cattle, or both. With regard to sheep, as folly is usually accompanied
with perverseness, so it is here. There is something so monstrous to
deal in a commodity (further than for our own use) which we are not
allowed to export manufactured, nor even unmanufactured, but to one
certain country, and only to some few ports in that country;[84] there
is, I say, something so sottish, that it wants a name in our language
to express it by: and the good of it is, that the more sheep we have,
the fewer human creatures are left to wear the wool, or eat the flesh.
Ajax was mad, when he mistook a flock of sheep for his enemies; but we
shall never be sober, until we have the same way of thinking.
The other part of the grazier's business is, what we call black-cattle,
producing hides, tallow, and beef for exportation: all which are good
and useful commodities, if rightly managed. But it seems, the greatest
part of the hides are sent out raw, for want of bark to tan them; and
that want will daily grow stronger; for I doubt the new project of
tanning without it is at an end. Our beef, I am afraid, still continues
scandalous in foreign markets, for the old reasons. But our tallow, for
anything I know, may be good. However, to bestow the whole kingdom on
beef and mutton, and thereby drive out half the people who should eat
their share, and force the rest to send sometimes as far as Egypt for
bread to eat with it, is a most peculiar and distinguished piece of
public economy, of which I have no comprehension.
I know very well that our ancestors the Scythians, and their posterity
our kinsmen the Tartars, lived upon the blood, and milk, and raw flesh
of their cattle, without one grain of corn; but I confess myself so
degenerate, that I am not easy without bread to my victuals.
What amazed me for a week or two, was to see, in this prodigious plenty
of cattle, and dearth of human creatures, and want of bread, as well as
money to buy it, that all kind of flesh-meat should be monstrously dear,
beyond what was ever known in this kingdom. I thought it a defect in the
laws, that there was not some regulation in the price of flesh, as well
as bread: but I imagine myself to have guessed out the reason: In short,
I am apt to think that the whole kingdom is overstocked with cattle,
both black and white; and as it is observed, that the poor Irish have a
vanity to be rather owners of two lean cows, than one fat, although
with double the charge of grazing, and but half the quantity of milk; so
I conceive it much more difficult at present to find a fat bullock or
wether, than it would be if half of both were fairly knocked on the
head: for I am assured that the district in the several markets called
Carrion Row is as reasonable as the poor can desire; only the
circumstance of money to purchase it, and of trade, or labour, to
purchase that money, are indeed wholly wanting.
Now, sir, to return more particularly to you and your memorial.
A hundred thousand barrels of wheat, you say, should be imported hither;
and ten thousand pounds premium to the importers. Have you looked into
the purse of the nation? I am no commissioner of the treasury; but am
well assured that the whole running cash would not supply you with a sum
to purchase so much corn, which, only at twenty shillings a barrel, will
be a hundred thousand pounds; and ten thousand more for the premiums.
But you will traffic for your corn with other goods: and where are those
goods? if you had them, they are all engaged to pay the rents of
absentees, and other occasions in London, besides a huge balance of
trade this year against us. Will foreigners take our bankers' papers? I
suppose they will value it at little more than so much a quire. Where
are these rich farmers and engrossers of corn, in so bad a year, and so
little sowing?
You are in pain of two shillings premium, and forget the twenty
shillings for the price; find me out the latter, and I will engage for
the former.
Your scheme for a tax for raising such a sum is all visionary, and owing
to a great want of knowledge in the _miserable state_ of this nation.
Tea, coffee, sugar, spices, wine, and foreign clothes, are the
particulars you mention upon which this tax should be raised. I will
allow the two first; because they are unwholesome; and the last, because
I should be glad if they were all burned: but I beg you will leave us
our wine to make us a while forget our misery; or give your tenants
leave to plough for barley. But I will tell you a secret, which I
learned many years ago from the commissioners of the customs in London:
they said, when any commodity appeared to be taxed above a moderate
rate, the consequence was, to lessen that branch of the revenue by one
half; and one of those gentlemen pleasantly told me, that the mistake of
parliaments, on such occasions, was owing to an error of computing two
and two to make four; whereas, in the business of laying impositions,
two and two never made more than one; which happens by lessening the
import, and the strong temptation of running such goods as paid high
duties. At least in this kingdom, although the women are as vain and
extravagant as their lovers or their husbands can deserve, and the men
are fond enough of wine; yet the number of both who can afford such
expenses is so small, that the major part must refuse gratifying
themselves, and the duties will rather be lessened than increased. But,
allowing no force in this argument; yet so preternatural a sum as one
hundred and ten thousand pounds, raised all on a sudden, (for there is
no dallying with hunger,) is just in proportion with raising a million
and a half in England; which, as things now stand, would probably bring
that opulent kingdom under some difficulties.
