Interest of State required a more indifferent Hand at the Helm which proceeded from their great Power ruling their Tenants c. as Soveraign Princes over large Teritories by the Brehon Laws whereby multitudes both of English and Irish more depended upon their Favour than the Kings but that sort of Lordship is utterly extinguished root and branch the greatest Lords of Ireland are as subject to the Kings Laws as the meanest man and the whole Militia of the Kingdom under the Kings immediate Commission and Pay therefore that Reason ceaseth Second Reason was to ballance Factions in the Court of England especially in the Barons Wars and in the Contest betwixt the two Houses of York and Lancaster c. but the two Roses now are not only graffed but so well grown upon one stalk that danger is over Thirdly in times of considerable Rebellions when either of these two Reasons swayed 1. When the Work required persons of greater Experience in Martial Affairs than it it was supposed Ireland afforded but Ireland is now so well furnished with Noble persons of approved Courage and Conduct that it is able to supply England if the Kings Affairs should require it with Officers from the Truncheon to the Halbert to conduct a Royal Army 2. When the great Lords of Ireland were in Factions one against the other especially those of English Race as the Geraldines and Butlers c. which two Houses mantained an inveterate Feud for several Generations yet by turns were chiefly employ'd by Henr. 7th and 8th till the 20th year of the Raign of Henry the Eighth Thomas the Son of Gerrald Earl of Kildare then Prisoner in the Tower broke out into Rebellion from which time the King sent over English Governours during his Life as Skeffington the Lord Gray Brereton St. Leger c. which course his Son Edward the Sixth and both his Daughters Mary and Elizabeth imitated him in for the most part the like King James and Charles the First but the reason thereof must be attributed to the Change or rather Reformation of Religion most of the Noble Families of Ireland capable of chief Trust still adhering to the Roman Superstition and consequently uncapable of promoting a Protestant Interest which case is now otherwise most of the ancient Nobility of Ireland are Protestants as may appear in my Schedule of Irelands Nobility and as that reason of State is ceased so hath the practice since About two years after the Rebellion Jan. 1643. James then Marquess now Duke of Ormonde was sworn Lord Lieutenant since which time being 39 years Jan. last he hath born the Honour of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland except from the 18th of September 1669. the Lord Roberts entred until the â—4th of August 1677. the Earl of Essex surrender'd not full eight years so that the Duke hath born the Honour 31 years and actually exercised the Regency 19 years being interrupted about 12 years viz. from December 1650. he left Clanrickard Deputy until the 28th of July 1662. when His Grace was again sworn Lord Lieutenant and as he hath exercised the longest Regency so hath he had the most difficult Work of any chief Governor since the Conquest First Commander of an Army for some years under great wants the hardest task to a noble spirited General Secondly Fighting against a people he desired and endeavoured the Welfare of that would not believe him until they found it to their cost that their Ingratitude and Treachery to him and their Princes Interest that he asserted sell upon their own pates Thirdly Fighting for a Prince in no capacity to support him
party in expectation matters might go better with them upon the Settlement than they feared the chief Contrivances of the people of each Faction being how to wipe themselves clean with each others foul Clouts by alledging something to extetenuate their own and aggravate others Offences 2. The great Confusion the Duke found that Kingdom in at his landing all Interests being unsettled and Minds unsatisfied both which were necessary to be composed and determined before the Improvement of the Kingdom by Trade could be thought on for till men knew their Interest in the Country as to their real Estates they had little reason to be much concerned in improving their personal Uncertain Titles to Lands are always attended with certain omissions of Improvements for men are not willing to build Houses for others to dwell in nor to improve Lands for others to possess Which was then more notoriously the state of the Inhabitants of Ireland in general than usually befalls a Country which will appear if you do but weigh the many distinct and contrary Interests producing several violent opposite Factions and Parties that Ireland was under at the Dukes access to the Government And for your Information or Satisfaction herein take this brief view of the state from the year 1660. to the year 1662. the Duke arrived 1. The Irish themselves notwithstanding the body of them could not be unsensible of their Guiâ—â— in the bloody massacring of so many hundreds oâ— thousands of English in cold blood yet they alledge their Displeasure was not against the King nor against the Kings good Subjects but for theiâ— own preservation against the fury of the Puritâ—â—â— party then so much favoured by the Parliament of England and therefore they hoped the worst construction would not be put upon their Actions but that the edge of that sharp Law of Decimo Septimo against their Estates passed by the King under some sort of necessity to satisfie the discontented people of England might be blunted A second sort of them that pleaded they were not concerned in the bloody Massacre and first Rising for they tendred their Service to the Crown till they observ'd the Commotion to be so general and themselves