ENGLISH LEGISLATION IN RESTRAINT OF IRISH TRADE.
Persons familiar with the relative economic conditions of Great
Britain and Ireland at the present time, will find it difficult to
realise that at one period Ireland enjoyed natural advantages in no
respect inferior to those of the sister country. This, before the
development of steam-power, was undoubtedly the fact. This would be
still the case were it not for the dearth of coal in Ireland.[15] The
evidence of public men of the last century, who were well acquainted
with the circumstances of both countries, is on this point conclusive.
"Ireland," writes Edmund Burke in 1778, "is a country in the same
climate and of the same natural qualities and productions with this
(England)."[16] "In Ireland," writes Hely Hutchinson in 1779, "the
climate, soil, growth, and productions are the same as in England."[17]
Plunket, in his speech against the Union, delivered in the Irish
Parliament on the 15th of January, 1800, draws a comparison between
England and Ireland, in which he describes England as "another happy
little island placed beside her (Ireland) in the bosom of the Atlantic,
of little more than double her territory and population, and possessing
resources not nearly so superior to her wants."[18] Mr. Froude's
researches lead him to a similar conclusion: "Before the days of coal
and steam, the unlimited water-power of Ireland gave her natural
advantages in the race of manufactures, which, if she had received fair
play, would have attracted thither thousands of skilled immigrants."[19]
I do not propose to furnish an exhaustive statement of the various
laws passed by the English Parliament for the avowed purpose of
destroying Irish trade and manufactures. I will deal only with the
salient features of that system whose effects are, at the present day,
sadly apparent.
Till the reign of Charles II., England placed no restriction on
Irish commerce or manufactures. "Before the Restoration," says Lord
North, in the British House of Commons, "they (the Irish) enjoyed
every commercial advantage and benefit in common with England."[20]
"Ireland," writes Hely Hutchinson, "was in possession of the English
common law and of Magna Charta. The former secures the subject in
the enjoyment of property of every kind, and by the latter _the
liberties of all the ports of the Kingdom are established_."[21]
"Our trade," says Mr. Gardiner in the Irish House of Commons, "was
guaranteed by Magna Charta, our exports acknowledged by that venerable
statute--no treaty was made in which we were not nominally or virtually
included."[22] By one of the provisions of Poynings' Law, passed in
1495, all statutes hitherto in force in England were extended to
Ireland. Before that enactment, however, Ireland is expressly mentioned
in several English commercial statutes, in which clauses are inserted
for the protection of her trade.[23] "At this period (1495)," says Hely
Hutchinson, "the English commercial system and the Irish, so far as it
depended on English statute law, was the same; and before this period,
so far as it depended on the common law and Magna Charta, was also the
same. From that time till the 15th of King Charles II., which takes in
a period of 167 years, the commercial constitution of Ireland was as
much favoured and protected as that of England."[24]
The first Navigation Act of 1660 put England and Ireland on exact
terms of equality.[25] This community of rights was emphasised by an
Act of the following year, which provided that foreign-built ships
should not have the privilege of ships belonging to England and
Ireland.[26] "But," as Mr. Froude observes, "the equality of privilege
lasted only till the conclusion of the settlement and till the revenue
had been assigned to the Crown."[27] In the amended Navigation Act of
1663, Ireland was left out. Lord North, on December 13, 1779, when
Prime Minister of England, in introducing a bill to abrogate some of
the restrictions on Irish trade, thus described the Act of 1663: "The
first commercial restriction was laid on Ireland not directly, but by a
side-wind and by deductive interpretation. When the Act (the Navigation
Act of 1660) first passed there was a general governing clause for
giving bonds to perform the conditions of the Act; but when the Act was
amended in the 15 Car. II. the word 'Ireland' was omitted, whence a
conclusion was drawn that the Acts of the two preceding Parliaments, 12
& 13 and 14 Car. II., were thereby repealed, though it was as clearly
expressed in those Acts as it was possible for words to convey, that
ships built in Ireland, navigated with the people thereof, were deemed
British, and qualified to trade to and from British Plantations, and
that ships built in Ireland and navigated with his Majesty's subjects
of Ireland, were entitled to the same abatement and privileges to which
imports and exports of goods in British-made ships were entitled by
the book of rates. Ireland was, however, omitted in the manner he had
already mentioned."[28]
This Act, which is entitled "An Act for the Encouragement of Trade,"
prohibited all _exports_ from Ireland to the colonies.[29] It likewise
