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
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
both hinders their being Manufactured and advances the price of them when Manufactured that they cannot be afforded so Cheap at Forreign Markets as the like Manufactures raised where interest of Mony is low If here it be Objected that the Cheapness of Wool as to the Woollen Manufacture will countervail the disadvantage of high interest It 's answered that it will not for 12 Pound of Wool which costs but two Shillings dearer in England than there will make a piece of Serge that may stand some in 3 l. some in 4 l. or two pieces of Stuff that may together stand in as much the price of the Wool being so small a part of the Disburse will not countervail the high interest on the rest But besides this there being but little Manufacture there and not full work for Tuckers Dyers Dressers Calenders Hot-Pressers c. there as there is here the rate of these there is double to what it is here and so is their Oyl Dying Stuffs and Forreign Materials most of which they carry from England for which at a high value they pay 10 per cent for Customs and Excise on their Importation It is the least skilful of our Workmen that go thither and even the skilful there meet with a great inaptitude in the People to Manufacture tho' they ought to be content with them for their own use yet they cannot perfect them so as to be able to Sell them as to any Tolerable price in the same Market with ours A pregnant Instance whereof we had a few Years since Some of our Merchants thought to make considerable advantage by Buying Bayes like those of Colchester in Ireland and gave Commission for large quantities which were bought up whereupon there was a great spurt of Trade for that Commodity for a little time But notwithstanding Colchester Bayes is the easiest part of the Woollen Manufacture to be made imitated and perfected yet when those made in Ireland came to be compared with the true Colchester Bayes in Spain they differed so much for the worse that on a sudden the Irish Weavers lost their Trade and some of them were Ruined by those that were left on their hands not being able to find a Market for them Here you also see one reason why they Export most part of their Commodities Raw and Unmanufactured 6. A sixth Cause of Irelands Poverty is the Cheapness of Lands in that Kingdom and easiness to subsist with the difficulties that attend Trade there which makes their Merchants turn Purchasers as soon as they have gotten as much as will maintain their Families whereby the stock in Trade there is small For it 's observed that tho' many there gain a Livelihood by Trade yet very few of the Merchants of that Kingdom have acquired considerable or competent Estates for the reasons before mentioned and because of the many Cloggs that lie on this Trade which will herein after be observed 7. Add to these their improvidence the prodigality and excess of the English there in the Consumption of Forreign wares mostly superfluities which they might well be without As fine Cloath Stuffs Silks-Laces Haberdashery and the rest that I have before enumerated which they derive wholly from England As also some that they have from other Countries Above 3000 Tuns of Wine and Brandy have been Imported and Consumed in that Kingdom in one Year Some Vices and some Vertues seem to adhere to the Soil of most Countries however the Inhabitants are changed Thus Luxury and Hospitality to most plentiful Countries and so to Ireland especially in Housekeeping wherein they exceed us as far as we do the Frugal Dutch and so are no Savers by the great Plenty of the Country 8. The uninteressed and frequent change of the chief Governors who are mostly sent them from England who transmit all that they get above their necessary Expence into England 9. The frequency of Rebellions in that Kingdom which discourages and destroys all Improvements occasioned by the folly and negligence of England and the influence the Papists have always had on our Councils so that on their reduction they have constantly found such Favour as to be left in Condition to renew their Rebellions at Pleasure 10. Cause of Irelands Poverty is the Clogs and Restraints on their Trade partly by England partly by their own Parliament who by a perpetual Law have incapacitated the growth or increase of their Trade especially so as that it cannot interfere with the Trade of England The Truth is both Parliaments have been imposed on partly by some Commissioners of the Customs here who to fix themselves the better in their Seats and at once to ingratiate themselves at Court and with the English Merchants that deal to the Plantations pretended they could greatly encrease that branch of the Revenue by imposing hard things on Ireland Partly by two sets of Men who designed the farming of the Customs and Excise in both Kingdoms and actually did Farm part of them here These by their Creatures in that Parliament wherein were some Pensionaries under pretence of advancing Trade and the Rents of Lands in England c. gained several Acts to be passed very disadvantagious to Ireland and the Plantations and of little or no advantage to England Particularly those that bar the People of Ireland from carrying any Asian African or European Commodities to any of the Plantations but Provision Servants and Horses except they be brought into entred and pay Custom in England and be bound to return hither with the proceed likewise As the Plantations heavily complain of these Acts so do the People of Ireland I have seen certain Reasons drawn up in Ireland against those Acts too many and too long to be here inserted Yet being they fall in with the present Subject I will mention some of them viz. That as Ireland is the Antientest and noblest so is it the most beneficial Acquisition of England Not only by taking off annually great Proportions of the natural and artificial Commodities thereof But also of Asian and African Commodities two thirds of the Importations of Ireland being from England by employing considerable numbers of English Ships by the yearly Rents of the Estates of such as live in England and of Absentees transmitted hither by the Charge of Students at the Universities and Inns of Court Income of the Post-Office Summs carried away by chief Governours the surplussage of the Revenue c. much of all which is carried into England in Cash That the Commodities exported from Ireland to England are all necessary or useful to England But that the Commodities imported thither from England are superfluous and such as Ireland may or must be without to the prejudice of England except there be a relaxation of the present Severities put on that Kingdom That Ireland being planted with English or those of English Extraction under the same Sovereign under almost all the same Laws with England in some respect under the same Legislative Power for
