BOOKS.

THE COMMERCIAL RESTRAINTS OF IRELAND CONSIDERED.* Tins book is a reprint of a rare, but important, work that appeared at a very critical epoch in the history of Ireland. Mr. Carroll, who has ably performed a task that must have been dear to him as a patriotic Irishman, prefaces the volume with a lively account of the life of its author. "The Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson was," he tells us, "certainly one of the most remarkable men this country ever produced ; and he took, amidst an unequalled combination of brilliant rivals, a very prominent part in the most interesting and splendid period of Ireland's internal history." He was a singu- lar example of the success which sometimes attends a man who, wanting in principle, self-seeking, and ambitious, is possessed of real ability and undaunted personal courage. From a humble position, he rose to the Bar, was made King's Coun- sel, Member of the Irish Parliament, Prime Serjeant, and Privy Councillor, held some lucrative sinecures, was Major in a cavalry regiment, became Provost of Trinity College, and ob- tained the office of Principal Secretary of State. Although he did not hold all these positions, with their emoluments, at one and the same time, it is worthy of note that he never gave up any office without securing some considerable advantage ; and it is characteristic of the man that, when threatened with a court-martial for neglect of duty as Major, he promptly sold his commission for 23,000. It is as Provost of Trinity College that his name comes down to posterity, and this post, for which he was quite unfitted, owing to his want of academi- cal learning, he gained "by a dexterous intrigue with the Chief Secretary of the day." His offices, of one sort and another, brought him in about 26,000 a year, with a splendid town residence as Provost, in addition to his practice at the Bar and his private estate ; and Flood, who often opposed him, says, "he got more for ruining one kingdom than Admiral Hawke got for saving three." In days when almost all public men were place-hunters and jobbers, he stood conspicuous among them for the audacity of his demands, and the success of his bargains. After quoting many contemporary opinions for and against him, Mr. Carroll concludes that his worst faults were greed and place-traffic ; for although he could play the part of a rank courtier, he supported all the essential honest measures of the day ; and Grattan, who thought highly both of his genius and of his stedfastness to the well-being of Ireland, said that "he was the servant of many Governments, but he was an Irishman, notwithstanding." When he entered it in 1759, "the Irish Parliament was at about its lowest level of degradation ;" but before his death, in 1794, things had vastly improved, and this in consequence of the courage, intellect, and vigour of himself and his associated statesmen. With a private con- science of the feeblest, he held sound views on matters of patriotic and Catholic import, and was an earnest supporter of Grattan in his successful struggle for Irish Parliamentary independence, and he took a proud part in the triumph of 1782, when, as Principal Secretary of State, he read out the King's Message, which virtually conceded Free-trade, and independ- ence to the Parliament of Ireland.

This book was published anonymously, but its authorship was no secret. The Government was seriously alarmed by the indictment brought against them, and the common hangman burned the work so effectually that, writes Mr. Carroll, "Flood said he would give a thousand pounds for a copy, and that the libraries of all the :three branches of the Legislature could not produce a copy." On the other hand, the Irish patriots for- gave Hutchinson for his former truckling to the Court and Lord Townshend. The writer's object is to investigate the cause which has produced the miserable condition of Ireland, and taking up a position as neutral, or rather as a friend to both parties, he goes on to show with great power and conclusive- ness that it was brought about by England's interference with the commerce of the country. At this distance of time, when all restraints save for the purposes of Customs and Excise have long been removed from the commerce and manufactures of England and Ireland alike, it should be much more easy to review the question calmly than it was for the Provost, who

* The Commercial Restraints of Ireland, considered in a Series of Letters to a Noble Lord, containing an Historical Account of the Affairs of that King-lam. By John Hely Hutchinson. Dablin. 1779. Re-edited by W. G. Carroll, M.A. Dublin : GM and Son. 18. found himself an actual witness of terrible misery and distress,- which to us are matters of history only. Yet it is impossible

to read this chapter of Ireland's troubles without indignation,. and one is inclined to agree with Mr. Carroll, when he bitterly says, "England has been a constant source of woe to Ireland, - and suffering is the badge of all our tribe."