prohibited the importation of Irish cattle into England. It states
that "a very great part of the richest and best land of this kingdom
(England) is, and cannot so well otherwise be employed and made use
of as in the feeding and fattening of cattle, and that by the coming
in of late in vast numbers of cattle already fatted such lands are
in many places much fallen, and like daily to fall more in their
rents and values, and in consequence other lands also, to the great
prejudice, detriment, and impoverishment of this kingdom;"[30] and it
imposes a penalty on every head of great cattle imported. A subsequent
British Act declares the importation of Irish cattle into England
to be "a publick and common nuisance."[31] It likewise forbids the
importation of beef, pork, or bacon. Butter and cheese from Ireland
were subsequently excluded, and the previous statute excluding cattle
was made perpetual.[32] In 1670 the exportation to Ireland from the
English Plantations of sugar, tobacco, cotton-wool, indigo, ginger,
fustic or other dyeing wood, the growth of the said Plantations, was
prohibited by statute. It is stated in the statute that this restraint
was intended by the Act of 1663, but not effectively expressed.[33]
"There are," says Lord North, "anecdotes still extant relative to the
real causes of those harsh and restrictive laws. They were supposed to
have originated in a dislike or jealousy of the growing power of the
then Duke of Ormonde, who, from his great estate and possessions in
Ireland, was supposed to have a personal interest in the prosperity
of that kingdom. Indeed, so far was this spirit carried, whether from
personal enmity to the Duke of Ormonde, from narrow prejudices, or a
blind policy, that the Parliament of England passed a law to prohibit
the importation of Irish lean cattle."[34]
An extensive and profitable cattle trade which Ireland had established
with Bristol, Milford, and Liverpool was annihilated by this
legislation. With the restriction of her chief exports, her shipping
trade suffered a simultaneous eclipse. Such direct trade as she
retained was with France, Spain, and Portugal, as if England wished
to force her, in spite of herself, to feel the Catholic countries to
be her best friends.[35] Till 1663 the Irish had, according to Carte,
no commerce but with England, and scarcely entertained a thought of
trafficking with other countries.[36] This writer gives melancholy
evidence as to the immediate effect of that restrictive legislation.
"The people," he says, "had no money to pay the subsidies granted by
Parliament, and their cattle was grown such a drug, that horses that
used to be sold for 30s. were now sold for dogs' meat at 12d. apiece,
and beeves that brought before 50s. were now sold for ten."[37]
Deprived of their trade, the Irish people, under the guidance of
the Duke of Ormonde, set themselves resolutely to improve their own
manufactures. "The history of Ireland," says Chief Justice Whiteside,
"for nigh half a century may be read in the life, actions, and
adventures of this able, virtuous, and illustrious man. His chivalrous
courage, his unflinching loyalty, his disinterested patriotism, mark
him out as one of the foremost men of his noble family, and as one
of the finest characters of his age."[38] In 1692, Lord Sydney, the
Lord-Lieutenant, in his speech from the Throne, was able, from his
former knowledge of the country, to testify to its vastly increased
prosperity.[39] "The cause of this prosperity should," says Hely
Hutchinson "be mentioned. James, the first Duke of Ormonde, whose
memory should ever be revered by every friend of Ireland, to heal the
wound that this country had received by the prohibition of the export
of her cattle to England, obtained from Charles II. a letter, dated
the 23rd of March, 1667, by which he directed that all restraints
upon the exportation of commodities of the growth or manufacture of
Ireland to foreign parts should be taken off, but not to interfere
with the Plantation laws, or the charters to the trading companies,
and that this should be notified to his subjects of this kingdom,
which was accordingly done by a proclamation from the Lord-Lieutenant
and Council; and at the same time, by his Majesty's permission, they
prohibited the importation from Scotland of linen, woollen, and other
manufactures and commodities, as drawing large sums of money out of
Ireland, and a great hindrance to manufactures. His grace successfully
executed his schemes of national improvement, having by his own
constant attention, the exertion of his extensive influence, and the
most princely munificence, greatly advanced the woollen and revived
the linen manufactures."[40] Ormonde established a woollen manufactory
at Clonmel, "the capital of his county palatine of Tipperary, bringing
over five hundred Walloon families from the neighbourhood of Canterbury
to carry it on, and giving houses and land on long leases with only an
acknowledgment instead of rent from the undertakers. Also in Kilkenny
and Carrick-on-Suir the duke established large colonies of those
industrious foreigners, so well skilled in the preparation and weaving
of wool."[41]
