CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 WiLLARD EtSKE 
 
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CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 092 591 936 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 tlie Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092591936 
 
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 ^Uftd^l. QMiMUm: 
 
 
THE WRITINGS 
 
 WILLIAM PATEKSON, 
 
 OF DUMERIESHrRB, AND A CITIZEN OP LONDON ; 
 
 FOUNDER OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND, 
 
 AMP OF THE 
 
 DAEIEN COLONY. 
 
 EDITED BY SAXE BANNISTEE, M.A., 
 
 I 
 
 OF queen's college, oxpokd, 
 
 With Biographical Notices, Facsimiles^ and Portrait, 
 
 SECOND EDITION.— IN THREE VOLUMES, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 " Paterson has a prodigioua genius."— 7". ^^ewari, Sdinb. 1700. The Car~ 
 stares Correspondence (p. 436). 
 
 " As a piece of finance, Paterson's scheme for the redemption of the 
 National Bebt seems faultless." — Economist, 23rd October, 1858. 
 
 A very sensible pamphlet on the importance of a well-constituted Oifice 
 of Audit to superintend the Public Accounts, and a masterly Treatise on the 
 Bestoration of the Coinage, are, -with apparent probability, assigned to 
 Faterson." — Ibid. 
 
 LONDON: 
 JUDD & GLASS, NEW BEIDGE STEEET, 
 AJS-D GEAT'S INN KOAD. 
 
 1859. 
 
ViiAU 1.* 
 
 
 A-71 
 
 0% 
 
 
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PA&E 
 
 Dedication to Paul Daranda ' i 
 
 Fac-sinules 
 
 Biographical Introduction, 1658 — 1719 .... ix — cxH 
 
 Paterson born in Scotland in 1658 — He was a Merchant in the West Indies 
 and in London — He was neither a buccaneer nor a missionary — His 
 early success ; and his financial authority — His account of the Bank of 
 England — His proposals for better managing the City of London Orphan- 
 Fund — ^The Darien Settlement, and freedom in Government, in religion, 
 and in trade, with the redemption of the Debt, his leading objects in life 
 — The first cause of his misfortunes — His integrity and great abilities — 
 The ruin of the Darien Settlement occasioned by neglect of his advicei 
 and by his not being employed in its government — His case a remarkable 
 illustration of the urgent need of administrative reform— William the 
 Third's respect for him ; and intention to revive expeditions to Central 
 America — Paterson's long residence in Westminster after returning 
 from Darien — His influence on the Union of England in Scotland — He 
 is consulted in financial matters hy great ministers in the reigns of 
 William III., Queen Anne, and George I. but not employed^ — His 
 public Library of Trade in Westminster — He would have prevented the 
 South Sea bubble — His writings — The indemnity of his losses in Darien 
 granted by George I. and Parliament in 1715 — He pays his debts'— He 
 dies in 1718-19. 
 
 Proposalsof aCouncUof Trade, 1700. Third Edition . 1—105 
 
 Memoir upon Expeditions against the Spanish West 
 
 Indies, 1701. Second Edition. .... 107—162 
 
 Dialogues upon the Union of England and Scotland, at the 
 "Wednesday's Club, in Friday Street, 1706. Second 
 Edition 163—251 
 
THIS FIEST VOLUME 
 
 OE 
 
 THE WEITmGS OF WILLIAM PATEESON, 
 
 IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMOBT OP 
 
 PAUL DARANDA, 
 
 THE ASSOCIATE OP THEIR AUTHOR 
 
 m HIS BRILLIANT COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES; 
 
 AND HIS GENEROUS CONSOLER IN MANT TROUBLES. 
 
 PAUL DARANDA 
 
 ENJOYED THE ESTEEM OP THE "WORTHY AND THE GREAT OP 
 
 HIS TIME; 
 AND WELL DESERVES THE RESPECT OP POSTERITY. 
 
I'ac-StmiZe/ fro7?v cu Receipt' trv t^^3ou?Jcy of Jin^landy. 
 
 fac-Stmzl& from cm- OngdTijzlZei^ trv lJi&Jdyeccttes'Iidra7y..'Edinii/jyhy. 
 
 ^699. 
 
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BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 1658-1719. 
 
 William Paterson of Dutnfrieshire, the author of 
 the four tracts contained in this volume, was by profes- 
 sion a merchant, (App. A) who in early life attained the 
 highest successes, in the midst of which he became the 
 victim of a great reverse. But the difficulties to which he 
 was long exposed, after being deservedly the object of al- 
 most national homage, have been even magnified through 
 the strange indifference of posterity to his eminent 
 quaUties. Of his two chief works, the Bank of England, 
 and the plan of the Darien Colony, the former has 
 proved a model of usefulness, whilst the latter was the 
 grandest of conceptions, the failure of which is in no 
 wise attributable to him. Other noble designs of his, 
 developed with remarkable ability and most indus- 
 trious zeal for the good of the three kingdoms, in their 
 financial and commercial relations abroad as well as at 
 home, even surpass those two objects in importance. 
 
 The portions of his writings here republished are 
 taken either from early manuscripts, bearing clear 
 
X BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 evidence of being his productions, or from printed 
 tracts published in his lifetime, and then known 
 to have come from his pen. He seems to have ever 
 studiously avoided giving his name to his vrritings, as 
 his great cotemporary. Lord Somers, is recorded in the 
 "Freeholder" to have also published his important 
 works anonymously. In his case, as in other curious 
 instances, the credit of such writings has been unscru- 
 pulously taken for others than their authors. The 
 authorship of the present works is. given to Paterson 
 upon proofs adduced with the less hesitation, as it 
 would be difficult to account for the reputation he 
 once enjoyed for capacity in the higher branches of 
 calculation, unless, in the absence of very great wealth 
 and the weightiest mercantile standing and political 
 power, at least writings of this character could be traced 
 to him. The strong evidence depended upon only fa- 
 vours a fact which is in itself in a high degree probable. 
 The four works are still of public interest. Their chief 
 subjects are, — the progress of Scotland proposed in that 
 of 1700 ; the extension of British intercourse with 
 Central America in that of 1701 ; the legislative union 
 of England, Ireland, and Scotland, in that of 1 706 ; and 
 the history of the Bank, Customs reform, and the re- 
 demption of the Debt in that of J 71 7- Seeing also that his 
 authority upon whatever he took part in was once pre- 
 eminent, there is reason to believe that his opinions upon 
 great questions, still warmly controverted, will be re- 
 ceived with consideration. His views upon banking were 
 successful in defiance of many obstacles; and those views 
 have contributed largely to our national prosperity. But 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XI 
 
 he possessed far better titles than even that great merit, 
 to recommend a careful survey of his career and cha- 
 racter. He enjoyed both the confidence of William III. 
 and the protection of George I. in acknowledgment of 
 his steady and enlightened political principles, as well 
 as on account of his profound knowledge of finance. 
 His judgment also much influenced, although it did not 
 sufl&ciently control, important measures of four distin- 
 guished ministers. If the Earl of Halifax had followed 
 Paterson's sound opinions more implicitly in regard to 
 the coinage, that wise reform would have been less 
 costly, speedier, and more complete. (App. A 2.) The 
 Lord Treasurer Godolphin employed him in preparing 
 the public accounts for the equitable adjustment of the 
 taxation of both countries after the union of England 
 with Scotland, and his clear summary of those accounts, 
 several times reprinted, is a model for such calculations. 
 It was a great mistake on the part of that statesman 
 not to take more advantage of Paterson's abilities by 
 placing him in the Treasury, or at the Board of 
 Trade, even to the exclusion of the poets Addison and 
 Prior. 
 
 Again, his principles of finance were borrowed 
 by Harley, Earl of Oxford, when Lord Treasurer, and 
 his views of American trade were also adopted in the 
 South Sea Company founded by his Lordship, who did 
 not however fully comprehend his views in either case, 
 although in the Earl's patent of nobility credit is 
 prominently given upon both heads. He failed as 
 Prime Minister to do justice to Paterson's unquestion- 
 able claims. Finally, in 1717 Walpole constructed the 
 
XU BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great sinking fund of that year upon the advice and 
 writings of Paterson ; but afterwards, when himself at 
 the head of the Treasury, he weakened the measure he 
 had from the first imperfectly adopted. Walpole, how- 
 ever, had already in 1715 joined heartily in securing 
 the indemnity due to Paterson which Harley had re- 
 fused. (App. B.) 
 
 Each of the works here produced will be shewn by 
 special evidences to have been written by Paterson, 
 and the consideration of those evidences, and some 
 remarkable passages in the works themselves, will fur- 
 nish good illustrations of his life, and fully justify the 
 very highest estimate of his powers and character. 
 Whilst he is best known as the projector of the Bank 
 of England, and of the Darien settlement in Central 
 America, his relations to both undertakings have 
 been mistaken from inattention to his antecedents in 
 both. It is vaguely thought that he was a needy 
 adventurer — a friendless Scot — whose bold suggestions 
 were unscrupulously turned to account by wealthier 
 men. On the contrary, a careful view of facts will shew 
 that the Bank of England grew out of combinations in 
 which he held a chief place as projector, and no mean 
 one as a sharer in completing its establishment. In the 
 vast scheme of Darien, he matured the thoughts of many 
 years, during which he was a prosperous man of business, 
 only failing to become one of the wealthiest merchants 
 of the time, because the acquirement of riches was in 
 him secondary in point of interest to the realization of 
 his great views of national concern. In a memoir laid 
 before George I. in 1 7 14- 1 5, and printed in a future page 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XIU 
 
 from the original in the General Repository of Records at 
 the Rolls, there is a clue to a satisfactory estimate of 
 this "extraordinary" merchant's mind. He had stated 
 his design of an improved scheme of imposts to relieve 
 the taxpayers and increase the revenuCj and then sup- 
 ports his pretensions in the following words : 
 
 " His .experience abroad as well as at home," he says, 
 "during twenty-nine years, especially in matters of 
 general trade and public revenues, gives him hopes to 
 be likewise useful in the great conjuncture of the suc- 
 cession of the Protestant line to the crown of Great 
 Britain, towards inspecting and representing some 
 material things relating to His Majesty's revenues and 
 estates in Germany ; that by a true knowledge of the 
 trade, manufactures, and situation thereof, it might be 
 better seen what sort of communication and corres- 
 pondence would be mutually beneficial to us as to them, 
 who were become subjects of the same Sovereign. 
 Former neglects of these or like things made it no easy 
 matter to put them in any tolerable light." 
 
 Although a successful merchant, the vicissitudes of 
 his adventurous life, in singular contrast with the calm 
 of his mind and the sobriety of his usual pursuits, 
 lend something of the interest of romance to his 
 career. 
 
 Paterson was in London in 1 692, and his name has been 
 first met with in connection with an important financial 
 subject, in the Journals of the House of Commons of that 
 year in the report of a Committee. It is there mentioned 
 as well known, and he has himself declared that from 
 1686 he devoted himself " to matters of general trade 
 
xiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and public revenues, abroad and at home" Tradition 
 traces hira several years on the continent in mercantile 
 business ; and he certainly lived in the West Indies in 
 the reigns of Charles and James II. From 1693 to 1719, 
 when he died, it was he who chiefly opposed the use of 
 inconvertible paper-money both in England and Scot- 
 land, and perhaps in Holland, whether issuable by the 
 State or by private persons. At the outset of that 
 opposition, and long before the time of John Law, 
 powerful men in the House of Commons advocated the 
 issue of such paper, of which Paterson then demon^ 
 strated the danger, and it is believed that his efforts 
 contributed largely to its rejection. He certainly pre- 
 vented the Scottish Parliament adopting the same paper 
 when proposed twelve years later by Law, in 1 705, with 
 much support ; and the United Parliament seems all 
 his life to have equally respected his sound judgment 
 on this head. The South Sea Bubble arose altogether 
 after his decease, so that he i« not responsible for its 
 disasters. It is even thought to be probable that if he 
 had survived only a few months longer he would have 
 effectually strengthened, the numerous minority in the 
 House of Commons which resisted that schemie. It was 
 his school of financiers the Duchess of Marlborough 
 must have had in view, when her Grace rejected the 
 temptation of the rapidly-rising South Sea Stock with 
 the remark, that those who were skiUed in calculation 
 held such prices could not possibly be sustained. 
 (App.C.) 
 
 Paterson, profoundly versed in financial science, ap- 
 plied it praetically, and with singular judgment and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XV 
 
 force, to private commercial business, and to the ma- 
 nagement of the public treasury. His disinterestedness 
 and purity of conduct were almost miraculous for a cor- 
 rupt age, which, however, we can scarcely call unparal- 
 leled ; for in some criminal cases the present outrivals 
 the past, inasmuch as a general progress leads delin- 
 quents to add hypocrisy to what before was only 
 barefaced offending. His versatile talents, his large 
 experience, and the trust reposed in his judgment 
 enabled him to carry out, as readUy as to plan, the 
 weightiest undertakings. Whilst English ministers 
 were unjust to the merits they were not blind to, in this 
 distinguished Scottish merchant, the wealthy capitalists 
 of London and the whole people of Scotland accorded 
 him their confidence in his two remarkable designs 
 — the Bank of England and the Darien Settlement. 
 Tried from early youth by persecution, in common with 
 all his Presbyterian countrymen, he was not corrupted 
 by the prosperity which soon repaid his vigorous exer- 
 tions in exile. Incapable of giving way to the ills of 
 life, and ever disposed to discover some resource in the 
 midst of difficulties, he is one of the illustrious exam- 
 ples of men whose personal respectability stands the 
 hard proofs both of great prosperity and great reverses. 
 His very considerable influence in society was solely 
 owing to his superior intelUgence ; and, although he 
 was peculiarly happy in the enduring attachment of 
 old friends, it was to that intellectual superiority he 
 owed at last the substantial indemnity obtained from 
 the new protection of the court under the influence of 
 George I. 
 
XVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Grievous as his sufferings had been, and aggravated 
 by the delay of justice in regard to his claims, he did 
 not sink, as commonly thought, into obscurity after 
 the ruin of his Darien enterprise. (App. D.) Instead 
 of returning to his own country to end his days a "poor, 
 neglected man," indisputable evidence is produced in the 
 contents of this volume of his untiring activity, and of 
 the high reputation he enjoyed in England, as well as 
 in Scotland, for eighteen years afterwards. In that 
 period he wrote these works, which are submitted to 
 public opinion, in a strong confidence that, although 
 they will not place him as to style on a level with Ad- 
 dison or Steele, nevertheless, for profound reasoning, 
 for elevated sentiments, for keenness of observation, 
 and for occasional force of expression, they show this 
 enlightened man of business might well have become a 
 great writer had his early studies been duly continued. 
 It would be absurd to compare his works with those of 
 Swift, or even with those of Defoe, but he was equal to 
 them for fertility of invention and in laborious industry; 
 and immeasurably their superior in elevation and con- 
 sistency of principle and in conduct. But whatever 
 degree of reputation may be reasonably insisted upon, 
 either in favour of the writings of Paterson or for his 
 plans of social improvement, it is the personal merit of 
 the man that will the most surely fix public esteem. 
 Difficulties only stimulated his courage, as success only 
 urged him to attempt greater things. He sought wealth 
 to use it worthily ; and, when it was lost, he still evinced 
 fine quahties, the exercise of which is the best use to 
 be made of wealth. As respectable when struggling 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Xvii 
 
 against disaster as when at the height of prosperity, 
 his ultimate triumph, obtained by him in Parliament, 
 is less interesting on his account than as a lesson to 
 Governments, and an encouragement to those who dis- 
 charge their duties in the pubhc service without just 
 consideration. He is indeed a man to be ranked high 
 among the benefactors of our kind. 
 
 II. 
 
 The writings of such a man upon important public 
 affairs familiar to him, will be received with satisfac- 
 tion, and they are accompanied with only a brief notice 
 of his life, from an unwillingness to present imperfect 
 materials to the reader, when the appearance of this 
 volume may perhaps lead to the disclosure of many 
 valuable stores of information respecting portions of his 
 career now imperfectly known. The representatives of 
 many who were concerned with him in public trans- 
 actions, both in England and Scotland, possess such 
 stores ; and great liberality already experienced in the 
 communication of correct intelligence respecting Pa- 
 terson, justifies a reliance upon further aid of the same 
 character. Our daily discovery of neglected historical 
 sources for the deeply important period from 1670 to 
 1 720, which embraced the most active part of his life, 
 encourages this sanguine expectation. Even personal 
 traditions may be consulted with advantage for that 
 period, as can be shown by some instances of singular 
 interest where family recollections and individual cha- 
 racter, which have been thrown aside as belonging almost 
 
XViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 exclusively to romance, have furnished material con- 
 tributions to grave history, and even to science. (App. E.) 
 A special motive for deferring the biography of Pa- 
 terson until his select writings shall be appreciated, 
 arises out of the favourable result of inquiries already 
 made about him in official records. Those records are 
 but recently opened to free inspection for literary 
 objects ; and the catalogues of their contents, so indis- 
 pensable for all purposes, are only begun to be formed. 
 Weighty points, therefore, to be soon probably cleared 
 up, are still obscure. Recently there have been found 
 at the Rolls, and in the State Paper Office, materials to 
 correct an universal error as to the ultimate treatment 
 of Paterson by the Government, with documents to 
 explain the secret policy by which it was guided. The 
 value of the new rule, in this respect, to the diligent 
 inquirer, cannot be exaggerated. Even in the existing 
 condition of our records, scattered in various public and 
 private repositories, and with wide gaps in their series, 
 they have been saved from destruction with a fidelity 
 most honourable to their learned keepers of former days, 
 when ministers were careless, and the public was un- 
 mindful of these titles of national fame. Above all, 
 the student will gratefully acknowledge the facilities 
 courteously afforded by the able antiquaries now en- 
 trusted with their custody. Under these circumstances, 
 it is thought that the revival of attention to Paterson's 
 writings is a fitting step towards the full disclosure of 
 his whole career indispensable to a popular biography of 
 him. Meanwhile early tracts, official papers, the jour- 
 nals of Parliament, the statutes, and a few traditions, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xix 
 
 have furnished materials for the formation of a skeleton 
 of his story, which few will deem altogether unsatis- 
 factory, 
 
 III. 
 
 The little that is known of Paterson's early years 
 comes from tradition : but his will supplies the leading 
 fact, that he was born in April, 1658, it being executed 
 in July, 1718, when, as it states, he was sixty years 
 and three months old. He died in the following 
 January. His father's family, the Patersons, were emi- 
 nent of old, and in his time they had representatives 
 among the high modern Episcopalians and adherents 
 of the House of Stuart. They had descended from a 
 Scandinavian stock, originally planted in Northumber- 
 land, and had not been without distinction on both 
 sides the border. Although no registration of his 
 baptism has been found, the secondary evidence of his 
 birth in Scotland, of Scottish parents, is decisive. The 
 directors of the Darien Company, who were exclusively 
 Scots when the enterprise had become confined to Scot- 
 tish resources by the hostility of the English Court, 
 deUberately recorded their acknowledgment of the ser- 
 vices of William Paterson to his " native country," by 
 leaving good prospects in London, in order to promote 
 her welfare, and secure the establishment of their 
 Company. This entry is to be seen in the original 
 minutes of their proceedings, preserved in the Advo- 
 cates' Library in Edinburgh, and it is given entire in 
 the Darien Papers, as extracted in the Appendix E. It 
 could not possibly have referred to any but a Scots- 
 
 • c2 
 
XX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 man ; and the individual to whom it did refer is identi- 
 fied by frequent cotemporary notices with William 
 Paterson, the founder of the Bank of England, whose 
 authorship of the contents of the present volume will 
 not be questioned by attentive readers. (App. R) 
 Nor was a doubt ever raised till recently as to his birth 
 in Scotland. Tradition is uniform on this head ; and 
 the honour of being his birth-place has long been 
 claimed for Lochmaben, in Tinwald, in Dumfrieshire, 
 with which county many associations belonging to him 
 are connected. Topographical works of repute sup- 
 port the claim, and the house in which he was be- 
 lieved to be born was pulled down only a few years ago. 
 It used to be pointed out to the curious traveller as the 
 home of the great financier. In Sir John Sinclair's 
 Statistical Accounts of Scotland, compiled mainly from 
 the correspondence of parochial ministers, it is stated 
 positively in the report of the Rev. James Laurie, of 
 Lochmaben, that he was born there. His own subse- 
 quent relations with Dumfrieshire were so intimate, 
 that he was chosen a member of the first United Par- 
 liament for its boroughs ; and several families belong- 
 ing to that county assert their descent from his brothers 
 and sisters, or from intermarriages with their descend- 
 ants. Tradition says that his mother early formed 
 his religious and even political principles, which sepa- 
 rated him in after-life from the Episcopalians and Jaco- 
 bites, of whom his paternal relative, the last Archbishop 
 of Glasgow, was a most energetic leader ; as another 
 of the name. Sir Hugh Paterson of Banuockburn, was 
 attainted of treason for taking the side of the Pretender 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 in 1715. But, decidedly as William Paterson opposed 
 their party, no trace of bitterness against them is dis- 
 coverable in any of his writings upon Scottish politics. 
 On the other hand, he is mentioned with respect and 
 kindness by their most determined advocate. (App. G.) 
 All his writings exhibit him as an industrious student, 
 and in his youth a superior education was well provided 
 for in the remotest parts of the south of Scotland. 
 Burnet, indeed, who disliked the Kirk and its professors, 
 asserts with some acrimony that he "had no education," 
 which can only be true in the qualified sense that, 
 quitting home at an early age to escape from religious 
 persecution, his progress was stopped before he went 
 to the university or even to any high school. This, 
 probably was about 1675) when he was seventeen years 
 old, and could certainly have acquired a considerable 
 stock of school knowledge. Traces of his residence in 
 England soon after that date have been met with, when 
 he seems to have stayed a short time with an aged 
 female relative of his mother at Bristol. It is asserted 
 that at the decease of this friend he received from her 
 a legacy, which may have enabled him to set out upon 
 the adventurous career by which he at last gained 
 distinction. He probably went into Holland before his 
 first voyage to America, where he was settled for several 
 years previous to 1 687. His first conception of a colony 
 in Darien was in 1684 — a fact positively stated in his 
 petition to King William, introducing the second work 
 of the present collection. He had connections with New 
 England, as appears from one of his letters written from 
 Darien in 1699, and published in Boston at the time. 
 
Xxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 How early he formed these connections does not appear, 
 but his first wife was the widow of a minister of that 
 colony named Bridge ; and a large portion of the popu- 
 lation of the West Indies, as well as of the northern 
 colonies, was composed of the refugee Puritans of Eng- 
 land and Scottish Covenanters, whose religious habits 
 he probably followed without being a missionary. 
 There is a tradition in Dumfrieshire that he was ad- 
 mitted to take part in the prohibited services of the 
 Covenanters, but that his preaching was not successful ; 
 and the abusive verses of the writers employed by the 
 English minister to run down the Darien cause, taunt 
 him as "predicant Paterson." He may have known 
 Roger "Williams, the patriarch of Providence, in Rhode 
 Island, who died in 1682. WilUams was the first 
 promulgator of perfect religious toleration in the colo- 
 nies, and Paterson adopted the noble principle in his 
 own constitution for Darien. It has been concluded 
 from various circumstances that his colonial home 
 was New Providence in the Bahamas, where a governor 
 in his time was a Presbyterian minister of the name of 
 Bridge. (App. H.) He must have entered actively into 
 the trade with the North American colonies, at that 
 time, as still, the source from which the West Indians 
 received many supplies. And he was well acquainted 
 with nautical affairs, and seems to have shared in the 
 successful undertaking of Sir William Phipps to raise 
 treasure to the amount of 300,000/. from a sunken 
 Spanish galleon near New Providence. 
 
 That he possessed very great influence throughout 
 the West Indies is expressly established by an interest- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xxui 
 
 ing document lately found among the original Darien 
 manuscripts in Edinburgh, stating his reputation in the 
 West Indies to be such, that wherever he should be 
 settled, thither the people would throng from all the 
 plantations to join him. 
 
 It has been asserted that he was one of the buccaneers, 
 and so gained the knowledge he possessed of Darien and 
 of the places of their resort on the Spanish main. This 
 is assuredly a great error. No evidence has been pro- 
 duced of his having been so engaged at any time, and 
 the undeviating character of his life is opposed to the 
 supposition. It is further certain, from a journal of one 
 the parties in his Darien expedition, laid before the 
 Royal Society at the time, and published some years 
 later by Derham, that he had not before visited the spot 
 in which the Scottish settlement was fixed in 1698. 
 (App. I.) His knowledge of Central America was 
 gained, doubtless, by diligent inquiry. It is mentioned 
 in the Darien papers that he possessed valuable maps 
 and geographical materials, which are significant rather 
 of the wealthy and curious collector than of the reck- 
 less seafaring adventurer. Burnet only says " he got in- 
 formation "/rom buccaneers when consorting with them. 
 The State Paper Office is full of details of the pro- 
 ceedings of Captain Sharp, and others of their chiefs, 
 who then visited the Bahamas and all the plantations 
 with the countenance of the Government. Sir Henry 
 Morgan, their leader at Panama,had become Lieutenant- 
 Governor of Jamaica, and many of his despatches are 
 recorded in that office ; whence his real story ought to be 
 written to replace the romances of which he is a 
 
xxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 favourite subject. Paterson, doubtless, knew him as 
 well as the others; but it would be as reasonable to 
 revive the party calumny, that Lord Somers was the 
 accompUce of the pirate Kid, as to charge Paterson with 
 taking any share in the guilty adventures of the buc- 
 caneers. Their relations, indeed, with the merchants 
 and colonists of the West Indies and North America, 
 and also with all the maritime governments of Europe 
 opposed to Spain, are topics for an impartial work 
 worthy of a British or American historian. The strange 
 manners, the heroic bravery, and the crimes of those 
 wild warriors of the sea are fuU of interest. They had 
 been well studied by Eliot Warburton, who perished 
 so miserably in the Amazon, when setting out to visit 
 the scenes of their exploits. Of all men he was perhaps 
 the best qualified to describe those exploits and to ap- 
 preciate the influence of these daring men upon the 
 waning fortunes of Spain in America. In that accom- 
 plished writer of romantic and philosophic travel the 
 Editor of this volume had a friendly associate in his 
 task whose loss he has daily cause to deplore. The 
 ingenious account of Paterson's supposed early days, 
 constructed by Mr. Warburton in the "Merchant 
 Prince," shews what he would have produced when 
 he should have substituted correct information for a 
 pleasant tale which he supplied mainly from a fertile 
 fancy. One wide anachronism runs through the whole 
 of his romance. In it John Law is represented to have 
 been of about Paterson's age. *They are made to be 
 youths together ; whereas Paterson, the true financier,- 
 was certainly thirteen years older than his cousin, the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXV 
 
 brilliant, gambling adventurer. To this fundamental 
 error of fact is superadded the more serious mistake of 
 attributing a community of opinions to those two cele- 
 brated men ; when it is Paterson's highest honour to 
 have uniformly opposed the financial delusions of Law. 
 Paterson never contemplated a settlement in Central 
 America, but as a means of building up a great, free em- 
 porium of trade. Law took the Missisippi region for a 
 simple basis of his state stock-jobbing and boundless 
 operations in paper money. Mr. Warburton had, how- 
 ever, seized correctly the fine traits of Paterson's cha- 
 racter, and, after publishing the " Merchant Prince," he 
 at once began to take an exact view of his story 
 upon reading the second of the works included in the 
 present volume ; namely, the memoir on Spanish 
 America.- 
 
 IV. 
 
 Whatever were the occupations of William Paterson 
 abroad before 1685, he had then formed his idea of a 
 great settlement in Central America, to be independent 
 of Spain, which became the one ruling object of his 
 life ; and that object not only merited the praise given 
 to it in the last century, of being calculated to have 
 improved the policy of all civilized states in the western 
 hemisphere, but the important events of the present 
 day in the same regions bring out the genius of Pater- 
 son as a statesman in the most brilliant light, in refer- 
 ence to the capabilities of Darien. The rise, indeed, of 
 independent states upon the ruin of the transatlantic 
 dominions of Spain calls for very different combinations 
 
XXvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 now, since those states are subject to new influences 
 beyond the reach of British power and which the 
 jarring counsels of all Europe cannot guide. He sub- 
 mitted his views to James II., who was disposed to 
 favour them until absorbed by designs which cost him 
 his crown. Paterson then offered his settlement to the 
 Elector of Brandenburg — the founder of the Prussian 
 monarchy, himself no mean mercantile projector, and 
 who was only prevented adopting the enterprise by the 
 jealousy entertained at his court to the disadvantage 
 of the stranger. (App. K.) 
 
 This fondly-cherished design did not stand in the 
 way of the practical, judicious Paterson's persevering 
 application to his business as a merchant. He pros- 
 pered in that business, and became a member of 
 the Merchant-Taylors' Company. He took part zea- 
 lously with those who were planning the Revolution of 
 1688, which wiU account for his being at this period 
 much in the coffee-houses of Amsterdam. (App. K 2.) 
 He also indulged his taste for various honourable enter- 
 prises at home, amongst which was one for the better 
 supply of North London with water from reservoirs 
 south of the Hampstead and Highgate hills. This he 
 undertook with the support of so distinguished a man 
 as Sir John Trenchard, as shown by the records of the 
 still existing water-company. At this time he resided 
 in the parish of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, where the old 
 office of that company long stood. (App. L.) 
 
 He soon became known as an able financier at a 
 period remarkable for progress, if not of proficiency, in 
 commercial and statistical science. Sir Josiah Child, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXvH 
 
 Sir William Petty, and Locke are the three great names 
 commonly cited on this head; but numerous tracts 
 testify that many of their contemporaries were not far 
 inferior to them, and Paterson's writings and his official 
 papers place him at least on a level in financial science 
 with these illustrious men. He warmly supported the 
 correct principles upon which the plan of Lowndes 
 for debasing the coinage was refuted ; and so he 
 seems to have incurred the dislike of one who for 
 nearly thirty years was his formidable opponent at the 
 Treasury. 
 
 He has himself fixed upon 1686 as the year from 
 which he began to give serious attention to " matters 
 of general trade and public revenue," having before 
 doubtless been devoted to his own commercial business. 
 
 So early as in 1690 a valuable work by Sir Dolby 
 Thomas upon the West Indies, reprinted in the Harleian 
 Miscellany, must have been partly written by Paterson. 
 Besides containing the germs of his plan of banking and 
 currency, it proposes the same enlightened views of 
 colonial government which he planned for Darien, and 
 which may be traced to an old admirable system of 
 home administration for our colonies, now demanding 
 consideration in order to the indispensable reform of 
 the Colonial Office. (App. M.) This tract is dedicated 
 to Sir Robert Davers, M. P. for Suffolk, once a Barba- 
 does planter, and a persevering advocate of Paterson's 
 claims upon the Government, until they were at length 
 settled, if not satisfied, in 1715 by his aid. It insists 
 upon the plan of popular colonial government sketched 
 by Cromwell, and continued in the first years of Charles 
 
XXviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IL's reign ; and it has paraUelisms to portions of his 
 known writings. (App. N.) 
 
 In 1691— a time when banking by companies, and 
 paper currency duly guarded, were being matured— he 
 was a leading witness before a Committee of Parliament 
 appointed to investigate measures to meet the urgent 
 public needs, when he advocated measures for their 
 relief, which clearly prepared the way for his Bank of 
 England. 
 
 The following report of the Committee is taken from 
 the Journals, vol. x. p. 621, 18 January, 1692: — 
 
 " Mr. Foley reports from the Committee appointed to 
 receive proposals for raising a sum of money towards 
 carrying on the war against France, on a fund of per- 
 petual interest, that there were several persons inter- 
 ested in the banker's debts, ready to take for their debts 
 and a new loan of an equal amount, a perpetual yearly 
 interest of six per cent, by act of Parliament. They 
 were six or seven gentlemen whose principal may be 
 29,378Z. Others offered 5,400^. And those concerned 
 with bankers said, they did believe in a short time they 
 could get most of the people concerned to subscribe in 
 like manner. In six days they brought a list of several 
 persons subscribing 2 9, 775 Z. Another Member of the 
 House declared himself willing to accept the same pro- 
 posal as to h,OQOl., his debt. 
 
 " When this Committee first met, a paper was brought 
 proposing that on settling a yearly rent of 65,000?., one 
 miUion should be advanced. Sixty thousand pounds 
 would be for interest, and 5,000?. to trustees for ma- 
 nagement, so as the subscribers may be trustees, and 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Xxix 
 
 their bills of property should he current. In this case 
 they offer to advance 200,000/., to be ready as a bank, 
 to exchange such current bills as should be brought to 
 be exchanged, the better to give credit thereunto, and 
 make the said bills the better to circulate ; so as they 
 be allowed five per cent, for the said 200,000/. for the 
 first year only, and a tally to the said trustees to pay 
 themselves for the same. 
 
 " The Committee were of opinion, not to receive any 
 proposal which required making the bills of property cur- 
 rent, so as to force them as payment on any without their 
 consent. But they acquainted Mr. Paterson,who made 
 this proposal, that they would receive any proposal to 
 advance one million on a perpetual fund of interest, to 
 be in the nature of a purchase, where they might 
 assign their interest as they pleased, to any one who 
 consented thereto. Then Mr. Paterson said — he be- 
 lieved the gentlemen would come up to that, and not 
 insist on having the bills made current. The next day 
 he said — In discourse with the gentlemen concerned 
 they would not further proceed ; but he believed that 
 himself and some others might come up to advance 
 500,000/. In this manner 200,000/. would be ready 
 in a few days, and he believed some others would come 
 in and make it up 500,000/. 
 
 " On Saturday appeared again, and 
 
 then said, about eighteen or twenty gentlemen had ap- 
 pointed a meeting on Tuesday next to consider the 
 matter, and on Wednesday they would send him an 
 answer. But nothing was proposed to the Committee 
 on which they could rely." 
 
XXX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The above blank is not filled up in the printed 
 Journals. 
 
 He was now engaged in a vigorous controversy 
 against Dr. Hugh Chamberlayn (a precursor of John Law, 
 then a very young man, and certainly not occupied with 
 such matters) against a scheme of paper money incon- 
 vertible into gold or silver. (App. O.) His opponent 
 had weight enough in the House of Commons to get a 
 Committee to report in favour of such a paper currency, 
 but it was not adopted (Journals H. C. vol. x. pp. 22-80, 
 1693) ; and the next year the Bank of England was 
 completed. Internal proof only connects the witness, 
 Paterson, with the author of the tracts in this volume; 
 but solid ground exists for the capital point of the 
 identity of the William Paterson, whose name stands 
 in the charter of the Bank as one of its first Directors, 
 with him of that name who founded the Scottish African, 
 or Darien Company, and who is included under the 
 designation of a merchant in an impeachment preferred 
 by the House of Commons in 1695, as concerned in that 
 Company. 
 
 1 . In Boyer's Political State for the month of May 1711, 
 Paterson is positively called " the chief projector of the 
 Bank of England," and at the same time a creditor of 
 the Government who has difficulty in obtaining payment 
 of his Darien claim, and the person employed upon the 
 public accounts at the Union. His agency in regard to 
 all three, the Bank, the African Company, and the 
 Union, is an important point among the subjects of the 
 present volume. 
 
 2, The signature Will'"- Paterson to the letters ad- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXI 
 
 dressed to the directors of the African Company, 1699, 
 and preserved in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, 
 is the same with that of a letter of 1718, kept in the 
 State Paper OflSce, and addressed to Secretary Stan- 
 hope, respecting a lost equivalent debenture for 501., a 
 security for the Darien debt of the Government to Pater- 
 son ; and the same signature WiW"- Paterson to original 
 Bank documents of 1694 is also extant. His hand- 
 writing was peculiar, as may be seen by the fac-similes in 
 this volume. 
 
 3. The same signature is to be seen to Paterson's 
 will in Doctors' Commons, 
 
 V. 
 
 The great merit of founding the Bank of England 
 is universally attributed to him ; and it will be an 
 acceptable tribute to the correctness of public opinion 
 on this important portion of his history to produce 
 unquestionable evidence of the fact having been so. 
 This evidence will be found in the text of the last of 
 his own works, here republished, and in a few notes to 
 that text. 
 
 Paterson realised, in establishing the Bank of England, 
 in 1694, what had been for more than forty years the 
 object of EngUsh statesmen and merchants. That 
 object was very seriously discussed during the civil 
 wars, and under the Commonwealth The countenance 
 shown by Cromwell to the Jews favoured it; and at 
 the early sittings of the first council of trade at Mer- 
 cers' Hall upon the Restoration a distinct proposition 
 was received, and referred to a powerful committee. 
 
XXXii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 for " the establishment of banks and lombards among 
 us, as in Holland." Numerous writers treated of 
 the matter, and the success of the plan was probably 
 promoted by the shutting up the Exchequer under 
 Charles II. With such antecedents Paterson followed 
 out his own original views from 1690 until his Bank 
 was founded in 1694 with the greatest success. (App. 
 2.) 
 
 He was one of the first directors of the Bank of 
 England upon a qualification of 2,000Z. stock, which he 
 sold out before the end of a year, in 1695, and thus 
 voluntarily withdrew from the board. It has been 
 asserted that more wealthy men than himself took 
 advantage of his abilities to establish the institution, 
 and then " defrauded " him of the reward due to him 
 for founding it. It has been even said that he was 
 expelled from the direction. (App. P.) No evidence 
 is discoverable on either head. There was a strong 
 difference of opinion between him and some of his col- 
 leagues respecting the Bank's legitimate operations, and 
 they outvoted him. On that occasion he seems to have 
 been without support, his old friend Mr. Godfrey having 
 been killed in the trenches at the siege of Namur. 
 When he failed to convince the directors of the 
 prudence of his views he proposed what was really 
 another stock company in London, upon the following 
 proposals, which significantly mark his own mercantile 
 standing; although their result is involved in much 
 obscurity. 
 
JilUBKAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXIU 
 
 "Feb. 12j 1694. — Proposals made by William Pa- 
 TERsoN, of London, Esq., on behalf of himself 
 and others, for Consolidating the Perpetual Fund 
 of Interest payable to the Orphans and other 
 Creditors of the City of London, by virtue of the 
 Act of Parliament intituled, ' An Act for Relief of 
 the Orphans and other Creditors of the City of 
 London, and for Improving the same so Consoli- 
 dated above the Interest payable by the said Act.' 
 
 " I. That a Book of Subscription shall be prepared, 
 which shall be opened at Merchant-Taylors' Hall, Lon- 
 don, every day (Sundays only excepted), from nine 
 o'clock in the morning to twelve at noon, and from 
 three until six in the afternoon, and shall lie open upon 
 and from Thursday the 14th day of this instant Febru- 
 ary, until Thursday the 1 4th day of March next inclu- 
 sive, or until four hundred thousand pounds stock in 
 the said fund shall be subscribed, which shall first 
 happen, and no longer, for taking subscriptions of the 
 said fund, pursuant to these proposals. 
 
 "II. That Paul Daranda, John Asgill, William 
 Broughton, Paul Docminique, George Finch, Francis 
 Gosfright, Nathaniel Heme, Edward Herrys, Nathaniel 
 Hornby, Robert Lancashire, Samuel Ongly, and Wil- 
 liam Sheppard, together with the said William Pater- 
 son, shall be of the number of the first trustees, and 
 they or the major part of them shall have the full and 
 absolute direction of this subscription, and of all designs 
 and undertaking srelating thereunto, until other trustees, 
 not exceeding thirteen in number, to be chosen in 
 
 d 
 
XXXiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 manner hereinafter mentioned, shall be added unto 
 them. 
 
 "III. And whereas the design for improving this 
 fund can no ways be reduced to practice, unless a 
 suitable number of fit and useful persons be qualified 
 for this trust, by becoming participants and proprietors 
 therein : and the purchasing of such reasonable part or 
 interest in the said fund being extremely difficult, unless 
 the purchasers should be content to be most exorbi- 
 tantly imposed upon : for remedy thereof it is hereby 
 agreed, that ten per cent, of this subscription shall be 
 equally divided amongst such as shall be the first 
 trustees, they and every of them paying at the rate of 
 fifty-five pounds for every hundred pounds of the said 
 fund, which shall be equally paid to every subscriber in 
 proportion to his or her sum subscribed and part con- 
 tributed. 
 
 " IV. That upon the fifteenth day of March next, or 
 as soon as the said four hundred thousand pounds shall 
 be subscribed, which shall first happen, the subscription! 
 book shall be closed ; and after the closing thereof, the 
 said trustees herein named shall give three days' public 
 notice, at the least, of a general meeting of all the sub- 
 scribers, to choose, by majority of votes, such other 
 persons as are to be added to the number of the 
 trustees, every five hundred pounds subscribed having 
 one vote, and no one person whatsoever to have more 
 than ten votes. 
 
 The subsequent articles provided for assignments of 
 subscribed sums to the trustees; for their trust deed; 
 for their books ; for Paterson's per-centage of one per 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XXXV 
 
 cent, on the profits as promoter ; for rules ; for revok- 
 ing subscriptions ; and for more capital ; but the pro- 
 posals seem not to have been accepted, 
 
 Paterson had 4,000/. stock in this fund, and his plain 
 object was to facilitate the settlement of the orphans' 
 claims on the city. So far as his influence was carried 
 the plan succeeded ; and the fund so proposed, could 
 easily have stood many years as a public stock. It was 
 another evidence of his sagacity as a man of business, and 
 of the esteem in which he was held in London, that so 
 much capital could be relied on in this way in addition 
 to the funds already subscribed for the Bank of Eng- 
 land, within the same short time ; and that too when 
 the Government Subscriptions and the Land-Bank Stock 
 fell so deplorably short of what had been anticipated. 
 
 This method of raising capital by engagements to pay 
 a moderate interest, realised what had been called for by 
 theorists and men of business for many years. Pater- 
 son seems unquestionably to have been the individual 
 who contrived the operation, and hy his credit carried 
 it out. The Orphan Fund Act of 5 and 6 William and 
 Mary, c. 10, provides, that the Chamberlain and Com- 
 mon-Serjeant of the City should give the orphans 
 or their assigns a note of their debt ; and that they 
 might, by writing under seal, transfer their right in such 
 moneys, or any part thereof, to any person whatsoever ; 
 which being entered in a book by the Court of Alder- 
 men, and the note being delivered up to the officer, who 
 should give his note of the debt to the assignees, they 
 shall be entitled to the benefit thereof ; and such as- 
 signees might assign it again, and so toties quoties. 
 
 d2 
 
XXXVi BIOGKAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The importance of the institution is seen by the large 
 amount of theOrphans'Debt,747,472Z. to be provided for. 
 
 It is said positively in a lampoon afterwards pub- 
 lished in Edinburgh against Paterson, that he was some 
 time a director of this fund, with the unfounded im- 
 putation of his " meeting some disgrace in it;" and that 
 lampoon seems to contain the original suggestion of his 
 having therefore planned the Darien enterprise. 
 
 It is not without interest to remark, that the same 
 fund was one of the elements of pubhc utility in the 
 city by the judicious zeal of another Paterson, a city 
 functionary of the next century, and a member of the 
 House of Commons, of sufficient weight to be chairman 
 of the Committee of Ways and Means. He planned, 
 and carried out the resources for building Blackfriars 
 Bridge, and other improvements in London. He re- 
 ceived from his feUow-citizens a sumptuous acknow- 
 ledgment of his good sendees in a public vote of plate 
 along with their thanks. 
 
 Neither upon quitting the Direction, nor in after yearSj 
 when others bitterly attacked the Bank, did Mr. Paterson^ 
 exhibit any signs of being more than the just critic of 
 its errors. Nor can anything more groundless or absurd 
 be thought of than that he set up his Scottish commercial 
 company to gratify feelings of revenge at the unworthy 
 treatment of himself by the English in affairs of this kind 
 or any other. As in early life he was incapable by his 
 nature of being a buccaneer, so in his mature years he 
 would have indignantly rejected any hostility to the Eng- 
 lish. That he was sincerely attached to them is abund- 
 antly evident from his efforts in favour of the Union, and 
 
UlUtfUAl'HlUAL INTRODUCTION. XXXVll 
 
 his ultimate long residence in London to his decease. 
 He married two English wives. Of his many friends 
 the most powerful were English. Some confusion 
 prevails as to the founding of the first banking Com- 
 pany in Scotland, in 1695, by Holland, an English- 
 man, as if Paterson was concerned in it. So far other- 
 wise was the fact, that he says, in a letter of the 9th 
 of July of that year, in allusion to such bank, " I de- 
 sire a copy of the Bank Act so surreptitiously gained. 
 It may he a great prejudice, but is never like to be of 
 any matter of good to us, nor to those who have it," 
 (App.P2.) 
 
 VI. 
 
 Probably in 1695 he thought the time was pro- 
 pitious for pursuing his favourite Darien enterprise. 
 His EngUsh and Scottish, Irish and Colonial colleagues, 
 the interlopers, the free-traders of those days, were 
 numerous and wealthy. King William was favourably 
 inclined to them ; and they were sure to support the 
 Central American design ; whilst the success of the Bank 
 of England placed the supply of capital in a fair train. 
 To make Scotland the seat of that design was only 
 following out views already admitted for the advance of 
 Scottish commercial interests. An Act to encourage 
 Scottish trade had passed in 1693, and the formation of 
 the Scottish African and India Company, under the 
 Scottish statute of 1695, was really consistent with 
 established national policy deliberately sanctioned by 
 the King, as it was the development of the absorbing 
 object of Paterson's own zealous labours of old date^ 
 
XXXViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and had been proposed to the English ministers else- 
 where. The continued support of the Company by 
 WiUiam TIL was reUed upon with the more reason that 
 a large share of its interest was from the first appor- 
 tioned to Enghsh subscribers ; and the King's subse- 
 quent opposition must be held to be one of, the few 
 grievous errors of his reign. 
 
 Hitherto Paterson's proceedings in this important 
 matter were attended with a success correspondent 
 to his energy and his prudence. The conception of his 
 genius ten years before had been cherished with the 
 calculated patience of the man of business ; and now he 
 was bringing the bold conception with a masterly hand 
 to its legitimate issue. He was delegated by the Di- 
 rectors of the African Company from Scotland to Lon- 
 don, in order to concert with his English friends the 
 proper steps to their comuion success. His' reports to 
 his colleagues at home, pubUshed in the Darien Papers, 
 are very remarkable. " The matter," he says to the 
 Lord Provost of Edinburgh, on the 4th of July, 1695, 
 in reference to subscriptions under the Company's Act 
 of the Scottish Parliament, " the matter is of itself of 
 the highest consequence, and nothing but prudent 
 management can bring it to bear ; wherefore the princi- 
 pal designs thereof ought to be discovered by their 
 execution." 
 
 Again on the 9th of July he writes :— " The gentle- 
 men here think that we ought to keep private and close 
 for some months, that no occasion may be given to the 
 Parliament of England to take notice of it in the ensu- 
 ing Session, which might be of ill consequence, espe- 
 
,CTION. XXXIX 
 
 cially as a great many considerable persons are already 
 alarmed at it." 
 
 He then strongly advises careful preparation, and no 
 long publicity before the subscription should be opened, 
 as experience taught the hazard of slow solicitations. 
 
 " The Bank of England," he continues, " had but six 
 weeks' time for opening the books, and was finished in 
 nine days. In all subscriptions here it is always limited 
 to a short day. If a thing go not off with the first heat, 
 the raising a fund seldom or never succeeds, the multi- 
 tude being mainly led more by example than by 
 reason." 
 
 Then, in the spirit of Columbus while contemplating 
 the discovery of a new world, he insists that circum- 
 stances favour Scotland in this equally grand design of 
 raising a people for the universal benefit of mankind. 
 " There are remarkable occurrences," he says, " at this 
 time, and our neighbours lie under many disadvantages. 
 A considerable measure of the genius of trade and im- 
 provements seems to incline to Scotland, to give them 
 a faciUty and inclination to gain some advantages for 
 themselves and their posterity ; all which seem to be 
 harbingers of, and to portend, glorious success. Above 
 aU, it's needful for us to make no distinction of parties 
 in this great and noble undertaking ; but of whatever 
 nation or religion a member, if one of us, he ought to 
 be looked upon to be of the same interest and inclina- 
 tion. We must not act apart in anything, but in a firm 
 and united body, and distinct from all interest what- 
 ever. So, hoping that Almighty God, who at this time 
 seems to have fitted so many able instruments both of 
 
Xl BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 our own nation and others, and given us such oppor- 
 tunities as perhaps others have not, will perfect the 
 work begun, and make some use of Scotland also to 
 visit those dark places of the earth whose habitations are 
 full of cruelty." 
 
 A few weeks later, on the 3rd of September, there 
 follows a short passage of singular interest. 
 
 " Our business," he says, " hath taken more than we 
 
 expected Our politicians here seem inclined 
 
 rather to endeavour that England should follow our ex- 
 ample as much as may he, in encouraging foreign trade, 
 than to think of discouraging us, who, if blessed with 
 prudent management, have designed one of the least 
 involved and freest foundations of commerce anywhere 
 proposed." 
 
 Thus the national feeling of the English statesmen 
 favoured the Scottish enterprise ; a fact which the King 
 himself afterwards, in 1 700, set in a strong light in his 
 conciliatory message to the Parliament of Scotland, when 
 too late. " The pressing desires of all my ministers to 
 support your undertakings," said his Majesty, " would 
 have prevailed, but for invincible reasons — the appre- 
 hension of an European war to be carried on by Great 
 Britain without a single ally !" 
 
 At this critical moment. King William seems to have 
 been paralysed, and to have gradually sunk under the 
 great difficulties opposed to him. He unquestionably 
 swerved from the wise course that would probably have 
 averted those difficulties. His subjects and confederates 
 were growing lukewarm in his great cause of resistance 
 to Louis XVI. The sinews of war — treasure — failed him 
 
15HJWj*Ajrnj.<^ii.ii J.11I iivv/i-> JCTION. Xli 
 
 in all ordinary quarters, and he neglected to resort to 
 the well-approved methods advocated by the merchant 
 Pater son. The inability of the English ministers to 
 obtain money for the army, either through the re- 
 sources of the Whig Bank of England or those of the 
 Tory Land Bank, or even by solicitation from house to 
 house in the city of London, contrasted with Paterson's 
 rapid and complete success in securing large sums for 
 even remote undertakings, ought to have suggested the 
 wisdom of adopting at once and for ever his sagacious 
 financial views. 
 
 In 1694, it was Paterson who effected the combina- 
 tions under which in ten days the sum of 1,200,000?. 
 was subscribed in the books of the Bank of England. 
 " Your friend J. F." (John Furley), (says Mr, Locke on 
 one of those ten days, writing to an Amsterdam mer- 
 chant,) " has taken 300/. in the new Bank, which has 
 already got a capital of 1,100,000/. I shall myself 
 subscribe for 500/. at once, and it will be full 
 to-night." So in 1695, when Paterson was sent with 
 other directors of the Darien Company to London 
 for capital, they speedily got 300,000/. ; and afterwards, 
 in Scotland, when the EngUsh had abandoned their 
 enterprise, the sum of 400,000/. was rapidly subscribed 
 by the Scotch alone, mainly under his influence. 
 
 On the contrary, in 1696, the Duke of Shrewsbury, 
 secretary of state, tells the King that " the most 
 eminent goldsmiths and some of the Bank gave the 
 dismalest account of the state of credit in London." 
 So that his Grace confessed it was " past his under- 
 standing how they should avoid infinite confusion. His 
 
xlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dependence for the present was on fate rather than 
 reason." Again he writes that all the efforts of the 
 Land Bank could raise only 40,000/.! and that the 
 credit of bills was lost, and all the gold locked up! 
 The King replied : " You may easily suppose how 
 painful it is to me to see we are likely to be reduced to 
 such an extremity, if we cannot in some degree remedy 
 the evils we are falling into by the loss of our credit. 
 When we plainly discover we have been in error, the 
 sooner we acknowledge it the better. I own I was 
 strongly of opinion to reduce the value of the guinea 
 to 22.S. : I now see, too late, I was in the wrong. 
 
 " In the name of God, determine quickly to find some 
 credit for the troops here, or we are ruined." 
 
 Again, a few days later, his Majesty writes : — 
 
 " I have received your letter of the 29th May (1696). 
 I did not expect to hear no resolution was taken to 
 obtain credit by some means or other, as in our present 
 situation we must not consider if the conditions are 
 reasonable, but accept them at any rate. Money or 
 credit we must speedily have, or all wiU be lost. The 
 greatest difficulty is ruin ; and that we must speedily 
 encounter, if we cannot speedily have credit to pay the 
 troops here. There is no alternative but to find credit 
 
 or perish If we do not soon receive 
 
 remittances, the army will be disbanded!" And he 
 concludes at last : — 
 
 " I know not where I am, since I see no resources to 
 prevent the army from mutiny or total desertion. If 
 you do not devise expedients to send contributions or 
 produce credit, all is lost, and I must go to the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL. iNTKUUUCTION. xlui 
 
 Indies !" — alluding to his early resolution to emigrate 
 rather than submit to France. 
 
 Such is the tenor of the Shrewsbury correspondence 
 as published by Archdeacon Coxe from the Buccleuch 
 MSS * and abundantly verified by the documents pre- 
 served in the State Paper Office. 
 
 WeU, indeed, might Paterson, whose earnest advice 
 had been undervalued by the Treasury for the few pre- 
 vious years of mortal struggle, declare to the King, as 
 he did in 1700, that the fault lay at the door of his 
 ministers. 
 
