in the seventeenth century there had been some offence given or some
demerit on our part. He would be surprised to hear that during this
period our loyalty had been exemplary, and our sufferings on that account
great. In 1641, great numbers of the Protestants of Ireland were
destroyed, and many of them were deprived of their property and driven out
of their country from their attachment to the English Government in this
kingdom, and to that religion and constitution which they happily enjoyed
under it. At the Revolution they were constant in the same principles, and
successfully staked their lives and properties against domestic and
foreign enemies in support of the rights of the English crown, and of the
religious and civil liberties of Britain and of Ireland. They bravely
shared with her in all her dangers, and liberally partook of all her
adversities. Whatever were their rights, they had forfeited none of them.
Whatever favours they enjoyed, they had new claims from their merit and
their sufferings to a continuance of them. They now wanted more than ever
the care of that fostering hand which, by rescuing them twice from
oppression (obligations never to be forgotton by the Protestants of
Ireland), established the liberties, confirmed the strength, and raised
the glory of the British empire.
In speaking of a commercial system, it is not intended to touch upon the
power of making or altering laws; the present subject leads us only to
consider whether that power has been exercised in any instances contrary
to reason, justice, and public utility.
When we consider, with the utmost deference to established authority, what
is _reasonable, useful, and just_, principles equally applicable to an
independent or a subordinate, to a rich or a poor country: _Quod aeque
pauperibus prodest, locupletibus aeque_. Should any man talk of a conquest
above 500 years since, between kingdoms long united like those, in blood,
interest, and constitution, he does not speak to the purpose; he may as
well talk of the conquest of the Norman, and use the antiquated language
of obsolete despotism. I revere that conquest which has given to Ireland
the common law and the Magna Charta of England.
When we consider what is _reasonable, useful, and just_, and address our
sentiments to a nation renowned for wisdom and justice, should pride
pervert the question, talk of the power of Britain, and, in the character
of that great country, ask, like Tancred, who shall control me? I answer,
like the sober Siffredi--_thyself_.
The power of regulating trade in a great empire is perverted, when
exercised for the destruction of trade in any part of it; but whatever or
wherever that power is, if it says to the subject on one side of a
channel, you may work and navigate, buy and sell; and to the subject on
the other side, you shall not work or navigate, buy or sell, but under
such restrictions as will extinguish the genius and unnerve the arm of
industry; I will only say that it uses a language repugnant to the free
spirit of commerce, and of the British and Irish constitution.
Great eulogiums on the virtues of our people have been pronounced by some
of the most respected English authors.[385] Yet indolence is objected to
them by those who discourage their industry; but they do not reflect that
each of these proceeds from habit, and that the noble observation made on
virtue in general is equally applicable to industry; the day that it loses
its liberty half of its vigour is gone.[386]
The great expenditure of money by England on account of this country is an
argument more fit for the limited views of a compting-house than for the
enlarged policy of statesmen deliberating on the general good of a great
empire.
Very large sums, it is true, were advanced by England for the relief and
recovery of Ireland; but these have been reimbursed fifty-fold by the
profits and advantages which have since arisen to England from its trade
and intercourse with this kingdom. This argument may be further pursued,
but accounts of mutual benefits between intimate friends and near
relations should always be kept open, and every attempt to strike a
balance between them tends rather to raise jealousies than to promote good
will.
It has been said that the interest of England required that those
restraints should be imposed. The contrary has been shown; one of the
maxims of her own law instructs us to enjoy our own property, so as not to
injure that of our neighbour,[387] and the true interest of a great
country lies in the population, wealth, and strength of the whole empire.
If this restrictive system was founded in justice and sound policy towards
the middle and at the conclusion of the last century, the present state of
the British empire requires new counsels and a system of commerce and of
policy totally different from those which the circumstances of these
countries, in the years 1663, 1670, and 1698, might have suggested.
But it is time to give your lordship a little relief before I enter into a
new part of my subject.
I have the honour to be,
My lord, &c.
Eighth Letter.
_Dublin, 6th September, 1779._
MY LORD,
Between the 23rd of October, 1641, and the same day in the year 1652, five
hundred and four thousand of the inhabitants of Ireland are said to have
perished and been wasted by the sword, plague, famine, hardship, and
banishment.[388] If it had not been for the numbers of British which those
wars had brought over,[389] and such who, either as adventurers or
soldiers, seated themselves here on account of the satisfaction made to
them in lands, the country had been, by the rebellion of 1641 and the
plague that followed it, nearly desolate. At the restoration almost the
whole property of the kingdom was in a state of the utmost anarchy and
confusion. To satisfy the clashing interests of the numerous claimants,
and to determine the various and intricate disputes that arose relative to
titles, required a considerable length of time. Peace and settlement, or,
to use the words of one of the Acts of Parliament[390] of that time, the
repairing the ruins and desolation of the kingdom were the great objects
of this period.
