and the three French regiments of foot, incorporating some officers, who have served in Piedmont, of the four regiments which are on the Rhine, and which I am going to reform, and to take all the French Protestant soldiers, and put them into the three above-mentioned regiments. Be always assured of the continuance of my friendship.
“William R.”[1]
“P.S. — I think to reduce Wolseley’s regiment to three troops, and yours to six, to remove all jealousy in England.”
I now revert to the parliament which began in the end of July. From the “excellent speech” of the Lords-Justices I need extract one sentence only. “We think the present occasion so favourable for inviting and encouraging Protestant strangers to settle here, that we cannot omit to put you in mind of it, especially since that may contribute to the increase of the linen manufacture, which is the most beneficial trade that can be encouraged in Ireland.” One reason for this hint was, that the exportation of woollen manufactures from Ireland to England was viewed by the English with great alarm and indignation.
To show the difficulties attendant on the proposed establishment, I insert an extract of a letter to John Locke, from William Molyneux, Esq., dated from Dublin, 26th Sept. 1696:—
“About the year 1692 (I think), one Monsieur Du Pin came to Dublin from England, and here, by the King and Queen’s letter and patents thereon, he set up a royal corporation for carrying on the linen manufacture in Ireland. Into this corporation many of the nobility and gentry were admitted, more for their countenance and favour to the project than for any great help could be expected, either from their purses or heads, to carry on the work. Du Pin himself was nominated Under-governor, and a great bustle was made about the business: many meetings were held, and considerable sums advanced to forward the work, and the members promised themselves prodigious gains. And this expectation prevailed so far (by what artifices I cannot tell) as to raise the value of each share to £40 or £50, though but £5 was paid by each member at first for every share he had. At length artificers began to be set at work, and some parcels of cloth were made; when, on a sudden, there happened some controversy between the corporation here in Ireland, and such another corporation established in England by London undertakers, and in which Du Pin was also a chief member. Much time was spent in managing this dispute, and the work began in the meantime to flag, and the price of the shares to lower mightily. But some little time before this controversy, some private gentlemen and merchants, on their own stock, without the authority of an incorporating patent, set up a linen manufacture at Drogheda, which promised and thrived very well at first; and the corporation at Dublin perceiving this, began to quarrel with them also, and would never let them alone till they embodied with them. These quarrels and controversies (the particulars whereof I can give you no account of, for I was not engaged amongst them, and I can get no one that was who can give any tolerable account of them) grew so high, and Du Pin began to play such tricks, that all were discouraged, and withdrew as fast as they could; so that now all is blown up, and nothing of this kind is carried on, but by such as, out of their own private purses, set up looms and bleaching yards. We have many of these in many parts of Ireland; and, I believe, no country in the world is better adapted for it, especially the north. I have as good diaper made by some of my tenants nigh Armagh, as can come to a table, and all other cloths for household uses.
“As to the law for the encouraging the linen manufacture, ’tis this. In the 17th and 18th of Car. II. there was an Act of Parliament made, ‘obliging all landlords and tenants to sow such a certain proportion of their holdings with flax, under a great penalty on both, on failure; and empowering the Sheriffs to levy £20, in each of their respective counties, to be distributed at the quarter sessions, yearly, to the three persons who should bring in the three best webs of linen cloth of such a length and breadth, £10 to the first, £6 to the second, and £4 to the third.’ This, whilst it lasted, was a great encouragement to the country people, to strive to outdo each other, and it produced excellent cloth all over the kingdom; but then it was but temporary (only for twenty years from passing the Act), and is now expired. But that part of the act ‘ordaining landlords and tenants to sow flax’ is perpetual, and I can give no reason why ‘tis not executed. Only this I can say, that the transgression is so universal, and the forfeiture thereon to the king so severe, that, if it were inquired into, I believe all the estates in Ireland would be forfeited to His Majesty; so that now the multitude of sinners is their security. This statute you will find amongst the Irish Acts (17th and 18th Car. II., cap. 9).
“England most certainly will never let us thrive by the woollen trade; it is their darling mistress, and they are jealous of any rival. But I see not that we interfere with them in the least by the linen trade; so that that is yet left open to us to grow rich by, if it were well established and managed; but by what means this should be, truly I dare not venture to give my thoughts.”
In accordance with the Lords-Justices’ speech, the Parliament passed two resolu-
- ↑ The Letters from His Majesty to Lord Galway on the Government of Ireland are taken from Grimblot’s Letters of William III. and Louis XIV. and their Ministers, in two volumes.
