institutions may be invented by which emulation may be raised among the Breeders by a prospect both of particular honour and profit to those who succeed best and of good ordinary gains and ready vent to such as by aiming at the best though they fail yet go beyond the common sorts To this purpose there may be set up both a Horse-Fair and Races to be held at a certain time every year for the space of a Week the first in the fairest Green near the City of Dublin the later in that place designed by your Lordship in the Park for some such purpose During this Week the Monday Wednesday and Friday may be the Races the Tuesday Thursday and Saturday the Fairs may be held At each Race may be two Plates given by the King one of Thirty pounds and the other of Twenty besides the fashion as the Prizes for the first and second Horse the first Engraven with a Horse Crowned with a Crown the second with a Coronet and under it the day of the Month and the year Besides these Plates the Wagers may be as the persons please among themselves but the Horses must be evidenced by good Testimonies to have been bred in Ireland For honour the Lord Lieutenant may ever be present himself or at least name a Deputy in his room and two Judges of the field who shall decide all Controversies and with sound of Trumpet declare the two Victors The Masters of these two Horses may be admitted to ride from the Field to the Castle with the Lord Lieutenant or his Deputy and to Dine with him that day and there receive all the honour of the Table This to be done what quality soever the persons are of for the lower that is the more will be the honour and perhaps the more the sport and the encouragement of breeding will by that means extend to all sorts of men For the Fairs the Lord Lieutenant may likewise be present every day in the heighth of them by himself or Deputy and may with the advice of the two chief Officers of the Army then present choose out one of the best Horses and two of the best Geldings that appear in the Fair not under four nor above seven years old For which shall be paid to the owners of them after sufficient Testimony of their being bred in Ireland One hundred pounds for the Horse and fifty pounds a piece for the Geldings These Sums as that for the Plates to issue out of the Revenue of Ireland and without trouble or fee and the three Horses to be sent over every year to the Kings Stables Both those that won the Plate and those which are thus sold ought immediately to be marked so as they may never return a second time either to the Race or to the Sale The benefit by such an institution as this will be very great and various For besides the encouragement to breed the best Horses from the honour and gain already mentioned there will be a sort of publick entertainment for one whole week during which the Lord Lieutenant the Lord Mayor of the City and the great Officers both Civil and Military ought to keep open Tables for all strangers This will draw a confluence of people from all parts of the Country Many perhaps from the nearer parts of England may come not only as to a publick kind of solemnity but as to a great Mart of the best Horses This will enrich the City by the expence of such a concourse and the Country by the sale of many Horses into England and in time or from thence into foreign parts This will make general acquaintances among the Gentry of the Kingdom and bring the Lord Lieutenant to be more personally known and more honoured by his appearing in more greatness and with more solemnity than usual upon these occasions And all this with expence only of Three hundred and fifty pounds a year to the Crown for which the King shall have three the best Horses bred that year in Ireland The Fishing of Ireland might prove a Mine under water as rich as any under ground if it were improved to those vast advantages it is capable of and that we see it raised to in other Countrys But this is impossible under so great a want of people and cheapness of all things necessary to life throughout the Country which are in all places invincible enemies of industry and improvements While these continue I know no way of advancing this Trade to any considerable degree unless it be the erecting four Companies of Fishery one in each Province of Ireland into which every man that enters shall bring a certain Capital and receive a proportionable share of the gain or loss and have a proportional voice in the Election of a President and Council by whom the whole business in each Province shall be managed If into each of these Companies the King or Lord Lieutenant would enter for a considerable share at the first towards building such a number of Boats and Busses as each Company could easily manage it would be an encouragement both of honour and advantage Certain Priviledges likewise or Immunities might be granted from charges of trouble or expence nay from Taxes and all unusual payments to the publick in favour of such as brought in a proportion to a certain heighth into the Stock of the Fishery Nay it seems a matter of so great importance to His Majesties Crowns both as to the improving the Riches of this Kingdom and impairing the mighty gains of His Neighbours by this Trade that perhaps there were no hurt if an Act were made by which none should be capable of being either chosen into a Parliament or the Commission of the Peace who had not manifested his desires of advancing the publick good by entring in some certain proportion into the stock and Companies of the Fishery since the greatness of one and application of the other seem the only present means of improving so rich and so important a Trade It will afterwards be the business of the Companies themselves or their directors to fall into the best methods and rules for the curing and barrelling up all their Fish and to see them so exactly observed as may bring all those quantities of them that shall be sent abroad or spent at home into the highest and most general credit which with advancing the Seasons all that can be so as to find the first forreign Markets will be a way to the greatest and surest gains In Holland there have been above thirty Placaerts or Acts of State concerning the ouring salting and barrelling of Herrings alone with such severity in the Imposition and execution of Penalties that the business is now grown to an habitual skill and care and honesty so as hardly any example is seen of failing in that matter or thereby impairing the general credit of that Commodity among them or in the forreign Markets they use Iron seems to me the Manufacture that
attendance of all private pretenders The great Estates of this Kingdom have been four or five years constantly spent in England Money instead of coming over hither for pay of the Army has since the War began been transmitted thither for pay of those Forces that were called from hence And lastly This War has had a more particular and mortal influence upon the Trade of this Countrey than upon any other of His Majesties Kingdoms For by the Act against Transportation of Cattel into England the Trade of this Countrey which run wholly thither before was turned very much into forreign parts but by this War the last is stopped and the other not being open'd there is in a manner no vent for any Commodity but of Wool This necessity has forced the Kingdom to go on still with their forreign Trade but that has been with such mighty losses by the great number of Dutch Privateers plying about the Coasts and the want of English Fregats to secure them that the stock of the Kingdom must be extreamly diminished Yet by the continuance of the same expence and luxury in point of living Money goes over into England to fetch what must supply it though little Commodities goes either there or abroad to make any considerable ballance By all which it must happen that with another years continuance of the War there will hardly be Money left in this Kingdom to turn the common Markets or pay any Rents or leave any circulation further than the receipts of the Customs and Quit-rents and the Pays of the Army which in both kinds must be the last that fail In such a conjuncture the crying up of any species of money will but encrease the want of it in general for while there goes not out commodity to ballance that which is brought