The woollen manufacture was the "true and natural staple of the
Irish, their climate and extensive sheep-grounds insuring to them
a steady and cheap supply of the raw material, much beyond their
home consumption."[42] It was cultivated for several years after the
Revolution without any interference by the English Parliament. It
had, however, long previously excited the jealous hatred of English
statesmen. "I am of opinion," says Lord Strafford, writing, when
Lord-Lieutenant, from Ireland to Charles I. in 1634, "that all wisdom
advises to keep this kingdom as much subordinate and dependent upon
England as is possible, and holding them from the manufacture of wool
(which, unless otherwise directed, I shall by all means discourage),
and then enforcing them to fetch their clothing from thence, and to
take their salt from the King (being that which preserves and gives
value to all their native staple commodities), how can they depart
from us without nakedness and beggary? Which is of itself so mighty a
consideration that a small profit should not bear it down."[43] This
proposal I will not characterise. "In 1673, Sir William Temple, at
the request of the Earl of Essex, then Viceroy of Ireland, publicly
proposed that the manufacture of woollens (except in the inferior
branches) should be relinquished in Ireland as tending to interfere
prejudicially with the English trade. In all probability the Irish
manufacturers of broadcloths would gain on their English rivals, and
the improvement of woollen fabrics in Ireland, argued the statesman,
'would give so great a damp to the trade of England, that it seems not
fit to be encouraged here.'"[44] These suggestions were not immediately
acted on. In 1660 no doubt the exportation of Irish woollen goods to
England was prohibited, but this enactment did not at the time inflict
material injury on Ireland.[45]
In 1697 a bill was introduced into the English House of Commons,
forbidding all export from Ireland of her woollen manufactures. It
reached the House of Lords, but Parliament was dissolved before it
passed its final stage in that assembly.
The destruction of the woollen trade is one of the most disastrous
chapters of Irish history. The circumstances attending this transaction
are detailed in an Appendix to the "Report from the Select Committee
on the Linen Trade of Ireland," which was printed on the 6th of June,
1825, by order of the House of Commons. This paper was prepared by Lord
Oriel, who, as Mr. Foster, was Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer and
afterwards Speaker of the Irish House of Commons. He was one of the
greatest authorities of his time on trade and finance. The Report thus
describes an incident which is, I believe, without parallel.
"This export (the woollen) was supposed to interfere, and very probably
did, with the export from Britain, and a plan was in consequence
undertaken there to annihilate the woollen trade of Ireland, and to
confine us to the linen manufacture in its place.
"Accordingly an Act was passed in England, 1696 (7 & 8 Will., c. 39),
for inviting foreign Protestants to settle in Ireland, as the preamble
recites, and with that view enacting that the imports of all sorts of
hemp and flax, and all the productions thereof, should from thenceforth
be admitted duty free from Ireland into England, giving a preference
by that exemption from duty to the linen manufacture of Ireland over
the foreign, estimated at the time, as a report of the Irish House of
Commons, on the 11th February, 1774, states, to be equal to 25 per cent.
"This happened in 1696, and in pursuance of the foregoing plan both
Houses of the English Parliament addressed King William on the 9th
June, 1698.
"The Lords stated in their Address that 'the growing manufacture of
cloth in Ireland, both by the cheapness of all sorts of necessaries of
life, and the goodness of materials for making all manner of cloth,
doth invite your subjects of England, with their families and servants,
to leave their habitations and settle there, to the increase of the
woollen manufacture in Ireland, which makes your loyal subjects in this
kingdom very apprehensive that the further growth of it may greatly
prejudice the said manufacture here, by which the trade of this nation
and the value of lands will greatly decrease, and the number of your
people be much lessened here; wherefore we humbly beseech your most
Sacred Majesty that your Majesty would be pleased, in the most public
and effectual way that may be, to declare to all your subjects of
Ireland that the growth and increase of the woollen manufacture there
hath long and will be ever looked upon with great jealousy by all your
subjects of this kingdom, and if not timely remedied, may occasion very
strict laws totally to prohibit and suppress the same; and, on the
other hand, if they turn their industry to the settling and improving
the _linen manufacture_, for which generally the lands are very proper,
_they shall receive all the countenance, favour, and protection from
your royal influence for the encouragement and promotion of the linen
manufacture to all the advantage and profit they can be capable of_.'