 Already, however, in 1696, besides the opposition of 
 the English monopolists, who stirred up the House of 
 Commons against the Scotch design, and besides that 
 of the Dutch monopohsts, actuated by the same bad 
 spirit, formidable objections were preparing to be 
 pressed upon the King from other quarters. In that 
 year our minister at the Hague announced the King of 
 Spain's intention to leave all his dominions to a French 
 prince, " the very report of which," says the minister, 
 '•' alarms the allies." Then the negotiations at Ryswick 
 opened very serious views as to Spanish America, 
 which were not followed up in that treaty, but the 
 Partition treaties soon following, with the object of 
 settling aU difficulties on that head, were utter failures, 
 although King William went enormous lengths in that 
 way to secure himself and the peace of Europe. 
 
 His Majesty seems not to have estimated correctly 
 the power of religious feeling at that time in Spain. 
 
 * The Shrewsbury Correspondence from 1690 to 1708. By Arch- 
 deacon Cose. London. 4to. 1821 : pp. 116— >134. 
 
XllV BIOGRAPHICAL INTKUUUUXIUJn . 
 
 Its court did not more warmly resent the Partitioii 
 treaties than its hierarchy dreaded the efforts of he. 
 retics Uke the Scotch, who might be helped, as that 
 body knew, by the English,— to overturn their religion 
 in America. By a strong representation of the 
 danger to his holiness the Pope, the court obtamed 
 from Rome a large grant of the church revenues 
 " throughout the Indies " for ever, as means to resist it. 
 Then the Inquisition carried extraordinary zeal into the 
 cause. By a decree issued in 1697, the holy office 
 declared its desire to repair the misfortunes which had 
 afflicted Spain ever since her alliances with heretics, 
 who alike false to their solemn engagements as in their 
 faith, had promised to invade France and compel the 
 French Mng to sue for peace ; nevertheless, instead of 
 that being done, his fleets had ravaged Jamaica and 
 threatened to drive the English from the Indies ! Even 
 Carthagena and the galleons were said to be in peril I 
 
 " Seeing, then, that a king Uke Lewis of Prance, 
 without a single ally, and without a single possession in 
 the Indies, could not but by a miracle resist so many 
 enemies, it was plain that heaven protected him for 
 having driven the heretics out of France. Therefore 
 the holy office concluded by addressing its solemn 
 injunction to the crown of Spain not to make any 
 treaties, nor to hold any intercourse with them, but, 
 on the contrary, deliver their agents to be dealt with by 
 the holy Inquisition !" (App. P 3.) 
 
 This alarm of the Church of Spain was skilfully 
 turned to account by Lewis, who himself also shared 
 opinions so fatal to the peace of the world ; and who. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlv 
 
 after amusing King William for several years, closed 
 the scene with the acquisition of supremacy in Spain, 
 and over her vast possessions beyond sea. 
 
 The real disposition of the English which Paterson 
 sagaciously discovered, and the King did not sufficiently 
 respect, is displayed in a valuable record ; the whole sub- 
 ject being examined with the utmost care at the Board 
 of Trade and Plantations, of which no less important 
 a person than John Locke guided the deliberations. 
 
 The House of Commons had stayed the operations of 
 the Scottish Company in London by impeaching Pater- 
 son and a large body of its leading members ; and its 
 foreign negotiations for support were watched by the 
 EngUsh diplomatic agents with the utmost vigilance. 
 On this occasion Paterson went to Hamburgh, where the 
 consul exerted himself effectually, but with no little cre- 
 dulity, to defeat his efforts ; and the information trans- 
 mitted to the Secretary of State at home pointed at 
 Darien as one of several places selected for the Scotch 
 settlement in America. This information led to a 
 longer inquiry at the Board of Trade into the title of 
 Spain to that region, and into its character and cir- 
 cumstances. Two seamen of historic names, Dampier 
 and Wafer, were examined by the board ; with the 
 result, that, in its judgment, the territory did not, by 
 the law of nations, belong to Spain, and that being 
 a good country inhabited by Indians Ukely to be 
 friendly to us, the English Government ought to take 
 possession of it at once, in order to exclude all other 
 Europeans. The whole papers are inserted in the 
 Appendix (P 4). 
 
xm BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The eloquent Scottish historian, Malcolm Laing, 
 indeed, in his elaborate and candid account of the 
 Darien enterprize, raises a singular objection to it. 
 Admitting that the colony might have succeeded, and 
 that to unite the commerce of the two Indies by its 
 means was "the conception of no vulgar mind," he 
 concludes, that its very success would have withdrawn 
 men and money from Scotland, and left that country 
 " stationary and uncultivated, without industry, or even 
 the means of improvement." (App. Q.) The whole 
 reasoning upon which Mr. Laing's conclusion is founded, 
 assumes the incurable poverty of Scotland, whereas 
 Paterson reUed upon the native resources of the people 
 which history taught him. The country had been 
 progressive when free from impediments, and the 
 wonderful experience of the last hundred years proves 
 his wisdom. Scottish sailors have navigated the sea 
 for ages. They took part in the discoveries of the 
 fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. One of the crew 
 of the Victoria, Magellan's circumnavigating ship, was 
 a Scotchman. The attention of Scotland to the sciences 
 belonging to commerce is attested by the Logarithms 
 of Napier. Nor is it trivial to observe that Selkirk, 
 the prototype of the world-known Robinson Crusoe, was 
 a Scot ; or that Duncan and the Malcolms, from North 
 of the Borders, were worthy companions of Nelson and 
 Jarvis in modern times. It was an Earl of Selkkk 
 who first directed Scottish emigration to British 
 colonies ; and every scene of British enterprise under 
 the sun bears witness to Scottish energy in war and 
 peace in our day, whilst in more distracted times 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xlvU 
 
 the universality of Scottish enterprise in all shapes 
 made them for centuries denizens in foreign lands in 
 greater numbers in proportion to the extent of their 
 own country than any other people on earth. The 
 present prospects of wealth and improvement in Scot- 
 land are nowhere surpassed ; and Paterson was one of 
 those who the most steadily anticipated such brilliant 
 results for his country, on principles which experience 
 has confirmed. 
 
 It was doubtless from a consciousness of the weak- 
 ness of the case that the impeachment against him and 
 other agents of the African Company, begun in the 
 House of Commons in 1695, was not persevered in. 
 But, the English subscriptions to it being withdrawn, 
 the national spirit of the Scotch was roused by the 
 hostility their favourite and reasonable views en- 
 countered. They soon therefore raised the necessary 
 capital to carry out those views, when a strange inci- 
 dent, hitherto unknown to all the chroniclers of the 
 Darien enterprize, led to a series of errors fatal to the 
 Company, independently of the opposition it encoun- 
 tered from jealous rivals, or the mistaken King. The 
 evidence of this incident was lately found among the 
 Darien papers preserved in Edinburgh; it occurred 
 towards the close of 1697, until which time Paterson 
 had been the Company's chief counsellor in all their 
 proceedings. Not only had he planned the Darien 
 Settlement, but he was himself a subscriber of 3,0001. 
 to the stock, besides having in London mainly contri- 
 buted to the subscription of 300,000?. more in a few 
 days. From the outset he seems to have intended to 
 
Xlviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 go with the first fleet to Central America ; and the 
 success of the expedition clearly depended much upon 
 its command being confided to him. One party strongly 
 advocated the East Indies as the scene of operations, 
 and attacked Paterson with some virulence for what 
 was called an irrational prepossession in favour of the 
 west. The general confidence in his judgment enabled 
 him to induce the directors to adhere to this destination. 
 But a singularly unexpected circumstance weakened 
 his influence, deprived him of the anticipated command, 
 and embittered the remainder of his days. 
 
 At that time Holland afi"orded the cheapest and best 
 supphes of all maritime stores. The purchases there- 
 fore of such stores were to be made in Amsterdam,, 
 where Paterson was well known. A commission was 
 accordingly given to him and two other persons to 
 proceed thither for the purpose, the money, 25,000/., 
 being placed in his hands to secure the suitable remit- 
 tance. The financial operation was made advantage- 
 ously through a commercial agent long familiar with 
 Paterson ; but upon the arrival of the three commis- 
 sioners the provision thus made for their purchases had 
 disappeared. The faithless agent had absconded with 
 all the money ! By means of great activity of pursuit 
 a large portion of the sum lost, was recovered ; and 
 prompt payment from his own resources in London 
 much reduced the company's loss, leaving him in de- 
 plorable distress. 
 
 These facts are stated in the document referred 
 to,— a report upon the whole dehcate case by two 
 directors of the company to whom it was referred upon 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XllX 
 
 the return of the commissioners. This report at once 
 relieves Mr. Paterson of all suspicion of infidelity to his 
 trust. Its severe reproof of his imprudent confi- 
 dence in the Dutch agent is to be attributed to the 
 wish of the cautious referees to strengthen, by such 
 clear impartiality, their warm recommendation of a 
 proposal made by Paterson for the repayment of the 
 money still deficient. That proposal, and the conclu- 
 sion of the referees, are striking illustrations of his 
 excellent character. In order to replace the defalca- 
 tion, he had already stripped himself of the residue of 
 his fortune, although few would have readily admitted 
 their liability for a loss incurred indeed by their im- 
 mediate means, but without any want of ordinary 
 mercantile caution. He now added that he was ready 
 to withdraw from the company, and return to mer- 
 chandise in London, with the hope of prospering, as he 
 had done theretofore, and so be enabled to make good 
 the balance, or he would go out to Darien with the 
 expedition, in the service of the company, appro- 
 priating a large part of his salary for their benefit. 
 The report concludes by the recommendation already 
 alluded to, that the services of Paterson ought to be 
 f accepted not only because of his personal ability, but 
 seeing that his great popularity in the West Indies 
 would bring crowds of people from other plantations to 
 any place he should settle in. This satisfactory report 
 is as follows ; and its importance will be held to be the 
 greater, when the eminent qualities of the senior 
 referee. Principal Dunlop, are taken into considera- 
 tion (App. R) : 
 
1 BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " A Report from Mr. William Dunlop, Principal of 
 the College of Glasgow, and Mr. Robert Black- 
 wood, Merchant in Edinburgh, concerning Mr. 
 Paterson and the Debt due by him to the Com- 
 pany. 
 
 "In obedience to the Council-General's order, we 
 have fully considered the whole matter to us referred, 
 and, after serious and long reasoning thereupon, we 
 cannot find the least ground to think that Mr. Paterson 
 had any design to cheat or defraud the company, and 
 that for these reasons following : — 
 
 " 1st. That if he intended any such thing it had been 
 as easy for him to have gone away and cheated the 
 company of the whole 25,000Z. sterhng, which he was 
 entrusted with, as of the balance now due. 
 
 " 2nd. It is evident that when he went beyond sea he 
 knew nothing of Mr. Sm3rth's having misapplied that 
 money, as not doubting in the least but that Gleneagles 
 would have got it all at London ; and both Gleneagles 
 and Colonel Erskin do testify how much he was 
 surprised and afflicted when he heard of the disappoint- 
 ment, and how earnest and careful he was to get Smyth 
 to make a discovery of his effects, to the end the com- 
 pany might be secured therein. 
 
 " 3rd. Had Mr. Paterson been conscious !o himself 
 of any wilful design to have defrauded the company, 
 he might easily have given the slip to Gleneagles and 
 Coll. Erskin beyond sea, and if his intentions were not 
 still honest and just to the company we cannot possibly 
 suppose that he would even venture upon coming to 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. li 
 
 Scotland to give us his assistance at so critical a 
 juncture, when in all probabiUty he might with security 
 and advantage pursue other measures in England. 
 
 '* 4th. Mr. Paterson declares that his only design in 
 having that money lodged in his hands was for the 
 benefit of the company, and it would have proved so if 
 Smyth had been honest : because, first, all the milled 
 money in Scotland was before that time cried up to an 
 over-value, and being daily in expectation of a great 
 turn in the exchange and lowering of the money (as it 
 soon happened), the company must needs have lost ten 
 per cent, upon the 20,000/. sent to London if it had 
 remained in the company's hands but a little tipae 
 longer till the money was cried down ; secondly, whereas 
 the company got two or three per cent, by remitting 
 the money at that time, they must have paid eight or 
 ten per cent, more for remitting it afterwards, and 
 Mr. Paterson judged that the quieter it could be done 
 the less opportunity, would be given to such as dealt in 
 exchanges, so that, indeed, the design was rational had 
 not other intervening accidents rendered it ineffectual ; 
 thirdly, so in the end the company might have a fund in 
 a convenient place for answering the needful demands 
 abroad, being then resolved to proceed immediately 
 upon action, by which a whole year naight be saved, 
 and foreigners encouraged to join with us when they 
 would see we were in earnest. 
 
 " However, we have been very pressing with him to 
 know if he could propose any fund or method by which 
 the balance due by him to the company might be duly 
 satisfied ; in answer to which he declared that by his 
 
 e2 
 
lii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 engaging himself in the company's service, leaving his 
 own affairs abruptly, and thereby neglecting also other 
 opportunities by which he might have advanced his 
 fortune in England, that he has lost more than the 
 balance now due to the company, and he actually con- 
 descends upon 4,000Z. sterling in the Orphans' Fund 
 and 2,000Z. sterling in the Waterworks at London, which 
 any indifferent person there may be easily satisfied in. 
 By that means he is made destitute of any fund for the 
 company's present payment. Nor can he propose any 
 method for their satisfaction but one of two : either to 
 dismiss him out of the company's service, allowing him 
 time to recover some fortune or employment, and then, 
 as he shall become able, he will pay by degrees, or by 
 the company's retaining him in their service and 
 allowing him some reasonable consideration out of the 
 company's first free profits for his pains, charges, and 
 losses in promoting the same ; out of which allowance 
 to be given him by the company he doubts not in few 
 years to discharge the balance above-mentioned, if 
 Smyth should happen to fail therein ; though, at the 
 same time, he hopes that Smyth will be both able and 
 forced to do it to his hand. 
 
 " Now, after full deliberation, we humbly offer it as 
 our opinion that this last overture should be complied 
 with, and that because — 
 
 " 1st. Any other vigorous method cannot possibly 
 recover the company's money, but may certainly do us 
 innumerable prejudices, which to mention particularly 
 we think not fit at present. 
 
 " 2nd. Because we find it evident he had no design 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. liii 
 
 to cheat the company, as is supposed, but rather a 
 design of the company's profit as aforesaid, in taking so 
 great a trust upon him, though by an easy credulity 
 and folly he was unluckily the instrument of convejdng 
 that trust upon Smyth, who misused the same, to the 
 company's and the said Paterson's manifest prejudice. 
 
 " 3rd. We are convinced that Mr. Paterson's going 
 along with the company's intended expedition is, we 
 will not say absolutely necessary, but may be very pro- 
 fitable and convenient, for these reasons : first, it is 
 well known that for a considerable course of years he 
 has applied himself to the knowledge of whatsoever 
 doth principally relate to settlements ; and certainly 
 the advantages of his experience, reading, and con- 
 verse must needs be very assisting to those whom the 
 company will think fit to entrust with the management 
 of their affairs out of Europe ; secondly, Mr. Paterson 
 having certainly a considerable reputation in several 
 places of America, and wherever the company will 
 settle, the account of his being there will doubtless be 
 a means to invite many persons from the neighbouring 
 plantations, who are possessed with an opinion of him. 
 
 " 4th. The directors,* and most part of the company, 
 were convinced that he deserved a considerable gratifi- 
 cation if this misfortune had not happened ; and since 
 we humbly conceive he is no further accessary to the 
 said misfortune, than as being unluckily the instrument 
 of handing the said trust to Smyth, we think the over- 
 ture above mentioned ought still to be complied with. 
 
 " 5th. Any consideration that he now expects is far 
 short of what was first proposed for him at London, 
 
liv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 viz. 12,O0OZ. sterling in hand out of the money paid in, 
 and three per cent, out of the free profits for twenty- 
 one years ; and even the resolution of the court of 
 directors of the 6th of October, 1696, may be also con- 
 sidered. 
 
 "6th. The closing with this overture, by allowing 
 him some imaginary credit (as may be easily concerted), 
 without any present advance by the company, will not 
 only engage him wholly and constantly to the com- 
 pany's service, but also be a means to re-establish his 
 reputation, and enable him the better to pay any debt 
 due to the company, with interest ; and that he should 
 have some consideration for aU his time spent, pains, 
 trouble, and losses, is but just and reasonable. 
 
 " Now, as to the sum of 2 1,1 1 9?. I3s.4d. of the com- 
 pany's money charged upon Mr. Paterson, and by him 
 entrusted to Messrs. Stewart and Campbell and Smyth, 
 we find that Stewart and Campbell have accounted to 
 the company for their part thereof, being 4,226/. Us. 
 and that Smyth has already accounted also to the com- 
 pany, by money and security, to the amount of 8,7 13i. 
 as per particulars in the account formerly laid before 
 this council-general ; so that there remains still unac- 
 counted for to the company the balance of 8,284/. ISsAd, 
 chargeable either on Smyth or Paterson, or both. Yet, 
 we cannot find that Mr. Paterson has touched any part 
 thereof^ otherwise than that, by his means, it was un- 
 luckily handed to Smyth as aforesaid, though by Colonel 
 Erskin and Gleneagles' persuasion he was prevailed upon 
 to grant an obligation to the company for about one- 
 half of the said balance, as being chargeable with it how- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Iv 
 
 soever, which the tenor of the said obligation seems 
 to demonstrate to us. 
 
 " But, as to the further charge of 4,272/. 4s. lid. deli- 
 vered to Mr. Paterson, by bills and money, in October, 
 1696, he has already fully accounted to the company 
 as per particulars specially mentioned in the account 
 lately laid before this council-general, excepting only a 
 balance of 67SI. 14*. 3d. of which balance we find he 
 discharges himself, by an act of the court of directors, 
 allowing him 20*. sterling per diem during the time of 
 his negotiations abroad as one of the company's depu- 
 ties, which, from the 19th day of October, 1696, to the 
 23rd day of June, 1697 (being the day on which Colonel 
 Erskin and Gleneagles returned to Scotland), does 
 amount to 253/. Item, we find there was a bill of 
 1 15/. sterling, drawn by one Allan, in Glasgow, returned 
 protested, of which the company did afterwards receive 
 the just value, so that the remaining balance being 
 310/. 14*. 3d. is (as Mr. Paterson says) far short of his 
 necessary expenses in the company's services, both here 
 and at London, since he first engaged therein in June, 
 1695, which we judge not improbable. 
 
 " And, upon the whole, we appeal to this council- 
 general, whether all and every individual member 
 thereof was not once of the beUef that Mr. Paterson did 
 merit very well at the company's hands, till the un- 
 happy miscarriage of the money above mentioned came 
 in play." 
 
 It is incredible that the directors should have been 
 deaf to the deliberate and reasonable judgment of their 
 two impartial colleagues in favour of Paterson's in- 
 
Ivi BIOGRAPHICAL INTBODUCTION. 
 
 tegrity and devotedness to the company's interests. 
 Their disregard of the prudent conclusion that he 
 should be employed, was accompanied by the gross im- 
 prudence of placing the rule of the expedition in the 
 hands of seven councillors with no head, and their 
 choice fell upon seven incompetent men for those coun- 
 cillors. Accordingly dissensions among the numerous 
 members of this absurd colonial government, and 
 want of foresight to meet the ordinary difficulties 
 and requirements of the enterprise, were more dis- 
 astrous than the jealousy of the Enghsh and Dutch 
 companies, and even than the hostility of the Spa- 
 niards. 
 
 So sudden and so melancholy a reverse in social 
 position never perhaps occurred in any other case. 
 Paterson nevertheless sailed under their orders as a 
 voluntary, uncommissioned settler, the loss of the 
 money in Holland being so studiously concealed as 
 scarcely to be suspected by the hired tract-writers 
 of the day, who would gladly have turned it into 
 ridicule — a weapon they employed with little scruple 
 (App. S). 
 
 The settlement of New Caledonia was at length 
 founded in 1698 in Darien ; and after mismanagement! 
 reduced it to miserable straits he interposed, and his 
 sagacity and personal influence would probably have 
 saved it; but the incapable men to whom the com^ 
 mand had been given at home soon resolved, in spite 
 of his remonstrances, to abandon then- trust and leave 
 the place. He was the last, most reluctantly and in 
 sickness, to come away. His official report of all the 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ivii 
 
 proceedings, made to the Company's imprudent direc- 
 tors on his return to Edinburgh, has been published 
 by the Bannatjnae Club ; displaying a series of errors 
 on the part of the incapable seven councillors, which 
 fully account for the disasters of the expedition. It 
 is as follows in the Darien Papers, pages 178 — 198. 
 
 "Report by William Paterson to the Directors. 
 
 " Report of Matters relateing to the CoUony of Cale- 
 donia, made to the Right Honble. The Court of 
 Directors of the Indian and African Company of 
 Scotland.* 
 
 Att Edinburgh, the nintenth day of December, ] 699. 
 
 " Right Honourable, 
 
 "On the 16th day of July, 1698, 1 arryved on board 
 the company's ship the Unicorne, in order to my voyage 
 in the afternoon. I went on board the Saint Andrew ; 
 and although I was not of the councell, yet the care and 
 concerne I hade for the success, obliedged me to speake 
 to Captain Pennicook for calling a councell before we 
 set saille, in order to considder how they were provided 
 for the voyage, and to represent to this court what 
 might be defective : but I was answered — I must give 
 him leave to think that he knew his business and the 
 instructions he hade to follow, or to this purpose. 
 
 " Two or three dayes after we sailled, the councell 
 was called on board the St. Andrew, where they found 
 the provisions and necessarys for the voyage fall ex- 
 
 * From the original, corrected and signed by Paterson, in the Mis- 
 cellaneous Collection; 
 
Iviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ceedingly short of what was given out or expected; 
 whereupon the people were reduced to a much shorter 
 aUowance; and the next day the councell wrote letters 
 signifieing their condition, designing to land those letters 
 att Orknay; but the fogie hazy weather and currents 
 not only prevented that, but endangered the ships, and 
 occasioned the separation of the Unicorne and Indeavour 
 pink from the rest. 
 
 " After our meeting att Madeira, the councell wrote 
 their condition by way of Lisbon and Holland ; but in 
 as sparing and generall termes as possible, least these 
 letters should be intercepted to the prejudice of our 
 designes. These letters were dated the 29th day of 
 August, 1698. 
 
 " When Captain Pinkerton and I were at the Island 
 of St. Thomas about the beginning of October, we mett 
 with one Captain Richard Moon of Jamaica, who com- 
 manded a sloop of about eighty tunns. He was bound 
 from New York to Curasao with provisions, but by the 
 way touched att Saint Thomas, where he mett with us. 
 The man I hade known in Jamaica many years before ; 
 him we perswaded to follow us to the rest of our ships, 
 then riddeing at Crab-Island. When he came he found 
 our goods so deare and ill sorted for his purpose, that, 
 upon the conditions we proposed, he would not parte 
 with any of his provisions, upon which I represented to 
 the councell that it might be of ill consequence for us 
 not only to miss such a quantity of good and new pro- 
 visions, but the report he might give of our goods being • 
 overrated would unavoidably be an ill preparative for 
 others, whereas the agreement with him, though at a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. lix 
 
 deare rate, would incourrage him and many more to 
 come to us with the greater speed and earnestness ; 
 also that I hade heard the goods were considerably over- 
 rated. But, however it was, two or three hundred 
 pounds loss ought not to be putt in ballance with the 
 risque of the designe, which, if it miscarried, I was 
 apprehensive the company would, however, gett but a 
 lame account of their cargoe, wherefore it was better 
 to risk a parte of it upon the prospect of something, 
 then inevitably to loss it without any prospect att all. 
 To all this I was answered, that they were not obliedged 
 to take notice of any particular man's assertions as to 
 the over-valueing or ill buying the goods, but rather to 
 believe the prime cost was as in the company's invoyce, 
 and that they would not be so imposed upon by Capt. 
 Moon. Thus Mr. Moon parted from us. But before 
 he went I took an opportunity to tell him, that by 
 reasone of the stowage in those crowded ships, he 
 could not now have a sight of the greatest parte of our 
 cargoe ; but if he and his freinds would send us a sloop 
 with provisions from Jamaica, and also come himself as 
 soon as he could, I did not doubt but he would dispose 
 of them to his sufficient satisfaction, which he promised 
 to doe, and hade some discourse thereof to the rest of 
 the councellors before we parted. 
 
 " Dureing the voyage, our marine chancellors did not 
 only take all upon them, but lykewayes browbeat and 
 discouraged every body els, yet we hade patience, hope- 
 ing things would mend when we came ashore ; but we 
 found ourselves mistaken; for though our masters at 
 sea hade sufficiently taught us that we fresh-water men 
 
Ix BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 knew nothing of their salt-water business, — yet when 
 at land they were so farr from leting us turne the chase, 
 that they took upon them to know everything better 
 than we. 
 
 " I must confess it troubled me exceedingly to see 
 our affairs thus turmoyled and disordered by tempers 
 and dispositions as boisterous and turbulent as the ele- 
 ments they are used to struggle with, which are att 
 least as mischievous masters as ever they can be usefull 
 servants. To this disease I proposed as a present ease 
 and a parte of a remedy, that a president of the councell 
 should be chosen for a month, and that the first should 
 be a land councellor, and that every land councellor 
 might take his toure before any of those of the sea 
 should come in place. This, I reckoned, would be four 
 moneths ; and in this tyme 1 was in hopes that we 
 might be able to make some lawes, orders, and rules of 
 government, and by people's management in the tyme, to 
 be better able to judge who might be most fitt to pro- 
 ceed for a longer tyme, not exceeding a year. This 
 my thoughts I imparted to our land councellors ; but 
 they, like wise men, hade begune to make their court, 
 and agreed beforehand with those of the sea that the 
 precedency should laste but a week ; and though I urged 
 that it would be to make a meer May game of the 
 government, and that it would reduce all things to un- 
 certainty and contradictions, yet this determination of 
 the rest was unalterable. Upon which Mr. Montgomrey 
 was chosen the first president, after which we begane 
 to proceed to business. 
 
 "The first thing fallen upon was a place of lauding; 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixi 
 
 but the sea councellors were for a meer morass, neither 
 fitt to be fortified nor planted, nor indeed for the men 
 to ly upon. But this was carried by main force and a 
 great struggle, although I know no reason they hade 
 for it, unless it might be to save one of their boats the 
 trouble, once in two or three dayes, to bestow three or 
 four hours to supply the landmen with water. We 
 were upon clearing and making hutts upon this im- 
 proper place neare two moneths, in which tyme expe- 
 rience — the schoollmaster of foolls — convinced our 
 masters that the point now called Fort Saint Andrew 
 was more proper for us; upon which they appointed 
 Captain Thomas Drummond to oversee the work, who, 
 according to the tooUs he had to work with, did beyond 
 what could be reasonably expected from him ; for our 
 men, though for the most parte in health, were gene- 
 rally weake for want of sufficient allowance of pro- 
 visions and hquors, and this inconveniency upon them 
 was the harder by reasone of the irregular serving of 
 their scrimp allowances, for our marine masters con- 
 tinually pretended other urgent business, and soe could 
 hardly spare their boats to bring the land pro\isions 
 and conveniencies ashore, and many of the most need- 
 full things that I know were only designed for the 
 shore, were detained on board under pretence they 
 belonged to the ships. 
 
 "When we arryved first, we were, as it was, in a 
 prisone for want of sloops, briganteens, or other good, 
 stiff, windwardly vessells; for the snow or the pink 
 were utterly uufitt for that purpose, otherwayes the 
 sending home, as also to all our freinds in the planta- 
 
Ixii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, 
 
 tions, ought to have been the first things done. The 
 inconveniency of this was foreseen ; but it seems could 
 not he prevented. About the twentieth of December a 
 sloop anyved from Jamaica, commanded by Mr. Edward 
 Sands, fraughted by Captain Moon and Mr. Peter 
 Wilmot of Port Royall, and a parte belonged to one 
 Master Robert AUieson, who came from aboard df 
 Moon's sloop along with us from St. Thomas Island. 
 This sloop was consigned to Mr, Allison, and in his 
 absence to me. Upon report of her cargoe, the councell 
 ordered Captain Jolly and Captain Pinkerton to agree 
 with Allison, which agreement was, that they should 
 have our goods as they cost in Scotland, and we were, 
 in lieu therof, to have the sloop's cargoe of provisions 
 as it cost in Jamaica, and, as I remember, ten per cent, 
 advance; wherupon the sloop's provisions were putt 
 aboard one of our ships, and the goods in exchange 
 were to be delyvered by us to Captain Moon, who was 
 expected in a moneth after. 
 
 " Before this tyme Major Cunningham, one of our 
 number, was become so uneasie, and possessed (as we 
 thought) by so unaccountable conceits and notions, 
 that he gave us noe small trouble, and att last would 
 needs forsake not only his post but also the Collony, 
 This very justly offended the rest of the councellors, 
 considering their raw and unsettled circumstances ; and 
 some thoughts there were of detaining him by force. 
 But after weighing his temper, they consented to his 
 going ; but thought it were prudent to parte with him 
 in friendship then otherwayes, least any that might 
 espouse his humour in Scotland, should prove a means 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixiu 
 
 of retarding or frustrating our needfull supplyes. Upon 
 these considerations they gave him a generall letter of 
 recommendation, but no instructions in writing; and 
 Mr. Hamiltoun hade also verbal orders to intimat the 
 matter, but soe cautiously as not thairby to prejudice 
 the CoUony's interest. 
 
 " In order to cure as much as possible the convul- 
 sions we laboured under from the weight of our marine 
 governours, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Mackay, and I 
 agreed to try, before the Major went away, if we could 
 perswade them to the admission of two or three new coun- 
 cellors. But instead of compljdng with soe reasonable 
 a proposeall, the three gentlemen fell out into the 
 greatest passion and disorder possible, and Mr. Mont- 
 gomery falling in with them, nothing could be done in 
 it at that tyme. 
 
 " Major Cunningham his going home proceeding not 
 from the councell, but from himself, they proposed to 
 send home a person who might by word of mouth 
 represent to the company things that could not be so 
 well committed to writting. The Captains Pennicook, 
 Pinkertoun, and Jolly proposed Mr. Hamilton; Mr. 
 Cunningham and I were for Mr. Samuell Veatch ; Mr. 
 Montgomery was for one Mr. Alexander Baird; and 
 Mr. Mackay was non liquid. My reasons against Mr. 
 Hamilton going away were, that he was appointed by 
 the company their accomptant-generall, and indeed 
 was the only person we had left fitt for that and the 
 management of the cargoe, which at this tyme was in 
 such disorder and confusion that I saw noe way of 
 bringing it into method but that Mr. Hamilton, and 
 
Ixiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 such Others as were capable to assist him, should goe 
 immediately about it ; and thought Captain Veatch, or 
 some other gentleman who could be better spared by 
 the collony, might be capable enough for that errand ; 
 whereas Mr. Hamilton, his being taken from his station 
 without supplying his place, would unavoidably reduce 
 things to that disorder and confusion in which I ame 
 afrayd the company will find them when they come to 
 enquire into the management of their cargoe. 
 
 " After Mr. Hamilton was dispatched in Sands his 
 sloop, by way of Jamaica, a designe was sett on foot to 
 send Captain Pinkerton and Captain Malloch, in the 
 Dolphine Snow, to Curasao, Saint Thomas, and other 
 islands to the windward. The designe was to settle a 
 correspondence, and to buy a sloop or two, together with 
 rum, sugar, and other things we wanted from them. 
 But I made objections against this voyage — First, 
 because in our passage from Scotland we found the 
 Snow no windwardly vessell, and the north and strong 
 north-easterly winds were not yet over, and I questioned 
 if any thing abated, and therefore believed (as it hap- 
 pened) that she would never be able to get to the wind- 
 ward ; and, in the second place, either Pinkerton or 
 Malloch could doe any thing that was to be done as well 
 as both, whom we could not well spare by reason of 
 our scarcity of good sea officers ; and, in the last place, 
 I questioned if our present circumstances would alloir 
 of thus remote adventuring of so considderable a parte 
 of our cargoe ; but that it should rather ly ready by i 
 as a bate to such as should come with present supply^ 
 which we very much wanted at this time, and, for any 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. IxV 
 
 thing I saw, were lyke to want much more. But to all 
 this I was answered in the usuall forme, that I did not 
 understand it. 
 
 " After Captain Pinkerton was gone Capt. Moon 
 arryved, and on boord him his owner, Mr. Peter Wil- 
 mot, who called for the return of the provisions we 
 hade by Sands ; when we came to offer him goods by 
 our invoyce, he said he could buy them as cheap, if 
 not cheaper, in Jamaica, complaining that the invoyce 
 was not a true invoyce, but the goods were over- valued 
 above foui'ty p. cent. However, after some clamours, 
 the councell agreed with him for thirty pound p. cent, 
 abatement upon the invoyce ; yet he would not let us 
 have any more of his provisions att that rate, but parted 
 with us, complaining that he should be a losser. It 
 vext me not only to see us parte with such a parcell of 
 provisions, but also for the effect it might have to dis- 
 courage others, as it afterwards happened. 
 
 " As the native Indians, att our first coming, hade 
 made us severall advantageous offers to undertake 
 against the Spaniards, soe now, in this moneth of 
 February, they continued to allarm us with the pre- 
 parations of the Spaniards, and to press us from seve- 
 rall parts to ane undertaking against them. Among 
 these were Corbet of the Samblas, Diego of the Gulph, 
 and Pausigo of Carreto, with others. But we still an- 
 fswered them, that our King was att peace with the 
 Spainiards, and soe we could not make warr, unless 
 they begune with us ; but whenever they did we would 
 repell force by force, and assemble all the Indians and 
 ■others that were willing to assist us against them. 
 
 / 
 
Ixvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 They exprest a wonderful! hatred and horrour for the 
 
 Spaniards, and seemed not to understand how we could 
 
 be at peace with them, except we were as bad as they. 
 
 It is certain this was the true season of the year for 
 
 undertakings of that kind, and our people were then 
 
 in health, and indifferent strong, which they happened 
 
 not to be afterwards, when the Spainiards had given us 
 
 sufficient provocation, and when the season was not soe 
 
 proper. But afterward, upon information that a great 
 
 party of Spainiards were come overland, and from the 
 
 south s.eas, to invade us, and were then at an Indian 
 
 house two or three leagues from the other syde of the 
 
 harbour, we sent Mr. Montgomery with a party of 
 
 men to know the truth ; but, instead of a body of 
 
 Spainiards, found only a few men who were sent thither 
 
 to get intelligence, who, when our men came upon 
 
 them, took their opportunity to fire att them from the 
 
 thickets where they were placed, and then rune away, 
 
 having killed two or three, and woiinded some others. 
 
 Our men returned the salute without any execution 
 
 that we know of. This party consisted of twenty-five 
 
 men, as we heard afterwards. This party had been 
 
 detached from a body of fifteen hundred men, then at 
 
 Tabugantee, and from thence designed to invade us by 
 
 land ; but, by reason of opposition from the Indians, 
 
 and other obstructions they met with, they aftenvard 
 
 disperst, and came to nothing. 
 
 " Some dayes after Captain Moon was gone, returned 
 Captain Sands from Jamaica, as also arryved one Cap- 
 tain Ephraims Pilkington, both loaden with provisions, 
 all which the councell bought, and sent Pilkington with 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixvii 
 
 his sloop or shallope to trade upon the Spanish coast, 
 while Captain Sands went a turtling for the collony. 
 Some dayes after this Captain Pennicook and Mr. 
 Mackay hade a great falling out. I endeavoured not 
 only to compose their difference, but if possible to bring 
 some good out of it. Wherefore 1 represented to them 
 separately how sad and scandalous our condition was ; 
 that if any two of us hade a difference, the remainder 
 hade not authority eneugh to reduce them to reason : 
 therefore advised and perswaded them both to consent 
 to the admission of two or three new councellors. This 
 they severally consented to, agreeing that I should 
 move it, and that they should be seconds, and, if Messrs. 
 Montgomery and Jolly did oppose it, to carry it by vote. 
 Accordingly, I moved it, and they did second it, but so 
 very coldly, that, though Mr. Jolly was in the chair, 
 and so three against one, yet I could not so much as 
 gett my motion entered, much less a liberty to protest 
 that the majority was for it, and soe it was past of 
 course. This motion raised me much envy and trouble, 
 which continued a long time after. 
 
 " Before Major Cunningham went away, there was 
 something done he would have protested against. I 
 doe not remember the thing, only that I was not of his 
 opinnion as to the matter, but was for allowing him a 
 liberty to protest, as all other councellors ought to have 
 hade. For this I urged the custom of most civill 
 societies in the world, and the express meaning of the 
 company, when they in their instructions say that one 
 councellor shall not be lyable to the defaults and mis- 
 carriages of the others, but every one for his own 
 
 /2 
 
IXVUl BIOGRAPHICAL INTRUUUUnuiN . 
 
 default ; but, say or doe what I would, there could noa 
 of them be perswaded to it, nor was protests or entries 
 of motions or dissents att all allowed by the old coun- 
 cellors, but, indeed, that doctrine was as much exploded 
 by the new councell as ever that of passive obedience 
 has been upon another occasion. 
 
 " About the tenth or twelfth of February, within a 
 day or two of each others, arryved two sloops from 
 
 Jamaica, the one of which was commanded by 
 
 Mitchell, and the other by Mr. William Robbins. That 
 of Robbins was consigned to me in his absence, and 
 Mitchell was recommended. Robbins offered his pro- 
 visions as soon as ever he came in, and Mitchell would 
 also have sold his. Their main designe was about fishing 
 the French wrack att the entrance of our harbour, of 
 which the councell acquainted this court, and the pro- 
 visions were only brought in by the bye. Our coun- 
 cellors would not be perswaded in tyme to take these 
 provisions ; and afterwards those purse-proud fellows, 
 having tyme to understand our wants by the mur mures 
 of the people and other circumstances, took humers in 
 their heads, and would not part with their provisions upon 
 any account, unless we could have given them money. 
 
 "Att this tyme, in hopes the tyme of the strong 
 breese was over, or at least much abated, we sent out 
 the Indeavour pink, under the command of Captain 
 John Anderson, and a stock of some hundred pounds 
 value was on boord of her, whereof Mr. Robert Allison 
 was supercargo. She was to touch att Jamaica, and 
 goe from thence to New York, and returne to us with 
 provisions ; but. after she hade beaten about a moneth, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixix 
 
 and not gott fourty leagues to the windward, she was 
 forced to returne to us again, after having become very 
 leaky by the stress she had mett with att sea. 
 
 " About the begining of March, Captain Pilkington 
 returned from the coast of Carthagena, having hade 
 litle or no trade by reason of the badness and unsute- 
 ableness of the cargoe, and brought us the unhappy 
 newes of the loss of our snow, and the imprisonment of 
 Captain Pinkerton and his crew att Carthagena ; of all 
 which we advised the company by ane occasion of the 
 sixth or seventh of March. Mr. Mackay was then sick 
 of an intermitting fever, and his lyfe hardly expected ; 
 and, by reason of some heats that arose between Mr. 
 Pennicook and Mr. Montgomery, all things seemed to 
 be att a stand, for Mr. Jolly and I hade not authority to 
 make peace between them when att variance, nor to 
 cause them to keep it when made. I could think of- 
 nothing to cure this distemper of ours, but either an 
 addition of councellors or a Parliement. About an 
 addition of councellors we could not agree, and we 
 should loss tyme in staying for a Parliament; wherefore 
 it was resolved to call a Parliament as soon as possible, 
 and, in the meantime, to dispatch the Captains Pilking- 
 toun and Sands to Carthagena, with a messenger and 
 letter, to demand our prisoners and effects, and to 
 declare that, if they refused, we would immediately 
 grant reprizalls : and, accordingly, commissions were 
 given to Pilkington and Sands, to be put in execution 
 in caice of refuseall made to Mr. Alexander Mackgier 
 our messenger ; but Pennicook agreed not to signe 
 these dispatches. 
 
IXX BIOGRAPHrCAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " About this tyme Captain Pennicook begane to be 
 very uneasie, and to publish that there was not a 
 moneth's provisions in the coUony, no not neare eneugh 
 to carry us off the coast, and this he pubUsht indus- 
 triously upon all occasions ; but, in order to putt a 
 stope to these clamours^ att the first and second meetting 
 of the Parliament, some of the members were appointed 
 to take a narrow scrutiny of the provisions on boord 
 the severall ships and ashore. This scrutiny lasted 
 severall weeks, and at last could never be very exactly 
 taken, of which Pennicook himself (with whom con- 
 cealed provisions were found) was non of the least 
 occasions. 
 
 " By this tyme, being about the twenty-fourth or 
 twenty-fifth of March, Mr. Mackay was pretty well 
 recovered, and the Captains Pilkington and Sands 
 returned from Carthagena with our messenger, Mr. 
 Alexander Macgie, who brought the refuseall of our 
 prisoners and effects, and a letter from the Govemour 
 of Carthagena to that effect. They met with and 
 brought in their company a New England brigantein, 
 which was bound to us with provisions, but hade mist 
 our porte. One Philips commanded her. Two or three 
 dayes afterwards Pilkington and Sands arryved before 
 the harbour, Captain Moon, his sloop the Neptune, and 
 another Jamaica sloop, commanded by one Mathias 
 Maltman of Jamaica. Mr. Wilmot sent a canoa with a 
 letter to me about some goods he had left to be dis- 
 posed of. Whether they hade any other business in, I 
 know not ; but, as 1 was about to answer his letter 
 Pennicook, being President, arrested the canoa, with all 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxi 
 
 the men that were in her, being twelve or fourteen. 
 The pretence was that Moon's sloop hade carried away 
 a boy called Skelton, and all the men stopt. Nay, 
 Moon's sloop and all his effects was not able to make 
 satisfaction for this boy of Pennicook's. I did what I 
 could to gett a boat or canoa to send out, that the boy 
 might be sent in, and the canoa released, but an em- 
 bargoe was laid upon every thing ; so the sloops were 
 forced to ly off and on all night for their canoa and 
 men ; and when I saw I could not prevaill for a boat, I 
 endeavoured to gett the men out of the guardhouse. 
 The next morning early Captain Pilkington went in his 
 canoa aboord of Moon, and told him what was the 
 matter. By him I sent a letter to Wilmot to come 
 ashore and justifie himself. The boy Skelton was brought, 
 and Mr. Wilmot also appeared ; but instead of accuse- 
 ing Mr. Wilmot of anything regularly, as I hade reasone 
 to expect, it all ended in a httle hector and Billingsgate. 
 Mr. Wilmot stayed till the afternoon ; and before he 
 went away I came to Mr. Mackay's hutt, and Mr. Wilmot 
 came also to take his leave. The rest of the councellors 
 were then together ; and upon my coming they calls 
 me in, and Mr. Mackay presents me a paper to signe, 
 which contained a warrant to Captain Robert Drum- 
 mond to take boats and goe and bring in Captain 
 Mathias his sloop. When I asked what reasones they 
 hade for it, Mr. Mackay answered that they were in- 
 formed that this sloop was a Spanish sloop, and was 
 fraughted by three Spanish merchants, now on boord 
 her, and bound for Portubell, with I know not what for 
 a treasure of gold and silver barrs ; and added, I war- 
 
Ixxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rant you will not medle, because your friend Mr. Wilmot 
 is concerned. This usage did not please me; but, however, 
 I told them if she was a Spanish sloop I was as ready 
 as they ; but if belonging to any other nation I would 
 not be concerned. But, however, I signed the warrant 
 to bring in the sloop. When she was brought, instead 
 of a Spanish we found her a Jamaica sloop, with two 
 Spanish passengers, and, as I heard, about 80 or 100 
 pounds value in peeces of eight, Spanish pistoUs, and 
 gold dust. When I found this I must needs say I was 
 very angry, and endeavoured to get the sloop and men 
 discharged next day, as being an English bottom. To 
 this purpose I layd the law before Pennicook, and after- 
 wards to Mr. Mackay, who by this tyme had brought 
 the men and money out of the sloop. Upon this, I said 
 I would write home about this matter, and then left 
 them. Upon this occasion, God knowes, my concerne 
 was not upon my own account, or any humor of my 
 own, but the true love of justice and good of the col- 
 lony ; in which concerne of spirit I heartily wisht that 
 they might not have cause to repent of their inhuman 
 usage of those before any other friendly strangers came 
 to visit them, or to this effect. When I was gone there 
 was a councell called, consisting of Pennicook, Mackay, 
 Montgomery, and Jolly, where, as the secretary told 
 me afterward, they confirmed the taking of the two 
 Spaniards and the money from on boord the Jamaica 
 sloop. I suppose the minutes of the 29th or 30th of 
 March will show it. 
 
 "The councell not only bought what provisions 
 Captain Philips hade on boord, but also hyred his bri- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxiii 
 
 ganteen express for Scotland ; and, besides ane address 
 to his Majestie, to lay before him our ill usage by the 
 Spainiards, and the needfull dispatches to the Company, 
 to carry some intelligent and well-instructed person, to 
 make a more lyvely representation of our circumstances 
 to the company ; but, although Mr. Mackay was pretty 
 well recovered, yet they could not att all agree upon the 
 person to be sent. This and the lyke delayes and inter- 
 ruptions occasioned another motion for ane addition to 
 the councell, in order to carry things more smoothly 
 for the future ; but, upon this motion, Mr. Montgomery 
 opposed it, and then withdrew. Mr. Jolly also opposed 
 it, but continued with us till Mr. CoUine Campbell was 
 named and voted, and then he lykewayes withdrew ; 
 and although we sent our secretary severall tymes, en- 
 treating them in a freindly and respectfuU manner to 
 give their attendance and assistance in councell, yet 
 they refused, and altogether forsook us ; and not only 
 so, but some small tyme after left the collony. 
 
 " After the admission of Mr. Colline Campbell, Mr. 
 Samuell Veatch, Mr. Charles Forbes, and Mr. Thomas 
 Drummond, we proceeded to transmit the address to his 
 Majestie, and the other needfull dispatches to the com- 
 pany ; and Mr. Daniell Mackay was pitcht upon to be 
 the person should carry them, who was parted from us 
 the tenth or eleventh of Aprill last. 
 
 " Upon the returne from the Governour of Carthagena, 
 we begane to think of undertaking something consider- 
 able against the Spainiards ; but the rainy season then 
 approaching, together with the sickness of some, and 
 the generall weakness and rawness of our men, made it 
 
Ixxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 impracticable at this tyme by land, wherefore the ships 
 were ordered to be in readieness ; and in the mean tyme 
 Pilkington and Sands were ordered to cruise upon the 
 coast of Portubello, to take what they could by way of 
 reprizall ; as also what prisoners they light upon, for 
 intelligence, guids, and pillots. Within twelve or four- 
 teen dayes, Pilkington and Sands returned without any 
 prize but one, that of a sloop they found riddeing att 
 anchor att the Samblas, without any body in her ; nor 
 did any body appeare, although there were many gunns 
 fired, and allmost two dayes spent, expecting some of 
 her crew, or other intelligence who she belonged unto, 
 Att last they brought her away, as thinking her to 
 belong to some pirrats we heard were upon the coast, 
 who might have been gone out upon some land expedi- 
 tion in their canoas. 
 
 " Pilkington and Sands also acquainted us of their 
 receipt of letters from Jamaica by a sloop they mett 
 with at sea, by which they were very much threatned 
 for engadging with us, and upon this desired to be 
 payed what we owed them, in order to returne home. 
 We gave them such goods as we hade, and as much to 
 their satisfaction as possible ; but, after all, there re- 
 mained a ballance of more than a hundred pounds 
 sterling to Captain Pilkington, and above twenty pounds 
 to Captain Sands. They parted with us the twenty day 
 of Apryle ; and Captain Pilkington promised, as soon 
 as he arryved, to send us a sloop with provisions, and, 
 as soon as he could, would follow after with his family 
 and effects. In the mean tyme, there was a plott to 
 rune away with the shipe the Saint Andrew, discovered, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxv 
 
 and that several 1 persons were suspected to have a hand 
 therin. I hade then some fitts of ane intermitting 
 feaver ; but, however, I put force upon myself as much 
 as possible to be present in the councells, least some 
 rash act should be committed, or an innocent man 
 should suffer. After all, it was found to be the melan- 
 choUy discourses of three or four fellowes, who, among 
 others, were miserably harrassed by Pennicook's un- 
 equal government on boord. 
 
 " Our men did not only continue dayly to grow more 
 weakly and sickly, but more, without hopes of recovery; 
 because, about the latter end of the moneth of Aprile, 
 we found severaU species of the litle provisions we hade 
 left in a mainer utterly spoylled and rotten ; but under 
 these, our very unsupportable difficultyes, it was no 
 small ease and satisfaction to the coUony to find their 
 sea-commanders reduced to reasone, and their councel- 
 lors become so unanimous, patient, and prudent, by 
 whom the doctrines of non-protesting and non-admis- 
 sion were exploded with disdain, and any former mis- 
 understandings, irregularityes, or disrespectfuU carriage 
 to one another in the old councell, were now become 
 as so many lessons of warning to the new, by which 
 there was much contentment, and few or no grumblings 
 among the people, as every one expecting with patience 
 the arryveall of good newes, and the needfuU recruits 
 from the mother country, to make way for happy dayes 
 and glorious success to come, which the good and hope- 
 full condition of their government seemed to be noe 
 small pledge of. 
 
 "Towards the beginning of INIay, there arryved a 
 
Ixxvi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 French sloop from Petit Guavas, with a letter from th§ 
 Governour Du Cass about the beforfe mentioned French 
 wreak. One Captain Tristian commanded this sloop, 
 and one Du Cass was as supercargoe aboord, of goods 
 for the Spainish coast. They made some stay about 
 the wreake ; and, before we received the unhappy newes 
 of the proclamations, they sailled for Portubello. This 
 Captain Tristian hade, some years agoe, by shipwrake 
 upon this coast, been forced to live a great whUe among 
 the Indians, and to goe naked as they. He spoke the 
 language, and admired this countrey for healthfullness, 
 fruitfullness, and riches, above all other in the Indies, 
 and said he would come and reside among us, and 
 doubted not but above five hundred of the French from 
 Spaniola would soon be with us. He told us this coun- 
 trey was reckoned by those who had tryed the differ- 
 ence much more healthfull than Spaniola, or any of 
 the American islands, so that severall French who 
 knew it begune to use the coming from Spaniola in 
 trading or fishing sloops to recover their healths ; and 
 of this he had experience severall tymes, and now even 
 at present, though it was the sickly season for new 
 comers ; that there is such a thing as a more sickly 
 tyme of the year then other in all countreys ; and the 
 season here was from Aprile or May to September, and 
 then all things that hade any means to doe it would 
 recover ; that he would take the first opportunity to 
 write us the newes, and the true state of the'Spainiai-ds 
 from Portubello. 
 
 " Upon the third day of May we dispatched the sloop 
 brought in by Pilkington and Sands to Jamaica with 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxvii 
 
 money and other effects, in order to purchase provisions 
 and necessaryes for the coUony ; of her designe we hade 
 given a hint to Captain Pilkington before he went away, 
 the better to be in readieness to fraught her when she 
 should arryve. Mr. Hendry Patton hade the command 
 of this sloop, and Mr. Alexander Burnet was to manage 
 any negotiation ashore. Then we begane to expect 
 these two sloops, viz. that of Pilkingtoun's, and this 
 from Jamaica ; also, that other supplyes would be drop- 
 ing in till a reinforcement should come from our coun- 
 trey ; when, instead theirof, upon the eighteenth day of 
 May, a periagua of ours returned from the coast of 
 Carthagena, which hade mett with a Jamaica sloop, by 
 whom she hade the surprizing newes, that proclama- 
 tions were publisht against us in Jamaica, wherein it 
 was declared, that, by our settlement at Darien, we had 
 broken the peace entered into with his Majesties allyes, 
 and therefore prohibited all his Majesties subjects from 
 supplying or holding any sort of correspondence with 
 us, upon the severest penalties ; and it seems the 
 Governour of Jamaica had been soe hasty and precipi- 
 tant in this matter, that these proclamations were pub- 
 lished upon the Sabbath day (the lyke whereof had not 
 been formerly knowen). But it was to prevent the 
 going out of two sloops bound out next morning, and 
 fraughted with provisions for Caledonia. This sloop 
 also reported, it was rumoured at Jamaica, that the 
 Company hade asked some thing or other, they knew 
 not what ; but only, that it was unanimously rejected 
 by the Parliament of Scotland, This I could not be- 
 lieve, yet the report therof, at this juncture, did us a 
 
IxXViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 great deal of harme, and added to the disorder people 
 were in about the proclamations ; and it seemed impos- 
 sible to stay them for above a week at most. Although, 
 considering our low and distrest condition for want of 
 supplyes, the prohibiting the King's English subjects 
 from trading, or so much as corresponding with us, was 
 very discourageing, yet the declaring we hade broken 
 the peace, and, by consequence, proclaiming us pirrats, 
 before we hade been once heard or summoned to answer, 
 so very contrary to the uswaU proceeding even in caice 
 of real pirracy, was most of all surprizeing, and became 
 the generall occasion of people's concluding that the 
 long silence of our countrey proceeded from no other 
 cause but that they were brow-beaten out of it, and 
 durst not so much as send word to us to shift for our- 
 selves. Upon these and the lyke apprehensions every 
 one more than others begane to be in haste to be gone. 
 When I saw there was no talking against our leaving 
 the place, I perswaded them what I could, that first 
 rumours of things of this nature was alwayes most 
 terriefieing, and that happily our native countrey knew 
 nothing of all this ; and if they did not, but remained 
 firme to the designe, there was non of us but would 
 afterward be ashamed of our precipitant forwardness in 
 going away upon this occasion ; therefore I desired them 
 not to designe, or so much as talk of going away ; but, 
 only since our landmen were so ill, that they were no 
 more in condition to defend the fort, that they might 
 embark some or all of the best things on boord the 
 severall ships, as places of greater security, and if we 
 must leave the harbour, nay, the coast, that we should 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxix 
 
 think of it only by precaution, and even returne when we 
 should be at sea, if we mett with any newes or supplyes 
 from Scotland, which I did not doubt of our meeting 
 with, if we did not make too much haste. This they 
 seemed to agree to, but not by any meanes to loss tyme 
 in going out ; but, although they had agreed the con- 
 trary, yet it was immediately among the people and 
 strangers with us that we hade resolved to desert the 
 place. From that tyme, all I could pretend to, was 
 only to contryve letts and stumbling-blocks to the pro- 
 ceedings. Another thing I thought upon was, if our 
 sloop arryved from Jamaica, to stay with twenty-fyve or 
 thirty men upon the coast and live upon turtling and 
 fishing for some tyme, till we should see if any recruits 
 or newes came from Scotland. This I imparted to Cap- 
 tain Thomas Drummond, who seemed most concerned 
 att our leaving the place. He seemed very well pleased 
 with the proposeall, if it could be reduced to practice, 
 with only this difference, that I should goe for Scot- 
 land, in order to represent some things of moment to 
 the company, and he stay in my place upon the coast ; 
 but our sloop not coming from Jamaica before our 
 going away, as also the allmost universall falling down 
 of our men, and wanting means to recover them, ren- 
 dered this designe of staying upon the coast im- 
 practicable, 
 
 " About ten days before we went away, arryved 
 another French sloop, who said she came last from 
 Carthagena, and told us the new Governour, so long 
 expected, was arryved from Spain about three weeks 
 before, and hade made the old Governour and most of 
 
IXXX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the officers prisoners for yielding up that town to 
 Pointis. They also pretended that there was four 
 French men of war upon the coast, and that the 
 Spainiards were making great and speedy preparations 
 against us. They hade no sort of goods on board, and 
 were by us suspected for spyes ; and, indeed, one of the 
 two gentlemen that were in her seemed not unfitt for 
 such a purpose. What their names were, my sickness 
 gave not leave for me to know, but we left them in the 
 harbour when we came away ; before which, we re- 
 ceived a letter from Captain Tristian, at Portobello, 
 wherein he gave us the whole state of the Spanish pre- 
 parations, with his conjectures that they could not be 
 ready against us in less than four moneths ; and con- 
 cluded with his hearty wishes that the Scots fleet might 
 be with us before that tyme came. 
 