The English law[391] of 1663, restraining the exportation from Ireland to
America, was at that time, and for some years after, scarcely felt in this
kingdom, which had then little to export except live cattle, not proper
for so distant a market.
The Act of Settlement, passed in Ireland the year before this restrictive
law, and the explanatory statute for the settlement of this kingdom, was
not enacted until two years after. The country continued for a
considerable time in a state of litigation, which is never favourable to
industry. In 1661, the people must have been poor; the number of them of
all degrees who paid poll money in that year was about 360,000.[392] In
1672, when the country had greatly improved, the manufacture bestowed upon
a year's exportation from Ireland did not exceed eight thousand
pounds,[393] and the clothing trade had not then arrived to what it had
been before the last rebellion. But still the kingdom had much increased
in wealth, though not in manufactured exports. The customs which set in
1656 for L12,000 yearly were, in 1672, worth L80,000[394] yearly, and the
improvement in domestic wealth, that is to say, in building, planting,
furniture, coaches, &c., is said to have advanced from 1652 to 1673 in a
proportion of from one to four. Sir William Petty, in the year 1672,
complains not of the restraints on the exportation from Ireland to
America,[395] but of the prohibition of exporting our cattle to England,
and of our being obliged to unlade in that kingdom[396] the ships bound
from America to Ireland, the latter regulation he considers as highly
prejudicial to this country.[396]
The immediate object of Ireland at this time seems to have been to get
materials to employ her people at home, without thinking of foreign
exportations. When we advanced in the export of our woollen goods the law
of 1663,[397] which excluded them from the American markets, must have
been a great loss to this kingdom; and after we were allowed to export our
linens to the British colonies in America, the restraints imposed by the
law of 1670 upon our importations from thence became more prejudicial,
and will be much more so if ever the late extension of our exports to
America should under those restraints have any effect. For it is certainly
a great discouragement to the carrying on trade with any country where we
are allowed only to sell our manufactures and produce, but are not
permitted to carry from them directly to our own country their principal
manufactures or produce. The people to whom we are thus permitted to sell
want the principal inducement for dealing with us, and the great spring of
commerce, which is mutual exchange, is wanting between us.
As the British legislature has thought it reasonable to extend, to a very
considerable degree, our exportation to their colonies, and has,
doubtless, intended that this favour should be useful to Ireland, it is
hoped that those restraints on the importation from thence, which must
render that favour of little effect, will be no longer continued.
From those considerations it is evident that many strong reasons
respecting Ireland are now to be found against the continuance of those
restrictive laws of 1663 and 1670, that did not exist at the time of
making them.
The prohibition of 1699 was immediately and universally felt in this
country; but in the course of human events various and powerful reasons
have arisen against the continuance of that statute, which did not exist,
and could not have been foreseen when it was enacted.
At the Restoration the inhabitants of Ireland consisted of three different
nations--English, Scotch, and Irish--divided by political and religious
principles, exasperated against each other by former animosities, and by
present contests for property. When the settlement of the country was
completed, the people became industrious, manufactures greatly increased,
and the kingdom began to flourish. The prohibition of exporting cattle to
England, and perhaps that of importing directly from America the materials
of other manufactures, obliged the Irish to increase and to manufacture
their own material. They made so great a progress in both, from 1672 to
1687, that in the latter year the exports of the woollen manufacture alone
amounted in value to L70,521 14_s._ 0_d._
But the religious and civil animosities continued. The papists objected to
the settlement of property made after the Restoration,[398] wished to
reverse the outlawries, and to rescind the laws on which that settlement
was founded, hoped to establish their own as the national religion, to
get the power of the kingdom into their own hands, and to effect all those
purposes by a king of their own religion. They endeavoured to attain all
those objects by laws[399] passed at a meeting which they called a
parliament, held under this prince after his abdication; and by their
conduct at this period, as well as in the year 1642,[400] showed
dispositions unfavourable to the subordination of Ireland to the Crown of
England. They could not be supposed to be well affected to that great
prince who defeated all their purposes.
At the time of the revolution the numbers of our people were again very
much reduced; but a great majority of the remaining inhabitants consisted
of papists. Those, notwithstanding their disappointment at that era, were
thought to entertain expectations of the restoration of their Popish king,
and designs unfavourable to the established constitution in Church and
State. It is not to the present purpose to inquire how long this
disposition prevailed. It cannot be doubted but that this was the opinion
conceived of their views and principles at the time of passing this law in
the year 1699.