"The Commons stated their sentiments at the same time in the following
terms: 'We,[46] your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects,
the Commons in Parliament assembled, being very sensible that the
wealth and power of this kingdom do in a great measure depend on the
preservation of the woollen manufacture as much as possible entire to
this realm, think it becomes us, like our ancestors, to be jealous of
the increase and establishment of it elsewhere, and to use our utmost
endeavours to prevent it. And, therefore, we cannot without trouble
observe that Ireland, which is dependent on and protected by England in
the enjoyment of all they have, and which is so proper for the linen
manufacture, the establishment and growth of which there would be so
enriching to themselves, and so profitable to England, should of late
apply itself to the woollen manufacture, to the great prejudice of the
trade of this kingdom, and so unwillingly promote the linen trade,
which would benefit both themselves and us; the consequence whereof
will necessitate your Parliament of England to interpose to prevent
the mischief that threatens us, unless your Majesty by your authority
and great wisdom shall find means to secure the trade of England, by
making your subjects of Ireland to pursue the joint interests of both
kingdoms. And we do most humbly implore your Majesty's protection and
favour in this matter, that you will make it your royal care, and
enjoin all those you employ in Ireland to make it their care, and
use their utmost diligence, to hinder the exportation of wool from
Ireland except to be imported hither, and for discouraging the woollen
manufacture and encouraging the linen manufacture of Ireland, _to which
we shall always be ready to give our utmost assistance_.'
"His Majesty thus replied to the Commons[47]:--'_I shall do all that
in me lies to_ discourage the woollen manufacture in Ireland _and
encourage the linen manufacture there_, and to promote the trade of
England.'
"Stronger declarations could not well be made than in these Addresses
and answers, that if the Irish would come into the compact of giving
up their then great staple of woollens to England, and cultivating the
linens in lieu thereof, they should receive '_all the countenance,
favour, and protection for the encouragement and promotion of their
linen manufacture to all the advantages their kingdom was capable of_,'
that the Commons would always be ready to give their utmost assistance,
and his Majesty would do all that in him lay _to encourage the linen
manufacture there_; and they had the effect of inducing the Parliament
of Ireland to accede, as will appear from what follows.
"The Lords Justices of Ireland say, in their speech to the Irish
Parliament, the 27th September, 1698:[48] 'Amongst those bills there
is one for the encouragement of the linen and hempen manufactures.
At our first meeting we recommended to you that matter, and we have
now endeavoured to render that bill practicable and useful for that
effect, and as such we now recommend it to you. The settlement of
this manufacture will contribute much to people the country, and will
be found much more advantageous to this kingdom than the woollen
manufacture, which, being the settled staple trade of England, can
never be encouraged here for that purpose; _whereas the linen and
hempen manufactures will not only be encouraged, as consistent with the
trade of England, but will render the trade of this kingdom both useful
and necessary to England_.'
"The Commons replied: 'We pray leave to assure your Excellencies
that we shall heartily endeavour to establish a linen and hempen
manufacture here, and to render the same useful to England, as
well as advantageous to this kingdom; and we hope to find such a
_temperament_ in respect to the woollen trade here that the same may
not be injurious to England.'[49] In pursuance of this answer they
evinced that _temperament_ most effectually by passing an Act[50]
for laying prohibitory duties on the export of _their own_ woollen
manufacture--thus accepting the national compact and fully performing
their part of the agreement, and by that performance giving an
incontrovertible claim to Ireland upon England, and consequently upon
Great Britain, for a perpetual encouragement of the linen manufacture
'_to all the advantage and profit that Ireland should at any time be
capable of_.'
"It is to be observed that so anxious was England to confirm and
enforce this ratification given by Ireland, that their Parliament soon
after passed a law affecting to enact what subsequent times have shown
it was incompetent to, and which we therefore here mention merely
to point out the stress which England laid on the sacrifice made by
Ireland of its great and natural staple trade, in exchange for a new
staple resting on a material not the natural growth of the country,
and the establishment of which was but in its infancy, though nurtured
for near sixty years by the Government of the kingdom. The Act we
refer to is the 10 & 11 Will. III., cap. 10, which recites 'that wool
and the woollen manufacture of cloth, serge, bays, kerseys, and other
stuffs made or mixed with wool, are the greatest and most profitable
commodities of the kingdom, on which the value of lands and the trade
of the nation do chiefly depend; that great quantities of the _like
manufactures_ have of late been made, and _are daily increasing in the
kingdom of Ireland_, and in the English Plantations in America, _and
are exported from thence to foreign markets heretofore supplied from
England_: all which inevitably tends to injure the value of lands,
and to ruin the trade and woollen manufactures of the realm; and that
for the prevention thereof the export of wool and of the woollen
manufacture from Ireland be prohibited under the forfeiture of goods
and ship, and a penalty of £500 for every such offence.'"
Ireland's woollen manufacture was thus sacrificed to England's
commercial jealousy.[51] I will give hereafter some account of the
widespread misery this industrial calamity entailed. It might have been
expected that the solemn compact for the encouragement of the linen
trade would have been scrupulously observed. This, however, was not the
case. The English Parliament deliberately broke faith with the Irish
people. This charge I will substantiate by quotations from the speeches
of public men in the English Parliament, the words of the English
statute book, and the admissions of English writers.