 " About the fifth of June I was taken very ill of a 
 feaver ; but trouble of mynd, as I found afterwards, was 
 non of the least causes theirof. By the 9th or 1 0th of 
 June, all the councellours, and most of the officers, with 
 their baggage, were on boord the severall ships, and I 
 left allone on shore in a weake condition. Non visited 
 me except Captain Thomas Drummond, who, with me, 
 still lamented our thoughts of leaving the jDlace, and 
 praying God that we might but heare from our coun- 
 trey before we left the coast ; but others were in so 
 great haste, that all the gunns in the fort, att least 
 those belonging to the Saint Andrew, had been left 
 behind but for the care and vigilance of Captain Tho- 
 mas Drummond. 
 
 " In my sickness, besides the generall concerne of my 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxxi 
 
 spirits, I was much troubled about a report spread 
 abroad of Captain Pennicook, as designeing to rune 
 away with the ship, on pretence that we were pro- 
 claimed pirrots, and should be all hanged when we came 
 home, or att least the Company would never pay the 
 seamen their wages. In my small intervales of ease, I 
 would have fain hade a councell, and Pennicook come 
 ashore, to enquire and to take order about this report, 
 and, if any truth were in it, to have secured him on 
 boord another ship. But I could not gett them to me 
 by reason of illness, att least pretended illness in some, 
 and I was not able to goe to them. 
 
 " June \6th. — As I remember, I was brought on board 
 the Unicorne in a great hurry, they pretending they 
 would saill next morning, and seemed to be in so great 
 haste that I apprehended they would hardly stay for 
 one another, as afterwards it happened ; my things were 
 that night some of them putt on boord, some of them 
 left behind and lost, and allmost all of them damnified 
 and wet, which afterwards rotted most of them. Among 
 the rest were lost severall brass kettles of my own, and 
 sixteen iron potts belonging to Mr. Wilmot of Jamaica. 
 There also remained due to me from the coUony about 
 seventy-two pound sterling, for which they hade sugar, 
 tobacco, rossin, and other things for the use of the 
 ships and men ashore, for which I was promised money 
 or effects immediately. But my sickness prevented my 
 getting the ballance of that accompt then, and it re- 
 mains yet due to me ; but the worst is, it belonged 
 allmost all to other people. 
 " I think it was upon the eighteenth of June that the 
 
Ixxxii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Caledonia gott under sail, and the Unicorne followed; 
 both warpt out beyond the Black Rock, but had like to 
 have been lost in the night by a squall of wind or a tor- 
 nadoe ; and, for want of hands, the Unicorne lost one of 
 her anchors and long boat. The Saint Andrew sett 
 saill next day, and was as foreward as any of them ; but 
 the Unicorne lost the wind by indeavouring to recover 
 her long boat, and was foi'ced to come to an anchor 
 under Golden Island, where she rode in no small danger. 
 But it pleased God there were no squalls of wind. That 
 night the Caledonia and pink were quite out of sight ; 
 but the Saint Andrew came to an anchor about two 
 leagues, as I guess, towards the north-west of us. Next 
 day, being the twentieth, we saw non of the ships, and 
 for want of hands were forced to cutt to gett cleare of 
 that unhappy place where we rode, and so lost another 
 of our anchors. 
 
 " Upon the eighteenth, as we were warping out. Cap- 
 tain Thomas Drummond came on board and acquainted 
 us that Captain Veatch and he hade mett twice on board 
 the Saint Andrew with Pennicook and Campbell, and 
 that he was now come from the last meetting, wherin 
 they had resolved upon leaving the place, and that they 
 had agreed to touch at New England to gett provisions. 
 Captain Drummond also offered me two papers to signe. 
 I was very ill and not wilUng to medle ; but he pressed 
 it, saying there could be no quorum without me, be- 
 cause four councellors must signe the instructions to 
 the two aboord of each ship. Upon this I signed them. 
 They contained, as I remember, the one an order to 
 the severall Captains to keep company with one another, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxxiii 
 
 and to goe for Boston or Salem in New England, and 
 the other was an order to the two councellors on boord 
 of each ship, or the survivor of them in caice of sepa- 
 ration, to dispose of such of the cargoe as they could, 
 and after the supplying of the respective ships with 
 provisions to carry what remained to Scotland for the 
 Company's use. He said he would see me next day, but 
 I saw him noe more till we mett at New York. 
 
 " That day we parted from Golden Island we mett 
 with the sloop commanded by Patton from Jamaica. 
 She could gett nothing there because of the proclama- 
 tions, of which she had procured a coppy, as not know- 
 ing wee hade received it before. Next night we sprung 
 our maine topmast ; yet gott itt mended next day. But 
 a night or two after we lost all our masts, except the 
 main and mizen masts, by a squall of wind and want of 
 hands to the saills. This was not all ; but the leakes 
 of our ship, that were great befrfre, increased to that 
 degree that we were hardly able to keep her above 
 water. Next day we saw the Saint Andrew about two 
 leagues distant. She could see our distrest condition, 
 but came not neare us. It was calme all day, and hade 
 she sent her boat we hade beene able to recover most 
 of our saills, riggings, and other usefuU things, which 
 for want of this were utterly lost. In the afternoon we 
 fired gunns for her, upon which she came nearer, but 
 lay by at half a league's distance. Our captain, Mr. 
 Anderson, went on boord Pennicook and besought his 
 help. But he utterly refused ; only at the intreaty of 
 some of the gentlemen on boord he was prevailled 
 upon to give an order for the sloop to attend our ship 
 
 ^2 
 
Ixxxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 till she saw what should become of us. Next day the 
 wind served, whereupon the Saint Andrew sett saill, 
 leaving us in this miserable condition. The sloop con- 
 tinued by us all next night ; but, notwithstanding her 
 orders in writing, and Patton his repeated oaths to 
 Captain Anderson, that he would not leave us, they 
 sailled away from us next day at fair dayhght, after 
 Abraham Loudown hade secretly conveyed himself and 
 his baggage into the sloop's canoe, and soe on boord 
 her. Att this tyme we hade only five or six seamen to 
 a watch, and most of these non of the best neither ; 
 and there was about twenty landmen able to move, who 
 had eneugh adoe by perpetuall pumping to keep the 
 ship above water. But, however, the few men we hade 
 went to work, and in about a week's tyme gott up jury 
 masts of such stuff as we hade left, and then setting 
 saill we were not able to recover Jamaica. But July 
 25th made the Bay' of Mattances upon Cuba, when 
 Captain Forbes dyed. The 26th our Cap*, went in his 
 pinnace into the bay, but instead of water found a 
 Spainish fort of 20 or 24 gunns, and never see it till 
 under its command, where, by an inadvertancy, Mr. 
 Spense, our linguist, stept ashore to some Spainiards, 
 who handed him. After they hade gotten him,theyendea- 
 voured to secure the boat by commanding it with their 
 gunns and small arraes ; but, in caice that would not 
 doe, by maning a periagua after her ; but our men, 
 perceiving their delayes and preparations, took their 
 opportunity and gott away. They were shott att seve- 
 rall tymes, and pursued by the periagua ; but were so 
 happy as to escape ; and in the meane tyme the ship 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. IXXXV 
 
 escaped narrowly from running ashore for want of 
 hands. 
 
 " That evening we sett saill from the Mattances, and 
 after lykewayes running great hazard of shipwreck upon 
 the coast of Virginia, where, August the seventh, we 
 struck severall tymes, we arryved at Sandy Hook, near 
 New Yorke, the 1 3th, and at New Yorke 14th of August 
 last, under God owing the safety of the ship and our 
 lives to the care and industry of our commander. Cap- 
 tain John Anderson. 
 
 " When we were come to New York we were much 
 concerned to find so universall ane inclination in all 
 sorts of people, who seemed to regrete our leaving the 
 place more then we ; and by our friends we then un- 
 derstood that some sloops and vessels were gone to 
 Caledonia, and a great many more, notwithstanding all 
 prohibitions, were following after, if the unhappy ac- 
 count of our misfortunat leaving the place had not stopt 
 them, 
 
 " In our voyage from the cOllony to New York we 
 lost neare 1 50 of about 250 persons putt on boord, most 
 of them for want of looking after and meanes to recover 
 them, in which condition we hade no small loss and 
 inconveniency by the sickness and death of Mr, Hector 
 Mackenzie, our chief chyrurgeon, who dyed off the Cap 
 St. Antonio, July the 1 2th, of a distemper wholly or in 
 a great measure contracted by his unwearied paynes 
 and Industrie among the people on shore, as well as on 
 boord, for many weeks together, when there was hardly 
 any other willing, if able, or at least capable, of helping 
 them. 
 
IxXXVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " The shipe Caledonia was about ten dayes at New 
 York before us, where, when I arryved, I was brought 
 soe very low by my distempers and troubles of mjTid, 
 that for some time my life was not expected. In the 
 meantyme a transaction was made with Messrs. Wen- 
 ham and Delancie by Mr. Samuell Veatch and Mr. 
 Thomas Drummond, in order to fitt out a sloop to re- 
 turne to the coUony, and to supply the ship Caledonia 
 with provisions for Scotland. My indisposition dis- 
 abled me from medling ; but Cap*. Robert Drummond 
 can give a larger account of that matter, as having been 
 concerned in the whole course of that affair, together 
 with the aforesaid two councellors. 
 
 " About the 1 8th of September, Captain Thomas 
 Drummond was dispatched back to the coUony in a 
 sloop with armes, ammunition, provisions, working 
 toolls, and orders to see and resetle the place, if the 
 supplyes from Scotland were come up. 
 
 " Before Captain Thomas Drummond went away we 
 hade received the Company's letter of the 22d Aprile, 
 by way of New England, but had only flying reports, 
 without any certainty, of what recruits were sailled from 
 Scotland, only they seemed all to conclude that some 
 Scots ships were past by the Leeward Islands, which we 
 supposed to be the Captains Jamieson and Stark, after 
 we had received yours of the 26th of June, the day 
 before we sailled. 
 
 " Some dayes before I parted from New York Mr. 
 Samuel Veatch acquainted me that he designed to stay 
 there this winter, and that in the mean tyme he would 
 look after the effects putt ashore, to satisfie M"^ Wen- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. IxXXvii 
 
 ham & Delancie, and by that meanes he would be in 
 readieness to goe back to the coUony, when he should 
 receive the Company's orders ; but I would have spoke 
 with him about this matter more at large, but his 
 sudden going on boord the ship, then lying six leagues 
 off, prevented me ; nor did I see him till I came on 
 boord, when I found him determined to stay behind us. 
 
 " October 1 2th. — We sett saiU in the ship Caledonia 
 from Sandy Hook, neare New Yorke, and after a tem- 
 pestuous, stormy passage, although but little contrary 
 winds, we made the west coast of Ireland, Saturday, 
 November 1 1th, and, by reasone of the mists and cur- 
 rents, we were in great danger off the rocks of Ferney, 
 November 13th, about 10 at night. After that, the 
 wind coming short and exceeding stormy, after no small 
 danger, we were obleidged to come to an ahchore at the 
 northerly entrance of the sound of Isla, and there we 
 road it out in most violent stormes, till Monday, 20th 
 November, when we gott into the Sound, and came to 
 an anchore in a safe place and smooth water, under 
 God owing our safety, and that of the ship, to the great 
 vigilancy and Industrie of our commander, Robert 
 Drummond. 
 
 " Upon the ship's arryveall in the Sound, Captain 
 Drummond immediately dispatched the Captains Wil- 
 liam Murray and Laurence Drummond express to Edin- 
 burgh, to acquaint the Company with our arryveall. 
 Next morning, being Tuesday, the 21st of November, 
 in company with Captain John Campbell, I parted in a 
 boat for the main land, and from thence by easie jour- 
 neyes and some stops, by resone of indispositions, I 
 
IxXXviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTROBUCTION. 
 
 arryved here att Edinburgh, Tuesday, December the 
 fifth instant.^ — I ame, 
 
 " Right honourable, 
 " Your most humble and most obedient servant, 
 
 " Will" Paterson. 
 
 The King had now yielded to the remonstrances of 
 Spain against the alleged encroachments upon her pos- 
 sessions by the Scotch ; and the governors of our 
 colonies were ordered to prohibit supplies being af- 
 forded to them. But the prohibition would have been 
 given with reluctance by the governors, and generally 
 disobeyed by the remote planters, if the first Scottish 
 expedition had been led with courage and prudence. It 
 is clear that the Indians favoured it, and that the Spanish 
 title was doubtful. As soon as King William began to 
 recover from the delusion of his French alliance, new 
 views were entertained by him on that head ; and the 
 pretensions of the commander of a ship-of-war for a 
 pecuniary indemnity for planting His Majesty's flag in 
 token of acquiring the sovereignty of the Gulf of 
 Darien were next year received with favour. (App. T.) 
 
 VII. 
 
 Paterson was one of the first to perceive that the 
 King would ere long change the policy which had led 
 to the opposition to the Darien settlement; and his 
 own conduct upon coming home was beyond all praise, 
 strongly exemplifying the remarkable trait in his cha- 
 racter which ever prompted him to rise superior to 
 reverses. Full justice was now done to his merits in 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Ixxxix 
 
 the opinion of the public, cruelly as he was left to 
 struggle with his personal difficulties, and deeply as he 
 had to deplore his disasters in Darien, where he had 
 lost his wife and only child — a son. 
 
 Before the unjustifiable abandonment of Darien by 
 the first colonists was known in Scotland, a second and 
 a third party had been sent out, and a few characteristic 
 letters from Paterson to individuals engaged in these 
 expeditions have been published by the Bannatyne 
 Club. To Captain Thomas Drummond he writes on the 
 6th February, 1700,— 
 
 " God grant this may find you with the Rising Sun 
 and other ships in the company's colony. Your in- 
 dustry, your constancy, and your integrity ought and 
 will, I doubt not, lay lasting obligations on all true 
 patriots; and besides that, the great kindness and value 
 you have, in the hardest times and circumstances, had 
 for me, lays me also under those that are particular. I 
 have not forborne to do you justice in all, and especially 
 in that your last worthy offer and hazard of yourself 
 from New York, when you left me much indisposed ; 
 but, thanks be to God, I am wonderfully recovered, 
 only a great cold and feverish humour oppress me at 
 present, but I hope it will be soon over. The company 
 are, you may be sure, ill satisfied with our leaving the 
 colony, and at those moles of councillors who had not 
 foresight enough to provide for the danger before it 
 came upon them. Pray take warning by what has 
 happened, and provide against a time of need ; and, 
 whatever happens, do what becomes men of prudence, 
 forecast, and constancy. The company are exceeding 
 
XC BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 hearty and sensible, and do seem to make amends for 
 any former neglect or defect, which God grant may be 
 a pledge of their future success. Pray do what you 
 can to draw men to you, and keep them with you. 
 
 " I hope in some time all our opposition from England 
 wiU fall to the ground, that their eyes will be opened 
 to see their interest herein. In the meantime we can 
 expect no good from them as a government. 
 
 " Your keeping possession until powerfully supplied 
 from hence is of vast consequence. God Almighty enable 
 you to do it for his own glory and the good of this poor 
 despised kingdom ! 
 
 " I comfort myself hoping that at last the Almighty 
 will make us glad according to the days wherein he has 
 afflicted us ; and in all my troubles it is no small satis- 
 faction to have lived to give the company and the world 
 unquestionable proof, that I have not had any sinister 
 nor selfish designs in promoting this work, and that 
 unfeigned integrity has been at the bottom of it. How 
 and what I have suflFered in the prosecution thereof, 
 God only knows, and may the Almighty lay it no 
 further to their charge who have been the cause. I 
 have always prayed for this, but must needs confess I 
 could never, since my unkind usage, find the freedom 
 of spirit I do now. I must add, that my concern of 
 spirit is such, that I could not only join with those who 
 have done me prejudice, although it had been willingly, 
 but even with the greatest enemy I am capable of 
 having, to save my country and secure this company. 
 But it is far from this, for I am persuaded that what 
 has been done to my prejudice has been done ignorantly, 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. xci 
 
 as appears by the worthy and kind reception after so 
 many misfortunes." 
 
 Again, to the Rev, Alexander Shields, he writes the 
 same day : — 
 
 " I am glad a person of your worthy principles and 
 constancy is at the head of the company's colony. Our 
 tarpaulin councillors' raw heads and undigested thoughts 
 ruined us before. The difficulties I had met with in 
 Scotland were turned into browbeatings in Caledonia. 
 This discomposed my mind, broke and discouraged my 
 thoughts ; yet had my advice been taken time enough, 
 we had not left the colony as, nor when, we did. There 
 was not one of the old councillors fit for government ; 
 and things were gone too far before the new took place. 
 
 " I am not without hope of returning to the colony, 
 but I shall endeavour in the first place to get the needful 
 reinforcements and supplies from Europe." 
 
 He used his influence most wisely, recommending 
 moderation when all Scotland was in a frenzy of indig- 
 nation against the English as the main agents in the 
 calamities that followed one after another in this un- 
 happy business, in which three several expeditions, 
 well appointed and numerous, entirely failed, and few 
 of the adventurers returned. (App. T 2.) 
 
 A short passage in a despatch from the royal com- 
 missioner in Scotland, the Duke of Queensberry, to the 
 King shews at once the poverty to which Paterson was 
 reduced, and the estimation in which nevertheless he 
 was now held, 
 
 " The African Company," says his Grace, in a letter 
 dated at Holyrood House the 31st August, 1700, 
 
XCii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " have appointed a committee of seven of their number 
 to confer with Mr. Paterson ; and to concert, and 
 digest in writing, such things as they shall agree upon 
 as proper to be demanded in Parliament. Mr. Paterson 
 is, in his judgment, against moving anything in this 
 session about Caledonia, and tells me that he thinks he 
 has gained some considerable men to his opinion. The 
 poor man acts with great diligence and affection to the 
 king and country. He has no bye-end, and loves this 
 Government both in Church and State. He knows 
 nothing yet of my having obtained anything for him; 
 and I am a little embarrassed how to give him what 
 I am allowed for him, lest his party in that Company 
 should conceive any unjust jealousy of him, or he him- 
 self think that I intend as a bribe that which is really 
 an act of charity." — State Papers and Letters addressed 
 to William Carstares. Edinburgh. 4to. 1774; p. 631. 
 Having succeeded in his efforts to calm the minds 
 of many — perhaps in preventing civil war (App. U), 
 he devised an excellent plan of social improvement at 
 home, which was partially adopted at the time, and 
 which appears in some material points to have entered 
 into our public policy in after years. That plan is the 
 subject of the " Proposals of a Council of Trade," the 
 first of his books here re-published. The Introduction 
 to it contains the noblest sentiments suggested by the 
 sufferings of the nation as well as by his own. The 
 scheme will be seen to anticipate some important mea- 
 sures at this moment under earnest consideration in 
 every part of the United Kingdom, and throughout the 
 civilised world. It had also the special advantage of 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XCIU 
 
 opportunely presenting a means of compensating the 
 Scotch for their losses in Darien, afterward agreed 
 to at the Union, which it thus materially facilitated. 
 Of Paterson's ability to produce such a work there can 
 be no reasonable doubt. Among his many great 
 merits, that which was the most to his honour as a 
 Scotchman was his well-grounded confidence in the 
 capabilities and resources of his native land when some 
 of the ablest and best of her sons were too desponding. 
 Disorderly and poor as her people were, he seized upon 
 the fittest means of improving and enriching them : 
 namely, instruction in the place of neglect and brute 
 coercion — industry in the place of idleness, together 
 with freedom and their share in the trade of the world, 
 of which he saw their genius made them worthy. 
 
 The authorship of this Uttle work has been curiously 
 mistaken. It first appeared anonymously in 1700 in 
 Edinburgh ; and was probably distributed privately 
 without regular publisher or sale. In 1751, however, it 
 was published in Glasgow as John Law's, in a series of 
 similar volumes. One of the series, the Money and 
 Trade, which Law did write, was originally published in 
 Edinburgh in 1705, and republished in London in 1720, 
 with a preface by the Earl of Islay. If Law had been 
 the writer of the Proposals of a Council of Trade, 
 the motives were strong to give him the credit of it 
 also, in order to raise him when his schemes were 
 urgently pressed upon the public, yet it was not then 
 claimed to be his. The grounds on which it is now un- 
 hesitatingly attributed to the pen of Paterson, are stated 
 in the editor's preface to it. 
 
xciv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 But Paterson not only devised, in 1700, this able 
 scheme of Scottish improvement, but the next year he 
 seized with a masterly hand an opportunity, then 
 offered by a revolution in European pohtics, to revive 
 the expedition to Darien, and to extend it to other im- 
 portant parts of Spanish America, with the zealous 
 support of the English Government. In the autumn of 
 1701, James II. died in France ; and Louis XIV. threw 
 off the mask under which he had deceived King Wil- 
 liam from the Peace of Ryswick, acknowledging the 
 Pretender as King of England, as he had already taken 
 decisive measures to secure French influence over Spain 
 and the Indies, instead of faithfully carrying out the trea- 
 ties of partition. Before the end of the year the whole 
 English nation was roused by these acts of hostility 
 and presumption; and the King delivered in Parlia- 
 ment on the 31st of December his famous speech of 
 defiance, soon distributed all over Europe, to urge the 
 Grand Alliance to a ten years' triumphant war. Pater- 
 son had earnestly watched this surprising turn in po- 
 litical events ; and a petition from him to the King at 
 the same date, with a memoir on British enterprise in 
 Central America, is the second of his writings here 
 pubhshed. Both are valuable historical" documents; 
 and they were found in a repository— the Long Col- 
 lection in the Museum — which would guarantee their 
 authenticity if their genuineness were not clearly at- 
 tested by their style and the character of their contents. 
 (App. U 2.) 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XCV 
 
 VIII. 
 
 At this period Paterson was received in London by 
 King William with much personal kindness on two 
 other accounts. His financial views had always pleased 
 the King ; and it is probable that a short, but very 
 remarkable, document upon a Sinking Fund, introduced 
 into the notes to Paterson's last work on that subject, 
 was from his pen. He had also always entered zealously 
 into his Majesty's policy of a legislative Union of England 
 and Scotland. 
 
 A letter from himself, printed in his lifetime, places 
 his relations with the King at this period in a striking 
 and satisfactory light. It was addressed to the Lord 
 Treasurer Godolphin in 1 709, and published in Boyer's 
 Political State, 1711, p. '269, and in the Dialogues of 
 
 iri7. 
 
 " In the time of the usurpation," he says, "the receipts 
 of the several branches of the public revenue were ex- 
 tracted from the old perplexed forms, and, being reduced 
 to one channel, a plain and easy method was laid down, 
 and pursued with such exactness, that the payments 
 were brought to near as great a certainty as in Venice 
 and Holland. Upon the Restoration, to oppose what- 
 ever the usurper had done, right or wrong, the old 
 intricate forms were resumed, and the disorder in its 
 receipts and payments were not only continued, but 
 increased. 
 
 " At the Revolution it was expected that these dis- 
 orders would have been redressed. But instead of this 
 the confusions of the revenue have grown greater than 
 
XCVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in any time before — nay to such a degree, that the 
 throne has been thereby shaken, the pubUc credit 
 violated, the coin adulterated, high premiums and in- 
 terests allowed, scandalous discounts made necessary, 
 navigation and foreign and domestic improvements 
 discountenanced or abandoned, frauds and corrupt prac- 
 tices in the trade and revenues rather countenanced 
 than discouraged, and those fevp vfho endeavoured or 
 performed anything tovyards reforming these disorders 
 oppressed or neglected. 
 
 " By such an administration at home the late King s 
 affairs could not but prove as they did, abortive abroad, 
 and at last end in such a peace as only served to renew 
 the vpar. 
 
 " In the last months of the hfe of this great but then 
 uneasy prince, I had access to him, when, finding him 
 in much perplexity and concern about the state of his 
 affairs, I took opportunity to represent to him that his 
 misfortunes did not so much proceed from the variable 
 tempers or humours of his people, as some pretended, 
 but rather from the men of his house, or those he had 
 trusted with his business, who, either for want of 
 capacity or experience, or that they preferred them- 
 selves to him, had brought the affairs of the kingdom 
 into such confusion as made his subjects uneasy ; and 
 now, at last, instead of removing the causes of com- 
 plaint, they had presumed to employ his treasure and 
 authority to silence the complainers ; that as matters 
 stood there were no reins of government, no inspection, 
 no inquiry into men's conduct— every man did as he 
 pleased, for nobody was punished nor indeed rewarded 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XCVU 
 
 according to merit ; and thus his revenue was sunk, and 
 his aflfairs in the utmost confusion. 
 
 "He owned this, but asked for remedies; upon which 
 I proposed that, in the first place, he should put the 
 management of the revenues on the right footing, 
 without which all other remedies would prove in- 
 effectual. The first step towards reforming his revenue 
 was that of restoring the public credit, by making pro- 
 vision of interest for all the national debts, and taking 
 care for the time to come such should be granted as to 
 prevent further deficiency. The course of the Treasury 
 and Exchequer should be so regulated, both in receipts 
 and payments, as to render them easy to be understood, 
 and so certain and prudent as to leave no room for 
 fraud or ill practices in time to come. In order to 
 this, I proposed a method of inquiry and inspection 
 from time to time into the behaviour of all men con- 
 cerned in the revenue, to be laid down and nicely 
 executed. Thus I shewed him he would be quickly 
 out of debt, and at least a fourth part of the revenue 
 saved. (App. U 3.) 
 
 " The next thing I proposed to him was an attempt 
 upon the principal ports of the West Indies, by which 
 he might be enabled not only to carry on the war at 
 the expense of the enemy, but open a secure and 
 direct trade for ever between those rich and vast con- 
 tinents of Mexico and Peru and this kingdom. I added 
 that to secure the Spanish monarchy from France, the 
 true way was to begin with the West Indies, since it 
 was more practicable to make Spain and other domi- 
 nions in Europe follow the fate of the West Indies, than 
 
 h 
 
XCViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to make the West Indies, if once in the power of France, 
 follow the fate of Spain. Besides, France would thereby 
 be enabled to carry on the war by the bullion, and other 
 wealth of the West Indies. 
 
 "The third thing I proposed was an Union with 
 Scotland, than which I convinced him nothing could 
 tend more to his glory, and to render this island 
 great. 
 
 " The fourth thing I proposed, — and which I told him 
 was to be done first to restore his authority, and show 
 the world that for the time to come he would no more 
 suffer such a loose and unaccountable administration 
 as his being a stranger to men and things here had 
 forced him to so wink at hitherto, — was a present com- 
 mission of inquiry, by which he would see by whom 
 his affairs had been mismanaged, and who they were 
 who, under pretence of mending matters, perplexed and 
 made them still worse : in particular he would be at a 
 point how far the present debts had arisen from mis- 
 management, or from deficiency of funds. 
 
 " I spoke next of the nature of this commission, with 
 which and the other proposals he seemed extremely 
 satisfied, as is evident by his last memorable speechi 
 in which he earnestly recommends the retrieving of the 
 pubUc credit, and offers his concurrence in all sudu 
 inquiries as should be necessary ; and it is plain by 
 the ninth article of the Grand Alliance, and by his mes- 
 sages to Parliament, how much he laid to heart both 
 the affairs of the West Indies and the Union." 
 
 The designs thus proposed by Paterson were adopte| 
 by King William, with extraordinary energy. (App.U 4.), 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. XCIX 
 
 They were not, however, followed up in the next reign, 
 but must be included in the number of " the profitable 
 expeditions to the West Indies, which," according to the 
 political writers of the day, " were proposed from time 
 to time by public-spirited persons, and then laid aside." 
 
 IX. 
 
 Although the accession of Anne paralysed the Ame- 
 rican plans which Paterson had formed, and King Wil- 
 liam favoured, the Queen's Ministers advocated the 
 Union warmly until the measure was carried. The Lord 
 Treasurer Godolphin now consulted him personally on 
 important matters of finance, as is expressly proved by 
 a statement in his financial work of 1717, but without 
 giving him the position his talents claimed, and which 
 it is reasonable to suppose he would have enjoyed if the 
 King's life had happily been prolonged. 
 
 In the year 1709, shortly before the fall of the Whig 
 Ministry, he addressed the following letter to its chief, 
 Lord Godolphin : — 
 
 » " Your Lordship has herewith a paper drawn by me in 
 fSeptember, i 702. ( App. U 5 ) . It contains my sentiments 
 of some things I thought needful to be proposed and 
 Iflone in the Session of Parliament then ensuing ; and, 
 fefter having reviewed this and other papers, I cannot 
 iiout be of opinion that these and such like methods 
 iltimely and effectually pursued, had saved many mil- 
 ions, and left this kingdom in a much better condition 
 i|| carry on the war, or to be a guarantee of a just and 
 lasting peace, than it now is." 
 
 A2 
 
C BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Then follow the paper, and the account of his inter- 
 views with King William, and he continues — 
 
 "I must confess the death of that great Prince 
 brought such a damp upon my spirits, that I had lost 
 all hopes of being further useful in such matters, had it 
 not pleased your Lordship to lay your commands upon 
 me to go on, as I did. Thus in the first year of the 
 Queen, an Act passed for settling a fund to make good 
 the parliamentary deficiency ; and the Parliament not 
 only readily granted effectual funds for future supplies, 
 but likewise expressed a hearty inclination to concur in 
 whatever should be proposed by her Majesty for pre- 
 venting deficiences in time to come ; and your Lord- 
 ship ordered matters so well, that only five per cent, 
 interest was paid upon most of the short periods, and 
 was also wisely pleased to direct that lenders should i 
 not, as formerly, be admitted to bring into the Ex- 
 chequer all their money at once, but only by degrees. 
 Thus considerable sums of interest were saved, credit 
 began to recover, and the circulation of specie was' 
 rendered more easy and free. 
 
 " But, notwithstanding the surprising success of these 
 preparatory steps in the first year of her Majesty's 
 reign, contrary measures have been since pursued; 
 high interest again introduced; the public revenue 
 either quite sold or anticipated for time out of view? 
 and the ordinary revenue of customs overloaded in an 
 unparalleled manner, which, if not timely redresseH 
 must end in the ruin of trade. 
 
 "An expedition to the Indies was likewise that yeffl 
 set on foot, but soon after countermanded. (App. U 6.)h 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CI 
 
 However that happened, I hope your Lordship will 
 always own how constantly I have insisted thereon as 
 the easiest and most valuable design this nation can pos- 
 sibly be engaged in ; since by only advancing five or six 
 hundred thousand pounds — a sum inconsiderable com- 
 pared with the vast expenses and losses in which the 
 kingdom has been since involved, France and Spain 
 might, long ere this, have been at our mercy, and both 
 the power and trade of this nation raised to such a 
 pitch as possibly we shall never have the like oppor- 
 tunity to reach again. 
 
 " A treaty of an union with Scotland was set on foot 
 the same year, but came to nothing ; and, although 
 several things succeeded the rupture of that treaty not 
 very union-like, yet it pleased God, in his great good- 
 ness, to bless her Majesty's inexpressible sincerity and 
 unwearied endeavours therein, so that in some years 
 after this union was happily completed : and, had the 
 peaceful spirit and true genius of the union of interests 
 been more cordially prosecuted, this whole island had, 
 before this time, felt the good consequences thereof, and 
 been entirely reconciled to it. 
 
 ' " Upon the whole, instead of the valuable securities 
 and advantages we might have justly expected from a 
 sincere and vigorous prosecution of those wise and 
 solid measures of the King, we now see the then 
 national debt of fifteen or sixteen millions, so far from 
 being diminished, that they are near, if not quite, 
 doubled ; the public revenues almost wholly alienated ; 
 and yet about one-third of our new debts still without 
 ifunds to pay them; Navy Bills, and other such defi- 
 
Cii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cient credit, at 20 to 25 per cent, discount, and in 
 danger of falling still lower ; with all the other parts of 
 the pubUc credit in proportion. This disorder must 
 increase if any considerable part of public supplies be 
 raised by anticipations on remote or doubtful funds. 
 Our home industry and improvements are under in- 
 supportable difficulties ; most of the branches of our 
 foreign trade so overcharged as to amount to prohi- 
 bition ; not only our reasonable designs to the West 
 Indies, but even navigation itself, and our proper plan- 
 tations and acquisitions abroad abandoned or neglected ; 
 our enemies suflPered to carry away millions that might 
 have been ours ; and the true spirit of the union, with 
 the great advantages that would otherwise have na- 
 turally followed upon it, has been stifled and sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 " In fine, after so much blood and treasure spent, 
 and notwithstanding all our victories abroad, we not 
 only see Great Britain thus sinking at home, but even 
 the fall of Christendom still depends on the high suc- 
 cess of the German and Flanders war. 
 
 " Your Lordship knows how much and how long I 
 have insisted upon the prevention and redress of these 
 disorders, and given very frequent warnings of what 
 would follow if timely and due care were not taken. 
 AU I can do now is again to renew my sugges- 
 tions. 
 
 " First. That a true state of the public revenue and 
 debts may be immediately prepared and laid before the 
 House of Commons, to the end they may be prevailed 
 upon to make the necessary provision of interest for 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Clll 
 
 such debts ; to grant the supplies, so as to secure the 
 nation from further deficiencies ; and to provide that 
 the payments be as regular and certain as in Venice or 
 Holland. 
 
 " Second. That the Council of Trade be speedily put 
 in a way of being more useful to the public, especially 
 because, if timely and due care be taken, this consti- 
 tution may be brought to give visible credit and vigour 
 to the administration, even before the end of this 
 session of parliament. 
 
 " To which suggestions I now, for reasons obvious 
 enough, add, that all possible countenance may be 
 given towards inspecting the state of the Admiralty 
 and naval affairs, so as the Queen may be better 
 enabled to reform what may be there amiss ; and that 
 the present condition and circumstances of the king- 
 dom of Ireland be carefully stated, that it may be more 
 perfectly known how much a complete union with that 
 island will add to the wealth and security of Great Britain. 
 
 " There are several matters of weight, both as to the 
 nature and consequence of these proposals, not so 
 proper to be committed to writing, of which I shall 
 have the honour to acquaint your Lordship by word of 
 mouth, when so happy as to be again admitted to kiss 
 your hands. Meantime, I am, &c." 
 
 This letter the editor of the Political State deservedly 
 treats as the production of one who had " no small skill 
 in State affairs." He adds that the writer of it was the 
 person who projected the Bank of England, and he had 
 prefaced it as " Mr, Paterson's Letter to the late Lord 
 Treasurer." 
 
civ BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 His fortune was too much shattered by the double 
 disaster attending his connection with his great Scot- 
 tish Company to permit his return to trade, as he had so 
 courageously proposed in 1697 upon the occurrence of 
 the loss in Holland. He abandoned his all on that 
 occasion to save his good name, and the price of the 
 sacrifice may be estimated by the degree in which the 
 want of his fortune excluded him from active asso- 
 ciation with his equals, until justice was done for 
 him as he was hastening to the grave. His health, 
 too, had suffered much in Darien from the combined 
 effects of disappointment, of climate, and domestic 
 affliction. 
 
 But his fertile mind was at least a source of consola- 
 tion to himself, and not without influence upon others. 
 He was still a high authority on all the subjects ha had 
 taken so distinguished a part in. Of this abundant 
 evidence remains, notwithstanding the frequent asser- 
 tion that upon the ruin of the Darien Settlement he 
 retired to obscurity in Scotland. 
 
 From 1703 to his decease, in 1719, he resided in 
 Westminster, as is attested by his proposal to found 
 a public library of trade, preserved in the British 
 Museum ; — by a passage in one of Charles Lesley's 
 Jacobite tracts ; — and by the probate of his will. 
 He lived in Queen-square, and there is a tradition 
 that he was joint projector of it with Sir Theodore 
 .Tanssen. His second wife had property in Pimlico; 
 and he provides in his will for her children by a former 
 marriage. In the water company, of which he had been 
 the chief promoter twelve years previously, he kept 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CV 
 
 some interest as long as he lived. Skill in engineering 
 seems to have been among his various attainments. 
 Several valuable works on that subject are entered in 
 the catalogue of his library, preserved in the Museum ; 
 and at the close of his memoir on British enterprise in 
 America, a paper by himself on nautical improvements 
 is referred to. (App. V.) 
 
 The proposal he made in 1 703 was not only of great 
 national advantage in itself, but it indicated the emi- 
 nence of his social position, as well as the elevation of 
 his views —it was the proposal of a public library for 
 the study of commerce and finance, for which good 
 purpose he offered his own valuable collection of 
 special printed books and manuscripts on both sub- 
 jects ; and he introduced the proposal by an able essay, 
 shejving the urgent need of means being taken to im- 
 prove upon our forefathers in commercial and financial 
 science. No man was better entitled than himself to 
 give an opinion to that effect ; and cruel experience 
 had taught him how much the English people stood in 
 need of instruction in that science. Shortly after 
 Paterson's proposals were made, the Earl of Halifax 
 took the first step to secure the Cotton Collection, 
 from the acquisition of which by the nation may be 
 dated the foundation of the British Museum, which 
 contains vast materials in furtherance of the views of 
 the philosophical Scottish merchant ; and to which the 
 adoption of his proposals would have given an utility 
 not yet secured to its unknown treasures. This fine 
 idea of a library of Political Economy is adopted at 
 Hamburgh, and it has been taken up zealously 
 
CVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 elsewhere on the Continent and in the United 
 States. 
 
 Paterson gave a better, because an older, example of 
 this good thing. His views combined landed with 
 trading interests, and his estimate of the value of all 
 the branches of knowledge that ensure the due deve- 
 lopement of national industry and wealth, pubUc and 
 private, is an excellent recommendation of such efforts 
 as his to diffuse such knowledge. He has expressed 
 that estimate in a few golden words prefixed to the 
 catalogue of his own library, when he dedicated it in 
 his lifetime to the public use. 
 
 His Ubrary was limited to works on " trade, reve- 
 nue, and navigation," and to whatever illustrates those 
 subjects, of which he observes as follows : — 
 
 " This catalogue has been extracted from a col- 
 lection upon those subjects, to give some better idea 
 than is commonly conceived of the books necessary to 
 the knowledge of matters so deep and extensive as trade 
 and revenue ; the which, notwithstanding the noise of 
 many pretenders, may well be said not yet to be truly 
 methodised — nay, nor perhaps to have been tolerably 
 considered by any, 
 
 " Trade and revenue are here put together ; since 
 the pubUc, and indeed any other revenues, are only 
 branches of the increase from the industry of the people, 
 whether in pasture, agriculture, manufactures, naviga- 
 tion, extraordinary productions or inventions, or by all 
 of those. 
 
 " So that to this necessary, and it is to be hoped 
 now rising, study of trade, there is requisite not only as 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CVU 
 
 complete a collection as possible of all books, pamphlets, 
 and schemes relating to trade, revenues, navigation, 
 inventions or improvements, ancient or modern, but 
 likewise of the best histories, voyages, and accounts of 
 the states, laws, and customs of countries. From these 
 collections it will be more clearly understood how the 
 various eflfects of wars, conquests, fires, inundations, 
 plenty, want, good or bad management or influence of 
 government, and such like, have more immediately 
 affected the rise and decline of the industry of a people. 
 
 " The friends to this study are desired to contribute 
 what they can towards rendering this small collection 
 more complete and fit for public use ; and for this pur- 
 pose to communicate the titles of such books or papers 
 as they have heard to be extant on these and the hke 
 subjects. 
 
 " Some of the MSS. belonging to this collection 
 being at present dispersed, and others not yet brought 
 into order, the catalogue thereof is deferred. 
 
 « Westminster, August 23, 1703." 
 
 All that is known of the result of this remarkable 
 invitation is, that the catalogue of Paterson's own books 
 so given to the public, is in the British Museum, Harl. 
 MSS. No. 4664. 
 
 It gives an interesting view of the donor's acquire- 
 ments; his extensive acquaintance with modern lan- 
 guages ; and the enlarged idea he had of the intelli- 
 gence to be expected in an accomplished merchant. 
 
 It has been proposed to establish a Paterson Public 
 Library, upon the basis of his collection, as a fitting 
 
Cviii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 monument to a great man ; and as calculated at no 
 distant time to provide the means of public instruction 
 on matters of national interest. 
 
 One of the points of the Committee on Public Libra- 
 ries is to form commercial libraries in our great towns ; 
 but it is still an urgent want in England, whilst in 
 Scotland that want is supphed by the munificence of 
 a citizen of Glasgow. (App. W.) 
 
 From this time it is clear Paterson took a warm in- 
 terest in the discussions, which had become of increasing 
 importance, respecting the Union. Although domiciled 
 in London from his youth, he had never ceased to look 
 back upon Scotland with the warmest aflFection ; and so 
 late as in 1705, the Scottish Parliament rejected Law's 
 scheme of an inconvertible paper currency, entirely 
 upon his sounder principles. His pen was now busy 
 in advocating other Scottish interests ; but especially 
 the Union, which is the subject of the third of his works 
 in this volume. He had also always entered into the great 
 general interests of the Metropolis ; and, like the more 
 brilliantly accomplished Dr. Arbuthnot, contributed 
 with no small effect to the removal of prejudices which 
 still lingered in southern society against the stirring 
 men of the North. 
 
 He was employed by the Government both in London 
 and Edinburgh in preparing the financial accounts re- 
 quiring to be settled for the just apportionment of the 
 public burthens after the Union. Unquestionably his 
 authority in this matter stood high, as whilst advocacy 
 of the Union itself was as undisguised as it was earnest. 
 Nevertheless, he was elected Member of the first United 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CIX 
 
 Parliament for the Dumfrieshire Boroughs, where the 
 popular discontent at that measure almost broke out 
 into civil war. His return under such circumstances was 
 no slight proof of the esteem in which he was personall)/ 
 held ; but the return was double, and his petition upon 
 it failed. (App. W 2.) 
 
 In Dumfries indeed the popular feeling against the 
 Union was extraordinarily strong, especially among his 
 own partisans — the Covenanters. He manfully however 
 resisted what misled his countrymen, for instead of 
 sharing "the national mistake," which required fifty 
 years to correct, he held it to be a prejudice which wise 
 rule could remove. When reflecting with complacency 
 upon the extent of delusion on this subject under which 
 our forefathers laboured, and from which we are free, 
 it would be just to give to such an exception as William 
 Paterson his signal mark of honour. (App. W 3.) 
 
 In the same year, 1707, he was the object of remark- 
 able consideration on another point, as appears by the 
 terms of an Act of Parliament, 6 Anne, c. 5 1 , settling 
 the distribution of the indemnity fund called the Equi- 
 valent, by the Court of Exchequer of Scotland. The 
 Act expressly states, sec. 21, that in the accounts of 
 the African Company's debt, to be provided for out 
 of that fund, Mr. Paterson's claims had been omitted ; 
 it therefore enacts that no such omission should preju- 
 dice his rights. It adds still further, sec. 22, that 
 "in regard that, since the first contracts, the said Wil- 
 liam Paterson hath been at further expences, and 
 sustained further losses and damages for the said Com- 
 pany, the Court of Exchequer of Scotland should take 
 
ex BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 account thereof, and likewise of his good services and 
 public cares, and make a full and fair report thereof to 
 Her Majesty." Under this Act, the Exchequer ad- 
 judged the sum of 18,241?. 10*. lO^d. to Paterson, 
 concluding the report with a strong opinion that those 
 services, independently of his great efforts to promote 
 the interests of the Darien Company, deserved an ho- 
 nourable recompense. 
 
 From this time occasional glimpses only have been 
 got of him, who, as the successful merchant and 
 enlightened projector of great designs, had so long 
 been the object of universal respect and attention. He 
 lived in Westminster, in circumstances so reduced, that 
 his leisure is believed to have been sometimes occu- 
 pied in teaching mathematics and navigation. The 
 Editor has been told of an advertisement inviting 
 scholars to his lessons ; but that interesting notice has 
 not been found. He was a water-drinker in an age of 
 free-livers. Nevertheless he frequented the coffee- 
 houses, then the famous scenes of aU political, com- 
 mercial, and literary intercourse. This habit is recog- 
 nised in a remark in a tract about his residence in 
 Holland ; it probably suggested his Club Dialogues of 
 1706 and 1717, and it is traced in the execution of his 
 will, in 1718, '-'at the Ship tavern vfithout Temple 
 Bar." It is believed that Sir Andrew Freeport, the 
 distinguished trade-member of the Spectator Club— 
 whether drawn by Addison or Steele— was portrayed 
 after William Paterson. The Spectator had a learned 
 Scottish contributor in Mr. Dunlop, — son of Paterson's 
 friendly and just judge, the Principal of Glasgow Uni- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 0X1 
 
 versity; and, although the name of Andrew was not 
 then so exclusively Scottish as at present, it has a 
 somewhat strong leaning in that direction. It is certain 
 that all the characters of the Spectator Club were 
 portraits ; and the principles, the practice, and courte- 
 sies of this noble type of the free-trader — the British 
 merchant of 1709, are eminently characteristic of 
 Paterson. 
 
 His residence in Glueen Square, Westminster, at this 
 period, is fixed by a passage in one of the party tracts 
 of Charles Lesley, mentioning his sufferings, and the 
 neglect of him as a reproach to the Government, and 
 aground of public dissatisfaction. Afte)- he had re- 
 covered his Darien indemnity in 1715, his name 
 occurs in the books of the Scottish Corporation in 
 Crown Court as one of the most liberal contributors to 
 that charity. His views at that time upon the difficult 
 question of the restoration of the Episcopalian clergy 
 in Scotland are expressed in the following letter, 
 written when that subject was under anxious con- 
 sideration. He was no indifferent member of the re- 
 ligious community to which he belonged, the Kirk of 
 Scotland. He never forgot her cause, for which he had 
 suffered in youth, although his early zeal tempered by 
 friendly and profitable intercourse with all manner of 
 men, had long been moderated. After the accession of 
 Queen Anne the Episcopalian clergy made vigorous 
 efforts to be restored in Scotland, at which time he 
 published a Letter upon the question of religious tole- 
 ration, which those efforts much embarrassed. That 
 body of ministers formed a powerful section of the 
 
CXn BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 anti-revolution party ; and it was much strengthened 
 by the death of King WiUiam as it was already fortified 
 by his impolitic resistance to the Darien colony. Q,ueen 
 Anne was disposed to indulge the Episcopalians ; and 
 the Presbyterian party was alarmed, so that a violent 
 opposition arose against what otherwise would have 
 been conceded with mutual advantage ; and a Bill for 
 the toleration of all Protestants was necessarily aban- 
 doned by the Government. In reference to this state of 
 things, Paterson wrote as follows "to a great minister 
 in England." 
 
 " The truth is, most men were so sensible of the great 
 peace and quiet the country enjoyed since the Revolu- 
 tion under established Presbytery, and so mindful of 
 the great troubles and persecution prelacy had caused, 
 and withal so convinced that, there having been neither 
 persecution nor pressure of conscience under Presbytery, 
 there could be no just place for a toleration, — and that 
 toleration in such case would in effect prove a pro- 
 claimed license to disturb, and not a charitable relief 
 to weak persons aggrieved, which is the only reason to 
 be pleaded for it : upon these considerations, the Par- 
 liament proceeded very readily to ratify the Protestant 
 religion and Presbyterian government in its full estab- 
 lishment, and fence the claim of right, whereof Presby- 
 terian party is an article, with the severest sanction, 
 that none should quarrel with, or impugn it, under the 
 pain of Treason. And thus the expectation of a tole- 
 ration vanished."* 
 
 * Boyer's Political State, 1711, p. 470; from the Post Boy, 10 
 Nov. 1705. 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXIU 
 
 How wise Paterson's opposition to the Act was on 
 this occasion is strikingly illustrated by a passage in 
 the " Four Last Years of the Reign of Queen Anne," 
 This Act of Toleration is there shewn to have been 
 passed by a parliamentary trick — not to stay any perse- 
 cution of the Episcopalian clergy in Scotland. The 
 trick succeeded, with the result that the Act so passed 
 was "a watchword to the Non-jurors in both king- 
 doms, who now openly declared for the Pretender with 
 impunity." 
 
 His pen seems to have now been in constant use; 
 and an obscure literary link has occurred in a bill of 
 exchange for 100/., drawn upon Jacob Tonson, the 
 bookseller, by Paul Daranda, Paterson's generous 
 executor, which is given in the plate of fac-similes. 
 
 Whether his step-children of two marriages, provided 
 for by his will, lived with him, nowhere appears ; but 
 his kindly thoughts of his Dumfrieshire relatives are 
 testified by the legacies left to them ; and /. Mounsey, 
 who signs Paterson's Darien debenture of 1718, here 
 set forth with the letter of Secretary Stanhope, may 
 be reasonably presumed to have been one of his 
 nephews, and probably the ancestors of the two Scottish 
 physicians of the last century to the court of Russia, 
 \ bearing that name, and known to have been, of his 
 kindred. 
 
 Enough is here stated to shew Paterson's social 
 position to have long secured to him great personal 
 respect ; although adverse circumstances deprived him 
 of the weight which his experience and his abilities 
 ought to have commanded. 
 
CXIV BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 X. 
 
 The last resolution of the independent Scottish Par- 
 liament recommended William Paterson to Queen Anne 
 for honourable employment. Notwithstanding this high 
 testimony to his merit, an adverse influence frustrated his 
 endeavours even to obtain common justice throughout 
 that reign, not to speak of the utter disregard of his 
 rare abilities by the queen's later ministers. He took, 
 indeed, a decided part against the re-establishment of 
 the Scottish Episcopalians at home, and he was a warm 
 partizan of the Hanoverian succession ; and he had a 
 political weight that may be estimated by the slight 
 anecdote mentioned in the memoirs of Baillie of Jervis- 
 wood, that his opinion was enough to determine a con- 
 troversy to the disadvantage of a leading Scottish states- 
 man. But it was justly matter of severe reproach to 
 the ministers that they should utterly neglect one 
 whose antecedents had been so remarkable, whose 
 capacity was admitted by all, and whose urgent needs 
 should have touched the most callous. This neglect 
 was traced at the time to causes still discreditably 
 prevalent. In Boyer's Political State for 1711 a com- 
 plaint is made that "this great poUtician, the chief pro- 
 jector of the Bank of England, the main support of the 
 Government, should be so disregarded that even the 
 sums due to him are not paid. He was very instru- 
 mental (it is added) in bringing about the Union, when 
 he was the person chiefly employed in settling the 
 national accounts. There are two reasons why men 
 of merit go unrewarded. Busy-bodies have more 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXV 
 
 impudence, and get by importunity what others de- 
 serve by real services ; and those at the helm are 
 often obliged to bestow employment on their sup- 
 porters without any regard to merit." The times 
 were indeed evil for honest men when Prior, an un- 
 scrupulous man of wit, could describe conscience as a 
 steed which, 
 
 If ridden with an easy rein, 
 And well rubbed down with worldly gain, 
 Would carry you through thick and thin 
 Safe, although dirty, to your inn. 
 
 But something worse than even this lay in his path. 
 Paterson's own account of the refusal to pay the money 
 due to him is that a " violent parti/ " was allowed to do 
 the wrong ; and the case so much the more requires 
 notice as it bore on a subject at that time much dis- 
 cussed, and become at present a topic of great public 
 interest. 
 