in and no degree of gains by exportation will make amends for the venture what should money come in for unless it be to carry out other money as it did before and leave the stock that remains equal indeed in denomination but lower in the intrinsique value than it was before In short while this War lasts and our Seas are ill guarded all that can be done towards preserving the small remainder of Money in this Kingdom is First to introduce as far as can be a vein of Parsimony throughout the Countrey in all things that are not perfectly the native growths and manufactures Then by severity and steddiness of the Government as far as will be permitted to keep up in some credit the present peace and settlement And lastly To force men to a degree of industry by suffering none to hope that they shall be able to live by rapine or fraud For in some diseases of a Civil as well as a Natural body all that can be done is to fast and to rest to watch and to prevent accidents to trust to methods rather than medicines or remedies and with patience to expect till the humours being spent and the Crisis past way may be made for the natural returns of health and of strength This being premised as peculiar either to the Government in general or to the present conjuncture I shall proceed to such Observations as occur concerning the ways of advancing the common and standing Trade of this Kingdom The Trade of a Countrey arises from the native growths of the Soil or Seas the Manufactures the commodiousness of Ports and the store of Shipping which belong to it The improvement therefore of Trade in Ireland must be considered in the survey of all these Particulars the defects to which at present they are subject and the encreases they are capable of receiving either from the course of time the change of customs or the conduct and application of the Government The native Commodities or common easie Manufactures which make up the Exportation of this Kingdom and consequently furnish both the stock of forreign Commodities consumed in the Countrey and that likewise of current Money by which all Trade is turned are Wool Butter Beef Cattel Fish Iron and by the improvement of these either in the quantity the credit or the further Manufacture the Trade of Ireland seems chiefly to be advanced In this Survey one thing must be taken notice of as peculiar to this Countrey which is That as in the nature of its Government so in the very improvement of its Trade and Riches it ought to be considered not only in its own proper interest but likewise in its relation to England to which it is subordinate and upon whose weal in the main that of this Kingdom depends and therefore a regard must be had of those points wherein the Trade of Ireland comes to interfere with any main branches of the Trade of England in which cases the encouragement of such Trade ought to be either declined or moderated and so give way to the interest of Trade in England upon the health and vigor whereof the strength riches and glory of His Majesties Crowns seem chiefly to depend But on the other side some such branches of Trade ought not wholly to be supprest but rather so far admitted as may serve the general consumption of this Kingdom lest by too great an importation of Commodities though out of England it self the Money of this Kingdom happen to be drawn away in such a degree as not to leave a stock sufficient for turning the Trade at home the effect hereof would be general discontents among the People complaints or at least ill impressions of the Government which in a Countrey composed of three several Nations different to a great degree in Language Customs and Religion as well as Interests both of property and dependances may prove not only dangerous to this Kingdom but to England it self Since a sore in the leg may affect the whole body and in time grow as difficult a cure as if it were in the head especially where humours abound The Wool of Ireland seems not to be capable of any encrease nor to suffer under any defect the Countrey being generally full stockt with sheep cleared of Wolves the Soil little subject to other rotts than of hunger and all the considerable flocks being of English breed and the staple of Wool generally equal with that of Northampton or Leicestershire the improvement of this Commodity by Manufactures in this Kingdom would give so great a damp to the Trade of England of which Cloths Stuffs and Stockins make so mighty a part that it seems not fit to be encouraged here at least no further than to such a quantity of one or two Summer-stuffs Irish-freeze and Cloth from Six shillings to Fourteen as may supply in some measure the ordinary consumption of the Kingdom That which seems most necessary in this branch is the careful and severe execution of the Statutes provided to forbid the Exportation of Wool to any other parts but to England which is the more to be watched and feared since thereby the present Riches of this Kingdom
of all others ought the least to be encouraged in Ireland or if it be which requires the most restriction to certain places and Rules For I do not remember to have heard that there is any Oare in Ireland at least I am sure the greatest part is fetched from England so that all this Country affords of its own growth towards this Manufacture is but the Wood which has met but with too great consumptions already in most parts of this Kingdom and needs not this to destroy what is left So that Iron-works ought to be confined to certain places where either the Woods continue vast and make the Country savage or where they are not at all fit for Timber or likely to grow to it or where there is no conveyance for Timber to places of vent so as to quit the cost of the carriage Having run through the Commodities of Ireland with their defects and improvements I will only touch the other two Points mentioned at first as the grounds likewise of Trade in a Country those are the Commodiousness of Ports and the store of Shipping in one of which this Kingdom as much abounds as it fails in the other The Haven of Dublin is barr'd to that degree as very much to obstruct the Trade of the City the clearing or opening of it were a great work and proper either for the City or the whole Province of Lemster to undertake But whether it be feasible or at such charges as will quit cost I will not judg especially considering the many good Havens that are scattered upon that whole Eastern Coast of Ireland Besides this I know not what to propose upon this head unless it be the making of two free Ports one in Kerry and t'other upon the Northwest Coast which may thereby grow to be Magazines for the West-Indy Trade and from thence those Commodities may be dispersed unto all other parts of Europe after having paid the Customs which they ought to pay in England where this must be concerted For the last Point I doubt there is hardly any other Country lying upon the Sea-coast and not wholly out of the way of Trade which has so little Shipping of its own as Ireland and which might be capable of imploying more The reason of this must be in part the scarcity of Timber proper for this built but more the want of Merchants and uncertainty of Trade in the Country For preventing the further destruction of Timber a Law may be made forbidding any man to cut down any Oak that is of a certain heighth unless it be of a certain scantling as twelve inches diameter or some such measure as usually makes a Tree useful Timber And further the severest Penalties ought to be put upon Barking any Tree that is not felled a custom barbarous and peculiar to this Country and by which infinite quantities of Timber have been destroyed Most Traders in these parts at least of Ireland are but Factors nor do I hear of any number of Merchants in the Kingdom The cause of this must be rather an ill opinion of security than of gain for those are the two baits which draw Merchants to a place the last intices the poorer Traders or the young beginners or those of passage but without the first the substantial and the rich will never settle in a Country This opinion can be attained only by a course of time of good conduct and good government and thereby of justice and of peace which lye out of the compass of this Discourse But to make some amends for this want at present