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
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
of Indulgence suspended the Execution of those severe and unkind Laws with which Dissenters have been so long plagued and which have been so prejudicial to the Kingdom Yet they are not repealed but seem to be kept like Rods in pickle and the Instruments of our past Miseries and which procured them are many of them still in being longing endeavouring and daily threatning the Repeal of that Act of Indulgence and Suspension In such a State of things no man of sence that is tolerably setled abroad will be induced by a Liberty that 's so precarious to return home especially when he observes that if he do return and that he hath not stretched his Conscience larger than it was at his going abroad he must be content to be a Slave in one of the freest Kingdoms in the World incapacitated to serve God or his Country in any Office Civil or Military and like Issachars Ass be used only to bear a greater share of the publick burthen and charge and do a greater part of the publick drudgery than his Neighbours but must not be employed in any place either of Honour or Profit but be like the Silk-worm permitted to spin out his Bowels for others It is a scandal to our Nation and Religion and a thing abhorred by very many sober Christians That the receiving the Sacrament the most solemn Ordinance of our Religion in a mode never instituted by Christ nor practised by his Apostles should be made a qualification to the bearing of Office or Arms selling Ale or keeping a Victualing-house The great end of his Majesties glorious undertaking being to restore Liberty to every of the oppressed Protestants in these Kingdoms he seems in Interest as well as Inclination concerned to take off all these Incapacities from the Dissenters and legally to put them into as good or a better Condition than they were in under King James who arbitrarily compelled them to take Offices c. upon them seeing the most criminal and culpable part of the Kingdom have been pardoned indempnified and at least rendred capable of bearing Office c. There can no good reason be given why so great a part of the Nation that contribute so much to its Prosperity and Welfare and bear so great a part of the publick charge should stand exempted from the Priviledge of Subjects unless their greater Enmity to France their firm adherence to his Majesties Interest to that of the Kingdom and Protestant Religion bs made one and that our Divisions in favour of France ought to be perpetuated be made another Until those Clouds which intercept the benign Rays of Government from shining indifferently upon all Protestant Subjects are removed the King seems to be only King of a Part and not of the whole of his Subjects As it is the Interest of all the Princes of Europe to joyn against France so it is no less the Interest of all the Protestants of every Perswasion in this Kingdom to unite for their common defence against that Enemy of Mankind the French King For if he hath for so long a time withstood or kept the united force of almost all Europe at a Bay what are we to apprehend if any occurrent should dissolve the Confederacy and that he should have opportunity to attack us singly in the divided distracted Condition in which we are especially considering how great a Party he hath already amongst us But his Majesties Interest and Honour falling in so aptly with that of Europe the Safety and Prosperity of the Kingdom and the Advantage of our Landed men it will undoubtedly put him and them upon removing these Stones of stumbling and Rocks of Offence in a Parliamentary way and that the rather because had not this sort of People in the two last Reigns to the Irritation of the Court against them and the Ruin of many of them joyned with the sober part of the Church of England in electing such Members for Parliament as boldly asserted our Religion Liberties and Properties we had in all probability long before this been made Slaves to Popery and Arbitrary Government And had they not fallen in to do the like in this last Revolution in Electing Members for the late Convention or Parliament the Crown and Kingdom had in all likelihood been unsettled until this day Thus you see the sure way to advance the Rents of our Lands depends on the taking off all Restraints and giving due liberty to Manufacturers and alluring them Home in incouraging and improving those advantages which are in a manner peculiar to us in discourageing and clogging those Trades which draw away our Treasure In keeping a good Correspondence with those Kingdoms and Countreys whence we derive Materials for our Manufactures and those which take off our Natural Products Manufactures and Artificial Commodities All which are things worthy the consideration of the Great and Sage Council of the Kingdom the Parliament The Fifth Query How may the present Rebellion in Ireland and the Reduction thereof be improved to the future Security and Encrease of the Advantages which we receive by Ireland and of Their Majesties Revenue future Charge thereby to England be avoided and that Kingdom rendred useful towards bringing down the Power of France IT hath already been demonstrated That besides the Supplies of Men and Money which Ireland Antiently yielded us towards the Conquest of France Scotland and Wales That we did Annually before the present Rebellion utter considerable quantities of our Natural Products and Manufactures for which we had no other Markets into that Kingdom That we were furnished thence with several necessary Materials for our Manufactures and Commodities for Forreign Trade which we could not have elsewhere That some of their Ports are of great consideration to us the want of which our Merchants to their great loss have in this War experienced That besides the profit which we make by Ireland in the ordinary course of Trade we do receive thence yearly above 200000 l. All which Advantages had been much more had we not by prohibiting their Cattel and debarring their Trade to the Plantations interrupted the course of Commerce between the two Kingdoms compelled them to more Forreign Trade than they were otherways disposed to seek However you see that what remains is well worth the securing and improving and if we be not under Infatuation and still fond of our Errors the present Conjuncture of Affairs furnisheth us as with the opportunity to rectifie them so also to secure and improve them in order to which it will be necessary First That the Lives Liberties and Estates of the Protestants in that Kingdom be well secured Whilst these remain at uncertainties both publick and private Affairs will drive on but heavily It hath been the hard fate of the Protestants of Ireland as hath been said that the Papists have had such favour in and influence on our Council in England on the conclusion of every Rebellion that they have been left in a condition if