from thence than from any other part of the World which would be a great encouragement to the setting up of the Manufactures thereof It must necessarily be cheaper because Land is far cheaper there than in those Parts from whence we have our Hemp and Flax and what we fetch comes charged with great Freight and Customs Which might be saved if the Commodity were fetcht from Ireland What then would there be wanting but a method to manufacture this Commodity cheaper Which done that place may supply not only England but all Europe with Linnen-Cloth at easier rates than now they pay for the same And if so what hinders but that they may ingross the whole Linnen-Trade and quickly grow rich And that they may manufacture cheaper there consider that in this part of the World there cannot be found a place where people may live cheaper have Lands at easier Rates than in Ireland so then consequently no place in the World where people work for less than there If then the Commodity to be wrought and the working of that Commodity be cheaper in Ireland than in any other Part the Manufacturies when wrought may be sold from thence cheaper than from any other part and this would bring Trade thither take away no more of the Stock of this Nation than is absolutely necessary for the supply of our Necessities And it would be a great advantage to the Kingdom to be furnished with that within our selves which we necessarily want and are enforced to depend upon Foreigners for In short the Prohibition of Irish Cattel puts them on a necessity for something they must do with their Cattel and the product of their Lands or be utterly destroyed that necessity forceth them to Industry which Industry if not determined with us but continued or encouraged with Foreigners the more industrious they are the more pernicious it will be to England in all its concerns For if the Irish by reason of their Religion and the sense of our conquering them have as some affirm and I and all English-men have good reason to believe a natural antipathy against us English-men and as natural an Affection and Sympathy to and with Foreigners who are of their own Perswasion and Religion And if Nations grow Intimate espouse Interest and mix by Trade and Commerce it is humbly submitted whether for the security of England both in its Government and Trade it be not adviseable to annex Ireland as a Province to England as our Islands abroad are annexed whereby his Majesties Revenue of Customs would be advanced at least 80000 l. per annum which would help to pay the Publick Debts and do a publick good to the Nation Concerning the Importation of Westphalia-Hams I have onely this to say That though Prohibited yet they are Imported the King loseth the Custom of them which formerly he had the Merchants buy them far cheaper beyond Seas than ever they did in England the Subjects pay twice as much as they might have bought them for before the Prohibition and not any good is done to the Kingdom thereby VI. THe Sixth thing proposed is the Prohibition of Brandy Mum Coffee Chocoletta and Tea and the suppressing Coffe-Houses These greatly hinder the Consumption of Barley Malt and Wheat the Product of our Land and thereby bring down the prices of these Grains consequently the Rents of Land to the ruine of Tenants who cannot sell their Corn when they have it and of Landlords whose Rents Tenants are not able to pay because they have no vent for the Product of their Farms There is as I am upon strict Enquiry of the most knowing persons informed so vast a quantity of Brandy Mum Coffee Tea and Spanish Chocoletta every year imported into England and consumed here that reckoning the Brandy to be sold at two pence the Quartern and no more whereas most of it by retail is sold for three pence the Mum at six pence a Quart and the Coffee Tea Chocoletta at the rates they are usually sold for yet is there expended by the Subjects yearly in these drinks above 400000 l. If these Liquors were prohibited then would there be made in England with our Wheat or Malt such quantities of Brandy or a Spirit equal to it and of Mum also as would in all probability occasion the Consumption of at least two or three hundred thousand Quarters of Wheat and Malt every year more than now is consumed and that would raise the price of the Commodity and thereby keep up the Rent of Lands which every year falls for want of a Consumption of the Product thereof And the Prohibition of Brandy would be otherwise advantageous to the Kingdom and prevent the destruction of His Majesties Subjects many of whom have been kill'd by drinking thereof it not agreeing with their Constitutions How many instances have we had yearly of mens dying suddenly after drinking of Brandy How many after over-drinking themselves with this Liquour have lain languishing till they have dyed thereof Before Brandy which is now become common and sold in every little Alehouse came over into England in such quanties as now it doth we drank good Strong Beer and Ale and all laborious people which are the far greatest part of the Kingdom their bodies requiring after hard labour some strong drink to refresh them did therefore every morning and evening use to drink a pot of Ale or a flagon of strong Beer which greatly promoted the Consumption of our own Grain and did them no great prejudice it hindred not their work neither did it take away their senses nor cost them much money But now this sort of people since Brandy is become so common and fold in every little house a small quantity costing them three pence do sometimes spend their days wages in this sort of Liquor before they get home in an evening and thereby impoverish their Families and not only so but frequently by their drinking to excess they are bereft of their senses for two or three days together so that they cannot work In short Brandy burns the hearts of His Majesties Subjects out in few years it hath been the destruction and death of some thousands who if they had kept to Beer and Ale might have received better refreshment therefrom and now been living to have served the King and their Countrey and might have help'd to consume the Manufactures and Provisions of the Kingdom And if so then what reason can any man give for the Importation thereof For my own part I declare I know of none unless it he because it pays a great Custom or Excise to the King And as to that I answer and affirm That if Brandy be prohibited the Excise of the Beer and Ale that would be then consumed more than is now will more than answer the duty of Brandy that the King shall lose by such Prohibition as is desired admitting that all the Brandy imported paid the duty imposed when as not one half thereof is paid for
THE Grand Concern Of ENGLAND EXPLAINED IN SEVERAL PROPOSALS Offered to the Consideration of the PARLIAMENT 1. For Payment of Publick Debts 2. For Advancement and Encouragement of Trade 3. For Raising the Rents of Lands In Order whereunto It is proved Necessary I. That a Stop be put to further Buildings in and about London II. That the Gentry be obliged to live some part of the Year in the Countrey III. That Registers be setled in every County IV. That an Act for Naturalizing all Foreign Protestants and Indulging them and His Majestie 's Subjects at home in Matters of Conscience may be passed V. That the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Irish Cattel may be Repealed VI. That Brandy Coffee Mum Tea and Chocolata may be prohibited VII That the Multitude of Stage-Coaches and Caravans may be suppressed VIII That no Leather may be Exported Vn-manufactured IX That a Court of Conscience be setled for Westminster and all the Suburbs of London and in every City and Corporation in England X. That the Extravagant Habits and Expence of all Persons may be curbed the Excessive Wages of Servants and Handicrafts-men may be Reduced and all Foreign Manufactures may be prohibited XI That it may be made lawful to Assign Bills Bonds and other Securities and that a Course be taken to prevent the Knavery of Bankrupts XII That the Newcastle-Trade for Coals may be managed by Commissioners to the Ease of the Subjects and great Advantage of the Publick XIII That the Fishing-Trade may be vigorously prosecuted all poor People set at work to make Fishing-Tackle and be paid out of the Money Collected every Year for the Poor in the several Parishes in England By a Lover of his Countrey and Well-wisher to the Prosperity both of the King and Kingdoms London Printed in the Year 1673. PROPOSALS humbly offered to consideration of the Parliament c. 1. For discharging the Publick Debts of the Kingdom 2. For Encouraging and Advancement of Tradc 3. The Increase of the Rents of Lands THE Honour Interest and Safety of a Kingdom lies in maintaining the Grandure and Dignity of their KING and the Prerogative of his Crown The which can no way be better secured than by providing him a plentiful Revenue wherewith to defray the Publick Expences of the Kingdom encourage and help all his Friends and Allies maintain Forces for his Own his Subjects and the Kingdoms Safeguard at home and a sufficient Fleet at Sea for the Security of Trade abroad and Defence of his Kingdom against all Forreign Princes and Potentates and wherewith also to discharge such Publick Debts as are justly owing to any person upon valuable Consideration If the payment of Publick Debts were provided for the rest would be easily secured without any great Charge to the People and the King be freed from the necessity of calling for fresh Supplie every year from his Subjects which now comes very hard and makes Parliaments uneasie to themselves as well as to those whose Representatives they are The vast Debt contracted by his Majesty when beyond the Seas the great Summs he hath since his happy Restauration given to relieve some of the many poor yet Loyal Subjects that served him and his Royal Father faithfully and lost their Limbs and Estates in their Service The great Debts he found the Kingdom in to the Army and Navy when he came first home which are all paid off excepting about 150000 l. that hath been under consideration of the Parliament which if not paid will be the ruine of many thousands of poor Families who advanced the same for his Majesties Service and it was all employed for the bringing him home The great charge of the last and this present Dutch War both which his Majestie hath been necessitated unto for the preservation of the dignity of his Person which they so basely scorn'd and contemn'd the Honour of his Kingdom and the interest and security of Trade these together with the Money 's expended in the reparations of his Ruined Houses repurchasing his own Goods and others for furnishing his Royal Palaces and many other publick affairs have called for frequent and great Supplies Which howbeit the Parliament