England could not then consider a country under such unfortunate
circumstances as any great additional strength to it. Foreign Protestants
were invited to settle in it, and the emigration of papists in great
numbers to other countries was allowed, if not encouraged. Though at this
period a regard to liberty as well as to economy, occasioned the
disbanding of all the army in England, except 7,000, it was thought
necessary for the security of Ireland that an army of 12,000 men should be
kept there; and for many years afterwards it was not allowed that this
army should be recruited in this kingdom. This distinction of parties in
Ireland was in those times the mainspring in every movement relative to
that kingdom, and affected not only political but commercial regulations.
The reason assigned by the English statute, allowing the exportation of
Irish linen cloth to the plantations, is, after reciting the restrictive
law of 1663,[401] "_yet_, forasmuch as the Protestant interest of Ireland
ought to be supported, by giving the utmost encouragement to the linen
manufactures of that kingdom, in tender regard to her Majesty's good
Protestant subjects of her said kingdom, be it enacted," &c.
The papists, then disabled from acquiring permanent property in lands, had
not the same interest with Protestants in the defence of their country and
in the prosperity of the British Empire. But those seeds of disunion and
diffidence no longer remain. No man looks now for the return of the exiled
family any more than for that of Perken Warbec; and the repeal of Magna
Charta is as much expected as of the Act of Settlement. The papists,
indulged with the exercise of their religious worship, and now at liberty
to acquire permanent property in lands, are interested as well as
Protestants in the security and prosperity of this country; and sensible
of the benign influence of our Sovereign, and of the protection and
happiness which they enjoy under his reign, seem to be as well affected to
the King and to the constitution of the State as any other class of
subjects, and at this most dangerous crisis have contributed their money
to raise men for his Majesty's service, and declared their readiness, had
the laws permitted, to have taken arms for the defence of their country.
They owe much to the favour and protection of the Crown, and to the
liberal and benevolent spirit of the British legislature which led the way
to their relief, and they are peculiarly interested to cultivate the good
opinion of their Sovereign, and of their fellow-subjects in Great Britain.
The numbers of our people, since the year 1698, are more than doubled; but
in point of real strength to the British Empire are increased in a
proportion of above eight to one. In the year 1698 the numbers of our
people did not much, if at all, exceed one million. Of these 300,000 are
thought to be a liberal allowance for Protestants of all denominations. It
is now supposed that there are not less in this kingdom than 2,500,000
loyal and affectionate subjects to his Majesty, and well affected to the
constitution and happiness of their country.
A political and commercial constitution, if it could have been considered
as wisely framed for the years 1663, 1670, and 1698, ought to be
reconsidered in the year 1779; what might have been good and necessary
policy in the government of one million of men disunited among themselves,
and a majority of them not to be relied upon in support of their king and
of the laws and constitution of their country, is bad policy in the
government of two millions and a-half of men now united among themselves,
and all interested in the support of the Crown, the laws, and the
constitution.
What might have been sufficient employment, and the means of acquiring a
competent subsistence for one million of people, when a man, by working
two days in the week, might have earned a sufficient support for him and
his family, will never answer for two millions and a-half of people,[402]
when the hard labour of six days in the week can scarcely supply a scanty
subsistence. Nor can the resources which enabled us in the last century to
remit L200,000 yearly to England[403] support remittances to the amount of
more than six times that sum.
Let the reasons for this restrictive system at the time of its formation
be examined, and let us judge impartially whether any one of the purposes
then intended has been answered. The reasons respecting America were to
confine the Plantation trade to England, and to make that country a
storehouse of all commodities for its colonies. But the commercial
jealousy that has prevailed among the different states of Europe has made
it difficult for any nation to keep great markets to herself in exclusion
of the rest of the world. It was not foreseen at those periods that the
colonies, whilst they all continued dependent, should have traded with
foreign nations, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of Great Britain to
prevent it. It was not foreseen that those colonies would have refused to
have taken any commodities whatever from their parent country, that they
should afterwards have separated themselves from her empire, declared
themselves independent, resisted her fleets and armies, obtained the most
powerful alliances, and occasioned the most dangerous and destructive war
in which Great Britain was ever engaged. Nor could it have been foreseen
that Ireland, excluded from almost all direct intercourse with them,
should have been nearly undone by the contest. The reasons then respecting
America no longer exist, and whatever may be the event of the conflict,
will never exist to the extent expected when this system of restraints and
penalties was adopted.
The reasons relating to Ireland have failed also. The circumstances of
this country relative to the woollen manufacture are totally changed since
the year 1699. The Lords and Commons of England appear to have founded the
law of that year on the proportion which they supposed that the charge of
the woollen manufacture in England then bore to the charge of that
manufacture in Ireland. In the representation from the Commissioners of
Trade, laid before both houses,[404] they think it a reasonable
conjecture to take the difference between both wool and labour in the two
countries to be one-third; and estimating on that supposition, they find
that 43-7/8 per cent. may be laid on broadcloth exported out of Ireland,
more than on the like cloth exported out of England, to bring them both to
an equality. This must have been an alarming representation to England.