encouragement may be given to any Merchants that shall come over and turn a certain stock of their own here as Naturalization upon any terms freedom from Customs the two first years and from any Offices of trouble or expence the first seven years I see no hurt if the King should give leave to the Merchants in eight or ten of the chief Trading-Ports of Ireland to name for each Town one of their number out of which the Lord Lieutenant should chuse two to be of the Privy-Council of Ireland with a certain Salary from the King to defray their attendance This would be an honour and encouragement to so worthy a Calling and would introduce an interest of Trade into the Council which being now composed wholly of the Nobility or Gentry the Civil or Military Officers the Traders seem to be left without Patrons in the Government and thereby without favour to the particular concernments of a chief member in the Politick body and upon whose prospering the wealth of the whole Kingdom seems chiefly to depend But this is enough for your Excellencies trouble and for the discharge of my promise and too much I doubt for the humour of our age to bring into practice or so much as to admit into consideration Your Lordship I know has generous thoughts and turned to such Speculations as these But that is not enough towards the raising such buildings as I have drawn you here the lines of unless the direction of all affairs here were wholly in your hands or at least the opinion lost of other mens being able to contest with you those points of publick utility which you ought best to know and most to be believed in while you deserve or discharge so great a trust as the government of this Kingdom For I think a Prince cannot too much consider whom to chuse for such employments but when he has chosen cannot trust them too far or thereby give them too much Authority no more than end it too soon whenever he finds it abused In short 't is left only to Princes to mend the world whose Commands find general obedience and Examples imitation For all other men they must take it as they find it and good men enter into commerce with it rather upon cautions of not being spoiled themselves than upon hopes of mending the World At least this opinion becomes men of my level amongst whom I have observed all set-quarrels with the Age and pretences of reforming it by their own models to end commonly like the pains of a man in a little Boat who tugs at a Rope that 's fast to a Ship it looks as if he resolved to draw the ship to him but the truth and his meaning is to draw himself to the Ship where he gets in when he can and does like the rest of the Crew when he is there When I have such designs I will begin such contentions in the mean time the bent of my thoughts shall be rather to mend my self than the World which I reckon upon leaving much what I found it Nor should I have reason in complaining too far of an Age which does your Lordship so much justice by the honour of so great an Imployment In which as I know no man deserves greater successes than you do so I am sure no man wishes you greater than I do Written to the Duke of ORMOND in October 1673.
upon his Graces desiring me to give Him my Opinion what was to be done in that Conjuncture THERE never was any Conjuncture wherein it was more necessary for His Majesty to fall into a Course of Wise and steddy Councels nor ever any wherein it was more difficult to advise him To make reflections upon what is past is the part of ingenious but irresolute men or else of such as intend to value themselves by comparison with others whose corruptions or follies they condemn But in all matters of Counsel the good and prudent part is to take things as they are since the past cannot be recalled to propose Remedies for the present Evils and provisions against future events The King finds himself ingaged in the second year of a War with the Dutch and for prosecution thereof in a strict Alliance with France and now in danger of being intangled in the quarrel broken out upon this occasion between France and the House of Austria In this state of affairs it is to be considered whether we can pursue our War with Holland and yet preserve our peace with Spain whether we are able to maintain the War with both in conjunction with France and if not what there is left for His Majesty to do with the best regard to His Honour and Safety For the first we shall soon be out of doubt but in the mean time 't is very unlikely that upon the late conjunction between Holland and Spain the Dutch should have obliged themselves to make no Peace without the inclusion of their Allyes and that Spain should not have yielded to break with Us in case they could not effect a Peace between Us and Holland since the Dutch know nothing could farther induce us to it than the fear of a breach with Spain and so great a loss of Trade in those Dominions The Spaniards have but one temptation of their own to quarrel with Us which is an occasion of recovering Jamaica for that has ever lien at their hearts and 't is to be feared their Conjunction with Holland has not been perfected without early measures between them for the surprize of that Island unless our care has been as early in providing for its defence And if we should lose it I foresee little hurt we could do Spain in their Indies guarded as they would be and attended by the Shipping of the Dutch but His Majesty will I suppose soon know from Spain what He is to trust to in this point To judge whether upon a breach with Spain we are able to maintain the War must be considered the present state of the Kings Treasure the rise or fall that may happen in his constant Revenue by the Spanish War the hopes that may be grounded upon supplies from France the assurance or measure of those expected from the Parliament the credit of the Exchequer to raise present money where-ever any of these fall short and the humour of the Nation towards carrying on or ending the War For the present state of the Treasury the King best knows it Himself or His Officers can best give the account for the changes that may happen in His Revenue 't is evident they must be much for the worse the very first year of a Spanish War The main branch of it which is the Customs must wither away in a very great measure since all the Trade in a manner left us upon the Dutch War that has turned to any account has been that with Spain and into the Straits The first upon a Spanish War will be wholly lost the last can neither be secured by our own Convoys nor by the French Fleets in the Mediterranean from the Dutch Capers that will fill the Spanish Havens and from those of Biscay Sicily Sardinia Corsica Majorca which in all Wars have been the Nests of Picaroons so that no way seems left of beginning this War but as the Dutch began theirs by leaving off all Trade in the Nation while it lasts But the case is very different between them and us for they have still a Trade left from the North which running upon a sandy Coast from Hamborough is secured from our Fleets and they have driven a great Commerce by Collusion with the Swedes Danes Hamburgers Bremeners and Flemish ever since the War began Besides the hearts of their People which would otherwise have sunk by the loss of Trade have been kept up by the necessity of their defence by the last extremities which were threatned them from the War and by the general opinion of justice in their Cause both from these circumstances and the manner of Ours and of the French beginning the War This makes the States content to impose and the people to fuffer the utmost payments and besides in a manner all men of Fortunes among them have a great part of their estates lying in the Cantores of the States or the Provinces which would all be lost upon the conquest of their Countrey so as they will lend to the last for securing so much as is already in danger And these are circumstances which will not be found in our Dispositions or Constitutions For supplies from France it must be considered how their money has been drained out of that Kingdom since this War began by their payments to Us and to Sweden to the Bishops of Colen and Munster and some other Princes of Germany by their Armies in Germany and the new Conquests in Holland all which returns no more into France as money