 How to secure fit appointments to the public service, 
 and fit promotion in it, was brought before Parliament 
 by a Bill soon after the Revolution of 1688. It was a 
 favourite topic with the earnest statesmen of the seven- 
 teenth century. Some of the sectarian Reformers 
 among them even treated it as of religious obligation ; 
 and upon George Fox refusing a proffered advantage 
 at the Protector's hands, Cromwell, who had no such 
 scruples, said he did not know how government was to 
 be carried on upon those terms. So this idol of some 
 men's worship kept a rich piece of preferment, the pro- 
 vostship of Eton, open, as Whitelock narrates, in order 
 that the hope of obtaining it might the more attach 
 
 i 2 
 
CXVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 some backsliders to their patron. At the Restoration 
 there was published on this head a solemn appeal, of 
 which Charles II. proved to be little capable of feeling 
 the force. It was founded on the ancient statutes of 
 England, which enjoin all appointments to be made for 
 "desert," not for "brocage or favour,"" under severe 
 penalties, and the statute has by no means been a dead 
 letter, as recorded cases prove. (App. X.) 
 
 In our time the subject has assumed still greater 
 practical importance by the recent exposure of base 
 principles upon which the wise modern reformation of 
 our civil service has been opposed. In furtherance of 
 that opposition, the Pagan doctrine of the power of 
 " good luck " has been appealed to against Shake- 
 speare's sublime Christian doctrine that 
 
 In the reproof of chance lies the true proof of men. 
 
 But, hard as the task is to bring our practice into har- 
 mony with the requirements of a pure law, the advo- 
 cates of corruption have, in the present case, met with 
 deserved defeat. (App. Y.) 
 
 The Lord Treasurer Oxford was quite aware of Pater- 
 son's claims, and paid -him small sums, duly entered in 
 the accounts of the royal bounty. They seem to have 
 been compensations for services in the management of 
 the South Sea Company, and the amounts indicate the 
 distress Paterson was reduced to. He was a Commis- 
 sioner, but without any other share in forming that 
 company, as appears by a letter preserved in the library 
 of the city of London in Guildhall, and attributed to 
 his pen. It is written in his candid spirit, and belongs 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXVll 
 
 to the period in which he was so unwisely laid aside. 
 This document is here inserted in App. Z. 
 
 During these mournful years of Paterson's life he 
 struggled manfully before the Parliament to make good 
 his claims to a large share in the Scottish Equivalent. 
 Successive Committees of the House of Commons sup- 
 ported him, and in 1713 a Bill passed the House in his 
 favour, appropriating to him the sum of 18,000/. ; but 
 the Peers threw that Bill out (App. A A). 
 
 At length, in I7l5j his hard trials came to an end, 
 for which he was indebted to the accession of the House 
 of Hanover. 
 
 XI. 
 
 Paterson's numerous relations with the continent are 
 the least known, although they are perhaps among the 
 most interesting circumstances of the more active por- 
 tion of his career. That he went abroad before his 
 first voyage to the West Indies is conjectured only from 
 tradition. That he visited Prussia about the year 1686 
 in order to propose his Darien project to the great 
 Elector of Brandenburgh is more certain; but only 
 general traces of this interesting visit have yet been 
 collected. That he was well known in " the coffee- 
 houses of Amsterdam " before 1688, when they were 
 thronged by the busy malcontents from England and 
 Scotland, is known from a contemporary tract (App. 
 B B), and his personal acquaintance with the Prince of 
 Orange then may be safely surmised. He spoke Dutch, 
 and was familiar with much that was of deep moment 
 
CXViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 to the Prince. His intimate knowledge of the trade 
 and finance of the continent undoubtedly contributed 
 after the Revolution both to the foundation of the Bank 
 of England, and to the other measures in which he 
 bore a part for the improvement of the coin and 
 advancement of credit in England. Of his presence 
 in Holland at a later period painful evidence has been 
 produced in the disastrous commission to buy stores 
 for the Darien expedition in 1697. Whether, as is 
 probable, he had intimate communications with Ham- 
 burgh at that time, and, as is even probable, with 
 Hanover afterwards, are points requiring further inquiry, 
 which the known care with which such records are 
 kept in Germany renders promising. The intimate rela- 
 tions of eminent Englishmen with Leibnitz and others 
 in Germany, during the reign of Queen Anne, can be 
 traced in pamphlets and correspondence full of import- 
 ant details. The Electoral Court cultivated those rela- 
 tions sedulously, with a view to the succession to the 
 throne of Great Britain ; and there are believed to be 
 valuable stores of manuscripts to be consulted abroad 
 which will usefully illustrate public and private affahs 
 of much interest to this country. George I. on his 
 accession was well prepared, by previous acquaintance 
 with English things and Englishmen, to appreciate 
 them. To the fact that he did not come a stranger 
 among us was owing the ill- success of the Pretender's 
 invasion of Scotland in 1715; and to the same cause 
 may be attributed the administrative change then so 
 favourable to many who had long been friends to the 
 House of Hanover as representing a great Protestant 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION, CXix 
 
 interest in the three kingdoms and upon the continent. 
 Paterson shared in the advantages of this happy change, 
 from which he sagaciously anticipated the great im- 
 provement which gradually took place in our public 
 policy. (App. B B 2.) 
 
 In the General Record Repository there is preserved 
 a memorial addressed by him to King George I., and 
 referred by his Majesty to the Lords of the Treasury, 
 which throws much light on Paterson's history and 
 character. It is dated the 8th day of March, 1714-5, 
 and its result was singularly satisfactory to him. 
 Nothing, however, has been found to explain what 
 previous steps were taken to faciUtate his access to 
 the King. The views set forth in this memorial, and 
 the very important consequences to which it led in 
 regard to our public finances, give great interest to it. 
 The document is in the following words : — 
 
 " Memorial of Mr. Paterson. 
 
 "With much pain and expense he hath already 
 made considerable progress towards a proper scheme 
 or representation of some public affairs of the greatest 
 consequence, particularly of the taxes, impositions, and 
 revenues of Great Britain, with the anticipations and 
 debts charged and contracted therein during the last 
 twenty-six years, amounting to about fifty millions 
 sterUng. 
 
 "This scheme is to demonstrate in what cases those 
 impositions may be rendered more easy to the subject, 
 yet the revenues greatly improved, whereby of course 
 
CXX BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 this immense debt will be sooner and more easily 
 discharged. 
 
 " But the great expense be hatb been at in the last 
 twenty-three years in things relating to the public 
 service, and the non-payment of a considerable sum of 
 the Equivalent money, detained from him for several 
 years by a violent party, disables him at present from 
 completing this design, wherein some material step 
 might otherwise be taken in this very next Session of 
 Parhament. 
 
 "His experience abroad as well as at home during 
 twenty-nine years, especially in matters of general 
 trade and public revenues, gives him hopes to be like- 
 wise useful in this great conjuncture of the accession of 
 the Protestant hne to the crown of Great Britain, 
 towards inspecting and representing some material 
 things relating to his Majesty's revenues and estates in 
 Germany ; that by a true knowledge of the trade, 
 manufactures, and situation thereof, it may be better 
 seen what sort of communication and correspondence 
 will be materially beneficial to us and them who are 
 become subjects of the same sovereign. 
 
 " Former neglects of these and like things make it 
 no easy matter soon to put them in any tolerable light. 
 
 " However, five or six hundred pounds present 
 supply would enable him to go forward with this great 
 work till further provision be found proper." 
 
 Endorsed — " Memorial of Mr. Paterson 
 
 to his Majesty, March 8, 1714-5." 
 
 This memorial was referred to the Lords Commis- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXl 
 
 sioners of the Treasury, with the following letter from 
 the Secretary of State : — 
 
 "Whitehall, 18 March, 1714-5. 
 
 "The enclosed memorial from Mr. Paterson having 
 been laid before the King, I am ordered to transmit the 
 same to your Lordship, and to signify to you his 
 pleasure that you report your opinion of what you 
 think proper to be done for Mr. Paterson, to enable 
 and encourage him to carry on what he offers in the 
 said memorial, which his Majesty judges may be for 
 his service. 
 
 " (Signed) James Stanhope." 
 
 Endorsed — " 18th March, 1714-5. — From Mr. Secretary Stanhope, 
 with a memorial from Mr. Paterson, desiring some money to enable him 
 to go on in finishing a scheme proposed in his memorial. Read 4 June, 
 1715."* 
 
 This memorial touched the King and his ministers ; 
 so that within four months, instead of the " en- 
 couragement " of 500/. thus simply asked, 1 8,000/. was 
 appropriated by Act of Parliament to Paterson's use, as 
 due to him. The result gives a measure of the value of 
 this noble work of justice, in the relief it afforded to 
 him, and the provision it permitted him to make for 
 his numerous step-children, and nephews and nieces. 
 He seems also to have been now enabled to pay 
 his own debts, whilst speculating upon the best way 
 of deahng with those of the nation. His will, set 
 forth here from the probate, is an eloquent index 
 to the sufferings inflicted on him by the long delay 
 
 * Treasury Papers in the Public Ofiice at the Rolls, 
 
CXXii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in providing for his indemnity. The parliamentary 
 grant of 1715 was 18,000/. of which the will disposes 
 of 8,000?. only. The difference, 10,000/. must have 
 been appropriated to pay debts. . By his will he leaves 
 his executor Daranda the munificent legacy of 1,000?. 
 in acknowledgment of " the generosity " of that good 
 man to himself " and his family." Daranda was the 
 colleague of Paterson's banking enterprises in his most 
 brilliant days, many years before. He seems also after- 
 wards to have been familiar with his transactions and 
 friends in Holland ; and in the letters from Locke and 
 others to Benjamin Furley, an English merchant of Am- 
 sterdam, of the Society of Friends, there is one of 1 702 
 from the Earl of Shaftesbury, thanking Furley for the 
 acquaintance of so valuable a man as " Daranda" with- 
 out doubt the same individual advantageously known to 
 us. Much more remains to be said of him (App. 
 C C), but the legacy is noticed as a proof of Paterson's 
 great need, which his friend had so long relieved. 
 Twenty years had passed since those needs began to he 
 severely felt; and during many of those years the 
 ministers of Queen Anne permitted a " violent party" 
 to embitter his declining days, by refusing him common 
 justice. The example should be an warning to us. The 
 like cases happen every day. Their very frequency has 
 been alleged to justify the denial of right. How can 
 the Government vindicate everybody ? That the Lord 
 Treasurer Oxford had any personal enmity to Paterson 
 is an impossibiUty. But as the use is still, the minister 
 delegated his duty to subordinates — a " violent party," 
 who had a false interest to serve in crushing the un- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXiii 
 
 compromising opponent to their political views ; and 
 they succeeded for many a weary year at a frightful 
 sacrifice to their honourable victim. (App. D D.) This 
 authentic record of Paterson's ultimate success against 
 intrigue should stimulate the British public to demand 
 a remedy of right at the Privy Council for such 
 grievances. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The statute of redress was passed in July, 1715, theroyal 
 assent being given to it on the same day on which intelli- 
 gence of the rebellion having broken out in Scotland 
 arrived. The consequences of this liberal recognition 
 of the claims of WiUiam Paterson attested his genuine 
 worth, and far more than repaid the King's generous 
 decision. His ready pen was thus enabled to produce 
 the financial work which forms the fourth portion of 
 the present volume ; and that work was the basis of a 
 system of managing the public funds that has already 
 saved us miUions, imperfectly as Parliament from the 
 first carried out Paterson's plans, and these plans are 
 probably destined, in wiser hands, to be the key-stone 
 of the most important financial reforms. 
 
 A cotemporary critic, Boyer, in the Political State 
 for March, 1717, positively attributes this book to the 
 pen of Mr. Paterson, and concludes an elaborate review 
 of it with the characteristic anecdote that some of " the 
 meaner sort " of dealers in the public funds burned it in 
 front of the Royal Exchange. The monied men called 
 the proposed payment of the National Debt a " modi- 
 fied sponge." The title and number of pages of the 
 
CXxiv BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 book are given correctly in that review, with the names 
 of the interlocutors of the Dialogues at " the Wednes- 
 day's Club," the fictitious members of which are the 
 personages of Paterson's drama. An answer to the 
 book, with the title of " No Club Law," was written by 
 Dr. Broome, and replied to by a tract called "Fair 
 Payment is no Sponge." This last production is given 
 to " Paterson or De Foe," in the Eulogy of Walpole, 
 published the same year, 1717- (App. E E.) 
 
 But all was not accomplished, even with the King's 
 benevolent interposition, to secure tranquihty to Pater- 
 son's latter days. Sincerely disposed as such ministers 
 as Walpole, Stanhope, and Sunderland undoubtedly 
 were to second His Majesty's gracious purpose on this 
 occasion, and well as Parliament supported that pur- 
 pose, official routine stepped in to delay the satisfaction 
 of the " Equivalent " upon which the indemnity of 
 18,000^. was charged. Even with the Rebellion of 
 1715 to stimulate the Treasury to do an act of mere 
 justice to numerous Scottish claimants of portions of that 
 fund, its due settlement was delayed, and the parties 
 exposed to the sacrifice of a large part of it to realise 
 something for their wants. During the three following 
 years Paterson did his part towards improving our 
 system of taxation and currency, with small support 
 from the men who were deluded by what was pass- 
 ing in France in those three years under the dis- 
 astrous measure of his old opponent, John Law. Our 
 Treasury had in it a crowd of sympathisers with 
 the Missisippi projector, and they had no desire in any 
 way to strengthen Paterson's hands. The mismanage- 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXV 
 
 ment of the finances generally had also been long a 
 subject of public complaint ; and there is in the 
 preamble of a statute of this reign, in regard to the 
 Scottish Equivalent, a very singular confession of 
 past errors ever since the passing of the Act of Queen 
 Anne, in 1707, for its settlement under the Treaty of 
 Union. The language of this statute of 1 718 (5 Geo. I. 
 c, 20) is perhaps unexampled in the frankness of that 
 confession; and Paterson was but too seriously con- 
 cerned in the consequences. 
 
 " By reason," it is there stated, " of many doubts in 
 the construction of the Treaty and other-lavFS relating 
 to the excrescence of the said Equivalent, and to the 
 growing equivalent due or becoming due to Scotland, 
 and by reason of the many difficulties which attend 
 separating and distinguishing between debts incurred 
 before the Union and debts incurred for service of the 
 United Kingdom (both which have been provided for 
 without distinction since the Union), the Commis- 
 sioners for the Equivalent have not been able to adjust 
 the accounts thereof for the time past, and are like to 
 meet with insuperable difficulties therein for the future, 
 during so long time as the same is to continue in the 
 terms of the said Treaty, although the making or 
 endeavouring to make such accounts is attended with an 
 excessive charge to the public, and may occasion great 
 vexations and discontents in the United Kingdom." 
 
 Therefore a redeemable annuity of 10,000?. was 
 granted to Commissioners, with 6001. a-year for ma- 
 naging that fund in favour of the Scottish claimants, of 
 whom Paterson was formally acknowledged to be 
 
CXXVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 one. Debentures were to be issued upon this fund in 
 proportion to the parties' claims, and he undoubtedly 
 took his share of them. 
 
 This statute was passed in the Session of 1718, and 
 the case of Paterson is a striking illustration of the evils 
 admitted by the legislature in its incredible statement. 
 
 The last document discovered in regard to him 
 exhibits in a deplorable light how he was now dealt 
 with, and what effect that unworthy treatment had 
 upon his spirits. It is the following letter to Secretary 
 Stanhope, inclosing a copy of one of the debentures 
 in which his indemnity was paid at interest only for a 
 limited time, and available only at a future day, and 
 obviously to be used only by a sacrifice of real value. 
 
 " My Lord, — There is herewith inclosed a copie of 
 the original Equivalent bill of 50/., with a description 
 of the emblem and motto, which I left with your Lord- 
 ship at Hampton Court, and I hope it may be found or 
 recovered ; otherwise it will be proper for me to give 
 notice at the office that I have lost such a bill, in order 
 to prevent the payment thereof when due. I have this 
 day transmitted to my Lord Sunderland my petition to 
 his Majesty, requesting his Lordship's intercession for 
 obtaining some settlement, or pension towards my 
 support in this difficult juncture of my affairs, wherein 
 I hope for your Lordship's particular favour and coun- 
 tenance. 
 
 " I am, my Lord, your Lordship's most obliged and 
 most humble servant, Willm. Paterson. 
 
 " Westminster, 8 Dec. 1718. 
 « To the Right Hon. the Earl Stanhope." 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXVU 
 
 (Copie.) 
 " No. 95. — I promise to pay to Edward Gibbon, Esq., 
 or bearer, fifty pounds any time after the 28th day of 
 February next, with two shillings and six pence per 
 month for nine months, and no longer. — London, 28 
 August, 1718. 
 
 "£50. J. Mounsey." 
 
 "For the directors of the subscribed Equivalent debt. 
 
 "Benjn. Longuet. 
 
 The emblem attached to this note was two serpents twisting round 
 a pillar and a dove holding a scale: motto, " We stand united." 
 
 State Paper Office (Domestic) Geo. I., II., III. No. 4. En- 
 dorsed— « Mr. Paterson, 8 Dec. 1718." 
 
 This is the last trace hitherto found of William 
 Paterson, who died in January following. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 The prodigious financial events which disturbed all 
 Europe soon after his decease may, without exaggera- 
 tion, be said to belong to his history ; and the merit of 
 his own correct appreciation of the Law delusions could 
 not be tried by better tests than the disastrous oc- 
 currences in Paris and London in the next two years, 
 after the vigilant opponent of these delusions was no 
 more. The first successes of the Missisippi scheme in 
 France a few months only afterwards bewildered some 
 of the most sober British people. The corporation 
 of Edinburgh, who, under better guidance, had in 1705 
 resisted the very same thing, now eagerly fell into the 
 snare. They began in September 1719 by voting the 
 freedom of the " gude town " to the man who was born 
 
 . lL 
 
CXXViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 there, and who, gifted with " a most graceful person, 
 and a fine intellect," had become the " greatest banker 
 in all Europe" — " Mensariorum per totam Europam 
 facile princeps ;" and the patron of commerce and civi- 
 lisation in the wilds of America. Such is the language 
 of the grave citizens of Edinburgh addressed, with their 
 diploma of citizenship in a costly box, to John Law, 
 Comte de Tankerville ! This was not all ; the Earl of 
 Islay, in the next January, republished Law's Money and 
 Trade of 1705, with a preface, not only boasting of the 
 patronage accorded in that year by his lordship's father, 
 the Duke of Argyle, to the gambler in countless mil- 
 lions, but he went so far as to treat the duel of 1696, 
 when Law was capitally convicted at the Old Bailey for 
 killing his antagonist Wilson, as a case in which the 
 young Scot, become at length Comptroller of France, 
 had been a martyr ! Yet this victim of prejudice 
 was justly reproached by another impartial Scotch 
 writer as the man who had " lived by gambUng and 
 sharping " previously to proposing a scheme of forced 
 paper, which the moneyed men disapproved, and the 
 Scottish Parliament rejected as an improper expe- 
 dient. The French bubble however, prevailing awhile, 
 rapidly spread over London ; so that its influence seems 
 to have even extinguished the zeal of Paterson's sincere 
 eulogist, Boyer, who carefully records in detail the 
 foregoing double compliments to John Law ; but does 
 not in his monthly necrology give so much as an entry 
 of Paterson's death. A biographical notice of him was 
 to be expected in the pages of The Political State, where 
 he had been more than once vindicated. This however 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTKODUCTION. CXXIX 
 
 would call for a comparison of his opinions with those of 
 Law, which for eighteen months misled so many to their 
 ruin; and when the storm passed, it left such deep traces 
 of mischief, that the very subject of financial speculation 
 and calculations may have been distasteful. (App. F F.) 
 
 XIV. 
 
 To ask a high place in the roll of fame for such a 
 man is a grateful task; and what is here produced from 
 his pen will, it is believed, confirm the judgment of his 
 countrymen, who eagerly followed his guidance in an 
 enterprise of great peril beyond sea ; and who never 
 blamed its author, although they were grievous sufferers 
 by the disastrous results of that enterprise. His eminent 
 qualities were crowned in him by the rarest of powers — 
 the power of persuading men of absolutely opposed 
 political principles to meet as on neutral ground, in 
 order to carry out his great designs. 
 
 That such a man, who was once " illustrious" in the 
 eyes of his countrymen, as his latest biographer justly 
 designates him, should ever become an object of their 
 pity, is indeed cause of reproach to the ministers who 
 could have relieved him by the timely appropriation of 
 that which was his simple due for services and suf- 
 ferings. 
 
 The subsequent neglect of his writings by English 
 readers is less surprising than that those writings 
 should have ever fallen into oblivion in Scotland. 
 Neither Dr. Hamilton, who opposed the modern Sink- 
 ing Fund with no slight effect, nor Adam Smith, nor 
 Dugald Stewart, seem to be aware of their existence. 
 
 k 
 
CXXX BIOGRAPHluAii ii>i riiuuuv^xiwi^. 
 
 r 
 
 It is not pretended to explain this singular fact, and 
 still less to impute it disrespectfully to those emi- 
 nent men. Indeed their omission of all notice of these 
 writings in their own on the same subjects, made 
 the editor diffident of his high estimate of Paterson 
 as an economical author ; and he did not resolve to 
 make the present collection without consulting those 
 whose favourable judgment of their importance claims 
 entire reliance. 
 
 In regard to the genuine worth of William Paterson's 
 character, and the deep interest of his career, no 
 doubt could be felt when the obscurities about the 
 successive stages of his life were somewhat cleared 
 up — the better he is known the more is he seen to 
 be entitled to universal esteem. There are still, 
 however, wide blanks in his biography to complete, 
 and, as observed in the opening of this notice, the editor 
 is sanguine in the belief that many memorials of him 
 remain to be gathered from manuscript letters and un- 
 published diaries of his time, which the possessors may 
 be disposed to communicate to a proper applicant. 
 
 The research into family stores and public collections 
 of papers and books will be well repaid. The unsus- 
 pected gold of the AustraUas and California— the 
 memorials of Nineveh so lately come to view — the 
 more wonderful discoveries of science brought daily 
 into familiar use — light, space, and intelligence gained 
 with a facility and speed that surpass the powers of 
 magic— all this falls short in political and moral value 
 of what may come of such research, properly directed, 
 into the historical materials accumulated in our public 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODyCTION. CXXxi 
 
 and private libraries, of which many are now only con- 
 fused heaps of mouldy volumes, and few have the in- 
 dispensable catalogues. Our very book-stalls are full 
 of the Uke valuable and now perishing materials for 
 the clearing up many uncertainties, and to throw light 
 upon the character of great men, and upon the causes 
 and issues of important events. In such places the 
 editor has already met with great aids in the progress 
 of his task. The bye-streets of London have con- 
 tributed to them, and remote towns have been visited 
 with advantage for the same object, so that the in- 
 formation wanted has been found in the most diverse 
 localities — in public and private collections, in the old 
 Bodleian at Oxford and the new Free Library at 
 Manchester, with abundant stores in Edinburgh. A 
 trace of Paterson's portrait with a manuscript was met 
 in the Heber Catalogue, without, however, learning the 
 name of the fortunate- purchaser. Dumfrieshire, the 
 land of his birth, is not the only field of tradition con- 
 cerning him. In Westminster, where he died after a 
 residence of twenty years, it is told with a probability 
 of truth, that in the last century the example of " the 
 great calculator " of Queen's Square, where he lived, 
 used to be held up to the youth as an incentive to 
 diligence in their studies. An eminent antiquary of 
 London, Mr. George Chalmers, collected materials for 
 his Hfe so long ago as 1782, and then got an account 
 from Edinburgh that his correspondent had spoken to 
 an old man who recollected seeing Paterson in 1715, as 
 might well have occurred. 
 The fiction of the old chest which has furnished the 
 
 k 2 
 
CXXXii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 novelist with a starting-point, is but a shadow of the 
 substantial intelligence to be had by diligent explora- 
 tion and judicious choice of what many a family pos- 
 sesses almost unknowingly. The recent proofs of this 
 are various and strong. The birth-place of Roger Wil- 
 liams, of Rhode Island, has been learned by consulting 
 the memory of a clear-headed Welsh peasant, past his 
 hundredth year, and thus was established, with the help 
 of a manuscript in Cambridge, an interesting event of the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century. The late Mr. 
 Francis Baily has produced a work of great value upon the 
 astronomer royal, John Flamstead, the rival of Sir Isaac 
 Newton, from the contents of a box kept in a garret in 
 London. Dr. Forster, of Brussels, has, in a volume of 
 letters from Locke, Shaftesbury, and Algernon Sidney 
 found in " a lumber room," furnished much light upon 
 the opinions of some great men of Paterson's time. 
 In a History of the Mediterranean Admiral Smyth has 
 gone further still, and produced from the charts of the 
 middle o^^e* demonstration of facts lost to modern seamen, 
 but familiar to the cautious navigators of that time, by 
 proper attention to which we may save life and property. 
 In the discursive field of family history, proof has been 
 lately given, by the author of The Record of the House 
 of Gournay, that the infinitely varied characters of 
 eight hundred years may be restored in all their bear- 
 ing upon national progress to which Paterson is there 
 shewn to have much contributed. In the seven- 
 teenth century, in an individual case, that of Denys 
 Papin, a French Protestant refugee and a distinguished 
 member of the Royal Society, the late researches of a 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXXiii 
 
 member of the Institute, M. de la Saussaye, promise a 
 contribution of rare interest, and calculated to throw 
 important light upon the use of steam-power. But 
 The Gleanings from the Mountains of the Rev. Mr. 
 Simpson, of Sanquhar, may perhaps assist the most 
 materially to restore the details chiefly needed in Pater- 
 son's life, the events of his early days, when his mother 
 trained him to the Covenanter's faith, and, it is said, 
 encouraged his resort to the wild hill-meetings in 
 Dumfrieshire, where the dragoons of Sergeant Bothwell 
 hunted Balfour of Burley, and so nursed the gloomy 
 thoughts which permitted the unhappy death of Arch- 
 bishop Sharpe. Paterson had left Scotland before that 
 event, but his mother was a warm friend to the per- 
 secuted ministers and their people. It is far from im- 
 possible that such recollections as Mr. Simpson has 
 ingeniously called up may be appealed to with effect 
 for the school-boy years of the founder of Darien, which 
 is still dear to Scotland. Any pains would be cheaply 
 bestowed to have a clear notion of the woman who 
 sheltered Balfour of Burley from the pursuer, and who, 
 after so training such a son, sent him forth a young 
 exile, rather than he should deny their common faith. 
 Nor would it be less interesting to learn if it be true, as 
 is told, that returning wealthy from the West Indies, he 
 placed his mother with her aged husband on his own 
 farm near Windsor . The date of a letter from him to the 
 Duke of Queensberry on the Union, shews him to have 
 found himself sonie resting-place there. His father died 
 at 1 00 ; a celebrated sister of Sir Hugh at 90 ; and John 
 Paterson (the friend of Garrick),wbo reached 85, rebuked 
 
CXXxiv BIOGfBAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 an impatient reversioner of a city post he held, hy telling 
 him the Patersons were a long-lived race ; but trouble 
 may have shortened the days of the subject of this 
 notice. His familiar letters are spoken of, butfewhave yet 
 been obtained, with some others upon public business, 
 (App.GG.) 
 
 Upon these grounds the editor of the four following 
 works of William Paterson submits them to the reader's 
 judgment, with a sketch only of his life, intended to be 
 a general vindication of his character, and an intro- 
 duction to some better account of his career. He 
 represents in his story, great things accomplished by 
 himself in admirable perfection ; and great designs 
 capable of momentous issues so soon as statesmen are 
 enabled, by the full comprehension of those designs, to 
 execute his measures of national policy and social pro- 
 gress. His " Proposals of a Council of Trade," — open- 
 ing the following tracts, — are introduced by the reflec- 
 tions of a brave spirit, proudly bearing up against in- 
 justice done to his country and to himself, and finding 
 uses in adversity calculated to deprive it of its worst 
 stings. These reflections form a general lesson with 
 which this sketch of the Life of Paterson may be fitly 
 concluded ; and to sever them from the " Proposals " 
 will do no violence to the author's purpose of shewing 
 how the troubles of life may improve national character 
 as much as they are calculated to elevate individuals — 
 a truth most forcibly exemplified in his own case. 
 
 "As trade generally taken and understood (he says) 
 hath always been of great weight and consequence to go- 
 vernments and nations, so we may venture to afiirm that 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXXV 
 
 within the last two ages it hath made greater alterations 
 in these places of the world than the sword ; since the 
 importations of gold and silver have in that time been 
 capable of advancing the price of the labour and 
 industry of the trading countries in Christendom, and 
 consequently of all things produced thereby, to at least 
 eight times what they were before the year 1 500. So 
 that although the denominations be still continued, yet 
 the eight pence of every nation in Europe is virtually and 
 really reduced to one in so far as not recruited by fresh 
 supplies at least of seven from those Indian mines. 
 
 " By this negative or comparative kind of destruction, 
 it is that we see the northern and several other nations 
 of Christendom wasted and consumed in proportion to 
 their distance from, or want of access to, this fountain 
 head, some whereof having suffered more by this mere 
 attraction of gold and silver within this last two hundred 
 years than by all the weight and impression of iron in 
 those and many ages before. 
 
 " But what is still more, this consuming evil is so far 
 from having near or quite spent itself as some have 
 weakly and fondly imagined, — that it is still capable of 
 making not only the like, but much greater alterations in 
 the world than hitherto ; — a demonstration of which, if 
 due and speedy care be not taken, we of these nations 
 may to our over great cost, and too dear bought convic- 
 tion, happen to have in a very little time; — so thatprinces 
 and states are not, now as formerly, only obliged to 
 promote trade and industry for their advantage, but 
 even in their defence, — not only for their benefit but also 
 of necessity. 
 
CXXXVi BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 "This nation hath felt more than its share of the 
 effects of this negative or comparative kind of destruc- 
 tion, but especially since the removal of the seat of its 
 government in the year 1603. For, so far as we can at 
 present learn, instead of increasing in proportion to 
 some of its neighbours, although the denominations 
 may be somewhat advanced, it hath since that time 
 really lost above a third part of its people,— and no less 
 than sixteen in thirty of its other value about a hundred 
 years ago,— the annual medium whereof may have been 
 above 150,000/. sterling of the present denomination, 
 and above 3,000 people yearly ;— a great part of which 
 dead loss hath been drawn to and centred in England 
 as the seat of our government. 
 
 " Into this condition hath this nation been brought by 
 this loose and irregular tie of the Union of the crowns ; — 
 a state, wherein we are not considered as subjects, nor 
 allies, nor friends, nor enemies, but all of them, only 
 when, where, how, and how long our task-masters 
 please. To this we have been brought by that ignis 
 fatuus, the gaiety and splendour of a court ; — by the 
 infatuation whereof the last generation, like intoxicated 
 fishes and birds in a maze, were not only brought to be 
 sick, but even to be in love with their disease. 
 
 " But however they were, or we may be still taken 
 with it, this is the distemper whereof our late treat- 
 ments are so far from being causes in themselves, that 
 they were only effects and symptoms of it ; the which 
 violent symptoms, how uneasy soever to the patient for 
 the time, yet have had this of advantage above others, 
 that they have in some measure awakened and brought 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXXVU 
 
 this natioa to a sense of its disease. And it must needs 
 be confessed that, considering the temper of this people, 
 it is truly strange that all the disadvantages they have 
 lain under, and the disdainful and disrespectful usage 
 they have met with for near an age together, should 
 never be able to bring them to any tolerable sense of 
 their condition till now at last their task-masters came 
 so very much to exceed those of Pharaoh ; who, although 
 indeed they would not allow the Israelites straw for the 
 making of their bricks, yet do we not hear that ever 
 they prohibited their gathering of stubble. 
 
 " But it is hoped this extremity will now produce 
 another, by proving the happy occasion of convincing 
 them, as well as us, of the injustice and inequality of 
 our treatment, and how prejudicial it hath been, not only 
 to the one but to both kingdoms, and consequently of 
 producing such a future friendship as may be capable 
 of regaining in the next age what hath been lost by 
 the misunderstandings of this. 
 
 " Not only the ordinary dispatch and course, but even 
 the more extraordinary heavy and surprising difficulties 
 and disappointments, in business, do contribute ex- 
 ceeding to the making and qualifying of men ; and, as 
 they are naturally the ablest and most vigorous bodies 
 which meet with the most and strongest exercises in their 
 youth, so the best, bravest, and most capable spirits and 
 gieniuses have ever been formed and cultivated by diffi- 
 culties ; and not only the spirits of particular men, but 
 likewise the greatest and bravest nations, and the most 
 noble and famous designs that ever were, have been 
 as it were begotten by necessity, and raised from the 
 
CXXXViii BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 depth of difficulties. We see that with men who had a 
 much more immediate hand of the Almighty upon them, 
 even to such as Joseph, Moses, Gideon, David, and many 
 others, the exercise of troubles, disappointments, and 
 afflictions, was found to be indispensably necessary. 
 
 " And as we need not doubt but both the success and 
 genius of the Romans, and other famous nations, have 
 been chiefly owing to the nature, variety, and exercises 
 of their difficulties, so we need not look abroad for par- 
 ticular instances ; since our own histories are so ample 
 in this matter, whereby we may find that all our greatest 
 men, best things, bravest actions, and happiest times, 
 have not only succeeded unto, but as it were sprung 
 out of, some remarkable preceding disappointments, 
 difficulties, calamities, or afflictions. 
 
 " But, although a great and capable genius be a kind 
 of metal that can never be so well tempered as by and 
 in the furnace of affliction, yet the meaner and more 
 abject sort of spirits, instead of being better or further 
 improved, are rather the more depressed and crushed 
 thereby ; — instead of growing more wise, prudent, pa- 
 tient, constant, careful, diligent, meek, and easy, in them- 
 selves and with others, they become more hardened, pre- 
 sumptuous, conceited, rash, unthinking, and uneasy, or 
 otherwise more mean, abject, heedless, and stupid. 
 
 " As not a few of these last humours and dispositions 
 have reigned in this nation for near an age, so it is 
 hoped our late disappointments and difficulties may 
 now have sufficiently awakened and made us sensible of 
 our condition ; — and that the many and various exercises 
 we have lately met with, will have the better and not 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. CXXXix 
 
 the contrary effect ; — and prove only necessary prepara- 
 tives, the better to fit the people of this kingdom for 
 some glorious success to come; — to balance their 
 spirits ; — to bring them to a due decorum ; — and thus 
 the better to teach them not to despair in adversity, 
 nor to presume in prosperity : — that after a lethargy of 
 near an age they will now be effectually roused up ; — 
 and that on this occasion their sense and genius in 
 matters of trade shall be capable of mounting some- 
 what higher than the aping a few of the worst, meanest, 
 and most pernicious shifts and mistakes of some of our 
 most trading neighbours ; — that contrariwise our hearts 
 will be enlarged in proportion to the weight and con- 
 sequence of what we have in hand and the favourable 
 occasions that offer at home and abroad ; — that our 
 maxims and principles in point of trade may be every 
 way as reasonable and generous as were those of the 
 Romans in point of empire; — that the national care 
 and economy hereby proposed may be established ; — 
 that by the means thereof we may have the glory as 
 well as the comfort of taking more care of the next 
 generation than the last has done of us, and of putting 
 our country in a way of regaining in the next century 
 what it has lost in this." 
 
 It was in this brave spirit that Paterson, in 1700, met 
 the blow inflicted upon his country and upon himself by 
 the Darien disasters. The changes of 1701 gave fresh 
 hopes, only to be frustrated by King William's death ; 
 and the fortitude he eulogised in others, was called 
 forth in himself by the twenty years' trial, here too 
 briefly described. 
 
Cxl BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The scene may be fitly closed by his Will, and by a 
 sketch of some events following its execution : 
 
 " I, William Paterson, of the city of Westminster, 
 esquire, being in good health of body and mind, for 
 •which I most humbly thank and praise Almighty God, 
 the ever blessed Maker and Preserver of all, do make 
 this my last will and testament. After my debts paid, 
 I give to EUzabeth, my daughter-in-law, only child to 
 my first wife Mrs. EUzabeth Turner, relict ,to the late 
 Mr. Thomas Bridge, minister of the gospel in Boston, 
 in New England, fifteen hundred pounds. 2". I give 
 to my eldest daughter-in-law Anne, by my second wife 
 Mrs. Hannah Kemp, married to Mr. Samuel South, six 
 hundred pounds, 3°. I give to my second daughter-in- 
 law Mary, married to Mr. Mark Holman, six hundred 
 pounds. 4°. I give to my two other daughters-in-law, 
 Hannah and Elizabeth Kemp, eight hundred pounds 
 each. 5°. I give to Jane Kemp, relict of the late Mr. 
 James Kemp, my son-in-law, three hundred pounds. 
 6". I give to William Mounsey, eldest son of my late 
 sister Janet, two hundred pounds. 7". I give to the 
 two daughters of my said late sister Janet, EUzabeth 
 and Janet, two hundred pounds each. 8°. I give to 
 John Mounsey, younger son of my said late sister Janet, 
 four hundred pounds. 9". I give to my only sister 
 Elizabeth, married to John Paterson younger of Kin- 
 harry, in the stewartry of Kirkcudbright, eight hundred 
 pounds. 10°- I give the surplus of my estate, if, after 
 payment of my debts, any such shall be, to be equally 
 divided among the said persons, legatees, in proportion 
 to every person's sum hereby bequeathed ; all which 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. cxli 
 
 sums above given, amounting to six thousand and four 
 hundred pounds, I appoint to be paid by my executor 
 here immediately after named. I do hereby appoint 
 my good friend, Mr. Paul Daranda, of London, mer- 
 chant, to whom I and my family are under very great 
 obligations, sole executor of this my last will ; and I do 
 allow him, as my sole executor, one thousand pounds, 
 for his care therein, over his expenses vrith relation 
 hereto. Lastly, I revoke all other wills by me here- 
 tofore made. In witness whereof, I have here subscribed 
 my name and put my seal, in Westminster, this first day 
 of July, 17 18, in the sixtieth year and third month of 
 my age. William Paterson. Witnesses, Ed. Bag- 
 SHAWE, Hen. Dollan, John Butler." 
 
 On the 3rd July, 1718, Paterson certified the making 
 of this will " at the Ship Tavern without Temple Bar, 
 about four in the afternoon." 
 
 XIV. 
 
 A painful uncertainty prevails as to Paterson's per- 
 sonal position from the execution of his will until his 
 decease six months afterwards, in January, 1719- But 
 the very few facts clearly ascertained respecting him, 
 furnish materials for more than conjecture that these 
 his latter days v?ere full of anxiety, only to be ex- 
 plained by public events with which he was deeply 
 concerned. The books of St. Margaret's Westminster 
 have entries of his name for several years as one of the 
 higher rate-payers in Queen Square, then the residence 
 of Lord Derby, and other noblemen and wealthy people. 
 
CXlii BIOGRAPHICAL INTKOUUUTIUJN. 
 
 In the summer this entry ceases ; he had probably left 
 London. In December the letter to the Secretary of 
 State, Lord Stanhope, indicates distress of mind ; it is 
 written by another hand, whereas he usually is his own 
 amanuensis. His will is entirely in his own writing. 
 The signature of the letter, compared with those of 
 1694, 1699, and even that to the will, is strikingly 
 feeble, like the hand of the sinking man. But its de- 
 sponding tone cannot be accounted for merely by the 
 unquestionable fact, that the equivalent fund upon 
 which his indemnity of i 8,000/. was charged, was now 
 so dealt with by the Government as materially to 
 reduce the value of that indemnity. It is plain indeed, 
 from the amount of the legacies given by his will, that 
 a very large portion of the money was appropriated to 
 his debts ; and it was a great mortification to see 
 the residue reduced by the character of the security 
 provided by the Treasury for its discharge. Yet he 
 only shared with others a loss to which, from habit, he 
 would be careless. There was however a fatal circum- 
 stance at that time of quite a different nature cal- 
 culated severely to wound one of Paterson's deep con- 
 victions. This was the sure indication of the coming 
 financial convulsion — the South Sea Bubble — ^which 
 he could have averted; and which it is not rash to 
 suppose he foresaw, although no positive trace of his 
 busy pen has been detected in cotemporary pamphlets 
 respecting its origin. 
 
 John Law was in this last half-year of 1718, fast 
 securing a portentous ascendancy in France with his 
 dangerous system of paper money, and his even more 
 
BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. Cxliii 
 
 dangerous personal and political immorality. All this 
 was envenomed by implacable hatred of England, easy 
 to be explained by an accurate view of his story. He 
 had now succeeded in misleading the French govern- 
 ment, which he pretended to relieve from enormous 
 debts. He had, at the same time, won the confidence 
 of great men in London and Edinburgh in regard to 
 his financial views ; and, strange to say, he was laying 
 the foundation of the ruin of the Earl of Stair, one of 
 the ablest and most estimable of ambassadors, whom 
 he could not deceive. These things were iu rapid pro- 
 gress during the last few months of the life of Paterson, 
 who must have witnessed them with deep concern. 
 The main incidents attending the change of financial 
 measures in Paris under Law's guidance are narrated 
 in the journals of the day, and especially in such publi- 
 cations as the valuable " Historical Register " of the 
 Sun Insurance Company. 
 
 Law's Scottish friends, under the protection of his 
 mother's relation the Duke of Argyle, were actively 
 promoting his interest in the North. In the South, 
 measures were taken to obtain his pardon for the grave 
 offence of his youth, which had caused his exile. His 
 daughter's husband, Lord Wallingford, was soon pro- 
 moted high in the army ; and so distinguished a 
 minister as Lord Stanhope, to whom Patersons appeal 
 is addressed, was completely inveigled by Law's arts. 
 In the House of Commons, during this year, it was 
 with difficulty that a resolution was got in favour of 
 preserving the integrity of our standard of the coin, 
 when the French were incurring the risk of great 
 
Cxliv BIOGRAPHICAL, INTEODUCTION. 
 
 tumults by debasing theirs. The Aislabies, the Craggs, 
 and the Blunts, were soon to be criminal victims of the 
 South Sea bubble. Even Walpole partook of its profits, 
 although clear of the crime. At the Treasury, Lowndes, 
 who shared their views, and whose errors in finance were 
 checked by Mr. Locke and hy Paterson, thirty years 
 before, was grown cautious, and he had just escaped 
 the removal with which he seems to have been properly 
 threatened at the accession of King George. In fact 
 the "violent party," mentioned by Paterson in his 
 memorial of March, 1714-15, as his opponents, and 
 who were the opponents of bis great financial reforms, 
 had recovered power. He was not only the object of 
 their unscrupulous intriguing, but his perception of the 
 impolicy of the system they were hurrying into, over- 
 whelmed him so much the more, that he felt himself no 
 longer able to expose their errors, and effectually advo- 
 cate the public interests. 
 
 The decease of " William Paterson, Esquire," in 
 January, 1719, is recorded in the Historical Register — 
 and in another journal the event is stated with the 
 addition that he had been famous for his skill in calcu- 
 lation, without having greatly enriched himself — a de- 
 scription which, with his will and the probate, identifies 
 the person so described with the subject of this memoir. 
 
PROPOSALS 
 
 A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 
 
 (Edinburgh, 12mo. 1701, first ed. pp. 120.) 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 This tract was originally printed in Edinburgli in 1700, when the extreme 
 discontents at the failure of the Darien settlement had somewhat abated. The 
 objects of the work were of a character to meet the critical state of affairs in 
 Scotland, and, by offering reasonable hope of retrieving the losses incurred 
 by that failure, to restore public tranquillity and encourage exertion. It 
 proposed a system of social progress that would promote the welfare of 
 Scotland at home, as the great American enterprise was to have enriched 
 the nation from abroad. It embraced a wide circle of interests, and aimed 
 at raising the people's condition intellectually, as well as morally and 
 materially. The council planned was substantially adopted by the Scottish 
 parliament, but it merged at the Union into the general privy council, of 
 which some of its members became members. The fisheries advocated were 
 established. The most important object of universal education, and the 
 substitution of industrial penitentiaries for delinquents in the place of the 
 common prisons and other punishments, are not yet completely established. 
 In these points, as in some others, William Paterson was not only in advance 
 of his own times, but also of ours. In the Carstares' Papers " Paterson's 
 Scheme of Trade" is expressly noticed in the same year, 1700, in terms 
 closely applicable to the " Proposals of a Council of Trade," leaving no 
 doubt of the identity of the productions, and consequently proving Paterson 
 to have written " the Proposals.'' 
 
 In a letter of the 3rd Sept. 1700, from J. Stewart to Mr. Carstares, King 
 William's confidential secretary, headed " a new project on foot for trade," 
 the writer, after discussing the good prospects of ti-anquillity on the Darien 
 discontents, says, " The hearts of all good countrymen (patriots) are bent 
 
 upon an union with England They have projectors now at work 
 
 making plans and schemes of trade. I have seen the construction of some. 
 The design is a national trade, so that by it all Scotland wiU become one 
 entii'e company of merchants. It proposes a fund of credit by which in two 
 years to raise above 300,000Z. sterling. With this stock they are — first, to 
 trade to both the Indies, and settle colonies on the terms of the Act esta- 
 blishing their company ; second, to raise manufactories throughout all the 
 kingdom ; third, to pursue their fishery to greater profit in all the markets 
 of Europe than any other fishing company in Christendom can do ; fom-th, 
 to employ all the poor in the nation, so that in two years there shall not he 
 one beggar seen in all the kingdom, and that without any act of slavery ; 
 fifth, to pay back to any of the subscribers to the African stock his money, 
 if demanded, so that nobody can complain of any loss that way. (App. II.) 
 " The powers and Act of Paa-liament they are to demand for doing this 
 mighty work are too long to write, but if I thought you had either curiosity 
 or time to read them I shoxild not spare any pains. Adieu."* 
 * Carstares, p. 633. 
 
EDITOR S PREFACE. 3 
 
 A second letter of the 14th September is as follows, being headed — 
 " Paterson's Scheme of Trade. 
 
 " I know not what Thorn. Dean's opinion is of the project I have writ. 
 But I find Mr. Francis Grant has as little hope that it will take as I have. 
 Mr. Paterson is very tenacious and stiff, and indeed he has a good genius. 
 With much ado I have broke him as to his opinion of demanding the tenth 
 boll. I find him extremely straitened how to do without it, for this 
 branch of trading in grain and com is indeed a mighty project. That which 
 he says he must demand in place of it I am afraid wiU never be granted, so 
 there is little hope of the whole. It is eight months' cess for twenty years, 
 which he pretends to prove to the parliament is no more burden to the 
 country than what they must bear. However if this project do not go on, 
 even suppose they paid no cess at all for this season, he wiE prove that the 
 maintenance of the poor costs this nation yearly four months' cess, which, 
 being a dead weight, not only loses itself in specie, but its value for want of 
 improvement, which is the double. So this project, employing all the poor, 
 does exactly balance the eight months' cess. 
 
 " These notions are very metaphysical and thin, and though I am fool 
 enough to be persuaded that they are not only true but practicable, yet I 
 am afraid he will find it no easy matter to persuade the parliament to give 
 eight months' cess for twenty years, and at the same time persuade them 
 they pay no more than if they gave no cess at all. 
 
 " Then, as to his Council of Trade, I know not how it is safe for the king 
 to constitute such an oflSce or jurisdiction. It is true twelve angels might 
 be well enough trusted with powers that are absolutely necessary for them 
 to have, but they are too much for men. While they act in concert with 
 the African Company, and it is impossible they can have different interests, 
 they are too powerful even for the king. They are in a manner a committee 
 of parliament constantly sitting, and will be able to determine any parliament 
 ever shall be. They have all the strength and treasure of the kingdom in 
 their hands. In short, nothing but time and experience can tell what the 
 consequences of such a constitution may be, so I have no manner of hope 
 that the project will take. But I stiU think it fit to encourage the projector 
 who, indeed, has a prodigious genius and a vast extended thought, to go on 
 — Valeat quantum valere potest. It is possible the wisdom of parliament 
 may cull out some things of use to the country, and a means to accommodate 
 matters betwixt the king and the people."* 
 
 A few days later, 21st Sept. Mr. Stewart writes again " of Paterson's 
 projects :" — " Since my last of the 14th I have seen Mr. Paterson's projects 
 in mundis, which is nothing like what I wrote to you of in mine of the 7th. 
 I know not what alterations he may yet make in it, for I cannot believe the 
 Commissioner will let it be published as it now is, because, to confess the 
 truth, it is far from safe for the king to establish that Council of Trade ; and, 
 * Caratares, p. 646. 
 B 2 
 
4 EDITOR S PREFACE. 
 
 though he should do so, I think the parliament wiU never grant the funds he 
 demands."* 
 
 At the same date the Duke of Queensberry, the Royal Commissioner, 
 reported, " That Mr. Paterson, the first person that brought the people of 
 Scotland into the project of Caledonia, was writing such things as it was 
 hoped might create some temper (of moderation) among them. He has 
 promised (adds his Grace) to shew these writings to him before they ap- 
 peared to any other person." f 
 
 Copies of the JEdinburgh edition are rare. One was in the library of Lord 
 Alva, a Scottish judge of the last century, and At is marked as " by Mr. 
 Paterson." The foregoing letters remained in MS. long after the Glasgow 
 edition of " The Proposals'" in Law's name, in 1751, from which time no 
 question has been made as to their true authorship. They have ever been 
 confounded with Law's " Money and Trade " of 1705, although they treat 
 solely of political and social institutions, without one word of currency, 
 either in specie or paper ; and that tract is substantially a scheme of incon- 
 vertible paper currency. " The Proposals," too, were extensively adopted 
 by the Scottish Parliament at the time ; and either accepted in a material 
 degree by the United Parliament, or they became subjects of anxious Par- 
 liamentary discussion, with scarcely any intermission, to the present day. 
 On the contrary, the object of " Money and Trade" was declared by the 
 Scottish Parliament as one to be unsuited to Scotland. The error originat- 
 ing with the Glasgow edition of 1751, was strangely sanctioned by Dugald 
 Stewart, in the notes to his Essay on Dr. Adam Smith. (Smith's Works, 
 8vo. vol. V. p. 548. — App. JJ). Nevertheless the two works are as widely 
 different in their objects, and their style of composition, as the two men, 
 Paterson and Law, differed in their character and their lives. 
 
 The Proposals possess another peculiarity, strongly distinguishing their 
 purpose from the analogous speculations of Fletcher of Saltoun, one of 
 the numerous friends of Paterson. In the celebrated scheme of that sincere 
 and able man for the improvement of Scotland, the destitute condition of 
 her labouring people is eloquently stated ; and Fletcher had no better 
 remedy to suggest than to compel his countrymen to become industrious 
 by the fear of the lash, and by actual slavery. Paterson trusted to other 
 influences, clearly alluding to his friend's unlucky scheme (p. 89 below). It 
 is perhaps this portion of The Proposals that will at present be thought the 
 most interesting. It places the management of offenders upon a footing that 
 improves upon all that the most enlightened of modern prison-reformers ad- 
 vocate ; and justifies humane discipline by the most convincing arguments. 
 
 As the work opened with the eloquent consolatory address with which 
 the editor's biographical notes have been closed, it concludes with an 
 earnest appeal to the good sense of the Scottish nation, conceived in the 
 wisest spirit^ and singularly suited to the temper of the people at the time. 
 Tlie result is believed to have been highly favourable, and gives to the work 
 an important historical character. 
 
 ' Ciu'atiires, p. 055, -f lb. p. 6S1. 
 
PROPOSALS AI^D REASONS 
 
 CONSTITUTII^a A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 
 
 EDINBURGH: 1701. 
 
PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 
 
 Proposal I. — Of a Council of Tkade. 
 
 Since upon due consideration it will be found impossible to 
 put the home and foreign industry of this kingdom upon a 
 solid or steady foot of future improvement, by any other means 
 than a national Council of Trade, adapted to this very thing, and 
 to be clothed with power and means proportionable to the 
 greatness of the work, — ^it is therefore proposed : — 
 
 Article 1 . That a council of trade and court merchant, consist- 
 ing of a president, to be annually appointed by his Majesty ; and 
 of twelve councillors, three whereof to be chosen by the estate 
 of nobility, three by the estate of barons, three by the estate of 
 boroughs, and three by the council general of the Indian and 
 African Company, may be constituted by Parliament. 
 
 2. That only such of the nobilit)', barons, and boroughs, as 
 are or shall be members of Parliament, and capable to sit in 
 Parliament, may be qualified to vote or have suffrage in elec- • 
 tions of councillors of trade; and that in the intervals between 
 the dissolution of one Parliament and the election of another, 
 the members of the preceding Parliament may always be the 
 electors. 
 
 3. That the major part of the respective estates of nobility, 
 barons, boroughs, and of the council-general of the Indian and 
 African Company (and not fewer), may make a quorum at the 
 first and every such election ; and that no absent votes may be 
 admitted. 
 
 4. That the said respective classes or colleges of election may 
 
8 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 not at any time choose one of their number to be councillor of 
 trade, unless two-thirds at least of the electors do concur in the 
 choice ; but that otherwise the several elections may be made 
 by majority of votes, to be taken by scroll and scrutiny. 
 
 5. That no president of the council of trade may continue 
 such for longer than a year ; and that one in every three of the 
 councillors of trade may be annually left out, and others chosen 
 in their place and room by their respective constituents, the 
 days and place of meeting to be appointed by the council of 
 trade :. and that such vacancies as may happen in the said coun- 
 cil of trade by death or other means, may likewise be filled up 
 by their respective constituents from time to time. 
 