You are concerned how strange and surprising it would be in foreign
parts to hear that the poor were starving in a RICH country,
&c. Are you in earnest? Is Ireland the rich country you mean? Or are you
insulting our poverty? Were you ever out of Ireland? Or were you ever in
it till of late? You may probably have a good employment, and are saving
all you can to purchase a good estate in England. But by talking so
familiarly of one hundred and ten thousand pounds, by a tax upon a few
commodities, it is plain you are either naturally or affectedly ignorant
of our present condition: or else you would know and allow, that such a
sum is not to be raised here, without a general excise; since, in
proportion to our wealth, we pay already in taxes more than England ever
did in the height of the war. And when you have brought over your corn,
who will be the buyers? Most certainly not the poor, who will not be
able to purchase the twentieth part of it.
Sir, upon the whole, your paper is a very crude piece, liable to more
objections than there are lines; but I think your meaning is good, and
so far you are pardonable.
If you will propose a general contribution in supporting the poor in
potatoes and butter-milk, till the new corn comes in, perhaps you may
succeed better, because the thing at least is possible; and I think if
our brethren in England would contribute upon this emergency, out of the
million they gain from us every year, they would do a piece of justice
as well as charity. In the mean time, go and preach to your own tenants,
to fall to the plough as fast as they can; and prevail with your
neighbouring squires to do the same with theirs; or else die with the
guilt of having driven away half the inhabitants, and starving the rest.
For as to your scheme of raising one hundred and ten thousand pounds, it
is as vain as that of Rabelais; which was, to squeeze out wind from the
posteriors of a dead ass.
But why all this concern for the poor? We want them not, as the country
is now managed; they may follow thousands of their leaders, and seek
their bread abroad. Where the plough has no work, one family can do the
business of fifty, and you may send away the other forty-nine. An
admirable piece of husbandry, never known or practised by the wisest
nations, who erroneously thought people to be the riches of a country!
If so wretched a state of things would allow it, methinks I could have a
malicious pleasure, after all the warning I have in vain given the
public, at my own peril, for several years past, to see the consequences
and events answering in every particular. I pretend to no sagacity: what
I writ was little more than what I had discoursed to several persons,
who were generally of my opinion; and it was obvious to every common
understanding, that such effects must needs follow from such causes;--a
fair issue of things begun upon party rage, while some sacrificed the
public to fury, and others to ambition: while a spirit of faction and
oppression reigned in every part of the country, where gentlemen,
instead of consulting the ease of their tenants, or cultivating their
lands, were worrying one another upon points of Whig and Tory, of High
Church and Low Church; which no more concerned them than the long and
famous controversy of strops for razors: while agriculture was wholly
discouraged, and consequently half the farmers and labourers, and poorer
tradesmen, forced to beggary or banishment. "Wisdom crieth in the
streets: Because I have called on ye; I have stretched out my hand, and
no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsels, and would
none of my reproof; I also will laugh at your calamity, and mock when
your fear cometh."
I have now done with your Memorial, and freely excuse your mistakes,
since you appear to write as a stranger, and as of a country which is
left at liberty to enjoy the benefits of nature, and to make the best of
those advantages which God hath given it, in soil, climate, and
situation.
But having lately sent out a paper, entitled, _A Short View of the State
of Ireland_; and hearing of an objection, that some people think I have
treated the memory of the late Lord Chief Justice Whitshed with an
appearance of severity; since I may not probably have another
opportunity of explaining myself in that particular, I choose to do it
here. Laying it, therefore, down for a postulatum, which I suppose will
be universally granted, that no little creature of so mean a birth and
genius, had ever the honour to be a greater enemy to his country, and to
all kinds of virtue, than HE, I answer thus; Whether there be two
different goddesses called Fame, as some authors contend, or only one
goddess sounding two different trumpets, it is certain that people
distinguished for their villainy have as good a title for a blast from
the proper trumpet, as those who are most renowned for their virtues
have from the other; and have equal reason to complain if it be refused
them. And accordingly the names of the most celebrated profligates have
been faithfully transmitted down to posterity. And although the person
here understood acted his part in an obscure corner of the world, yet
his talents might have shone with lustre enough in the noblest scene.
As to my naming a person dead, the plain honest reason is the best. He
was armed with power, guilt, and will to do mischief, even where he was
not provoked, as appeared by his prosecuting two printers,[85] one to
death, and both to ruin, who had neither offended God nor the King, nor
him nor the public.