have thought fit freely to grant when the King hath desired the same and passed several Acts for Pole-money Benevolence-money Subsidies Hearth-money additional Excise Taxes upon the Law poundage upon Rents and Land-Taxes yet the publick Debts are very great and the reason of it is plainly because whatever hath been given excepting Land-Taxes was so overvalued in the granting thereof the Grants so uncertain the Collecting so troublesom and chargeable the Payment so vexatious to the People that the end of the Parliament hath not been answered the King hath not had the Supply intended nor the Subjects the benefit or ease designed but the quite contrary events have hapned So that it 's humbly conceived there 's nothing can be more for the Interest and advantage of the King and Kingdom than for the Parliament to examine what the publick Debts really are how contracted and when and to see where the King has been well or ill used where Persons have made usurious or advantageous Contracts and taken advantage of the King's necessities to impose ill Commodities and at unreasonable rates upon him and there to reduce the Debt to such a preportion as the Commodity sold was at the time of such Sale really worth and to see where the King hath been justly dealt with which done and the Accounts being brought to Balance and the Debt stated and known then at once to raise so much Money as may discharge the whole and appoint Persons to see the money so to be raised disposed to that and no other use allowing them indifferent Salaries for their pains that so they may mind the work and recieve no manner of Fees or advantage from the Creditor whereby the publick Debts may be lessened for whoever hath trusted the King had a respect in setting his price on the Commodities fold to the time he thought he should stay for his Money the uncertainty of ever receiving it the vast Charge he must be at in Exchequer Fees Gratuities c. when ever he should have obtained the same insomuch that publiek Debts were and are frequently sold at sixty or seventy pounds per cent And so what hinders but that if this Business be prudently mannaged by Persons to be intrusted for that purpose the publick Debts may be lessened and the more easily paid which done the Subjects may reasonably expect and hope for the future to be at quiet and freed from the fears they are now under of a Parliaments meeting lest still there should be fresh supplies for the purposes aforesaid demanded and given and no end be known of such Gifts and yet to his Majesty and the Kingdoms great dishonour both at home and abroad the publick Debts still remain undischarged And if Money for this purpose shall be by the Parliament thought fit to be given It
last are brought to sell their Estates and being reduced to such necessities by the Subtilties of these persons are forced to be beholden to them to procure purchasers which when they perceive they usually play their game as followeth the seller is by them perswaded that they can get no purchaser but such as doth object against their Title or their persons using many frivolous delayes till they drive them to such distress that they must sell at any rate And then their living remote in the Country or being under protections as Parliament-Men or Courtiers or their Estates lying far from London or the uncertainty of what Incumbrances may be thereupon are Objections which they raise pretending that all Men they propose their Estates unto upon these or such-like accounts are afraid to deal with them unless such as wait for good bargains and will not purchase except they can buy below the Market-price By which means they so contrive the matter with the Venders that they enforce them to sell that for thirteen fourteen or fifteen years purchase which really is worth twenty And out of that Contract their manner is to bargain for a good Gratuity for themselves although they at the same time have agreed with the Purchaser that is to have the Land for one or two years purchase more than they are to pay to the Sellers And the better to manage their Designs the Buyers are concealed and the Land-Brokers and Jobbers of Land find other persons to personate the Purchaser so that the Vender is never suffered to know or see them till the Writings be drawn wherein the Considerations are frequently exprest to be a year or two's Purchase more than the Vender is to receive for the same Which when they question the Reason of they are informed that it is done only to enable the Purchasers to demand better prices when they sell the same and to keep up the reputed value thereof Thus do they enrich themselves by imposing upon Gentlemen in extremity through an artificial debasing the value of their Estates exacting great Gratuities from the Purchasers also This is the common Practice of your Land-Brokers and Jobbers and their Confederates But if Registers were setled and all Incumbrances registred so that men might be secure no dormant Securities after they have lent their Money upon Mortgages or purchased for valuable Considerations could be started up to defeat them of their Interests and then Gentlemen that have Money lying dead by them would be as glad to lend it at easie rates to honest Gentlemen upon good Security as those that want it would be to be supplied therewith And Lands undoubtedly would come to be worth as formerly twenty years purchase if Men could but be secured in their Titles So that all persons that either have or suppose they ever may have any Estate to sell or Money to borrow understand not their own Interest if they oppose the setling of the Registers proposed The last sort of people that I presume may be agriev'd at this Registry are such who having lived high and spent their Estates extravagantly and perhaps entred into Judgments Statutes and Recognizances to double the value thereof and have mortgaged their Lands over and over and then get Protections whereby they keep off Suits or abscond themselves so that they cannot be found by their Creditors and are wont thereby to keep their Estates in possession and can no way for the future live but by doing further acts of dishonesty which whilst their Estates remain in their possession they have opportunity to do Such unrighteous Actions will for the future be prevented and the present Designs of this nature be defeated if Registers be setled So that such persons are concerned to oppose the same But I hope such Creatures as these are and their Designs will easily be seen through and have little respect given them by Parliament In short Were the Registry as desired setled and the Profit arising thereby brought into the Exchequer the Work may be done good Allowances appointed for those that shall be imployed therein and but a small sum would be imposed upon the Subjects for Registring their Claim and yet by computation at least 50000 l. per annum be brought into the Treasury which would be an additional help towards payment of the Publick Debts IV. THe Fourth Thing Proposed is That an Act be passed for a general Naturalization of all Foreign Protestants and for granting Liberty of Conscience to such of them as shall come over and Inhabit amongst us and that the like Liberty be given to his Majesties Subjects at home There is nothing so much wanting in England as People and of all sorts of People the Industrious and Laborious sort and Handycraft-men are wanted to Till and Improve our Land and help to Manufacture the Staple-Commodities of the Kingdom which would add greatly to the Riches thereof The two last great Plagues the Civil Wars at Home and the several Wars with Holland Spain and France have destroyed several hundred thousands of Men which lived amongst us besides vast numbers have Transported themselves or been Transported into Ireland and other our Foreign Plantations who when they were living amongst us did Eat our Provisions Wore off our Manufacturies imployed themselves in some Calling or other beneficial to the Nation the want of which calls for a supply of People from some place or other and it is in my judgment worthy our Observation That the Men thus lost from amongst us are of greater consideration and the loss more mischievous to the Kingdom than meerly the death or removal of so many Persons considering that they were Men in the prime of their years in perfect strength such who had they not dyed or been killed or removed might every year have begotten Children and thereby encreased the World So that three times the number of Children might have been better spared than they For instance Say there be but 100000 Men by these means gone from amongst us and instead of them 300000 Children had been taken away and the Men left it would have been much better for they in two years and a half or three years time might have gotten so many Children again but the Men dying or being gone and the Children living it may be ten or twenty years before they come to Marry and beget Children And notwithstanding the great mischief this Nation hath sustained by the loss of these Men yet so inconsiderate are the Inhabitants thereof concerning their own Interest which if possible is to have the Kingdom full of People that they are taking up another way to prevent the peopling thereof for the future there being almost all over England a Spirit of Madness running abroad and possessing Men against Marrying rather chusing to have Mistresses by whom very few ever have any Children And many Marryed Women by their lewd Conversations prevent the bringing forth many Children which otherwise they might have had These Humours and
