the close of the seventeenth century, and manifold were the wrongs which
the departure inflicted on this country. The Provost details these wrongs
with the indignation of a patriot; he rails at the oppression which, by
depriving the people of liberty, robbed them of half their vigour; but
still as a courtier and as a Government man, he was able to "_revere that
conquest which has given to Ireland the Common Law and the Magna Charta of
England_." Why he revered the Conquest, when the Common Law and Magna
Charta failed to protect the welfare of Ireland, the Provost does not
state. Two things stand out clearly throughout the treatise--one is that
Ireland, both as a producer and as a consumer, has been immensely
profitable to England; and the other is that England has been the source
of vast evil and suffering to Ireland. The purport of "The Commercial
Restraints" is to set forth these two great truths, and the record may be
read now without prejudice on one side of the Channel, and without panic
or passion on the other. The teaching of the book ought to be palpable
enough for the men of the present day. It ought to convince Englishmen
that it is time for them to distrust their "resources of civilisation,"
and to let this country prosper; and it ought to remind Irishmen that they
are the best judges of what they want, and that their road to prosperity
is independence of English conceit, together with a sturdy development of
their own native resources.
In and since Provost Hutchinson's time Ireland has won vast conquests from
her oppressor, and she has won them all by the same weapon--firm and
constitutional discontent. She has much to win still, and she will surely
win it by the same method, while outside that method she is powerless.
Free Trade and Parliamentary Independence were won without shedding a drop
of blood, and the conditions of the fight for what is required now are far
more propitious and hopeful than they were a century ago. Then, Ireland
had to contend with an obstinate king, a wrong-headed minister, and a
greedy nation; now, all these things are changed. The men of '82, no
doubt, had at their back the Irish Volunteers that England feared, and
there are no Irish Volunteers now; their place, however, is supplied by a
more coercive force, and that force is the spirit of justice which is
spreading through the Liberals of England, and is fed by the Liberals of
Ireland. But even supposing that all these demands touching land,
education, and autonomy, were granted, there still remains another object
for Irishmen to work out, namely, the recreation of their home industries
and manufactures. The land, after all, is not everything--all the people
cannot live by it and out of it--and, as Hutchinson observes, no one
industry is sufficient to maintain a numerous population in prosperity and
comfort.
In past times, as a couple of months ago the Lord Lieutenant at Belfast,
and Mr. Fawcett at Shoreditch, were saying,[121] all these industries in
the country were prohibited by unjust and iniquitous legislation, and by a
mass of vexatious restrictions; but there are no prohibitions now, and the
country abounds with the conditions and materials of prosperity. Bishop
Berkeley wrote, when the prohibiting laws had been seventy years in
operation, and when the force that swept them away had not yet begun to
breathe in the country. He regarded the laws with despair, and piteously
bemoaned the destitution and degradation in which the people were fixed.
His earnest exhortation to them was to compensate themselves for the loss
of the foreign trade by developing home industries and manufactures; and
he asked[122] whether the natives might not be able to effect their own
prosperity and elevation, even though "there was a wall of brass a
thousand cubits high round this kingdom?"
Lord Clare, in his Union speech, declared that Ireland made more progress
in her eighteen years of freedom than ever nation made in the same period;
and it will be now for the working-men of this generation to show that, in
enterprise and trades-craft they are not degenerate from their half-taught
forefathers who won Fitzgibbon's testimony. There is every ground for
confident anticipation, that this year's National Exhibition will
profoundly and widely strengthen the effort for the revival of our Native
Industries, and it is with the desire to contribute somewhat to the
all-important and patriotic impulse that "The Commercial Restraints of
Ireland" is now reproduced by the publishers.
THE COMMERCIAL RESTRAINTS OF IRELAND CONSIDERED.
First Letter.
_Dublin, 20th Aug., 1779._
MY LORD,
You desire my thoughts on the affairs of Ireland, a subject little
considered, and consequently not understood in England. The Lords and
Commons of Great Britain have addressed his Majesty to take the distressed
and impoverished state of this country into consideration; have called for
information and resolved to pursue effectual methods for promoting the
common strength, wealth, and commerce of both kingdoms, and his Majesty
has been pleased to express in his speech from the throne his entire
approbation of their attention to the present state of Ireland.
The occasion calls for the assistance of every friend of the British
Empire, and those who can give material information are bound to
communicate it. The attempt, however, is full of difficulty; it will
require more than ordinary caution to write with such moderation as not to
offend the prejudices of one country and with such freedom as not to wound
the feelings of the other.