What an encouragement to vice is this! If an ill man be alive, and in
power, we dare not attack him; and if he be weary of the world, or of
his own villainies, he has nothing to do but die, and then his
reputation is safe. For these excellent casuists know just Latin enough
to have heard a most foolish precept, that _de mortuis nil nisi bonum_;
so that if Socrates, and Anytus his accuser, had happened to die
together, the charity of survivors must either have obliged them to hold
their peace, or to fix the same character on both. The only crime of
charging the dead is, when the least doubt remains whether the
accusation be true; but when men are openly abandoned, and lost to all
shame, they have no reason to think it hard if their memory be
reproached. Whoever reports, or otherwise publisheth, any thing which it
is possible may be false, that man is a slanderer; _hic niger est, hunc
tu, Romane, caveto_. Even the least misrepresentation, or aggravation of
facts, deserves the same censure, in some degree, but in this case, I am
quite deceived if my error hath not been on the side of extenuation.
I have now present before me the idea of some persons (I know not in
what part of the world) who spend every moment of their lives, and every
turn of their thoughts, while they are awake, (and probably of their
dreams while they sleep,) in the most detestable actions and designs;
who delight in mischief, scandal, and obloquy, with the hatred and
contempt of all mankind against them, but chiefly of those among their
own party and their own family; such whose odious qualities rival each
other for perfection: avarice, brutality, faction, pride, malice,
treachery, noise, impudence, dullness, ignorance, vanity, and revenge,
contending every moment for superiority in their breasts. Such creatures
are not to be reformed, neither is it prudence or safety to attempt a
reformation. Yet, although their memories will rot, there may be some
benefit for their survivors to smell it while it is rotting.
I am, Sir,
Your humble servant,
A. B.
Dublin,
March 25th, 1728.
ANSWER
TO SEVERAL LETTERS FROM UNKNOWN
PERSONS.[86]
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1729.
ANSWER TO SEVERAL LETTERS FROM UNKNOWN PERSONS.[87]
GENTLEMEN,
I am inclined to think that I received a letter from you two, last
summer, directed to Dublin, while I was in the country, whither it was
sent me; and I ordered an answer to it to be printed, but it seems it
had little effect, and I suppose this will have not much more. But the
heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing,
and their eyes they have closed. And, gentlemen, I am to tell you
another thing: That the world is so regardless of what we write for the
public good, that after we have delivered our thoughts, without any
prospect of advantage, or of reputation, which latter is not to be had
but by subscribing our names, we cannot prevail upon a printer to be at
the charge of sending it into the world, unless we will be at all or
half the expense; and although we are willing enough to bestow our
labours, we think it unreasonable to be out of pocket; because it
probably may not consist with the situation of our affairs.
I do very much approve your good intentions, and in a great measure your
manner of declaring them; and I do imagine you intended that the world
should not only know your sentiments, but my answer, which I shall
impartially give.
That great prelate, to whose care you directed your letter, sent it to
me this morning;[88] and I begin my answer to-night, not knowing what
interruption I may meet with.
I have ordered your letter to be printed, as it ought to be, along with
my answer; because I conceive it will be more acceptable and informing
to the kingdom.
I shall therefore now go on to answer your letter in all manner of
sincerity.
Although your letter be directed to me, yet I take myself to be only an
imaginary person; for, although I conjecture I had formerly one from
you, yet I never answered it otherwise than in print; neither was I at a
loss to know the reasons why so many people of this kingdom were
transporting themselves to America. And if this encouragement were owing
to a pamphlet written, giving an account of the country of Pennsylvania,
to tempt people to go thither, I do declare that those who were tempted,
by such a narrative, to such a journey, were fools, and the author a
most impudent knave; at least, if it be the same pamphlet I saw when it
first came out, which is above 25 years ago, dedicated to Will Penn
(whom by a mistake you call "Sir William Penn,") and styling him, by
authority of the Scripture, "Most Noble Governor." For I was very well
acquainted with Penn, and did, some years after, talk with him upon that
pamphlet, and the impudence of the author, who spoke so many things in
praise of the soil and climate, which Penn himself did absolutely
contradict. For he did assure me that his country wanted the shelter of
mountains, which left it open to the northern winds from Hudson's Bay
and the Frozen Sea, which destroyed all plantations of trees, and was
even pernicious to all common vegetables. But, indeed, New York,
Virginia, and other parts less northward, or more defended by mountains,
are described as excellent countries: but, upon what conditions of
advantage foreigners go thither, I am yet to seek.[89]
What evils do our people avoid by running from hence, is easier to be
determined. They conceive themselves to live under the tyranny of most
cruel exacting landlords, who have no view further than increasing their
rent-rolls. Secondly, you complain of the want of trade, whereof you
seem not to know the reason. Thirdly, you lament most justly the money
spent by absentees in England. Fourthly, you complain that your linen
manufacture declines. Fifthly, that your tithe-collectors oppress you.
