Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
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A60874
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Some ways for raising of money humbly offer'd to the consideration of the Parliament / by a person of quality.
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Person of quality.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing S4633; ESTC R11597
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8,927
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16
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SOME WAYS FOR Raising of Money Humbly offer'd to the Consideration of the PARLIAMENT BY A Person of Quality LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Randall Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1690. Some Ways for Raising of Money Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Parliament THE best way of all others is an Excise under which Head the following Particulars or most of them will be reduced This Way will be the most effectual to raise great Sums of Money and will be the least felt And it is used by all wise and civiliz'd Nations who find it the best and easiest way But tho it were not so yet now in this great Exigence and when all lies at stake and such mighty Sums are wanting to preserve us we should not be afraid of it It is not here meant that we should have a general Excise upon all things bought and sold for that seems too troublesom and vexatious but only upon some things of general use and which can well bear the Duty I shall name some few of them 1. A Farthing a Pound upon all Flesh sold by retail the Offals excepted with effectual provision that no Flesh shall be sold in Towns save only in the Market or in the Shops or Shambles 2. An Halfpenny a Pound upon all Candles sold These two easie Duties would clear six hundred thousand Pounds a Year 3. A Sixth part of the Value or Two Pence in the Shilling upon all Paper imported but so as none to pay above One Shilling the Ream This would give a mighty Advantage to our new Manufacture of Paper in England which therefore might well afford to pay the half of this Duty or the Twelfth part of the Value 4. Sealed Paper and Parchment for Bonds Contracts and Conveyances without which no Writing which requires the Seal of the Parties to be good and valid Tho this Duty were made light yet it would bring in great Sums and would be very easily gathered As it is found by Experience in other Countries 5. When the Assize of Bread is above Ten Ounces for the Penny White Loaf the Excess or what is over and above to be a Duty to the King and the Bread to be made at Ten Ounces 6. An additional Duty of Twelve Pound per Tonne at the least upon French Wine and this to be instead of the Prohibition It would keep it out much more effectually For now though it be prohibited it is as plentiful as ever And as less would come in than does now so that which comes in under such Duties would advance great Sums towards our publick Occasions yielding very small and miserable Gains to the French Seller 7. Six Pound per Tonne addition upon all other Wines which they may well afford to pay the French paying so much more Nor can our Friends take it ill if in this Exigence we encrease the Duty upon their Wines since we double it upon our own Beer and Ale Also by this means French Wines which are chiefly aim'd at could not escape by pretending them to be from other places for all Wines would now have near the same Burthen And since at the Canaries they are grown so rich and so proud that they will not now take our Woollen Manufactures nor scarce any thing else we have so that we must carry Money or give them Bills to Spain therefore there should be a further Addition of Duty upon their Wines for nothing will bring them down but a Company or high Duties 8. Two or three Shillings per Gallon upon all Brandy imported and French Brandy to pay double and their Double Brandy to pay double to that 9. Forty or Fifty per Cent. Addition upon all other French Commodities These few things would bring in more Money than our great Land-Tax of an Hundred Thirty Seven Thousand Pounds a Month. And these might be for continuance if occasion should require I have now two Ways to offer which will only advance a present Sum and are not for continuance The first is a Review of the Taxes of One Shilling and Three Shillings in the Pound These Taxes were the most equal of all others had they been well assess'd but they were assess'd so shamefully ill that thereby the Taxes became the most unequal Some Lands were assess'd at the full value some hardly at half and some not at all I heard a Gentleman of Surrey affirm That he knew of Three Thousand Pounds a Year in his Neighbourhood which paid not a Penny to those Taxes It is therefore humbly proposed that a Review be in this manner Commissioners to be named by the King for each County and chang'd at pleasure The major part to be of the same County These to sit every Month or oftener if occasion be to receive and hear Informations of Estates under rated and to determine them according to their Consciences What shall come in by this Way to go half to the King and half to the Informer for except the Informer be well rewarded there is no good to be done in things of this kind Before any Information be received the Commissioners to sit once or twice to receive the Confessions of the Parties themselves who by this means may prevent the Informer They that confess the true Value to save the one half of what they were under-rated paying the other half to the King No Information to be received after Three Years It is verily believed that His Majesties share of this Gleaning will come to Three or Four Hundred Thousand Pounds And here will be an equal Assessment for the future such as never was in England The second Way here offered is A Composition for the Irish Estates Which may be thus That all King James his Adherents in that Kingdom who shall come in by such a time be pardon'd and have their Lands paying Two Years purchase of their true Value as it was Three Years ago some few of the most notorious and mischievous being excepted To incline us to go by this Way of Composition rather than by Confiscation and Sale let us consider the matters here following First let us consider that it is the more merciful and consequently the more Christian Way Whereas if we should Confiscate all these Estates and turn the People a begging together with their Wives and Children it would be the severest Victory that hath been known among Christians Would it not seem extremely rigorous if we should put them all to the Sword And the stripping them of their Estates is as bad or worse It were a Mercy to take away their Lives rather than leave them in so great Misery This French King hath lately subdued Savoy but we do not hear of any Confiscations or Extirpations nor are their Lands made a Prey to the conquering Army but every Man enjoys his own The same French King when he had setled his Conquests in Flanders gave publick notice to the Gentlemen of those Countries who were in the Spanish Service that if they
