Ireland granted this King 1700 Marks at several times towards the maintenance of his Wars The English in Ireland being wasted with the Supplies they had yielded to England against Scotland Wales and France and the frequent Rebellions there the Parliament there represented the ill Condition thereof in 1442 to Hen. VI. and that by reason thereof the Publick Revenue was 1456 l. per Annum less than the necessary Charge The Cardinal of Winchester the better to engross the King and that he might rule at Pleasure caused Richard Duke of York Earl of Vlster to be sent Lord Lieutenant thither to induce his Acceptance he gained the King to promise the Duke all the certain and casual Revenue of Ireland and 2666 l. 13 s. 4 d. for the first year to be paid out of of England and 2000 l. sterling per Annum for seven years more but this was ill paid However he had several Successes against the Rebels gained the Hearts of the English made good Laws and governed so worthily That out of Gratitude and Inclination to him he was assisted in his Pretentions to the Crown by Kildare and several great Parties out of Ireland as was the King by another Party thence under the Earl of Ormond in the 34th and 38th years A great Party thence was cut off and fell with him at the Battel of Wakefield as many from Ireland did on the other side at Mortimer's Cross these great Losses furnished the Natives with opportunities to enlarge their Borders and streighten the English About Anno 1474. the 14th of Edward IV. The Parliament of Ireland erected the Fraternity of St. George consisting of Thirteen Noblemen who were yearly to chuse of themselves a Captain of the Brotherhood who for his year was to command 120 Archers on Horseback at 6 d. per diem forty Horsemen at 5 d. per diem forty Pages at four Marks per annum to be paid out of a Subsidy of 12 d. per pound laid on all Merchandize Imported or Exported And these were all the standing Forces in pay at this time Six years after Richard Duke of York being Lord Lieutenant the Earl of Kildare his Deputy did undertake to keep that Kingdom in peace with eighty Archers and twenty Spear-men all on Horseback for 600 l. per annum The Infancy of Edward V. gave his unnatural Unkle the opportunity of Murthering him together with his Brother in the Tower whom he succeeded under the Title of Richard III. Anno 1483. but a period was put to his Tyranny Usurpation and Life in 1485. Henry VII held himself under no obligation to do much for Ireland because two walking Spectres thence Lambert and Warbeck disquieted a great part of his Reign yet in 1487. he sent over 500 Men under Sir Richard Edgcomb some write that he carried no Forces with him and about fifty more Anno 1492. The next year after the King by Act of Parliament there resumed all the Crown Lands that had been granted away since the first of Henry VI. In the Ninth year of his Reign he sent over Sir Edward Poyning his Deputy and with him 940 Men. He by his Policy rather than force did more Service to his Prince and good to the English there than any of his Predecessors by gaining that Parliament to Enact That all the Publick Statutes of England made before that time should be in force in Ireland That no Parliament be held there until the Bills be first certified to the King under the great Seal there and those Bills be affirmed by the King and his Council to be expedient for the Land and Power be given under the great Seal of England to call a Parliament and many other beneficial Statutes He gained the King a Tax of 26 s. 8 d. out of every 120 Acres Arable Land in Lieu of Purveyance and a Resumption of all Grants made since the first of Edward III. which in Anno 1409. was followed with a Subsidy of 12 d. per pound on Imported Commodities and a Subsidy from the Clergy and Laity and in Anno 1508 he had 13 s. 4 d. granted him out of every 120 Acres Arable Land In Anno 1515. The Parliament of Ireland granted Henry VIII a Subsidy In Anno 1520. The Earl of Surry was sent Lord Lieutenant with 200 Men some say 900 more but whatever the number was they all returned for England with him the next year The Souldiers pay at this time was 4 d. per diem In 1524. The Earl of Kildare undertook the Government and to defray the whole Charge of the Kingdom with its own Revenue which he and his Deputy held with little interruption for near ten years Anno 1529. Sir William Skeffington carried over 200 Men according to some 500. In 1534. he carried over 750 to suppress the Rebellion of the Fitz-Geralds as did the Lord Grey 200 more the next year who ended it upon which 750 of the Army was disbanded This Rebellion is said to cost the King above 20000 l. The Revenue of the Kingdom by reason of that Rebellion being but 5000 l. per annum To repay which or prevent the like charge in future The King had the first Fruits then the twentieth part of all Ecclesiastical Livings then the first Fruits of all Abbeys Priories and Colledges in that Kingdom given him Kildares Estate of 893 l. per annum and many great Estates of those concerned in that Rebellion were all given to the King as also all Lands belonging to all Abbeys Priories and Colledges there And the Estates of many Absentees Hitherto the Wars in Ireland was mostly between the English and Native Irish on the Score of Civil Interest But from the time of this Kings first Divorce and Kildares Rebellion the degenerate English joined with the Irish and pretended Religion for their subsequent Rebellions which thenceforth became more frequent and more formidable being fomented and abetted sometime by the Emperor sometime by France sometime by Spain mostly by the Pope especially from the time of the Kings assuming the Supremacy Henceforward they have been no longer Loyal than whilst they have been compelled to be so In 1539. Sir William Brereton carried over 250 Men. In 1542 the Parliament gave Henry VIII the Title of King of Ireland all his Predecessors having only had the Title of Lord thereof In Anno 1543. the Irish Revenue besides Customs first-Fruits Tributes and some other particulars amounted but to 8700 l. per annum and the whole charge to but 10500 l. The Chief Governour upon all Warlike Expedition by an antient usage in that Kingdom did Tax each County with a certain Summ of Money to defray the charge thereof So that it is not easie to apprehend that Ireland at this time could be a charge to England The standing Army was but 375 Horse and 150 Foot In 1544. 700 Men were sent from Ireland into France who greatly damnified the French and by pretty Stratagems contributed to the supply of the Army with
Provisions And in obedience to the Kings commands 3000 Men were sent from Ireland against Scotland In 1547. Edward VI. to secure that Kingdom upon the Reformation of Religion sent thither 600 Horse and 400 Foot under Sir Edward Belingham who with the Forces there subdued the Demseys Connors and Moores then in Rebellion whereby Offailie and Leixe were forfeited to the Crown This King being incumbred with Wars with France and Scotland and many Rebellions at Home did as Haywood tells us draw much people from Ireland to serve him in his Wars To replenish which in the fourth year of his Reign he sent thither 400 men and 8000 l. And the next year the English from Ireland Invaded the Isles of Scotland In 1556. Queen Mary committed the Government of that Kingdom to the Earl of Sussex who carried Sir Henry Sidney with him and 25000 l. in Cash by whose assistance he finished what Belingham had so Worthily begun in breaking the power of the Demseys Connors Moores c. whereby Leixe and Offailie were Vested in the Crown and English Plantations settled in those parts now called the King 's and Queen's Counties The Irish Parliament then gave the Queen a Subsidy of 13 s. 4 d. out of every Plough-Land for ten years which was a great addition to the Revenue In 1558. This Earl had 500 men out of England with whom and the Forces of that Kingdom he Invaded the Isles of Scotland took some and sacked several others of them the standing Army there in this Reign when most was less than 1700. and sometimes less than 1100. In 1560. which was two years after Q. Elizabeth's Accession to the Crown there was 500 Foot sent into Ireland to recruit the Army In 1565. The Army in the Queens pay was but 1200 Horse and Foot The Charge of the Civil List about 1500 l. per annum The Revenue of Ireland surmounted 10000 l. per annum besides large Summs frequently gained from the Irish Lords on their Submissions and Tribute imposed on them so that the Queens Charge could be but small considering that all the Freeholders on every occasion of Marching the Army against any Rebels were obliged to send certain numbers of Horse and Foot with Provisions to attend the Chief Governour or Commander in Chief of the Army This Parsimonious Queen to avoid Expence and the sending men for Ireland ordered that every Tenant there that paid her 40 l. per annum Rent should be obliged to find a Horseman and every one that paid 6 l. 13 s. 4 d. per annum a Footman Armed for her Service to be ready on all occasions About this time O Donnel submitted to the Queen and conditioned to pay 200 l. per annum and to attend her Army on all occasions with a number of Horse and Foot as did many others of the Irish who submitted on like conditions of Compositions and Assistance which not only augmented the Revenue and lessened the Charge of the Army but helped much towards paying for their Fetters This O Donnel five years after paid the Queen 1200 l. for Delinquency and Arrears of his Composition In 1565. The Valiant Captain Randolph Landed at Derry with a Troop of Horse and 700 Foot to settle a Plantation he did great Service although at last he lost his Life in the Improvement of a memorable Victory which he obtained against the Rebels In 1569. Captain Ward with 400 Souldiers were sent into Ireland he landed at Cork The Queens great Study was to inlarge and firm her Conquest in Ireland without Charge In order thereunto she attempted to tread in the steps of Henry II. and several of his Successors who gained most of their Interest in that Kingdom at the charge of a few of their Subjects with little charge to the Crown or Kingdom of England In order thereto the Queen in 1572. incouraged Sir Tho. Smith at his own Charge to settle an English Colony in the Ards. She granted every Footman 120 Acres and every Horseman 240 Acres which then was as much as 500 Acres in England paying her one penny per Acre per annum And the year following she Lent the Earl of Essex 10000 l. on a Mortgage and gave him half the Clandeboys on condition that he should Plant 200 Horse and 400 Foot each Horseman was to have 400 Acres and each Footman 200 Acres paying 2 d. per Acre Quit-Rent Where that Noble Lord did perform many brave Exploits and had done much better had he not been countermined by the enmity and opposition of several Great Men both here and there In 1576. An Antient Tax called the Cess of five Marks on each