Page:Life of Sir William Petty 1623 – 1687.djvu/231

 a soldier; not because he hath often occasion to fight and handle arms; but because he is familiarised with hardship and hazards, extending to life and limbs, for training and duelling is a small part of soldiery in respect of this last mentioned qualification; the one being quickly and presently learned, the other not without many years most painful experience: wherefore to have the occasion of abounding in seamen is a vast conveniency.' His acute mind, guided by the study of the Irish question, had no doubt realised that the inevitable rise of freights, consequent on the cessation of the Dutch carrying trade to English ports, must seriously injure the home producer, and that to diminish the number of buyers in English ports was also to diminish the number of sellers. Shipping, therefore, unless naturally developed, would be of little permanent use to the country. But he probably thought that he had done his part, and gained unpopularity enough in influential quarters, by his opposition to the Irish Acts. Certain it is that he passed by the general subject of the Navigation Acts in a silence which, under the circumstances, is eloquent.

An anecdote related by Aubrey might perhaps be cited in support of the view that he approved the encouragement of native shipping by legislative enactments of a distinctly protective character. The Privy Council in Ireland, Aubrey relates, had a notable plan to prohibit the importation of coal from England, and for consuming turf, by which the poor, it was averred, were to be greatly benefited, and a small revenge perhaps be taken for the prohibition of the import of Irish cattle into England. Said Sir William: 'If you will make an order to hinder the bringing in of coals by foreign vessels, and bring it in vessels of your own, I approve of it very well; but for your supposition of the cheapness of turf, 'tis true, 'tis cheap on the place, but consider carriage; consider the yards that must contain such a quantity for the respective houses; these yards must be rented, what will be the charge? And they found on enquiry that all things considered, turf