The Querist | Page 8

105. Qu. Whether, as our exports are lessened, we ought not to lessen
our imports? And whether these will not be lessened as our demands,
and these as our wants, and these as our customs or fashions? Of how
great consequence therefore are fashions to the public?
106. Qu. Whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state
than to complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?
107. Qu. What the nation gains by those who live in Ireland upon the
produce of foreign Countries?
108. Qu. How far the vanity of our ladies in dressing, and of our
gentlemen in drinking, contributes to the general misery of the people?

109. Qu. Whether nations, as wise and opulent as ours, have not made
sumptuary laws; and what hinders us from doing the same?
110. Qu. Whether those who drink foreign liquors, and deck
themselves and their families with foreign ornaments, are not so far
forth to be reckoned absentees?
111. Qu. Whether, as our trade is limited, we ought not to limit our
expenses; and whether this be not the natural and obvious remedy?
112. Qu. Whether the dirt, and famine, and nakedness of the bulk of our
people might not be remedied, even although we had no foreign trade?
And whether this should not be our first care; and whether, if this were
once provided for, the conveniences of the rich would not soon follow?
113. Qu. Whether comfortable living doth not produce wants, and
wants industry, and industry wealth?
114. Qu. Whether there is not a great difference between Holland and
Ireland? And whether foreign commerce, without which the one could
not subsist, be so necessary for the other?
115. Qu. Might we not put a hand to the plough, or the spade, although
we had no foreign commerce?
116. Qu. Whether the exigencies of nature are not to be answered by
industry on our own soil? And how far the conveniences and comforts
of life may be procured by a domestic commerce between the several
parts of this kingdom?
117. Qu. Whether the women may not sew, spin, weave, embroider
sufficiently for the embellishment of their persons, and even enough to
raise envy in each other, without being beholden to foreign countries?
118. Qu. Suppose the bulk of our inhabitants had shoes to their feet,
clothes to their backs, and beef in their bellies, might not such a state be
eligible for the public, even though the squires were condemned to
drink ale and cider?

119. Qu. Whether, if drunkenness be a necessary evil, men may not as
well drink the growth of their own country?
120. Qu. Whether a nation within itself might not have real wealth,
sufficient to give its inhabitants power and distinction, without the help
of gold and silver?
121. Qu. Whether, if the arts of sculpture and painting were encouraged
among us, we might not furnish our houses in a much nobler manner
with our own manufactures?
122. Qu. Whether we have not, or may not have, all the necessary
materials for building at home?
123. Qu. Whether tiles and plaster may not supply the place of Norway
fir for flooring and wainscot?
124. Qu. Whether plaster be not warmer, as well as more secure, than
deal? And whether a modern fashionable house, lined with fir, daubed
over with oil and paint, be not like a fire-ship, ready to be lighted up by
all accidents?
125. Qu. Whether larger houses, better built and furnished, a greater
train of servants, the difference with regard to equipage and table
between finer and coarser, more and less elegant, may not be sufficient
to feed a reasonable share of vanity, or support all proper distinctions?
And whether all these may not be procured by domestic industry out of
the four elements, without ransacking the four quarters of the globe?
126. Qu. Whether anything is a nobler ornament, in the eye of the
world, than an Italian palace, that is, stone and mortar skilfully put
together, and adorned with sculpture and painting; and whether this
may not be compassed without foreign trade?
127. Qu. Whether an expense in gardens and plantations would not be
an elegant distinction for the rich, a domestic magnificence employing
many hands within, and drawing nothing from abroad?

128. Qu. Whether the apology which is made for foreign luxury in
England, to wit, that they could not carry on their trade without imports
as well as exports, will hold in Ireland?
129. Qu. Whether one may not be allowed to conceive and suppose a
society or nation of human creatures, clad in woollen cloths and stuffs,
eating good bread, beef and mutton, poultry and fish, in great plenty,
drinking ale, mead, and cider, inhabiting decent houses built of