Lord Rockingham, speaking in the English House of Lords on the 11th
of May, 1779, "reminded their lordships of the compact made between
both kingdoms in King William's time, when the Parliament of Ireland
consented to prohibit the export of their own woollen manufacture, in
order to give that of England a preference, by laying a duty equal to
a full prohibition on every species of woollens, or even of the raw
commodity, and of the solemn assurances given by both Houses of the
British Parliament that they would give every possible encouragement,
and abstain from every measure which could prevent the linen
manufacture to be rendered the staple of Ireland. But how had England
kept its word? By laying duties or granting bounties to the linens of
British manufacture equal to a prohibition of the Irish, and at the
same time giving every kind of private and public encouragement to
render Scotland a real rival to Ireland in almost every species of her
linen fabrics."[52]
"Ireland," says Lord North when Prime Minister of England, in the
speech from which I have previously quoted, "gave up her woollen
trade by compact. The compact was an exclusive linen trade, rather
a fair competition with England. Ireland, of her own accord, gave
up the woollen trade by an Act of her own Legislature, which, when
it expired, was made perpetual by an Act of the British Parliament.
But this compact was no sooner made than it was violated by England,
for, instead of prohibiting foreign linens, duties were laid on and
necessarily collected, so far from amounting to a prohibition on the
import of the Dutch, German, and East Country linen manufactures, that
those manufactures have been able, after having the duties imposed
on them by the British Parliament, to meet, and in some instances to
undersell, Ireland both in Great Britain and the West Indies, and
several other parts of the British Empire."[53]
Writing in 1778 to the opponents of some trifling relaxation of the
commercial restraints of Ireland, Edmund Burke asks: "Do they forget
that the whole woollen manufacture of Ireland, the most extensive and
profitable of any, and the natural staple of that kingdom, has been in
a manner so destroyed by restrictive laws of _their own_, that in a few
years it is probable they (the Irish) will not be able to wear a coat
of their own fabric? Is this equality? Do gentlemen forget that the
understood faith upon which they were persuaded to such an unnatural
act has not been kept, and that a linen manufacture has been set up and
highly encouraged against them?"[54]
In the year 1750 heavy taxes were laid on the import to England of
sail-cloth made of Irish hemp, contrary, of course, to the express
stipulation of 1698. An address presented in 1774 to Lord Harcourt, the
Viceroy, by the Irish House of Commons thus describes the effect of
this measure: "They had been confined by law to the manufacture of flax
and hemp. They had submitted to their condition, and had manufactured
these articles to such good purpose that at one time they had supplied
sails for the whole British navy. Their English rivals had now crippled
them by laying a disabling duty on their sail-cloths, in the hope of
taking the trade out of their hands, but they had injured Ireland
without benefiting themselves. The British market was now supplied from
Holland and Germany and Russia, while to the Empire the result was
only the ruin of Ulster and the flight of the Protestant population to
America."[55]
I have dwelt thus at length on the chief commercial restraints laid
on Ireland by the direct legislation of England. This interference
was, however, carried to almost every branch of Irish trade. To take a
few examples. Lord North in the English Parliament gives the following
account of England's dealings with the Irish glass trade:--
"Previous to the 19th Geo. II., Ireland imported glass from other
countries, and at length began to make some slow progress in the lower
branches of the manufacture itself. By the Act alluded to, however,
the Irish were prohibited from importing any kind of glass other than
the manufacture of Great Britain, and in section 24 of that Act a
most extraordinary clause was inserted. It not only ordained that no
glass, the manufacture of that kingdom, should be exported, but it was
penned so curiously, and with so much severe precision, that no glass
of the manufacture of Ireland was to be exported, or so much as to be
laden on any horse or carriage with intent to be so exported. This
was, in his opinion, a very extraordinary stretch of the legislative
power of Great Britain, considering the smallness of the object. The
Act was much, very much complained of in Ireland, and apparently with
very great justice both as to principle and effect. It was an article
of general use in Ireland. The manufacturers of glass there, when thus
restrained both as to export and import, could not pretend to vie with
the British; the consequence of which was that the latter, having the
whole trade to themselves, fixed the price of the commodity as they
liked."[56] By the 9 Anne, c. 12, and 5 Geo. II., c. 2, and 7 Geo. II.,
c. 19, no hops but of British growth could be imported into Ireland.