Sixthly, that your children have no hopes of preferment in the church,
the revenue, or the army; to which you might have added the law, and all
civil employments whatsoever. Seventhly, you are undone for silver, and
want all other money.
I could easily add some other motives, which, to men of spirit, who
desire and expect, and think they deserve the common privileges of human
nature, would be of more force, than any you have yet named, to drive
them out of this kingdom. But, as these speculations may probably not
much affect the brains of your people, I shall choose to let them pass
unmentioned. Yet I cannot but observe, that my very good and virtuous
friend, his excellency Burnet, (_O fili, nec tali indigne parente!_)[90]
hath not hitherto been able to persuade his vassals, by his oratory in
the style of a command, to settle a revenue on his viceroyal person.[91]
I have been likewise assured, that in one of those colonies on the
continent, which nature hath so far favoured, as (by the industry of the
inhabitants) to produce a great quantity of excellent rice, the
stubbornness of the people, who having been told that the world is wide,
took it into their heads that they might sell their own rice at whatever
foreign markets they pleased, and seem, by their practice, very
unwilling to quit that opinion.
But, to return to my subject: I must confess to you both, that if one
reason of your people's deserting us be, the despair of things growing
better in their own country, I have not one syllable to answer; because
that would be to hope for what is impossible; and so I have been telling
the public these ten years. For there are three events which must
precede any such blessing: First, a liberty of trade; secondly, a share
of preferments in all kinds, to the British natives; and thirdly, a
return of those absentees, who take almost one half of the kingdom's
revenues. As to the first, there is nothing left us but despair; and for
the third, it will never happen till the kingdom hath no money to send
them; for which, in my own particular, I should not be sorry.
The exaction of landlords hath indeed been a grievance of above twenty
years' standing. But as to what you object about the severe clauses
relating to improvement, the fault lies wholly on the other side: for
the landlords, either by their ignorance, or greediness of making large
rent-rolls, have performed this matter so ill, as we see by experience,
that there is not one tenant in five hundred who hath made any
improvement worth mentioning. For which I appeal to any man who rides
through the kingdom, where little is to be found among the tenants but
beggary and desolation; the cabins of the Scotch themselves, in Ulster,
being as dirty and miserable as those of the wildest Irish. Whereas good
firm penal clauses for improvement, with a tolerable easy rent, and a
reasonable period of time, would, in twenty years, have increased the
rents of Ireland at least a third part in the intrinsic value.
I am glad to hear you speak with some decency of the clergy, and to
impute the exactions you lament to the managers or farmers of the
tithes. But you entirely mistake the fact; for I defy the most wicked
and most powerful clergymen in the kingdom to oppress the meanest farmer
in the parish; and I likewise defy the same clergyman to prevent himself
from being cheated by the same farmer, whenever that farmer shall be
disposed to be knavish or peevish. For, although the Ulster
tithing-teller is more advantageous to the clergy than any other in the
kingdom, yet the minister can demand no more than his tenth; and where
the corn much exceeds the small tithes, as, except in some districts, I
am told it always doth, he is at the mercy of every stubborn farmer,
especially of those whose sect as well as interest incline them to
opposition. However, I take it that your people bent for America do not
shew the best part of their prudence in making this one part of their
complaint: yet they are so far wise, as not to make the payment of
tithes a scruple of conscience, which is too gross for any Protestant
dissenter, except a Quaker, to pretend. But do your people indeed think,
that if tithes were abolished, or delivered into the hands of the
landlord, after the blessed manner in the Scotch spiritual economy, that
the tenant would sit easier in his rent under the same person, who must
be lord of the soil and of the tithe together?
I am ready enough to grant, that the oppression of landlords, the utter
ruin of trade, with its necessary consequence the want of money, half
the revenues of the kingdom spent abroad, the continued dearth of three
years, and the strong delusion in your people by false allurement from
America, may be the chief motives of their eagerness after such an
expedition. [But there is likewise another temptation, which is not of
inconsiderable weight; which is their itch of living in a country where
their sect is predominant, and where their eyes and consciences would
not be offended by the stumbling-block of ceremonies, habits, and
spiritual titles.[92]]
But I was surprised to find that those calamities, whereof we are
innocent, have been sufficient to drive many families out of their
country, who had no reason to complain of oppressive landlords. For,
while I was last year in the northern parts, a person of quality, whose
estate was let above 20 years ago, and then at a very reasonable rent,
some for leases of lives, and some perpetuities, did, in a few months,
purchase eleven of those leases at a very inconsiderable price, although
they were, two years ago, reckoned to pay but half value. From whence it
is manifest, that our present miserable condition, and the dismal
prospect of worse, with other reasons above assigned, are sufficient to
put men upon trying this desperate experiment, of changing the scene
they are in, although landlords should, by a miracle, become less
inhuman.