 6. That it may be strictly recommended and enjoined by his 
 Majesty and the Estates of Parliament, that the persons who 
 shall be nominated or chosen for president and councillors of 
 trade from time to time, may be men of truth, courage, and of 
 known and approved integrity, and good morals, not covetous, 
 mean-spirited, or of narrow dispositions, but endued with a 
 reasonable measure of understanding and largeness of heart, 
 without which no man ever yet was or indeed possibly can be 
 so much as tolerably fit for a public employment or trust. And 
 that they may likewise be such as fundamentally at least under- 
 stand arithmetic and accounts, and who have an inclination and 
 genius for the knowledge and study of matters relating to 
 trade and improvements, and who are unwearied in their in- 
 dustry and application. 
 
 7. That any six of the council of trade, together with their 
 president, may make a quorum, or that eight of the council 
 may make a quorum without him ; wherein they shall proceed 
 by majority of votes, and the president shall only have a cast- 
 ing vote. 
 
 8. That the president and councillors of trade, or any of 
 them for the time they are such, may be incapable of holding any 
 place of profit or trust in the Government, or of receiving any 
 pension, gift, or honour of his Majesty ; but that their time and 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 9 
 
 thoughts may be wholly employed and taken up as councillors of 
 trade, without having or being capable of any other office, place, 
 or dependence whatsoever. 
 
 9. That the president and council of trade may be account 
 able for their receipts, payments, and all their other proceedings 
 from time to time to his Majesty and the Estates of Parliament ; 
 wherein if they or any of them shall be found guilty of wilful 
 injustice, fraud, or apparent breach of trust, or of wilful embez- 
 zling, misapplying, or diverting any part of the moneys or 
 national fund entrusted to them, that the oflFender or offenders 
 therein may forfeit triple the sum or sums so misapplied or 
 diverted, and become for ever after incapable of prosecuting 
 any suit of law, — or of being tutor or curator to any child, — or an 
 executor or administrator, — or to receive any legacy or gift, — or 
 to make any disposition, last will, or testament, — or to hold any 
 office or place of trust or profit in this kingdom. And that his 
 Majesty will be pleased graciously to condescend and consent, 
 that no part of this punishment may be pardoned or remitted 
 by his Majesty, his heirs or successors, without advice and con- 
 sent of Parliament. 
 
 10. That, before they enter upon their respective trusts or 
 administration, the president and councillors of trade may be 
 obhged to make the oath of allegiance, and a solemn oath for 
 the just, due, diligent and faithful discharge of their respective 
 duties and trusts. 
 
 Proposal II. — Of the Fund of the Council of Trade, 
 The more effectually to enable the council of trade to re- 
 cover, retrieve, promote and carry on the home and foreign 
 trade of this kingdom. 
 
 Article 1. That a duty of one fortieth part of the value of 
 all lands, rents, houses, money, goods, or effects whatsoever 
 that any one shall succeed unto by law, provision, testament, or 
 otherwise, lands and rents, to be reckoned at twenty years' 
 purchase, houses and other things in proportion to the repairs. 
 
10 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 risks, damages by fire, and other defalcations, may be granted 
 to the said council of trade for and during the term of twenty 
 years. 
 
 2. That there be likewise granted to the said council of trade 
 one-fortieth part of the price or value of all lands, rents, houses, 
 or ships sold or alienated ; and likewise of all other effects that 
 shall be sold by public roup in this kingdom for the said term 
 of twenty years. 
 
 3. That there be also a duty of one-fortieth part of the value 
 of all manufactures to be made in this kingdom, as likewise of 
 all fish salted or cured, paid to the said council of trade in con- 
 sideration of their mark, seal, or other approbation to the good- 
 ness and sufficiency thereof, for and during the said term of 
 twenty years. 
 
 4. That the late bishops' lands, rents, and incomes, the 
 General Post OflSce, the waste lands and casual revenues of the 
 crown, together with all fines, forfeitures, and penalties accruing 
 to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, be also granted to the 
 said council of trade for the said term of twenty years. 
 
 5. That one-twentieth part of the grounds of or sums sued 
 for in all processes or suits of law, or the value where the same 
 shall not be in money, be, by the party or parties who shall be 
 found liable in expenses, paid to the said council of trade for 
 the said term of twenty years. 
 
 6. That all gifts, charities, and mortifications already given 
 or to be given and appropriated to the poor, or for charitable 
 uses, be for ever hereafter received, supervised, ordered, and 
 applied by the council of trade. 
 
 7. That one-tenth part of all wheat, rye, pease, barley, bear, 
 malt, and oats consumed within this kingdom, be likewise 
 allowed to the said council of trade for the term of twenty 
 years ; but that it be always at the election of the parties con- 
 cerned to give and pay the said tenths in good and sufficient 
 corn of the several sorts respectively, or as an equivalent to pay 
 the following rates in money (that is to say) : wheat at the rate 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 11 
 
 of 30d. sterling per boll; rye and pease at I8d.; barley, bear, 
 and malt at 15d. ; and oats at lOd. sterling per boll. 
 
 8. That the said duties on corn may be collected at the re- 
 spective kilns and mills of this kingdom at the election of the 
 council of trade ; and that all persons may be obliged to bring 
 their corn that is to be made in meal or malt to the public kilns 
 and mills ; or otherwise compound for having the same ground 
 at home by hand-mills or otherwise at the discretion of the said 
 council of trade; and that deduction or allowance for this tenth 
 share or duty may be made to all persons who are obliged to 
 pay corn, after the same shall be made into meal or malt, by- 
 former contract. 
 
 9. That over and above the said duties, impositions, gifts, 
 and incomes, the ward-holdings belonging to his Majesty may 
 be vested in the said council of trade, to be by them sold to the 
 best advantage ; and the sums raised thereby added to the 
 before- mentioned duties, provided always that the respective 
 vassals may have the pre-emption. 
 
 10. That a sum not exceeding the sum of 1,000,000Z. sterling 
 may. by way of anticipation, be taken up and borrowed by the 
 said council of trade upon the credit and security of the said 
 several funds. 
 
 1 1 . That this fund, or any obligations, assignments, or anti- 
 cipations thereupon, may not be liable to any confiscation, 
 seizure, forfeiture, attachment, arrest, restraint, or prohibition 
 for or by reason of any embargo, breach of the peace, letters of 
 marque or reprisal, or declaration of war with any foreign 
 prince, potentate, or state, or upon any other account or pre- 
 tence whatsoever. 
 
 Proposal III. — Application of the Fund of the 
 Council of Trade. 
 
 That the said fund to be granted to the council of trade be 
 ordered and applied in the following manner: — 
 
 Article 1 . That the sum of 400,000/. sterling, part of the said 
 
12 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 fund, be given, allowed, and appropriated to promote and carry 
 on the foreign trade of this kingdom in the followmg manner; 
 that in the first place so much thereof as shall be necessary for 
 that purpose may be given and apphed to repay the proprietors 
 of the Indian and African Company the sum they have ad- 
 vanced, lost, and expended in prosecuting their designs of 
 foreign trade;— and that the remainder of the said sum of four 
 hundred thousand pounds sterling be added and put into the 
 joint stock and capital fund of the said African and Indian 
 Company, for the use and at the disposal of the council of 
 trade, but under the management and direction of the court of 
 directors, and the care and inspection of the council-general of 
 the said company. 
 
 2. That the proprietors of the said Indian and African Com- 
 pany, or any of them, from a day to be appointed, have liberty 
 on demand to withdraw or receive back their principal money 
 out of the said joint stock upon their assignment, or trans- 
 ferring their right to the council of trade, or their appointment; — 
 so as the principal money paid in by particular proprietors in 
 the capital fund of the said company may from thenceforward 
 be at and upon the risk of the kingdom, and only that of the 
 interest or forbearance at that of the particular proprietors 
 thereof; — but, so as it be always understood that the stock 
 which shall once belong unto, or be transferred to the council 
 of trade, may not from thenceforward be retransferred or 
 alienated to the first proprietors, or any other, but remain as part 
 of the national fund vested in the said council of trade, as the 
 trustees thereof. 
 
 3. That a sum of four thousand two hundred pounds sterling 
 per annum, other part of the said fund in the hand and manage- 
 ment of the council of trade, be set apart and appropriated for 
 salaries to the president and the rest of the members of the said 
 council of trade, at the rate of six hundred pounds sterling per 
 annum for the president, and three hundred pounds sterling 
 per man for the rest of the councillors, over and above their 
 
tfUH, uurNSiiruxiiMi A viourvi/iL OF TRADE. 13 
 
 travelling charges, postage of letters, and such like expenses ; — 
 but, that the same be only allowed them in proportion to their 
 attendance, and the part of the salaries belonging to the ab- 
 sentees to be always divided amongst those who shall be pre- 
 sent and attending : — ^provided, nevertheless, that the council of 
 trade may from time to time fine or otherwise proceed against 
 any of their members for non-attendance, as they shall see 
 cause, over and above the stopping and dividing his or their 
 salaries for every default. 
 
 4. That the council of trade may likewise, out of the fund in 
 their hands, pay the expenses of the respective electors of the 
 said council, at their several yearly meetings for that purpose, 
 at the rate of twelve pence sterling per mile, forward and back- 
 ward, from and to the places of their abode, to all such of them 
 as shall have their dwellings above twenty miles from the city 
 of Edinburgh, or place of meeting ; and likewise ten shillings 
 sterling per man per day to every one of the electors, for not 
 above six days, to be allowed for any one election. 
 
 5. That the sum of two thousand pounds sterling per annum 
 may be, by the directors of the Indian and African Company, 
 bestowed upon allowances for the attendance of their courts of 
 directors, council-general, and committees, over and above 
 their travelling charges, postage of letters, and such like ex- 
 penses ;■ — and that such attendance may be the more regular, 
 and the company the better and the more diligently served, 
 the council-general of the said company shall and may reduce 
 the present number of the court of directors to that of twenty, 
 but the number of the members of the council-general may still 
 remain at that of forty, to be chosen equally by the persons or 
 parties concerned in the fund; — in which the council of trade to 
 choose in proportion to the national stock they represent from 
 time to time; — and that one in every four of the directors may be 
 left out yearly, and others chosen in their place and stead by 
 the said council-general ; — and that the court of directors, or 
 council-general, be likewise empowered to fine or otherwise 
 
14 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 proceed against any of their members, besides the stopping and 
 dividing their respective allowances in proportion to their non- 
 attendance. 
 
 6. That the remainder of the moneys that shall or may arise 
 by the said several funds, whether the same shall come by anti- 
 cipation or otherwise, be applied and employed by the council 
 of trade, agreeably and pursuant to the following powers and 
 instructions. 
 
 Proposal IV. — General Powers and Instructions of 
 THE Council of Trade. 
 
 Article I, — That the said council, by the name of the Council 
 of Trade of the Kingdom of Scotland, may have the powers, 
 immunities, and privileges of a body politic and corporate, with 
 perpetual succession, have a common seal, and, for and on 
 behalf of this kingdom, power to purchase and alienate lands, 
 tenements, and other goods or effects whatsoever, to administer 
 oaths, and to do and execute everything that to a body politic 
 or corporate do or ought to belong; and likewise to have and 
 execute all the powers of admiralty and of a court-merchant of 
 this kingdom ; and by themselves, or others deputed by them, 
 to hear and determine all causes and things relating to trade, or 
 of the sea, between the king's majesty, his heirs, and successors, 
 and the merchants or mariners, and also between or relating to 
 merchants or mariners ; and to judge therein by the law- 
 merchant and that of the sea, as known and practised in the 
 most considerable trading countries and cities of Christendom ; 
 and that no other court or council of this nation may for the 
 future have power to judge or take cognizance of matters of or 
 relating to trade or of the sea. 
 
 2. To have power under their seal to delegate and appoint 
 such other person or persons as they see meet, to judge and 
 determine in matters and things of or relating to trade and the 
 sea, in any of the ports or places in this kingdom : provided 
 always, that an appeal may lie to the said council of trade, or 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A. COUNCIL OF TRADE. 15 
 
 court-merchant, in all causes where the matter in question shall 
 be of the value of one hundred pounds sterling or upwards, — 
 to appoint, regulate, and settle the fees of advocates, clerks, or 
 other officers belonging to things in their jurisdiction, and gene- 
 rally to have all the privileges and powers of a court of judica- 
 ture and record of this kingdom. 
 
 3. That the council of trade may be empowered to purchase 
 or build workhouses ; and likewise to purchase and procure all 
 other means and materials for employing, relieving, and main- 
 taining the poor ; and for encouraging, promoting, and increas- 
 ing the manufactories and fisheries of this kingdom ; to build 
 and erect granaries for the well-keeping of stores and quantities 
 of corn in all such places of this kingdom as they shall judge 
 necessary ; and from time to time to buy up and keep at a 
 regular rate the several growths and manufactures of this king- 
 dom, so as the poor in particular may not be imposed upon nor 
 oppressed by extreme cheapness or want of money for their work 
 on the one hand, nor the nation in general by extreme dearth 
 on the other. 
 
 4. To have power to add unto or allow ten per cent., or such 
 other proportion as they shall see just and needful, to the joint- 
 stocks of all companies or societies for manufactures, and to all 
 ships, equipages, and vessels employed or to be employed in the 
 fishings of this kingdom, without expectation of interest or 
 dividend ; but to have security for repayment of the principal 
 money when the respective parties concerned shall divide or 
 withdraw such joint stocks, or shall cease any more to employ 
 such ship or ships, vessel or vessels, in the fisheries ; and gene- 
 rally to give and grant such other encouragements, gratuities 
 and rewards, as they shall think requisite for and towards the 
 promoting and enlarging the trade and industry of this kingdom. 
 
 5. That the said council of trade may not only be the general 
 receivers and appliers of the charity of this kingdom, but that 
 they may also give, grant, and bestow such charitable gifts and 
 allowances as they shall see needful from time to time. That 
 
16 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 they may be empowered to correct and suppress nuisances ; to 
 makcj erect, regulate, mend, repair, or maintain highways, streets, 
 bridges, harbours, docks, and wharfs for shipping, boats, or 
 vessels, or any other pubhc works or conveniences whatsoever. 
 
 6. That it be declared, that the criminal judges have power to 
 change the punishment of death in cases of theft to the payment 
 of fourfold — one half to the party injured, and the other to the 
 council of trade ; and to be condemned to hard labour for the 
 space of three years, or otherwise, if he, she, or they have 
 not to satisfy for the theft ; — that then, and in proportion to the 
 nature of the crime or damage done, such thief or thieves may 
 be further condemned to hard labour for any time, not exceed- 
 ing six years more ; and during either or both these terms to be 
 under the direction and at the disposal of the council of trade. 
 
 7. That all bribery, cheating or designed cheating, wilful 
 bankruptcy and fraud, may be tried, judged, and determined by 
 the council of trade, and by them be punished as theft; — but 
 that contrariwise, if, upon legal summons or demand, a debtor 
 shall justly and faithfully deliver and assign over to the use of 
 his or her creditor or creditors all his or her estate, goods, 
 effects, books, papers, and accounts — and that if it does appear 
 that such debtor hath or doth design to be just and honest to 
 the best of his or her power, such debtor may by the council of 
 trade be from thenceforward discharged from imprisonment or 
 other personal confinement. 
 
 8. That the council of trade may likewise have power to 
 seize and compel all such persons as shall be found begging, 
 and under the age of twenty years, to work until they shall 
 come to be of the age of twenty-three years,— and all such as 
 shall be of the age of twenty years or upwards for the space of 
 three years,— and all sorts of vagabonds or idle persons for a 
 reasonable proportion of time, according to the nature of their 
 several offences ;— and that all such persons as shall stand con- 
 demned or compelled to work at the public works may, by the 
 council of trade, be employed at home or abroad, by sea or by 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL, OF TRADE. IJ 
 
 land, or their persons and services may be transferred, assigned, 
 or disposed of to others, at the discretion of the said council of 
 trade. 
 
 9. That they may be specially empowered to regulate and 
 reduce to an equality all weights and measures, and likewise to 
 punish all frauds and cheats therein, or in the making up or 
 vending the growths, manufactures, or fishings of this kingdom ; 
 and likewise to oblige the parties concerned to pay the fortieth 
 part of the value for regulation ; and, if need be, to take the 
 council's mark or seal upon such goods and commodities, upon 
 forfeiture of such commodities, and the value thereof, the one- 
 half to the informer and the other to the council of trade ; and 
 that they also may be empowered to allow a share of not 
 exceeding one moiety of the fines, forfeitures, and penalties to 
 all other informers, in any case or cases whatsoever. 
 
 10. That the said council of trade may have full power to 
 take off and publicly dispense with all such restraints and 
 prohibitions, monopolies, pre-emptions, or exclusions, whether 
 made, imposed, or granted by Act of Parliament, or otherwise, 
 as they shall from time to time judge prejudicial to the im- 
 provement or progress of the trade or industry of this kingdom, 
 always giving just and reasonable satisfaction to the persons or 
 societies interested or concerned as the case shall require. 
 
 11. To have power to lay on, impose, collect, and receive 
 such duties and impositions as they shall see meet upon all 
 such foreign fishing ships, boats, or vessels, as shall from time 
 to time come to an anchor in any of the creeks, bays, harbours, 
 or places in this kingdom, or the islands thereunto belonging. 
 
 12. To be empowered to nominate and appoint consuls, resi- 
 dents, or agents, to reside in any such foreign cities or nations 
 as they may judge meet and convenient; and that, by the 
 advice and at the request of the said council of trade, his 
 Majesty, his heirs and successors, will from time to time be 
 pleased graciously to grant suitable commissions and instruc- 
 tions to such consuls, residents, or agents ; and that they may 
 
 VOL. r. c 
 
18 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 have all the powers, privileges, and advantages, which are 
 usually allowed to consuls, residents, or agents of other nations. 
 
 13. That all foreigners who are Protestants, and all merchants 
 or others of the Jewish nation, who shall come to inhabit in 
 this kingdom, upon their taking the oath of allegiance, — or, upon 
 scruple of taking of oaths, their making an equivalent declara- 
 tion to be true and faithful to his Majesty, his heirs and suc- 
 cessors, before the council of trade, or such as shall be deputed 
 by them, and their payment of the sum of twenty shillings 
 sterling to have the same recorded, — may have liberty to 
 purchase lands, rents, or hereditaments, and enjoy all other 
 privileges of his Majesty's natural-born subjects : and likewise, 
 for their further encouragement, that they may be free of all 
 manner of taxes for the first seven years of their abode in this 
 nation; and that the council of trade may be empowered to 
 grant and allow reasonable and convenient stipends to all such 
 foreign Protestant ministers as shall come to have a congrega- 
 tion to which twenty or more adult persons shall or may 
 belong ; provided, nevertheless, that none of the said foreigners 
 so naturalised may settle to inhabit in any of the islands, but 
 only upon the main continent of this kingdom, without express 
 licence and permission of the council of trade. 
 
 14. That the coinage of gold and silver at his Majesty's 
 mint may for the future be free, and without any manner of 
 abatement, expense, or allowance by or from the proprietors 
 thereof ; and that all such moneys as are now current, and in 
 weight, fineness, or both, under the standard of this kingdom, 
 may be called in and recoined ; and that no moneys may from 
 henceforward be current in this kingdom but as correspondent 
 to the standard thereof in weight and fineness ; and that the 
 weight, fineness, or denominations of the money of this king- 
 dom may not hereafter be altered without advice and consent 
 of Parliament; and that the general direction and inspection of 
 the mint may be committed to the council of trade. 
 
 15. That no mine or mineral in this kingdom may be 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCII^ OP TRADE. 19 
 
 accounted a royal mine unless there be plainly a much greater 
 value of gold or silver to be extracted therefrom than of any 
 other metal ; and that only a tenth part of the royal mines may 
 for the future go to and belong to his Majesty, his heirs and 
 successors, and the rest to belong and remain to the proprietor 
 or proprietors of the soil ; and that the improvement of the 
 mines and minerals of this kingdom be in a particular manner 
 recommended to the care and inspection of the council of trade. 
 
 16. That the council of trade may have power to take into 
 their service and pay all such officers and servants as they shall 
 and may from time to time judge needful, and to make and 
 execute all necessary rules, orders, and ordinances for the better 
 ordering and management of all such persons and things as 
 shall be in or subject to their service, pay, care, trust, or 
 direction. 
 
 1 7. That they may from time to time think and consider of 
 all such laws, customs, orders, and usages as they may judge 
 prejudicial to the trade and industry of this nation, together 
 with such proposals and regulations as they shall think may be 
 advantageous thereunto, and report the same, as well as their 
 other proceedings and progress, to his Majesty and the Estates 
 of this kingdom, as their constituents, at every meeting of 
 Parliament. 
 
 Proposal V. — Of Customs and Impositions on Foreign 
 
 Trade. 
 
 And since, in order to the making way for the growth of 
 trade and the progress of the industry of this kingdom, it will 
 be absolutely necessary that the weight of the present duties 
 and impositions on foreign trade should be partly removed, and 
 partly otherwise disposed and regulated ; in order to virhich it 
 is proposed, — 
 
 Article 1st. That all manner of duties or impositions on 
 growths, products, goods, or other merchandises to be exported 
 from any the ports or places of this kingdom, may be taken off, 
 
 c 2 
 
20 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 excepting one per cent, of the value, by the name of entry- 
 money, only. 
 
 2. That all such growths and products of other countries as 
 are and shall he proper to be manufactured or meliorated in 
 this kingdom, may be freely imported without paying any duty 
 excepting only one per cent, of the value by the name of entry- 
 money. 
 
 3. That the present duties and impositions on all manner of 
 foreign liquors and commodities not fit to be manufactured or 
 meHorated in this kingdom, among which sugar and tobacco 
 may be reckoned, may be doubled ; but in order to lay the 
 same as much as possible by way of excise or upon the con- 
 sumption, and as little upon the merchant and navigation as 
 may be, that there may be a term of twelve months at least 
 given to the merchants or other importers, who shall give 
 security for the payment of the duty or the exportation thereof 
 within the limited term, always allowing and paying one per 
 cent, of the value by the name of entry-money, 
 
 4. That a discount at the rate of ten per cent, per annum 
 may be allowed to the merchants or other importers who shall 
 pay in the duty for goods imported before it shall become due, 
 deducting always one per cent, of the value by the name of 
 entry-money. 
 
 5. That, excepting only the aforesaid duties, the trade, navi- 
 gation, shipping, and fishings of this nation may be discharged 
 of and be for ever free of all manner of duties and impositions 
 due and payable to his Majesty, his heirs and successors, or 
 any other whatsoever: provided always, that the council of 
 trade may from time to time settle, regulate, and appoint all 
 such rates as ships or vessels shall pay for lighthouses and 
 pilotage, and likewise appoint and settle all such rates as shall 
 be paid for wharfage or other shore dues in the several places 
 of this kingdom. 
 
 6. That the present farm or tack of the customs be broken, 
 and that the said impositions of foreign excise and entry-money 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL, OF TRADE. 21 
 
 may never hereafter be leased out, or let to farm, without the 
 advice and consent of Parliament. 
 
 Proposal VI. — On the Protection of Foreign Trade. 
 
 And whereas it has ever been the practice of the best regu- 
 lated and most considerable trading nations to grant the duties 
 upon exportations and importations, shipping and navigation, 
 only in consideration and towards the protection of foreign 
 trade ; and since by this union of the crowns, a,nd therewith 
 the removal of the imperial seat of the government, this king- 
 dom has been, and still continues to be, deprived of its strength 
 at sea, and other ordinary means of protecting and supporting 
 the trade and navigation thereof: Wherefore, and for the more 
 eflfectual securing of the trade and industry of this nation from 
 prejudices and discouragements from foreigners and foreign in- 
 fluence in time to come, it is proposed that the foresaid foreign 
 excise or duties upon exportation, importation, and entry- 
 money, may by Parliament be established, and from hencefor- 
 ward understood to be a fund of security for the foreign trade of 
 this kingdom, in the following manner and to the purposes after 
 mentioned : — 
 
 Article 1. That his Majesty will be graciously pleased to 
 declare and consent in Parliament that all ambassadors, envoys, 
 residents, consuls, or agents of his Majesty, his heirs or suc- 
 cessors, shall from henceforward own, countenance, and for- 
 ward the just and lawful treaties or designs of trade of the Indian 
 and African Company, or of any particular society, merchant, 
 or person of or belonging to this kingdom ; and that if, con- 
 trary to all just and reasonable expectation, any such am- 
 bassadors, envoys, residents, consuls, or agents, shall upon or 
 under pretence of order or warrant from his Majesty, his heirs 
 or successors, secretly or avowedly presume to let or anywise 
 discountenance or impede the trade, treaties of trade or com- 
 merce of the Indian and African Company, or of any society, 
 merchant, or other person of or belonging to this kingdom ; 
 
21 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 that then and in every such case, upon due proof thereof to the 
 council of trade, the sum of 500Z, sterling, besides full costs, 
 charges, and damages, may be recovered out of the said fund of 
 security for foreign trade by the party or parties injured re- 
 spectively. 
 
 2. In case any commander or commanders of ship or ships 
 belonging unto or commissioned by his Majesty, his heirs or 
 successors, as kings or queens of England, shall from hencefor- 
 ward come forcibly to take any goods, merchandises, or persons 
 from on board of any ship or ships of or belonging to this 
 kingdom, whether at sea or in any bay, harbour, or creek (ex- 
 cepting only such bays, harbours, or creeks as doth or may 
 belong to the kingdom of England or the dominions thereof), 
 or shall stop or hinder any such ship or ships, vessel or vessels, 
 from proceeding on her or their voyage by the space of twenty- 
 four hours or more, — that then the party or parties, owners of 
 such ship or ships, vessel or vessels, his, her, or their appoint- 
 ment may recover the sum of 500Z. sterling, beside all expenses, 
 charges, and damages. And that likewise every person pressed, 
 or forcibly taken and detained out of any such ship by the 
 space of one whole week or more, his, her, or their appoint- 
 ment may recover the sum of 100/. sterling, besides all expenses, 
 damages, and costs of suit, all to be paid out of the said fund 
 of security for foreign trade. 
 
 3. If any commander of ship or ships belonging unto or com- 
 missioned by his Majesty, his heirs or successors, as kings or 
 queens of England, shall hereafter presume to press or forcibly 
 to take away any Scotch seaman out of any Scotch ship, or out 
 of those of any other nation (excepting only those belonging to 
 England and the dominions thereof), whether at sea, in harbour, 
 or in foreign parts, every such person so pressed, his executors, 
 administrators, or assigns, may recover and receive the sum of 
 100/. sterling out of the said fund for security of foreign trade, 
 besides all damages, expenses, and costs of suit. 
 
 4. If any commander or commanders of ships, vessels, or 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCILi OP TRADE. 23 
 
 persons, by or under pretext of commission or warrant from his 
 Majesty, his heirs or successors, as kings or queens of England, 
 shall come hereafter to attack, stop, detain, or use any violence 
 to any ship or ships or vessels upon the coasts, and bound to 
 or from or in any of the creeks, harbours, or places of this 
 kingdom, or to take or seize any of the goods, effects, or per- 
 sons therein embarked, or shall forcibly take or detain any 
 goods, effects, or persons from the shore ; that then and in 
 every such case the several party or parties injured, may from 
 time to time receive full costs, charges, damages, and expenses 
 of suit, together with the sum of 100^. sterling, out of the said 
 fund for security of foreign trade. 
 
 5. That the said several sums, costs, damages, and expenses 
 may, from time to time, be recovered by the parties injured, or 
 their appointment, upon due proof made thereof to the council 
 of trade ; and that, upon the certification of the decrees of the 
 council thereupon, the said respective sums be paid and allowed 
 out of the said fund for security of foreign trade by the Lord 
 High Treasurer or the Lords Commissioners of his Majesty's 
 Treasury of this kingdom. And that it may be further pro- 
 vided, that the said foreign excise and entry money may in this 
 manner be and remain a fund of security for the foreign trade 
 and industry of this kingdom, as often and as long as the same 
 shall be continued to the heirs and successors of his Majesty. 
 
 6. That his Majesty and the Estates of Parliament, as the 
 general and supreme guardians of the trade and industry of this 
 kingdom, may consent and for the future become engaged to 
 cause satisfaction to be made to the Indian and African Com- 
 pany, those who are or may be associated with, commissioned, 
 or permitted by them, and to any other merchants of or belong- 
 ing to this kingdom, in case they or any of them shall from 
 henceforward happen to be wronged or injured by any princes, 
 states, or potentates in amity with his Majesty; and that 
 inquiry may be made of all such damages and injuries in order 
 to repair the several losses of the party or parties concerned 5 
 
24 PROPOSALS AND BKASONS 
 
 and thereupon to state, demand, and procure national satisfac- 
 tion, at every meeting and sitting of Parliament. 
 
 7. When any matter of doubt shall happen to be between his 
 Majesty and the Indian and African Company, or any mer- 
 chants or mariners of or belonging to this kingdom, that the 
 council of trade may explain everything beneficially and favour- 
 ably for the said company, merchants, and mariners. 
 
 8. That all Acts of Parliament, customs, usages, or orders of 
 this kingdom, in so far as they or any of them are or shall be 
 found contrary or not consonant to all or any of the before- 
 going proposals or articles, may be repealed, annulled, and de- 
 clared void. 
 
 Proposal VII. — Of His Majesttt's Revenue. 
 
 But since it may be objected, on behalf of his Majesty, that 
 some of the foregoing proposals may tend to the lessening the 
 hereditary and temporary revenues of the crown, I shall in the 
 first place endeavour to clear some points wherein the stress of 
 such objections may seem most to lie, and afterwards proceed to 
 the proposing an expedient capable of solving whatever may 
 seem doubtful in this matter. 
 
 Although the proposed alterations in the customs or foreign 
 excise may, in the beginning, and before things be fully settled, 
 come somewhat to lessen that revenue ; yet certainly the 
 doubling the impositions on such foreign growths and manu- 
 factures as shall be consumed in this nation, together with the 
 increase of shipping and navigation, which it is hoped will be the 
 effect of these regulations, may not only be capable of compen- 
 sating such first loss, if any there be, but of raising this revenue 
 in a very few years to near, if not quite, double what it yields 
 at this day: nor can the several incumbrances laid upon this fund 
 for the protection and security of foreign trade be looked upon 
 as any considerable impediment to this increase ; since it would 
 be hardly just or reasonable to suppose that any such infrac- 
 tions as are provided against should be made at all, or at least 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 25 
 
 above once in an age ; and thus, as in the first design thereof, 
 these incumbrances will doubtless rather prove a reasonable and 
 steady security to his subjects than any very real or sensible 
 loss to his Majesty. 
 
 Were things to continue upon the present foot, the duty pro- 
 posed to be laid on malt might probably be some, although 
 but a very small, disadvantage to his Majesty's revenue of home 
 or inland excise ; but, as the matter is designed, this revenue, 
 instead of receiving any manner of prejudice, will hereby have a 
 very fair and reasonable prospect of being in a few years im- 
 proved to one full fourth, if not to one-third, part more than 
 what it now yields j since, by the erection of granaries or 
 stores of corn and funds of money, those pernicious extremities 
 of dearth and cheapness will be equally prevented in the time to 
 come ; by which not only the malt, but the other sorts of grain, 
 wiU naturally receive a much greater benefit than what they are 
 to give in the tax or contribution proposed ; and since by the 
 effects thereof, and the other parts of this design, the value of 
 the industry, and, in consequence, the consumption, of this 
 kingdom, may in a small time be raised to at least one-fifth 
 part more than they amount to at present. 
 
 Thus upon the whole, his Majesty's revenue will be so far 
 from receiving any manner of prejudice by these proposals, that 
 the improvements of the two great branches of home and 
 foreign excise will in the end be much more than capable of 
 compensating the small diminution thereof by the proposed 
 appropriations. But, however, in order to the removing or 
 solving of any doubt which may but seem to remain after what 
 hath been said, the following alternative is proposed: — 
 
 That the council of trade may, for the said term of twenty 
 years, be constituted general receivers of his Majesty's revenue 
 of home and foreign excise, feu and blench duties, and the 
 crown-rents, on the following conditions. 
 
 The Alternative. That they become obliged to pay or cause 
 to be paid into the receipt of his Majesty's exchequer, by equal 
 
 kk 
 
26 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 quarterly payments, a yearly sum equivalent to the medium of 
 what his Majesty's whole ordinary revenue has produced du- 
 ring the last six years ; the one-half as hereditary, to be paid 
 during the whole twenty years, and the other as temporary, to 
 be paid only for the said twenty years, if his Majesty (whom 
 God Almighty preserve !) shall so long live. On condition- 
 That all such other sum or sums as shall or may remain over 
 and above the said medium of his Majesty's revenues may by 
 the council of trade be detained and added to the fund under 
 their direction, management, and trust. 
 
 Thus upon the whole it is hoped the proposal, at least this 
 alternative, with relation to his Majesty's revenue, will appear 
 reasonable beyond all exception, when it shall be considered 
 that, if the proposal be admitted, then the advantages which 
 this regulation will naturally bring to the main body of his 
 Majesty's revenue may be capable of much more than compen- 
 sating the proposed appropriation of these inconsiderable 
 branches thereof ; and that, on the other hand, should the alter- 
 native be taken, it may justly be expected that, by the prudent 
 and steady management of the council of trade, the overplus of 
 the whole will not be less advantageous than these smaller 
 branches proposed. 
 
 And whatsoever shall be produced either way, not one 
 penny thereof can go to particular or private profit, but only be 
 as an addition to a fund which will by much be the most 
 national that ever was established or thought on in this king- 
 dom, and "Vhich among many other great and eminent advan- 
 tages may in a few years be capable of easing and freeing this 
 nation of all sorts of extraordinary taxes for ever hereafter. 
 
 And in the last place, since his Majesty's revenue may not 
 only be hereby insured but rendered current, and so conse- 
 quently at least ten or twelve per cent, better to the govern- 
 ment than hitherto, and yet a sum near if not quite equivalent 
 to the losses of our company in their late attempts of foreign 
 trade may be thereby added to this national fund, which upon 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 27 
 
 this occasion would be no less satisfactory to his subjects of 
 this kingdom than glorious to his Majesty. 
 
 Thus having concluded these proposals, let us now proceed 
 to the reasons or observations on such of the several articles 
 thereof as may want explanation, or wherein there may appear 
 any doubt. 
 
 RbASONS FOR THK FOREGOING PROPOSALS AND ARTICLES. 
 
 On Proposal 1, Article 1. — The vast currents of treasure 
 which have flowed from these unparalleled sources of the New 
 World, within this last two hundred years, have so altered the 
 measures of war, shaken the maxims of peace, and otherwise 
 confounded as well as amazed the old, that all thinking men 
 are now become highly sensible how advantageous it is for a 
 people to promote and support their trade, navigation, and in- 
 dustry, and how dangerous it is to neglect it. 
 
 But in matters of trade, the interest of particular men, and 
 that of their country, is so far from being always the same, that 
 they are ofttimes directly opposite to one another. It is the true 
 interest of a country, that the many should rather get every one 
 a little, than a few should get much, because the more diffusive 
 and universal the gain, the more it will naturally contribute to 
 the growth and progress of industry ; whereas, on the contrary, 
 the more it is limited and restrained, the more it tends to the 
 clogging and cramping thereof. It is for the most part the 
 interest and inclination of particular men rather to get twenty 
 per cent, by dealing for one hundred pounds, than only five per 
 cent, by dealing for five hundred ; although by the latter the 
 nation would not only gain a fifth part more, but for the most 
 part above three times as much. And doubtless it is nothing 
 else, but this separate interest of particular men from that of 
 the public, which hath begot so many pernicious restraints, 
 prohibitions, monopolies, exclusions, and pre-emptions, as we 
 find now in the world. 
 
28 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 Not only by this difference between the particular in- 
 terests of men, and that of the public, but by other accidents, 
 the trade, industry, and improvements of this kingdom are but 
 too plainly and visibly reduced to such circumstances, as that it 
 will be found altogether irretrievable except by a national council 
 of trade, and a national fund of money for the carrying on and 
 promoting the following and such like particulars : — 1st. The 
 employing and relieving the poor, and the repressing of idleness 
 and sloth ; 2ndly. Erecting of national granaries and stores of 
 corn, so as that the industry of this kingdom may not, as 
 hitherto, be at any time clogged by extreme cheapness, nor 
 crushed by the extreme dearth of grain ; 3rdly. The improve- 
 ment of the mines, minerals, and other ordinary and extra- 
 ordinary products of this kingdom ; 4thly. The improving and 
 advancement of our manufactures, both in quantity and 
 quality; 5thly. The setting on foot, promoting, and carrying 
 on that great work of making salt upon salt, or refined salt, and 
 therewith the fisheries of this kingdom ; 6thly. The reducing 
 the interest of money to three per cent, per annum or less, not 
 by force or. restraint, but by easy and effectual means, and 
 which can never be done but by such a constitution as a coun- 
 cil of trade ought to be ; 7thly. The effectually carrying on, 
 countenancing, protecting, and supporting the foreign trade. 
 
 And as these and the like national improvements can never 
 be effectually begun, carried on, or supported, but by a national 
 council of trade, and a public fund of money suitable to the 
 weight and consequence of the work ; so those to be appointed 
 for the execution, will have the most weighty and difficult task 
 of any company or council that is, or ever was, in this kingdom. 
 And the quahfications requisite to, and the expectations of, 
 those who shall compose this council, will be such, that the 
 whole collective wisdom and experience of men in the kingdom, 
 will be but little enough to choose and continue the succession 
 of persons fit for so weighty a management and trust. It is 
 therefore proposed that the king should have the annual nomi- 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 29 
 
 nation of the president, and that the estates of nobility, barons, 
 and boroughs, with the representatives of the Indian and 
 African Company, may equally have the choice of the council- 
 lors as the best method, not only for giving and continuing the 
 greater national satisfaction, but for the preventing trade, or the 
 designs thereof, from being made use of as popular handles, 
 either to amuse or embroil the state ; since, by this annual nomi- 
 nation of the president, the more direct and easy access will not 
 only be had to his Majesty, but the credit and glory of suc^ 
 cesses will, in the person of this his representative as to their 
 centre, naturally redound to him ; whereas on the contrary, ac- 
 cording to the policy of all monarchical governments, whether 
 regular or absolute, the odium of miscarriages or misfortunes, 
 when they happen, will entirely fall upon subjects, and thereby, 
 instead of lessening the just authority or due respect of the 
 prince, as they otherwise might, will only contribute the more 
 to the strengthening his hands in the matters of redress or 
 supreme control from time to time. 
 
 Article 4. For the better preserving and cultivating of in- 
 tegrity and justice, and preventing the prevalence of affection 
 and compliment, in a matter of so vast a consequence as that of 
 electing of councillors of trade, it is proposed that none of the 
 classes or colleges of election may choose of their own number, 
 unless two-thirds at least of the electors do concur in the choice ; 
 and likewise, that the votes may be taken by scroll and 
 scrutiny. 
 
 Jrticle 5. It is also highly reasonable that no president 
 should continue longer than a year, and that one in every three 
 of the councillors should be annually left out, and others 
 chosen in their place, because that hereby a greater number of 
 fit persons will not only be bred to the business, but such as 
 may prove otherwise than expected may be more easily and 
 quietly laid aside ; and yet, neither the thing itself, nor those 
 who shall signalise themselves therein, will be anything near so 
 precarious or uncertain, as by an annual election of the whole. 
 
30 PBOPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 Article 7. Those who will be at the pains to consider the 
 weight and consequence of this trust, will easily perceive how 
 just and reasonable it is not only to excuse, but even to exclude, 
 the president and councillors of trade from all other offices and 
 dependencies whatsoever, 
 
 Article 9. As the punishments of such of the council of trade 
 as may come to be guilty of wilful injustice, fraud^ or breach of 
 trust, ought not to be so wild, loose, and extravagant as most 
 of our laws in the like cases have been, so they ought to be such 
 as are just and adequate to the crime, certain in the execution, 
 and durable in the examples and terror thereof. 
 
 On Proposal 2, Article 1, — ^This fortieth penny of all descents 
 wherever practised is found to be one of the most easy, in- 
 sensible, and equal duties that possibly can be imposed, since 
 no man is ever obliged to pay this one until at the same time 
 he comes to receive the thirty-nine. Was this imposition to 
 be for ever paid as a mere charity, it would be exceedingly 
 easy, for we find Jacob dedicated to this purpose a full tenth 
 part, not only of what fell to him by accident, or the means of 
 other people, but even of what he gained by his own industry ; 
 but since this is proposed to be contributed to a fund where 
 charity and industry are united, and are to go hand in hand, 
 it cannot properly, nor ought to be, considered as a tax, 
 but only as a good and necessary regulation, where, by the 
 contribution of this fortieth part, the other thirty-nine may 
 be made much more considerable than the whole could be 
 without it. 
 
 Article 2. This fortieth part of the values in alienations is also 
 very reasonable and easy, nor can there possibly be any material 
 objection unless in matter of mortgages or wadsets, as they are 
 called, wherein indeed there ought to be some exception or 
 considerable ease ; this duty will be most naturally and easily 
 paid by the purchasers. 
 
 Article 3. This fortieth part of the value of all manufactures 
 ought not to be considered as a duty or an imposition, not only 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 31 
 
 for the reasons mentioned on the article of descents, but be- 
 cause the ends for which this is proposed being well and duly 
 executed, will add at least four times the value to the goodness, 
 sufl&ciency, and currency of the manufactures and commodities 
 of this kingdom. This or the like kinds of duties have been and 
 are still paid in several trading places of Christendom, and de- 
 signed for the aforesaid ends, as in the guilds of the Hanse 
 Towns of Germany, the Halls in Flanders, and by the duty called 
 the aulnage in England. But the execution of these trusts 
 having been only committed to private persons, the duties have 
 been rather applied to the advantage of those concerned than to 
 that of the commodities they were designed for. This as 
 now proposed cannot fail of being quite otherwise, when in the 
 hands of a national institution, whose business and interest 
 will always be to promote the advantage of the whole, and not 
 that of any particulars. 
 
 Article 5. An imposition of one-twentieth part of the sums 
 or values sued for in all actions and suits, where the party shall 
 be found liable in expenses, will be a real national benefit, and 
 yet but a very moderate and easy reproof to those litigious and 
 turbulent neighbours. 
 
 Article 6. The council of trade who are to be the guardians 
 of the industry will doubtless be the most natural receivers 
 and controllers of charities, since in all well-ordered countries 
 these two ought to be united into one design, and always to go 
 hand in hand. 
 
 Articles 7 and 8, But when it shall be granted that the fore- 
 going impositions are not only proposed to be the most useful 
 and best applied, but the most equal and easy that can possibly 
 be raised in this kingdom ; yet perhaps this tenth part of all 
 sorts of grain consumed, or an equivalent in money, may seem 
 heavy and grievous to those who have not duly considered or 
 fully weighed the case ; for the better and clearer understanding 
 whereof we shall say somewhat. 1st. With relation to taxes 
 and impositions in general. 2ndly. Of this upon corn in par- 
 
32 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 ticular. And 3rdly. Of the advantages and benefits that will 
 arise by the fund in general. 
 
 Taxes are sometimes raised for the defence and security, 
 sometimes for the ornament, sometimes for improvement, and 
 but too often for or towards the hurt or ruin of a country. 
 
 Taxing as well as all manner of other charges and impositions 
 hath a twofold effect, a positive and a negative. In the first 
 case so much as is raised, how insensibly soever, is certainly 
 taken away from and lost to the person or circumstances obliged 
 to pay. In the second case, it leaves a disability equal and in 
 proportion to its weight, since not only the neat sum but the 
 improvement and advantage that might have arisen from 
 such a value is likewise lost to such person or circumstance. 
 Therefore it is that the different ways of taxing, although for the 
 same sums, are so vastly easy or uneasy with respect to one 
 another, and have so very different effects, that reasonable and 
 moderate duties on the consumption are ofttimes so far from 
 being hurtful to a country in general that they naturally encou- 
 rage frugality in the rich and industry in the poor ; whereas 
 those raised on the industry or increase have a clear contrary 
 effect, insomuch that, besides the inequality which must always 
 be much greater in taxes raised on gaining than on spendingj 
 the difference of the weight in the general is usually as one to 
 four. So that a people in gross may be said to be at least as 
 easy in their taxes when they pay four on their consumption 
 as when but one upon their increase or industry. 
 
 To illustrate this, it ought to be considered that the con- 
 sumption of this kingdom may amount to about 3,400,000/. 
 sterling per annum, although the increase does not amount to 
 quite so much, because the nation is upon the decaying hand; 
 and that, although the real number may be somewhat more, yet 
 there are good grounds to think that the best political number 
 of the people of this kingdom will be 600,000, and that pro- 
 bably one-fourth of these people do consume above one-half, or 
 1,800,000/. of the before-mentioned sum, or, to avoid fractions, 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 33 
 
 not at all necessary in these kind of computations, about 
 4s. 8d, sterling per week per head, whereas the other three- 
 fourths of this mass of mankind do not perhaps altogether spend 
 one-half of the before-mentioned sum, or not above 1,600,000^. 
 per annum, or at the rate of about 16d. sterling per week per 
 head. 
 
 Now suppose a tax could be equally laid upon the consump- 
 tion of all this mass of mankind of the value of three pence per 
 week on the rich, and one penny sterling per week on the 
 poorer sort, — if the several weights were no greater than pro- 
 posed, there are reasons to persuade that this tax would bring 
 down the consumption of the one to about 4s. 2d. per week, 
 and raise the industry of the other towards eighteen pence per 
 week in the whole, or two pence per week more than now : — that 
 is to say, the one penny towards payment of the tax, and the 
 other towards living better than they now do ; — and thus doubt- 
 less a very considerable tax might be raised without being 
 hurtful, but rather beneficial, to the nation. 
 
 But since many of the taxes that could be imposed upon the 
 consumption would be so uncertain and expensive in' the collec- 
 tion as that they could not be easily rendered practicable, for 
 which, and several reasons that shall be given hereafter, this 
 imposition on corn is proposed, and will doubtless be found to 
 be the most just, easy, and reasonable excise that can possibly 
 be proposed in this kingdom. 
 
 For although those who are not disposed to take much pains 
 in anything, may possibly be still for continuing our ordinary 
 ways of taxing, either as thinking them the readiest, or because 
 they neither do nor perhaps are willing to know any better ; yet 
 certainly the cesspool money, hearth money, and such like, do 
 not only lie on the increase instead of the consumption, but 
 since the land rents of this kingdom do not at this day much, 
 if at all, exceed 1,200,000Z. sterling per annum, and that the 
 consumption of the nation is near three times as much, — by com- 
 paring the inequality of these things, it may be reasonably sup- 
 
 yop.. I. P 
 
a4 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 posed that every penny raised by these ways is, nationally 
 speaking, as uneasy to the nation as five pence laid on the con- 
 sumption. In like manner, since the foreign trade of this 
 kingdom, that is to say, the importation and exportation thereof, 
 is not to the other industry as above one to ten at the most, 
 therefore doubtless all that part of the customs or foreign excise 
 which lies on this particular part of the industry may perhaps 
 be near ten times as uneasy to the kingdom as so much would 
 be when raised on the general consumption- But since it is the 
 main design of the fifth proposal to take off all that part of the 
 customs that does or but seems to lie on industry, shipping, or 
 navigation, and to lay the same on the consumption, it need 
 only be mentioned in this place. 
 
 Of the great advantage and benefit that may arise to a country 
 by easy and equal taxing, the Dutch are living examples, who, 
 in proportion to their intrinsic value, pay the greatest taxes in 
 the known world ; and yet are not only the most easy and indus- 
 trious people, but there is no country in Christendom where the 
 rich are more frugal, — the middling and industrious sort of people 
 live betterj — or the poor anything near so well. 
 
 2. But to come to this tax or imposition on corn in particular, 
 as at present proposed, — besides the foregoing and the like reasons 
 that may be given for excises in general, and for that one on corn, 
 as being one of the most easy, equal, and easily collected, — there 
 are weighty reasons for this, and this sort of imposition on corn 
 in the present case, very particular to this kingdom ; and which 
 will make it plain that this imposition, as designed, will rather 
 be a good, advantageous, and necessary regulation than a tax. 
 In the first place the alternative in money, and the national 
 granaries and stores of corn, which are proposed hereby to be 
 erected, will not only give all sorts of grain a natural currency, 
 but with good direction may raise the value thereof to at least 
 one-fifth part more than what it has hitherto been, and yet 
 always prevent its rising as well as falling to any great extre- 
 mities. For example, suppose that the years in this nation 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 35 
 
 should, one with another, continue to be anything like what they 
 have been for several centuries past, and that the moderate 
 price of corn in a medium were now reckoned at ten shillings 
 sterling per boll, — ^by this means it may be kept between twelve 
 and fourteen, and yet never be suflFered to rise to the extremity of 
 twenty, or fall to that of seven or eight ; so that) by the means of 
 this tenth, com may not only be made and kept always a current 
 commodity in time to come, without being in danger of running 
 to extremities, but be made at least one- fifth part better to the 
 owners of land and raisers of corn than hitherto. The which 
 good effects, however otherwise intended, could never so 
 naturally and easily follow if the tax or imposition hereby pro- 
 posed, or the like sums of money, were any otherwise raised 
 than thus directly on corn. 
 
 Since there is hardly any country in Christendom more sub- 
 ject to uncertain seasons than this kingdom, it is very strange 
 that some of the many s'traits and necessities this nation hath 
 been under have not produced some such national care and 
 economy long ere this. It is true such great and unwieldy 
 societies of men, as considerable kingdoms or states, especially 
 when made up of so different, unequal, and undue mixtures as 
 this, seldom ever made any good or fundamental reform but by 
 accident or necessity. But, although we have not hitherto been 
 blessed by the accident of a capable and successful person or 
 genius in the fundamental matters of trade and improvement, 
 yet it seems strange that none of the many and destructive 
 famines this nation hath been exposed unto, have not ere this 
 stirred up and awakened the very mass of mankind to some 
 such national care and economy as is hereby proposed. For 
 example, considering the price corn has been at within this last 
 five years, and what quantities must needs be consumed in this 
 kingdom, there cannot be less than a sum of 400,000i. sterling, 
 or the value expended by the nation for corn, besides little 
 less than double that sum in the loss of people and other 
 damage. 
 
 d2 
 
3(5 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 Now, what ought the nation to give, were it necessary to be 
 insured against such accidents for the future ;-but, more espe- 
 cially, when they may not only be put in a way to have suffi- 
 cient stores of corn for themselves, but likewise considerable 
 quantities toward supplying their neighbours in such unfortu- 
 
 nate seasons ? 
 
 Wise and prudent states will look far, and lay in stores for 
 the winter of years, as well as for the winter of days. Joseph 
 of old, by laying up one-fifth part of the corn of the seven 
 plentiful years, was enabled not only to supply the land of 
 Egypt during the seven years of famine, but likewise most of 
 all the neighbouring countries. And we see the Dutch at this 
 day, who, although they, have little corn of their own growth in 
 comparison of their consumption, and who are forced to pay 
 dear freights and warehouse-room for what they get from 
 abroad, and besides all this, considering the alternative, do pay 
 more than three times the duty here proposed, and this not for 
 national improvement but for national expense; yet, after 
 all, as hath been said, their middling sort of people live as well, 
 and their poor much better, than any in Europe; besides 
 which, they have for this last century never been in any such 
 national straits as most of their neighbouring countries, but, 
 on the contrary, have been able, to their great profit, to export 
 vast quantities of corn to supply the wants of other nations. 
 
 There is no doubt but extreme plenty and cheapness contri- 
 bute exceedingly to extreme dearth and want, and that like 
 other extremities they produce one another. It was observed 
 that, for several years before the last five, corn was extremely 
 cheap and low, even so as to discourage both the raiser and 
 heritor, and to indulge the poor in idleness to an insufferable 
 degree; and this habit of idleness and sloth, contracted by 
 plenty, concurring with the unaccountable neglect of the state 
 in not laying up some of the abundance against the time of 
 dearth and unfavourableness of the season, was doubtless none 
 of the least causes of the late grievous famine. 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 37 
 
 To conclude this reasoning on the benejSit of granaries and 
 stores of corn, — considering its situation in the sea, and the com- 
 mand this nation may have of the fishings, by which they may 
 be able among other wealth to procure vast quantities of corn 
 fitter for stores than that of this kingdom, — and that, although 
 our soil be not generally so bountiful as that of some of our 
 neighbours, yet since it is capable of much greater improve- 
 ments than hitherto, certainly our country, with reasonable 
 national care and economy, may be made not only capable of 
 supplying itself at all times, supposing the seasons to continue 
 anything like what they have been for several ages past, but 
 may be easily brought into a condition of being one of the 
 greatest storehouses for grain of all the countries in the 
 northern world. Now, from what has been said, or what 
 maybe naturally deduced therefrom, it is justly hoped that 
 both the raisers and consumers of corn, and all others who may 
 think themselves concerned, will see their accounts so advan- 
 tageously balanced in the good consequences and improve- 
 ments proposed, as not to remain in any further doubt with 
 relation to the contributing their respective shares to the 
 aforesaid fund. 
 
 But, although the benefit that would naturally accrue to this 
 nation in the matter, and with relation to corn alone, be not 
 only more than capable of balancing this tenth share, but even 
 all the rest of the branches proposed to this fund, — yet there 
 are several other advantages not less considerable in them- 
 selves, or with relation to this kingdom, than this ; and since 
 people, and their industry, are the truest and most solid riches 
 of a country, in so much that in respect to them, all other 
 things are but ima^fc^^, — we shall in the next place speak of 
 the employment ofme poor ; and by way of introduction shall 
 here, in the following scheme, not only give the amount of the 
 contributions of the city of Edinburgh towards relief of the 
 poor for the last year, being 1699, but from thence our con- 
 
38 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 jecture what the same might have amounted to in the whole 
 kingdom. 
 