By the 6 Geo. I., it was enacted that the duty on hops exported from
England should not be drawn back in favour of Irish consumers.[57]
Irish cotton manufactures imported to England were subject to an
import duty of twenty-five per cent., while a statute of Geo. I.
enacted penalties on the wearing of such manufactures in Great Britain
unless they were made there.
The raw material for silk came to Ireland through England. The original
import duty in England was 12d. in the pound, of which 3d. in the pound
was retained there.[58]
Irish beer and malt, too, were excluded from England, whereas English
beer and malt were imported into Ireland at a nominal duty. "Hats,
gunpowder, coals, bar-iron, iron-ware, and several other matters, some
of which Ireland had not to export, and others of which she had very
little, were at different times the objects of English restrictions,
whenever it was fancied that English interests were at all threatened
by them."[59]
It was this legislation that caused Edmund Burke to ask, "Is Ireland
united to the Crown of Great Britain for no other purpose than that
we should counteract the bounty of Providence in her favour, and in
proportion as that bounty has been liberal that we are to regard it as
an evil which is to be met with in every sort of corrective?"[60]
"England," says Mr. Froude, "governed Ireland for what she deemed her
own interest, making her calculation on the gross balance of her trade
ledgers, and leaving her moral obligations to accumulate, as if right
and wrong had been blotted out of the statute book of the universe."[61]
"One by one of each of our nascent industries," observes Lord Dufferin,
"was either strangled in its birth, or handed over gagged and bound
to the jealous custody of the rival interest of England, until at
last every fountain of wealth was hermetically sealed, and even the
traditions of commercial enterprise have perished through desuetude."
This sketch of English legislation for Irish trade would leave the
impression that the Parliaments of Great Britain were as lavish in
their efforts to suppress industrial enterprise in that country as any
British trader could reasonably desire. It will surprise us to find
that this atrocious code was not regarded as sufficiently thorough.
"In the year 1698," says Hely Hutchinson, "two petitions were preferred
from Folkestone and Aldborough, stating a singular grievance that they
suffered from Ireland 'by the Irish catching herrings at _Waterford and
Wexford_, and sending them to the Streights, and thereby _forestalling_
and ruining petitioners' markets;' but these petitioners had the _hard
lot_ of having motions in their favour rejected."[62]
FOOTNOTES:
[15] Ireland, however, has natural advantages which must not be
forgotten in any estimate of her economical position, and which,
although they do not compensate her for the want of coal, would
under proper application do much to promote her prosperity. Thus Mr.
O'Connell, towards the conclusion of his speech in his own defence,
in the State Trials of 1844, says: "The country is intersected with
noble estuaries. Ships of 500 tons' burthen ride into the heart of the
country, safe from every wind that blows. No country possesses such
advantages for commerce; the machinery of the world might be turned by
the water-power of Ireland. Take the map and dissect it, and you will
find that a good harbour is not more remote from any spot in Ireland
than thirty miles." (R. _v._ O'Connell, p. 649.) Mr. Chaplin, in the
speech to which I have referred, remarks: "No doubt Ireland does
possess exceptional advantages in water-power which might be turned
to great advantage." (Hansard, 261, Third Series, p. 836.) Ireland
is not, however, absolutely devoid of coal. "Though," says Mr. C.
Dawson, "we make no boast of our mineral treasures, they are, according
to competent authority, well worthy of development. According to
Professor Hull, the Leinster coal-basin contains 118 million tons, only
outputting 83,000 tons per annum. In the North, especially in Tyrone,
at Coal Island, there are 17,000 acres of coal-bed (30,000,000 tons),
which the Professor says are by far the most valuable in Ireland. In
the other districts in Ireland there are over 70,000,000 tons. Sir
R. Kane supports the suggestion that borings should be made by the
Government in this district to ascertain if the mineral wealth existed
to the extent computed by Professor Hull, and he adds that when the
panic arose in England about the duration of its coal supply, coal was
looked for then outside the limits of the recognised coal-fields, and
following them down into the Chalk in Kent and other places, of which
Ireland was one." ("The Influence of an Irish Parliament on Irish
Industries," Lecture by Mr. Charles Dawson, _Freeman's Journal_, Jan.
5, 1886.)
[16] "Burke on Irish Affairs," by M. Arnold, p. 101.
[17] "Commercial Restraints," p. 156. Mr. Secretary Orde, in
introducing in the Irish House of Commons, in 1785, the Commercial
Propositions, said: "Great Britain was aware of the preferable
commercial situation of Ireland." ("Irish Debates," iv., p. 120.)
[18] "Life and Speeches of Lord Plunket," by the Right Hon. D. Plunket,
vol. i., pp. 173, 174.