The present state of Ireland teems with every circumstance of national
poverty. Whatever the land produces is greatly reduced in its value: wool
is fallen one-half in its usual price, wheat one-third, black cattle of
all kinds in the same proportion, and hides in a much greater. Buyers are
not had without difficulty at those low rates, and from the principal
fairs men commonly return with the commodities they brought there; rents
are everywhere reduced--in many places it is impossible to collect
them;--the farmers are all distressed, and many of them have failed; when
leases expire tenants are not easily found; the landlord is often obliged
to take his lands into his own hands for want of bidders at reasonable
rents, and finds his estate fallen one-fourth in its value. The merchant
justly complains that all business is at a stand, that he cannot discount
his bills, and that neither money nor paper circulates. In this and the
last year above twenty thousand manufacturers in this metropolis were
reduced to beggary for want of employment, they were for a considerable
length of time supported by alms, a part of the contribution came from
England and this assistance was much wanting from the general distress of
all ranks of people in this country. Public and private credit are
annihilated, Parliament, that always raises money in Ireland on easy
terms, when there is any to be borrowed in the country, in 1778, gave
L7-1/2 per cent. in annuities, which, in 1773 and 1775, were earnestly
sought after at L6, then thought to be a very high rate. The expenses of a
country nearly bankrupt must be inconsiderable; almost every branch of the
revenue has fallen, and the receipts in the Treasury for the two years
ending Lady-day, 1779, were less than those for the two years ending
Lady-day, 1777, deducting the sums received on account of loans in each
period, in a sum of L334,900 18_s._ 9-1/2_d._ There was due on the 25th of
March last, on the establishments, and for extraordinary expenses, an
arrear amounting to L373,706 13_s._ 6-1/2_d._; a sum of L600,000 will
probably be now wanting to supply the deficiencies on the establishments
and extraordinary charges of government, and an annual sum of between
L50,000 and L60,000 yearly to pay interest and annuities. In the last
session L466,000 was borrowed. If the sum wanting could now be raised,
the debt would be increased in a sum of above L1,000,000 in less than
three years; and if the expenses and the revenues should continue the same
as in the last two years, there is a probability of an annual deficiency
of L300,000. The nation in the last two years has not been able to pay for
its own defence: a militia law passed in the last session could not be
carried into execution for want of money. Instead of paying forces
abroad,[123] Ireland has not been able in this year to pay the forces kept
in the kingdom: it has again relapsed into its ancient state of
imbecility, and Great Britain has been lately obliged to send over money
to pay the army[124] which defends this impoverished country.
Our distress and poverty are of the utmost notoriety; the proof does not
depend solely upon calculation or estimate, it is palpable in every public
and private transaction, and is deeply felt among all orders of our
people.
This kingdom has been long declining. The annual deficiency of its
revenues for the payment of the public expenses has been for many years
supplied by borrowing. The American rebellion, which considerably
diminished the demand for our linens; an embargo on provisions continued
for three years,[125] and highly injurious to our victualling trade; the
increasing drain of remittances to England for rents, salaries, profits of
offices, pensions and interest, and for the payment of forces abroad, have
made the decline more rapid, but have not occasioned it.
If we are determined to investigate the truth we must assign a more
radical cause; when the human or political body is unsound or infirm it is
in vain to inquire what accidental circumstances appear to have occasioned
those maladies which arise from the constitution itself.
If in a period of fourscore years of profound internal peace any country
shall appear to have often experienced the extremes of poverty and
distress; if at the times of her greatest supposed affluence and
prosperity the slightest causes have been sufficient to obstruct her
progress, to annihilate her credit, and to spread dejection and dismay
among all ranks of her people; and if such a country is blessed with a
temperate climate and fruitful soil, abounds with excellent harbours and
great rivers, with the necessaries of life and materials of manufacture,
and is inhabited by a race of men, brave, active, and intelligent, some
permanent cause of such disastrous effects must be sought for.
If your vessel is frequently in danger of foundering in the midst of a
calm, if by the smallest addition of sail she is near oversetting, let the
gale be ever so steady, you would neither reproach the crew nor accuse the
pilot or the master; you would look to the construction of the vessel and
see how she had been originally framed and whether any new works had been
added to her that retard or endanger her course.
But for such an examination more time and attention are necessary than
have been usually bestowed upon this subject in Great Britain, and as I
have now the honour to address a person of rank and station in that
kingdom on the affairs of Ireland I should be brief in my first audience,
or I may happen never to obtain the favour of a second.
I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c.
Second Letter.
_Dublin, 23rd August, 1779._
MY LORD,
If there is any such permanent cause from which the frequent distresses of
so considerable a part of the British Empire have arisen, it is of the
utmost consequence that it should be fully explained and generally
understood. Let us endeavour to trace it by its effects; these will
manifestly appear by an attentive review of the state of Ireland at
different periods.