plow-Plow-Land which had been discretionarily levyed by the Chief Governours there from Edward III's time to this under pretence of Prerogative had by this time been Arbitrarily stretched to eight or nine pounds a plow-Plow-Land being now complain'd of as a publick grievance was reduced within its first Bounds Yet notwithstanding this and other Regulations the worthy Sir Henry Sidney who governed there augmented the Queen's Revenue 11000 l. per annum above what he found it Until this time according to the best of our Writers England gained and maintained its footing in Ireland with very inconsiderable Charge to the Publick But henceforward the Charge became much greater mostly occasioned by the Queens great Parsimony who always employed incompetent force for subduing the Rebellions that were raised whereby they were lengthened to trebble the time and charge that would else have served I know not whether it ought to be reckoned as expended for the Conquest of that Kingdom tho' that was the Issue of it because the greatest part of it was occasioned by the King of Spain The Queen to divert that King from attempting England employed and fought him in the Netherlands mostly at the cost of the Dutch and he to divert her from assisting the Dutch or Invading his Dominions fomented Rebellions in Ireland and assisted them with Men and some Money yet fought her mostly at the cost of the Irish In 1579. There was 600 Men sent out of Devonshire into Ireland yet they made up the Army there in the Queens pay but 1100 Horse and Foot But the Rebellion of Desmond and others and the Spaniards that joined them did require the augmentation of the Army To that end three Companies were sent from Berwick and 150 Horse under Capt. Norris And in 1580. Six Companies under Capt. Berkley and 150 Horse under C. Russel which in 1582. were followed with 400 under the Earl of Ormond These with the Militia of that Countrey killed Desmond destroyed his Confederates in that Rebellion expelled the Spaniards and restored such measure of Peace to the Kingdom that the publick Revenue of it for the year 1583. amounted to about 24000 l. and thenceforward it encreased mightily by the firm Settlement of Estates and Enlargement of Trade insomuch that in 1584. the Lord Deputy proposed to the Queen that if she would add but 50000
do in any of these Cases transgress they are sure to be ruined by the Commanders of the Ships of England that watch that Trade as many have been They are by England prohibited to Plant Tobacco to employ their Lands at Home that is laid waste All which say they renders Ireland and the Merchants thereof fit Objects of his Majesty and the Parliaments Compassion which they hope will in due time be extended to them the hard Circumstances in which they we being once understood by their Brethren of England It is some Relief to those that imagine themselves under pressures to be permitted to utter their Complaints Thus I have out of their own Mouths given you part of the anxious reasonings of the Merchants of Ireland about the Cloggs laid on the Trade of that Kingdom by England Whereunto I shall add one more which by reason of the weight and importance of it to England I am not willing to omit and it is this That if these Restraints be intended to compel them to take off more Commodities from England or that they should Trade only with England They are ill designed For that according to the State into which England hath brought the Trade of that Kingdom as is before set forth it is impossible for the people of Ireland to enlarge their Trade with England For should they buy more of England than they do and have done for five years past they are by these Prohibitions rendred uncapable to pay for it Bat on the contrary England hath by these Restraints laid an absolute necessity on Ireland to take off less of the Product and Manufacturies of England than they have formerly taken off For when they enjoyed liberty to carry their Manufactures as well as Provisions to the Plantations they usually brought the Product of them into England which they Trucked for English Commodities or therewith paid their Debts here or if they paid Duty and Exported them to Holland c. they returned the proceed of them into England and applyed it to the uses before-mentioned But seeing England hath not only shut but fast lockt this Door also against them they must now though with much regret to the prejudice of England necessarily seek new Trade and supply themselves for future from Places where they can vend their Native Products and Manufactures Whatever there is in their former reasonings I am of Opinion that this last deserves due consideration as being of importance to the Trade of England But here I 'll put an end to the exercise of your patience as to that particular As to the Cloggs laid on their Trade by their own Parliament they have fallen in and been mentioned with those laid on them by England the most considerable being that Clause in the Act of Customs which imposeth one third more Subsidy on all Commodities Imported into Ireland except those Imported from England or the Plantations This they say was added to the Bill in England However it was passed by their own Parliament and is in effect or was intended by those which added it as a Prohibition of their Trade with any part of the World but England Another discouragement which they alledge is the exorbitant Fines in the Act for Excise in Ireland as loss of Franchises Imprisonment and the Barbarous Corporal Punishments to be inflicted thereby c. which are such That Merchant and Slave in Ireland are convertible terms and had indeed been fitter to have been imposed on Slaves at Algier than on Free-born English Men. If the view I have given you of the Trade and Condition of Ireland hath not satisfied you that it is not the Improvement of that Kingdom that hath lessened the Rents of Lands in England I presume the answer to the second part of the Inquiry we are upon will fully do it The second part of the Query is What have been the Causes that have occasioned the Rents of Lands to have abated or fallen one fifth part or considerably since the year 1662 This Query supposeth That Lands generally throughout England did in 1662. or thereabout yield considerably more Rent than now they do I was desirous to inform my self as to the certainty of it lest this unhappiness should have been only particular to your self and some few about you I had the curiosity to inquire in Survey fifteen Miles from London whether like Abatements had hapned there as in your parts of the Countrey and I had many Instances given me where several parcels of Land which in 1662. and 1663. yielded 50 l. per annum are now set upon the Rack-rent at 22 l. per annum and so proportionably for greater and less quantities of Land So that being confirmed in the Truth of the matter of Fact I have therefore the more studiously enquired into the causes thereof To resolve this Query to satisfaction it is necessary that we retrospect the Condition of England unto the time when Lands were at a very low and mean value as to the Rents of them and if we can find what it was that raised them to those high Rents they yielded about 1662. it is probable that that will direct or help us to find the true causes of their Abatement To go no further back than the Reign of Edward III. we shall find That England had no Manufactures few Ships little or no Exportation but a little Leather besides Wool and Wool-fells of which sometimes 30000 at other times 10000 Sacks was Annually Exported for Custom of which that King received 25000 l. per annum England neither had nor affected Trade further than in our own Seas and to the Netherlands or not to any purpose but lived wholly or mostly by Tillage and Pasturage of Cattel So that being destitute of Manufacture and Trade Lands yielded less Rent in England at that time than they did in Ireland thirty four years ago which was soon after that Kingdom had been depopulated by the Rebellion of 1641. when good Land was set at 12 d. per Acre This is evident by the low Rate of Provisions in London in this Reign where a fat Ox was sold for 6 s. 8 d. a fat Sheep 6 d. five Pidgeons 1 d. a Quarter of Wheat 2 s. a fat Goose 2 d. The products of the Fields being so cheap the Rents of Lands must needs be very low Stow tells us that in this Kings Reign a Tax of 5 l. 16 s. 8 d. being laid on each Parish in England That 112 l. was abated to Suffolk and the like Summ to Devonshire because of-the extream Poverty of those Counties But since they have become the Seat of several Manufactures the Case is much mended with them This Wise and Warlike King being as Masculine in his Councels as Valiant in Arms projected at once the enlarging of his Dominions and the enriching of them He observed that his English Wools were Transported to the Netherlands wrought up there and part of them returned in Draperies c. with vast advantage
REMARKS ON THE Affairs and Trade OF England and Ireland Wherein is set down 1. The Antient Charge of Ireland and all the Forces sent thither from 1170 until the Compleat Conquest thereof in 1602 with the Returns of Forces and Treasure which have been made thence to England towards the Conquests of France Scotland and Wales 2. The peculiar Advantages which accrue to England by Ireland As also those made in the Course of Trade 3. The State of the Trade Revenue Rents Manufactures c. of Ireland with the Causes of its Poverty And the State of the Trade and Rents of Lands in England from the Reign of Ed. III. unto this time with the Causes of their increase and Abatement 4. The only sure Expedients for their Advancement with the Necessity and Utility of the Repeal as well as Suspension of the Laws against Dissenters and the Test 5. How the Reduction and Settlement of Ireland may be improved to the Advantage of England and Increase of their Majesties Revenue 1500000 l. may be raised by Ireland to the ease of England expediting of their Majesties Affairs And how Ireland may be rendred Useful towards the retrenching the Power of France By a hearty Well-wisher to the Protestant Religion and the Prosperity of these Kingdoms With Allowance LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers Chapel 1691. To His Grace James Duke of Ormond The Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington and Cork Lord High Treasurer of Ireland William Earl of Portland Sir John Lowther Baronet Vice-Chamberlain to Her Majesty Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Richard Hambden Esquire Chancellor of the Exchequer Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Sir Stephen Fox Knight Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Thomas Pelham Esquire Lords of Their Majesties Treasury Sir Henry Ashurst Baronet And Sir Thomas Clergis Knight My Lords and Honoured Gentlemen THese Papers which were writ with a more private design yet chiefly intended for the Service of Their Majesties and the Publique