so far suspected they were not trusted that they had only choice which party they would be ruined by and therefore fell in with the rest of their Country men hoping by their Interest in their Councils to prevent further Extremities and to keep them in a capacity of accepting reasonable terms of Submission to the Government of England A third sort pleaded they accepted of the Cessation 1643. and closed in with the Peace in the years 1646 1648. and from that time were faithful to the Crown and bore Arms in the defence of its Interest against the Usurpers and many of them after they could do the King no further Service in Ireland served under the Banner of his Friends beyond Sea without the least defect until the time his of Majesties happy Restoration and from thence they concluded they had made amends for all their former faults There were a fourth sort who though least in number yet most deserving that pleaded Innocency as without any defect in the whole Transaction and they expected not only their own Estates but Reparation for past Sufferings And as these several Interests and Factions of the Irish thus divided them into parties so was it with the English Protestants 1. The unspotted Royalists that both in the English and Irish War never served under other but the Kings Banner they expected to be both first and best provided for who had a special provision made for them though not what they expected by the Act of Settlement under the denomination of the Forty nine Men. 2. Such who had served the King faithfully in his Wars in England and Ireland until the Kings Government was removed and then accepted of Imployments under the Usurpers in Ireland and these were generally known by the denomination of the Old Protestant party 3. They which seemed to be the most considerable both for Number and Interest being possest of the chief Imployments both Military and Civil at the Kings Restoration was the new Interest of Adventurers and Souldiers the first claiming Propriety by the Act of Decimo septimo and the other by their Service against the Irish in which they alledged they had done the King good Service though by his Enemies Commissions and they being suspicious the Lands of Ireland would not hold out to satisfie the Expectations of all those Interests it begat Factions both between the Adventurer and Souldier and between each party among themselves Those Adventurers that had payed their Subscriptions in due time pleaded Priviledge before those who failed in that point then the original Subscribers found themselves aggrieved the douâ—â—â—ng Ordinance men should invade their first Security so amongst the Souldiers those then in Arms pleaded in consideration of their good Services in the Kings Restoration they deserved to have the Kings Favours in the the Act of Settlement limited to such as were mustered in the next Muster after the Kings Interest was avowed but the others alledged they never intended to bring in the King until they had run themselves into such confusions in their Counsels and Convulsions in their State they knew not what to do which gave a fair opportunity to those Royallists amongst them in that shuffle of the Cards to turn up the Kings Interest Trumps Now these many different Interests rendred the work of Irelands Settlement both tedious and difficult that required both a skilful and tender Hand to compose for these contrary Interests produced contrary Humours which until the â—â—ke of Ormond landed work'd to that height 〈◊〉 opposition that every Eye was filled with envy and every Brow with indignation one against the other that if they met on the Road or passed by eâ—â—h other in the Street contempt and prejudice to a strange degree might be read in their deportment yet all the Factions unless that termed Fanatick bore up with a competent confidence but the generality of that party seemed to be much dejected every day more and more withering in their hopes in so much that many of them were preparing for voluntary Exile some to Plantations in America others into Holland or such parts of England as they supposed obscurity might give them most quiet and safety and in order thereunto sold considerable Interests in this Kingdom at very low rates some giving one moyety some loss to Favourites at Court to secure the Remain to themselves But soon after understanding that the Act of Settlement was neer perfected and that His Majesty was gratiously inclined to make no considerable distincton of Interests therein nor exception of persons included in his gratious Act of Indemnity â—â—d that the Duke of Ormonde who of all men had been most disobliged by the late Powers they feared would have been their greatest Enemy was the most concerned to secure their Interest
Catastrophy of these Firebrands and their Prosylites were miserably extinguished their Hypocrisie and Covetousness having rendred them monstrously odious to the Japonians c. vid. Bernh Var. Relig. in Reg. Japon ch 11. That as their predecessors the old Pharisees compassed Sea and Land to make Proselytes c. these modern Pharisees have trod miles to their steps to convert alias to destroy Nations and Countries and of all the Countries in the world esteemed by them heretical England with its Teritories is the mark they have for this hundred years past and at this day do most level their poysoned Arrows against therefore of all the Protestants in the world the English or at least the Irish Protestant is not to be blamed for manifesting a dread of the influence of Jesuited Papists the burnt Child dreads the fire And it being the Jesuits declared Opinion the Catholick Religion is not to be recovered in England c. by Disputing or Writing but with an Army and with Fire and