his majesty's licence, pursuant to law, to export from hence some thousand bodies of healthy, young, living men, to supply his Irish regiments. The king of Spain, as you assert yourself, has desired the same civility, and seems to have at least as good a claim. Supposing then that these two potentates will only desire leave to carry off 6000 men between them to France and Spain; then by computing the maintenance of a tall hungry Irishman in food and clothes to be only at 57. a-head, here will be 30,000l. per annum saved clear to the nation; for they can find no other employment at home, besides begging, robbing, or stealing. But if 30,000, 40,000, or 50,000 (which we would gladly spare) were sent on the same errand, what an immense benefit it must be to us! and if the two princes, in whose service they were, should happen to be at war with each other, how soon would those recruits be destroyed! then what a number of friends would the pretender lose, and what a number of popish enemies all true protestants get rid of! Add to this that then, by such a practice, the lands of Ireland that want hands for tillage must be employed in grazing, which would sink the price of wool, raw hides, butter, and tallow, so that the English might have them at their own rates; and in return send us wheat to make our bread, barley to brew our drink, and oats for our horses, without any labor of our own.

Upon this occasion, I desire humbly to offer a scheme, which, in my opinion, would best answer the true interests of both kingdoms: for although I bear a most tender filial affection for England, my dear native country, yet I cannot deny but this noble island has a great share in my love and esteem; nor can I express how much I desire to see it flourish in trade and opulence, even beyond its present happy condition.

The profitable land of this kingdom is, I think, usually computed at 17,000,000 of acres, all of which I propose to be wholly turned to grazing. Now, it is found by experience that one grazier and his family can manage 2000 acres. Thus 16,800,000 acres may be managed by 8400 families; and the fraction of 200,000 acres will be more than sufficient for cabins, out-houses, and potato-gardens; because it is to be understood that corn of all sorts must be sent to us from England.

These 8400 families may be divided among the four provinces, according to the number of houses in each province; and making the equal allowance of eight to a family, the number of inhabitants will amount to 67,200 souls. To these we are to add a standing

army of 20,000 English; which, together with their trulls, their bastards, and their horse-boys, will by a gross computation, very near double the count, and be very sufficient for the defence and grazing of the kingdom, as well as to enrich our neighbors, expel popery, and keep out the pretender. And, lest the army should be at a loss for business, I think it would be very prudent to employ them in collecting the public taxes for paying themselves and the civil list.

I advise that all our owners of these lands should live constantly in England, in order to learn politeness, and qualify themselves for employments; but, for fear of increasing the natives in this island, that an annual draught, according to the number born every year, be exported to whatever place will bear the carriage, or transplanted to the English dominions on the American continent, as a screen between his majesty's English subjects and the savage Indians.

I advise likewise, that no commodity whatsoever of this nation's growth should be sent to any other country except England, under the penalty of high treason; and that all the said commodities shall be sent in their natural state; and the hides raw, the wool uncombed, the flax in the stub; excepting only fish, butter, tallow, and whatever else will be spoiled in the carriage. On the contrary, that no goods whatsoever shall be imported hither except from England, under the same penalty: that England should be forced, at their own rates, to send us over clothes ready made, as well as shirts and smocks to the soldiers and their trulls; all iron, wooden, and earth enware, and whatever furniture may be necessary for the cabins of graziers; with a sufficient quantity of gin and other spirits for those who can afford to get drunk on holidays.

As to the civil and ecclesiastical administration, which I have no'; yet fully considered, I can say little only with regard to the latter, it is plain that the article of paying tithe for supporting speculative opinions in religion, which is so insupportable a burden to all true protestants and to most churchmen, will be very much lessened by this expedient; because dry cattle pay nothing to the spiritual hireling, any more than imported corn; so that the industrious shepherd and cowherd may sit every man under his own blackberrybush and on his own potato-bed, whereby this happy island will become a new Arcadia.

I do likewise propose, that no money shall be used in Ireland except what is made of leather, which likewise shall be coined in England and imported; and that the taxes shall be levied out of the commodities we export for England, and there turned into money

for his majesty's use; and the rents to landlords discharged in the same manner. This will be no manner of grievance, for we already see it very practicable to live without money and shall be more convinced of it every day. But whether paper shall continue to supply that defect, or whether we shall hang up all those who profess the trade of bankers (which latter I am rather inclined to), must be left to the consideration of wiser politicians.

That which makes me more zealously bent upon this scheme is my desire of living in amity with our neighboring brethren; for we have already tried all other means without effect to that blessed end; and by the course of measures taken for some years past it should seem that we are all agreed in the point.

This expedient will be of great advantage to both kingdoms, upon several accounts: for as to England, they have a just claim to the balance of trade on their side with the whole world: and therefore our ancestors and we who conquered this kingdom for them ought, in duty and gratitude, to let them have the whole benefit of that conquest to themselves; especially when the conquest was amicably made without bloodshed, by stipulation between the Irish princes and Henry II.; by which they paid him, indeed, not equal homage with what the electors of Germany do to the emperor, but very near the same that he did to the king of France for his French dominions.

