The Querist | Page 7

not be more prudent, to strike out and exert
ourselves in permitted branches of trade, than to fold our hands, and
repine that we are not allowed the woollen?
80. Qu. Whether it be true that two millions are yearly expended by
England in foreign lace and linen?
81. Qu. Whether immense sums are not drawn yearly into the Northern
countries, for supplying the British navy with hempen manufactures?
82. Qu. Whether there be anything more profitable than. hemp? And
whether there should not be great premiums for encouraging our
hempen trade? What advantages may not Great Britain make of a
country where land and labour are so cheap?
83. Qu. Whether Ireland alone might not raise hemp sufficient for the
British navy? And whether it would not be vain to expect this from the
British Colonies in America, where hands are so scarce, and labour so
excessively dear?
84. Qu. Whether, if our own people want will or capacity for such an
attempt, it might not be worth while for some undertaking spirits in
England to make settlements, and raise hemp in the counties of Clare
and Limerick, than which, perhaps, there is not fitter land in the world
for that purpose? And whether both nations would not find their
advantage therein?
85. Qu. Whether if all the idle hands in this kingdom were employed on
hemp and flax, we might not find sufficient vent for these
manufactures?
86. Qu. How far it may be in our own power to better our affairs,
without interfering with our neighbours?
87. Qu. Whether the prohibition of our woollen trade ought not
naturally to put us on other methods which give no jealousy?
88. Qu. Whether paper be not a valuable article of commerce? And

whether it be not true that one single bookseller in London yearly
expended above four thousand pounds in that foreign commodity?
89. Qu. How it comes to pass that the Venetians and Genoese, who
wear so much less linen, and so much worse than we do, should yet
make very good paper, and in great quantity, while we make very little?
90. Qu. How long it will be before my countrymen find out that it is
worth while to spend a penny in order to get a groat?
91. Qu. If all the land were tilled that is fit for tillage, and all that
sowed with hemp and flax that is fit for raising them, whether we
should have much sheep-walk beyond what was sufficient to supply the
necessities of the kingdom?
92. Qu. Whether other countries have not flourished without the
woollen trade?
93. Qu. Whether it be not a sure sign or effect of a country's inhabitants?
And, thriving, to see it well cultivated and full of; if so, whether a great
quantity of sheep-walk be not ruinous to a country, rendering it waste
and thinly inhabited?
94. Qu. Whether the employing so much of our land under sheep be not
in fact an Irish blunder?
95. Qu. Whether our hankering after our woollen trade be not the true
and only reason which hath created a jealousy in England towards
Ireland? And whether anything can hurt us more than such jealousy?
96. Qu. Whether it be not the true interest of both nations to become
one people? And whether either be sufficiently apprised of this?
97. Qu. Whether the upper part of this people are not truly English, by
blood, language, religion, manners, inclination, and interest?
98. Qu. Whether we are not as much Englishmen as the children of old
Romans, born in Britain, were still Romans?

99. Qu. Whether it be not our true interest not to interfere with them;
and, in every other case, whether it be not their true interest to befriend
us?
100. Qu. Whether a mint in Ireland might not be of great convenience
to the kingdom; and whether it could be attended with any possible
inconvenience to Great Britain? And whether there were not mints in
Naples and Sicily, when those kingdoms were provinces to Spain or the
house of Austria?
101. Qu. Whether anything can be more ridiculous than for the north of
Ireland to be jealous of a linen manufacturer in the south?
102. Qu. Whether the county of Tipperary be not much better land than
the county of Armagh; and yet whether the latter is not much better
improved and inhabited than the former?
103. Qu. Whether every landlord in the kingdom doth not know the
cause of this? And yet how few are the better for such their knowledge?
104. Qu. Whether large farms under few hands, or small ones under
many, are likely to be made most of? And whether flax and tillage do
not naturally multiply hands, and divide land into small holdings, and
well-improved?