Practices if continued will prove so mischievous that unless Foreigners come in amongst us in few years there will not be People to Manure our Lands Eat our Provisions Wear our Manufactures or Manufacture the Staple-Commodities that are of the growth of the Kingdom without which it is no wonder if Lands yield little Rent or Sell not for above 14 or 15 years Purchase And if Foreigners must come over or our Estates here grow worse there must then Encouragement be given them so to do else they will think themselves Well-Seated where they are following their Trades encreasing their Estates Enjoying all the Liberties and Priviledges of Free-born Subjects know how and have Liberty and Encouragement to improve their Estates and when they have got them can keep them therefore will never come themselves nor bring over their Families or Estates amongst us here to be accounted of as Aliens and Strangers such as may not purchase Estates amongst us and if they do shall not enjoy the same nor their Children after them That sort of people which we most want are such who though they would come over and dwell amongst us yet cannot spare 50 or 60 l. out of their Stock to procure themselves naturalized by Act of Parliament especially if they bring over Wife and Children with them which would be more advantageous for us than for them to come over alone Or if they should spare Money to Naturalize themselves yet perhaps they may not have so much as to pay for the naturalizing of their Wives and Children who as our laws are cannot be permitted to Inherit what their Fathers purchase unless they be naturalized also So that an Act for a General Naturalization is absolutely necessary if we will be supplyed with People from Foreign parts But the passing such Act alone will not be sufficient to encourage Foreigners to come and dwell amongst us there must be Liberty of Conscience also granted unto them and they must be assured that they shall not be Imprisoned Banished or have their Estates seized and taken from them and sold only for differing from the Church of England in the way of their Discipline whilst they agree in the Fundamentals of Religion live peaceably under the Civil Government and disturbe not the Government of the Church established for they having such liberty abroad where they are will not without assureance of the same here be induced to come amongst us How many thousands have left England and gone to seek shelter in Forreign parts for the persecution they were under for their Consciences who otherwise with their Families would have Continued amongst us How many have been forced to leave their Trades by being kept in Prison and having their Goods and Estates taken from them How many for fear of being undone not knowing but that so soon as their Goods come into their Shops they may be seized for their having been at Conventicles have left their Trades drawn off their Stocks and keep up their Money not knowing how soon they may have occasion to make use of it in the time of their distresses which otherwise would have been imployed in Trade to the benefit of the Kingdom How many thousands of Farmers have been necessitated to leave their Farms and come to dwell in London or to live obscurely in the Country for fear lest when they should have imployed their Stocks Plowed and Sowed their Land Reaped their Corn and Stocked their Pasture-Land all should be taken from them and they imprisoned and forced from their Families for their Religion Are not these great mischiefs to the Kingdom and great reasons of the decay of Trade and of Gentlemen their wanting Tenants for their Lands a thing so generally complained of all over England that men are not suffered to live as they would do quietly and employ and improve their Stocks as they might do to the advantage of Trade and the Kingdom in General which if they were permitted would occasion the Consumption of more of the provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom Imploy more poor people at Work and thereby Improve the Rent of Lands and would send many of the Gentry and Farmers who left the Country for the Reasons aforesaid and now live obscure in London and some other places back to their Country-houses or to their Farms again it would remove their Fears quiet their Minds and cause their Purses again to be opened and every one would be putting himself upon some way of Improving his Estate and not live upon the main Stock as now they are forced to do It were greatly to be wished that there were more love and Charity amongst us And that all men would Consider seriously what they do when they take upon themselves thus to impose their own Principles upon all others as such that are only right and Condemn all others as Erroneous this is to magnifie themselves as Infallible and despise all others Upon all these Reasons I humbly submit to Judgment whether an Act for a general Naturalization and Liberty of Conscience be not absolutely necessary at this time And whether the Passing thereof may not be of great advantage to the Kingdom since it would increase Trade Promote a vast Consumption of the Manufactures and Provisions of the Kingdom make us more Industrious Imploy more of our Poor Increase his Majesties Revenue of Customs and bring our Lands to let for greater Rents and to sell for more years Purchase than ever heretofore they would have done V. THe Fifth Thing Proposed is That the Act for Prohibition of the Importation of Foreign Cattle so far as it relates to Ireland and Westphalia-Hams may be Repealed This Act hath no way answered the end designed by the passing thereof but on the contrary proved First Very prejudicial to his Majesty in his Revenue of Customs Secondly To all or most of the Land-Owners in England Thirdly To the Navigation and Trade of the Kingdoms 1. To his Majesty for before this Act passed there were so many great Cattle and Sheep Imported from Ireland as Computing the Custom paid for them and for the other Commodities exported out of England into Ireland in lieu of them amounted yearly to 80000 l. besides the Customs of all Norway Spanish and Westphalia Hams which sum the King loseth every year and the Kingdom to their Vast prejudice have lost that Trade 2. To Land-Owners this prohibition must necessarily be a great prejudice If it be considered 1. That the Breeding-Lands of England are not able to raise a sufficient Stock for the feeding six months feeding being as much as four years Breeding 2. That by reason of the scarcity of such Stock the Breeders Impose a greater price on Lean Cattle then they will yield when fatted whereby Feeding-Land becomes worth little or nothing 3. That for want of Irish Cattle the Victualling both for Home-Consumption and Foreign Trade and Naval Provisions most of it is transferred from England into Ireland which is a great prejudice
to the Consumption in England So that Lean Cattle though they be dearer because of the scarcity of them yet fatted Cattel are cheaper for want of the Consumption we formerly had The Consequence whereof is That the Ends of the prohibition are not answered Rents of Lands are not Raised but on the Contrary Feeding-Lands must and do fall for want of a Cheap Stock and our former Consumption and Breeding-Lands through the decay of Trade which this prohibition hath occasioned 3ly This Prohibition is prejudicial to Trade and Navigation 1. Because those Foreigners who formerly Victualled here do Victuall themselves in Ireland 2. And they have their Provisions for the fourth part of what we pay for ours whereby they have a great advantage in point of Trade and can Sayl Cheaper than we which forceth the English to Victual there also 3. All Irish Cattle which formerly came unto England and for which they carryed out no Money but took of our Manufactures in return are carryed to other places beyond Seas and from thence fetch the Commodities wherewith we before the prohibition supplyed them So that the Traders in Lancashire Cheshire and other Northen parts where the Breeding-Lands lie their Loss is greater for want of a Consumption of the Manufactures of those Countries which formerly were sent into Ireland than the Advantage they receive by advanceing the price of Lean-cattel doth amount unto 4. It hath enforced the Irish for to lessen their Heards of Cattel and increase their breed of Sheep having gotten of our largest and best Breeders So that they have now Vast Flocks and prodigious quantities of Wooll besides Hides and Tallow which proves mischeivous to England three wayes 1. By their sending Wooll beyond Seas unmanufactured which notwithstanding the Prohibition every day they do which being manufactured by Foreigners they grow rich thereby whilst our poor in England starve for want of the work they had when they were Imployed in manufacturing for a Foreign Consumption 2. By sending their Hides Tallow and Wooll in great quantities into England which for want of a Consumption here bring down the price of our own growth 3. By setting up the Woollen Manufacturies in Ireland where having the Wooll Land and all Provisions cheaper than in England they must necessarily have their Workmen cheaper and if so they will be able to make enough not only for their own use but to supply Foreigners also with that which England used to supply them with heretofore which in a short time if not prevented will undermine the Staple and most Advantagious Trade of this Kingdom It is the Interest of England being the Seat of Government to maintain a preeminence in the Trade and to see that the Manufacturies thereof be preserved intire within it self Otherwise by how much the more Ireland is Improved by so much the more England will be Impaired therein For they working cheaper lying nearer Foreign Markets and their freight being less do what we can will underfell us where ever they come whereby our Manufacturies will be destroyed and Manufacturers with their Families be Ruined It is observable 1. That the Trade with Ireland kept three or four hundred ships in full imploy which were paid by the Irish Freighters there and occasioned the breeding many Seamen yearly but now all those ships are laid aside the breed of Scamen neglected and that Trade managed in Foreign Bottomes 2. That the Cattel and Sheep formerly imported by Computation amounted unto a Million of Money per Annum 3. That they carryed no Money out of England but the effect of their Cattel was all laid out in our Manufacturies or other Commodities Imported into England and from thence sent to Ireland and the King had a Custom paid both upon the Importation and Exportation and also for every head of Cattle brought over The Irish being now Prohibited this Trade are necessitated to send all their Victuals to Forreign parts where they sell them for more than we paid for them and buy what ever they want Cheaper than they had them from us by which means they will be concerned to take no Commodities from England Nor can they Trade with us if they would because they have no way to pay for what they buy unless they bring over Money in Specie to the mischeife of that Kingdom or by Bills of Fxchange which cannot be had under 15 or 16 per Cens. which is double the profit gotten by those that Trade with them That Exchange of monies thence is very high Gentlemen whose Estates are Returned over do find and by reason thereof are forced to retrench a fixth part of their Expences here which is a further lessening to the Consumption of the Manufacturies Provisions of this Kingdom and of Trade with them which is further dangerous for if we send Goods they having a new Trade to Forreign parts we must send our Stocks thither So that if any loss happen it is the English that undergoe it Irelands being peopled from England was at first a hurt to us because it lessened the Consumption of our Provisions here But to prohibit them Trade with us is ten times worse for that not only takes off the Consumption they used to make of our Manufactures but destroyes all those Families in England that used to be Imployed for their supply So that they can neither spend of the Provisions nor Manufacturies of this Kingdom as formerly they did And besides these Handicraft-men there are many Eminent Trades in London as Mercers Milliners Haberdashers c suffer greatly for when Fashions were out here they used to send them into Ireland in return for their Cattle and they went off as new there for want of which utterance many of those Tradesmen by reason of the often changing of Fashions amongst us have been and are daily undone There is one other high Inconveniency like to fall upon England by this Prohibition which hath put Ireland upon Industry For some part of Ireland lying nearer to France Italy and Spain than England doth and so the Irish having Salt from France and Cask and Mens Labour and all Tackle for Fishing being cheaper there than we have here do set up the Fishing Trade there from whence they need but one Wind to carry them to their Markets and they catch the Fish six weeks before they come into England If so then what hinders but that they may cure them and supply Foreign Markets sooner and cheaper than we can which in time will destroy the Fisheries of this Kingdom Not but that Ireland should have its proper Advantages and may if they please there being many additional Manufactures that both they and we want to which the nature of that Soyl and the inclination of the People gives encouragement particularly that of Linnen the greatest part of the Countrey being Turf-Land and naturally proper for Hemp and Flax and being employed to that use with due regulations those Commodities may be had cheaper there and