"The state of Ireland," says Hutchinson, writing in 1779, "teems with every condition of national poverty."

The value of all produce was greatly fallen, rents very low and difficult to collect, farms empty, and of the manufacturers, no less than 20,000 in Dublin alone re- duced to beggary in the two preceding years. It is to.- be noted that he tries to show that, during the early Stuart reigns and after the Restoration until 1688, "Ireland had made great advances ;" and that, to quote one of his authorities, "the, strings of the Irish harp were all in tune," but it is patent that affairs were in a very different condition. It was Hutchinson's object to emphasize the effects of England's interference, and as he was himself, to use Mr. Carroll's words, "an insatiable trafficker in places and salaries, and profits and pensions," he takes care to point out that although these causes, together- with the evils arising from absenteeism and the American rebellion, had hastened, they had not caused the decline in Ireland's prosperity. The Provost continues

If we are determined to investigate the truth, we must assign a. more radical cause ; when the human or political body is unsound or infirm, it is in vain to inquire what accidental circumstances appear to have occasioned those maladies which arise from the constitution itself. If in a period of fourscore years of profound interne/ peace, any country shall appear to have often experienced the, extremes of poverty and distress ; if at the times of her greatest supposed affluence and prosperity the slightest causes have been sufficient to obstruct her progress, to annihilate her credit, and to spread dejection and dismay among all ranks of her people, and if such a country is blessed with a temperate climate and fruitful soil, abounds with excellent harbours and great rivers, with the necessaries of life and materials of manufacture, and is inhabited by a race of men brave, active, and intelligent, some permanent cause of each disastrous effects must be sought for. If your vessel is frequently in danger of foundering in the midst of a calm, if by the smallest addition of sail she is near oversetting, let the gale be ever so steady, you would neither reproach the crew nor accuse the pilot in the matter ; you would look to the construction of the vessel, and see how she had been originally framed, and whether any new works had been added to her that retard or- endanger her course."

Without any rhetorical exaggeration, the charge he brings against England is sufficiently strong and damaging. Her destruction, first, of the export-cattle trade, then of the woollen trade, for which the encouragement of the linen trade was promised as a substitute, and her effort to ruin that in its turn, are the chief points of his case; and to the two latter he returns again and again, enlarging upon them in a variety of ways, showing that England's action was founded on unreason- able fears, that it had not had the desired result, and that through it, she was herself almost as great a loser, though not so. directly, as her sister-kingdom.

Irish cattle, like Irish wool, had long been famed for their quality ; for the soil and climate of Ireland, unfitted, for growing corn, were well adapted for the production of horned stock and,

sheep. After came peace in 1652, the export of live cattle into. England grew to be the principal trade of Ireland, and became the chief source of her wealth, and its success soon aroused the jealousy- of the English landowners. They imagined—erroneously, as, events proved—that by it the rent of land would be lowered, and, therefore, in 1663, by an Act "for the encouragement of trade," penalties were laid on the traffic, and in 1666 it was entirely forbidden. "The Irish," says the Provost," deprived of this, their principal trade, and reduced to the utmost distress by this prohibition, had no resource but to work up their own commodities, to which they applied themselves with great ardour." The number of sheep was greatly increased, so that at the time of the Revolution the flocks were very numerous,. and everything seemed to point to the steady growth and pro- sperity of the wool manufacture. The only attempt that had, ever been made to damage this manufacture was an unworthy but characteristic one by Lord Strafford in 1639, to prevent the- making of broadcloths, in which, he said, the Irish were vvell able to undersell the English ; and this attempt happily failed. Hutchinson shows that from the earliest times, until 1663, "Eng- land was as careful of the commerce and manufactures of her- ancient sister-kingdom, particularly in her great staple trade,. as she was of her own ; and he relates how the Duke of Ormond had in 1667 successfully "advanced the woollen and revived the linen manufactures," which, as a compensation for the loss of the cattle trade, England then encouraged. He recites many English and Irish Acts, as giving "as strong grounds of assur- ance as any country could possess for the continuance of any

trade or manufacture."