did in their former Wars with Spain that were made chiefly upon their Confines for then the Pays of their Armies being made only in the Winter-quarters which were in France or its Frontiers the money fell back again into the circulation of their own Countrey yet now their expence must upon a Spanish War be increased by new Armies in Catalonia and Italy and new Fleets in the Mediterranean so that all these circumstances with the general decay of Trade by the War must in few years time leave that Kingdom poorer than it has been this age And where money is not the King of France himself cannot have it For what supplies may come from the Parliament towards carrying on the War some few days I suppose will inform us and no measures can be taken unless by what past in the former Session which was not very favourable to that design For the Credit of the Exchequer at least to any measure that may supply the Course or Necessities of a War I fear it is irrecoverably lost by the last breach with the Bankers for credit is gained by custom and course of time and seldom recovers a strain but if broken is never well set again I have heard a great Example given of this by some of our Merchants that happened upon the last Kings seizing 200000 l. that was in the Mint about the year 38 which had then the credit of a Bank and for several years had been the Treasury of all the vast
a great sum of money at one or more payments than acknowledg it by a constant tribute The last thing His Majesty can demand from Holland is money for the charges of the War But unless the Justice or Necessity of it were agreed on between us that will have but a weak ground And if we expect money it must be to purchase what is to come and not to pay for what is past and it is very probable that if His Majesty should resolve with a peace of Holland to enter into a Mediation between France and Spain upon the evident points of justice between them and to joyn against that Crown which refuses the Peace both Spain and Holland would be content to part with their money upon such an agreement But the measure and manner must be left to private Treaty and would depend upon the confidence between us Whatever in any of these points or any other His Majesty should be content to release ought to be done upon the satisfaction He should declare to have received in the advancement of the Prince of Orange to the charges of his Ancestors But for His Majesty to insist upon any further advantages to the Prince than are already devolved upon him would not only raise invincible difficulties in our Treaty with the States but prejudice the Princes affairs among them in a very great measure And the Prince I believe knows their Constitution so well as to understand it so If upon good terms in these particulars a Peace can be effected with Holland the honour of this Crown will certainly be provided for and the interest of it to a higher degree than could have been gained even without the events of the War since we should be left in Peace to enjoy the Trade of the world while the House of Austria and Holland would be engaged in a long War with France and whenever they grow weary His Majesty would have the glory and advantage of mediating the Peace For the measures to be observed in all this with France and the preserving His Majesties Honour on that side First the humour of the Parliament as to this War and the interest of the Nation in the Trade with Spain ought to be represented to them as difficulties invincible unless France can furnish the charge which the War will cost beyond what can be spared out of His Majesties constant Revenue Then His Majesty may propose to them His design of Neutrality between them and Spain which I suppose was not a point that entred into any Agreements against Holland and lastly He may desire their consent since he cannot prosecute the War to make his peace with Holland upon the assurance of imploying afterwards his Mediation between them and Spain in which the concurrence of His Parliament will make Him able to effect a Peace as the want of it has made Him unable to pursue the War If France will not consent either to furnish us with money sufficient to carry on the War nor to our Neutrality with Spain nor peace with Holland it would then be considered whether France in the like case would suffer such a Conjuncture as this to escape them upon any Ties or Treaties between us or whether indeed any Prince or State would do so A conjuncture whereby the honour and interest of His Majesties Crowns may be provided for the Trade of the Nation raised to a heighth it has not reached before the passionate bent and humour of the people pleased and their jealousies in a great measure allayed the true ballance of Christendom maintained all the Princes and States of it besides France alone satisfied and in short by which His Majesty may grow again insensibly into the hearts of his people at home and into the influence upon all affairs of his Neighbours abroad It is a rude thing which is commonly said that we may come off from France with as much honour as we came on But it is a true thing that he has always the honour of the War that has the advantage of it and 't is I doubt so of a Peace too and that cannot fail us here provided we make sure of Spain in case we apprehend our losing of France to which their dispositions and interests must certainly concur with ours in all points unless that of Jamaica make an exception All the difficulty His Majesty can meet with in this pursuit will be some want of reputation and trust with the Government of Spain and Holland which have been foyled of late by the breach of our former Alliances so much as they think against our own interests as well as theirs for all Treaties are grounded upon the common belief That every State will be ever found in their own Interests among which their Honour and observance of Faith grows to be one very considerable Because while the minds of men are generally possest with a belief of God Almighty's concerning Himself in affairs here below the opinion of Justice or Injustice in a Quarrel will never fail of having mighty effect upon the successes of a War therefore our reputation cannot any way be so far recovered with our Neighbours as by their finding that His Majesties Councels return into the true interests of His Kingdoms which will make the Spaniards believe our Measures may be firm with them upon the same reason which has shaken them with France Thus much is certain that whatever means will restore or raise the credit of His Majesties Government at home will do it abroad too for a King of England at the head of his Parliament and People and in their hearts and interests can never fail of making what figure he pleases in the world nor of being safe and easie at home and may despise all the designs of factious men who can only make themselves considered by seeming to be in the interest of the Nation when the Court seems to be out of it But in running on Councels contrary to the general humour and spirit of the People the King indeed may make His Ministers great Subjects but they can never make Him a Great Prince Shene Jan. 29. 1674. TO THE COUNTESS OF ESSEX UPON Her Grief occasioned by the loss of Her only Daughter THE Honour I received by a Letter from your Ladiship was too great and too sensible not to be acknowledged but yet I doubted whether that occasion could bear me out in the confidence of giving your Ladiship any further troubles of this kind without as good an errand as my last This I have reckon'd upon a good while by another visit my Sister and I had designed to my Lord Capell How we came to have defer'd it so long I think we are neither of us like to tell you at this distance though we make our selves believe it could not be helpt Your Ladiship at least has had the advantage of being thereby excused sometime from this trouble which I could no longer forbear upon the sensible wounds that have
