The heinous guilt of the Irish nation made men the more readily
overlook any iniquity which might fall on individuals; and it
was considered that, though it be always the interest of all good
governments to prevent injustice, it is not always possible to remedy
it, after it has had a long course, and has been attended with great
successes.
Ireland began to attain a state of some composure, when it was disturbed
by a violent act passed by the English parliament, which prohibited the
importation of Irish cattle into England.[*]
* In 1666.
Ormond remonstrated strongly against this law. He said, that the present
trade carried on between England and Ireland was extremely to the
advantage of the former kingdom, which received only provisions or rude
materials in return for every species of manufacture: that if the cattle
of Ireland were prohibited, the inhabitants of that island had no other
commodity by which they could pay England for their importations, and
must have recourse to other nations for a supply: that the industrious
inhabitants of England, if deprived of Irish provisions, which made
living cheap, would be obliged to augment the price of labor, and
thereby render their manufactures too dear to be exported to foreign
markets: that the indolent inhabitants of Ireland, finding provisions
fall almost to nothing, would never be induced to labor, but would
perpetuate to all generations their native sloth and barbarism: that
by cutting off almost entirely the trade between the kingdoms, all the
natural bands of union were dissolved, and nothing remained to keep the
Irish in their duty but force and violence: and that by reducing that
kingdom to extreme poverty, it would be even rendered incapable of
maintaining that military power, by which, during its well-grounded
discontents, it must necessarily be retained in subjection.
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