 The contributions towards maintenance of the poor of the 
 city of Edinburgh, exclusive of Leith and the Canongate, and 
 other out parts of the town, and of all hospitals, appropriations, 
 and mortifications as they are called, as also of corporation 
 charities, and all manner of vojuntary or concealed charities, 
 which cannot be brought to account, for the last year, being 
 1699, amounted to no less than the sum of 4,552^. is. 8d. 
 sterling. 
 
 Now since it is said Leith, the Canongate, and other out 
 parts are accounted as 75 is to 205 in the common valuations, 
 we shall in this case consider them altogether to be only as one 
 is to three with respect to Edinburgh. And suppose that their 
 contributions to the poor for the year 1699 might have been 
 about 1,51'Jl. 7s. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 Let us likewise suppose that the hospitals and 
 all other appropriations to charitable uses and 
 corporation charities in the city and out parts 
 may amount to . . . . . 2,000 
 
 And that there is reason to believe that the 
 private charities may be at least one-fourth part 
 of the whole, or as one is to three, which will be 
 about 
 
 And so that the several sums of 
 
 • 
 
 . 2,689 16 
 
 £ s. 
 
 d. 
 
 4,552 1 
 
 8 
 
 1,517 7 
 
 
 
 2,000 
 
 
 
 2,689 16 
 
 3 
 
 Do in the whole amount to . . ,10 759 4 11 
 
 Now, by the best accounts that can at present be recovered, 
 
 the city of Edinburgh and out parts are in value really not 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 39 
 
 above one twenty-fifth part of the whole, or as one is to twenty- 
 four, — nor in people above one twentieth part, or as one is to 
 nineteen — with respect to the rest of the nation ; so that, if we 
 should suppose the whole nation in their contributions to pay 
 in proportion to this part, the yearly sum paid towards relief 
 of the poor would be 268,98 U. 2s. lid. But since there are 
 reasons to think that the town of Edinburgh, in proportion to 
 its value, doth contribute much more towards relief of the poor 
 than the rest of the kingdom, we shall therefore suppose the 
 same to be about one-half overrated in this matter ; and so as 
 the whole kingdom may in money, or money's worth, pay about 
 135,000^. per annum. 
 
 Notwithstanding which great sums thus expended, it is very 
 well known that the poor of this kingdom, if it may be so 
 expressed, do not half live. Whereas, by this proposal, the 
 poor may not only be decently and conveniently maintained, 
 and perpetually and profitably employed, instead of being as 
 hitherto so insupportable a weight upon both the industry and 
 morality of this nation, but, in about four years' time or less, 
 the kingdom may be for ever eased of at least three-fourths of 
 this expense; that is, of the whole, excepting the voluntary 
 charities, which doubtless, one way and another, amount fo 
 above one hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum, and 
 are much more than all the other duties proposed to this fund. 
 
 So that, were the aforesaid fund and anticipations thereupon 
 proposed to no other end but the erecting of national granaries 
 or the maintaining of the poor, it would be exceedingly well 
 and profitably given by the nation ; but how much better then 
 must it needs be bestowed, when not only upon the one, but to 
 answer the ends of both, and Hkewise of several other national 
 improvements of no less weight and consequence, and which 
 all of them have a certain natural connection, dependence upon, 
 and relation to one another. 
 
 The herring and white fishing may in the next place come 
 under our consideration ; and certainly there are none who have 
 
40 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 taken any tolerable pains to inform themselves in this matter 
 but are convinced that this nation is much better and more 
 conveniently situated for the fisheries than any other in the 
 known world ; which makes the neglect thereof hitherto alto- 
 gether inexcusable, as well as unaccountable, in the inhabitants 
 thereof. 
 
 Upon the first and more superficial inquiries, the vulgar 
 sentiments with relation to this matter seem to be, that, although 
 it be confessed the herring, white-fish, with no small quantities 
 of others, are much more complaisant to the people of this 
 kingdom than to any other we know of on earth, in not only 
 sojourning sometimes near us, but in a manner taking up their 
 abode at our very doors, and in the very bosom of our country, 
 when in the meantime they are courted by others from far, — and 
 that our Government forsooth, in return for these unparalleled 
 civilities of the fish, have from time to time made the best laws 
 and given the greatest encouragement for fishing that is pos- 
 sible ; — yet the mischief of all is, that by some occult quality in 
 or enchantment upon the people, they are by no means fit for 
 the fisheries, although the fisheries be so incomparably fit for 
 them. 
 
 But when, in order to discover this enchantment, we look 
 upon the people, we find they are just such another mass of 
 mankind as any such number of men might be expected to be, 
 when so bred, educated, and used. Under such circumstances 
 as they have hitherto been, there seems not any material dif- 
 ference, only, if what is affirmed be true, they are very unfortu- 
 nate that good laws will not have the same kind of good effects 
 with them they used to have in other nations. 
 
 Now, since, as it has been said, it is not at all perceivable 
 that the people have any material difference from others in 
 their circumstances, and that it is only from the good effects of 
 laws, and from no other property whatsoever, that they can be 
 properly called good, let us venture to inquire into these good 
 laws they speak of; and see whether the enchantment, or any 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TEADE, -11 
 
 part thereof, for all these fine words, may not lie lurking in 
 them. 
 
 The first Act of Parliament we find relating to fishing is the 
 49th Act of the sixth Parliament of King James the Third, 
 anno 1474, whereby it is ordained, " That, for the good of the 
 realm, and the great increase of riches to be brought from other 
 countries, certain Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and boroughs, 
 should order great ships, busses, and other great pink-boats, 
 with nets and other utensils and accoutrements for fishing, to 
 be made." 
 
 The second is the 49th Act of the fourth Parliament of King 
 James the Fourth, anno 1493, which mentions " the great and 
 innumerable riches (as it is there expressed) that were lost to 
 this kingdom for want of convenient ships and busses to be 
 employed in fishing ; — wherefore, for the great advantage that 
 might be thereby had, and to cause idle men and vagabonds to 
 labour for their livings, and for eschewing of vice and idleness, 
 and the common profit and universal welfare of the realm, his 
 Majesty and Estates of Parliament appoint that fishing ships 
 and busses, of twenty tons burthen and upwards, be made in all 
 boroughs and towns of the realm, in proportion to the ability 
 and substance of each town." 
 
 The third is the 98th Act of the seventh Parliament of King 
 James the Fifth, anno 1540. Whereby among other things it 
 is enacted, " That no man, merchants or others, should send 
 any white fish out of the realm, but permits strangers to come 
 and buy them of merchants, or freemen of boroughs, with ready 
 gold or silver, or bartering of sufficient merchandise for the ne- 
 cessary use of their houses only." 
 
 To pass over some others of less moment, as they stand in 
 the Statute Book, we shall come in the fourth place to the 60th 
 Act of the fourth Parliament of King James the Sixth, anno 
 1573, whereby it is declared, " That forasmuch as it was 
 heavily complained, how that the whole slayers of all kind 
 of fishes within the realm, not regarding the Acts made by 
 
42 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 our Sovereign Lord's dearest predecessors, which are that, when 
 herring and white fish are slain, they ought to be brought to 
 the next adjacent boroughs or towns where the slayers thereof 
 do dwell, to the effect that the heges may be first served ;~and 
 that if abundance hath occurred, they may be salted and trans- 
 ported by free burgesses ; — by the neglect whereof our sovereign 
 lord is greatly defrauded of his customs, and the good subjects 
 of this kingdom want the fruits of the sea appointed by God 
 for their nourishment, and the burgesses and freemen of 
 boroughs disappointed of their traffic and commodity,— 
 therefore our Sovereign Lord, with advice and consent of his 
 Regent's Grace, and the Estates of Parliament, ordains, That 
 all fishers, and others whatsoever, who shall happen to slay any 
 herring, or white fish, do bring the same to free ports, there to 
 be sold, first commonly to all the subjects, and afterwards the 
 remainder to freemen, under pain of confiscation, not only of 
 the fish, but of the ships, and of all the moveables of the 
 offenders." 
 
 Thus we have here a brief view of the ancient laws relating 
 to the fisheries, as much in their sense and manner of expres- 
 sion as the propriety of our present way of speaking will allow, 
 and besides which there are likewise other Acts of the said 
 King James the Sixth, to the same or like purpose. 
 
 By the first two of these Acts, we plainly see that our ances- 
 tors very sincerely endeavoured to begin and carry on the 
 fisheries, — and that the recommending the same to the great men 
 and boroughs was the best method they could light upon in 
 those raw and early times. 
 
 And although this was but a very weak, loose, and precarious 
 foundation, yet it seems the encouragement and advantage was 
 such, that in less than seventy years after, the fisheries were 
 become a tempting morsel for a set of avaricious hucksters 
 and monopolists, who, under specious pretexts of the good of 
 the kingdom in general, and of the boroughs in particular, first 
 by the Act of 1540, and afterwards by that fatal one of 1573, 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 43 
 
 and those which followed, enhanced the whole to themselves. — 
 This doubtless, like monopolies, exclusions, pre-emptions, re- 
 straints, and prohibitions in other cases, first insensibly 
 stopped the further progress and improvement, and afterwards 
 by degrees dwarfed and crushed, the fisheries of this kingdom to 
 such a degree, that, instead of exportations worth any mention, 
 the nation hath not for a long time been in a condition to fur- 
 nish itself one half of what fish might be reasonably consumed 
 therein j-^nor is what we have commonly half so good and whole- 
 some as by national care and industry it might otherwise be. 
 
 As on the one hand we cannot nor ought not, in reason or 
 justice, to suppose, that their then respective Majesties and 
 Estates of Parliament designed anything by these two last- 
 mentioned Acts but the good of the kingdom in general, and 
 of the fisheries thereof in particular, — so it must needs seem 
 strange to those who have anything deeply and ripely consi- 
 dered this matter, to think how and by what means possible 
 the Parliaments could be moved to pass such Acts, as not only 
 by their fatal consequences, but even by the plain and apparent 
 sense and meaning thereof, are so pernicious and destructive, 
 not only to the increase and improvement but to the very 
 nature and being of the fisheries ;^to load them with exclu- 
 sions and pre-emptions, which, all things considered, were not 
 less but rather more heavy and burthensome than one hundred 
 per cent, imposition could have been without them ; — insomuch, 
 that, instead of encouragements as was pretended, — had they 
 considered, not only days, but many years, they could hardly 
 have thought of a more gradual and insensible, and, conse- 
 quently, a more certain, effectual, and mischievous way to 
 crush and ruin the fisheries of this kingdom. 
 
 But with relation to this we need not doubt but the mono- 
 polists and hucksters of that age had every whit as seeming 
 fair and specious pretences as some of the same kidney and 
 brood have in this ; we may be sure they represented to the 
 Parliaments and people in these times, that, although indeed 
 
44 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 the far greatest part of the soil of this country was none of 
 the best, yet, fully to compensate this defect, it had pleased 
 Almighty God to give unto the inhabitants thereof no less than 
 the abundance of the sea, the inexhaustible and invaluable 
 fisheries, for their nourishment and support ; — that these fish- 
 eries were so naturally inherent to and inseparable from this 
 kingdom as left no room to fear, or reasonable ground of appre- 
 hension, that the industry of strangers herein could ever come 
 to interfere or cope with that of ours, — since they had, iii the first 
 place, long, expensive, and dangerous voyages to make before 
 they could come at the fish, — and in the second place, they could 
 fish but for some few months in the summer, and both they 
 and their vessels must lie idle for all, or at least most part, of 
 the rest of the year ;^whereas, on the other hand, our coasts 
 were not only environed and surrounded with fish, but our 
 many and spacious inland lakes and sounds were in a manner 
 filled therewith, — so as the inhabitants of this kingdom could 
 not only fish with inconsiderable expense and danger, but, in 
 one sort of profitable fish or other, during the whole year, with- 
 out interruption. Say they, these things considered, we need 
 not be at the expense, trouble, or danger of carrying our fish 
 to strangers ; if they will have any, they shall fetch them them- 
 selves ; — nay, not only so, but the ignorance and presumption 
 of these monopolists was risen to such a height that they 
 would needs have the Parliament to take measures for pre- 
 venting the people from being cheated by selling their fish to 
 strangers, on credit, for a bad commodity or insufficient wares; — 
 and therefore get them to enact, that for the future men should 
 take nothing but ready gold, silver, or good and current com- 
 modities equivalent in exchange for their fish ; — and lest, not- 
 withstanding all this, ignorant fishermen, or other such like 
 people, should sell their fish for half nothing, or too cheap, to 
 foreigners, therefore, after all, none but free burgesses ought 
 to be entrusted with the disposition of these national jewels. 
 But, on the other hand, the better to gain the afiection and 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 45 
 
 countenance of the giddy and unthinking multitude to all this 
 sophistry, they flattered them with a pretended pre-emption, 
 which was but merely imaginary to the poor people, but real 
 and effectual to the monopolists ; — for we may be sure that, 
 however low and druggish the price of fish might be at the 
 very first, till most of the best fishers and seamen were, by 
 that means, forced abroad to foreign countries, and driven from 
 the fishing at home, — yet that, in a short time after these exclu- 
 sions and pre-emptions, such of the fishers and seamen as 
 remained, and were not in league with the hucksters, happened 
 seldom if ever to meet with extraordinary market for their fish, 
 wages, or employment for themselves. 
 
 As the monopolists had their proper and particular baits, 
 hooks, or nooses for their several and various sorts of fish, we 
 need not doubt but that they had them likewise for the different 
 degrees and capacities of men. With the commons this pre- 
 tended and sham pre-emption went doubtless very well down, — 
 and the nobility and gentry might likewise acquiesce as knowing 
 little or nothing of the nature of the thing. But the chief and 
 most sensible motives of the kings and parliaments seems to 
 have been, that, since the boroughs by reason of the fishing, and 
 the many good consequences thereof, were become rich and 
 able to contribute very considerably to the public duties and 
 impositions, that, therefore — partly, as they thought, to ease 
 themselves, and partly because some of them might possibly be 
 envious or repine at the prosperity of the successful traders — 
 some tax or imposition might, by instigation and consent of 
 the nobility and gentry, be laid on the fishing, as likewise on 
 the boroughs, for their trade, — which by the monopolists, we 
 need not doubt, would be afterwards used as a handle ; and 
 that under pretenceof gaining these monopolies for the boroughs, 
 who they might pretend were therefore taxed, they really got 
 them for themselves. For in all such like pretences as these, 
 though the good of some public thing or other appears upper- 
 most, yet private interest and personal regard are always at the 
 
46 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 bottom. But, however it was, we need not doubt but they as 
 much persuaded the parliaments and people of those times, 
 that by the mere means or ways of monopoly, pre-emption, and 
 exclusion, they could hedge in the herring, cod, and other sorts 
 of fish, as some of the same stamp have not a few of our neigh- 
 bours in England, that they can thus not only hedge in their 
 wool, but hinder it, or anything like it, to grow elsewhere; — or 
 that they can heap up wealth by hedging out the Irish cattle, 
 the Flanders manufactures, or such like. And although this 
 matter be plain to us now, when it has had its full effect, 
 yet certainly it oould not be so to them, or we may be sure our 
 ancestors would sooner have consented to sell the monopolists 
 to Turkey, than to grant them so destructive and fatal pre- 
 emptions and exclusions as these, with relation to the fisheries, 
 have been. 
 
 So upon the whole we may safely conclude, that it has 
 not been by the bad observation of good laws, as is ignorantly 
 pretended by some, but rather by the good observation of bad 
 laws, that the fisheries of this kingdom have been crushed and 
 ruined ; and that nothing less pernicious to trade and industry 
 than the before mentioned monopolies and exclusions, gained 
 under the glorious and specious pretence of the good of the 
 public, and in particular of the royal boroughs,- — but in reality 
 only designed and applied to gratify the interest, avarice, and 
 humours of a very few private men, oould so totally have 
 effectuated this matter. 
 
 In order to rise happily, nations and great societies, as well 
 as particular persons, ought in the first place to consider well 
 how and from whence they are fallen ; — wherefore, until some 
 further and more ample account can be had of the matter, this 
 brief view of the most open and apparent causes, first of the 
 discouragement and decay, and afterwards of the total loss of 
 the fisheries of this kingdom, may be of use at least to put such 
 as are curious in the way of informing themselves more fully 
 and clearly herein. 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 47 
 
 But since some who have had their thoughts on this matter 
 seem to be of opinion that, whatever might be the first cause 
 of the discouragement and loss of our fisheries, yet the 39th 
 Act of the first Parliament of King Charles the Second, anno 
 1661, gave sufiicient encouragement for retrieving thereof, had 
 the same been but seconded by a willing and capable people, 
 we shall here insert the substance of that Act, and conclude 
 this head of the fisheries with some observations thereupon. 
 
 The tenor and principal substance whereof is to the follow- 
 ing purpose : 
 
 "His Majesty and Estates of Parliament, considering the 
 many benefits and great advantages which may accrue to him 
 and this his ancient kingdom by the improvement and promot- 
 ing the fisheries thereof, as that it will not only be a nursery 
 for seafaring men, and a speedy occasion of building of ships, 
 as well for the use of his Majesty as that of his subjects, both 
 in peace and war ; but likewise be a means of setting many 
 poor and idle persons on work, and furnishing the materials of 
 a great native export for the enriching his Majesty's kingdoms, 
 by a sure foundation of trade and commerce ; — 
 
 " For which end his Majesty and the said Estates of Parlia- 
 ment erect and estabhsh particular societies or companies 
 of such of his Majesty's natural-born or naturalised subjects, 
 and their successors, as shall put in the sum of five hundred 
 marks Scots or more into the joint stocks of such societies or 
 companies, into a body politic and corporate, to have a joint 
 stock, and power to fish in all and every the seas, channels, 
 rivers, floods, and lakes of this kingdom, and islands thereunto 
 belonging ; — and to bring in and disburden such herrings and 
 other fish to all ports, harbours, and shores, and to lay the 
 same on land, to pickle them with salt, and to dry and load the 
 same in barrels and puncheons ; — to build houses or little cot- 
 tages and other things necessary for the use of the said fishing 
 trade, in all places convenient, for and upon the payment of 
 twelve pence sterling for each last of fish, and no more, directly 
 
48 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 or indirectly, unto the lord or owner of such ground, as hke- 
 wise to sell, use, and dispose of such herrings or other fish to 
 the inhabitants, or carry or transport the same to foreign parts, 
 to sell and dispose thereof to such as shall be in amity with his 
 Majesty. 
 
 " To choose such of their own number as they think fit for 
 the making of laws, rules, and statutes, for the better regulat- 
 ing, carrying on, and management of the fisheries ; such laws 
 being always allowed and approved by the council of trade ; 
 to which laws and rules all the persons and parties concerned 
 shall be subject and submit themselves. 
 
 " The said fishings, and all manner of materials, utensils, or 
 necessaries belonging thereunto or employed therein, are not 
 only declared free of all customs and impositions ; but the ships, 
 boats, vessels, or persons, actually belonging unto or employed 
 in the same fisheries, are no way liable to be pressed for public 
 service or arrested by any creditor. 
 
 " And the fishers, masters, and servants, their materials and 
 instruments of fishing, are not to be convenable before any judge 
 or judicature ; or liable to any civil actions, prosecutions, arrest, 
 or attachment, for and during the whole season or time of fish- 
 ing and their employment therein. 
 
 " And none are to have liberty to export herring or other fish, 
 nor to have or use the above-written privileges, excepting only 
 those who shall enter themselves by a day left in blank or other- 
 wise, afterwards to be declared free of one or other of the said 
 companies or societies by the council of trade." 
 
 Thus we have here inserted the most material substance of 
 this Act, which, although it be a monopoly, and the Act itself 
 appears somewhat confused, yet there is no ground to doubt 
 but the original promoters thereof both intended and have in 
 effect actually thereby done service to their country, but cer- 
 tainly not in any proportion to what they seem to have de- 
 signed. Although, as hath been said, this Act be a mono- 
 poly, as appears both by the import and the practice thereof 
 
FOR CONSTITDTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE, 49 
 
 afterwards, yet was it incomparably more soft and easy than 
 these barbarous monopolies of the kings James the Fifth and 
 Sixth, and had it been made at any time during the first twenty 
 or thirty years after that fatal Act of the year 1540, whilst there 
 was yet some life, and consequently hope, in the then sinking 
 fisheries, it might have revived and perhaps in some part. con- 
 tinued them to us to this day ; but not being thought of till 
 above one hundred and twenty years had passed, when doubt- 
 less all the old fishers and materials of the fisheries were not 
 only gone, but long since quite extinct, and in a manner utterly 
 forgotten, in such a case as this it was morally impossible this 
 Act could recover the fishing. 
 
 We only say, had this Act been made in time, as it would 
 doubtless have given some ease for the present, so it might 
 perhaps have transmitted the fisheries, at least in some part, to 
 this present age. But perhaps neither, for what this young, 
 easy, and smooth monopoly might have turned to in time is 
 not easy to guess, since monopolies and exclusions, like avarice 
 itself, instead of decreasing, like most other things, do com- 
 monly gather strength with their age ; and the older they grow 
 they are still the more pernicious. 
 
 It was only by the enchantment of monopolies and exclu- 
 sions that the Hanse Towns made a shift, in a little more than 
 two hundred years, to conjure away the greatest and best part 
 of the trade of this side of the world, which there are good 
 reasons to be given they might otherwise have had to this day ;— 
 all which they lost, and afterwards the greatest part of themselves 
 (to use the word that had its derivation from thence), hy enhancing 
 the price of what they had, or did, too much. And not only the 
 Hanse Towns have been thus as it were insensibly, and conse- 
 quently the more effectually, ruined ; but by this means, within 
 this last two ages, Spain and Portugal have been able, if not to 
 exhaust, at least in the greatest part to bankrupt away, the very 
 Indies ; — having already brought things to such a pass that most 
 other nations are not only able to do things by sea or land 
 
 vot. 1. E 
 
50 PBOPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 a third or fourth part cheaper, but in many cases three or four 
 times as cheap as they. 
 
 Perhaps there is not any one part or piece of trade in the 
 world, but might and would prosper better without, than in a 
 monopoly ; unless it be in a very few and singular cases, and 
 never but where the monopoly is qualified with an easy and 
 reasonable permission. But the very nature oi the fisheries, 
 and all other sorts of bulky and diffusive trades, is utterly 
 opposite to a monopoly or any sort of restraint, and ought to 
 be free to all the inhabitants, or those who will come to 
 be inhabitants, of a country, as the air they breathe in. 
 Although by reason of the great advantage this nation has in 
 that matter above others, and the common advantage there is 
 of thirty, forty, or more per cent, above the current price by 
 overtaking the first and flower of the foreign markets for her- 
 rings, which in the whole never amount to many hundred, not 
 to speak of thousand, lasts in a year, — some small or inconsi- 
 derable part thereof might be carried on by monopohsts, at least 
 for a time, and until they should come gradually to enhance 
 their presumption and prices and lessen their industry to an 
 exorbitancy, yet can it never come to anything like that per- 
 fection, or even so as to make one-tenth part of the progress 
 which may be justly expected from a national economy and 
 care herein. 
 
 And for clearer light in this matter, let us take a brief view 
 of the present state of the fisheries, and therein consider the 
 difficulties we are hkely to meet with in our prosecuting thereof, 
 as well as the encouragements we have, notwithstanding, to 
 persevere, in case the best ways and most reasonable methods 
 be proposed and followed, for the promoting and carrying on 
 of this design. 
 
 In the taking of this view, we shall find that some of our 
 neighbours, especially the Hollanders, are not only bred up, 
 experienced, and in a manner naturalised and hardened, in 
 and to all the parts of navigation, especially to fishing, but 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 5 1 
 
 they have all trades and manufactures relating thereunto in the 
 greatest perfection among themselves. They have a vast native 
 consumption, which not only gives their fish always a living 
 price at home, but enables them to keep great stocks and 
 quantities to supply the markets and countries abroad. Their 
 being known and practised in the trade, gives not only their 
 fish a currency in foreign parts, but their vast demands of com 
 and other commodities produced by the northern and eastern 
 countries, which they take in return, puts them in a manner 
 out of hazard of transporting their fish only upon the prospect 
 of a single or outward freight. Their country is not only more 
 free from restraints, prohibitions, monopolies, pre-emptions, and 
 exclusions than any in Europe, but the interest or price of 
 money, which commands all things they have, is exceedingly 
 low, even at the rate of two or two and a half per cent per 
 annum ; and they have a free government favourable to trade. 
 
 On the other hand, as the matter now stands, we want both 
 breeding up to and experience in fishing and navigation, and 
 are in a manner wholly destitute of the trades, tradesmen, 
 and manufactures fit for or relating thereunto. We not only 
 want a native consumption to give support and uphold the 
 currency, but also a reputation in foreign markets for our fish. 
 And as things are now situated, the commodities of the northern 
 and eastern countries on the continent, usually taken oflF by 
 the Hollanders as returns for their fish, are by no means fit for 
 this country, so that we are almost always liable to the hazard 
 of exporting them on single freight. The interest or price 
 of money with us, reckoning one thing with another, is nearer 
 treble than double what it is with the Dutch. Finally, we are 
 not only still clogged, pestered, and enchanted with restraints, 
 prohibitions, pre-emptions, and exclusions, but very late as 
 well as former experience hath sufficiently taught us that our 
 government hath hitherto been far enough from being either 
 favourably constituted, or even inclined to trade aiid improve- 
 ments. 
 
 E 2 
 
.■1 
 
 52 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 It is true the difficulties we labour under are generally adven- 
 titious and artificial, and therefore such as may be removed ; 
 yet the greatest part of this remove or reform can never be 
 made but at the expense of much money, care, pains, and time. 
 
 For although by the establishment of a council of trade as 
 is proposed, and. other gracious concessions of his Majesty in 
 this Session of Parliament, both the constitution and inclination 
 of our government with relation to trade, may come to be quite 
 altered for the better, yet doubtless the other obstacles will 
 not be removed but gradually, and with time. The very raw- 
 ness and inexperience of our people, abstracted from the rest 
 of the difficulties we lie under, if compared with other things 
 of this nature, cannot reasonably be reckoned at less than one- 
 third part or fifty per cent, disadvantage ; and perhaps this alone 
 is capable of out-balancing all the natural advantages we have in 
 this matter ; and doubtless the value or weight of the other 
 difficulties we have at present to struggle wdth in respect of 
 some of our neighbours, is little less considerable. 
 
 Thusj although by reason of the vast numbers of herring and 
 white fish in all our channels, inlets and lakes, — (the best and 
 greatest banks or shoals of white fish among our Western and 
 Northern Islands any where found, and the greatest and principal 
 shoals of herring not being ever above ten or twelve leagues 
 from our shores, but seldom more from some good and conve- 
 nient harbour during the whole season), — this nation has for 
 the home consumption more than half, and near, if not quite, 
 one-third part or fifty per cent, natural advantage for the 
 exportation of these kinds of fish above any other in Christen- 
 dom ; yet the foregoing particulars, together with past expe- 
 rience, may serve to convince us that these natural advjantages 
 of ours are not only equalled, but so far over-balanced, by the 
 artificial and adventitious difficulties we labour under, that in all 
 probability the national fisheries cannot, or at least is never 
 like to, be recovered by the industry of private men, merely and 
 simply considered as such. And if it be impossible, at least 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 53 
 
 not probable, that the fisheries can be recovered by private 
 men, they can certainly much less by monopolies or great and 
 unwieldy societies ; since great societies in matters of trade 
 have not only naturally a much more unwieldy, loose, uncer- 
 tain, and consequently less thrifty and industrious management 
 than lesser companies and particular partnerships of men, 
 but, if such societies have the monopoly for any thing, it is still 
 much worse, since we may be sure this will not only heighten 
 their presumption, but slacken their industry the more. 
 
 But that we may be the better able to distinguish between 
 the interests of particular men, whether monopolists or other- 
 wise, and that of the nation in this matter of the fisheries, let 
 us consider, that could we (as we hope in time) once come to 
 have suflScient quantities of refined salt made for the fisheries 
 and other uses here at home, — as things are now situated, and 
 according to the present value and denominations of money, 
 a last of ready cured and packed herring or white-fish would pos- 
 sibly in foreign materials and workmanship not stand the nation 
 in quite forty shillings ; whereas such a last of fish might stand 
 private men, but especially unwieldy societies or monopolists, 
 at least nine or ten pounds sterling per last in a foreign market. 
 Now in such a case it is visibly the interest of particular men, 
 whether concerned in a joint stock or otherwise, rather to sell 
 one hundred lasts for twelve pounds per last, whereby they 
 might get about twenty per cent, for their money, than to sell 
 ten thousand lasts at ten pounds per last, where they could 
 get nothing but labour for their pains. On the other hand, 
 by the hundred lasts, at twelve pounds per last, the nation could 
 only get one thousand pounds, whereas by the ten thousand 
 lasts at ten pounds per last, the gain thereof would be no less 
 than eighty thousand pounds, or eighty times as much. 
 
 It is not only a received maxim in trade, that the fall of the 
 price of any current commodity heightens or raises the con- 
 sumption proportionable, at least, to some certain degree, 
 which it cannot naturally pass, — and that consequently the rise 
 
54 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 of the price will sink the consumption in the like proportion ;— 
 but, in this particular case of fish, it hath been and is the 
 opinion of many considerable merchants and experienced 
 persons herein, that if the price of herring and other salted or 
 cured fish were sunk one-fourth, or perhaps but one-fifth, part 
 lower than in a medium (taking peace and war together) it hath 
 been for the last forty years, and if a little more care were 
 taken in the curing and packing thereof than usually there is, 
 (all which could with care and industry be very well done, 
 allowed, and borne both by the Dutch and us,) that this would 
 create a demand of more than double the salted or cured fish 
 now consumed in Christendom, and, consequently, employment 
 for at least double the people therein. Besides, we need not 
 doubt, but were there two or three sorts of sellers, instead of 
 one, that even that would naturally give much more life and 
 support both to industry and to the currency of the commodity. 
 
 Now in such a case as this, and supposing that this king- 
 dom had a demand of ten thousand lasts of fish yearly from 
 foreign parts, it would, doubtless, bfe their interest to have the 
 price of their fish sunk from ten to eight or one-fifth part, if 
 they could be assured that, instead of ten thousand lasts at ten, 
 they should now, by this means, have a demand of double that 
 quantity, or twenty thousand lasts per annum at eight ; — ^because 
 thereby the nation, instead of gaining only eighty thousand 
 pounds per annum, would get one hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand, or a third part more, besides the proportion in their 
 consumption at home. But, in such a case, particular men, 
 especially such as had the monopoly, would rather be for 
 advancing the price than lowering thereof; they would rather 
 be for selling if it were but one half, or fifty lasts instead of a 
 hundred, at a fifth part more than double or treble for any- 
 thing considerable of a lesser price. 
 
 By these and the like instances that might be given, it may 
 plainly appear how impossible it is for the national fisheries to 
 be anything like effectually retrieved by private or particular 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 55 
 
 men, either out of, and much less in, a monopoly, or, indeed, any 
 other way but by national care and expense ; — ^^not for the prohi- 
 biting- or excluding any, but towards the support and encou- 
 ragement of all particular undertakers whatsoever. Indeed, 
 who are so much concerned to be at the expense and trouble 
 of the recovery, the learning, and breeding the nation to 
 the fisheries, as the nation itself? since, where any particular 
 man can possibly get a penny by the fisheries, the kingdom in 
 general, considered as such, will at least get eight ; — and what 
 would it be for the nation, or any in their circumstances, in 
 such a case as this is, if need were to expend and even sink 
 two or three hundred thousand pounds sterling, or were it 
 much more, to gain at least so much per annum for all time to 
 come? 
 
 But, by the method proposed, this needs not be ; for, instead 
 of loss or hazard, the nation may be plentifully gainers in and 
 by every step they take ; since, if things be taken by the right 
 handle, all these national improvements, such as employing the 
 poor, constituting of granaries, lowering the interest or price of 
 money, carrying on the fisheries, manufactures, and foreign 
 trade, have such an easy connection, and are so naturally linked 
 together, that, instead of being a hindrance, every one helps to 
 carry on the other, insomuch that it may be safely aflSrmed, 
 the doing the whole together may be much more secure, cheap, 
 and easy to the kingdom, than to leave any part thereof be- 
 hind, which in such a case could not fail to lie as a dead weight 
 and discouragement upon the rest. 
 
 The constituting of granaries will not only open a door for a 
 great deal of good and profitable work, but exceedingly contri- 
 bute to the maintenance of the poor ; and this considerable con- 
 sumption of grain by the poor, will not only greatly contribute 
 to the keeping up and maintaining the granaries, and help to 
 give the corn a natural currency at home, but very much to the 
 more easy and profitable vent thereof abroad; for it ought to be 
 considered, that, if this constitution was settled, one of the 
 
56 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 greatest and most profitable trades to this kingdom might be 
 driven in corn. But we may be sure this can never be by ex- 
 porting itj or even giving money towards the exporting thereof, 
 when at the lowest ebb of cheapness, and buying it back again 
 when at two or three prices as hitherto, but, on the contrary, by 
 laying up or importing when cheap, and not exporting but when 
 dear, or at least when it yieljls a good and living price in the 
 markets abroad. 
 
 By the nearest computations we are at present able to make, 
 this erecting of granaries and employing the poor might in the 
 space of five or six years time be capable of increasing the con- 
 sumption of grain in this kingdom to about one fourth part 
 more than it now is, or to an increase of about twenty thousand 
 lasts per annum, reckoning eight quarters English, or twenty of 
 our bolls, to the last ; and it is left to every one to consider what 
 life, vigour, and improvement this would give to the husbandry, 
 and consequently to the lands and [rents of this nation ; and 
 certainly were the husbandry once under so happy an influence 
 and encouragement as this constitution would naturally yield, 
 this kingdom would be easily capable of raising this, or, if need 
 were, much more than this, over and above the quantities now 
 raised. 
 
 The carrying on of the fisheries together with the manufac- 
 tures depending thereon, may also not only be capable of 
 yielding employment, but likewise subsistence for vast numbers 
 of people, since there is reason to think that towards the suf- 
 ficient maintenance of the poor, when they shall come to be em- 
 ployed, there may directly and indirectly go no less than a 
 quantity of twenty thousand lasts of herring and other fish 
 yearly more than hath been for some years past, or is at pre- 
 sent consumed in the kingdom j and this demand and currency 
 at home will in all probability naturally make way for the ex- 
 portation and foreign vent of at least so much more, since it is 
 in a great measure from and in proportion to the demand and 
 currency of commodities at home that merchants are or can be 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 57 
 
 enabled to furnish themselves with stocks and quantities for 
 foreign trade, or exportation to markets abroad. 
 
 The granaries and the fisheries will likewise have a very sin- 
 gular connection with and relation to one another ; for by reason 
 of their granaries the council of trade will be capable of giving 
 particular life and encouragement to the fisheries ; since by them 
 they will be capable of receiving corn in the East Countries as 
 a current commodity in return for their fish, and of laying the 
 same up from time to time as occasion shall offer, and as, gene- 
 rally speaking, more fit for store or long keeping than that pro- 
 duced ill this country. 
 
 Besides the particular support and encouragement the council 
 of trade will be capable of giving to the fisheries by reason of 
 the national granaries, the general encouragements they will of 
 course be able to give to all manner of manufactures, especially 
 to those belonging unto or more immediately depending on the 
 fisheries and other sorts of navigation, will .naturally create so 
 great a demand of the materials requisite, from the Northern 
 and Eastern Countries of the Continent, that we shall very 
 rarely, if at all, be any more in danger of exporting our fish at 
 the loss or hazard of only a single freight, which we are so very 
 much now exposed unto. 
 
 And if to what hath been said we add the lowering the price 
 of forbearance, or use of money, which can never be so natu- 
 rally or easily done as by such a fund and national council of 
 trade, and the putting the nation in a way of making sufiicient 
 quantities of refined salt here at home, which in all appearance 
 can hardly be done, or at least so well and profitably done, as by 
 such a constitution, it will clearly and plainly appear how much 
 more naturally, beneficially, and diffusively this national consti- 
 tution will be capable of retrieving and promoting the fisheries 
 than any other ways and means hitherto proposed. 
 
 Thus having made this brief deduction, and taken a short 
 view of the past and present state of the proper fisheries of this 
 kingdom, it is hoped that others may hereby be moved to en- 
 
58 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 large their thoughts thereupon, as being a matter of that conse- 
 quence, as not only to deserve the pains and scrutiny of every 
 good countryman, but of the clearest heads and best prepared 
 breasts in Christendom, for and in order to the putting thereof 
 in a true hght ; — and not only the protection and countenance of 
 a King of Scotland strictly considered, but all the protection, 
 countenance, and support that a King of Britain can give, — as 
 being capable in the most natural, easy, secure, and advan- 
 tageous way hitherto discovered, in a very few years, to increase 
 the mariners, ships, and navigation of this whole island to at least 
 one-third part more than they now are. 
 
 And upon the whole it may be justly affirmed that this is 
 not only capable of being the most considerable thing that doth 
 or perhaps can possibly belong to this kingdom, merely con- 
 sidered as such, (since greater wealth may be hereby gained out 
 of the sea than our land at present does, or, it may be, is capa- 
 ble of yielding ;) but, considering all the good consequences 
 thereof, everj'' penny gained by the fishings may be at least as 
 good as three gained by any other home improvement. More- 
 over, were it impossible for the fishings only to be efi'ectually 
 retrieved, without giving treble the before-mentioned funds, 
 the nation ought readily and cheerfully to comply therewith, — 
 how much more then, in so natural, easy, and advantageous 
 a way as is proposed. 
 
 By what hath been said with relation to the fisheries, we 
 would by no means be understood to mean any prejudice, or 
 to entertain other than kind and respectful thoughts of our 
 neighbours the Hollanders ; nor is there any just cause of 
 jealousy or umbrage in this matter, since here is much more 
 than room enough in the fisheries for us and them : and 
 certainly, were there three times as many concerned as now, 
 there would at least be three times the business, and yet still 
 upon the improving hand ; for trade is and will be capable of 
 increasing trade, money of begetting money, and one improve- 
 ment of making way for another to the end of the world ; and, 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 59 
 
 as the Dutch for more than an age have been, they will doubt- 
 less still continue to be, considerable in the fisheries and foreign 
 trade, at least so long and in so far as they shall remember, and 
 act as if they remembered, that it has not been by monopolies 
 and exclusions, but by the generous principles of ease, freedom, 
 and security which they have prudently opposed to the heavy 
 impositions, restraints, and prohibitions of others, that they 
 have been enabled to raise themselves. It is true, if, quite con- 
 trary to all this, they who of all men living have most known 
 by experience that trade is a coy mistress, and will not be 
 hectored but courted ; if even they shall begin to take 
 umbrage at the industry of others ; if they shall be for forsaking 
 their old and virtuous principles, and way of courting trade by 
 industry, frugality, and ingenuity, and betake themselves to 
 force and violence, which has ruined so many others before, 
 this indeed would look but too like a sign of their declen- 
 sion. 
 
 However, it would seem the Dutch are not quite out of 
 danger of being taken by this enchantment of restraints and 
 prohibitions ; the Placaats of the States General of April 1669 
 and of July 1673, with some other of their late pcoceedings 
 with relation to the fisheries and foreign trade, look but too 
 much like symptoms of this. But as there are no true friends 
 to religion and liberty, and particularly that have had any tole- 
 rable knowledge of that Protestant repubUc, or acquaintance 
 with that industrious people, but ought to be sorry to see or 
 hear of any thing that shall but look like their decline,— so in 
 this case we may venture to tell them from experience, that 
 whenever they shall begin to forsake or considerably to slacken 
 their industry, by having recourse to the mean and ineffectual 
 shifts of restraints and prohibitions, they will find, to the cost 
 of their country, that by these methods they are at least as in- 
 capable of hedging in the herring, white, and other sorts of fish 
 as our ancestors have been; and that we are so far from being 
 uneasy with their rivalship in this matter, that we wish they 
 
60 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 may gain by our experience, and not stay till it shall be con- 
 firmed by that of their own. 
 
 To end this digression : — whatever different humours or popu- 
 lar animosities may suggest, it is certainly not the interest of 
 Britain and Holland to differ; and were there even just 
 grounds for a misunderstanding, as there really is not, the 
 common care and concern of religion and liberty ought suffi- 
 ciently to incline both parties to an accommodation. Since it 
 is certainly our mutual interests and security, as matters are 
 now situated, not only that neither should decline, but that both 
 should prosper and thrive ; — since we are like to have but too 
 much to do with all our joint industry and improvements to 
 withstand that dreadful storm which is so openly and visibly 
 arising against the Protestant religion and liberties of Europe ; 
 all their progress and ours united is like to be little enough to 
 balance that growing greatness of the popish world, which at 
 this day stands so formidably ranged under the banners of the 
 House of Bourbon ; or, it may be, to avoid even our own shares 
 of those Gallic chains which are in so great a measure already 
 prepared for Christendom. 
 
 As in the course of our observations on the national granaries, 
 the employment of the poor, and the fisheries, some hints have 
 been given of the connection and relation those things have to 
 one another, so upon due consideration we shall find the same 
 connection and relation still continue between these and the 
 manufactures ; — since as the fisheries and navigation are capable 
 of being the principal and chiefest springs of our manufactures 
 and industry at home, so these again may be the truest and 
 most solid fund and basis of the other. Whatsoever sudden 
 and floating motions may be made, or accidental flights may be 
 taken and continued for a time, yet certainly it can only be 
 jointly with and in proportion to the growth and increase of 
 our manufactures and industry at home, that our fisheries and 
 navigation can make any solid or steady progress in the world. 
 We see the Spaniards, who at this day have the greatest scope 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 61 
 
 for profitable navigation of any people on earth, or perhaps, all 
 things considered, than the whole world besides ; yet for want 
 of home industry their fleets are so far from being such as can 
 cope with those of Princes, that they have much ado to with- 
 stand a few pirates whenever they happen to muster against 
 them. And, although tbey still make a faint and sorry shift to 
 draw some gold and silver from their Indian mines, yet it is 
 not for themselves but for strangers ;— so that instead of being 
 masters, as they otherwise might, they are now become no 
 better than slaves to others, and herein, suitable to that excel- 
 lent saying of Solomon, we eminently see " the hand of the 
 diligent bearing rule, but the slothful under tribute." 
 
 The advantage this nation hath in the situation for the 
 fisheries and navigation, does not only exceedingly contribute 
 to its fitness for manufactures, but the people thereof are, or at 
 least are capable of being, as easy in their taxes and of living 
 as cheap as those of any trading nation in Christendom ; besides 
 which we have here at home considerable quantities of good 
 and convenient materials for this purpose, such as wool, hemp, 
 flax, lead, and other native product But, although several 
 manufactures of these are already on foot, yet it must be con- 
 fessed not in any tolerable degree of perfection ; and of the 
 many trades depending directly on the fisheries and navigation, 
 we have as yet but few, and these likewise far enough from 
 being in an improving and flourishing state ; — all which defects 
 manifestly proceed from the rawness and inexperience of our 
 people, many whereof seem not only to want the knowledge, 
 but even the will to industry ; nor are they at all singular in 
 this matter, but, as hath been already said, just Uke such 
 another mass of mankind in their circumstances ; — for how vast 
 a difi"erence is there naturally between an industrious and an 
 idle man ! To see with what ease, exactness, and even delight 
 and satisfaction one who is master of his work goes about his 
 business and performs his task, whereas on the contrary he 
 who wants knowledge and experience, or even but the use and 
 
62 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 practice, although he have other equal natural qualifications, 
 can for the most part neither do half the quantity nor anything 
 near so well, though with much more trouble and fatigue both 
 of body and mind. 
 
 Now if, as in the case of the fisheries, it should be asked, at 
 whose pains and expense ought the people of this kingdom be 
 broken off from this habit of idleness, or in many cases perhaps 
 unprofitable work, and learned and trained up to industry, — 
 will monopolists or private men not rather choose at all times 
 to- deal but for one hundred pounds; or to set only one 
 hundred men to work, where they can get ten per cent, for their 
 money, than to deal for a thousand pounds, or to set a thousand 
 men at work, where only five per cent, can be gained ? The 
 reason whereof is plain, that since they can make five or six 
 per cent, of their money at interest, or upon a purchase, they 
 will never be at the pains " or run the risk of putting it into 
 trade without a much greater prospect of advantage ; whereas, 
 quite contrary to all this, it is not seldom the interest of the 
 nation rather even to lose five or more per cent, by their 
 proper money, to have double the people employed or work 
 done, since for the most part the nation, considered as such, 
 may gain at least one-half, nay sometimes above three-fourths, 
 of the produce by profitable manufactures. 
 
 It is true we find it the custom of not a few trading nations, 
 as an encouragement to trade and industry, to grant monopolies 
 of any new invention, or to those concerned in the first intro- 
 ducing of manufactures to a country ; but in this we may like- 
 wise observe that these monopolies are commonly granted but 
 for fourteen, fifteen, or hardly exceeding twenty years; and 
 although this sort of young monopolies, as has been said, be 
 not so pernicious as others, and that this be indeed one way of 
 learning of arts unto and of begetting industry in a nation, yet 
 surely it is so far from being the best, that it were often, nay, 
 for the most part, much better for a prince or state to give 
 double or treble the sum gained by the monopoly as a reward 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 63 
 
 to the inventor or introducer ; since it not only, for the time at 
 least, possibly hinders four or five, but it may be eight or ten, 
 times the people from going into the matter, but not seldom 
 proves so bad a preparative as in a great measure to balk the 
 further growth and progress thereof, even when the monopoly 
 is at an end. 
 
 Besides several monopolies that have been granted for, or at 
 least in order to, the introducing and for the encouragement of 
 the manufactures of this kingdom, great things have been and 
 still are proposed to be done in that matter, by the prohibiting 
 the exportation of wool. But this is either done by some who, 
 whether it be or not, at least think it to be, their private interest, 
 or by others who are not used, or it may be not wiUing, to, look 
 far into consequences, and are therefore apt to confound the 
 causes of things with the efiiects, and the effects with the causes,— 
 and to draw conclusions from accidents, without ever considering 
 whether they have any sort of correspondence with or relation to 
 the case. But if these gentlemen would take but any reasonable 
 pains in this matter, they might be easily convinced that this 
 old and threadbare shift of prohibiting the exportation of wool 
 is not only in its nature ineffectual for the ends proposed, — since 
 whenever it yields a price worth running the risk, it shall and will 
 always be exported abroad, nay, even if instead of restraints and 
 prohibitions we should set guards and garrisons to keep it in,— 
 but that to this kingdom it is, and must be, of pernicious conse- 
 quence, since it equally discourages both the raising and im- 
 porting of wool. As to the raiser, we may be sure no man 
 will lay out himself, or it may be put his posterity upon laying 
 out themselves, to cultivate, improve, and raise greater quan- 
 tities of a commodity which he knows must after all be at the 
 disposal of other people, and that it must be they, and not he, 
 who pretend to set the price. The importer hath doubtless 
 the same reason not to bring, or send his effects, no more than 
 he would his person, to a prison, — ^but especially to a country 
 which is so far from having stores of this commodity, that 
 
64 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 perhaps the value of five thousand pounds sterling or less in 
 fine wool extraordinary at a time, is capable to sink the price 
 at least one-third part, or fifty per cent. Whereas, was this 
 matter on a just foot, this nation might always have a stock of. 
 not less than one hundred thousand pounds sterling worth of 
 fine wool more than they hitherto use to have, which indeed 
 might be capable of keeping wool, like corn, from flying from 
 one extremity to another, as it usually does in this country. 
 
 In all countries like this, where husbandry and pasturage are 
 the principal supports, and where there are neither considerable 
 stocks nor importations, there is no doubt but corn and wool 
 will, in a great measure, always not only increase and decrease, 
 but rise and fall together; or otherwise, certainly, those who 
 are concerned in raising of wool must be starved or in a very 
 bad condition ; since, if their wool cannot yield them two or 
 three prices, as corn does to the husbandman, they must go 
 without one-half, or perhaps two-thirds, of their subsistence. 
 Doubtless this was the principal occasion of the late rise of 
 wool, and not the exportations, as some among the unthinking 
 crowd are apt to imagine, for certainly had there been one 
 hundred thousand lasts of corn, and a quantity of one hundred 
 thousand pounds value in fine wool, more in this nation two 
 years ago than there was, neither the one or other could have 
 risen to such extremities ; and yet perhaps the nation would be 
 at least three millions sterling richer than it is at this day. 
 
 Whatever effect restraint on the exportation may have upon 
 the price of wool in making it worth little or nothing for a few 
 months, or it may be for some years, yet, when by this both 
 the raiser and importer are sensibly discouraged, there is no 
 doubt but that extremity will as naturally produce another in 
 the matter of wool as it does in that of corn ; and so, at this 
 rate, one extremity may produce another to the end of the 
 world, and these extravagant fits and starts may disable the 
 nation for ever from making any solid or steady progress in 
 this part of their industry. 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 65 
 
 We see our neighbours the Hollanders, whom we have fre- 
 quently mentioned on other occasions, who, having little wool 
 of their own, are therefore forced to fetch it from Poland, 
 Bohemia, Silesia, several other places of Germany, England, 
 Ireland, and other places of Christendom ; and notwithstanding 
 all this, and that the people of this nation are generally able to 
 work at least fifteen or twenty per cent, cheaper than they, yet 
 what a progress have they made and do they still make in the 
 woollen manufactures ! and all this without the help of restraints, 
 which, whenever they should come to try, they would doubtless 
 find that thereby the importation instead of the exportation of 
 wool should be discouraged, as they lately pretty severely felt 
 in their but beginning to practise upon that of corn. 
 
 Were things of this nature rightly prosecuted and promoted 
 here with us, as now they are quite otherwise, there is no 
 doubt but we could work as cheap in the woollen manufactures, 
 and consequently give as good a price for wool, as any people 
 in Europe, and be capable of working up much more fine wool 
 than this nation either does or can be able to raise. Yet, if 
 the raisers shall be encouraged, instead of being oppressed and 
 crushed by restraints and prohibitions, they may easily be 
 brought to raise double if not treble the fine wool they now do. 
 Besides that, considering the advantageous returns thereof, we 
 may have from the East countries and elsewhere for our fish, 
 and the door that is naturally opened to us by these violent 
 restraints on exportations of wool in our neighbour countries, 
 this nation might be made one of the best staple ports for wool 
 in Europe ; and by that means the rising and falling of the 
 price thereof would be prevented in a more solid, effectual, 
 and durable way than is ^ven pretended to by those who are so 
 fond of this prohibition ; and, if all things be duly considered, 
 they will be found to have much less reason to presume they can 
 this way hedge in our wool and woollen manufactures than our 
 ancestors had for hedging in the fish, since they had not only 
 much greater natural advantages on their side, but hardly the 
 
 VOL. I. F 
 
66 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 least prospect of any such potent rivals as we have many at 
 this day in the matter of wool and woollen manufactures. 
 
 But since there is somewhat much nicer in this question of 
 exportation of wool at this juncture than all what hath been 
 said, and which will be fitter for the consideration of a council 
 of trade, when established, than to be exposed in these papers, 
 and since it is proposed as one of their principal powers to 
 dispense with restraints and prohibitions, when they shall find 
 them prejudicial to trade, they only will be most capable not 
 only to understand but to put this and such like things as this 
 in a true light, and to do what is requisite therein. 
 
 And to conclude this head, — generally speaking the manufac- 
 tures of this nation are in so very great disorder, that, were 
 there no other reason for constituting such a council of trade, 
 this were sufiicient ; since it may be justly presumed, such a 
 council in a few years may not only be capable of improving 
 the manufactures of this kingdom to double or treble the 
 advantage they now make, but thereby to bring the poor, who 
 at this day are the greatest weight and burden upon the indus- 
 try and morality of the nation, to be the truest and firmest 
 supports of both. 
 
 Next to the manufactures and artificial products, the mines, 
 minerals, and other natural products of this kingdom, deserve 
 our consideration, not only because that herein the materials 
 as well as the workmanship are and would be our own, but be- 
 cause there are good reasons to think that great and consider- 
 able advantage and improvements might be made in those, by 
 a national institution, the which can never be expected from 
 the pains, care, or expense of private men. 
 
 The lowering and sinking the interest of money, not by force 
 or coercion, but by gradual and natural steps and means, would 
 be none of the least advantages of this institution, since it may 
 be reasonably expected that they may bring the rate of interest 
 down to three per cent, or under, in the space of four or five 
 years ; and, although it must be acknowledged that other me- 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 67 
 
 thods for lowering the interest of money might be proposed, 
 yet there is reason to think that none will or can be so natu- 
 rally easy, or indeed so effectual as this, or such a national in- 
 stitution and fund as this would be. 
 
 For the truer sense and better understanding of how great a 
 national benefit this would prove, it ought to be considered that 
 the whole industry of a country is affected by the weight of the 
 interest of money ; and whether such industry ever come to be 
 bought, sold, or bartered, or not, this alters not the case in ge- 
 neral, since, as money is the standard of every thing, so all 
 things are valued by money in a trading country ; — and as the 
 interest of money is really and actually an imposition on all 
 sorts of industry, so, as has been instanced in our observations 
 on equal taxing, it has a double — a positive and a negative — 
 effect, which in this particular case may be illustrated thus : As 
 it hath been already said that rtie consumption of this nation 
 may amount to 3,400,000^., let us now suppose that the present 
 value of the industry may amount to 3,300,000^. sterling per 
 annum, — and supposing the rate of interest of money with us to 
 be at six per cent., in such a case, it may be reasonably inferred, 
 that there is hardly any man will be inclinable to employ his 
 money in trade or business without the hope and prospect of 
 double the ordinary interest, or the rate of twelve per cent, per 
 annum ; — but again, supposing this rate of six pfer cent, could, by 
 natural and reasonable means, be brought down to three, there 
 is no doubt but those who before would not put their money 
 into trade under a prospect of ten or twelve per cent, per 
 annum, would now as readily do it for six, because by the 
 second they double the interest of their money, and by the first 
 they did no more. And, since every one who has been concerned 
 in or seen the practice in countries where there is considerable 
 difference in the interest of money do know this to be true, we 
 may justly conclude, that by such an alteration as this the 
 industry of this kingdom would be eased of a weight or imposi- 
 tion of six per cent, per annum, and which in the whole may 
 
 F 2 
 
68 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 amount to a sum of 193,000^., or, to come to an even number, of 
 about 200,000/. sterling yearly. 
 