From the time that King James the First had established a regular
administration of justice in every part of the kingdom, until the
rebellion of 1641, which takes in a period of between thirty and forty
years, the growth of Ireland was considerable.[126] In the Act recognising
the title of King James, the Lords and Commons acknowledge, "that many
blessings and benefits had, within these few years past, been poured upon
this realm;"[127] and at the end of the Parliament, in 1615, the Commons
return thanks for the extraordinary pains taken for the good of this
republic, whereby they say: "We all of us sit under our own vines, and the
whole realm reapeth the happy fruits of peace."[128] In his reign the
little that could be given by the people was given with general
consent,[129] and received with extraordinary marks of royal favour. He
desires the Lord Deputy to return them thanks for their subsidy, and for
their granting it with universal consent,[130] and to assure them that he
holds his subjects of that kingdom in equal favour with those of his other
kingdoms, and that he will be as careful to provide for their prosperous
and flourishing state as for his own person.
Davis, who had served him in great stations in this kingdom, and had
visited every province of it, mentions the prosperous state of the
country, and that the revenue of the Crown, both certain and casual, had
been raised to a double proportion. He takes notice how this was effected
"by the encouragement given to the maritime towns and cities, as well to
increase the trade of merchandize as to cherish mechanical arts;" and
mentions the consequence, "that the strings of this Irish harp were all in
tune."[131]
In the succeeding reign, Ireland, for fourteen or fifteen years, appears
to have greatly advanced in prosperity. The Commons granted in the session
of 1634 six entire subsidies, which they agreed should amount in the
collection to L250,000,[132] and the free gifts previously given to King
Charles the First at different times amounted to L310,000.[133] In the
session of 1639 they gave four entire subsidies, and the clergy eight; the
customs, which had been farmed at L500 yearly in the beginning of this
reign, were in the progress of it set for L54,000.[134]
The commodities exported were twice as much in value as the foreign
merchandize imported, and shipping is said to have increased an
hundred-fold.[135] Their Parliament was encouraged to frame laws conducive
to the happiness of themselves and their posterities, for the enacting and
"consummating" whereof the king passes his royal word, and assures his
subjects of Ireland that they were equally of as much respect and dearness
to him as any others.[136]
In the Speaker's speech in 1639, when he was offered for approbation to
the Lord Deputy, he mentions the free and happy condition of the people of
Ireland, sets forth the particulars, and in enumerating the national
blessings, mentions as one "that our in-gates and out-gates do stand open
for trade and traffic;"[137] and as the Lord Chancellor declared his
Excellency's "high liking of this oration," it may be considered as a fair
account of the condition of Ireland at that time. When the Commons had
afterwards caught the infection of the times, and were little disposed to
pay compliments, they acknowledge that this kingdom, when the Earl of
Strafford obtained the government, "was in a flourishing, wealthy, and
happy estate."[138]
After the Restoration, from the time that the acts of settlement and
explanation had been fully carried into execution to the year 1688,
Ireland made great advances, and continued for several years in a most
prosperous condition.[139] Lands were everywhere improved; rents were
doubled; the kingdom abounded with money; trade flourished to the envy of
our neighbours; cities increased exceedingly; many places of the kingdom
equalled the improvements of England; the king's revenue increased
proportionably to the advance of the kingdom, which was every day growing,
and was _well established in plenty and wealth_;[140] manufactures were
set on foot in divers parts; the meanest inhabitants were at once enriched
and civilized; and this kingdom is then represented to be the most
improved and improving spot of ground in Europe. I repeat the words of
persons of high rank, great character, and superior knowledge, who could
not be deceived themselves, and were incapable of deceiving others.
In the former of these periods Parliaments were seldom convened in
Ireland; in the latter, they were suspended for the space of twenty-six
years; during that time the English ministers frequently showed
dispositions unfavourable to the prosperity of this kingdom; and in the
interval between those two periods it had been laid waste, and almost
depopulated by civil rage and religious fury. And yet, after being blessed
with an internal peace of ninety years, and with a succession of five
excellent sovereigns, who were most justly the objects of our affection
and gratitude, and to whom the people of this country were deservedly
dear; after so long and happy an intercourse of protection, grace, and
favour from the Crown, and of duty and loyalty from the subjects, it would
be difficult to find any subsequent period where so flattering a view has
been given of the industry and prosperity of Ireland.
The cause of this prosperity should be mentioned. James, the first Duke of
Ormond, whose memory should be ever 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 the Second a
letter[141] 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 its 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[142] the linen
manufactures, which England then encouraged in this kingdom as a
compensation for the loss of that trade of which she had deprived it, and
this encouragement from that time to the Revolution had greatly increased
the wealth and promoted the improvement of Ireland.