are now addressed to your Lordships to render them the more useful to those Ends the several Eminent Stations in which all of you are gives you the opportunity of improving whatever is herein proposed to that purpose The unhappy management of the Affairs of Ireland on every Rebellion hath made the Charge of their Reduction to England ten times more than needed Cambden observed that by long usage it was grown a mischievous Custom in Ireland that Rebels might with part of the Plunder they took from the English procure Pardon Whereby and the Lenity of England Rebellions were nourished there This is most certain that the Papists have always had such Influence on the Councils of England as on the conclusion of every Rebellion they have been left in a condition to renew them at pleasure to the great Charge of England and Ruin of the English Planters in Ireland and of their Improvements And now they the French K. and the late K. J. have their Instruments at work to that end But five Rebellions having been raised there betwixt 1567 and 1642. and now a Sixth of which two formidable and chargeable ones having happened within the memory of many yet living will if we be not doomed to Infatuation instruct us in the necessity of breaking their power and utterly disabling them for future Rebellions There are a Party of Men who while the late K. J. was in Ireland magnified both it and the Force of the Irish but upon the Tydings of the happy progress of His Majesties Arm to detract from the Glory of His Acquisitions they represent that Kingdom as chargeable and useless nay as disadvantagious to England It hath however to their Mortification already yielded Laurels to incircle His Royal Brows and will do Treasure to His Coffers with a rich Return to this Kingdom of the Charge laid out for its Reduction if the Settlement thereof be duly attended It is enough for His Majesty to Conquer it ought to be the Care of His Ministers to settle and secure There is indeed a great measure of Wisdom required to improve Victories as well as Courage and Conduct to Atchieve them It hath been observed to be the Fate of the English to lose that by Treaty which they gain by Conquest Five Hundred Years Experience hath verified it in great measure as to Ireland The Affairs and Trade of that Kingdom its Vtility and Importance to England and the Influence it hath on the Trade and Rents thereof seems to have escaped the observation of most of our Statesmen and Merchants I have in these Papers attempted to rescue them from that obscurity and to lay them before Your Honours Now that the Affairs of that Kingdom are before You in Parliament Councils and Committees For which presumption nothing can Apologize but the Zeal for the Publick with which they were written I am in all humility My Lords and Gentlemen Your most Humble Servant W. H. SIR The Substance of the First of the Inquiries you Propose concerns Ireland which I take to be this First Whether England hath been Loser or Gainer by the Conquest of Ireland the Charge considered that hath been Expended thereon YOU are pleased to require my Answer to this and the other Queries which you propose presuming that my Acquaintance with that Kingdom c. doth Capacitate me to satisfie you therein I confess I have made Observations that would at least have Contributed thereunto But my Absence from Papers that would have inabled a more distinct and satisfactory Account of those matters might have excused my Disobedience at least for the present But being you admit not thereof but use the Power you have over me in commanding a speedy Compliance I will in Obedience briefly set down what occurs to me on that Subject tho' my Sentiments in this matter being different from many others I foresee the hardiness of undertaking to contradict Common-Fame or to rectifie a vulgar Error I have heard several and among them some of the Famed States-Men of the Age wish there were no such place as Ireland and fault its nearness to England as detrimental or unprofitable As if had they been consulted they could have rectified the Creation by leaving it out or placing it better elsewhere The Error lies in not apprehending its usefulness to England Others gravely tell us both in Discourse and Print that the gaining and keeping Ireland hath cost England more than the purchase of all that Kingdom is worth But these are like him who pay'd Ten-Shillings for an Ewe kept her Five Years pay'd Twelve Pence per Annum for her keeping tho' he Yearly received her Lambs and Fleece yet believed he was Fifteen Shillings the worse by having her I confess I was once half of the mind that the Expence of England in Blood and Treasure about that Kingdom had been vast My Curiosity led me to examine whether it were so or no and I will here faithfully impart what I have
met with on that Subject which will at least lead towards an Answer if not satisfie your first Inquiry Know then that the English footing in Ireland did not Commence upon a publick but private undertaking For Mac-Murogh King of Leinster having been driven from his Kingdom gave his only Daughter in Marriage to Richard Strongbow Earl of Chepstow and Pembroke and with her his Kingdom after his Death on condition he should assist and restore him The Earl pursuant thereunto incouraged his Relations Fitz-Stephens and Fitz-Gerald to joyn in that undertaking who with near 400 brave Men put off from Milford and Landed near Wexford in Ireland in May Anno. 1170. They were soon followed by Legross with 130 more and in August following by Strongbow himself with 1200. Many of these Parties were Persons of good Quality great Valour and attended with wonderful success For notwithstanding the smart opposition made by the Natives Strongbow in a short time restored Mac-Murogh and inlarged his Dominions to such a Degree as rendred him suspected by Henry II. who by Prohibiting all Commerce with Ireland c. constrained the Earl to yield him all his Acquisitions in that Kingdom The King granted back to Strongbow the Principality of Leinster reserving all the Port-Towns and certain Tracts of Land about them to the Crown King Hen. himself some write with 4500 others that were amongst 'em say but with 500 Knights Landed in October 1172. near Waterford his Presence and Fame with the Terror and Success of Strongbow's Arms so intimidated the Natives in Leinster Munster and Conaught that Five of their Kings on Notice of his Arrival did him Homage and became his Tributaries The greatest part of his Charge was spent in Royal Entertainments and his time for the five Months he stayed there in endeavours so to settle matters as wholly in future to cut off from France the usual assistance afforded by the Irish when Attacqued by the Arms of England He had experimented the benefit the Crown received without Charge by Strongbow's private undertaking Therefore he wisely resolved by like Methods to make that part he had gained bear the charge of Conquering the whole To that end he distributed large Scopes of Land to the great Men that attended him As to Hugh Lacy the Kingdom of Meath finding 100 Knights for his Service for ever c. About four Years after the Irish yielded him or the King imposed a Tax of Twelve Pence on every House or Yoak of Oxen there which amounted to no small Summ in those days After the Death of Strongbow the King at Oxford made his Son John King of Ireland and as our own Writers tell us he divided the Lands of that Kingdom to his Subjects as well of England as Ireland to be held of him and his Son John he gave Miles Cogan and Robert Fitz-Stephens the Kingdom of Cork to whose Relief soon after Arrived there Richard Cogan with a Troop of Horse and a Company of Foot Anno. 1184. Philip de Breos as fore-runner of the young King went into Ireland with a small Party of Horse and Foot the next Year the young King followed with no Army yet Honourably attended and with some Treasure This young Counceller like Rechoboam's handled the Irish Princes that Congratulated his Arrival so roughly that they were provoked to Rebel Whereupon Eight Months after his Arrival he left that Kingdom in a much worse condition than he found it King Henry's Wars in France the unnatural Rebellion of his Sons and his other troubles permitted him not to relieve it yet to pursue his former Method he committed the Government of that Kingdom to the Renowned John de Courty and gave him a Grant of the whole Province of Vlster then unsubdued the Irish Princes thereof having not hitherto owned any subjection to England The Valiant Courcy with 3 or 400 of his friends and followers with the Forces then in Ireland not only reduced the Rebels in the other three Provinces to their former subjection but also brought Vlster under the English Yoak Richard I. was so taken up with his expedition to the Holy Land the perfidy of the French King and his unhappy detention by the Emperor That he concerned not himself with the Affairs of Ireland that I find further then that he Married Isabel the Sole Heiress of Strongbow to William Maxfield Earl-Marshal of England who was also in right of his Wife made Earl of Pembroke and P. of Leinster This Earl left Issue of that Marriage five Sons who succeeded each other to their Fathers Honours and Estate yet Died Issueless and five Daughters whose Fortunes in Ireland and Wales recommended them to the greatest Pears of England As Joyce the Eldest to Earl Warren who had with her the County of Wexford of whom came the Earls of March c. Matilda the second had the County of Catherlow and Married Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk Isabel the third Daughter had the County of Kilkenny and Married the Earl of Gloucester and Hereford Sybilla the fourth had the County of Kildare and Married William Ferrars Earl of Ferrars and Darby Eva the fifth Daughter had the Mannour of Dunmas now called the Queens County and Married the Lord Bruise of Gower whereby the Revenue of those five Counties became transmittable annually into England These Ladies Cambden tells us enriched their Husbands with Children Honour and Possessions King John having received 1000 Marks from Volois Lord Justice of Ireland to discharge him without account for the Revenue he had received of that Kingdom Soon after committed the Government thereof to Walter and Hugh Lacy who abused his Authority not only to the Oppression of the Irish but to the subversion of many of the best English Families also to that degree that our Writers say their Exactions Oppressions and Tyranny Murders might be added was intolerable yet King John instead of easing those Pressures if we believe Grafton and Fabian imposed Taxes on the People of Ireland towards his Wars with France much greater than they were able to bear So that by overstretching he crackt the strings of the Irish Harp whereon for sometime after was only heard the discordant sound of Revolt Rapin and War in every Corner To quell which the 25th of May 1210. The King himself landed near Waterford with an Army their number no where given us The Irish Kings and great Lords immediately appeased him by Submissions Homage and Tributes He granted the English Subjects in Ireland the benefit of Magna Charta and the Laws of England He setled twelve Counties appointed Courts Judges Circuits and Corporations as in England he granted vast Scopes of Land to his great English Lords in Knight Service for small Rents For 2500 Marks he restored Walter Lacy and for 4000 Marks Hugh Lacy and returned into England in August the same year In the year 1213 being threatned with an Invasion from France he received from Ireland 500 men at Arms well appointed and a great