Bishop of Munster is made only considerable by his scituation which lyes the fittest of all others to invade Holland And by the dispositions of this man which are unquiet and Ambitious to raise a name in the World An old implacable hatred to the Dutch upon their intelligence with his chief Town of Munster Their Usurpation as he pretends of Borkloe and some other small places in his Countrey Their protection of the Countess of Benthem and the hopes of sharing Overyssel or Friesland if ever their spoyls come to be divided make him a certain friend to what Prince soever is Enemy to them and will furnish him with men or money enough to appear in the head of an Army against them The general Interest that the several Princes of the Empire have with us is grounded wholly upon the Esteem of His Majesties Power and the veneration of his Name which is so great amongst them That most of them are resolved in the present Conjuncture of Affairs in Christendom to understand perfectly His language before they speake their own THE Government of Sweden is esteemed steady and wise as their people warlike and numerous The digestion of their Counsels is made in a Senate consisting of forty Counsellors who are generally the greatest men of the Kingdom in Office Estates or Abilities and who have most of them been Commanders in the German Wars or are so in the present Militia which makes their Counsels generally Warlike and Ambitious though something tempered by the Minority of their King This has turned them for some years since their last Kings death rather to make advantages by the name and reputation of their Alliances than by the appearance of their Arms. But if their King grow a Man and of Martial thoughts as may be presaged from so great a Father We may see great actions and revolutions grow again out of this Northern Climate For the names of Goth and Vandal and their famons successes both in Poland and Germany this last age inspire them with great thoughts And the bodies and courages of their common men as well as the Prudence and Conduct of their great Officers seem to have framed them for great undertakings Besides their Application of late years to trade has much increast their Shipping and Seamen which they found to be their weak-side in their last attempts All these may in time make way for their great design which is the Dominion of the Baltick Sea by the Conquest of Denmark This was about the year 59 wrested out of their hands by the Dutch Assistances and can hardly escape them if ever that Commonwealth should be broken And if they arrive once at this point there will grow a Power in that rough Climate which both at Land and Sea may equal most others that are now in Christendom by being Masters of such numbers of strong and valiant men as well as of all the Naval Stores that furnish the World They have a nearer prospect upon the City of Bremen by the Addition whereof to the Bishoprick already in their possession They design to lay a great foundation both of Trade and Strength in the nearer parts of Germany Their next Interest seems to be a long knocking War in the Empire or the Low-Countries which will make them Courted by all till they think fit to declare And then will bring them to a share in the Game And those often go away with the greatest who bring in least when the Stake begins The neglects of France since the peace of Munster and the late courtship of Spain seem to have left them open for the fairest offer from either of those Crowns But rather inclined to Spain which has still the surest fonds of treasure if they could fall into good method or direction and to whom they are more necessary than to France which has out-grown almost all measures with their Neighbours They have a peek to Holland something in shew but more at heart As lying cross to their three designs the Dominion of the Baltick their Acquisition of Bremen and a War in the upper or lower Germany And they are so wise a State as to be found commonly in their Interest which for these reasons is either an absolute breaking or a great weakening of that Commonwealth Besides they esteemed themselves at least neglected by them in the late Negotiation of the Tripple Alliance wherein they expected constant Subsidies in the time of peace from Spain and Holland to engage them in the defence of all those Provinces against the threatning power of France An old friendship to our Nation and Alliance proceeding from a long conjunction of Interests besides the necessity of keeping well with one of the greatest Maritime Powers will as may be conjectured perswade them to follow His Majesties measures the closest and furthest of any State in Europe This gave them the first design of entring into the Tripple Alliance And into the commerce with Spain in the year 68 And their resolution of keeping pace with His Majesty in both those points as well as the consequences of them Which they will do unless the present Scene should wholly change and open new Councels and Interests not yet thought of in the world THE Kingdom of Denmark seems less considerable than their Neighbour-Crown From a fainter Spirit which appears of late in their people and in their Government it self as well as a great inequality of number in their Forces both at Sea and Land For the last change of their Government from Elective to Hereditary has made it seem hitherto of less Force and unfitter for Action abroad As all great Changes brought about by Force or Address in an old Constitution of Government rooted in the Hearts and Customs of the people though they may in time prove an encrease of Strength and Greatness when fallen into Method and grown easie by Use Yet for many years they must needs weaken it by the divisions and distractions of mens minds and discontents of their humours And so turn the Counsels upon Designs within desisting from any without And advantages upon Enemies must give way to those upon Subjects So as the breaking down an old frame of Government and erecting a new seems like the cutting down an old Oak because the fruit decays and the branches grow thin and planting a young one in the room 'T is true the Son or Grandson if it prospers may enjoy the shade and the maste But the Planter besides the pleasure of Imagination has no other benefit to recompence the pains of Setting and Digging the care of Watering and Pruning the fears of every Storm and every Drougth And 't is well If he escapes a blow from the fall of the old Tree or its Boughs as they are lopt off The Change in Denmark was the safer by having to deal with a soft easie people and with Nobles grown to have small power or interest amongst them and of whom many were gained by the Crown Besides that
or dangers And if they should open a War they foresee the consumption which France must fall into by the stop of their Wine Salts and other Commodities now in a manner wholly taken off by our two Nations And the head that may be made against their Forces in the Field it self by a Body of English Infantry so much renowned abroad So as though their first Interest be to continue the Peace while it may be done with any safety yet when that fails their next is to open a War in favour of Spain and conjunction with us And the greatest they have in the world is to preserve and encrease their Alliance with us Which will make them follow our measures absolutely in all the present Conjunctures THE Crown of France considered in the extent of Countrey in the number of People in the riches of Commodities in the Revenues of the King the greatness of the Land-Forces now on foot and the growth of those at Sea within these two years past the number and bravery of their Officers the conduct of their Ministers and chiefly in the Genius of their present King A Prince of great aspiring thoughts unwearied application to whatever is in pursuit severe in the institution and preservation of Order and Discipline In the main a Manager of his Treasure and yet bountiful from his own motions wherever he intends the marks of Favour and discerns particular Merit To this in the flower of his Age at the head of all his Armies and hitherto unfoiled in any of his attempts either at home or abroad I say considered in all these circumstances France may appear to be designed for greater Atchievements and Empires than have been seen in Christendom since that of Charlemaigne The present Greatness of this Crown may be chiefly derived from the fortune it has had of two great Ministers Richelieu and Mazarine succeeding one another between two great Kings Henry the Fourth and this present Prince so as during the course of one unactive life and of a long