The tyranny and persecuting policy of James the Second,[143] after his
arrival in Ireland, ruined its trade and revenue; the many great
oppressions which the people suffered during the revolution had occasioned
almost the _utter desolation_ of the country.[144] But the nation must
have been restored in the reign of William to a considerable degree of
strength and vigour; their exertions in raising supplies to a great
amount, from the year 1692 to the year 1698, are some proof of it. They
taxed their goods, their lands, their persons, in support of a prince whom
they justly called their deliverer and defender, and of a government on
which their own preservation depended. Those sums were granted,[145] not
only without murmur, but with the utmost cheerfulness, and without any
complaint of the inability, or representation of the distressed state of
the country.
The money brought in for the army at the revolution gave life to all
business, and much sooner than could have been expected retrieved the
affairs of Ireland. This money furnished capitals for carrying on the
manufactures of the kingdom. Our exports increased in '96, '97, and '98,
and our imports did not rise in proportion, which occasioned a great
balance in our favour; and this increase was owing principally to the
woollen manufacture. In the last of those years the balance in favour of
Ireland in the account of exports and imports was L419,442.[146]
But in the latter end of this reign the political horizon was overcast,
the national growth was checked, and the national vigour and industry
impaired by the law made in England restraining, in fact prohibiting, the
exportation of all woollen manufactures from Ireland. From the time of
this prohibition no parliament was held in Ireland until the year 1703.
Five years were suffered to pass before any opportunity was given to apply
a remedy to the many evils which such a prohibition must necessarily have
occasioned. The linen trade was then not thoroughly established in
Ireland; the woollen manufacture was the staple trade, and wool the
principal material of that kingdom. The consequences of this prohibition
appear in the session of 1703.[147] The Commons[148] lay before Queen Anne
a most affecting representation, containing, to use their own words, "a
true state of our deplorable condition," protesting that no groundless
discontent was the motive for that application, but a deep sense of the
evil state of their country, and of the farther mischiefs they have reason
to fear will fall upon it if not timely prevented. They set forth the vast
decay and loss of its trade, its being almost exhausted of coin, that they
are hindered from earning their livelihoods and from maintaining their
own manufactures, that their poor have thereby become very numerous; that
great numbers of Protestant families have been constrained to remove out
of the kingdom, as well into Scotland as into the dominions of foreign
princes and states, and that their foreign trade and its returns are under
such restrictions and discouragements as to be then become in a manner
impracticable, although that kingdom had by its blood and treasure
contributed to secure the plantation trade to the people of England.
In a further address to the Queen,[149] laid before the Duke of Ormond,
then Lord Lieutenant, by the House, with its Speaker, they mention the
distressed condition of that kingdom, and more especially of the
industrious Protestants, by the almost total loss of trade and decay of
their manufactures, and, to preserve the country from utter ruin, apply
for liberty to export their linen manufactures to the plantations.
In a subsequent part of this session[150] the Commons resolve that, by
reason of the great decay of trade and discouragement of the manufactures
of this kingdom, many poor tradesmen were reduced to extreme want and
beggary. This resolution was _nem. con._, and the Speaker, Mr. Broderick,
then his Majesty's Solicitor-General, and afterwards Lord Chancellor, in
his speech at the end of the session[151] informs the Lord Lieutenant,
that the representation of the Commons was, as to the matters contained in
it, the unanimous voice and consent of a very full house, and that the
soft and gentle terms used by the Commons in laying the distressed
condition of the kingdom before his Majesty, showed that their complaints
proceeded not from querulousness, but from a necessity of seeking redress,
He adds: "It is to be hoped they may be allowed such a proportion of trade
that they may recover from the great poverty they now lie under;" and in
presenting the bill of supply says, the Commons have granted it "in time
of extreme poverty." The impoverished state of Ireland, at that time,
appears in the speech from the throne at the conclusion of the session, in
which it is mentioned that the Commons could not then provide for what was
owing to the civil and military lists.[152]
The supply given for two years, commencing at Michaelmas, 1703,[153] was a
sum not exceeding L150,000, which, considering that no Parliament was held
in Ireland since the year 1698, is at the rate of L30,000 yearly,
commencing in 1699, and ending in the year 1705.
The great distress of Ireland, from the year 1699 to the year 1703, and
the cause of that distress, cannot be doubted.
Let it now be considered, whether the same cause has operated since the
year 1703. In the year 1704[154] it appears, that the Commons were not
able, from the circumstances of the nation at that time, to make provision
for repairing the necessary fortifications; or for arms and ammunition for
the public safety: and the difficulties which the kingdom then laboured
under, and the decay of trade appear by the addresses of the Commons[155]
to the Queen, and to the Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant, who was
well acquainted with the state of this country; by the Queen's
answer,[156] and the address of thanks for it.
In the year 1707,[157] the revenue was deficient for payment of the army
and defraying the charges of government, and the Commons promise to supply
the deficiency "as far as the present circumstances of the nation will
allow."