number of other Horse who came to his assistance at Barkham Down Henry III. during his 56 years Reign was so fully employed by the French in the Bowels of England the Welsh and Scotch on his Borders and his great Lords at home That he neither assisted nor minded Ireland further than to draw powerful Assistances of men thence which he received against France Anno 1230 and 1254 and against Wales in 1245 in 1256 c. as he had done of Victuals in the beginning of his Reign having received thence 1000 Bacons two Ships load of Corn and one of Oats The Clergy of Ireland granted him a Subsidy and he received Aid thence towards paying a Debt to the Dauphin of France He made his eldest Son Edward Lord of Ireland The 17th of his Reign the King of Conaught exhibited a Complaint That although he had ever since King John subdued him duly paid his annual Tribute of 5000 Marks yet he was disturbed by John de Burgo Edward the First being in War with Scotland and the Irish generally in Rebellion the Scots invaded Ireland and committed all manner of Barbarities but were not only expelled but followed by the English of Ireland who severely revenged the Injury they had received and therein did acceptable Service to the Crown of England In Anno 1293. The King drew Succours from Ireland against the French as he did against the Scotch when Balliol the Chair and Marble were taken and the two latter brought thence Two years after another considerable Army from Ireland met the King near Edinburgh and tendred him considerable Service as did a third Army from thence at the Battle of Falkirk Soon after which Tho. Bissel with a party from Ireland invaded Scotland and possessed himself of the Isle of Arrain which the King gave to him and his Heirs as an acknowledgment of his good Service This King received the whole Tenth of all Ecclesiastical Revenues in Ireland for seven years and one Fifteenth of the Temporality towards the holy War Also Aid towards the Marriage of his Sister and several times pressed them for other Aids The Scots soon after they had given Edward II. that great defeat at Bonoksborne encouraged by that Kings Male-administration took the opportunity to revenge the Mischiefs they had received from Ireland in the former Reign Edward Bruce twice invaded Ireland and notwithstanding the opposition he met with over-ran and sacked a great part of it destroyed Men Women and Children Towns Churches and all that came in his way and excited the Irish to almost a general Rebellion while the Scots King made a like havock in all the North parts of England This Edward Bruce was Crowned King of Ireland but though his Rage was great his Reign was short it being but one year The Cruelties committed by the Scots were so many as caused even the Irish to abhor and abandon them who therefore joyned with the English who at last defeated Bruces's Army cut off his Head and as an acceptable Present sent it to King Edward In this War the Scots lost 30000 and the Irish-English 15000 fighting men besides others The whole Land was almost wasted impoverished and depopulated yet the King was so far from relieving or succouring it That he required and received thâ—nce the â—th Penny from all the Temporality towards defending England against the Scots In his 16th year he was attended at Curlee by the Earl of Louth with 6000 foot and 300 men at Arms and 1000 Hoblers all well appointed and by the Earl of Ulster with 300 men at Arms and in the 17th year of his Reign he was supplyed thence with 5000 Quarters of Corn sent him to Aquitain I do not find that there was any standing Army in pay in Ireland When Edward III. first ascended the Throne nor for several years after the whole charge of the Civil List then amounted but to 308 l. 2 s. for a year and it was because the chief Governor was a great Favorite that he had 500 l. per Annum for his Entertainment out of which he was to maintain twenty or thirty Horsemen In the 6th year of this Kings Reign the Lord Darcy with a potent Army from Ireland invaded Scotland So that as our Writers express it what by the King on the one side and by the Irish on the other Scotland was subdued and Baliole placed on the Throne And two years after the same Lord Darcy over-run part of Scotland and the Isles which he might have possessed had they been worth keeping Notwithstanding which this King the 15th year of his Reign recalled all the Royal Franchises and Liberties and resumed all the Lands and Signories that had been granted by him or his Father which put the English born there into almost as bad a Condition as the Natives and tended to unite them as fellow sufferers and laid the Foundation of innumerable Mischiefs Yet an Army went thence to help the King then in France and did him good Service and were with him at the Battle of Cressey as did another party from Ireland go to him to the Siege of Calais Anno 1347. In 1353. Sir Tho. Rokerby carried over into Ireland ten men at Arms and twenty Archers In 1361 the King made his third Son Lionel Duke of Clarence Lord Lieutenant he married Elizabeth de Burgo whose Fortune was 30000 Marks per Annum In her right he was Earl of Vlster Lord of Meath and Conaught Here I must dissent from a truly worthy learned and scrutinous Enquirer into the Affairs of that Kingdom who will not allow her Fortune to be above the Moiety of that Summ because that what thereof lyes in Vlster being seized into this Kings hands from the 5th to the 8th of his Reign by an odd account yielded but about 0900 l. But he neither considered the Frauds of Concealors and Collectors nor remembred the late devastations made by Bruce whereby not only all Vlster but a great part of Ireland was laid waste and unpeopled and the English by Dissentions in Arms against one another in those very years so that the instance affects not the Case for those Rents and Profits were of very great value and might have been a thousand times more in setled times notwithstanding there was received no more in those three years This Duke carried over with him 1500 men chiefly to recover his Wifes Inheritance yet he was so far from using them solely to that purpose That he only recovered part of Meath and of the Sea-Ports of Vlster for the Condition of the Kingdom requiring he employed them with good Success in Leinster and Munster therein as in many other Respects he preferred the publick good to his particular Advantage in acknowledging of which and other good Services the Clergy and Laity gave him two years full Profits of their Tythes and Lands William Winsor was sent Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and with him a party of men but their number being as I suppose but small is no
to support our Charge and Enrich us For whatsoever the Revenue of Ireland amounts to yearly above the Charge of that Kingdom hath been and will be transmitted into England and is so much clear profit to the King and this Kingdom They are yearly liable to us for more than we receive in Commodity thence and therefore much of what their Merchants send to France Spain c. on their own proper Accounts is returned by Exchange or brought in Forreign Coyns into England so that they seem to subsist by Miracle However they were in a thriving condition when King James II. Ascended the Throne Nor is the advantage small to England nor to our Nobility and Gentry that whilst the elder Brothers Gentlemen of Estates here justle and scuffle for Offices and Preferments and think all too little for them That their younger Brothers have Ireland to repair unto in Shoals on every change of Government there which usually happens every three or four years where they meet with Offices Employments and Preferments both of Honour and Profit Ecclesiastical Civil and Military and frequently arrive at considerable Estates or a way of Livelihood whereby they live as plentifully and contentedly though perhaps not so splendidly as their Elder Brothers here Nor is this advantage limited to the Nobility and Gentry only For England breeds more Mechanicks than it can maintain The Surcharge of these that by their stay here would but impoverish the rest find Work and Livelihood in Ireland As do many decayed Families that repair thither yearly for Bread and are received there with great Humanity and Kindness It is Ignorance Envy French Gold or Wicked and Treacherous Designs that put Men upon Quarrelling with the Trade Situation or Improvement of Ireland as prejudicial or inconvenient to England for the fair spacious and safe Harbours on the South and South-West Coast of Ireland furnish our Merchant Ships in their Voyages to Asia Africa and return from America and most part of Europe not only with commodious shelter and refreshments in Storms Tempests and other Extremities at Sea but also retreat refuge and security from Pyrates and Enemies in times of War And Ireland by its Situation lyes conveniently not only for Security and Advice for our Merchant Fleets in time of War but also to intercept and interrupt the Trade of our Enemies And how lightly soever these advantages may be past over by those that possibly for French-gold would cut untwist or weaken our Threefold Cord yet they are obvious enough to all considering unbyassed States-men Merchants and Navigators For let it be considered That the great currant of Trade runs between England and France and that were the Ports of Ireland and France in one hand or both in War with us That either much more both would shut up and damage if not ruine our Trade in that in the latter case it might be done meerly by Privateers without the Expence of a great and chargeable Fleet as our Merchants already find in part to their great cost and loss Thus you see that Ireland is beneficial to England by employing above 300 Sail of Ships constantly together with the Hands and Trades that depend on them That it takes off considerable quantities of our natural Products of our Manufactures and of our Imported Commodities which yields Employment to our People contributes to keep up the Rents of our Lands and Enrich our Merchants That almost all the Commodities we receive thence are not only useful but necessary to us to enable our Manufacturers and employ multitudes of our People That our Forreign Trade is encreased by the Commodities our Merchants Ship off from Ireland which they can have