would return home by a time prefixed and become his Subjects they should have their Estates They asked the King of Spain's permission who granted it And thereupon having taken solemn leave of their Friends at Brussels they returned home and had their Estates It cannot be denyed but that this was an Action truly noble of all sides That we may look farther back it was one of the chief Glories of Richelieu's Administration that when his King had taken Rochel and entirely subdu'd the Protestants he not only pardon'd them their Lives and Estates but likewise continu'd to them their Religious Liberties without any Diminution We must not be ashamed to take Example by our Enemies in what they do well rather we should strive to exceed them Secondly let us consider that these Peoples Crime is not so horrible as some would suppose it King James plainly forsook the Kingdom of England but that of Ireland he did not seem to forsake He retain'd the Government there first by his Lieutenant and then in person And who can think it unpardonable if these People adher'd to their natural King being also of their own Religion and their constant Friend and Patron If we will be impartial we can hardly blame them for what they have done Beside though they had such strong Motives yet they were hardly prevail'd upon to engage and declare They knew there were some Men in the World that had a great mind to their Lands and they were very loth to hazard them But being left to themselves for many Months and to the Practices and Persuasions of King James his Agents and no Power but King James's appearing in Ireland and we in England being wholly taken up with setling our Government they were drawn in to do that which perhaps wiser Men than they would have done in their Circumstances Let us thirdly consider That these are the antient Inhabitants and Proprietors of that Country That they are our Country-men at large and have been our Fellow-Subjects for some Hundreds of Years Though many of them be rude and wild yet they are as we found them and in time they may be reclaimed How many civil Protestant Families are there already in Ireland of mere Irish Extraction We should consider in the fourth place That Mens not submitting to a new-establish'd Government is not so hainous a Crime as the Rebelling against a Government they were born under or to which they have submitted Who can think it strange if there be some Differences and Disorders upon a Dissolution of Government And in such a Case must nothing less than Destruction be thought a sufficient Punishment Suppose a part of England in a great Revolution should not readily conform with the rest must they for this be utterly destroy'd and extirpated Or which is the same thing must their Estates be made a Prey and themselves made miserable Beggars This would seem to us especially to those of us that felt it very hard and severe And let us not deceive our selves in our own partial Imaginations There is as much Mercy in such a Case due to Irish-Men as there is to Us English Fifthly we may consider That the way of Clemency here proposed will be near as beneficial to us as the utmost Severity especially if we reckon how much it will save In all humane probability it will put a sudden end to the War and save the further effusion of Blood and Treasure Since the Victory at the Boyne we have been fighting for Irish Lands which I doubt hath cost us more already than those Lands are worth Let us throw away no more upon them Sixthly we must consider That we have an Enemy upon us who is ready to swallow up all Europe Any one may know that I mean the French King Let us therefore take heed lest by being too obstinately bent to destroy the Irish we be destroy'd our selves by the French There is now a mighty Confederacy against this French King but they have two great Diversions namely the War against the Turk and this of Ireland The Emperor was much overseen in not making Peace with the Turk last Winter which Peace they that dissuaded and hindered did thereby great Service to the French and we should take care not to fall into the like Error by continuing the War of Ireland Which may have so fatal a Consequence as the Ruine of all Europe and of our selves among the rest 'T is a Voyage Royal into France that must support both Us and our Confederates and therefore it concerns us to unite all our Forces for a Voyage Royal into France which I pray God to prosper Lastly we should do well to consider what are the Desires and Sentiments of our Friends and likewise of our Enemies in this Irish Affair It cannot be doubted but that it is the passionate Desire of our Friends and Confederates that we would make up with the Irish upon any reasonable Terms that so we might assail the French with all the Force we can make Which how greatly it would advantage our Confederates is easie to imagine On the other side it must be the Wish of our great Enemy the French King that we would give the Irish no Terms but prosecute them with the utmost Rigour That thereby they may be obliged and enforced to continue the War and to defend themselves to the last Extremity And that Himself in the mean time may beat us out of the Sea may overbear our Confederates at Land and even invade England it self When we consider these things I hope we shall endeavour deavour to fulfil the Desire of our Friends and shall not do as our Enemies would have us There are some Objections against this Design of Mercy to the poor Irish to which some Answer must be given 1. It is said to make their Crime seem greater That Ireland is a subordinate Kingdom to England and must therefore comply with whatever we do I answer That this Consequence cannot hold in all Cases For if England should be invaded and subdued by a forraine Enemy which God avert and should be forced to submit to the Conquerour it would not follow that the Irish when they might defend themselves must submit to the forraine Yoke likewise What we did in the late Revolution was done upon Grounds so righteous as may justify us to all the World But put the case that we English Men should without any pretence or colour throw oft our lawful Prince would the Irish be obliged in duty to do the same Or to make the thing shorter If England rebell must Ireland rebell to and if they will not do it readily must they be rooted out 2. The Irish will never be quiet I answer They must be quiet since they will not be in condition to be otherwise From the time the Long Parliament subdued them they have been very meek and tame Yet I confess that when we had set up Popish Kings in England who gave all Countenance