Kingdom Thirdly By lessening of his Majesties Revenues For the first of these Stage-Coaches prevent the breed of good Horses destroy those that are bred and effeminate his Majesties Subjects who having used themselves to travel in them have neither attained skill themselves nor bred up their Children to good Horsemanship whereby they are rendred uncapable of serving their Countrey on Horseback if occasion should require and call for the same for hereby the become weary and listless when they ride a few miles and unwilling to get on Horseback not able to endure Frost Snow or Rain or to lodg in the Fields and what reason save only their using themselves so tenderly and their riding in these Stage-Coaches can be given for this their inability What encouragement hath any Man to breed Horses whilst these Coaches are continued There is such a lazy habit of body upon Men that they to indulge themselves save their fine Cloaths and keep themselves clean and dry will ride lolling in one of them and endure all the Inconveniences of that manner of travelling rather than ride on Horseback So that if any Man should continue his Breed he must be one that is a great lover of them and resolve to keep and please his own fancy with them otherwise most certainly he as most Breeders already have done will give over his breeding There is not the fourth part of Saddle-Horses either bred or kept now in England that was before these Coaches were set up and would be again if they were supprest Nor is there any occasion for breeding or keeping such Horses whilst the Coaches are continued For will any Man keep a Horse for himself and another for his Man all the year for to ride one or two Journeys that at pleasure when he hath occasion can slip to any place where his business lies for two three or four shillings if within twenty miles of London and so proportionably into any part of England No there is no Man unless some Noble Soul that scorns and abhors being confined to so ignoble base and a sordid way of travelling as these Coaches oblige him unto and who prefers a publick Good before his own ease and advantage that will breed or keep such Horses Neither are there near so many Coach-Horses either bred or kept in England now as there were Saddle-Horses formerly there being no occasion for them the Kingdom being supplyed with a far less number For formerly every Man that had occasion to travel many Journeys yearly or to ride up and down kept Horses for himself and Servants and seldom rid without one or two Men But now since every Man can have a passage into every place he is to travel unto or to some place within a few miles of that part he designs to go unto They have left keeping of Horses and travel without Servants And York Chester and Exeter Stage-Coaches each of them with forty Horses a piece carry eighteen Passengers a week from London to either of these places and in like manner as many in return from these places to London which comes in the whole to 1872 in the year Now take it for granted That all that are carried from London to those places are the same that are brought back yet are there 936 Passengers carried by forty Horses whereas were it not for these Coaches at least 500 Horses would be required to perform this Work Take the sort Stages within twenty or thirty miles of London each Coach with four Horses carries six Passengers a day which are 36 in a week 1872 a year If these Coaches were supprest can any Man imagine these 1872 Passengers and their Servants could be carried by four Horses Then reckon your Coaches within ten miles of London that go backward and forward every day and they carry double the number every year and so proportionably your shorter Stages within three four or five miles of London There are Stage-Coaches that go to almost every Town within 20 or 25 miles of London wherein Passengers are carried at so low Rates that most persons in and about London and in Middlesex Essex Kent and Surry Gentlemen Merchants and other Traders that have occasion to ride do make use of some to keep Fairs and Markets others to visit Friends and to and from their Countrey-houses or about other business who before these Coaches did set up kept a Horse or two of their own but now have given over keeping the same so that by computation there are not so many by ten thousand Horses kept now in these Parts as there were before Stage-Coaches set up By which means breeding of good Pad-Nags is discouraged and Coach-Horses that are bred by cruelty and ill usage of Stagers are destroyed 2ly Those Coaches hinder the breeding of Water-men and much discourage those that are bred for there being Stage-Coaches set up unto every little Town upon the River of Thames on both sides the Water from London as high as Windsor and Maidenhead c. And so from London-Bridg to and below Graves-end and also to every little Town within a mile or two of the Water-side These are they who carry all the Letters little Bundles and Passengers which before they set up were carried by Water and kept Water-men in a full Employ and occasioned their increase whereof there never was more need than now And yet by these Coaches they of all others are most discouraged and dejected especally our Western and below-Bridg Water-men they having little or nothing to do sometimes not a Fare in a week so that they dare not take Apprentices the Work they have not answering the charge they are at in keeping themselves and Families The consequence whereof is like to prove sad in a short time unless speedily prevented especially if these Wars continue and we happen to lose so many yearly of those that are bred as of late years we have done But if these Coaches were down Water-men as formerly would have Work and be encouraged to take Apprentices whereby their number would every year greatly encrease 3ly It prejudiceth his Majesty in his Revenue of Excise For now four or five travel in a Coach together and twenty or thirty in a Caravan Gentlemen and Ladies without any Servants consume little Drink on the Road yet pay as much at every Inn as if their Servants were with them which is the Tapsters gain and his Majesties loss But if Travellers would as formerly they did Travel on Horseback then no Persons of Quality would ride without their Servants And it is they that occasion the Consumption of Beer and Ale on the Roads and so would advance his Majesties Revenue I know it will be Objected There are as many People now as will be when Coaches are down and they drink where every they are Therefore no matter whether they drink at Home or on the Road since the Consumption will be the same how can the Kings Revenue then be advanced by Servants travelling with
travels on Horseback No for this manner of travelling hinders the Sale of those Commodities they deal in of which much more would be consumed than is if such Coaches were down and by the Sale whereof they would get much more than they save by confining themselves to travelling as aforesaid so that plainly it is their interest to promote that way of travelling that tends to the greatest Consumption of the Manufacturies or Commodities wherein they deal 3ly The Husbandmen who live by the sweat of their Brows in manuring the Estates of the Gentry they are undone by this easie carriage for it hinders their selling their Corn Hay and Straw and other the products of their Farms and brings down the price of what they sell thereby rendring them unable to pay their Rents or to hold their Farms without considerable abatements which if not given them their Lands are thrown up into the Landlords hands and little or no benefit made by them 4ly The Grasiers they complain for want of a Vent for their Cattel which they had before these Coaches were erected Not that I do imagine Coaches to be the only reason of the want of that Consumption though it be evident they go far in the promoting that mischief for the want of People in England the loss of many thousands from amongst us of late years and the leaving of eating off Suppers by those that are left alive go a great way therein But these two may be easily remedied The former by the General Act of Naturalization and Liberty of Conscience proposed before which would bring all Foreigners in amongst us The latter by mens spending less in Taverns Playes and Balls and keeping up in lieu thereof the ancient laudable Customes of England of good House-keeping and thereby relieving the Poor Half the Money that Gentlemen idly spend in Taverns upon French Wines for which the Coin of the Kingdom is exhausted or upon Playes Bills treating Mistresses fine Clothes Toyes from France or other Foreign parts would defray the charges of having good Suppers every night whereby the product of our own Lands would be consumed and that would raise Rents Nay I am verily perswaded if it were duly considered and that all men as formerly would fall to eating of Suppers at least to dressing of them and when drest if they eat not themselves would give them to the Poor the increase of the Consumption would raise the Rents of Lands as much above what now they do go at at least in most places of England as would defray the charges of those Suppers If so would it not then be of great