no where else and lyes there conveniently for our Ships to take in in their way to their proper Markets That we receive thence yearly above 240000 l. besides many other advantages That many younger Brothers and supernumerary Artizans and Families that fall to decay and that cannot subsist here are received and entertained with kindness in Ireland where they grow Rich or at least Subsist That the Situation of that Kingdom is so far from being prejudicial to England That it is commodious for the shelter security and enlargement of our Trade That were there no such place we should want Employment for at least 300000 of our People and Sale for a good part of our Products and Manufactures That should Ireland continue in the hands of our Enemies many of our People would be beggared most of our Forreign Trade be greatly indangered and obstructed if not ruined So that without further consideration of this matter I do conclude That as Ireland is the antientest so it is the most noble and profitable Acquisition that ever England made though it is but little more than twenty years since the standing Revenue of that Kingdom did considerably surmount the Charge of it yet our Kings ever since King John's time have drawn large Supplies not only of Men but also of Money from Ireland K. James and K. Charles the First received several Summs of Money thence which with the advantages by Trade and most of the fore-mentioned particulars have rendred Ireland considerable to England for near 500 years past You take notice that our Nobility Clergy and Gentry have imbibed a Notion that the abatement of the Rents of Lands in England for twenty six years past have been occasioned by the Improvements of Ireland in that time And thence you raise your Third Query Whether the Improvement of Ireland was not the cause of the Abatement of Rents of Lands in England Or whence else hath it come that Rents of Lands have fallen one Fifth part since the Year 1662. TO set you right in this matter it 's expedient that I lay before you the true state of that Kingdom and its Trade whereby you will be able to see the folly of our suspicions and the difficulty if not impossibility of receiving prejudice by the Improvement of Ireland at least in this or the next Age unless we enforce it by bearing too hard on them as we did in the business of Cattel and compel them to better Husbandry at home and to more Forreign Trade than they are any way disposed to or prepar'd for And then I will shew you whence it is that our Lands have fallen so much in their Rents Ireland is indeed an Island that for extent of Acres richness of Soyl salubrity of Air numerousness of good Rivers and Havens variety of Fishings native Products and materials fit to be improved into Manufactures Scituation for Trade c. comes behind few Islands in the World Yet it hath hitherto advanced but very little in Trade Riches or Improvement Although it hath for 518 years owned Subjection to England and been in great measure Inhabited by Brittains to that degree That three fourths of the present Papists there are of Brittish Extraction who yet by the influence of that pernicious Religion are as much disposed to Mischief and
fourth step towards the enriching of the Kingdom accompanied or immediately followed our breaking off from that Mother of Abominations the Church of Rome and was sent us as a Blessing from Heaven for that Separation was the Serge Say and Stuff Trade with all our new Draperies which have vastly contributed to the Wealth of the Kingdom and raising the Rents of our Lands Antwerp had for a long time been and now was the greatest Seat of Trade in the whole World and the Netherlands of Manufacture Thence we were supplied with all sorts of new Draperies and Fabrick of Silks c. Although Trade be the best humoured Lady in the World yet she is so great a lover of quiet and repose and so sensible that she carries her welcome with her where-ever she goes that she expects to be Courted and Accommodated with Peace Liberty and Security where either of the two latter are denied or taken from her she frequently removes and carries Plenty Wealth and Honour along with her Ignorance is the professed Mother of the Devotion of the Church of Rome Slavery and Poverty her two Daughters Covetousness Cruelty and Ambition inseparable from that Hierarchy The Lords Inquisitors and Bishops of Spain observed that Merchants and Manufacturers were not only a Richer but also a more sober thinking knowing sort of people than others more curious about what they entertain in matters of Religion than the Debauched part of the Gentry and common people nor so much Priest-ridden nor so easily cheated out of their Souls and Money They longed to be fingering their Wealth But the distance of the Netherlands from Spain did not permit them singly to strip this sort of People Therefore these Hamans resolve the Destruction of all that dissented from their Ceremonies and Canons in those Provinces And rather than fail of their extirpation the moderate men though of their own perswasion must go to Pot. Having gained the Sole Direction of Philip the Second of Spain they had as it were both Swords put into their Hands and the World hath seen how they used them They put those Provinces into such Convulsions as enfeebled the Monarchy of Spain which from that time may date its Declension These Right Reverend Fathers appointed Duke D' Alva Governour General of the Netherlands a Man of a fierce cruel bloody inflexible Temper a fit Servant for such Masters yet they thought it too great an Honour for him being a Lay-man solely to engross so great a Stock of Merit as was to be acquired by the Ruin and Murder of such Multitudes as were then to be Sacrificed to the Roman Cruelty To Sanctifie the Villany the Clergy must share in it They therefore appointed fifteen new Bishops to be set up in the Netherlands who should be free from all Secular Power and Jurisdiction even in case of Treason That all Commerce Negotiations Liberties and Priviledges should be overthrown That all in the Netherlands should be reduced to extream Poverty that thereby that Countrey should be assured to them and to Spain That no Man of all those Countreys except of their Faction should be held worthy to live And finally all to be rooted out and all Possessions Arts and Trades and all Orders to be taken away until there should be a new Realm and Nation That none Suspected be Employed tho' of the Blood-Royal but to be removed and dispatched That no Contracts Rights Promises Oaths Priviledges and solemn Grants made to the Netherlands shall be of any Force for the Inhabitants as being guilty of High Treason These things will cause the Subjects to Revolt and move Sedition Thieves and Spoilers of Churches and Images should be hired and sent among them whose Offences should be imputed to the Rebels These were part of the Instructions given by the Holy Fathers to Duke D' Alva and the new Bishops who acted their parts to purpose in this Tragedy for on D' Alva's return into Spain he boasted that he having done the best he could to root out all Herefie he caused 18000 persons to be put to death in Six years by the ordinary Ministers of Justice besides numbers that had been cut off by the Souldiers It had been happy for these Kingdoms if these Instructions had been confined to those Provinces and had not in part been copied and followed here as well as in the Netherlands I will not intermeddle with the direful effects of these Ecclesiastical Politiques further than as to the influence they had on the Netherlands which were the greatest Seat of Trade and Manufacture in the whole World As soon as the peaceable Merchants and Manufacturers began to be tost and teased between the Ecclesiastical and Civil Courts when once the ingenuous industrious Artizans and Traders could no longer quietly enjoy the fruits of their Labours nor as much as by connivance be permitted to serve God according to his own Command and Will nor yet though they continued Idolaters be safe except they would be active and instrumental in plucking up the Foundations of Liberty and Property to set up a Tyrannical and Exorbitant power in Church and State they thought it high time to remove and this Persecution in the Netherlands happening about Anno 1566. and contemporizing with the Establishment of the Protestant Religion in England and the Liberty given in the beginning of Q. Elizabeth 's Reign very many Manufactures were thereby allured over into England and settled in several parts of the Kingdom as London Canterbury Norwich Colchester c. where both French Walloons and Dutch had several Priviledges granted them were allowed Churches with Liberty to serve God in their own way according to the Primitive Simplicity A great part of them removed into Holland and the other United Provinces when once they undertook the defence of their just Liberties and Priviledges and allowed Men to serve God without the imposing of Ceremonies c. Others that were of the Popish Religion removed some into Italy but most into France and laid the Foundation of the Wealth and Greatness of that Monarchy For from that time that Kingdom has mightily encreased in Manufacturies but England much more because we had store of good Wool and Matter for them to work up of which France was in a manner destitute From this time forward all the Cities and Towns in England where these new Manufacturers seated themselves began to be enlarged and regulated in their Buildings and Rents of Houses and Lands advanced The Prosperity of this sort of People and the Liberty and Immunities that were granted them allured many more of them over to us and as their Servants and Apprentices grow up to be Masters the new Manufactures spread into several parts of the Kingdom and where-ever they seated themselves they furnished multitudes of the poorer sort with Work and comfortable Subsistence they grew rich themselves and enriched their Neighbours greatly lessened the Importations and augmented the Exportations of the Kingdom and added to its Wealth