At no other period had the circumstances of Ireland been so favourable for the establishment of a lucrative industry ; at no other period had so fair a prospect opened for her attaining to happiness and prosperity, as at this time. Ireland had passed through a fearful tragedy of misery and crime, in which over half-a-million of her people had perished ; but the night of 'terror that had so long oppressed and darkened the land seemed, in the last decade of the seventeenth century, to be retiring before the dawn of a happier and more peaceful day. Capital was being brought into the woollen trade, which, although still small, was

increasing, and gave employment to a considerable number of people. If things had only been permitted to take their natural course, it is not too much to suppose that the whole of the later

history of Ireland would have been changed, and that she might have become, like Scotland, a contented country, with industries and manufactures of her own. But at this critical moment the jealousy of the English again interfered. An iniquitous Act, devoid of any precedent, was forced upon the Irish Parliament, which had no power to resist English influence,

"Prohibiting from June 20th, 1699, the exportation from Ireland of all goods made or mixed with wool, except to England and Wales, and with the licence of the Commissioners of the Revenue ; duties had been before laid on the importation into England equal to a pro- hibition, therefore this Act has operated as a total prohibition of the exportation. Before these laws, the Irish were under great disadvan- tages in the woollen trade, by not being allowed to export their manufactures to the English colonies, or to import dye-stuffs directly from thence ; and the English in this respect, and in having those exclusive markets, possessed considerable advantages."

The blow fell with terrible and overwhelming force. It was as though a curse had come upon the country. Famine became chronic, parts of the south and west became depopulated, thou- sands of manufacturers left the country, and the wool trade was hopelessly ruined. It was often found impossible to collect sufficient revenue for the purposes of Government. The linen trade, far from being encouraged, as was promised, was ham- pered by tyrannous restrictions ; and although, after some years, it was partially freed, and made some progress for a time, it never took the place of the lost industry. Flax-growing, pre- carious and exhausting, was, in spite of premiums, found to be a losing game, and the general tillage of the country declined. 'The Provost says :—

"Notwithstanding the success of that manufacture, the bulk of our people have always continued poor, and in a great many seasons have wanted food. Can the history of any other fruitful country on the globe, enjoying peace for fourscore years, and not visited by plague or pestilence, produce so many recorded instances of the poverty and wretchedness, and of the reiterated want and misery of the lower orders of the people ? There is no such example in ancient or modern story. If the ineffectual endeavours by the representa- tives of those poor people to give them employment and food had not left sufficient memorials of their wretchedness ; if their habitations, apparel, and food were not sufficient proofs, I should appeal to the human countenance for my voucher, and rest the evidence on that hopeless despondency that hangs on the brow of unemployed industry."

'The Provost goes on to show that England, by ruining Ireland, had completely failed in benefiting herself, examines the arguments adduced and the facts alleged by her as the basis of her coarse of action, exposes their weakness and fallacy in a masterly way, and concludes by earnestly pleading, on behalf of both countries, for a more humane and enlightened policy.

But, our limits being reached, we can only refer the reader more particularly to the treatise itself. Hutchinson's style is often, but not always, clear and powerful, and, from the use of the letter-form, there is a good deal of repetition ; but, in spite of its occasional defects, this is a valuable and readable work. We conclude our remarks with an extract from Mr. Carroll's ex- cellent introduction :—

"Two things stand out clearly throughout the treatise,—one is that Ireland, both as a producer and as a consumer' has been im- mensely profitable to England ; and the other is that England has been the source of vast evil and suffering to Ireland. The purport of 'The Commercial Restraints' is to set forth these two great truths, and the record may be read now without prejudice on one side of the Channel, and without panic or passion on the other. The teach- ing of the book ought to be palpable enough for the men of the present day. It ought to convince Englishmen that it is time for them to distrust their resources of civilisation,' and to let this country prosper ; and it ought to remind Irishmen- that they are the best j edges of what they want, and that their road to prosperity is inde- pendence of English conceit, together with a sturdy development of their own native resources."