advantage to Men in their Estates and to the Kingdom in general But to proceed If the Gentlement the Tradesmen the Husbandmen the Grasier be not benefited by this travelling I am sure the last sort of Travellers To wit The Poor they cannot be profited thereby For Waggons or the Long Coaches first invented and still in use would be most for their interest to travel in being far less expensive than the other so that these Running Coaches are not most beneficial to every sort of Travellers Secondly Men do not travel in these Coaches with less expence of Money or Time than on Horseback For on Horseback they may travel faster and if they please all things duly considered with as little if not less charges For instance From London to Exeter Chester or York you pay 40 shillings apiece in Summer time 45 shillings in Winter for your Passage and as much from those places back to London besides in the Journey they change Coachmen four times and there are few Passengers but gives 12 pence to each Coachman at the end of his Stage which comes to 8 shillings in the Journey backward and forward and at least 3 shillings comes to each Passengers share to pay for the Coachmens Drink on the Road so that in Summer time the Passage backward and forward to any of these places costs 4 l. 11 s. in the Winter 5 l 1 s. and this only for eight dayes riding in the Summer and 12 in the Winter Then when the Passengers come to London they must have Lodgings which perhaps may cost them five or six shillings a week and that in fourteen dayes amounts unto 10 or 12 s. which makes the 4 l. 11 s. either 5 l. 1 s. or 5 l. 3 s. or the 5 l. 1 s. 5 l. 11 s. or 5 l. 13 s. besides the inconveniency of having Meat from the Cooks at double the price they might have it for in Inns. But if Stage-Coaches were down and men travelled again as formerly on Horseback then when they came into their Inns they would pay nothing for Lodgings And as there would excellent Horses be bred and kept by Gentlement for their own use so would there be by others that would keep them on purpose to Lett which would as formerly be let at 10 or 12 s. per week and in many places for 6 8 or 9 s. per week but admitting the lowest price to be 12 s. if a Man comes from York Exeter or Chester to London be five dayes a coming five dayes going and stay twelve dayes in London to dispatch his business which is the most that Countrey Chapmen usually to stay all this would be but three weeks so that his Horse-hire would come but to 1 l. 16 s. his Horse-meat at 1 s. 2 d. a day one with another which is the highest that can be reckoned upon and will come but to 1 l. 5 s. in all 3 l. 1 s. so that there would be at least 40 or 50 s. saved of what Coach-hire and Lodgings will cost him which would go a great way in paying for Riding-Clothes Stockings Hats Boots Spurs and other Accoutrements for riding and in my poor opinion would be far better spent in the buying of these things by the making whereof the poor would be set at work and kept from being burthensom to the Parish than to give it to those Stage-Coachmen to indulge that lazy idle habit of Body that men by constant riding in these Coaches have brought upon themselves Besides if thus their Money were spent they would save a great deal which now if Men of any Estates they pay for relief of those poor who for want of the work they had before those Coaches were set up and might have again if they were put down are fallen upon the several Parishes wherein they live for maintenance which charge would be quickly taken off if they were restored to their work Thus in proportion may a Man save from all longer or shorter Stages For instance from Northampton men pay for passage in Coach to London 16 s. and so much back from Bristol 25 s. from Bath 20 s. from Salisbury 20 or 25 s. from Redding 7 s. the like sums back and so in proportion for longer or shorter Stages Judge them whether men may not hire Horses cheaper than 5 s. a day I am sure they
of the Kingdom by the manufacturing whereof great profit doth arise to the Publick Yet of these if occasion require it will be made appear above 100000 with their Families are in great measure ruined by them And I pray you who are advantaged thereby what persons are imployed or set at work by them save only a few Servant-Coachmen Postilions and Hostlers whom they pretend they breed up and make fit for the service of the Nobility and Gentry of the Land a most incomparable School to train men up in and to fit them for the Gallows more likely than to live in sober Families but in the mean time while these are breeding up the Price and Rents of Lands are so brought down by hindrance these Coaches do make of the Consumption of Provisions and Manufactures that in a short time few Gentlemen will be in a capacity to keep Coaches so that if all Running Stage-Coaches and Caravans were supprest it would do well But if some few Coaches were continued to wit one to every Shire-Town in England to go once a week backwards and forwards and to go through with the same Horses they set forth with and not travel above 30 miles a day in the Summer and 25 miles in the Winter and to shift Inns every Journey that so Trade might be diffused these would be sufficient to carry the Sick and the Lame that they pretend cannot travel on Horseback and being thus regulated they would do little or no harm especially if all be suppressed within 40 or 50 miles of London where they are no way necessary and yet so highly destructive But this as well as the rest I submit to judgment VIII THe Eight Thing Proposed is That the Act for Transportation of Leather unmanufactured may be repealed or at least not renewed after the expiration thereof There would never have been any necessity for this Act had it not been that vast quantities of Hides are Iimported from Ireland which brings down the price of our English Hides And for the Stage-Coaches their hindering the Consumption of that Leather in England which before they set up was used for Boots Saddles Portmantues Hat-eases Holsters Belts Girts Reins Stirrup Leathers and many other things now become almost useless The making whereof for Home-service and Foreign-Consumption employed about 100000 Families whose Livelihood depended upon the manufacturing of Leather whereby they got Money with which they maintained their Families spent five or six good Joints of Meat in a week in their Houses and wore good Clothes thereby occasioning the Consumption of great quantities of the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom more than now are consumed Till this Act passed it was felony to transport Leather unmanufactured and then France Spain Germany and other parts who could not be without our Leather had vast quantities of Boots Shoes and Saddles with their Appurtenances Portmantues Hat-Cases Holsters Trunks c. from England by the making whereof many thousands of Families got a handsom subsistance and grew rich but Stage-Coaches hindring the Consumption at home as aforesaid and Irish Hides being Imported into England and also great quantities from Ireland exported to Foreign Parts our Hides fell in their price in England The Question then arose how to raise them to their ancient value and it was by the Parliament conceived that giving a liberty to transport the same unmanufactured might answer the end proposed therefore an Act for that purpose was passed But sad hath been and yet is the consequence thereof for ever since that liberty given the best of our Leather is constantly bought up and transported beyond Seas unmanufactured Foreigners who formerly were supplyed with Leather wrought here will not buy or carry over a penny-worth that is manufactured so that all those poor people who served Apprentiships to learn their Trades and whose Trade depended upon manufacturing for Foreign Consumption are undone they that kept 20 or 30 Journey-men at work every day cannot now though eminent men of their own Trades keep two by means whereof upon computation at least 50000 Men and their Families Livelyhoods are wholly taken away and they so impoverished that they are ready to receive Alms of the several parishes wherein they live whilst in the mean time Foreigners grow rich by manufacturing one of the Staple Commodities of this Kingdom and whereas till this Act passed all our old Boots and Shoes were bought up mended here and then sent beyond the Seas and there worn The case is now otherwise for the best of our Leather is not onely bought up and transported unmanufactured and wrought beyond Seas but when it is wrought it is then imported back and vended here to the great prejudice and discouragement of Manufacturers in England who have many of them been forced as great a want of People as there is in England to transport themselves beyond the Seas for want of work at home and there have taught their Art to Foreigners What then doth naturally follow all these things What Consequence can be drawn from hence but this that instead of 500 ls worth of Leather formerly sent beyond Seas manufactured we send now as much Leather but it is not worth above 100 l. because the same is carried over unwrought by which means our Manufacturers lose 400 l. which they should have gotten if the Leather had been Cut and Wrought in England and so thereby we grow poor and Foreigners grow rich by gaining that 400 l. which our Manufacturers lose But this is not all for most of our Leather that is exported goes into France with whom we never were able to keep up a Ballance of Trade but have traded with them for ready Money they taking little or none of the Manufactures of England in exchange for their Commodities By a moderate computation from the best intelligence I can get France receives from England 30000 ls worth of our Leather every year which they cannot be without for our Leather-Manufacture was the only Manufacture that they were forced to be holden unto us for 30000 ls worth of our Leather manufactured was worth in France 120000 l. then at least 70000 l. of that went into our Manufacturers Pockets the rest to the Merchants and what our Manufucturers got was spent in the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom which being consumed bare a better rate than now and helpt to keep up the Rents of Lands This Money we not only now lose to our Impoverishment and the French get to their Inriching but considering that we now import as much nay far more of French Goods into England than we did formerly and taking it for granted that when we transported the most that ever we did yet could not a ballance of Trade be kept up between the two Kingdoms but our ready Money went for a great part of the Goods imported then must it naturally follow that by sending our Leather unmanufactured which formerly was mannfactured we must send over nigh 100000 l.