abundantly Thus Persecution greatly impoverished the Spanish Netherlands and gave the first Blow to the greatness of the Spanish Monarchy and Liberty enriched several parts of Europe but England especially The Gospel spread the Church flourished and the Trade and Wealth of the Kingdom continued on the Encrease until there sprung up a generation of Men in the Nation very zealous for the observance of Forms and Ceremonies not so much regarding the necessary Duties of Religion as Love and Charity who too much favoured the Spirit of Persecution In all Ages and amongst all Parties those men that have violently and rigidly been for Imposing particular External Modes and Forms in Religion have least advanced the Power of it and run most counter to the Civil Interest of the Kingdom In Edward the 6th time the Worthy Pious Bishops that first departed from Rome differed about the degrees of distance they were to go off from the Mother of Abominations some of them upon Political considerations that the change might be less sensible and in hopes of alluring the common people were for retaining the less Gross part of the Ceremonies and the most plausible passages of their Liturgy Canons and the way of ordering Priests and Deacons Others of the Bishops were for casting off Rome and all her Ceremonies at once and for returning to the Primitive Simplicity of Worship instituted and practised by Christ and his Apostles as several Forreign Churches had done with good success But reason of State with a good meaning and honest design prevailed yet those that were for retaining those Ceremonies seemed to intend them but for a time and only until as they say in the Preface to the Commination against Sinners c. That the Godly Discipline used in the Primitive Church could be restored But what these first Reformers retained or admitted meerly by way of Expedience judging the things indifferent in their own nature their Successors some time after Imposed with more rigour and strictness than the observance and practice of necessary Duties as if they thought the Canon of the Scripture incompleat and that Christ and his Apostles had not sufficiently directed or instructed the Church how to worship God and that the Christian Religion was deficient without this supplement of new Institutions Arch-Bishop Whit gift was the first that began to Impose these about 1583. By doing whereof he disgusted and disquieted the generality of the Pious Divines and Communicants of the Church of England at that time who disrelished them as unwarrantable and uncharitable gave a check to the Trade and a stop to the Manufacturers who were flocking into the Kingdom from all parts To come to the matter in hand these Impositions and the Severities afterwards used by A. B. Laud put the Church into terrible Convulsions and the State into a Bloody Civil War expelled multitudes of our sober wealthy people some to New-England some to Germany some to Holland many chose rather to live in desolate bowling Wildernesses others in strange Lands among people whose Languages they understood not with Liberty to serve God than to live in England their Native Country and be exposed to hardships at home and to be fleeced and stayed by a set of Tormentors Nor was this all but besides many of our industrious Manufacturers were driven into Germany Holland and other of the Vnited Provinces insomuch that as was evidenced to the Parliament in 1643. The Clothiers who for Liberty of Conscience removed hence and setled in Holland made there in one year 36000 pieces of Broad-cloth to the unspeakable loss of this Kingdom for hereupon Trade greatly decayed and the Rents of Houses and Lands abated sensibly And that I may help you a little to estimate the Advantage the Kingdom reaps by these Manufacturers and the great Damage sustained by their Expulsion I will give one Instance of the vast numbers of people they employ which are mostly of the poorer sort and another of what the Kingdom lost by having those 36000 pieces of Broad-Cloth made beyond Sea As to the numbers of people employed in our Manufactures take the Instance from Q. Elizabeth's Reign who being informed that in a time of Dearth and Scarcity several Clothiers in Gloucestershire were fallen to decay whereby the Poor wanted Work she required their condition to be reported to her and I find part of the return to the effect following viz. That in the six Hundreds of Berkly Cumbalash Thornbury Longtree Whitstone and Bislely there inhabited 40 Clothiers who employed 338 Looms to each of which Looms did pertain eight persons viz. Weavers Winders Dyers Dressers Warpers c. which was to the whole 2704 besides 4500 Spinners so that by the decay of these 40 Clothiers 7204 persons in that small Circuit were left without Work and Sustenance As to the Instance which respects our Profit you must know that particularly in White Clothes all that we make of them above the cost of the Wooll and Oyl is raised upon the Labour of our People and is clear Profit to the Kingdom As suppose the Wooll and Oyl for one piece of Cloth cost 3 l. and that the Cloth yields 13 l. then 10 l. is raised by the Labour and Workmanship of the Manufacturers c. The Wooll of some Cloths cost much more but then the Cloth will yield a better price c. But I pitch upon that price as a mean Rate According to which value this Kingdom lost 360 thousand pounds sterling which it had gained if those Cloths had been made in it and sold hence And about 13000 of our People were thereby deprived of the Work and Wages that the making those Cloths would have furnished them with In this single Instance you see the Kingdom lost 360000 l. per annum in the old Drapery and the loss could not be less than double so much in the new Drapery c. and all this for those Trumperies a mighty loss indeed to the Kingdom Yet had the Church gained thereby there had been some pretence for retaining and imposing them but instead of promoting the Edification Peace or Unity thereof they have served only to rend and divide it The fifth step towards the advance of the Rents of Lands was the Liberty of Conscience granted by the Long or Rump Parliament and Oliver from 1642. to 1660. or 62. during which time all Prosecutions for non-observance of uninstituted Ceremonies c. were suspended Indeed never was there a more pregnant Instance of the Benefits which Liberty of Conscience and Encouragements to Manufacturers brings to a Kingdom than what that short space of time furnished For notwithstanding Civil-Wars in the bowels of these three Kingdoms for a great part of that time whereby multitudes of the Inhabitants were cut off yet Trade and the Rent of Lands encreased and advanced even miraculously I deny not but the removal and taking off of all Monopolies the bringing down Interest of Money to 6 l. per Cent and the Act of
be advanced HAD we duly improved the advantages we had of Trade and Manufacture about 1662. and carefully kept our Manufacturers Skill and People to our selves it is difficult to say what advancement might have been made of Rents by this time But now that by our own Folly the Netherlands some parts of Germany and even France it self are become sharers with us in our most profitable Manufactures not only for their own Supply which they were wont to derive from us but also to that degree that they Vie with us in many Forreign Markets it is high time seriously to consider what is the true interest of the Nation both in respect of Trade Rents and Manufactures In Order hereunto let it be considered that the Strength and Security of England next under God consists in its Navy Its Welfare and Prosperity depends on its Trade Natural Products and Manufactures The Strength of its Navy depends on Forreign Trade and the profitable part of Trade to the Kingdom results solely from our Exportations It is therefore the true Interest of the Kingdom by all due Methods carefully to preserve incourage and augment all these Those who get their Livelihood by Trade and Manufactures are many more than those who live by Cattle Pasturage Corn and Fruits Our Natural Products which we Export are not computed to be above one Fifteenth part of our Exportations and tho' they that live by these must not be neglected but encouraged yet our main care ought to be laid out for our Manufacturers as those that have raised the Kingdom to its present Wealth and Greatness which supports it and makes up the Bulk of our Expectations Now the Trade of England being mostly carried on by its Manufactures should the Rents of Land here advance suppose one fourth part above what they were in 1662. and Lands in Germany and France c. do not rise proportionably I suppose it would be very prejudicial to the Kingdom in general For I am not here speaking of what would for a time gratifie the humour of our Nobility Gentry or Landed Men but what would be their and the Kingdoms true Interest If Rent of Land should advance one fourth part or more above what they were in 1662. The Fruits and Products of the Land ought to rise in their price proportionably one fourth above what they then were or the Farmers would not be able to pay their Rents And were the Natural Products thus advanced for a continuance Provisions being so much Dearer it would be but reasonable that the Labour of the Working People should advance also And were this so our Manufactures would be Dearer which in the present State of things as hath been observed would be pernicious to the Kingdom For by such advance of Rents and the Price of our Natural Products and Manufactures we should First Lose all our Forreign Markets for that part of the Natural Products of our Lands which we Annually Export to other Countries which could in that Case under-sell us Secondly We should for the same Reason lose all Forreign Markets for our Manufacture and thereby the means of imployment for our People at home and of our Ships and Seamen abroad which would yet be more mischievous to us The Kingdom affords no Commodity that I call to mind peculiar to us but Tin nor are we sole Masters of that neither tho' we have more and better of that Commodity than any Country in Europe Therefore all things considered it is the Interest of the Kingdom that we raise both our Natural Product and Artificial Commodities and Manufactures so Cheap as that we may be able to furnish all Forreign Markets with them their quality considered some small matter Cheaper than any other Country can For thereby only can we secure Forreign Markets for our Surplusage of both and imployment for our People The Dutch and Venetians c. do in some sort Vie with us at Forreign Markets as to Fine Cloth and some costly Fabricks of Manufactures but they are not able so to do in Course Cloths and Course Manufactures because of the much higher Prices of Food and Labour among them than us which with the different Price of Wool there and here enables us to make great quantities of these Courser Manufactures much Cheaper than it is possible for them to do But if now that we have cast out so considerable a part of our Manufacturers into other Countries and that by raising our Rents Provisions Wool Labour and Manufactures should be advanced much in their Price we should be in danger of losing a much greater part of our Trade to other Countries than what we have already lost So great and ticklish is the difficulty of Regaining any part of Trade or bringing it into it's former Channel when once lost or turned out of it If against what hath been said it be objected that experience tells us that our Manufactures are raised Cheapest in Years of Dearth and Scarcity I answer that extraordinary accidents do not constitute a standing Rule That 't is true in such years the Poor are constrained to Work Harder and Cheaper than at other times Yet in those years they are constrained to run in Debt and often Sell even the very Clothes which they Earned in times of Plenty c. and did Provisions advance for a continuance Labour must do so too or many of the Poor would perish and the rest be reduced to live on Herbs wear Wooden Clogs or Shooes and like the Peasants of France look like walking Ghosts which I hope will never happen in England It is the undoubted Interest of the Kingdom to recal and allure as many of our Manufacturers home as possibly we can to set up and encourage new Manufactures for the imploying of our People for the augmenting of our Exportations and the encrease of the Revenue to improve the opportunity put into our hands by cherishing the French that are already amongst us and inviting in as many more as we can get They live more hardily and therefore can work much cheaper than ordinarily our People can Their labour may be applyed and directed to some new Manufactures or new Fabricks which we have not yet which we were wont to bring from France and which may not interfere with those we have or with the present labour of our own People A prudent management of these things would conduce more than a little to the regaining and enlarging of our Trade to the enriching of the Kingdom and advancing Rents by encreasing the home Consumption the lessening our Importations and augmenting our Exportations There are several things that may by accident and for a spurt advance the Rents of Lands But it is only the lessening our Importations and the augmenting our Exportations that can keep them up In order to these great Ends we should remove all those Bars and Discouragements which lye in the way It 's true the King and Parliament have in their Wisdom by an Act