Sword vid. Prynnes Compl. Hist Part 1. pag. 449 450. Idem in Preface to Vind. of Fund Part 1. I am of the same Opinion in that point but were I of their Principle and design'd to make one trial more of this supposed infallible expedient I would advise the next Consult to be sure the Army be strong enough and the Fire big enough for if they miss the next attempt it is twenty to one but the exasperated English Hereticks will reckon with them for old scores and endeavour more effectually to secure themselves against new Massacres vide Part 2. ch 2. p. 83. to p. 89. and Supplement Sect. 7. SECT VI. Of their Inconsistency with the just Power and Right of Temporal Princes and States 1. THe most absolute Soveraign Monarchs in the Christian world much more inferiour Princes c. have been greater slaves since the Popes usurped Supremacy than ever we read any conquered or tributary Prince c. have been to the Great Turk c. Vide Ursinus's Compendium of the Lives of the Emperors and then consider whether the Turks ever dealt with their Vassals after Submission as their Holinesses have done with their lawful Soveraigns who the Laws of God and Man enjoyns Subjection too Did he ever insultingly tread on their Necks upon Submission as Alexander the third on Frederick the first or kick their Crowns off their Heads with his Feet as Celestin the third did to the Emperor Henry the sixth or suffer them to stand with their tender Ladies and Children in a manner naked bare-foot and bare-leg'd waiting to acknowledg their Vassalage in Frost and Snow or did he ever cause them to be whip'd like Vagabonds as he did our Henry the second till the Blood ran down for restraining the Insolency of their own Subjects No. Multitudes of instances might be given of this kind wherein the Antichristian Pope hath outdone the Antichristian Turk in barbarous insultings over Princes c. And this tyrannical slavery exercised against all legal pretence to Royal Dignities 1. No hereditary Title though derived from the most Royal and antient Descents could secure their Claim until confirmed by the Pope 1. The Line of Constantine the Great after three hundred years Regency rejected by the Pope and Phocus of base birth and vile conditions set up for granting Rome the Supremacy Grimstones State of the Empire 594. 2. In the year 800. the Line of the Grecian Emperors rejected and Charlemaine set up by Leo the third Grimstone fol. 596. from which time you may read in Ursinus the abstract of the frequent Treacheries of the successive Popes sometimes instigating Sons to rebel against their Fathers c. labouring to extinguish all lineal Descent and after suppressing due Elections to usurp the sole power of creating and deposing Emperors c. at their will and pleasure to whom I shall refer you 2. No legal Election nor general free choice of inferiour Princes and States though of never so long prescription could fix a Crown on their Heads till set on by the Pope as in the case of Frederick Barbarossa Ursin p. 47. his predecessor Conrade the third p. 43. so Lodowick of Bavaria p. 112. the like that brave Prince Charles the fifth and his Successor Ferdinand c. vid. Urs 141. to 177. Fred. the second p. 102. 3. No Concession or submission to the Popes Sentences could obtain Absolution longer than his Holiness could pick the least hole in their Coats instance the Emperor Henry the fourth so the Emperor of Greece Constantine the seventh being in distress consented to the worshipping of Images c. yet soon after the Pope sets up Charles the Great as Emperor of the West after him the Emperor John Paleologus to make the Pope his Friend when distress'd by the Turk owns the Popes Supremacy in the Council of Florence 1439. yet he assisted his Enemies and obstructed his Aids to the utter ruine of the Greek Empire and Eastern Churches Henry the fourth of France turns Papist to please the Pope and extends all possible respect to the Jesuits to preserve his Life from Assassination revoked all Edicts made for their Banishment by his Predecessor pull'd down the Pillar erected in memory of their barbarous Assassination of Henry the third and other treacherous Villanies yet after all was stab'd in the Heart by Raviliac because he tolerated two Religions in which Christs words were verefied He that will save his life shall lose it but he that will lose his life for my sake shall find it 4. No strength of Arms nor strong holds could ever secure them from the Popes vengeance when once he resolv'd to rid the world of them as is evident in Henry the third of France stab'd by a Fryar in the midst of his mighty Army besieging Paris though a great Persecutor of the Hugonites and this after the good Emperor Rodolph the second told him there was no greater sin than to force mens Consciences supposing thereby to win Heaven did oftentimes lose what they possess'd on Earth French Hist p. 318. which when dying he declared to his Nobles that Piety is a duty of man to God over which worldly force hath no power pag. 319. so that most warlike Prince Henry the fourth after all his Conquest and his changing his Religion to preserve his Life was stab'd in the midst of his warlike Captains by that wicked Regicide Raviliac read Grimstones State of the Empire c. you may find many other instances 5. No Articles for Peace or publick League will secure them they have always snap'd like Sampsons new Cords and green Wit hs for as there is no Faith to be kept with Hereticks so not with Catholiks if they stood in the way of the Popes Interest nay Humour as multitudes of presidents might be given even to fill a large History I can but give hints 1. John the thirteenth perfidiously broke his Oath solemnly given on the Body of St. Peter to Otho the Great