more in ready Money than formerly we did or need to do were it not for this Act which furnisheth France with our Coyn to pay their Workmen for manufacturing of our Staple-Commodities and greatly exhausteth the Treasure of this Kingdom But if this Act be repealed and Irelands transporting of Raw Hides be prevented then France and other Foreigners must have Leather from England manufactured as formerly they had whereby our Handicraft Tradesmen would be set at work and having work would live handsomely as formerly they did to consume the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom So that to any rational man it must be apparent that this Act hath not answered the end designed nor raised the price of Hides as expected nor can it for Ireland transporting vast quantities of raw Hides beyond the Seas and Importing great quantities of their Hides into England as aforesaid hinders the sale of our Hides or Tanned Leather at any considerable rates either at home or to Foreigners because we want a Consumption at home and Foreigners chuse to buy their raw Hides rather than our Leather by reason they can purchase them at a third part of the price we can afford to sell ours at and by tanning of them employ their own Bark which is a great mischief to the Gentry in England whose Bark by reason thereof sells at very low rates IX THe Ninth thing proposed is That a Court in the nature of a Court of Requests in London be established for Westminster Southwark and all other parts within the Weekly Bills of Mortality and if possible in every City and Town Corporate in England to determine Differences between poor people for small Debts not exceeding 40 s. and for Words Trespasses Assaults and Batteries where the people pay neither Scot nor Lot that so they may not be undone by Law-suits The Court of Requests in London is of excellent use long continuance and hath prevented the ruine of many thousands of Families and might have done far more had it not been limitted to the Liberties of the City whereby all Westminster Southwark Tower-Hamlets Middlesex and Surry within the Weekly Bills of Mortalities wherein the generality of the poor inhabit are excluded their Jurisdiction Of these Poor for want of this Court many are every year undone by Law-Suits commenced against each other for small debts or trivial Actions for Words Assaults or Trespasses the poorest oftentimes proving the proudest most quarrelsome and vexatious These are such who maintain themselves and Families by turning and winding 20 or 40 s. a week which they take upon their credit and employ in buying and selling Butchers-meat Poultery-ware and Fish Herbs Fruit and Roots Boiled-Wheat and Oat-cakes Butter and Eggs and divers other things which they cry about the streets or sell at Tavern-doors or in little Bulks as Orenges Limons Oysters Tape Thred-laces Silk and Ferret Ribbon Childrens Play-things and such like small Commodities whereby they keep their Families from burthening they Parishes wherein they dwell and yet are so poor that they are not rated to the Church and Poor where they trade These people are the greatest part of them most commonly indebted 20 30. or 40 s. apiece for the Stock they trade with nevertheless have more owing to them by the persons they sell their Wares to than when received will pay such their Debts but there are cunning Fellows belonging to the Marshalsey St. Katherines Whitechappel and Westminster pretending to be Baillffs or other Officers placed in every part of London and Westminster and the Suburbs thereof who make it their business to enquire out these Poor and their Creditors and thereupon to contrive some stories whereby to incite their Creditors to make a demand of their Debts and if not presently paid then to arrest the Debtors These Knaves also spend their whole time in promoting differences between the poorer sort of people for frivolous words slight trespasses or pitiful small debts which done they are imployed to arrest men and the person arrested must either presently pay and give satisfaction or put in Bail the which if he cannot do as frequently it happens they cannot they laying their Actions high though the occasion of action be very small then they are hurried over to the Knight Marshals Prison or to some other Goal and put to great expence lose their Credit and Trade and very many of them are utterly ruined by the charge of Arrests Prison Fees and the Suits though the verdict upon their Tryals happen to be for them as most commonly it is there being not one Action in ten brought in those Courts for Words or Trespasses that happens to be according to Law Nevertheless if the said Defendants Demur because the words are not actionable or the Plaintiff have a Verdict and the Defendant move in Arrest of Judgement and the Judgement be Arrested yet in neither of these Cases hath the Defendant any Costs so that both Plaintiffs and Defendants spend their money in vain and the Parishes where the Defendants inhabit are frequently forced to redeem them out of the Marshalseys White Chappel St. Katharines and other Goals or otherwise they should lie and starve in Prison though the Cause of Action were but a Trifle the Charges and Fees oftentimes falling out to be four five or six times as much as originally the Action was brought for by reason whereof the recovering of 4 d. 6 d. or 12 d. sometimes costs 3 l. 4 l. or 6 l. Whereas if the Court desired were erected to end these Differences in a summary less expensive and more expeditious way the utter ruine of some hundreds if not thousands of Families would be every year prevented the Parish charges greatly lessened and quarrelsome vexatious Suits for small Debts of 40 s. or under or for Trespasses Assaults or words would be prevented In London no Freeman within the Liberties dwelling can be arrested or sued for any Debt under Forty shillings the Court of Conscience or Requests sits at Guildhal Wednesday and Saturdays in every week to hear Complaints and take course therein Upon any Complaint they first send a Summons to the party complained against and that is served upon him by a sworn Officer and costs 6 d. which done the next Court day the Plaintiff must attend and call the Defendant and enter his own appearance else is non-suited loseth his Summons and must begin again but the Defendant runs no hazard in not appearing the first day If the Defendant appear the second Court day after Summons he prevents an Attachment and is ordered to pay his debt for which the Plaintiff pays 4 d. If the Defendant fail to appear the second Court day before the Court riseth the Court grants an Attachment which costs being executed amount to 1 s. 10 d. The Officer serves this Attachment so soon as he can find the Defendant which done he gives the Plaintiff notice that the Defendant will meet him next Court day and that costs 4 d. more
is humbly offered and submitted to their considerations whether there can be any way in the World found more certain equal and easie to raise the same than by a Land-Tax for then they will know what it is they give when and how certainly it will come in and the time when the same will end and may proportion their Contracts and Payments accordingly Besides a Land-Tax will be a certain Fond for to advance Money upon in a short time at easie Interest wherewith speedily to discharge and pay off those Debts for which now great interest is to be paid I know it will be Objected that Land is a Drug bears little or no Price to be let or be sold what Rent it is let for Tenents are not able to pay for to lay Taxes upon that would utterly undo the Gentry who have nothing to live upon but their Rents To this I answer that it is very true Lands let poorly Rents are ill paid and yeild very little if sold But let us examine the Reasons hereof and see if some things may not be proposed to remedy those Mischiefs and bring Land to its former value which if we do then every Man will certainly be of Opinion that a Land-Tax is the best way to raise Money and be glad on that Condition to have it imposed I am of Opinion that Gentlemens being wanting to themselves is the greatest occasion of the decay of their Estates and lowering of their Rents Now in Order to the bringing them to the same Rate and Value if not to a better than they formerly bore I humbly propose that these several Particulars following which can only be done by Act of Parliament may be enacted as Laws And I shall endeavour to Demonstrate the Mischeifs we suffer for want of them and the great Advantages we may rationally expect to receive by their being Enacted 1. I propose that a stop be put to any farther Buildings in or about the Cities of London and Westminster Borough of Southwark or in any place within the Weekly-Bills of Mortality the Head being already too big for the Body And that a years Value of all Houses Built upon New Foundations may by the Owners of such Houses be paid to the King towards payment of Publick Debts which would advance above 300000 l. 2. That all the Nobility and Gentry of England who have Estates in the Country and are not obliged to atterd on His Majesty by reason of their Offices be enjoyned with their Families to live where their Estates do lie so many Months in each year as to the Wisdom of Parliament shall seem meet 3. That a Bill be passed for setting up of Registers in every County for Registring Sales Mortgages Leases for term of Years or Lives and all other real Securities and if possible all Bonds c. which Work may be done with little charge to the Subject and yet a profit of above 50000 l. per annum arise to the Publick 4. That an Act for a General Naturalizing of all Foreign Protestants be passed and an assurance of Liberty of Conscience given to all that shall come over into England and place themselves and Families amongst us And that the same priviledge be given to his Majesties Subjects at home 5. That the Act for prohibition of the Importation of Irish Cattle be repealed and a Trade between the two Kingdoms Established whereby his Mejesties Revenue of Customs would be advanced above 80000 l. per annum 6. That Brandy and Mum Coffee and Tea be prohibited and Coffee-houses suppressed which may be done without any dimunution of his Majesties Revenue of Excise 7. That the multitude of Stage-Coaches and Caravans now