 This ease, and consequently improvement, of the industry 
 would chiefly and principally fall on the lands by two several 
 ways : first, the fall of interest one half would naturally raise 
 the value or price of lands at least one third, or fifty per cent, 
 in the purchase ; and, in the second place, it would raise even 
 the rents or value of the incomes about one sixth part; since, 
 supposing the rents of the lands of this kingdom to be, as has 
 already been said, about ! ,200,000/. sterling, this 200,000/. per 
 annum, proposed to be lowered in interest, or this way taken off 
 from the industry, would gradually, and in a reasonable course 
 of time, come to centre in and be added to the land, and conse- 
 quently to its value, as to the most natural fund and basis 
 thereof. 
 
 But as there can hardly a public good be proposed but some 
 private interest or humour or other will of course be for making 
 opposition, it is possible to this it may be objected, by some 
 of these few, who altogether or for the most part are subsisted 
 by usury, that this lowering of interest may not only be a 
 prejudice to them, but to several widows, orphans, and other 
 weak people, who live only or for the most part on their money. 
 To this it may be answered, that as to those who are strong 
 and able in body and mind for some lawful employment or 
 other, it is justly supposed that no state, who pretend to any 
 share of wisdom or prudence, will encourage such a sort of idle 
 people; especially, when perhaps in this nation thev are not one 
 in two hundred to the rest of mankind. And how unaccount- 
 able would it be for a country either to make or keep up laws 
 to encourage and indulge one in two hundred of their people 
 not only to live idle themselves, but by the influence of their 
 usuries and extortion, as well as example, to crush the industry 
 of others above ten times as much as the value of their whole 
 necessary expenses amounts unto ! It is true the. widows and 
 orphans who live on their money may be about double the 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 69 
 
 number of these more able drones ; but yet even these do not 
 in this country perhaps amount to one per cent, of the whole 
 people ; and is it not more reasonable these few should live at 
 so much less expense, or betake themselves to some sort of 
 honest industry, than that the whole nation should so in- 
 tolerably suffer on their account? Besides all this, it ought to 
 be considered that by the fall of the interest the ways of gaining 
 would be so multiplied, and such comfortable and creditable 
 methods for maintenance and support would of course be 
 provided for such as really could not live or subsist of them- 
 selves, as would be much more than capable of compensating 
 the real loss of any who in such a case could in the least 
 deserve the public care or commiseration. 
 
 As it is only by our home industry that we can be best 
 enabled to raise ships, vessels, materials for navigation, and 
 proper commodities for foreign vent, — and as the easy and 
 cheap performance of all this must proceed from the due and 
 orderly employment of the poor, from the moderate and regular 
 rates of corn and other provisions, as also of materials for 
 manufacture and interest of money, — so it is only our navigation 
 that can be the most direct and beneficial conveyancers of those 
 growths and manufactures to foreign markets, or of breeding 
 and increasing seamen or other persons capable of the manage- 
 ment of foreign trade. For that which hath been already 
 said with relation to the fisheries will likewise hold in all other 
 parts of the navigation ; that is to say, that, nationally speaking, 
 and all things considered, every penny gotten by the kingdom 
 in foreign trade, may justly be reckoned worth three by any 
 other home improvement ; and that commonly where any par-= 
 ticular man can get a penny, the nation in general may get 
 seven or eight; since, besides the influence the increase of our 
 foreign trade must needs haVfe on all our home industry, these 
 vast importations of gold and silver within the last two ages 
 has already brought things to such a pass, that even where 
 husbandry and pasturage are in greater perfection, and upon a 
 
70 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 much more beneficial foot than in this kingdom, the labour 
 and industry of two men employed in husbandry is in direct 
 value for the most part worth but that of one employed in 
 manufactures, as three in manufactures are worth but two 
 employed in navigation. 
 
 Certainly these and the like considerations ought to be suffi- 
 cient motives for inclining and engaging this kingdom to pro- 
 mote and support its foreign trade, if need were, by all the 
 just ways and means that are or can be in its power; but how 
 much more, when this can be done in so natural, easy, secure, 
 and advantageous a method as is here proposed ; — when by but 
 a small and inconsiderable part, not of the present product, 
 but only of the improvement of our home industry, so very 
 considerable sums may be raised to carry on our foreign trade. 
 For it may be reasonably presumed that, by this institution, 
 in five or six years' space the value of the industry of this king- 
 dom may be advanced to near, if not quite, to one-fourth part, 
 or to about the value of 800,000/. sterling yearly more than it 
 now is, and yet may be still upon the improving hand, and so 
 as in a reasonable course of time to bring it to a much greater 
 sum. 
 
 Doubtless from hence it may be demanded why this institu- 
 tion was not introduced in the very beginning, since, if things 
 be as they are here represented, the nation might thereby have 
 been in a condition to have annually contributed more consi- 
 derable sums than all that the subscribers have advanced 
 during the space of five years together ; and, although this had 
 been all lost, yet the country might perhaps have been a million 
 sterling richer than it is at this day ; and since not only this, 
 but much more than this, might have been done had these been 
 years of as great plenty as they have been of scarcity ? 
 
 But such as may be inclined to ask this question, ought like- 
 wise to observe, that this can still be carried much further, and 
 particularly by saying, if this had been done but five or six 
 years before these last years of scarcity, the council of trade 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 71 
 
 might have so ordered matters as to have rendered that very 
 accident as beneficial as it has been disadvantageous to this 
 kingdom ; but that since such an institution was not then so 
 much as thought on, much less established, we have only every- 
 body, and consequently nobody, to blame. 
 
 Those who were principally concerned in promoting the 
 establishment and designs of the company might possibly 
 then be much unacquainted with the aflfairs of this kingdom, 
 both as to men and things, but especially in that of national 
 improvements ; which, for anything we know, have hardly ever 
 yet been made the business or general study of any capable 
 person either at home or abroad. Perhaps they might be doubt- 
 ful whether they were capable of bringing the nation to engage 
 in a matter of this consequence all at once, and rather judge it 
 advisable to begin with a part, and so incline them to the 
 whole by degrees. It is possible they might be so very intent 
 upon getting the first possession and footing in so valuable a 
 settlement as was intended, as to postpone the thoughts of 
 everything else, and, as not in the least suspecting the unac- 
 countable treatment and opposition at Hamburg and else- 
 where, might have the greatest part of their dependence on a 
 foreign stock of money, which at that time might appear to 
 them the readiest and easiest way of bringing the foreign trade, 
 and, together with that, all other national designs about. 
 
 But to leave all these more remote conjectures, let us suppose 
 that, as there are things to be known to-morrow which are 
 not revealed to-day, and as men at best do but know in part 
 and can only come to the understanding of things by degrees, 
 so, although this scheme be doubtless very imperfect in respect 
 to what it may be brought to in time, yet it is likely that even 
 this did not all present itself to the thoughts of any one or 
 more men at once. Possibly seeing but darkly into these 
 things at first, they might not be so much persuaded of the 
 weight and consequence of the particulars of the whole 
 together, — of their connection with and relation to one another, — 
 
72 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 or of the way and means of putting them in execution, as they 
 might be afterwards. And, upon further consideration, it is 
 likely these were not only the thoughts of some hours or days 
 but of not a few months, and this after the experience and 
 difficulties of many years ; nay, it may be, the rise and progress 
 of some of these thoughts are in no small measure due to the 
 very nature, weight, and variety of our present- difficulties and 
 disappointments ; perhaps, nothing less than the many repeated 
 and various disappointments of our company, the sad effects 
 of the late grievous dearth, the miserable condition of our 
 poor, and, in a word, the great and general disorders in all our 
 national affairs, could have taken so deep an impression, or at 
 this time have occasioned so narrow a search, or so exact a 
 scrutiny, as has already been made into some of the matters 
 contained in these proposals. And, after all, nothing less than 
 the repeated gracious assurances given by his Majesty to concur 
 in everything that can be reasonably fallen upon for retrieving 
 the company, and therewith the nation, and for setting our 
 trade on sure foundations, together with the hope and assurance 
 of a Parliament frankly and generously inclined to aU this, 
 could have given the needful life, encouragement, and support 
 to anything like a due prosecution of thoughts of this nature. 
 
 Besides the advantages this fund and institution may be 
 capable of yielding in the before-mentioned particulars of gra- 
 naries, employing and relieving the poor, carrying on and pro- 
 moting the fisheries and manufactories, cultivating and improv- 
 ing the native products, lowering the interest of money, and 
 promoting and supporting the foreign trade of this kingdom; — 
 there are two others, which although but consequential to these, 
 yet are they of such weight and consequence that, were there no 
 other or greater benefit to be expected from this institution, 
 they might be sufiicient motives for the establishment thereof. 
 
 The first of these is the augmentation and increase of his 
 Majesty's revenue, which by this means will naturally follow, 
 two manner of ways, — that is to say, both ordinary and extraor- 
 
FOK CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TBADB. JS 
 
 dinary. By the ordinary, the revenue, especially those greater 
 branches of home and foreign excise, will not only improve in 
 proportion to the improvement of the kingdom, but in propor- 
 tion to the vast difference there will naturally be between the 
 quality and nature of the consumption of the people, when the 
 nation shall once be brought as much upon the thriving or 
 growing, as now it is upon the declining hand. As to the ex- 
 traordinary, when this institution shall come to be fixed and 
 settled, as it may very well be in five or six years, or, with good 
 and careful management, in little more than half the time, — ^it 
 will from the very improvement be capable of easing the nation 
 of all extraordinary taxes, as cess, pole, hearth money, and such 
 like grievous and unequal duties, for ever after, at least as far as 
 a sum not exceeding fifty thousand pounds sterling yearly will 
 go ; —and not only so, but likewise upon more than ordinary 
 emergencies, where much greater sums might be required, this 
 institution would not only be capable of rendering the moneys 
 to be raised by anticipation much more ready and current, but 
 even of rendering taxing itself much more easy and equal, 
 than it otherwise could possibly be. Since by this means the 
 common objections against excises, as, on the one hand, that 
 they are not easily brought to bear, it being for the most part 
 several years before they can be settled and made effectual ; so 
 on the other, being of an easy and insensible nature, when once 
 afoot, renders them hard to be laid aside, and consequently 
 dangerous to liberty in a regular monarchy, — these objections 
 will be effectually solved in the council of trade, since, being the 
 national trustees, such funds may, from time to time, be com- 
 mitted to their administration ; and by them the money may be 
 advanced to the Government by anticipation or otherwise. 
 
 Thus the nation may hereby not only be eased of its present 
 uneasy and unequal ways of taxing, but the King, as he is most 
 of all concerned' in the kingdom, will naturally reap the far 
 greatest share of the benefit, since hereby his Majesty's king- 
 dom, all things considered, may be rendered perhaps little less 
 
74 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 than three times as capable of giving and affording supplies, 
 and consequently three times as valuable to him as it has 
 hitherto been. 
 
 The other considerable advantage which may be reasonably 
 expected from this institution will be that, besides the hope 
 we justly have of the accession of foreigners, this will doubtless 
 be the most powerful and effectual means that can possibly be 
 thought upon to invite and draw home to their native country 
 no small numbers of those great multitudes of our countrymen 
 who have been driven abroad by the late oppressions, and still 
 continue in foreign parts, by reason of our present disorders. 
 
 And now, to conclude our reasoning on these seventh and 
 eighth articles in particular, and on the funds in general, — 
 allowing that the funds hereby proposed, were designed for na- 
 tional expense, — as they are quite otherwise, that is to say, only 
 for national improvements, — yet this nation would still be very 
 easy in their ordinary payments, in respect or when compared 
 with some of their neighbours, but especially the Hollanders, 
 who, reckoning the conveniency of the alternative, do not only 
 pay above three times the value of this imposition on corn in 
 particular, but in proportion to their respective values at least 
 three times as much in the general, as would be paid by this 
 kingdom, even after this institution should be estabUshed; 
 and it is hoped there are none who but pretend to be good pa- 
 triots of this nation, who would not, according to their several 
 abilities, be content to pay full as much if not more than the 
 Dutch, to have their country but half so flourishing as that of 
 theirs. 
 
 But, on the other hand, if these duties shall be taken, consi- 
 dered, and understood, not as they at first may seem but as they 
 really are, — not as taxes and sums raised for national expense, 
 but for the making and promoting of national improvements, — 
 not as public burthens, but as good and necessary regulations, 
 whereby every penny raised may be at least worth ten to the 
 kingdom, and consequently in proportion to the parties con- 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. fB 
 
 cerned in contributing thereof,— it is justly hoped these funds 
 will not only be complied with and established as of necessity, 
 but with all imaginable cheerfulness. 
 
 Article 10. — As money answers all things, so, without a suf- 
 ficient fund thereof, all we have, or possibly can propose, would 
 be inefifectual. The insufficiency of the fund or want of money, 
 nay the very fear or apprehension of the want thereof, has 
 ruined and lost many of the best and greatest designs that ever 
 were in the world ; and certainly a much less sum than what is 
 here proposed to be anticipated, can never be capable of 
 effectuating so great a work as this. And herein it ought to be 
 considered, that if any sum should be over, it will not only be 
 secure and at the call of the nation, but in the mean time may 
 be profitably employed ; whereas should the fund fall short, or 
 but seem in danger of falling short, these designs, the success 
 whereof do so naturally depend on one another, might, at least 
 in a great measure, be in danger of proving ineffectual ; and as 
 there are none who shall duly consider the connection of the 
 before-mentioned designs of trade and improvement, and the 
 dependence they naturally have upon one another, but must 
 fully be convinced of this, it is justly hoped and expected, that 
 every well-wisher to the happiness of this kingdom will endea- 
 vour first to propose somewhat in lieu of any part of this fund 
 or institution that he or they shall come to raise scruples or 
 objections against. For the retrieving the losses, reputation, 
 and relieving our country from its present distress and reproach, 
 is a sore that ought not only to be skinned over but effectually 
 cured, whatever pains and expense it cost ; and without this, 
 or some such institution and fund as this, it may reason- 
 ably be presumed our country can neither be relieved from its 
 present difficulties, nor put upon a prosperous footing. 
 
 Considering the scarcity of money in and the smallness of 
 the receipts and payments of this nation, by the ordinary way 
 of anticipation, there could hardly be much more than half the 
 sum of ten hundred thousand pound sterling reasonably de- 
 
76 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 pended on from the credit of this fund, within the proposed 
 three or four years ; but although more than this cannot rea- 
 sonably be expected from the ordinary way, yet if this fund or 
 its equivalent shall be settled and constituted as is proposed, 
 *here are those who can not only propose a sure and certain 
 method of raising the said whole sum of ten hundred thousand 
 pounds in proportionate payments, within the first four years 
 but likewise in a very advantageous way to the nation. 
 
 On Proposal 3, Article 1. This kingdom is highly obliged, 
 both in honour and interest, to refund and support the Indian 
 and African Company upon this occasion ; in honour, because 
 the nation is not only the natural guardian thereof, and of all 
 its trading inhabitants, but is especially become such by the Act 
 of Parliament establishing this company; — and because in the op- 
 position they have met with, and which has occasioned their 
 losses and misfortunes, not only their rights and properties, but 
 those of the kingdom in a very particular and sensible manner, 
 have been evaded ; and in such a case, the matter of demanding 
 and procuring national satisfaction for the loss of reputation and 
 damage done, is not nor cannot be the proper work of the com- 
 pany, or any other particulars, but only of the kingdom in 
 general. 
 
 And as the nation is concerned in honour, so it is a point of 
 interest to refund and support the company, since it has been 
 said, on the head of foreign trade, that for the most part, where 
 the company can reasonably be supposed to get a penny, the 
 nation may one way and other get seven or eight. And it will 
 not only be the kingdom's interest in point of direct advantage, 
 but certainly this refunding and re-establishment of the com- 
 pany will be one of the most politic and prudent actions that 
 could be done by a nation, as being capable of giving much more 
 life and power at home, and reputation and confidence abroad, 
 than the value of such a sum can possibly be to the kingdom. 
 
 But besides all this, as has been said on the tenth article of 
 the second proposal, there are those who can, on behalf of the 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 77 
 
 company, propose a way for raising a sum equivalent, if not ex- 
 ceeding, what is hereby required, more than could otherwise pos- 
 sibly be raised from this fund by the ordinary means, and which 
 there is reason to believe could not, at least at this time, be done 
 without the interest and help of those who are concerned for the 
 company; so that the very doing the thing in this way and 
 method, may be at least so much if not more immediate advan- 
 tage to the kingdom, besides all the other good fruits and conse- 
 quences that may reasonably be expected from so just, generous, 
 and prudent an act as this. 
 
 Article 2. Since, as has been already said, nothing can be 
 more advantageous to the increase and success of the industry 
 of this kingdom, than the effectual supporting and promoting 
 its foreign trade, which hath now been neglected for near, if 
 not quite, an age, it is certainly not only necessary and reason- 
 able that the company be honourably and frankly refunded, and 
 that the nation do likewise add a considerable stock towards 
 the support and strengthening this fund for foreign trade, but, 
 considering the present circumstances and dispositions of men 
 and things, it would be a wise and politic constitution of this 
 fund, for the nation even to be at the risk of the principal 
 money of that part of the stock belonging to particular men, so 
 as only the interest of forbearance should be at that of the pro- 
 prietors thereof; that so by this means, those who are not wil- 
 ling, or are or may become unable, might not be so oppressed 
 and harassed as hitherto, which hath not only been a grievous 
 oppression to the parties concerned, but a mischievous clog and 
 dead weight on the company in all their proceedings. 
 
 But perhaps to this it may be objected, that, if liberty were 
 given, every one would be for fetching out his stock, and so leav- 
 ing the country to be alone concerned. 
 
 But to this it may be answered. That were this fund left so 
 precarious that every one might transfer their stock, and have 
 it back again at their pleasure, at a current rate, there might be 
 some ground for this objection, since in such a case there would 
 
78 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 be high demands of stock, when the company should be successful, 
 or they and the council of trade wanted not money, whilst upon 
 every emergency, and when the countenance and assistance of 
 private men should be most wanted, it would be least found. 
 But, as this is proposed, the effect would be quite otherwise, since, 
 when once a man transfers his stock, he can never have it back, 
 but if he will have more must buy of another, so that this will 
 only open a convenient door for a few necessitous or discontented 
 people, either to sell their stock without loss, or at least get 
 their money back again in the method proposed. And all this 
 perhaps will hardly amount to above ten per cent, of the 
 whole stock, and as these discontented people have already been 
 no small trouble, clog, and perplexity to the company and their 
 proceedings, so, if they should now be left to sell to loss, this 
 would be a means to continue and entail these kind of discon- 
 tents and uneasy people on the company, at least during the 
 infancy thereof, if not to after time. 
 
 As this method will open a creditable door to let out dis- 
 contented people, so it will render the remainder much more 
 fixed and steady than it could otherwise be ; since every one will 
 endeavour to keep and transfer to his posterity a concern, where 
 he has a prospect of gain by trade, only from the risk of the 
 intei'est or forbearance of his capital — the reputation and con- 
 veniency whereof, if there be anything of a reasonable manage- 
 ment, will always keep it up above the principal money. And 
 as all these public funds are, if it may be so expressed, as so 
 many barriers to licence, and as so much security given by a 
 nation against a revolution of government, so this will be of that 
 quality in a very particular manner ; the which advantages will 
 naturally render it one of the best contrived and most convenient 
 funds of that kind and quantity in Europe. 
 
 Article 3. By the eighth article of the first proposal, the pre- 
 sident and councillors of trade, nor any of them for the time they 
 are such, may be capable of holding any place of profit or 
 trust in the Government, or of receiving any pension, gift, or 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCILi OF TRADE. 79 
 
 honour of his Majesty, that their time and thoughts may be 
 wholly employed and taken up as councillors of trade, without 
 having or being capable of any other office, place, or depend- 
 ence whatsoever. By which we see, that they are not only 
 debarred from accepting any new office, honour, or pension, 
 whilst they are such, but even those who shall be possessed of 
 any place of profit or trust, or that shall have any pension, and 
 happen to be chosen councillors of trade, are hereby obliged 
 to resign before he or they can be capable of entering upon this 
 trust. 
 
 Considering which, and the great attendance and fatigue the 
 councillors of trade will be obliged unto, and that, reasonably 
 speaking, no money can be so well bestowed as upon these, who 
 have the chief care and management of the business, since it is 
 only that which may properly be said to render all the rest effec- 
 tual, three hundred pounds sterling per annum salary is 
 doubtless too little, but it ought to be considered that it is not 
 only proposed thus low, as being in the beginning of the business, 
 but to leave room for the bounty of his Majesty and the estates, 
 upon receiving and perusing their reports at every meeting 
 of the Parliament; since suitable and honourable gratuities upon 
 such occasions will doubtless be thought a wise and politic insti- 
 tution, when it shall be considered that the less or more happi- 
 ness of government, and even of human society, is naturally 
 founded in the due and equal distribution of reward and punish- 
 ment, — perhaps, nicely speaking, not punishment and reward, but 
 reward and punishment, for certainly not only the due distribu- 
 tion, but even the disposing and placing of these, is of no small 
 consequence to those who would incline men to virtue. It is 
 likely such kind of gratuities, when brought in use, will hardly 
 be worth less than 100/., or more than 200/. per annum in a 
 medium ; but, whatever the quantity of these gratuities may be. 
 the very nature of them will be capable of stirring up men, more 
 than three times as much, almost any other way ; since here will 
 not only be point of profit, but a very singular point of honour 
 
80 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 in the case, by which men will be naturally stirred up and 
 prompted, if possible, to gain more respect, or at least as much 
 as others have done before them. Yet notwithstanding, when 
 this institution shall come to be fully settled, and in so hopeful 
 a way as may be justly expected in five or six years after the 
 establishment thereof, it may be very reasonable and neces- 
 sary to augment these salaries, it may be, to near if not quite 
 double what they are proposed to be at present; and, doubt- 
 less, were these salaries doubled, they might, with the gratuities, 
 be sufficient for men in such stations, so long as the money shall 
 continue to bear anything like the present proportion it now 
 does to other things. 
 
 Article 4, It is, doubtless, requisite that the electors of the 
 -council of trade should have their travelling charges and ex- 
 penses to and at their several yearly meetings for elections, since 
 this will tend to the making their meetings more full and the 
 keeping of things upon a right foot and bias, and consequently, 
 as has been said, towards making the rest the more effectual. 
 
 Article 5. It is likewise highly reasonable that a sum of 2,000/. 
 sterling per annum at least should by Parliament be appropriated 
 for allowances for the attendance of the directors, members of 
 the council-general, and committees; and that also upon the 
 reports from time to time, by them to be made, of the state of 
 the company's affairs and proceeding to his Majesty and Estates 
 of Parliament, honourable gratuities and acknowledgments, as 
 the case may require, should be made and given as encourage- 
 ments to the directors ; and it may likewise be necessary that 
 this allowance for attendance should be doubled, so soon as it 
 shall please God that the company's affairs shall become pros- 
 perous and flourishing ; — since all who understand such sort of 
 things must needs allow that no part of a company's or a public 
 stock can be so well bestowed as upon reasonable allowances to 
 such as attend the management; and that, although there is 
 reason to believe that hardly ever any attendance was better and 
 more punctual where money has not been allowed than those of 
 
FOR CONSTTTUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 81 
 
 the directors, councils-general, and committees of the company 
 have hitherto been, yet it would not be hard to make it appear 
 that had the company, from the very beginning, allowed double 
 the annual sum here proposed, as an encouragement for attend- 
 ance, they might thereby have been considerable gainers. 
 
 Tiie reduction of the number of the directors to that of twenty 
 will also be very necessary, that the company's affairs may as 
 little as possible be liable to the raw and giddy influence of 
 nominal and honorary directors, whose time, temper, or business, 
 may not, or cannot, allow of their due and orderly attendance. 
 
 Of the twenty directors proposed, three may always be sup- 
 posed to be of the council ol" trade, five for the committee of 
 foreign affairs, who may continue during the whole year ; and 
 the other twelve, by a rotation of three quarterly, may be the 
 ordinary committees in waiting or attendance. 
 
 The annual rotation of one of four of the directors will like- 
 wise tend to the keeping up a more vigorous and industrious 
 management, breed up a double number of persons to the 
 business, keep the control better and more severe than it could 
 possibly otherwise be, and yet neither the company, nor those 
 who shall signalise themselves in their service, will be anything 
 so floating, precarious, and uncertain, as by an annual election 
 of the whole. 
 
 On Proposal 4, Article 1. The powers proposed for the 
 council of trade ax'e only such as will be natural and suitable to 
 their work, nor can they be prejudicial to or give reasonable 
 umbrage to any, unless some scruples should be made with rela- 
 tion to the power of Admiralty. But to this it may be answered, 
 that since his grace the Duke of Lennox is now hereditary lord 
 high admiral of this kingdom, and the right honourable the 
 Earl of Argyle is admiral of a great part of the western coast, 
 which are powers and prerogatives not any way fit for subjects, 
 excepting only such as are at the same time entrusted with the 
 immediate care and protection of trade, so if the council of trade 
 shall be empowered to give sufiicient equivalents to these parties 
 
 VOJ.. I, G 
 
82 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 concerned, his Majesty's prerogative does not at all seem to be 
 lessened thereby. 
 
 But if it shall still be insisted on in behalf of his Majesty, that, 
 although it may be reasonable enough to give these hereditary 
 admirals equivalents for their pretensions, yet it will not beseem 
 the royal Majesty for any subject to have the right of command- 
 ing the naval force without direct appointment and control from 
 the king, this may easily be solved by a proviso in the Act of 
 Parliament empowering the council of trade to accept of and 
 execute the office of lord high admiral when and as often as they 
 shall be thereunto appointed and commissioned by his Majesty, 
 his heirs or successors; it being justly supposed that the nature 
 of the thing will sufficiently incline the kings and queens of this 
 realm from time to time to commit this power to the council of 
 trade. 
 
 Article 6. Unjust and unequal punishments do not only involve 
 all those concerned in the legislation and execution in guilt and 
 blood,, but they are always most ineffectual for the ends proposed ; 
 for in all ages, countries, and places of the world, the more cruel 
 and sanguinary the laws the more barbarous and numerous the 
 rapines and murders. And this is not at all to be wondered at, 
 since not only the wellbeing but the very being of things are 
 altogether founded in justice and right, since the root and spring 
 of this is not at all from time but from eternity, and "that 
 justice and righteousness is the basis of Jehovah's throne and 
 dominion.'' * 
 
 And as these things are so plain, not only from reason but 
 even the practice thereof, how strange must it be not only to find 
 men who lay claim to a share of common sense and reason, but 
 even not a few of those who pretend to be Christians, expecting 
 the success and duration of their laws, constitutions, and govern- 
 ments, further than they have regard to, or quadrate with, justice 
 and equity, and that they answer " that standard and measure 
 of righteousness, the holy and blessed law of God ?" f 
 * Psalm Ixxxix. 14, and xoyii. 2. ■(• Igaiah viii. SO. 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OP TRADE. 83 
 
 If those who are concerned in the making or executing of 
 unjust and unequal laws would be but serious in matters of 
 such weight as truth and justice are, they might easily be con- 
 vinced of the true reasons not only of the weakness but pernicious 
 consequences of all these laws, which have rather been the effects 
 of men's passions and appetites than of their reason, and have 
 proceeded from violent humours and prejudices rather than 
 from any due respect to justice and right. 
 
 We in this nation have had our part of experience both of 
 the weakness and pernicious consequences of unjust and bloody 
 laws, and particularly in this matter of the punishment of theft ; 
 for had the laws with relation to this been as much founded on 
 reason and due consideration as they have been in that of pas.^ 
 sion, prejudice, and violence, they would not only have been 
 much more eifectual, but the nation had been free of the guilt 
 and blood in which by this means it hath been involved. 
 
 But since it is the part of these observations chiefly to insist on 
 the temporal or political reasons of things, as treating only of 
 matters relating to trade and improvements in this world, we 
 shall not here enlarge further on what is more spiritual in the 
 matter of justice and right than as an introduction to what of 
 this nature shall follow, to lay it down as a fundamental maxim, 
 that whatever things may, in the times or intervals of their flying 
 from one extremity to another, seem good to poor, weak, and short- 
 sighted mortals ; and however our hearts may be hardened, or 
 our eyes blinded so as not to see or understand the nature, 
 course, nor the end thereof, yet certainly that which is most just 
 in its nature is also most beneficial, not only in respect of the 
 world to come, but even in respect of this; and that of this justice 
 the blessed law of God is the standard and rule. 
 
 Now as the punishment hereby designed for theft is agreeable 
 to this law, so it is self-evident that it will not only be very effec- 
 tual but likewise beneficial to the public, since the thief* will be 
 hereby obliged to restore fourfold, and to work nt hard labour for 
 » Exodus xxii. 1 — 1, 
 g2 
 
T! 
 
 84 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 the space of three years ; and if he have not to satisfy for the 
 theft, then to be condemned for any time not exceeding six years 
 more; whereby, considering the common strength of body of 
 these kind of people and the work they may be employed in, 
 they may be capable of gaining little less if not more than five 
 shillings per week per head one with another, — about eighteen 
 pence per head whereof may go to their subsistence, and the rest 
 to be equally divided between the party injured and the council 
 of trade. Thus in nine years' time a sum of eighty pounds 
 sterling, or upwards, may be gained by the thief, or at least by 
 the mass of them in a medium, for or towards satisfaction for the 
 theft, besides the advantage the nation will have in having its 
 people preserved and its industry increased thereby. 
 
 But if such as are nice in the matter of the law of God should 
 object against that part of the punishment that extends to con- 
 demnation of the thief to three years' hard labour, even after he 
 or she shall have made a fourfold satisfaction for the theft, to 
 this it may be answered that this condemnation to work is not on 
 account of the party injured, who is supposed by the restitution 
 to have full satisfaction, but altogether on the account of the 
 state, which no doubt is naturally obliged, and by the institution of 
 this national economy will only take the due and necessary care 
 to see all its subjects well and duly employed. Indeed, were 
 this space of three years proposed for a much longer time, it 
 might be hard; but, since the time is so short that less can 
 hardly be supposed sufficient to reduce such a sort of dissolute 
 people from their habit of sloth and idleness to that of industry, — 
 to unlearn them their trade of thievery, and learn them another 
 which, instead of being destructive to both, is profitable to them- 
 selves and the public, it cannot in justice be thought otherwise 
 than very easy, and even inclinable to the right, if there be any 
 side in justice, that is to say, to moderation and mercy. 
 
 But if, on the other hand, it shall be objected that some of 
 lliese thieves will be so stubborn that there will be no breaking 
 them with this work, to this it may be likewise answered, that, 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 85 
 
 considering the several sorts of hard and strong labour the 
 council of trade will naturally have for many hundreds if not for 
 some thousands of people, some of which work will be of such a 
 nature as no man can endure for many years, or perhaps months 
 together, we need not doubt but they will be sufficiently in a 
 condition to tame and humble the stoutest and wildest of these 
 thieves and vagabonds. 
 
 And thus by this institution our country, instead of being in 
 this case cruel to her young as hitherto, will become capable of 
 being a tender and indulgent mother ; and, instead of not only 
 losing her children but contracting the guilt of their blood, she 
 may be put in a condition of reaping good fruit from their la- 
 bours ; and afterward, as they return to their duty, of receiving 
 them with open arms. By this means it may be justly hoped 
 that in a few years there will not be one-twentieth part of the 
 malefactors, crimes, or criminals of that kind to be found that 
 there is at this day. 
 
 Article 7- Bribery, cheating, designed cheating, wilful bank- 
 ruptcy, and fraud are likewise theft, and, so far from being a 
 lesser or inferior degree thereof, they are the worst and most 
 heinous of all ; since these not only break and violate the public 
 faith and trust equally with the other, but likewise the more 
 peculiar ties and obligations among men, and thereby undermine 
 the very foundation of human society and commerce. So that it 
 seems strange that those who first invented the hanging of 
 thieves did not begin with this sort first, and makes it justly to 
 be suspected that this sort of fraudulent thieves, who are not only 
 the most politic and potent, but generally the most numerous of 
 all, might have the first and principal hand in this in all the 
 countries where it has been introduced, and might raise all this 
 dust against this lesser and more skulking sort of pilferers, that 
 by this means they, the more modish and fashionable thieves, 
 might be the harder to be discovered, and escape tlie better in 
 the crowd. 
 
 However it be, since it is certain that this sort of thieves are 
 
86 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 of the whole the greatest peste of human society, if any deserve 
 harder usage than others, surely it ought to be they ; but there 
 being no difference made by the rule of righteousnesg, we shall 
 only say " that, as there ought not to be any respect of persons in 
 judgment, where the poor should not be countenanced or pitied 
 because of his poverty, nor the rich respected or honoured 
 because of his wealth or power," * so, if a government resolves in 
 good earnest to encourage honesty and virtue, and discounte- 
 nance the contrary by their examples of justice, as well as other- 
 wise, there is no doubt but one example of a potent thief, espe* 
 cially if he be of this sort, will contribute more towards " the 
 people's hearing and fearing, and doing so no more,"t than that 
 of a hundred sheep-stealers, shop-lifters, and such like. Gene- 
 rally speaking, since the design of the law is equally to hinder 
 the great thieves from hanging the little ones, or from inter- 
 ceding for or protecting one another, and since here is no man's 
 blood taken, since the punishment is so just and easy, and that 
 here is no such bar or tache as either to hinder or discourage a 
 thief of any sort from returning to his duty, it is hoped that if 
 this constitution be once set on foot there shall no more thieves, 
 of what sort or quality soever, be suffered to escape the punish- 
 ment, and that it shall become a discredit little less than that 
 of the theft itself so much as to intercede to this purpose. And 
 when things shall be thus carried we shall soon see both the 
 number of the crimes and criminals diminish, and come to be as 
 seldom as now they are frequently found or heard of. 
 
 As the hanging of thieves in all countries where practised, hath 
 been found to be a destructive and unsuccessful piece of cruelty, 
 so is the confounding the fraudulent debtor, which is one of the 
 worst sort of thieves, and the poor and honest debtor together. 
 By the law of God, creditors are so far from having a right to 
 bury the persons of their poor unhappy debtors in prisons that 
 they might not take from them anything which was necessary for 
 their subsistence or support; for thus it is written, viz. : " When 
 * Exod. xxix. 3 i Levit. xix, 15. ■)• Deut. xix. 20. 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 87 
 
 thou lendest thy brother the loan of anything, thou shalt not go 
 into his house to fetch his pledge, thou shalt stand abroad, and 
 the man to whom thou dost lend shall bring the pledge abroad 
 unto thee : and if the man be poor thou shalt not sleep with his 
 pledge ; in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledge again when 
 the sun goeth down, that he may sleep in his own raiment and 
 bless thee: and it shall be righteousness unto thee before the 
 Lord thy God."* 
 
 And we have not only this negative in the case, but likewise 
 an aflBrmative in the following terms : " If there be among you a 
 poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in the 
 land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not harden 
 thy heart nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother ; but thou 
 shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him 
 sufficient for his need in that which he wanteth. Beware that 
 there be not a thought in thy wicked heart, saying, ' the seventh 
 year, the year of release, is at hand,' and thine eye be evil against 
 thy poor brother, and thou givest him nought, and he cry unto 
 the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. Thou shalt 
 surely give him, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou 
 givest unto him, because that for this thing the Lord thy God 
 shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all thou puttest thine 
 hand unto : for the poor shall never cease out of the land, there- 
 fore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand 
 wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy in thy 
 
 land."t 
 
 So that those who imprison poor debtors in whom there is not 
 found any fraudulent design, are guilty of breaking two several 
 commands at one and the same time ; and not only so, but this is 
 directly against one of the fundamental petitions of the prayer of 
 every Christian ; and ought it not to be wondered at that any of 
 those who call themselves Christians, should not only by their 
 lives, but even by their laws, so strangely contradict their precepts, 
 and even their very prayers ? 
 
 * Deut. xxiv. 10—14. t Deut. xv. 7—12. 
 
88 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 As this practice is directly opposite to the law of God, so is it 
 of a most destructive nature in itself, since hereby honest men 
 are not only made liable to the same fate, but even put in a 
 worse condition than the worst sort of thieves. The thief often 
 takes care to secure enough both to maintain his family, if he 
 have one, and for himself to live plentifully in prison or in the 
 place of his retirement, whereas the honest man and his family 
 must either starve, .or at least be in danger of starving; so that 
 one and the same procedure opens a door to let the guilty escape, 
 and to oppress the innocent. Besides the mischievous conse- 
 quence of this to commerce in general, by proving a shelter and 
 loophole for thieves, and a temptation and discouragement to 
 men who are reduced to low or desperate circumstances from 
 being just to their creditors to the best of their power, it brings 
 a great deal of blood and guilt on a land, and renders a great 
 number of people, who might be both useful and beneficial to 
 the public, and in a hopeful waj* of doing at least somewhat 
 towards discharging their debts, not only useless, but an insuf- 
 ferable burthen to their country. 
 
 Article 8. This eighth article brings us to a third sort of 
 thieves, which is that idle and dissolute people called beggars; 
 for, although they be somewhat more tame and familiar with us, 
 yet are they really but another sort of thieves. By this we mean 
 only such as make begging the whole or any part of their ti-ade 
 or business ; for there is no doubt that one man not only may but 
 has a right to beg or desire a favour of another in a strait, in a 
 difficulty, or upon an emergency, as appears plainly by the dis- 
 course on the last article ; whilst that any sort of men should 
 make this their business, or any part thereof, is not only contrary 
 to justice, but to all good order among men. And, indeed, it is 
 wonderful to think that ever anything that looks like, or pretends 
 to be, a government of men, but especially of Christians, who at 
 least pretend to be the best and wisest sort of them, should allow 
 such a disorder to human societyas a professed trade of begging ; 
 especially since, as we have said, people and their industry 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 89 
 
 are not only the truest and most solid riches of a prince or state, 
 but, in comparison with them, all other things are only imaginary. 
 Instead of so great good as the world had just reason to 
 expect from these governments commonly called Christian, in the 
 matter of due care and good order among men, and even im- 
 provement of human society, beyond what it could possibly 
 attain to in heathendom, we are sorry there is occasion to say, 
 that, although there might be some few of this sort of thieves 
 skulking up and down in all ages and in all times of the world, 
 yet certainly this trade of begging or beggary was never intro- 
 duced in form, but by and together with the corruption of the 
 Christian religion, in some of whose countries it is come to that 
 height, that begging is not only accounted a credit, but even a 
 piece of devotion. (App. K K.) 
 
 As the rooting out this evil would be one of the greatest 
 and best pieces of service that could possibly be done to a 
 country, so certainly it is no easy matter. If, as some have 
 advised, a law were made to reduce these dissolute people back 
 again to slavery, as with the ancient heathens, in such a case 
 only the strongest and ablest of them would be taken up by 
 particular men, and still the weakest and most helpless would be 
 left to starve, or be miserable in themselves and a dead weight 
 on the industry of others, so that the evil might thereby be some- 
 what lessened and abated, but far enough from being rooted 
 out. From this consideration, and even from the thing as it 
 appears in the practice in those countries where one man is 
 made another's property, it may reasonably be presumed that 
 nothing less than a national institution with these or the like 
 powers and means can ever effectually redress this disorder. 
 This is not only plain in the reason thereof, but likewise in the 
 practice, since in Holland, several of the Hanse towns, and other 
 places of Europe, it is only by institutions and funds expressly 
 adapted and applied that, nationally speaking, people are found 
 capable of being broken off from their habits of idleness and 
 sloth. 
 
90 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 But this is not only the most probable way of rooting out 
 
 beggary and sloth, but, considering the nature of these proposals, 
 
 and the dependence the things have upon one another, this will 
 
 be the most profitable method that has hitherto or perhaps can 
 
 be proposed ; — since by this means the whole, whether they be 
 
 more or less capable, will be equally taken care of and comfortably 
 
 and wholesomely maintained, and every one who is able to do 
 
 anything, of what nature soever, will here find his work ready 
 
 provided for him ; and although there is no manner of doubt 
 
 but they will be a raw and untoward crew at first, yet in time 
 
 they may be brought into such a method, and put upon such a 
 
 train of business, as will make it very easy to keep them in order. 
 
 By what has been done in the like cases elsewhere, it may 
 
 reasonably be expected that, in less than four years after the 
 
 settlement of this institution, there need not be a beggar or 
 
 other vagabond left in the kingdom ; and in six or seven years 
 
 the work of the more able of these people may be brought to be 
 
 very near, if not quite, suflScient to subsist the whole mass of 
 
 them, insomuch, that, after this, the voluntary charities, together 
 
 with the product of their own work, may be sufficient, if not 
 
 more than enough, for their maintenance. By voluntary charity 
 
 we understand only such as comes to be offered or given by the 
 
 parties freely, and without being moved thereunto by any pai^ 
 
 ticular solicitation, or object of their compassion. 
 
 Now for the better and more particular understanding of the 
 benefit this kingdom may receive by the employment of its poor, 
 and promoting and supporting the industry of its people as pro- 
 posed by this constitution, it may be necessary to take notice 
 that, as in the observations on equal taxing, the consumption of 
 this kingdom is supposed to be about 3,400,000/. sterling per 
 annum, and the number of the people to be 600,000— that 
 one-fourth part, or about 150,000 of this number, consume 
 above one-half of this general expense, or about l,800,000i. or 
 near 4*. 8rf. sterling per week per head; and that the remainder 
 or other three-fourths of this mass of people do not spend above 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 91 
 
 1,600,000^. per annum, or a little more than let?, per week per 
 head ; so it may be probably conjectured that one-third, or about 
 150,000, of these may spend about 2ld, sterl. per week, and that 
 another third may be subsisted at about ]6d. per week, but that 
 the last third or number of 150,000 are a sort of people who we 
 may venture to say do little more than half live, and do not, one 
 with another, spend above lid. per week per head; — that the 
 two middle sorts by their industry do not only provide their own 
 maintenance, but likewise contribute the gfeatest share of that of 
 both the other extremes; —that the people of this lowest extreme, 
 although, as has been said, they little more than half live, yet at 
 least one-half of this is contributed by others ; and, if we might 
 venture again to distinguish these lowest sort of people from one 
 another, we should suppose that one-third, or 50,000 of them, 
 do not gain above two-thirds of their subsistence, the other third 
 not above one-half, and that the remainder do but gain one-third 
 of their expense, so as the whole deficiency may amount to the 
 sum of 168,750/. 
 
 Upon considering the reasons of these conjectures, and com- 
 paring them with a foregoing computation, whereby we have 
 supposed the nation to be at an expense of 135,000/. sterl. per 
 annum towards maintenance of their poor, we are inclined to 
 believe that the poor of this kingdom do not in direct expense 
 stand the nation in less than a sum of 135,000/. nor perhaps in 
 much more than this sum of about 170,000/. But it is to be 
 observed that in this expense we reckon not only what is given 
 in money, but likewise what is given in any other way, since 
 there is nothing can be contributed to their relief but must have 
 a value, let that value be more or less. 
 
 Now by this institution the nation will not only be eased of 
 all this expense, excepting only the voluntary charities, which 
 can hardly be supposed to amount to one-fifth part thereof, but 
 these people who live but at the rate of ten or eleven pence per 
 week, or some at that of less, will be naturally brought in a 
 small time to live at the rate of sixteen pence per week, one with 
 another. 
 
92 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 It is likewise to be observed, that, although there be here sup- 
 posed to be 150,000 people, who less or more are a burthen or 
 dead weight on others, yet there will perhaps never be above a 
 fifth part, if so many, of those come to be liable to the public 
 works, or under the direct care of the council of trade, since this 
 institution vidll naturally give life, support, and encouragement 
 to the industry of the whole kingdom, which, all things con- 
 sidered, may be presumed will be nearer twenty than ten times 
 what shall be under their immediate care and direction. 
 
 The encouragement and support that will thereby be given to 
 the industry of the nation may, with anything of a management, 
 be reasonably supposed ^in five or six years' time to bring this 
 mass of 450,000 people to be able to consume a third part more, 
 or at the rate of two shillings per week one with another; by 
 which time it may likewise be hoped they may begin to be in a 
 condition of laying up somewhat in national store. 
 
 Thus, by this institution, the nation may not only be eased of 
 a dead weight of more than one hundred thousand pounds sterling 
 yearly of direct expense, but these people, who are now the 
 greatest burthen to the industry of the kingdom, may be made 
 its principal support, and those who are now the great and prin- 
 cipal means of our poverty may become the chiefest cause of our 
 wealth, for these are the hands that must put all that we have 
 before spoken of in motion ; — and it is only in proportion to their 
 number or capacities that things can be undertaken and done, 
 and therefore as before this institution be introduced it might 
 properly enough be said we have too many people, yet then we 
 shall be found to have too few. 
 
 From all which, and much more that might be said on this 
 head, it may be reasonably concluded, that, with relation to society, 
 as an industrious man is naturally the most beneficial creature 
 that is or can be in or to the world, so the sluggard is not only a 
 burden to himself, for lazy people take always most pains, but 
 even to the earth he moves on, and to mankind in general, ol 
 whom he pretends to be a part ; and that in all societies, whethei 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 93 
 
 great or small, those who bear rule are highly obliged and deeply 
 concerned, both in justice and interest, to provide convenient 
 and suiEcient work and subsistence for those committed to their 
 care, and both by example and correction to oblige them to be 
 industrious. 
 
 Article 14. The use and acceptance of gold and silver in 
 exchange for other things was at first and originally introduced 
 into the world by the common consent of men, wherein the quan- 
 tity or value was not considered or distinguished by marks or 
 names, but by weight and fineness ; and therefore we find, when 
 Abraham bought the field of Ephron, he weighed four hundred 
 shekels of silver current money with the merchant;* but in pro- 
 cess of time, and when trade began to extend itself through many 
 and remote countries, to make the I'eceipts and payments of gold and 
 silver more easy, certain marks, stamps, or numbers, to signify the 
 weight and fineness thereof, were devised to be put upon the several 
 pieces ; and at first these marks were put by some of the principal 
 moneyers or traders themselves, and had a currency, at least so far 
 as they were known or had a reputation ; since, however, the public 
 of a country was not only better known, but supposed to be less 
 subject to fraud, therefore the putting these marks or making 
 these certifications was naturally and of course referred to the 
 care and trust of princes or states. But, as with other sorts of 
 bankrupts, so it is but too often with bankrupt states ; when by 
 ill courses they are reduced to straits and difficulties, they com- 
 monly forsake the profitable as well as laudable measures of truth 
 and justice, and betake themselves to indirect shifts and little 
 tricks, among which the diminishing, debasing, or altering the 
 denomination of the current money hath sometimes been one. 
 
 This purloining trickof state, which opened a door for depraving, 
 both as to matter and measure, those species which, by the con- 
 sent of men in most places of the world, are agreed to be the 
 common standard and measure of all other things, was intro- 
 duced with the destruction of the Roman empire by the Goths, 
 * Gen. xxiii. 16. 
 
94 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 Vandals, and other barbarous northern nations. This was through 
 the craft of the Jews and Lombards of those days, who making 
 use of the ignorance of the times and the necessities of several 
 paltry princes under whom they lived, to their own particular 
 advantage, but to the inexpressible prejudice of the general 
 commerce, persuaded those princes, and not a few among the 
 giddy and unthinking crowd, that the giving their money another 
 or better name would increase its value. 
 
 As to many others, so this unaccountable conceit has been 
 very prejudicial to this nation ; and, although we see at this day 
 that the pound sterling in England, the livre in France, the 
 guilder in Holland and other places, and the pound Scot here, which 
 were originally near if not quite the same thing, are not a penny 
 the better for their different names, but so far the worse, as they 
 create an uncertainty and difficulty in commerce, — yet we find 
 another alteration of our money in the year 1686, by which our 
 pound sterling is debased or sunk to about eight and a third per 
 cent, below that of the English value ; which alteration has ever 
 since, besides other disadvantages, been a sensible addition to the 
 imposition upon this kingdom in the matter of exchange. But since 
 any alteration in money, which way soever it be, is a real loss to 
 a country, whether the reducing the standard back again to what 
 it was, or fixing where it now is, would be least prejudicial to 
 the nation, is a question not easily determined, and of which a 
 council of trade, after due inquiry and examination of the matter? 
 of fact relating thereunto, will be the best and most capable 
 judges. 
 
 The alterations, confusions, or uncertainties in the moneys or 
 in the weight and measures of a country, although they be of the 
 most insensible, yet they are of the most pernicious, consequences 
 to trade and commerce. In the matter of money we may have 
 some prospect of the quantity and nature of the mischief, if we 
 consider that in most countries the current moneys do not 
 exceed one-twentieth part of the other efiects, so that any impo- 
 sition or difficulties on the moneys doth not only directly affect this 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 95 
 
 one, but likewise the other nineteen parts whereof it is the 
 measure and standard; whereas, when impositions, alterations, 
 or difficulties happen unto or come upon any other part of 
 the stock or effects of a country, it chiefly affects that part only 
 where it directly falls or lies; from which it may be reasonably 
 concluded that whatever the present French king raised by his 
 late impositions on the alterations of money, hath done at least 
 ten times the prejudice to France that the sums could have done 
 when raised another way ; but this, by being often done in that 
 kingdom, has gained credit by time and frequent practice, and 
 we know conceits thus acquired and rooted are not easily parted 
 with, even by particular men, and much less by nations. 
 
 The money of this kingdom, which is in weight and fineness 
 under the standard, has certainly done more mischief annually 
 to the nation for several years last past, not only than all the loss 
 would be in crying it down, and the expense of recoining thereof, 
 but perhaps than the very nominal value of all that kind of 
 specie ; so it is reasonably proposed to be called in and recoined, 
 the loss whereof will be but vei-y inconsiderable, and this but for 
 once, and perhaps will fall as easily and equally on the possessors 
 of this specie as any other way it could be raised. 
 
 The laws prohibiting the exportation of money are also very 
 pernicious to a country, and have just a contrary effect to what 
 is at least pretended to be designed by them, which is to keep 
 the money in the country; since, besides the other prejudices 
 this naturally brings to trade, which are too many here to enu- 
 merate, in our particular it is the main cause of the grievous loss 
 we are commonly at in the exchange. 
 
 Now, for clearer light in this matter, it ought to be considered 
 that, abating accidents, which happen but seldom and are incon- 
 siderable in the whole, there are but three things which can 
 naturally occasion loss by exchange, or therein receiving less than 
 the real value of the money of a country, that Is to say, the sup- 
 posed expense of carriage from the different places, the supposed 
 risk or the hazard of this conveyance, and the use or interest for 
 
96 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 the forbearance of this money for the time it is supposed to be 
 lying out ; and that all these three together, reasonably speaking, 
 between this and London, can hardly amount to above three per 
 cent, at most; so that at the highest the hundred pounds in 
 London ought never to exceed one hundred and eleven and a 
 third, or thereabouts, here at Edinburgh. 
 
 Now, if from thence it shall be asked how and from what 
 reasons then does our exchange come to rise to our prejudice, 
 even to fifteen, sixteen, and sometimes much higher ? — to this it 
 may be answered, that this likewise comes by three things, of 
 which we ourselves are the cause : as 1st. by the uncertainty of 
 our money in general since the alteration in the year 1686; 
 2nd. by the corruption of some of our coin in particular ; but, 
 in the third place, especially and above all, by the restraint on 
 the exportation ; for we may be sure the merchant, exchanger, 
 or moneyer considers of and puts a value upon all these things. 
 
 So that this threadbare shift of restraint is so far from hinder- 
 ing the exportation, as pretended, that, besides its other incon- 
 veniences, which are more insensible, on the one hand it encou- 
 rages, and even forces, not only the exportation but real loss of 
 as much as foreigners get of what we are imposed upon in the 
 exchange on that account, as likewise as much as we are obliged to 
 pay to them for running the real specie when it is found necessary 
 to carry it out ; and, on the other hand, it hinders the importation 
 of any gold or silver but what must by some necessity or other be 
 brought in, since we may be sure nobody would wish his money, no 
 more than his person, in a prison ; and need not doubt but money, 
 as well as men, inclines to be whei'e best used, and under least 
 retraint ; and that as trade, and the measure thereof, is originally 
 and naturally founded in the common consent of men, so it ever 
 was and will be capable of being hedged out, but never of being 
 hedged in, by restraints, coercions, and prohibitions. 
 
 On Proposal) Article 5th. By what we have been able to learn, 
 the exportations and importations are not above one-eleventh 
 part, or but as one is to ten, of the value of the rest of the 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 97 
 
 industry of this kingdom ; and, considering the influence duties 
 and difficulties on the navigation of a country have upon all the 
 other parts of the industry and improvements thereof, it may be 
 reasonably concluded that whatever part of the customs, or other 
 duties, lies upon this part of our industry, may be near if not quite 
 as heavy upon the improvement of this kingdom as ten times so 
 much raised on the consumption ; and therefore it is that by this 
 fifth proposal all duties and impositions, excepting one per cent, 
 of the value by the name of entry money, is proposed to be taken 
 off from the exportations in general, as also from the importation 
 of all such growths, products, goods, and merchandises as can be 
 manufactured or meliorated, or shall not be consumed in this 
 kingdom ; but that, on the contrary, all foreign liquors, and other 
 goods and merchandises consumed in this kingdom, may pay 
 double the impositions they now do. 
 
