67. Whether our linen-manufacture would not find the benefit of this institution? And whether there be anything that makes us fall short of the Dutch in damasks, diapers, and printed linen, but our ignorance in design?

68. Whether those who may slight this affair as notional have sufficiently considered the extensive use of the art of design, and its influence in most trades and manufactures, wherein the forms of things are often more regarded than the materials ?1

69. Whether there be any art sooner learned than that of making carpets? And whether our women, with little time and pains, may not make more beautiful carpets than those imported from Turkey? And whether this branch of the woollen manufacture be not open to us?

70. Whether human industry can produce, from such cheap materials, a manufacture of so great value, by any other art, as by those of sculpture and painting?

71. Whether pictures and statues are not in fact so much treasure? And whether Rome and Florence would not be poor towns without them?

72. Whether they do not bring ready money as well as jewels? Whether in Italy debts are not paid, and children portioned with them, as with gold and silver?

73. Whether it would not be more prudent, to strike out and exert ourselves in permitted branches of trade, than to fold our hands, and repine that we are not allowed the woollen?

74. Whether it be true that two millions are yearly expended by England in foreign lace and linen?

75. Whether immense sums are not drawn yearly into the Northern countries, for supplying the British navy with manufactures?

76. Whether there be anything more profitable than hemp? And whether there should not be greater premiums for encouraging our hempen trade? What advantages may not Great Britain make of a country where land and labour are so cheap?

77. Whether Ireland alone might not raise hemp sufficient for the British navy? And whether it would not be vain to

1 Since the first publication of this Query, the Art of Design seems to be more considered and countenanced among us.

expect this from the British Colonies in America, where hands are so scarce, and labour so excessively dear?

78. Whether, if our own people want will or capacity for such an attempt, it might not be worth while for some undertaking spirits in England to make settlements, and raise hemp in the counties of Clare and Limerick, than which, perhaps, there is not fitter land in the world for that purpose? And whether both nations would not find their advantage therein ?

79. Whether if all the idle hands in this kingdom were employed on hemp and flax, we might not find sufficient vent for these manufactures?

80. How far it may be in our own power to better our affairs, without interfering with our neighbours?

81. Whether the prohibition of our woollen trade ought not naturally to put us on other methods which give no jealousy?

82. Whether paper be not a valuable article of commerce? And whether it be not true that one single bookseller in London yearly expended above four thousand pounds in that foreign commodity?

83. How it comes to pass that the Venetians and Genoese, who wear so much less linen, and so much worse than we do, should yet make very good paper, and in great quantity, while we make very little?

84. How long it will be before my countrymen find out that it is worth while to spend a penny in order to get a groat?

85. If all the land were tilled that is fit for tillage, and all that sowed with hemp and flax that is fit for raising them, whether we should have much sheep-walk beyond what was sufficient to supply the necessities of the kingdom?

86. Whether other countries have not flourished without the woollen-trade?

87. Whether it be not a sure sign, or effect of a country's thriving, to see it well cultivated and full of inhabitants? And, if so, whether a great quantity of sheep-walk be not ruinous to a country, rendering it waste and thinly inhabited?

88. Whether the employing so much of our land under sheep be not in fact an Irish blunder?

89. Whether our hankering after our woollen-trade be not the true and only reason which hath created a jealousy in England towards Ireland? And whether anything can hurt us more than such jealousy?

90. Whether it be not the true interest of both nations to become one people? And whether either be sufficiently apprised of this?

91. Whether the upper part of this people are not truly English, by blood, language, religion, manners, inclination, and interest?

92. Whether we are not as much Englishmen as the children of old Romans, born in Britain, were still Romans?

93. Whether it be not our true interest, not to interfere with them; and, in every other case, whether it be not their true interest to befriend us?

94. Whether a mint in Ireland might not be of great convenience to the kingdom; and whether it could be attended with any possible inconvenience to Great Britain? And whether there were not mints in Naples and in Sicily, when those kingdoms were provinces to Spain, or the house of Austria ?

95. Whether anything can be more ridiculous than for the north of Ireland to be jealous of a linen manufacturer in the south?

