A. You go a little too fast. I believe that 14 in 12 Years might have very well increas'd to 15. But pray tell me, Why there were 14 Aº 1641, when there are but 13 now.
B. (1) I have heard many ancient observing People say so.2. I find that the Tyths yielded more in Aº 1641, than in these latter Years; And that the Number of Grist-Mills were also more Aº 1641, than now.3. The Quantity of Hops, Tobacco, Sugars, and Salt, imported, were more than now. And the Quantity of Hydes, Tallow, Cattle Dead and Alive, and of Wools wrought and unwrought, were less; which shows that in Ireland the Consumption was great (the Natural Produce being the same at both Periods) & consequently more People.
A. I can find no great Fault with what you have said. But cou'd wish that this great Point might not be slubber'd; Murders and Massares (sic) are odious Crimes. And some say, to Blacken the Irish, that they caused the Death of above 150000 English and Scotch Protestants in the first Year of their Commotions. And others, to extenuate the Causes of Forfeiture, do shrink that Number to 400[1]. But you have started a most soft and candid Question, by Asking onely, without Rancor, How many of the King's Subjects were fewer in Ireland, when the Warr ended, Aº 1653, than they might have been, if there had been no Warr at all, That is to say, Whether they perished by Murders and Massacres committed by Private Hands, or by Hunger and Cold, or by being frighted out of the Kingdom; or Whether they were slain as Soldiers on both Sides; or Whether they perished by the Plague, which reigned very fiercely A 1650; Or by Famin[2] and Desolation, which was great about the End of the Warr; Or whether this Number were Lessen'd, by Hindring the Ordinary Course of Generation: For it is all one, by what Means they were Lessen'd, as to the Account we are now Stating, Of the Damages which accru'd from the Rebellion. Altho' it be not all one, as to the Sin of the particular Scelerates, which caused this Calamity.