But if those calculations were just at the time, which is very doubtful,
the supposed facts on which they were founded do certainly no longer
exist. Wool is now generally at a higher price in Ireland than in England,
and the trifling difference in the price of labour is more than
overbalanced by this and the other circumstances in favour of England,
which have been before stated; and that those facts supposed in 1698, and
the inferences drawn from them, have no foundation in the present state of
this country is plain from the experience every day, which shows that
instead of our underselling the English, they undersell us in our own
markets.
Besides our exclusion from foreign markets, England had two objects in the
discouragement of our woollen trade.
It was intended that Ireland should send her wool to England, and take
from that country her woollen manufactures.[405] It has been already
shown that the first object has not been attained, the second has been
carried so far as, for the future, to defeat its own purpose. Whilst our
own manufacturers were starving for want of employment, and our wool sold
for less than one-half its usual price, we have imported from England, in
the years 1777 and 1778, woollen goods to the enormous amount of L715,740
13_s._ 0_d._, as valued at our Custom House, and of the manufactures of
linen, cotton, and silk mixed, to the amount of L98,086 1_s._ 11_d._,
making in the whole in those two years of distress, L813,826 14_s._
11_d._[406] Between 20 and 30,000 of our manufacturers in those branches
were in those two years supported by public charity. From this fact it is
hoped that every reasonable man will allow the necessity of our using our
own manufactures. Agreements among our people for this purpose are not, as
it has been supposed, a new idea in this country. It was never so
universal as at present, but has been frequently resorted to in times of
distress. In the sessions of 1703, 1705, and 1707,[407] the House of
Commons resolved unanimously, that it would greatly conduce to the relief
of the poor and the good of the kingdom, that the inhabitants thereof
should use none other but the manufactures of this kingdom in their
apparel and the furniture of their houses; and in the last of those
sessions the members engaged their honours to each other, that they would
conform to the said resolution. The not importing goods from England is
one of the remedies recommended by the council of trade in 1676, for
alleviating some distress that was felt at that time;[408] and Sir William
Temple, a zealous friend to the trade and manufactures of England,
recommends to Lord Essex, then Lord Lieutenant, "to introduce, as far as
can be, a vein of parsimony throughout the country in all things that are
not perfectly the native growths and manufactures."[409]
The people of England cannot reasonably object to a conduct of which they
have given a memorable example.[410] In 1697 the English House of Lords
presented an address to King William to discourage the use and wearing of
all sorts of furniture and cloths, not of the growth or manufacture of
that kingdom; and beseech him by his royal example effectually to
encourage the use and wearing of all sorts of furniture and wearing cloths
that are the growth of that kingdom, or manufactured there; and King
William assures them that he would give the example to his subjects,[411]
and would endeavour to make it effectually followed. The reason assigned
by the Lords for this address was that the trade of the nation had
suffered by the late long and expensive war. But it does not appear that
there was any pressing necessity at the time, or that their manufacturers
were starving for want of employment.
Common sense must discover to every man that, where foreign trade is
restrained, discouraged, or prevented in any country, and where that
country has the materials of manufactures, a fruitful soil, and numerous
inhabitants, the home-trade is its best resource. If this is thought, by
men of great knowledge, to be the most valuable of all trades,[412]
because it makes the speediest and the surest returns, and because it
increases at the same time two capitals in the same country, there is no
nation on the globe whose wealth, population, strength, and happiness
would be promoted by such a trade in a greater degree than ours.[413]
Two other reasons were assigned for this prohibition: that the Irish had
shown themselves unwilling to promote the linen manufacture,[414] and that
there were great quantities of wool in Ireland. But they have since
cultivated the linen trade with great success, and great numbers of their
people are employed in it. Of late years by the operation of the
land-carriage bounty, agriculture has increased in a degree never before
known in this country; extensive tracts of lands, formerly sheep-pasture,
are now under tillage, and much greater rents are given for that purpose
than can be paid by stocking with sheep; the quantity of wool is greatly
diminished from what it was in the year 1699, supposing it to have been
then equal to the quantity in 1687,[415] it has been for several years
lessening, and is not likely to be increased. In those two important
circumstances the grounds of the apprehensions of England have ceased, and
the state of Ireland has been materially altered since the year 1699.
Another reason respecting England and foreign States, particularly France,
has failed. England was, in 1698, in possession of the woollen trade in
most of the foreign markets, and expected still to continue to supply
them, as appears by the preamble of her Statute passed in that year.