96. Whether the county of Tipperary be not much better land than the county of Armagh; and yet whether the latter is not much better improved and inhabited than the former ?

97. Whether every landlord in the kingdom doth not know the cause of this? And yet how few are the better for such their knowledge?

98. Whether large farms under few hands, or small ones under many are likely to be made most of? And whether flax and tillage do not naturally multiply hands, and divide lands into small holdings, and well-improved?

99. Whether, as our exports are lessened, we ought not to lessen our imports? And whether these will not be lessened as our demands, and these as our wants, and these as our customs or fashions? Of how great consequence therefore are fashions to the public?

100. Whether it would not be more reasonable to mend

our state than complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?

IOI. What the nation gains by those who live in Ireland upon the produce of foreign countries?

102. How far the vanity of our ladies in dressing, and of our gentlemen in drinking, contribute to the general misery of the people?

103. Whether nations, as wise and opulent as ours, have not made sumptuary laws; and what hinders us from doing the same?

104. Whether those who drink foreign liquors, and deck themselves and their families with foreign ornaments, are not so far forth to be reckoned absentees?

105. Whether, as our trade is limited, we ought not to limit our expenses; and whether this be not the natural and obvious remedy?

106. Whether the dirt, and famine, and nakedness of the bulk of our people might not be remedied, even although we had no foreign trade? And whether this should not be our first care; and whether, if this were once provided for, the conveniences of the rich would not soon follow?

107. Whether comfortable living doth not produce wants, and wants industry, and industry wealth?

108. Whether there is not a great difference between Holland and Ireland? And whether foreign commerce, without which the one could not subsist, be so necessary for the other?

109. Might we not put a hand to the plough, or the spade, although we had no foreign commerce?

110. Whether the exigencies of nature are not to be answered by industry on our own soil? And how far the conveniences and comforts of life may be procured, by a domestic commerce between the several parts of this kingdom?

III. Whether the women may not sew, spin, weave, embroider, sufficiently for the embellishment of their persons, and even enough to raise envy in each other, without being beholden to foreign countries?

112. Suppose the bulk of our inhabitants had shoes to their feet, clothes to their backs, and beef in their bellies, might not such a state be eligible for the public, even though the squires were condemned to drink ale and cider?

113. Whether, if drunkenness be a necessary evil, men may not as well get drunk with the growth of their own country?

114. Whether a nation within itself might not have real wealth, sufficient to give its inhabitants power and distinction, without the help of gold and silver?

115. Whether, if the arts of sculpture and painting were encouraged among us, we might not furnish our houses in a much nobler manner with our own manufactures?

116. Whether we have not, or may not have, all the necessary materials for building at home?

117. Whether tiles and plaster may not supply the place of Norway fir for flooring and wainscot?

118. Whether plaster be not warmer, as well as more secure, than deal? And whether a modern fashionable house, lined with fir, daubed over with oil and paint, be not like a fire-ship, ready to be lighted up by all accidents?

119. Whether larger houses, better built and furnished, a greater train of servants, the difference with regard to equipage and table between finer and coarser, more and less elegant, may not be sufficient to feed a reasonable share of vanity, or support all proper distinctions? And whether all these may not be procured by domestic industry out of the four elements, without ransacking the four quarters of the globe?

120. Whether anything is a nobler ornament, in the eye of the world, than an Italian palace, that is, stone and mortar skilfully put together, and adorned with sculpture and painting; and whether this may not be compassed without foreign trade?

121. Whether an expense in gardens and plantations would not be an elegant distinction for the rich, a domestic magnificence, employing many hands within, and drawing nothing from abroad?

122. Whether the apology which is made for foreign luxury in England, to wit, that they could not carry on their trade without imports as well as exports, will hold in Ireland?

123. Whether one may not be allowed to conceive and suppose a society, or nation of human creatures, clad in woollen cloths and stuffs, eating good bread, beef, and mutton, poultry, and fish, in great plenty, drinking ale, mead, and cider, inhabiting decent houses built of brick and marble,