Page:Studies in Irish History, 1649-1775 (1903).djvu/177

James II and confirming deeds and settlements and the last wills and testaments of persons out of possession, for the speedy recovery of servants' wages, for the regulation of martial law, for the punishment of waste committed on lands restorable to old proprietors, for enabling his Majesty to regulate the duties of foreign commodities, for the better settling of intestates' estates, and for securing the water-course for the castle and city of Dublin no exception can reasonably be made. An "Act of Supply for his Majesty for the support of his Army," rendered highly necessary by the condition of the country, is chiefly remarkable for the very elaborate provisions introduced to safeguard the interests of the tenants—provisions extremely honourable to the legislature, which was composed with scarcely an exception of actual or potential landowners. An "Act prohibiting the importation of English, Scotch, or Welch coals,' and another "for the Advance and Improvement of Trade, and for encouragement and increase of shipping and navigation," may excite the contempt of modern economists of the free-trade school; but the ideas of their authors were those which at that time were universally accepted by all European nations, and the legislators were plainly actuated by a sincere if mistaken desire for the welfare 165