[19] "English in Ireland," vol. i., p. 178.
[20] "Parliamentary Debates," xv., p. 175.
[21] "Commercial Restraints," p. 164.
[22] "Irish Debates," iii., p. 123. Henry, Archbishop of Dublin, is
mentioned in Magna Charta as one of the barons whose "advice" led
to the signing of that instrument by John. This prelate, Henry de
Loundres, or "the Londoner," erected St. Patrick's Church, Dublin,
into a cathedral, and created the offices of Precentor, Chancellor,
Treasurer, and Dean--the last a post destined to be rendered famous
five centuries later by the incumbency of Swift. Strange that at
far-distant periods of time St. Patrick's Cathedral should be
associated with the names of two illustrious assertors of liberty!
[23] These enactments are mentioned in the "Commercial Restraints," pp.
164-169.
[24] "Commercial Restraints," p. 169.
[25] 12 Car. II., c. 18.
[26] 13 & 14 Car. II., c. 11, s. 6.
[27] "English in Ireland," i., p. 179.
[28] "Parliamentary Debates," xv., pp. 175, 176. Edmund Burke, speaking
in the British House of Commons, on May 6th, 1778, thus commented on
this transaction: "In the 12 Car. II. the Navigation Acts passed,
extending to Ireland, as well as England. A kind of left-handed policy,
however, had deprived her of the freedom she enjoyed under that Act,
and she had ever since remained under the most cruel, oppressive, and
unnatural restrictions." ("Parliamentary Debates," viii., p. 265.)
[29] Except victuals, servants, horses, and salt, for the fisheries of
New England and Newfoundland.
[30] 15 Car. II., c. 7, s. 13.
[31] 18 Car. II., c. 2.
[32] 32 Car. II., c. 2. Irish cattle were readmitted into England by
the 32 Geo. II., c. 11. This was but a temporary enactment, but it was
renewed without difficulty. Hely Hutchinson says it was acknowledged
that the importation did not lower English rents. ("Commercial
Restraints," p. 86.)
[33] 22 & 23 Car. II., c. 26.
[34] "Parliamentary Debates," xv., p. 176.
[35] "English in Ireland," i. 180.
[36] Carte's "Ormonde," ii. 357.
[37] Carte's "Ormonde," ii. 329.
[38] "Life and Death of the Irish Parliament," p. 69.
[39] "Irish Commons' Journals," ii. 577.
[40] "Commercial Restraints," p. 20.
[41] "Irish Wool and Woollens," by S. A., p. 67.
[42] "Report from the Select Committee on the Linen Trade of Ireland,
6th June, 1825."
[43] "Life of Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford," by Elizabeth
Cooper, i., pp. 185, 186. Miss Cooper comments severely "on the stolid
unconsciousness of wrongdoing by such a design, the undreamed-of
suspicion that such a proposal could be received with any other feeling
than that of approbation." It is but just to the memory of Strafford to
state that he endeavoured to develop the linen manufacture in Ireland.
He sent to Holland for flax seed, and invited Flemish and French
artisans to settle in Ireland. "In order to stimulate the new industry,
the earl himself embarked in it, and expended not less than £30,000
of his private fortune in the enterprise. It was afterwards made one
of the grounds of his impeachment that he had obstructed the industry
of the country by introducing new and unknown processes into the
manufacture of flax. It was, nevertheless, greatly to the credit of the
earl that he should have endeavoured to improve the industry of Ireland
by introducing the superior processes employed by foreign artisans,
and had he not attempted to turn the improved flax manufacture to his
own advantage by erecting it into a personal monopoly, he might have
been entitled to regard as a genuine benefactor of Ireland." (Smiles's
"Huguenots," p. 126.) Dr. Smiles, in this passage, speaks of the linen
manufacture as a "new industry." The "Report from the Select Committee
on the Linen Trade of Ireland" states that that trade was "first
planted in Ireland by Lord Strafford" (Appendix, p. 6), and Miss Cooper
gives him credit "for the establishment of the linen manufacture in
Ireland." ("Life of Lord Strafford," i., p. 346.) These statements are
not, I think, historically correct. Mr. Lecky shows that, although Lord
Strafford stimulated the linen trade, he did not found it. "The linen
manufacture may, indeed, be dimly traced far back into Irish history.
It is noticed in an English poem in the early part of the fifteenth
century. A century later Guicciardini, in his 'Description of the
Low Countries,' mentions coarse linen as among the products imported
from Ireland to Antwerp. Strafford had done much to encourage it, and
after the calamities of the Cromwellian period the Duke of Ormonde had
laboured with some success to revive it." ("England in the Eighteenth
Century," ii., pp. 211, 212.) See also, for some very valuable remarks
on this subject, "Irish Wool and Woollens," pp. 63, 64.