opportunity to Rebel did purchase Pardons at dear Rates from Rome for their not having actually Rebelled And we have had a pregnant Instance of the Empire these Priests have over the People in the present Rebellion for notwithstanding Their Majesties have by three gracious Declarations invited that People to submit yet I hear not of one Gentleman that hath hitherto submitted and the People generally have chosen rather to quit their Habitations and wander thorow the Kingdom than to sit down quietly under Their Majesties gentle Government with the enjoyment of all their Possessions The Toleration of the Popish Clergy and their pernicious Religion as it would be sinful in Their Majesties so it would be destructive to that Kingdom whatever the favourers of the French or King James's Interest may suggest to the contrary For the Toleration or conniving at Idolatry is a Land-destroying sin Ireland hath found it to be so Our Church in her Articles and Homilies hath declared the Mass to be the grossest Idolatry And God who in Scripture appears so tender of the life of man that he appointed even casual Homicide to be punished with confinement or banishment until the death of the High Priest hath nevertheless positively commanded that Idolaters and even the secret Enticers to it should be put to death without mercy and the places defiled thereby to be destroyed And where Princes do not duly execute his Laws in this case he usually executes Vengeance on them and their Posterity Most of the Kings of Israel and their Posterity were rooted out for this sin and the Ten Tribes for it have remained in Captivity and Obscurity for 2400 years And this sin was one of the chief causes of the Captivity of Judah and the connivance at or toleration of it hath twice in this Age proved destructive to poor Ireland and pernicious to those Kings that granted it When King James the first granted a Toleration of Popery in Ireland famous Bishop Vsher did publickly before the State foretel that for that sin God would within forty years raise up those Papists to cut the Throats of the Protestants there and God fulfilled that Prediction in 1641. and that King never prospered in any design or undertaking after that Toleration And when his Son Charles I. would not be warned but in 1629. renewed that Toleration ten or twelve of the Bishops and Arch-Bishops of that time had the honesty and courage publickly in the Pulpit to protest against the sinfulness of it and also under their hands to declare That the Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous their Faith and Doctrine erroneous and heretical their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration of Religion and to profess their Faith and Doctrine is a grievous sin and is to make our selves accessary not only to their Superstitious Idolatries Heresies and in a word all the Abominations of Popery but also which is a consequent of the former to the perdition of the seduced People which perish in the Deluge of the Catholick Apostacy c. And as it is a great sin so it is a matter of great consequence c. How fatal it proved to him and also to Charles II. and the late King James the World hath seen Nor will it be less so to any of their Successors who shall connive at or tolerate the same For the same sins and degrees of it brings like Judgments in every Age. Not only the Law of God but those of the Land also are against indulging this Religion and Interest of State the safety of the Protestants in Ireland and the quiet of England requires That all the Roman Clergy their Landed men concerned in this Rebellion and that of 1641. together with their Lawyers should be banished and not to return on pain of Death We may wish for Advantage by that Kingdom but we cannot rationally expect it whilst these three Parties or any of them are permitted to remain there for they will be fit Tools in the hands of the French King to foment Rebellions to which their joynt and several Interests the hope of regaining their Estates the Church-Livings and their Practice will prompt and dispose them and nothing less than their Banishment or Extirpation will devest France of the means of distracting us at pleasure now that they are joyned with that Enemy of Mankind As for the rest of the Papists who shall be permitted to abide in that Kingdom it is but reasonable that they be excluded from living in the Cities Walled Towns and Corporations which are the strengths of the Kingdom I am well aware that this latter tho' as considerable as any other means for the security of that Kingdom will meet with much opposition from many of the Protestants of Ireland themselves who like too many in England prefer their particular the Advancement of their Rents in those Towns and Cities to the Publick Safety to which their Private Interest ought ever to give way The Papists are already excluded from Purchasing any of the Houses in any Corporation which were forfeited by the Rebellion in 1641. But this without the other is not sufficient and indeed there is no other way to deal with them If His Majesty imagines that the Possession of their Estates Liberty for their Religion a share in the Civil-Justice will oblige and restrain them from Violence and Rebellion he will I fear in the issue find it otherways for in 1641. they had their titular Arch-Bishops and Bishops their Fryaries and Nunneries their Secular and Regular Clergy they were Justices of the Peace Sheriffs of Counties Members of Parliament Mayors and Bayliffs of Corporations c. They were seized of three fourths of all the Lands there All the Laws against them were suspended as to their Execution they had all their Grievances redressed even to the release of the forfeiture of whole Counties In a few months after which they broke out into that horrid and barbarous Rebellion wherein they Massacred 150000 Protestants in cold Blood without any provocation besides as many more that perished by Famine and Sword in the prosecution of that Rebellion which is demonstration to all the World that these People are not to be retain'd in obedience by Immunities Priviledges and Kindnesses nor restrained from Rebellion and Massacres whilst their Clergy c. are permitted to abide amongst them If against what hath been proposed the favourers of the French and Popish Interest do object That such Severity toward the Irish will disoblige the Catholick Princes of the Confederacy I answer That the chief end of the Confederacy is to retrench the Power of the French King and his Adherents as Enemies to all the rest of Europe That the Papists in these Kingdoms having above all others contributed to that Kings present Greatness all the Irish and many of the English and Scotch Papists being actually in Rebellion and in Conjunction with his Forces Their dependence being on him and
expectations from him it is as much the Interest of the Confederates that they be rooted out or banished as was the taking of Mentz or Bonne That those Princes are very sensible that these are they which have diverted His Majesties Arms from their Assistance the two last Campaigns and that they will do so for the future if their Power be not broken That there cannot therefore be the least danger of disobliging them by the Banishment or Extirpation of the afore-mentioned Parties especially being it is of service to them upon Reasons of State and is done for the quiet and security of His Majesties Protestant Subjects c. and because they are Rebels Incendiaries and of Party with France and not because they are Papists In a word Lenity to the Irish who have been in Arms is down-right Cruelty to the Protestants of Ireland and their Posterity 2. As Restraints on the Papists are necessary to the quiet of Ireland and the other ends proposed so is Freedom and Immunities in Corporations to all Protestants that shall go to inhabit there with Liberty of Conscience to Protestants of all Perswasions that are there or that shall go thither to abide There being five Papists for every Protestant in that Kingdom it is the Interest of the latter in point of Security to add to their number as much as may be If to the Cheapness of Land there be added Civil and Religious Liberties they will together probably allure Forreign Protestants to transplant thither The Protestants until about 1670. kept the Papists out of Corporations by tendering them the Oath of Supremacy when they claimed admittance but there being a Clause in the Act of Settlement or Explanation which impowered the Chief Governour and Council in Ireland to make Laws or Rules for Regulation of Corporations and that the Rules so made should be of the same force as if they had been enacted by Parliament c. under colour thereof some well-wishers to Popery and Arbitrary Government framed certain Rules and Orders which Charles II. caused the Lord Lieutenant and Council to pass into an Act of Council and to enjoyn them on all the Corporations of that Kingdom c. one of which Rules requires all Officers of Corporations to take the short Corporation Oath lately used in England which seemed to have been calculated for setting up Arbitrary Government for Imposing of which in Ireland there was not until then any colour of Law thereby all Protestants who were not willing to for-swear that Self-defence which the Law of Nature and those of the Land allows them were