Minority That Crown gained a great deal of ground both at home and abroad instead of losing it Which is the common fate of Kingdoms upon those occasions The latter greatness of this Crown began in the time of Lewis the 11th by the Spoils of the House of Burgundy and the Divisions of the Princes which gave that King the heart of attempting to bring the Government as he called it Hors de Page Being before controul'd by their Princes and restrained by their States And in point of Revenue kept within the bounds of the Kings Demesnes and the Subjects voluntary Contributions 'T is not here necessary to observe by what difficulties and dangers to the Crown this design of Lewis was pursued by many succeeding Kings like a great Stone forced up a Hill and upon every slacking of either strength or care rolling a great way back often to the very bottom of the Hill and sometimes with the destruction of those that forced it on till the time of Cardinal Richelieu It was in this great Minister most to be admired that finding the Regency shaken by the Factions of so many great ones within and awed by the terror of the Spanish greatness without He durst resolve to look them both in the face and begin a War by the course of which for so many years being pursued by Mazarine till the year 60 The Crown of France grew to be powerfully armed The Peasants were accustomed to Payments which could have seemed necessary only by a War and which none but a successful one could have helpt to digest and grew heartless as they grew poor The Princes were sometimes satisfied with Commands of the Army sometimes mortified and supprest by the absoluteness or addresses of the Ministry The most boiling blood of the Nobility and Gentry was let out in so long a War or wasted with Age and Exercise At last it ended at the Pireenes in a Peace and a Match so advantageous to France As the reputation of them contributed much to the Authority of the young King who bred up in the Councils and served by the tried Instruments of the former Ministry But most of all advantaged by his own personal Qualities fit to make him obeyed Grew absolute Master of the Factions of the great men as well as the purses of his people In the beginning of his Minority the two disputes with the Pope about the outrage of the Corsi and with the King of Spain about the encounter at London between the Count D'Estrades and the Baron De Batteville Ambassadors from those Crowns both carried so high and both ended so honourably and to the very will of France Were enough to give a young Prince the humour and appetite of trying yet further what there was could oppose him The Invasion and easie success in Flanders fed his Glory and encreast the reputation of his Power Till this career was interrupted by the Peace at first then the Alliances between Us and Holland and afterwards the Peace at Aix and the Tripple Alliance contracted purposely to secure it since which time the Counsels of that Court have turned wholly from Action to Negotiation Of which no man can yet see the success nor judg whether it may not be more prosperous to them than that of their Arms. If there were any certain heighth where the flights of Power and Ambition use to end one might imagine that the Interest of France were but to conserve its present Greatness so feared by its Neighbours and so glorious in the world But besides that the motions and desires of human minds are endless It may perhaps be necessary for France from respects within to have some War or other in pursuit abroad which may amuse the Nation and keep them from reflecting upon their condition at home Hard and uneasie to all but such as are in charge or in pay from the Court I do not say miserable the term usually given it because no condition is so but to him that esteems it so And if a Paisan of France thinks of no more than his coarse Bread and his Onions his Canvass Clothes and Wooden Shooes labours contentedly on Working-days and dances or plays merrily on Holy-days He may for ought I know live as well as a Boor of Holland who is either weary of his very ease or whose cares of growing still richer and richer waste his life in toils at Land or dangers at Sea and perhaps fool him so far as to make him enjoy less of all kind in his riches than t'other in his poverty But to leave strains of Philosophy which are ill mingled with discourses of Interest The common people of France are as little considerable in the Government as the Children so that the Nobles and the Soldiers may in a manner be esteemed the Nation Whose Interest and Hopes carry them all to War And whatever is the general humour and bent of a Nation ought ever to be much considered by
and NATURE OF GOVERNMENT Written in the Year 1672. THE Nature of Man seems to be the same in all times and places but varyed like their statures complexions and features by the force and influence of the several Climates where they are born and bred which produce in them by a different mixture of the humours and operation of the Air a different and unequal course of Imaginations and Passions and consequently of Discourses and Actions These differences incline men to several Customs Educations Opinions and Laws which Form and Govern the several Nations of the World where they are not interrupted by the violence of some force from without or some faction within which like a great blow or a great disease may either change or destroy the very frame of a body though if it lives to recover strength and vigor it commonly returns in time to its natural constitution or something near it I speak not of those changes and revolutions of State or Institutions of Government that are made by the more immediate and evident operation of Divine Will and Providence being the Themes of Divines and not of common men and the Subjects of our Faith not of our Reason This may be the cause that the same Countreys have generally in all times been used to Forms of Government much of a sort The same Nature ever continuing under the same Climate and making returns into its old Channel though sometimes led out of it by perswasions and sometimes beaten out by force Thus the more Northern and more Southern Nations extreams as they say still agreeing have ever lived under single and Arbitrary Dominions as all the Regions of Tartary and Muscovy on the one side and of Africk and India on the other While those under the more temperate Climates especially in Europe have ever been used to more moderate Governments Running anciently much into Commonwealths and of latter ages into Principalities bounded by Laws which differ less in Nature than in Name For though the old distinctions run otherwise there seem to be but two general kinds of Government in the world The one exercised according to the Arbitrary commands and will of some single Person And the other according to certain Orders or Laws introduced by agreement or custom and not to be changed without the consent of many But under each of these may fall many more particular kinds than can be reduced to the common heads of Government received in the Schools For those of the first sort differ according to the dispositions and humours of Him that Rules and of them that obey As Feavers do according to the temper of the persons and accidents of the seasons And those of the other sort differ according to the quality or number of the persons upon whom is devolved the authority of making or power of executing Laws Nor will any man that understands the State of Poland and the Vnited Provinces be well able to range them under any particular names of Government that have been yet invented The great Scenes of Action and Subjects of Ancient Story Greece Italy and Sicily were all divided into small Commonwealths till swallowed up and made Provinces by that mighty one of Rome together with Spain Gaule and Germany These were before composed of many small Governments among which the Cities were generally under Commonwealths and the Countreys under several Princes Who were Generals in their Wars but in peace lived without Armies or Guards or any Instruments of Arbitrary Power And were only chief of their Councils and of those Assemblies by whose consultations and authority the great affairs and actions among them were resolved and enterprized Through all these Regions