[44] "Irish Wool and Woollens," p. 70. See also Newenham on "The
Population of Ireland," pp. 40, 41.
[45] 12 Car. II., c. 4. A duty equal to a prohibition was laid on those
goods.
[46] "English Commons' Journals," xii., p. 338.
[47] "English Commons' Journals," xii. 339.
[48] "Irish Commons' Journals," ii., p. 241.
[49] "Irish Commons' Journals," ii., p. 243.
[50] Irish Statutes, 10 Will. III., c. 3.
[51] Subsequent Acts completed this annihilation. "The next Act," says
Lord North, after enumerating the Acts mentioned above, "was an Act of
the 5th Geo. I., the next the 5th and 12th of the late King (Geo. II.),
which last went so far as to prohibit the export of a kind of woollen
manufacture called waddings, and one or two other articles excepted out
of the 10th and 11th of King William; but these three last Acts swept
everything before them." ("Parliamentary Debates," xv. 176, 177.)
[52] "Parliamentary Debates," vol. xiii., 330.
[53] "Parliamentary Debates," vol. xv., 181.
[54] "Irish Affairs," pp. 112, 113.
[55] "English in Ireland," vol. ii., p. 177. Mr. Lecky thus succinctly
states the particulars attending the breach of the Linen Compact:--"The
main industry of Ireland had been deliberately destroyed because it
had so prospered that English manufacturers had begun to regard it
as a competitor with their own. It is true, indeed, that a promise
was made that the linen and hempen manufacture should be encouraged
as a compensation, but even if it had been a just principle that a
nation should be restricted by force of law to one or two forms of
industry, there was no proportion between that which was destroyed and
that which was to be favoured, and no real reciprocity established
between the two countries." Mr. Lecky having stated the antiquity of
the linen manufacture and its vicissitudes in Ireland, and having
mentioned that "in 1700 the value of the export of Irish linen amounted
to little more than £14,000," thus proceeds:--"The English utterly
suppressed the existing woollen manufacture in Ireland in order to
reserve that industry entirely to themselves, but the English and
Scotch continued, as usual, their manufacture of linen. The Irish
trade was ruined in 1699, but no legislative encouragement was given
to the Irish linen manufacture till 1705, when, at the urgent petition
of the Irish Parliament, the Irish were allowed to export their white
and brown linens, but these only to the British colonies, and they
were not permitted to bring any colonial goods in return. The Irish
linen manufacture was undoubtedly encouraged by bounties, but not
until 1743, when the country had sunk into a condition of appalling
wretchedness. In spite of the compact of 1698, the hempen manufacture
was so discouraged that it positively ceased. Disabling duties were
imposed on Irish sail-cloth imported into England. Irish checked,
striped, and dyed linens were absolutely excluded from the colonies.
They were virtually excluded from England by the imposition of a duty
of 30 per cent., and Ireland was not allowed to participate in the
bounties granted for the exportation of these descriptions of linen
from Great Britain to foreign countries."--"Eighteenth Century," vol.
ii., pp. 211-212. See also, "An Argument for Ireland," by J. O'Connell,
M.P., pp. 147-154.
[56] "Parliamentary Debates," vol. xv., 179, 180.
[57] "Commercial Restraints," pp. 229, 230.
[58] See "An Argument for Ireland," p. 161.
[59] "An Argument for Ireland," by J. O'Connell, M.P., p. 161.
[60] Burke on "Irish Affairs," p. 101.
[61] "English in Ireland," vol. i., p. 657.
[62] "Commercial Restraints," pp. 125, 126. See "English Commons'
Journals," 22, p. 178. In this summary of the laws enacted by
the English Parliament in restraint of Irish trade, I have dealt
merely with legislation of a permanent character. "When," says Hely
Hutchinson, in 1779, "the commercial restraints of Ireland are the
subject, a source of occasional and ruinous restrictions ought not
to be passed over. Since the year 1740 there have been twenty-four
embargoes in Ireland, one of which lasted three years." "Commercial
Restraints," pp. 231, 232. The system of embargoes called forth the
indignation of Arthur Young, the celebrated English traveller. The
prohibition of woollens, etc., was, he says, at least advantageous
to similar manufactures in England, but "in respect to embargoes,
even this shallow pretence is wanting; a whole kingdom is sacrificed
and plundered, not to enrich England, but three or four London
contractors." See also Lecky's "Eighteenth Century," iv., p. 442.