In consequence of this claim from England, that kingdom may very reasonably demand the benefit of all our commodities in their natural growth, to be manufactured by their people, and a sufficient quantity of them for our use to be returned hither fully manufactured.

This, on the other side, will be of great benefit to our inhabitants the graziers; whose time and labor will be too much taken up in manuring their ground, feeding their cattle, shearing their sheep, and sending over their oxen fit for slaughter; to which employments they are turned by nature, as descended from the Scythians, whose diet they are still so fond of. So Virgil describes it:

Et lac concretum cum sanguine bibit equino;1

Which, in English, is bonnyclabber [buttermilk] mingled with the blood of horses, as they formerly did until about the beginning of the last century; when luxury under the form of politeness began to creep in, they changed the blood of horses for that of their black cattle, and by consequence became less warlike than their ancestors.

"For drink and food,

They mix their curdled milk with horses' blood.. DRYDEN.

Although I proposed that the army should be collectors of the public revenues, yet I did not thereby intend that those taxes should be paid in gold or silver; but in kind, as all other rent: for the custom of tenants making their payments in money is a new thing in the world, little known in former ages, nor generally practised in any nation at present, except this island and the southern parts of Britain. But to my great satisfaction, I foresee better times; the ancient manner begins to be now practised in many parts of Connaught, as well as in the county of Cork, where the squires turn tenants to themselves, divide so many cattle to their slaves, who are to provide such a quantity of butter, hides, or tallow, still keeping up their number of cattle; and carry the goods to Cork, or other port towns, and then sell them to merchants. By which invention there is no such thing as a ruined farmer to be seen; but the people live with comfort on potatoes and bonnyclabber, neither of which are vendible commodities abroad.

A PROPOSAL

FOR AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT TO PAY OFF THE DEBT OF THE NATION WITHOUT TAXING THE SUBJECT:

By which the number of landed gentry and substantial farmers will be consider ably increased, and no person will be the poorer, or contribute one farthing to the charge. 1732.

THE debts contracted some years past for the service and safety of the nation are grown so great, that under our present distressed condition by the want of trade, the great remittances to pay absentees, regiments serving abroad, and many other drains of money well enough known and felt, the kingdom seems altogether unable to discharge them by the common methods of payment; and either a poll or land-tax would be too odious to think of, especially the latter; because the lands which have been left for these ten or dozen years past were raised so high, that the owner can at present hardly receive any rent at all. For it is the usual practice of an Irish tenant, rather than want land, to knows he can be ever able to pay perate, and pays nothing at all. estate would be a burden wholly insupportable.

offer more for a farm than he

and in that case he grows desSo that a land-tax upon a racked

The question would then be, how these national debts can be paid, and how I can make good the several particulars of my proposal; which I shall now lay open to the public.

The revenues of their graces and lordships the archbishops and bishops of this kingdom (excluding the fines) do amount by a moderate computation to £36,800 per annum : I mean the rents which the bishops receive from their tenants. But the real value of those lands is, at a full rent, taking the several sees one with another, reckoned to be at least three-fourths more: so that multiplying £36,800 by 4, the full rent of all the bishops' lands will amount to £147,200 per annum; from which subtracting the present rent received by their lordships, that is £36,800, the profits of the lands received by the first and second tenants (who both have great bar-. gains) will rise to the sum of £110,400 per annum; which lands, if they were to be sold at 22 years' purchase, would raise a sum of £2,428,800, reserving to the bishops their present rents, only excluding fines.

Of this sum I propose that out of the one-half, which amounts to £1,214,400, so much be applied as will entirely discharge the debts of the nation; and the remainder be laid up in the treasury, to supply contingencies as well as to discharge some of our heavy taxes, until the kingdom shall be in a better condition.

But, whereas the present set of bishops would be greater losers by this scheme for want of their fines, which would be a hard treatment to such religious, loyal, and deserving personages; I have therefore set apart the other half to supply that defect, which it will more than sufficiently do.

A bishop's lease for the full term is reckoned to be worth eleven years' purchase; but if we take the bishops round, I suppose there may be four years of each lease elapsed; and many of the bishops being well stricken in years, I cannot think their lives round to be worth more than seven years' purchase; so that the purchasers may very well afford 15 years' purchase for the reversion, especially by one great additional advantage which I shall soon mention.

This sum of £2,428,800 must likewise be sunk very considerably, because the lands are to be sold only at 15 years' purchase; and this lessens the sum to about £1,656,000, of which I propose £1,200,000 to be applied partly for the payment of the national debt and partly as a fund for future exigencies; and the remaining £456,000 I propose as a fund for paying the present set of bishops their fines; which it will abundantly do, and a great part remain as an addition to the public stock.