travelling upon the Roads be all or most of them suppressed especially those within forty or fifty Miles of London where they are ino way necessary and yet most numerous and mischievous and that a due regulation be made of such as shall be thought fit to be continued Which done his Majesties Excise would be worth above 30000 l. per annum more than it now is and the Post-Office by 6000 l. per annum 8. That the Act for Transportation of Leather Unmanufactured be repealed or so far discountenanced at least that it be not renewed when the seven years is expired 9. That a Court in the nature of the Court of Request in London be established for Westminster Southwark and all parts within the Weekly-Bills of Mortality if possible and in every City and Town Corporate in England to determine differences between poor People for small Debts Words or Trespasses that so they may not be undone by Law Suits 10. That a bound be put to the Extravagant Habits and Expences of all sorts of Persons that Servants and Handicraft Tradesmens excessive Wages may be reduced and that no foreign Manufactures except from Ireland be suffered to be worn in England but that the importation and exposing of them knowingly to Sale be both made Felony 11. That it be made Lawful to assign Bills Bonds and other Securities And the Frauds of Men Breaking with design to Enrich themselves out of their Creditors Estates may be prevented 12. That the New-Castle Trade for Coles may be managed by Commissioners for his Majesty which would be a great advantage to the Subjects and raise his Majesty above 300000 l. per annum 13. That the Fishing Trade be encouraged all Poor set at Work to provide Tackle for that use and be paid out of the Money Collected yearly in every Parish throughout England for relief of the Poor which would be of vast advantage to the Publick In Order to the evincing of the necessity of Prohibiting any of further Building in and about London and Westminster and of the Gentries being confined to live some part of the year upon their Estates in the Country I desire every serious considerate Person that knew London and Westminster and the Suburbs thereof fourty or fifty years ago when England was far richer and more populous than now it is to tell me whether by Additional Buildings upon new Foundations the said Cities and Suburbs since that time are not become at least a third part bigger than they were and whether in those days they were not thought and found large enough to give a due reception to all persons that were fit or had occasion to resort thither whereupon all further Buildings on new Foundations even in those dayes were prohibited Nevertheless above thirty thousand Houses great and small have been since built the consequences whereof may be worthy of our consideration These Houses are all inhabited considering then what multitudes of whole Families formerly dwelling in and about the said Cities were cut off by the two last dreadful Plagues as also by the War abroad and at home by Land and by Sea and how many have transported themselves or been transported into our foreign Plantations and it must naturally follow that those who inhabit these new Houses and many of the old
their Masters or Mistresses more than it is already The answer is plain at home they drink small or strong drink brewed by their Masters that pay no Excise but whatever they drink at Inns pays the Kings duties And all Inn-keepers do declare that they sell not half the drink nor pay the King ½ the Excise they did before these coaches set up 2ly These Coaches and Caravaus are destructive to the Trade and Manufactories of the Kingdom have impoverished and ruined many thousands of Families whose subsistence depended upon the Manufacturing of Wool and Leather two of the Staple-Commodities of the Kingdom For before these Coaches were set up Travellers rode on Horseback and men had Boots Spurs Saddles Bridles Sadle-clothes and good riding Suits Coats and Cloaks Stockings and Hats whereby the Wool and Leather of the Kingdom was consumed and the poor people set at work by Carding Combing Spinning Knitting Weaving Fulling And your Cloth Workers Drapers Taylors Saddlers Tanners Curriers Shoemakers Spurriers Lorayners Felt-makers had a good imploy were full of work got money lived handsomely and help'd with their Families to Consume the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdoms But by means of these Coaches these Trades besides many others depending upon them are become almost useless and they with their Families reduced to great necessity insomuch that many thousands of them are cast upon the Parishes wherein they dwell for a Maintenance Besides it is a great hurt to the Girdlers Sword-Cutlers Gunsmiths and Trunk-makers most Gentlemen before they travelled in their Coaches using to ride with Swords Belts Pistols Holsters Portmantues and Hat-cases which in these Coaches they have little or no occasion for For when they rode on Horseback they rode in one Suit carried another to wear when they came to their journeys end or lay by the way But in Coaches a Silk-Suit and an Indian Gown with a Sash Silk-Stockings Beaver-Hats men ride in and carry no other with them because they escape the wet and dirt which on Horse-back they cannot avoid whereas in two or three journeys on Horseback these cloaths and hats were wont to be spoiled Which done they were forced to have new very often and that encreased the Consumption of the Manufactures and the imployment of the Manufacturers which travelling in Coaches doth no way do And if they were women that travelled they used to have Safeguards and Hoods Side-saddles and Pillions with Strappins Saddle or Pillion-cloths which for the most part were either laced or imbroydered to the making of which there went many several Trades seeing there is not one Side-Saddle with the furniture made but before it be furnished there are at least thirty several Trades have a share in the making thereof most of which are either destroyed or greatly prejudiced by the Abatement of their Trade Which being bred unto and having served seven years Apprentiship to learn they know not what other course to take for a Livelyhood And besides all these Inferior Handy-Craftsmen there are the Mercers Silkmen Lace-Men Milliners Linnen and Woollen Drapers Haberdashers and divers other Eminent Trades that receive great prejudice by this way of Travelling For the Mercers sold Silk and Stuff in great quantities for Safeguards Hoods and Riding Clothes for women by which means the Silk-Twisters Winders Throseters Weavers and Dyers had a fuller Imployment the Silk-men sold-more Lace and Imbroidery which kept the Silver-Wyre-Drawers Lace-makers and Imbroyderers And at least ten Trades more were imployed The Linnen-Draper sold more Linnen not only to Sadlers to make up Sadles but to Travellers for their own use nothing wearing out Linnen more than riding Woollen-Drapers sold more Cloth than now Sadlers used before these Coaches were set up to buy 3 or 400 l. worth of Cloth apiece in a year nay some Five hundred and a Thousand pounds worth which they cut out into Saddles and Pillion-Cloths though now there is no Sadler can dispose of One hundred pounds worth of Cloth in a year in his Trade The Milliners and Haberdashers they also sold more Ribbons Gloves Hoods Scarfs and other things belonging to their Trade the dust dirt and rain and riding on Horse-back spoiling and wearing them out much more than travelling in a Coach And on Horseback these things were apter to be lost than in a Coach Trade is a great Mysterie and one Trade depends upon another Were it not too tedious I could shew you how many several Trades there are that go to the making of every one of the things aforementioned and demonstrate that there is scarcely a Trade in England but what is one way or other concerned and prejudiced by these Stage-Coaches especially the Countrey-Trade all over England For passage to London being so easie Gentlemen come to London oftner than they need and their Ladies either with them or having the conveniencies of these Coaches quickly follow them And when they are there they must be in the Mode have all the new Fashions buy all their Cloaths there and go to Plays Balls and Treats where they get such a habit of Jollity and a love to Gayety and Pleasure that nothing afterwards in the Countrey will serve them if ever they should fix their minds to live there again But they must have all from London whatever it costs And there is one grand mischief happens to the Countrey thereby for Gentlemen drain the Countrey of all the money they can get bring it to London and spend it there Whereas if they stayed at home bought their Cloaths and other Commodities of their Neighbours money would be kept circulating amongst them and Chapmen that have served Apprenticeships and set up near them would have a good Trade pay their Rents and live handsomely the Trade betwixt them and the City of London would be renewed Countrey Ladies would be as well pleased provided they be kept from London as if they had all the rich Clothes Modes and Fashions vainly and extravagantly invented and worn in the City assoon as they have them there and Gentlemen would not only save the money they spend in Journeys to buy Cloaths but have as good as need to be worn in the Countrey at easier rates than they must pay at London if they buy when the Fashion comes first up 3ly These Coaches and Caravans hinders the Consumption of all sort of Provisions for Man and Beast thereby bringing down the Rents of Lands For instance a Coach with four Horses carries six Passengers a Caravan with four or five Horses carries twenty or five and twenty These when they come to their Inn club together for a Dish or two of Meat and having no Servants with them spend not above twelve pence or sixteen pence apiece at a place yet perhaps foul four five or six pair of sheets Horses they have none but what draw them and for those the Coach-men agree with the Innkeeper before hand to have their Hay and Oats at so low a rate that he loseth by them and is
