The Querist | Page 7

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?
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