turned out of Office nor was that all but by another Clause in those Rules the Chief Governour is impowered from time to time to dispense with such as were not willing to take the Oath of Supremacy Hereupon whole shouls of Papists were admitted into the Corporations and Fraternities of that Kingdom and qualified for Offices and Chusing Members of Parliament It will therefore be needful that the Corporations of that Kingdom be restored to the condition they were in in 1668. and that those Rules be vacuated or declared to be void as those who think that the Legislative Power cannot be transferred conceive them to be I am told that to hinder many Protestants from returning for discouraging Forreigners and others from going to inhabit the better to divide those already in Ireland and to prevent the Improvement of it there are some of K. J. his Creatures who might be named and who pretend to be of another figure and to be well known in the Affairs of that Kingdom that are now using their utmost endeavours to have the Sacramental Test imposed on the People of that Kingdom under pretence that it will keep the Papists out of Office c. though that be no part of their design but to incumber His Majesties Affairs hinder the Sale of the Rebels Estates or render them of little value To alienate if possible the Hearts of that people from Their Majesties by causing His Majesty contrary to the import of his Declaration to put them into a worse condition than they were in under a Popish King These Men well know that the Security and Improvement of that Kingdom and of Their Majesties Revenue there depends on its being peopled with Protestants and that full Liberty and Incouragements to Protestants of all Perswasions is the most effectual means to those Ends And that the planting thereof being hindred the Papists will be kept in a capacity at pleasure to favour K. J. and the pretended P. of Wales 's Title to countenance a French Invasion c. They know if it be not planted with Protestants the Revenue will never defray the necessary charge of that Kingdom but that it will be a continual and insupportable charge and drain to England and require greater Forces to be kept up there and thereby obstruct at least in great measure the prosecution of the War against France which is their chief aim The promoters of these designs are well aware that the imposition of that Test would send many Protestants out of that Kingdom and that where it would bar one Papist from Office it would hinder a hundred Protestants from going thither They know the injoining of the Oath of Supremacy or an express Order or Law for their Exclusion would more effectually bar Papists than the Sacramental Test for that many Papists have been dispensed with by their Priests for Receiving the Sacrament in the manner required and therefore it would never answer the end for which they pretend it though it would the others for which they intend it But that imposition which hath proved so inconvenient to England will if laid on Ireland be pernicious to the Protestants there be a Bone of Division amongst them and seem but an ill requital for their Sufferings and firm adherence to the true Interest of England There was about 1664. one or two French Ministers who having some Benefices conferred on them and Stipends allowed by the Government translated the Common-prayer Book into French and procured a Chappel for the use of such French as would join with them in that Service About sixteen or eighteen years after many of the persecuted French Protestants with some of their Ministers fled to Dublin and set up the beginnings of several useful Manufactures and being averse to join in that Service a certain Charitable Peer lent them his House to Worship in where they served God according to the manner of the French Churches Whereupon their Minister was Seized and Imprisoned c. until for obtaining his Liberty he consented to quit or abjure that Kingdom Surely the usage was as Unchristian as Impolitick towards those poor distressed Refugees who had fled thither in expectation of that liberty which was publickly allowed the Papists and which was deny'd them in their own Countrey And it was Impolitick for thereupon they abandoned the place and that Kingdom lost those profitable Trades which those Men
King would have been so much more As suppose for the Year 1685. The Revenue had surmounted the charge by 40000 l. more or less and that in 1686. it had amounted to 150000 l. more than it did the preceding Year In that Case there had been 190000 l. transmitted thence to England for that Year c. In this respect you see it is the Interest both of the King and this Kingdom to put Ireland into a condition of continual improvement Our Trade with France being the greatest out-let of our Money and France being the only Kingdom of the World capable of Annoying us We ought long since to have stopt that yearly Drain But it hath been our infelicity that during the two last Reigns our Councils being Influenced by France we ran Counter to our Interest in Trade as well as Politicks For instead of regulating our Forreign Trade in preserving and gaining more Markets for our Natural Products and Manufactures the hindring and abating the Importation of unnecessary Commodities and encouraging our Manufacturers which are the industrious Bees of the Nation we have been put upon driving the latter from us and restraining the Intercourse and Commerce between us and Ireland and the Plantations and Ireland to the advantage of a few but great detriment to the Publick not to say oppression of our own People abroad while we have given France the opportunity of drawing away our Money and to run away with a considerable part of our Trade and have thereby paid his Pensioners amongst us at our own cost But his Present Majesty being come to deliver us from such Malevolent Councellors it is to be hoped he will not by imploying the Instruments of our past Calamities furnish them with fresh opportunities to Betray the Kingdom or Ruin himself It is the endeavour of almost all the Princes of Europe to Retrench the Power of the French King and 't is no less the concern of England And if I mistake not the present conjuncture of Affairs doth furnish us with some special advantages above the rest to that end It is certain that in times of open Trade France did yearly Gain one or two Millions Sterling by Trade with England which was so much clear loss to this Kingdom Neither was that all but we did thereby yearly strengthen and inrich our mortal Enemies To give some evidence to this I find by a Ballance of one Years Trade between England and France said to be drawn out of our Custom-House Books for the House of Commons about October 1675. That by the certain Ballance thereof we Imported from France 969105 l. 2 s. 8 d. Sterling more in Commodities than we Exported thither but by the supposed or probable Ballance 2105255 l. 6 s. 8 d. I find likewise that about 1676 or 77. That King having some thoughts to Prohibit all our English Manufactures from being carried into France the Ballance of Trade between both Kingdoms being laid before him it did thereby appear that the yearly Exportations of France to England was 2640000 l. Sterling and that the Importations from England to France did not exceed one Million So that by their own shewing France Gained 1640 Thousand Pounds Sterling by England which being the over-Ballance of Trade went out in Cash Amongst the particulars in this last Ballance of Trade said to be Imported into England the Tissues Velvets Sattins Armozines Tabbies Ribons wrought Silks Stuffs Laces Serges Hatts Fans Cabinets Pins Combs c. which we bring yearly from France are valued to amount to 1140000 l. Sterling All which may be Supplied by the Labour of our own People and the French Protestants that are and would come amongst us were due Liberty and Encouragement given and care taken to put things into the right way c. For the doing things of this Nature I am perswaded it would be of singular use if His Majesty would by Order of the Council c. constitute a standing Council of Trade consisting of a great number of the most knowing experienced Merchants of London who or a Quorum of them might meet weekly in some one of their Halls having a Secretary Door-keeper and Messenger allowed them where they might consult how to remove all obstructions of Trade how to regulate it what Manufactures may be set up to the best advantage of the Kingdom and how others may be improved c. Which as they shall have matured may be represented to His Majesty and Council or to both Houses of Parliament as occasion shall require Now as the Idle hands of the Kingdom together with the French Refugees may profitably and agreeably be imployed in the forementioned Fabricks of Silk and other Manufactures which we were wont to bring from France so may the People of Ireland even the very Natives be aptly employed in the Linnen Manufacture for which that Kingdom is in several respects much more proper than England 1. For that Land is Cheaper in Ireland and where good Seed is had the Country yields excellent Flax. 2. The Female Natives who are averse to any Robust Labour are much inclined to the Spinning of Flax which they can do with their Rocks or Distaves as they sit at their Doors or under a Hedge tending their Cattle 3. They are a People that live on a courser and cheaper Dyet nearer the manner of France than the English do or can and therefore can afford their Work cheaper which is a particular of great weight in an Affair of this Nature For except the Commodity be made at least as cheap as we have it from France it will be brought thence in spight of all Prohibitions 4. This is a Labour to which they have been greatly accustomed for before the Commencement of the Present Rebellion there was a considerable quantity of Course Linnen Diapers and Damasks made in Ireland much stronger than those which we usually have had from France 5. There is an Act of the last Irish Parliament still in Force for the raising of Money to set up a Bleaching Yard in each Province of the Kingdom for the Encouragement of the Linnen Manufacture If we consider the concurrence of these things viz. the cheapness of Land and Labour the aptness of the Soil Inclination of the People c. There seems no place so proper for this Manufacture as Ireland Many thinking men of good Sence have been jealous that Ireland by reason of the plenty and cheapness of Wool would in time fall into the improvement of it into Manufactures to the prejudice of England And though their fears at least as to this present Age are groundless yet 't is Wisdom to provide against even remote possibilities of detriment c. This may be done effectually in this Case by setting up and encouraging the Linnen Manufacture and such others in Ireland as may fully and profitably imploy that People and yet not interfere with the Manufactures of England Now if this can be done in a way which will lessen the