be continued up for they travel not such long journeys go not out so early in the morning neither come they in so late at night but stay by the way travel easily without jolting mens bodies or hurrying them along as the running Coaches do 5ly Neither are these running Coaches useful to any for those that are fit to ride or ought to be suffered to ride in them are such that if they have business requiring a Coach may either keep one themselves or hire one 6ly But though these Coaches are neither absolutely necessary to some nor useful to others yet they are imposed upon many for since they set up in such multitudes especially about London men careless of keeping horses knowing the certainty of passage in them have sold them and must therefore when they travel either ride in these Coaches or not at all there being few or no Horses kept now to let out to hire If by what hath been said upon this point it happen Gentlemen may travel on horseback more to the advantage and benefit of Trade and so to the publick good with more advantage to their healths and business and less expence of money and time than they can in Stage-Coaches If these Stage-Coaches be not absolutely necessary to some useful to what other Coaches may be made to others and yet this imposed upon many what reason can be given why they should not all or most of them be supprest If they were not destructive to Trade why should Petitions from almost all sorts of Tradesmen come up from most Cities and Towns in England against them as there hath been lately presented to His Majesty and the Council Why should the Justices of Peace at their General Quarter Sessions certifie to His Majestie and his honorable Privy Council under their hands as they have done that the great Mischiefs aforementioned under which the Kingdom now suffers have been greatly occasioned by these Coaches and that many thousands of Families are ruined by them as from London Westminster Salisbury Middlesex and divers other Cities Counties and Towns Certificates have come Why should the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London at their Court at Guildhal upon serious consideration and debate of the Petition of the several Companies of London against the said Coaches wherein most of these grievances are mentioned allow of the same and give leave that it should be presented if they were not convinced that they are destructive to Trade For surely they understand Trade and were not so weak as to be cheated into their consent and approbation neither have they any time since repented of or disowned the same as the Stage-Coachmen in false and scandalous Pamphlets have presumed to print notwithstanding which they are ready to own the said Petition and make good the Contents thereof And the Drapers Haberdashers and Milliners who they pretend would be prejudiced by their being superseded are ready with the other Tradesmen mentioned in that Pamphlet to evince to the World they are injured by their being kept up so that the very Coach and Harness-Makers themselves petition against them as being mischievous to their Trades in regard they prevent the making of great Numbers of Coaches every year which must have been made if Gentlemen had travelled in their own Coaches and thereby they hinder the Consumption of great quantities of Leather If all these things be true what can be said against their being supprest It is Objected The Owners of these Coaches set them up for the conveniency of the Subjects have betaken themselves to this painful way of living and laid out their whole Stocks meerly to accommodate Gentlemen and have now no other way to live what shall become of them if they be put down Ans It is the case but of very few that the suppressing of them would hurt for if all Stage-Coaches were to be supprest I dare say five for one of those that keep them would receive advantage thereby as clearly will be evinced if it be considered that when this business was before His Majestie in Council where it depends undetermined none of the Stagers opposed the being put down except Exeter Salisbury Dorchester Bristol Southampton Dover Norwich Lincoln York Westchester Worcester and Shrewsbury who call themselves Stage-Coachmen upon the grand Roads of England and there is not one Owner of any of these Coaches but hath otherways to live if he were prohibited driving them for they are all of them either Innholders or Coach or Harness-makers following those Trades or Carriers or licensed Coachmen in London and may live as well as the Hackney Coachmen in London The other Stage-Coaches are all or most of them kept either by Innholders first who one in a Town did set up a Coach and so carried all the Guests to his own house Then a second sets up another and so a third and fourth in a Town Which done they run one against another purposely to get the Guests from each other houses whereby they not only destroy multitudes of horses but are great losers themselves so that themselves would be thankful to have them put down and yet are forced to keep them up until there shall be a general suppression because otherwise they shall lose their whole Trades Or else the said Stage-Coaches are kept by such as before the late Act for reducing the number of Hackney Coaches in London to 400 were Owners of Coaches and drove Hackney there But when the number of 400 was full and they not licensed then to avoid the penalties of the Act they removed out of the City dispersing themselves into every little Town within twenty miles of London where they set up for Stagers and Drive every Day to London and in the night time they drive about the City pay no 5 l. per annum yet take away both the Town and Country work from those that do pay it and break and annoy the streets in the Cities and Suburbs thereof hinder the 400 from the Jobs and small Journeys they depended upon when they agreed to pay 5 l. a peice per annum for their Licences whereby they are many of them ruined But take it for granted it were so that these Stage-Coachmen had laid out all their Stocks for the use aforesaid and must be undone if put down and there were at least 2000 of them what is that of two evils the lesser is to be chosen Have they not already destroyed very many Thousands of Families will not the continuing of them in very short time be the undoing of many Thousands more is the interest of these snrley rude debauch'd Coachmen to be put into the Ballance with the many Thousands of Curriers Shoemakers Sadlers Girdlers Spurriers Cutlers Lorainers Cloathiers Cloath-workers Cloath-drawers Drapers Taylors and an hundred Trades more to which men were bound seven years Apprentiship to learn their Trades and are of great advantage to the publick Surely they ought to be encouraged being the Manufacturers of the Staple-Commodities
Labour ought to be countenanced and encouraged and Magistrates and Gentry would do well to give Examples thereof to those amongst whom they live If all the Poor now maintained in their Idleness were set at work and paid out of the Money raised as aforesaid those that now have two Shillings or three Shillings a Week might by their Work earn so much or suppose they could earn but one Shilling sixpence a week and nevertheless receive three Shillings it is half in half saved so that a Moyety of what now is collected from the people might be spared to them and yet the Poor be as well or better maintained than now But if Men Women and Children were set at work few Families that now receive two or three Shillings a week but in all probability would and might earn four or five Shill a week help to Manufacture the Staple-Commodities of the Kingdom at cheap Rates and thereby bring down the Wages of Handicrafts-men which now are grown so high that we have lost the Trade of Foreign Consumption because abroad Wool and Leather and the Manufactures thereof are sold at lower Rates than we can afford ours at This Mischief of high Wages to Handicrafts-men is occasioned by reason of the Idleness of so vast a number of people in England as there are so that those that are Industrious and will work make men pay what they please for their Wages but set the Poor at Work and then these men will be forced to lower their Rates whereby we shall quickly come to sell as cheap as Foreigners do and consequently engross the Trade to our selves There are many ways to set the Poor at work both old and young Women and Children by Spinning of Linnen Woollen and Woolsted Carding Combing Knitting Working Plain-Work or Points Making Bone-Lace or Thred-or Silk-Laces Brede and divers other things The Linnen-Trade if well regulated would employ some hundred thousands of People and if brought to perfection might save vast Sums of Money within the Kingdom which now are sent out for the same The Woollen and Leathern-Manufactories would employ Multitudes of Men and young youths and vast quantities of Wooll might be manufactured and consumed in England more than now is if all the Tapestry we now use were made here which is now imported from beyond the Seas Also if the Act for Burying in Flannel as ridiculous as men make it were put in Execution seeing Flannel would be as good for that use as Linnen abundance of our Poor would be employed in making these things And the Money now paid for these Foreign Manufactures would be kept in England and defray the Charge of the Manufacturing of them at home It is not to be imagined how many thousands of Men Women and Children the Fishing-Trade which is that I principally aim at would keep in employment The making of the Nets Sayls Cordage and other Materials for that use the Building of Fishing-Vessels and the Catching and Curing of the Fish when catch'd would find work for above two hundred thousand People and would encrease the number of Sea-men Ship-wrights and many Handicrafts-men A great Revenue if well managed would thereby arise to the Publick and the Fish taken would be as good to us as so much Ready-Money and be taken off beyond Seas in Exchange for such Goods as we necessarily want and have from Foreign Parts and now pay Ready Money for To conclude Were the things Proposed as aforesaid done as desired Trade would be encouraged and encreased the Provisions and Manufactures of the Kingdom be in far greater quantities consumed both at home and abroad the Price of Lands would be raised Tenants be enabled to pay their Rents the Kingdom would be greatly enriched and in a few years the Publick Debts of the Kingdom might be discharged without Imposing any considerable Tax upon the People FINIS