I think there can be no better encouragement to draw English thither, then to let them know, that the Kings Revenue being above 1⁄10 part of the whole Wealth, Rent, and Proceed of the Nation; that the Publick Charge || in the next Age will be no more felt there then that of Tythes is here; and that as the Kings Revenue encreases, so the causes of his Expence will decrease proportionably, which is a double advantage.
6. The employing the Beggars in England about mending the High-wayes, and making Rivers Navigable will make the Wool and Cattle of Ireland vend the better.
7. The full understanding of the nature of Money, the effects of the various species of Coins, and of their uncertain values, as also of raising or embasing them, is a learning most proper for Ireland, which hath been lately much and often abused for the want of it[1].
8. Since Lands are worth but six or seven years purchase, and yet twenty years just cross the Channel, 'twere good the people of Ireland knew the reasons of it at a time when there is means of help.
Lastly, if any man hath any Notions which probably may be good for Ireland, he may with most advantage expose them to publick examination now, when the Duke of Ormond[2] is Chief Governour: for,
- ↑ During the Commonwealth the issue of private token money had been much abused in Ireland, and shortly before Petty went thither certain Londoners had been executed for introducing counterfeit and clipped English money and base Peru pieces into the island. Simon, Essay on the Irish Coins, 48—49. Nevertheless the abuse continued, Ib., 49—52, 118—122. The 29th January, 1660—1, a proclamation (Ib., 123—124) was issued fixing rates for gold and silver coin, and the 17th August, 1661, a proclamation was issued against tokens. Ruding, Annals of the Coinage, ii. 4. Cf. Fleetwood to Thurloe, 16 Feb., 1653, State Papers, ii, 94.
- ↑ It is as unnecessary as it is impossible to give an adequate notice of Ormond in a foot-note. James Butler, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormond, thrice Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (born 1610), had been a loyal supporter of the royal cause, and his devotion as well as his ability had received appropriate recognition at the Restoration. In November, 1661, he was for the second time appointed Lord
was a favourite notion of Petty's from 1655, when, in collaboration with Vincent Gookin, he is said to have opposed the segregation of the Irish by transplantation into Connaught, to the year of his death. Fitzmaurice, 31, 32, also Petty's Treatise of Ireland.