some of the smaller States but chiefly those of the Cities fell often under Tyrannies Which spring naturally out of Popular Governments While the meaner sort of the people opprest or ill protected by the richer and greater give themselves up to the conduct of some one man in chief credit among them and submit all to his will and discretion either running easily from one extream to another or contented to see those they hated and feared before now in equal condition with themselves Or because a multitude is incapable of framing Orders though capable of conserving them Or that every man comes to find by experience that confusion and popular tumults have worse effects upon common safety than the rankest Tyranny For it is easier to please the humour and either appease or resist the fury of one single man than of a multitude And taking each of them in their extreams the rage of a Tyrant may be like that of fire which consumes what it reaches but by degrees and devouring one house after another whereas the rage of people is like that of the Sea which once breaking bounds overflows a Countrey with that suddenness and violence as leaves no hopes either of flying or resisting till with the change of tides or winds it returns of it self The force and variety of accidents is so great that it will not perhaps bear reasoning or enquiry how it comes about that single Arbitrary Dominion seems to have been natural to Asia and Africk and the other sort to Europe For though Carthage was indeed a Commonwealth in Africk and Macedon a Kingdom in Europe yet the first was not Native of that Soyl being a Colony of the Tyrians as there were some other small ones of he Grecians upon the same Coasts and the Kings of Macedon Governed by Laws and the consent as well as Councils of the Nobles Not like the Kings of Persia by humour and will as appears by the event of their quarrel while so few Subjects conquered so many Slaves Yet one reason may be that Sicily Greece and Italy which were the Regions of Commonwealths were planted thick with rich and populous Cities occasioned by their being so far encompassed with the Sea And the vein of all rich Cities ever inclines to that kind of Government Whether it be that where many grow Rich many grow to power and are harder to be subjected Or where men grow to great possessions they grow more intent upon safety and therefore desire to be Governed by Laws and Magistrates of their own choice fearing all Armed and Arbitrary Power Or that the small compass of Cities makes the ease and convenience of Assemblies and Councils Or that conversation sharpens mens wits and makes too many reasoners in matters of Government The contrary of all this happens in Countries thin inhabited and especially in vast Campania's such as are extended through Asia and Africk where there are few Cities besides what grow by the residence of the Kings or their Governours The people are poorer and having little to lose have little to care for and are less exposed to the designs of power or violence The assembling of persons deputed from people at great distances one from another is trouble to them that are sent and charge to them that send And where ambition
men over to it when they cannot be either safe or easie at home When things are once in motion Trade begets Trade as fire does fire and People go much where much People are already gone So men run still to a crowd where they see it in the streets or the fields though it be only to do as others do to see or to be entertained The want of Trade in Ireland proceeds from the want of People and this is not grown from any ill qualities of the Climate or Air but chiefly from the frequent Revolutions of so many Wars and Rebellions so great Slaughters and Calamities of Mankind as have at several Intervals of time succeeded the first Conquest of this Kingdom in Henry the Seconds time until the year 1653 Two very great Plagues followed the two great Wars those of Queen Elizabeth's Reign and the last which helped to drain the current stream of Generation in the Countrey The discredit which is grown upon the Constitutions or Settlements of this Kingdom by so frequent and unhappy Revolutions that for many ages have infested it has been the great discouragement to other Nations to transplant themselves hither and prevailed further than all the invitations which the cheapness and plenty of the Countrey has made them So that had it not been for the numbers of the British which the necessity of the late Wars at first drew over and of such who either as Adventurers or Soldiers seated themselves here upon account of the satisfaction made to them in Land the Countrey had by the last War and Plague been left in a manner desolate Besides the subordinancy of the Government changing hands so often makes an unsteddiness in the pursuit of the publick Interests of the Kingdom gives way to the emulations of the different Factions and draws the favour or countenance of the Government sometimes to one party or interest sometimes to another this makes different motions in mens minds raising hopes and fears and opinions of uncertainty in their possessions and thereby in the peace of the Countrey This subordinacy in the Government and emulation of parties with the want sometimes of Authority in the Governour by the weakness of his credit and support at Court occasions the perpetual agencies or journeys into England of all persons that have any considerable pretences in Ireland and money to pursue them which end many times in long abodes and frequent habituating of Families there though they have no money to support them but what is drawn out of Ireland Besides the young Gentlemen go of course for their breeding there some seek their health and others their entertainment in a better Climate or Scene By these means the Countrey loses the expence of many of the richest persons or families at home and mighty sums of money must needs go over from hence into England which the great stock of rich Native Commodities here can make the only amends for These Circumstances so prejudicial to the encrease of Trade and Riches in a Countrey seem natural or at least have ever been incident to the Government here and without them the Native fertility of the Soil and Seas in so many rich Commodities improved by multitude of people and industry with the advantage of so many excellent Havens and a Scituation so commodious for all sorts of forreign Trade must needs have rendred this Kingdom one of the richest in Europe and made a mighty encrease both of strength and revenue to the Crown of England whereas it has hitherto been rather esteemed and found to be our weak side and to have cost us more blood and treasure than 't is worth Since my late arrival in Ireland I have found a very unusual but I doubt very just complaint concerning the scarcity of Money which occasioned many airy Propositions for the remedy of it and among the rest that of raising some or all of the Coyns here This was chiefly grounded upon the experience made as they say about the Duke of Ormonds coming first over hither in 1663 when the Plate-pieces of Eight were raised three pence in the piece and a mighty plenty of money was observed to grow in Ireland for a year or two after But this seems to me a very mistaken account and to have depended wholly upon other circumstances little taken notice of and not at all upon the raising of the Money to which it is by some great men attributed For first there was about that time a general peace and serenity which had newly succeeded a general trouble and cloud throughout all His Majesties Kingdoms then after two years attendance in England upon the settlement of Ireland there on the forge by all persons and parties here that were considerably interested in it the Parliament being called here and the main settlement of Ireland wound up in England and put into the Duke of Ormonds hands to pass here into an Act all persons came over in a shoal either to attend their own concernments in the main or more particularly to make their Courte to the Lord Lieutenant upon whom His Majesty had at that time in a manner wholly devolved the care and disposition of all affairs in this Kingdom This made a sudden and mighty stop of that issue of Money which had for two years run perpetually