Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/170

 about 100l. of the like money in Ireland, in the freest time of trade.'

'I have lately perused all the Acts relating to Trade and Manufactures which are of force in Ireland,' he wrote some years after to Southwell, when the full evils of the system had had time to make themselves felt, 'and could without tears see them all repealed as encroachments on the Laws of Nature; for Trade will endure no other Laws, nec volunt res male administrari. But, Lord, Cousin, to what a magnitude will the Statutes both of England and Ireland swell, if they grow at this rate. How hard will it be for our lives, liberties, limbs, and estates to be taken away upon Statutes which we can never remember nor understand. Oh, that our book of Statutes were no bigger than the Church Catechism! '

The hostility of the English Parliament was doubly odious to Sir William, because knowledge and experience had convinced him of the possibility of a great increase in the wealth of Ireland under natural laws, if the country were allowed to develop her own resources without impediment, and the freedom of intercourse which had existed under the Protectorate were allowed to continue. But it was useless, he said, to have broken the power of the chiefs and 'lazing friars,' if the English Parliament was to throttle all the natural industries. Like Sir John Davis, in the previous century, he observed nothing in the character of the people to prevent them attaining a high degree of material civilisation and prosperity. He considered their faults, such as they were, to be the result of the confusion and anarchy of the times, and of ignorance, not of any innate inferiority to the English, or unwillingness on their part to work, if given a fair opportunity, and if order were maintained.

'As for the manners of the Irish,' he said, 'I deduce them from their original constitutions of body, and from the air; next, from their ordinary food; next, from their condition of estate and liberty, and from the influence of their governors