out of Ireland into England and kept it all at home Nor is the very expence of the Duke of Ormonds own great Patrimonial estate with that of several other Families that came over at that time of small consideration in the stock of this Kingdom Besides there was a great sum of Money in ready Coyn brought over out of England at the same time towards the arrears of the Army Which are all circumstances that must needs have made a mighty change in the course of ready money here All the effect that I conceive was made by crying up the pieces of Eight was to bring in much more of that Species instead of others current here as indeed all the Money brought from England was of that sort and complained of in Parliament to be of a worse allay and to carry away much English Money in exchange for Plate-pieces by which a Trade was driven very beneficial to the Traders but of mighty loss to the Kingdom in the intrinsick value of their Money The Circumstances at this time seem to be just the reverse of what they were then The Nations engaged in a War the most fatal to trade of any that could arise The settlement of Ireland shaken at the Court and falling into new disquisitions whether in truth or in common opinion is all a case This draws continual Agencies and Journeys of People concerned into England to watch the motions of the main wheel there Besides the Lieutenants of Ireland since the Duke of Ormond's time have had little in their disposition here and only executed the resolutions daily taken at Court in particular as well as general affairs which has drawn thither the
breeders in the Kingdom turn their lands and stocks chiefly to that sort of Cattel Few Cows were bred up for the Dairy more than served the consumption within and few Oxen for draught which was all performed by rascally small Horses so as the Cattel generally sold either for slaughter within or Exportation abroad were of two three or at best four years old and those such as had never been either handled or wintered at hand-meat but bred wholly upon the Mountains in Summer and upon the withered long grass of the lower lands in the Winter The effect hereof was very pernicious to this Kingdom in what concerned all these Commodities The Hides were small thin and lank The Tallow much less in quantity and of quicker consumption Little Butter was exported abroad and that discredited by the huswifery of the Irish in making it up most of what was sent coming from their hands who alone kept up the Trade of Dairies because the breed of their Cattel was not fit for the English-Markets But above all the Trade of Beef for forreign Exportation was prejudiced and almost sunk for the flesh being young and only grass-fed and that on a sudden by the sweetness of the Summers pasture after the Cattel being almost starved in the Winter was thin light and moist and not of a substance to endure the salt or be preserved by it for long Voyages or a slow consumption Besides either the unskilfulness or carelesness or Knavery of the Traders added much to the undervalue and discredit of these Commodities abroad for the Hides were often made up very dirty which increased the weight by which that Commodity is sold when it comes in quantities abroad The Butter would be better on the top and bottom of the Barrels than in the middle which would be sometimes filled up or mingled with Tallow nay sometimes with stones The Beef would be so ill chosen or so ill cured as to stink many times before it came so far as Holland or at least not prove a Commodity that would defray the first charge of the Merchant before it was shipt Nay I have known Merchants there fain to throw away great quantities after having lain long in their hands without any Market at all After the Act in England had wholly stopt the Transportation of Cattel the Trade of this Kingdom was forced to find out a new Channel a great deal of Land was turned to sheep because Wool gave ready Money for the English-Markets and by stealth for those abroad The breeders of English Cattel turn'd much to Dairy or else by keeping their Cattel to six and seven year old and wintering them dry made them fit for the Beef-trade abroad and some of the Merchants fell into care and exactness in Barrelling them up and hereby the improvements of this Trade were grown so sensible in the course of a few years that in the year 1669 some Merchants in Holland assured me that they had received parcels of Beef out of Ireland which sold current and very near the English and of Butter which sold beyond it and that they had observed it spent as if it came from the richer soil of the two 'T is most evident that if the Dutch War had not broken out so soon after the improvements of all these Trades forced at first by necessity and growing afterwards habitual by use would a few years have very much advanced the Trade and Riches of this Kingdom and made it a great gainer instead of losing by the Act against Transportation of their Cattel But the War gave a sudden damp to this and all other Trade which is sunk to nothing by the continuance of it However having marked the defects that were even in time of peace it may not be useless to set down the Remedies though little practicable while the War lasts For that great one of killing Cattel young and only grass-fed I know none so effectual as introducing a general custom of using Oxen for all sorts of draught which would be perhaps the greatest improvement that could be made in many kinds throughout the Kingdom By this means the great slaughter would be made of full-grown large and well wintered Cattel which would double the income made by Hide Tallow and Beef and raise their credit in all forreign Markets every man would be forced to provide Winter-fodder for his Teem whereas common Garrans shift upon grass the year round and this would force men to the enclosing of Grounds and improving Bog into Meadows the race of Garrans would decrease and so make room for the Countreys maintaining the greater number of Cattel which makes a forreign Commodity though they die by accident or age whereas the other makes none at all No great or useful thing is to be atchieved without difficulties and therefore what may be raised against this Proposal ought not to discourage the attempting it First the Statutes against that barbarous custom of Plowing by the tail ought to be renewed and upon absolute forfeitures instead of penalties the constant and easie compositions whereof have proved rather an allowing than forbidding it Now if this were wholly disused the Harness for Horses being dearer than for Oxen the Irish would turn their draught to the last where-ever they have hitherto used the Plowing by the Tail Next a Standard might be made under which no Horse should be used for draught this would not only enlarge the breed of Horses but make way for the use of Oxen because they would be cheaper kept than large good Horses which could not be wintered like Garrans without housing or fodder And lastly a Tax might be laid upon every Horse of draught throughout the Kingdom which besides the main use here intended would increase the Kings Revenue by one of the easiest ways that is any where in use For the miscarriages mentioned in the making up of those several Commodities for forreign Markets they must likewise be remedied by severe Laws or else the improvements of the Commodities themselves will not serve to bring them in credit upon which all Trade turns First the Ports out of which such Commodities shall be shipt may be restrained to a certain number such as lie most convenient for the vent of the Inland Provinces and such as either are already or are capable of being made regular Corporations Whatever of them shall be carried out of any other Port shall be penal both to the Merchant that delivers and to the Master that receives them In the Ports allowed shall be published rules agreed on by the skilfullest Merchants in those Wares to be observed in the making up of all such as are intended for forreign Transportation and declaring that what is not found agreeable to those rules shall not be suffered to go out Two Officers may be appointed to be chosen every three years by the body of the Corporation whose business shall be to inspect all Barrels of Beef Tallow Butter and all Packs of