 By this means the nation will be equivalent to a free port, 
 since the weight of the duties will eiFectually be taken from the 
 industry and put upon the consumption, where they naturally 
 ought to lie ; and yet, considering that the duties on the con- 
 sumption will be doubled, and the life and encouragement this 
 will give to navigation, whatever may happen for two or three years 
 till things be settled, yet upon the whole his Majesty's revenue, 
 instead of being prejudiced, will be considerably benefited thereby. 
 
 By this means we may not only be capable of giving solid 
 encouragement to our manufactures at home, but the super- 
 fluities of the one part of the nation might prudently be brought 
 to contribute considerably towards the expense of protecting and 
 supporting the industry of the other part thereof; and, instead of 
 being further shackled, the nation might be freed from the per- 
 nicious consequences of these invidious courses, or rather shifts, 
 of restraints and prohibitions, which never did, nor possibly can, 
 answer the proposed ends, but, on the contrary, are in their 
 vei'y nature the most pernicious lets and impediments to the 
 I'egular course of industry, and the due correspondence and com- 
 merce of nations ; and by which, instead of enlarging and in- 
 
 VOL. I. H 
 
98 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 creasing our correspondence abroad, we should P-^--;;^^^^^^ 
 a state of enmity with all or most trading nations; and not only 
 a state ot enmity w ,ui„ping we have still reraaming, 
 
 so, but most part of the little shipping ^^ 
 
 and of the few people we have yet in Dusines , i. 
 
 ie out of theirbia's , since we should hereby disable them from 
 one trade before we learned or provided them with another. By 
 multiplying of oaths, searches, dangers, and difficulties upon 
 what foreign and domestic trade should be still left, it will be 
 quite wrung out of the hands of honest and capable men, and 
 abandoned to such designing and intriguing knaves as can, or 
 rather will, afford us, not their goods and merchandises, but their 
 oaths and perjuries, at the lowest price. 
 
 But, it is hoped, these and the like mischievous consequences 
 to the trade of the kingdom in general, and to his Majesty's 
 revenue in particular, will be prevented by the establishing of a 
 council of trade, which, having both the power and means not 
 only to deliver the nation from the danger of these new fettere, 
 but likewise from the weight and entanglements of the old,— 
 the more and deeper they enter upon due examination and 
 scrutiny of these or the like things, the more they will naturally 
 find that it is not by little shifts or tricks, but by downright dili- 
 gence and industry, that the trade of a country can be supported 
 or improved. 
 
 Since the farming the customs and foreign excise is in the 
 nature of the thing not only of pernicious consequence to the 
 trade, but, whatever it may seem from the screwing things up to 
 an extremity for a time, yet certainly at long run it is likewise 
 hurtful to that revenue of his Majesty, — therefore, by the 
 sixth article of this proposal, tlie present farm or tack thereof 
 is proposed to be broken, that the said customs or foreign 
 excise may not be hereafter let to farm. 
 
 If the foreign trade of this kingdom should come to be setded 
 as here proposed, a new book of rates, or at least considerable 
 alterations in the old, might be necessary; the regulating and 
 adjusting whereof may be proper work for a council of trade. 
 
FOB CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL, OF TRADE. 99 
 
 On Proposal 6. — Since by this loose and irregular tie of the 
 union of the crowns without the addition of that of the hearts, 
 hands, industry, and civil interest of these nations, this kingdom 
 has not only been deprived of the imperial seat of its government, 
 but therewith lost the ordinary means of countenancing and pro- 
 tecting its foreign trade by naval force, ambassadors, residents, 
 and such like, — therefore, as much as possible to supply this 
 natural defect, it is hereby proposed that an artificial security be 
 formed upon the customs and foreign excise, which was, is, 
 and in the nature of the thing ought only and chiefly to be, 
 granted and settled for the protection and security of foreign 
 trade. 
 
 And, considering our late usage and present circumstances, it 
 might not be unreasonable to expect that this fund should be 
 extended to the insurance of the ships and effects of this king- 
 dom even from the dangers and accidents of war ; but since this 
 might at one time or other be a real and considerable prejudice 
 to that revenue, or give umbrage or dissatisfaction to his Majesty, 
 it is therefore not insisted upon, but only proposed that this fund 
 may for the future remain as a security against such ungrateful, 
 and more than barbarous, treatment as this nation has lately met 
 with from, or at least on the account or by reason of, some of 
 its superb and disdainful neighbours ; and since it is hoped that 
 such infractions will never again be repeated : — therefore, although 
 what is here desired may be a solid and satisfactory security to 
 his subjects, yet can it not be any real or sensible loss or hazard 
 to his Majesty. 
 
 On Proposal T. — By the introduction to this, as likewise in 
 the reasons upon the seventh and eighth articles of the second 
 proposal, we have touched upon the particular advantages to 
 and the advancement of his Majesty's revenue by this institution 
 and fund; to which it may be added, that the establishment 
 hereof will be the most effectual means of avoiding the pernicious 
 effects of these restraints and prohibitions, by which the little 
 trade and industry yet remaining, and therewith his Majesty's 
 
 H 2 
 
100 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 revenue, is in danger of receiving an irreparable loss and pre- 
 judice. 
 
 And since his Majesty's revenue is, all things considered, not 
 only capable of receiving proportionable, but even greater ad- 
 vantages by this institution, than the other effects of this 
 nation, these small and precarious branches thereof, proposed 
 by the fourth and ninth articles of the second proposal to be ap- 
 propriated to this fund, will hardly amount to his Majesty's share 
 of this national stock. Considering which, and that these smaller 
 revenues will naturally be capable of yielding near if not quite 
 double the advantage to the council of trade they can to his 
 Majesty, and yet be easier to the subject than hitherto, with the 
 glory his Majesty will have, and the interest he will gain in the 
 affections of his people, in contributing his part to this fund, and 
 therewith towards repairing the losses of the company and nation 
 in their late attempt at foreign trade, — we say, considering these 
 things together, this will be found so far from being a loss, that it 
 is capable of being one of the wisest, most politically advan- 
 tageous, and beneficial concessions that was ever made by a 
 prince. 
 
 And as we have ventured to say that it would be his Majesty's 
 interest not only to concur in, but even frankly and generously 
 to contribute to, this or the like national institutions ; so, on the 
 other hand, prudence and discretion, as well as duty and gratitude, 
 ought to incline allthose who are or shall be well-wishers to this 
 design, and therewith to their country, in the first proposing and 
 in the whole progress thereof to use their utmost endeavours 
 towards rendering it worthy of our sovereign's gracious inclina- 
 tion and royal regard to take care that his revenue, instead of 
 receiving any prejudice or diminution, may rather be augmented, 
 or at least increase in proportion to the good things his Majesty 
 shall do or graciously concur in, for the retrieving our covmtry 
 and nation. 
 
 The natural as well as political concurrence of a prince is 
 highly necessary, if not to the being, at least to the well-being, of 
 
 C.5 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE, 101 
 
 such an infant design as this. His Majesty's hearty and cheerful 
 countenance and royal favour are capable of giving great life, 
 vigour, and tranquillity to an affair of this nature ; whereas the 
 least coldness or dissatisfaction can hardly fail of having quite 
 contrary effects. This constitution and these designs will doubt- 
 less be encountered with many and heavy discouragements and 
 difficulties, but especially in their infancy and beginnings ; and 
 if to these natural obstacles, which we may reasonably expect, 
 that of a struggle in our constitution should be added, there 
 could be but little hope of good success, even under better cir- 
 cumstances of things, or dispositions and qualifications of men, 
 than we can at present pretend unto. 
 
 The more things of this nature are suited and rendered agree* 
 able to all the parts of the constitution of a country, the more 
 they may be expected to be successful, durable, and happy ; but 
 especially, both as to matter and manner, they ought to be made 
 as acceptable and easy to the prince as possible, and not so much 
 as seem to be wrested from him ; since the least discourage- 
 ment of the sovereign in such an affair as this will be apt to recoil, 
 and lie heavy upon the improvement and progress thereof. 
 
 Therefore those who would concern themselves to have the 
 grievances of their country redressed, in order to their intended 
 work, ought in the first place and especially to lay aside anything 
 that shall but seem like anger, rancour, or resentment; since 
 these passions do not only transport men beyond themselves, and 
 divest them of their reason, but the very appearance thereof gives 
 umbrage to the jealous, discouragement to the more unthinking, 
 and opportunities and advantages to the more designing sort of 
 men. 
 
 It is true in a case like that of ours it is no easy matter to com- 
 pose the mind and govern the passions. Our late unaccountable 
 usage at London, at Hamburg, and in the Indies, the long pal- 
 liating thereof, and the delay of justice herein, are things hardly 
 to be borne ; but, whatever the nature of our ti'eatment or the 
 aggravations may have been, the sense we ought to have of our 
 
102 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 present condition, of our country, of posterity, religion, liberty, 
 and all that is or can be dear to men or nations, ought to oblige 
 us in this time of our adversity, distress, and danger to have re- 
 course to the dictates of our reason, and not to give way to or 
 indulge our passions, but to calm and compose our minds, so as 
 to become capable of advising about and thinking of a remedy 
 or redress. 
 
 We ought to consider, that, as rage and reason are opposite to 
 the nature of one another, so revengeful resentment and redress 
 always were and will ever be inconsistent; that by these means 
 private men are not only brought in danger of losing their aims, 
 but even princes and great men of losing their crowns and dig- 
 nities; and that the true reason why popular complaints and 
 struggles, although never so well and justly grounded, come so 
 seldom to good, and so often to a great deal of mischief, is because 
 men in such cases are ofttimes more apt to follow the dictates of 
 their rage than of their reason, and rather inclinable to gratify 
 their passions and appetites by the way, than heartily to pursue 
 the public good they pretend unto. 
 
 In such times, or on such occasions, the two extremes — the over 
 cold and the over warm dispositions of men— ought equally to be 
 avoided, which, although they appear more different than the 
 east from the west, yet, like other extremities, they are not only 
 apt to beget, but by traversing of ground, or upon occasion, they 
 are apt to be transformed into, one another. 
 
 This is not plainer or more frequent in anything than in state 
 affairs. We, in this century, have seen a forty-one produce a 
 sixty-one, and that again produce an eighty-eight ; we have found 
 by experience, that those who are violent in everything will 
 be constant in nothing, and have had reason to know that 
 angry men are never fit for business, but least of all in angry 
 times. 
 
 How much, then, is every good patriot concerned equally to 
 avoid the influence of those who may be for adjourning our 
 present redress, and for doing nothing, or at least nothing to 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 103 
 
 purpose, towards retrieving the low and distressed circumstances 
 of our company and nation, and of those who may endeavour to 
 disable us from doing of anything, by persuading us to grasp 
 at everything, or, may be, for finding of many faults, and but 
 few amendments; or who, fi-om their being for keeping up 
 and inflaming the present animosities and discontents, may be 
 averse to prudent, moderate, and healing things. But, as those 
 who are lovers of their country ought on this occasion to endea- 
 vour to be of a moderate, sedate, and healing temper, so they 
 ought not to be for tampering with and palliating these mat- 
 ters, but for substantial and effectual things, and such as will be 
 really satisfactory to the nation, but especially that the trade 
 thereof, upon which the complaints of the last five years have 
 been founded, may be fully settled, regulated, and secured, as 
 being fundamental unto, and the only thing capable of furnish- 
 ing us with regular means, and even dispositions, for all other 
 reformations. 
 
 We ought not only to begin with trade, as the most funda- 
 mental to us in this kingdom, and to which we have the plainest 
 and clearest call, but as our part of a thing that at this day is 
 capable of making greater alterations in the world than the 
 sword, and may best enable us to strengthen the hands of our 
 King in this dangerous time, and put us in a condition of con- 
 tributing our part to the defence and support of religion and 
 liberty, instead of being what our oppressors seem to have de- 
 signed, viz. their back door to let in mischief. 
 
 Although heaven and earth call upon us at this time to 
 defend and vindicate our rights and liberties in particular, and 
 to take effectual care that this kingdom may be under other and 
 more tolerable circumstances with our neighbour nation in the 
 next age than it hath been in this, yet the measures to be taken, 
 even with relation to them, ought not to be inflaming, but heal- 
 ing, since we are embarked in one common cause — the defence 
 of religion and liberty, where every good subject ought to play 
 his part ; let therefore our deportment in this matter be such as 
 
104 PROPOSALS AND REASONS 
 
 may be capable of convincing, that we are not only in the right 
 in point of fact, but likewise in point of good conduct and 
 management. 
 
 By this means we may justly expect to convince all the honest 
 and unprejudiced part of mankind that the dust raised against 
 us and our proceedings hath partly proceeded from the unwearied 
 solicitations of self-seeking monopolists, who commonly measure 
 the whole trade and extent of the improvement of the universe, 
 not by the nature of the thing, but by their own narrow and 
 abstracted notions, conceits, or circumstances ; and partly from 
 another sort of men, who are wonderful nice and dexterous at 
 the making and finding of distinctions where they are not, but 
 somewhat dull and heavy at finding them where they really are— 
 namely, those men who have been, and it seems still are, able to 
 distinguish, not only between the interests of kingdoms situate in 
 the same island, under the same King, professing the same reli- 
 gion, speaking the same language, and (if the distinction-makers 
 would let them) having the same inclinations for the public and 
 Common good, but even between the interests of sovereign princes 
 and their subjects, and in which they have already had such success 
 as to bring this their jest to good earnest, with relation to the 
 interest of two of our Kings and their kingdoms; and all this 
 within the memory of man. 
 
 Our wise and prudent conduct in this matter may be capable 
 of convincing the good subjects of these nations, that the oppo- 
 sitions and treatment we have met with, have not only been a 
 sensible and not easy to be repaired loss of this, but of these 
 kingdoms; and that the influencing part of our opposers, at least 
 in this case, have been no better patriots of the one nation than 
 they are of the other. 
 
 They may thereby be convinced of the present as well as 
 future advantage, and even necessity, there is of the just and 
 equal addition of the hearts, hands, civil interest, and common 
 care of these nations to this loose and irregular tie of the union 
 of the crowns, and by this means removing the fatal handle by 
 
FOR CONSTITUTING A COUNCIL OF TRADE. 105 
 
 which evil-disposed persons of both kingdoms, in keeping up 
 these very misunderstandings and animosities which it was hoped 
 the union of the crowns would have taken away, have been so 
 often enabled, not only to amuse and distract the people, clog 
 and crush their industry, but not seldom to wound and greatly 
 endanger public liberty, the which hath not been defended 
 from their attempts, nor recovered from their snares, from time 
 to time without a vast expense of blood and treasure. 
 
 The national proceedings of our neighbour kingdom have not 
 seldom been bad preparatives to us, as ours have sometimes been 
 to them, — May we now, then, be so happy as at this time to act 
 like good patriots, not only of a part, but of the whole of these 
 nations; — and may the proceedings of our present Parliament be 
 such as may render us easy at home, and honoured and respected 
 abroad. 
 
 May this Parliament, which, under his Majesty's gracious in- 
 fluence, ushered in the blessings of the late glorious Revolu- 
 tion, — the happy instrument of restoring our Church, the most 
 valuable pledge of the civil as well as of the religious liberties of 
 this nation ; — that which hath put us into a condition not only of 
 complaining when injured, but even of redressing of grievances 
 in a legal way, — may this Parliament, in concurrence with his 
 Majesty's gracious intentions, put the trade and industry of this 
 kingdom on a prosperous and successful foot ; — may it be blessed 
 and honoured with laying the top stone, and finishing that 
 glorious work so happily begun, so as for ever hereafter to merit 
 the name of the prudent, the wise, the healing, and happy Par- 
 liament. 
 
MEMOIR 
 
 EXPEDITIONS AGAINST SPANISH AMERICA. 
 
 (MS. in the Long Collection, British Museum, Additional MS. No. 12,437.) 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 This memoir is annexed to a copy of a Petition to William III. of which 
 no original with Paterson's signature has been found, nor any trace of it, in 
 the usual repositories of such documents. The petition itself was probably 
 delivered personally into his Majesty's hands, as was often practised in 
 those days of less rigorous official severance from the sovereign than has 
 grown up gradually from motives of convenience, although in principle the 
 subject's right to the direct consideration of such appeals, by the crown, or 
 its referee, is at present as strongly in force constitutionally as ever. That 
 Paterson was the petitioner is plain ; and the proceeding involved matters 
 of policy which the King habitually directed himself. This was probably 
 part of the confidential communications with William, of which so interest- 
 ing an account is extracted in the Introduction from Paterson's letter of 
 1709 to the Earl Godolphin. The genuineness of that letter, which is clear 
 of all doubt, guarantees the authenticity, and explains the authorship 
 of the petition and memoir ; and the latter must have been afterwards 
 submitted to the Ministers of Queen Anne, as its principal aim — the attack 
 upon Spanish America — was extensively pursued In the war that followed, 
 although Central American colonisation and conquest were not carried out 
 in the way proposed by Paterson. It would be highly satisfactory, in 
 order to arrive at a correct estimate of the obscure few last months of King 
 William's reign, if the contents of his " private cabinet " could be consulted 
 on such points as that of the contemplated Western expeditions. (App. LL.) 
 The merit of Paterson's combinations in 1701 wIU be estimated by a rapid 
 survey of the various elements of resistance to the Scottish American enter- 
 prise to be overcome from the first. The English and Dutch Companies at 
 home, and the planters in the older colonies, were alarmed, the former at the 
 prospect of rival traders, the latter at the attraction of a new settlement to their 
 people. The English generally feared that foreign commodities would find 
 their way through the Scottish Company to the markets of Europe, and that 
 smuggling in English products would be encouraged along the border, to 
 the injury of the fair trader and the customs. The French had designs on 
 Spanish America which would be quite defeated by the success of the 
 Scotch settlers in Darien. The Spaniards were even less terrified at their 
 probable loss of territory, then of scarcely appreciable importance, than at 
 the proximity of the hated heretics, whose influence was already fatally 
 known in all quarters, to the adherents to the Church of Rome. To 
 
110 editor's preface. 
 
 strengthen these combined opposing circumstances came King William's 
 unfortunate policy of 1697-8, when he wished to conciliate France at any 
 price, and was planning the extraordinary treaties with Louis XIV. for the 
 partition of the Spanish monarchy. 
 
 Notwithstanding this array of hostility, the Scotch would certainly have 
 kept possession of their strong position if they had been ably led. Wafer 
 told the Board of Trade, when describing that position, that half five hun- 
 dred men might hold it safe against Spain ; and the first Scotch expedition 
 consisted of one thousand two hundred men, of whom many were experi- 
 enced soldiers returned from the wars on the continent of Europe. The 
 second expedition was commanded by Campbell of Finab, an able officer, 
 who at first gained considerable advantages over the Spaniards in the inte- 
 rior of Darien, and had honourable armorial bearings afterwards appointed 
 to his escutcheon in testimony of his bravery and conduct. It is clear such 
 men could have made good their own against any forces Spain alone could 
 have mustered. It is equally certain that the Indians were capable of being 
 conciliated ; whilst there is reason to doubt, whether any real opposition was 
 to be apprehended from the English West Indian and North American 
 colonists. Even the Governor of Jamaica was well disposed to the Scots. 
 (App. LL 2). 
 
 With his wiser new views. King William now saw the value of the Com- 
 pany as instruments in his projected West Indian armaments. The Scotch, in 
 fact, were then felt to be only pursuing an object in which the English 
 strongly sympathised. The Spanish title to the exclusive possession of the 
 West India Islands had never been acquiesced in even from the papal reign 
 of Henry VII. ; and their exclusive hold upon the Main — Terra Firma 
 — was resisted by a far greater power among us than even that of the for- 
 midable Buccaneers at the highest of their influence. The cruel treatment 
 of Raleigh by James I. at the instigation of Gondomar, the Spanish ambas- 
 sador, left the bitterest regrets among a people who were proud of the 
 accomplished seaman, as a glorious type of their race ; and Milton's solemn 
 arguments in Cromwell's war-manifesto against Spain overturned the whole 
 superstructure of papal grants in America, where actual occupation did not 
 consolidate discovery. In 1697, upon the occasion of the Scottish enter- 
 prise, the Board of Trade, with Locke on it, examined the Darien case to the 
 bottom ; and they concluded that the region was legitimately open to 
 English occupation, whilst they were only indisposed to let the Scotch have 
 it to our injury. They examined Wafer, who had lived four months in that 
 country, and Dampier, respecting its character, — the Indians' rights and dis- 
 positions, — and the Spaniards' pretensions and possession. They were not 
 without the advice of the most distinguished jiu-ists, and their report is 
 decisive against any concession to the Court of Madrid. (App. LL 8.) 
 
 Paterson was well aware of the prevalence of this disposition amongst 
 English statesmen, and always looked with confidence for a change in their 
 feelings against Scotland in regard to Darien. 
 
editor's paeface. Ill 
 
 There are two special grounds for attributing this memoir to his pen : 
 1. Remarkable passages in it are the same in language and opinions with 
 his known productions ; 2. The subject of the whole work, and the 
 principles upon which it is written, are identical with his objects in rela- 
 tion to Darien, as set forth in the authentic history of that settlement 
 published by the Bannatyne Club from the original manuscripts in Edin- 
 burgh ; and by Sir John Dalrymple, from the same source, in his Memoirs 
 of Great Britain and Ireland. 
 
 The Editor's study of Paterson arose out of the discovery of this memoir 
 in the British Museum, when seeking information respecting the Scot- 
 tish proceedings in Central America, in order to illustrate the history of 
 early British relations with that region, and particularly in order to find any 
 accounts the Scotch might have left concerning the passage from the At- 
 lantic to the Pacific across the Isthmus of Darien. The document may be 
 siud to contain all they knew on the subject after having returned from the 
 unfortunate settlement of Caledonia. 
 
 The memoir concludes with a notice of another official paper by Pater- 
 son on the Navy — a subject which he had many opportunities of carefully 
 considering, and upon which his mechanical taste, as well as his nautical 
 experience, must have well qualified him to form correct opinions. The 
 famous naval name of Benbow as well as that of Lord Peterborough are 
 associated with the plans of Spanish American conquest and settlement 
 here proposed. Admiral Benbow died of his wounds in his last expedition 
 to the West Indies ; and Lord Peterborough's commission to command the 
 land forces in that expedition was exchanged for a more brilliant field — the 
 Spanish Peninsula. (App. MM.) An inconsiderable force was sent after- 
 wards to the mines in the interior of Darien with some slight advantage ; 
 but no attempt was ever made by us in that quarter, the only traces of the 
 Scottish American settlement being its name on the maps, and the bitter 
 resentment long entertained in Scotland against the English authorities for 
 their unjust and impolitic opposition. 
 
 The recent efibrts to open a ship communication from Port Escoces to 
 Darien were singularly injudicious and disastrous ; and it is believed that 
 our improved knowledge of the isthmus will lead to the selection of a 
 channel from other points little appreciated in the seventeenth century. 
 The geographical details, however, on the several lines of transit stated in 
 this memoir are not without interest; and those details indicate the 
 research of a diligent collector of other men's travels (which the Editor 
 ventures to hold Paterson to have been), rather than the minute knowledge 
 of the country which he would have possessed and displayed if he had fre- 
 quented it as a Buccaneer. 
 
 The mistake, therefore, made in selecting the harbour called New Cale- 
 donia by the Scotch for the terminus of a passage to the Pacific, is a fresh 
 proof that Paterson did not bear that character. 
 
112 editor's preface. 
 
 It is certain that a ship-passage through the isthmus connecting North 
 and South America was contemplated soon after Columbus and Cortez had 
 failed to find the natural strait they looked for there. The Spanish govern- 
 ment, under the influence of its spirit of commercial monopoly and religious 
 intolerance, discouraged the work. In modern times the magnitude of that 
 work has exceeded the means of any individual state ; and local distrac- 
 tions, aggravated by the jealousies of foreign powers, have till recently 
 made the indispensable combination of efforts to accomplish it, hopeless. 
 But the wise treaty of Washington of April, 1850, violently as it has been 
 attacked, will assuredly prove favourable to a happy solution of all the diffi- 
 culties of this gigantic work, so worthy of enlightened statesmen. The 
 present impartial policy of England and the United States must have the 
 same good tendency. 
 
 The several lines of railway-transit, now proved by the spirit of the late 
 Mr. Stephens and his colleagues, in the instance of that of Panama, to be 
 of comparatively cheap and easy construction, wUl promote the knowledge 
 of the whole region that is indispensable to the wise selection of the best 
 ship-passage, whether it be at Tehuantepec, in Honduras, or up the Nica- 
 ragua, as some have asserted (App. NN), or on the north-western side of 
 the Panama railroad, as others think (App. 00) ; or along one of the four 
 rival lines in Darien which have their respective advocates : namely, the 
 first and oldest near New Caledonia, as contemplated by the Scots ; the 
 second a few miles up the Atrato river, pointed out by Paterson ; the third 
 up the Napipi river to Cupica Bay, in regard to which Mr. Warburton 
 had an engagement with its indefatigable projector, Mr. J. M. Haldon; 
 or the fourth, up the Truando, recently explored with great perseverance 
 by Mr. Kellie, of New York. (App. P P.) 
 
 But the scene of Paterson's enterprise, promising as it was even in his 
 day, and urgently as this scene now calls for careful consideration, is even 
 less important than the principles upon which he planned the government 
 of his colony. In his hands it must have become a model for colonial 
 progress in point of civilisation, of trade, and of religious toleration, whilst 
 as a practical administrator he would have established suitable.guards against 
 error and corruption. 
 
 The principle of free trade is declared in this memoir with a clear- 
 ness and force that cannot be surpassed; not, indeed, that he can be 
 called the originator of that doctrine ; for what the great writers said in 
 its favour in the middle of the last century, is found to be better expressed 
 by earlier speculators, whose writings they seem never to have read. 
 The memoir also contains a curious sketch of British and other colomes 
 at a period when we were exposed to formidable rivalries in more than one 
 European state. 
 
 On two points only does Paterson seem to have erred on tliis subject. 
 He was vmquestionably just and conciliatory towards the native ti-ibes of 
 America, among whom his settlements were to be placed; but to the African 
 
editor's preface. 113 
 
 he, like Las Casas, looked only as a slave-owner, and he calmly reckoned 
 upon negro slave-labour as one of the chief sources of wealth for his colo- 
 nists. So in regard to the East Indies, he had not the slightest foresight 
 of the power we have since acquired there. The attention of his company 
 had been earnestly called to an enterprise in the East Indies before the 
 Darien expedition was developed. He pertinaciously resisted that pro- 
 posal. Nor has any trace been found by the Editor of a design attributed 
 to him in the ingenious paper upon "The Scot abroad " (App. QQ), in which 
 Paterson is said to have planned the revival of the ancient overland trade 
 to India, with the aid of certain Armenian merchants (App. RR.) 
 
 Upon the local rule of Darien there could now be little difference of 
 opinion, as it is to be expected that ere long no British possession beyond 
 sea will be without the best of constitutions, namely, such as is based upon 
 popular representation, and subject to popular control, with general 
 equality of rights, and a free press to protect them. 
 
 On the contrary, Paterson's views respecting the home administration of 
 our colonial possessions still urgently demand consideration. Our colonial 
 ministers labour under two great disadvantages. They are not provided 
 with fit means of learning the truth upon the most material current events 
 in the colonies ; and by the composition of their offices they are cut off from 
 the men capable of enlightening them and Parliament, either upon those 
 current events, or upon the character of leading Colonists, or the influence of 
 important measures in any of the colonies. The consequences are noto- 
 rious and deplorable, such as Canadian rebellions, which are but repro- 
 ductions of the revolution of the thirteen American colonies of the last 
 century, with its debt of millions hanging round our necks, and its miserable 
 results at this moment ravaging the fairest portions of the western world : 
 and such as Caffre wars, which are simply repetitions of the Indian wars of 
 two hundred years, with an aggravated amount of expense and of peril. 
 
 All this springs from the gross ignorance of the truth in the Colonial 
 Office in Downing Street, leading to gross errors in policy, and to vacilla- 
 tion even in its errors. 
 
 In Paterson's time. Lord Somers, a distinguished colonial minister, as 
 well as the greatest constitutional statesman we have ever had, adopted 
 methodical digests of intelligence from the colonies, which had the correction 
 of the old false system in view. These digests were laid periodically before 
 Parliament during fourteen years. They were then given up, and a long 
 period of neglect followed, which seems to have reached its climax when 
 the Duke of Newcastle, after being Secretary of State for twenty years, 
 left a warehouse of colonial despatches with their original bandages unti.jd. 
 This neglect was one of the primary sources of the American revolution of 
 1766 ; and the Board of Plantations, after being long a resting-place for 
 feeble poets like Soame Jenyns, and historians like Gibbon, fell to pieces 
 under Burke's withering sarcasms. 
 
 VOL. I. I 
 
114 
 
 Paterson would have prevented all this, in the first place by means of a 
 board of experienced men in aid of the Secretary of State, speedily to convey 
 to the Government correct views of all colonial affairs requiring its atten- 
 tion. Such a board had been formed under the Commonwealth, and it was 
 revived for several years after the Kestoration, sitting with great advantage 
 in Mercers' Hall in the city (App. SS). This was the plan set out in the 
 West India Tract of 1690, to which Paterson contributed. Like the old 
 Board of Trade and Plantations, it combined colonial and commercial topics 
 under the direction of one body ; and when, with his usual buoyant spirit, 
 he extended his efforts (after succeeding in carrying a council of trade, and 
 in supporting the Darien Company in Scotland, in 1705,) to the further 
 object of improving the English administration of the colonies and trade, he 
 speculated boldly upon establishing a national council of trade of the same 
 large character for England also. This is done in the closing chapters of 
 the Dialogues of 1706 on the Union. Being employed on the work of the 
 Union after publishing that tract, and strongly recommended to Queen 
 Anne, at the completion of the Union, for employment in the public ser- 
 vice, he seems to have abstained from pursuing these speculations when 
 disappointed, not only of that employment, but even of the payment 
 of the indemnity which the House of Commons resolved was due to him 
 (App. TT). 
 
 The wise plan of administration acted upon for a season would have 
 been much enforced by perseverance in Lord Somers's method of securing 
 a regular supply of colonial intelligence. The royal instructions to the 
 colonial authorities prescribed a system of reports that would furnish large 
 materials for that supply. The digests periodically to be laid before Par- 
 liament would have kept it on a level with events. 
 
 A few years ago an attempt to revive this plan, in a much improved shape, 
 was well received in powerful quarters ; and very recently there seemed to 
 be a probability that it could be revived under the best auspices. An im- 
 pediment, however, has been thrown in its way by the influence of that 
 narrow routine which prefers darkness to light, and by the official weakness 
 which daily sacrifices the best public interests. 
 
 Paterson's views of home colonial government were of a diametrically 
 opposite character to those which have prevailed for the last 150 years at 
 enormous cost to the nation ; and which at this moment can only be resisted 
 with effect by a reconsideration of the plan which both Cromwell and 
 Clarendon pursued, and Paterson advocated— namely, a board of practical 
 men in aid of ministers— to which must come at last his principle of a 
 Colonial and Indian representation in the House of Commons. 
 
A PROPOSAL 
 
 PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN; 
 
 TO PROTECT THE INDIANS AGAINST SPAIN ; 
 
 AMD TO 
 
 OPEN THE TRADE OF SOUTH AMERICA TO ALL NATIONS. 
 
 1701. 
 
 I 2 
 
TO THE KING. 
 
 Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 
 I was once in hopes of being instrumental in laying, not only 
 this scheme, but no small part of" the thing contained in the fol- 
 lowing sheets, at the footstool of your throne. 
 
 And although in this I have been hitherto frustrated by many 
 and different occurrences, yet, after all, it is with the greatest 
 pleasure 1 now behold the very past difficulties and disappoint- 
 ments, instead of having contrary effects, so capable of being 
 brought only to contribute the more towards the due forming and 
 maturing this noble undertaking for such a time as this, and to 
 be as so many necessary harbingers tO prepare and pave the way 
 for the future glorious progress of those victorious fleets and 
 armies, which seem ready to receive your royal call and com- 
 mand. 
 
 Great Sir, as both worlds, the new as well as the old, do at 
 this time implore your protection, so I trust the effectual open- 
 ing this door of commerce, and of more easy access unto, and 
 correspondence with, the ends of the earth, hath been hitherto 
 hidden for so great and unparalleled a conjuncture as this, and 
 reserved by the Divine hand for one of the singular glories of 
 your Majesty's reign. 
 
 And after all my troubles, disappointments, and afflictions, in 
 promoting the design during the course of the last seventeen 
 
118 DEDICATION. 
 
 years, it is now with no small satisfaction I take this opportunity 
 of proposing so hopeful an accession to the dominions and great- 
 ness of your Majesty, and wealth of your people, as it is hoped 
 this may one day come to be, as likewise to express the sense I 
 have of the honour of your royal permission, on this occasion, to 
 subscribe myself, 
 
 Most Gracious Sovereign, 
 Your Majesty's 
 Most dutiful, faithful, and obedient servant. 
 
 London, Jan. 1, 1701. 
 
A PROPOSAL 
 
 PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEK 
 
 A brief View of the weight and consequence of the General Trade, 
 and of some considerable places in the Indies. 
 
 As the more direct and immediate consequences of the late 
 union of the crowns of France and Spain in the House of Bour- 
 bon give just umbrage to all thinking men, so there are others, 
 the which, although by reason of their distance of place, or 
 various and different circumstances, may to the common view 
 seem more remote and less to be apprehended, yet, if not taken 
 in time and duly regarded, may not only be of equal but by 
 much the most danger. Of this nature, what presents itself in 
 the first place, and comes most naturally in view, is the weight 
 and consequence of the Indies ; for if the fruits of those new dis- 
 coveries of the Spaniards have, within the last two ages, made far 
 greater alteration in Christendom than the sword ; — if, notwith- 
 standing all those superficial and faint approaches that have 
 hitherto been made by others, the Indies of Spain be still not 
 only much more considerable than those of all the nations of 
 Europe together, but capable of giving a greater scope to pro- 
 fitable navigation and industry than all the known world besides ; 
 — if what other nations have gained or gotten from the Indies 
 within this last hundred years has been rather by the mismanage- 
 ments of the Spaniards than by any other means ; — if things be 
 really thus, then what mischiefs have the rest of mankind not to 
 
120 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 expect from this new accession, from this conjunction of the 
 people, arts, manufactures, and shipping of France, to the best 
 and most advantageous means of employing and improving them, 
 now in the hands of Spain. Wherefore, in order to shew of 
 what dangerous consequence it may be to suffer France and 
 Spain to new mould and regulate their now joint interest, and 
 to improve those seeds of dominion they have now in the 
 Indies, we shall, in the first place, endeavour to give a brief 
 view of the several interests of the princes and states of Europe 
 in the three other parts of the world. In the second place, we 
 shall shew the dangerous tendency of this new union to Christen- 
 dom in general, but more immediately to the trade and dominions 
 of Great Britain and those of the United Provinces in parti- 
 cular. And thirdly, we shall propose the most proper and effec- 
 tual ways and means for avoiding this imminent danger. 
 
 First general Head. — The several interests of the Princes and 
 States of Europe in the other parts of the World. 
 
 The states of Europe whose interests for the Indies are capable 
 of contributing anything worth naming to the balance of wealth 
 and power, herein principally under consideration, are only five^ 
 viz. Spain, Portugal, France, the United Provinces, and the 
 kingdom of England. 
 
 First, Spain. — Besides the Manillas, or Phillippine Islands, 
 in the East Indies, the Spaniards are still, or pretend, at least, 
 to be, possessed of the most considerable islands, and of the far 
 greatest part, and most material part, of the continent of Ame- 
 rica. They likewise pretend, not only to exclude all other 
 nations from the trade, but even from the very navigation, of the 
 spacious South Sea, the which, even by what thereof is already 
 known, appears not only to be the greatest, but by far the richest 
 side of the world. 
 
 Secondly, Portugal. — As the Portuguese were the first who 
 made the more easterly discoveries in the Atlantic ocean, so 
 the doctrines of monopolies and exclusions which they had 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 121 
 
 formerly received from the Hanse Towns of Germany, together 
 with their own native presumption and avarice, easily in- 
 clined them, not only to think of engrossing the commo- 
 dities and countries they found, but even the very world 
 itself; from which unaccountable conceits sprang the interrup- 
 tion they afterwards gave to the navigations of the Spaniards, 
 under pretence of being the first discoverers of the great sea 
 towards the west and south, and that therefore only the Portu- 
 guese might justly sail therein. From thence proceeded that 
 new and unheard-of method of dividing the world between 
 Portugal and Spain, whereby, instead of claiming and denomi- 
 nating their properties and dominions from their possessions, 
 or that of their ancestors, and settling and defining their limits 
 by seas, rivers, lakes, mountains, morasses, or other natural or 
 artificial boundaries on the superficies of the ground, according 
 to the uninterrupted practice of all former ages, — they now, by 
 a quite other and contrary way, pretended to draw certain 
 imaginary mathematical lines between heaven and earth, and, 
 with an arrogancy more than human, presumed to claim for 
 theirs all that lies between those lines, as if they thereby 
 meant to encroach upon God in heaven, as well as upon men 
 on earth. By this division it is, that the Portuguese have 
 since claimed that commonly called the eastern, and the 
 Spaniards the western side of the world ; but the hearts of the 
 Portuguese bearing no sort of proportion to those wild and 
 unbounded conceits, it therefore came to pass, that, by restraints 
 and prohibitions in trade, as well as in religion, they have so 
 cramped and crushed their designs, that, instead of an accession 
 of wealth and power, which they so greedily sought, and 
 which they otherwise might have, their acquisitions in the 
 Indies became first a weakening to them, and afterwards a prey 
 to those nations which had somewhat less presumption, but a 
 great deal more industry than they. 
 
 But, notwithstanding their great losses to the Dutch and 
 others, they have still remaining several places in the East 
 
122 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 Indies, and upon the east and west coast of Africa, which, 
 although they might be of no small consequence to others, yet. 
 for want of industry and good management — which always were 
 and ever will be inconsistent with a religious inquisition and 
 exclusive trade — bring little or no advantage to Portugal. On 
 the coast of Malabar they have the city of Goa, and that of 
 Macao on the coast of . China, with some other places of less 
 consequence in Asia. On the coast of Africa they have Mozam- 
 bique, Melinda, and some other settlements. On the west coast, 
 besides the islands of Cape Verd, Azores, and Madeira, they 
 have yet several places on the continent left in their possession. 
 But what is at this day most material, and of greatest conse- 
 quence to the Portuguese, is that rich ^nd fertile tract of land in 
 America, extending itself from the great river of Amazons on 
 the north to that of La Plata on the south, commonly known by 
 the name of Brazil ; the which, considering the management, or 
 rather mismanagement, of the Spaniards, might by this time have 
 been capable of very great things. But, however, the Portuguese 
 having been by the Hollanders driven out of the most and best 
 part of their possessions in the east, that little of their genius 
 which has escaped the consuming Inquisition had thereby the 
 greater opportunity to incline to this bias, and to vent itself 
 towards the improvement of Brazil ; wherein, as they have 
 managed things better, or rather not so badly, as the Spaniards, 
 so have they again been greatly outstripped by others, wJio yet 
 have had more and greater natural difficulties to encounter with, 
 and fewer and less considerable opportunities than they. 
 
 Thirdly, France. — Although the French were none of the first 
 in undertaking, yet are they not now very far behind hand in the 
 Indies. In America they have Canada and part of Newfound- 
 land to the northward ; and, besides a considerable part of the 
 great island of Hispaniola, as likewise of that of St. Christopher 
 to the southward, they have the island of Martinique, Guada- 
 loupe, and that of Cayenne, together witii part of the coast of 
 Guiana adjoining, with some other islands, or rocks, of less con- 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 123 
 
 sequence. In Africa they have some footing in the rivers of 
 Senegal, Gambia, and other places of the west coast, as likewise 
 some places of no great consequence in the East Indies. 
 
 Considering the many favourable opportunities the French 
 have had, and the great expenses they have been at, both in the 
 east and west, within the last fifty years, one might have expected 
 much greater things from them, but, instead of this, even what 
 they have done has been rather from some unaccountable weak- 
 ness or oversight of others than from any good conduct of theirs : 
 so thati whether it be that the genius of nations, as well as of 
 particular persons, is rarely capable of penetrating far, or of 
 making considerable improvements in several great things at 
 once, or from what other cause, we pretend not here to determine, 
 but it is plain that this potent nation, which now for more than 
 half an age has not only come up with, but outstripped others 
 in several things — but especially in the arts of war, intriguing, 
 and taxing — have been far enough from having the same success 
 in matters of trade, and in designs to those more remote places 
 of the world. So it is hoped that Almighty God hath better 
 things in store for the rest of mankind than can possibly consist 
 with a measure of knowledge and capacity suitable to the oppor- 
 tunity now in their hands, by the means of this their new con- 
 junction with Spain and Portugal. 
 
 Fourthly, The United Provinces. — Besides the islands, or 
 rather rocks, of Curagoa, Eustatia, and Saba, the Dutch have 
 Surinam, a part of Guiana, upon the main continent of America, 
 where, after many struggles and difficulties in wading through a 
 bog, almost as bad as their own doubtless once was, they have at 
 last pierced above an hundred leagues into the country ; where, 
 by the communication of navigable rivers, they find not only a 
 great conveniency for water carriage, but likewise a very excellent 
 country, the which they are now in a fair way of cultivating to 
 the best advantage. The Hollanders have likewise a settlement 
 at the Cape of Good Hope, and several others upon the west 
 coast of Africa. But the great and main acquisitions of the 
 
124 A PROPOSAL. TO 
 
 Dutch are in the East Indies, where, if they have not taken the 
 best, yet are they doubtless come very near to the next best 
 course; and, as they have therein outstripped all other nations in 
 Christendom in good and reasonable institutions for the increase 
 of trade and dominion, so their success has been answerable, 
 since they have thereby been enabled to settle potent colonies, 
 make many and great conquests, and to erect a mighty empire 
 in those remote regions, where they have under their command 
 mighty fleets and armies, capable of controlling great potentates, 
 shake kingdoms, remove kings, and give laws to the eastern 
 world, and all this not so much at the labour and expense of 
 their own as that of other people. In the west the Dutch have 
 not been so successful, especially since their unaccountable loss 
 of Brazil about fifty years ago, the which if they had kept to this 
 day, they had thereby not only hindered the rise and progress of 
 the plantations of some other nations, but in all human appear- 
 ance this their footing in the west might by this time have been 
 capable of meeting with, and of being joined to, that in the east, 
 and thereby to carry the balance and bias of wealth and power 
 of Europe quite the contrary way than we have seen within the 
 last forty years. 
 
 Fifthly, England. — Excepting a few factories, the acquisitions 
 of the English in the East Indies are not at all considerable, 
 nor, on the present foot, are they likely to be much increased or 
 improved, since our trade thither is chiefly founded on a mo- 
 nopoly of the sale of East Indian manufactures in this kingdom, 
 where there has for some time been as great, or perhaps a greater 
 demand of these commodities than in all Europe besides. On 
 the west coast of Africa they have several settlements and factories, 
 and the African Company, in whose possession and property they 
 are, have lately been put under an excellent regulation by Par- 
 liament, the which, with some small improvements, is capable of 
 making it one of the best ordered and least burthensome com- 
 panies, to the growth and improvement of trade, of any in 
 Christendom. 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 125 
 
 But the main and most valuable concern of this kingdom in 
 the Indies, is the western plantations, the which, as they have 
 been of no small advantage for near half an age, so are they now, 
 in case of a rupture with France and Spain, capable of being 
 rendered the most growing, vigorous, and influencing interest 
 that is or can be made in the Indies. Besides a part of New- 
 foundland, the English are now possessed of many potent co- 
 lonies upon the main continent of America, from the southerly 
 part of Carolina, in about 30°, to the northerly part of New 
 England, in about 44° of north latitude. In the more southern, 
 or summer country, besides a part of St. Christopher, they have 
 the islands of Bermuda and Bahama to the northward, and Bar- 
 badoes, Nevis, Antigua, and Montserrat among the Caribbees, as 
 also the island of Jamaica, lying nearer into the Bay of Mexico. 
 These plantations, which have already contributed so much to 
 the wealth and support of this nation, and at this time look as 
 especially prepared and directed by the Divine hand as harbin- 
 gers to prepare the way for so great a work as seems now to be 
 ready and ripe for execution, have not, as some have vainly 
 imagined, sprung from the deep contrivances or designs of any 
 one, or a party of men, but from various causes, at several times; 
 and, to say the truth, rather from our own or other people's 
 weakness than from real virtue or good conduct in the preceding 
 age. Our northern settlements have for the most part had their 
 rise from our contentious broils on the score of religion, state 
 affairs, or both ; and, although our most southern plantations 
 sprang from the same, or very like causes, yet they owe the great 
 and principal part of their success to tiie Netherlanders' loss of 
 the Brazil to the Portuguese about fifty years ago. 
 
 The soils of the Caribbee Islands were never of the richest ; 
 but now, by a long course of cultivation, they are almost worn 
 out. And if we add to this, that, by the damps and vapours of 
 the earthquakes and inundations, these places are now become 
 more unhealthy and mortal than they formerly were, it may be 
 reasonably considered, had it not been for this great and sur- 
 
126 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 prising conjunction of France and Spain, the bias of some few, 
 and the ignorance of the great part, might possibly have kept 
 the nation from penetrating or looking any further than only to 
 the old trade of grubbing upon those rocks till they had insensi- 
 bly become a much greater prejudice than ever they have been a 
 benefit to England. 
 
 For after the excellent conditions of that noble country by the 
 lazy and untoward management of the Portuguese having been 
 raised, and kept up to nearer treble than a double price, this 
 nation had thereby opportunity and encouragement to cultivate 
 those their miserable islands, or rather rocks, of the Caribbees, 
 and to raise sugar and tobacco, not only for their own con- 
 sumption, but for that of other countries, the which, as America 
 is constituted, could never otherwise have happened. 
 
 It is true, Jamaica, besides being a better soil than the other, 
 has also a conveniency, by her situation, for a kind of stolen or 
 smuggling trade with the Spaniards, the which, whatever noise it 
 may have made by reason of a few that have been gainers thereby, 
 yet was it always as inconsiderable as uncertain, even to what 
 was, and much more to what might have been, done in those 
 places of the world. 
 
 This brings us naturally to the second head, which is to show 
 the dangerous tendency of this new union to Christendom in 
 genei'al, but more immediately to the trade and dominion of 
 Great Britain and those of the United Provinces in particular. 
 
 Second general Head. — The dangerous consequence of the new 
 Union of France and Spain. 
 
 As an introduction to this second head, and for the further 
 clearing of what is to follow, we shall, in the first place, endea- 
 vour to give some of the principal reasons why the Spaniards, 
 by means of their Indies, have not long ere this been enabled to 
 draw and attract to themselves the greatest part of the wealth, 
 trade, manufactures, navigation, and consequently of the people 
 and power of the world. It will easily be concluded that the 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 127 
 
 Spaniards, for these two ages past, have had in their hands the 
 most easy and natural means of becoming masters of the world 
 of any people that ever were, when it shall be duly considered 
 that the Indies of Spain have in effect produced at least two- 
 thirds of the value of whatsoever both Indies have yielded to 
 Christendom ; because the commodities produced by the Indies 
 of Spain are, generally speaking, the most staple and current of 
 all others. 
 
 Since also not only the trade, but the very Indies, are capable 
 of vast improvement, because the isthmus of America is not only 
 the natural centre of the west, but easily to be put in a state 
 of being that of at least two-thirds of the trade and treasure 
 of both Indies ; and since the settlement and possession of these, 
 with the port of Havannah on the island of Cuba, is capable of 
 rendering all other acquisitions unprofitable and unsafe, except- 
 ing only as by an understanding and connexion with them ; 
 then by comparing the price of labour, edibles, and European 
 commodity in the Indies of Spain with what they are in England 
 and Holland, there will be reason to suppose that in a hand only 
 as industrious as that of the English or Dutch, the Indies might, 
 since their first discovery, have produced nearly treble the 
 quantity of Indian commodities and growths as they have yielded 
 to Europe. 
 
 So, notwithstanding the lazy, negligent, and untoward ma- 
 nagement of the Spaniards, yet their importation of gold aind 
 silver only has been capable of sinking the value thereof, and 
 consequently to enhance the price of labour and staple com- 
 modity here in Europe from one to five, and to increase the 
 navigation and shipping thereof as near, if not quite, to this pro- 
 portion ; and not only so, but to raise the revenue of most of the 
 provinces and states near, if not quite, ten to one of what they 
 were before the year 1500, Therefore it may justly be assumed, 
 tliat, with anything of a tolerable management, the Spaniards 
 could not have failed to be much more than in a condition not 
 only to conquer, but even to buy what was valuable of the rest 
 
128 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 of Christendom ; and that it has been rather by the more im- 
 mediate hand of Almighty God than by any human foresight, 
 prudence, or by reasonable conduct of those concerned, that 
 not only Europe, but the most valuable part of the world has not 
 long ere this been brought to submit to the yoke of Spain. 
 
 Dangers to civil liberty from Charles V. and Philip II. 
 
 For, to pass over the times of the Kings, as they were called, 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, and Emperor Charles, their grandson, 
 had Philip II. but added that five hundred and sixty-four million 
 of ducats he spent upon his projects in the Netherlands to what 
 he bestowed in order to the bringing of France and England 
 under his yoke ; if, instead of consuming this then so immense a 
 sum in planting the standard of his more than inhuman inquisi- 
 tion in that piece of German bog; and, instead of making this 
 his greatest obstruction, he had by good usage brought the seven- 
 teen provinces to be the principal second and support of these 
 his vast designs, — humanly speaking, what could have hindered 
 the rest, or at least the most material part, of Europe, if not of 
 the world, from becoming a prey to him ? 
 
 But, to come closer to the matter, had Charles the Emperor, 
 and Philip his son, instead of setting out upon the principle of 
 their execrable Inquisition and an exclusive trade, founded their 
 acquisitions in the Indies and elsewhere upon the like brave, 
 extensive, and generous maxims with the great King Henry IV. 
 of France, and by granting general naturalisation, liberty of 
 conscience, and a permission to trade to the people of all nations 
 on reasonable terms, they might doubtless have gained that which 
 they aimed at, or at least said they aimed at, not only without 
 hazard and diiBculty, but with ease and security in every step 
 they took. 
 
 Since by such permission trade, besides the immense wealth 
 that must needs have centred in Spain as the emporium of the 
 Indies, and consequently of the trading world, even the incon- 
 siderable duties of five per cent upon the value of the importa- 
 
i-JjAJNT A UUJUUJN I liN UAjilEN. 129 
 
 tions into, and the like on the exportations from their colonies, 
 together with every easy imposition upon the consumption of 
 the subjects and inhabitants, might long ere this have been 
 capable of bringing a much greater annual income to the very 
 treasury and the government of Spain than the value of all the 
 present profits of the returns, not only to the king, but even of 
 that kingdom from the Indies, But, quite contrary to all this, 
 the Spaniards, by their too eager pursuit, instead of overtaking, 
 have quite overrun their game ; and the monopoly of those before 
 unheard-of and unequalled mines in the Indies being added to 
 that of their souls in Spain, instead of enriching them, as they so 
 greedily designed, hath contributed both to heighten their pre- 
 sumption and avarice the more, and to cramp and enervate their 
 industry to such a degree, that most of all their bulk trade, con- 
 sequently their shipping, mariners, and manufacturers, have been 
 lost to the English, Dutch, and others, whose work and labour 
 are incomparably cheaper than that of theirs, and vastly below 
 the produce of their Indian mines. Thus the Indies, which, but 
 indifferently managed, might have made the Spaniards the 
 greatest and richest people that ever were, by mismanagement 
 and wrong directions have not a little contributed to their ruin. 
 For by their prohibiting any other people to trade, or so much 
 as to go or dwell in the Indies, they have not only lost those 
 trades they could not in this manner profit by, grasp, or main- 
 tain, but they have depopulated and ruined their own country 
 therewith ; insomuch that, properly speaking, the Indies may be 
 said rather to have conquered the Spaniards, than that they have 
 conquered the Indies, By permitting all to go out and none to 
 come in, they have not only lost the people which are gone to 
 that far distant and luxuriant region, but the remote expectation 
 of so vast advantage hath likewise rendered those that remained 
 almost wholly unprofitable and good for nothing ; for there is 
 now-a-days hardly a Spaniard of any spirit but had rather risk 
 his person on an adventure to the Indies, than hazard the stain- 
 ing his gentility by the work and industry of Europe, and thus, 
 yoL. I, K 
 
130 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 not unlike the dog in the fable, the Spaniards have in a manner 
 lost their own country, and yet not gotten the Indies. People 
 and their industry are the true riches of a prince or nation, inso- 
 much that, in respect of them, all other things are but imaginary. 
 This was well understood by the people of Rome, who, contrary 
 to the maxims of Sparta and Spain, by general naturalisations, 
 liberty of conscience, and immunity of government, not only 
 more easily, but likewise much more advantageously and eifectu- 
 ally, conquered and kept the world than ever they did, or possibly 
 could have done, by the sword. 
 
 Thus, as in some sort of distempered bodies, where the 
 nourishment feeds not the patient, but the disease, and where 
 the stronger and more cordial is still the more dangerous, so 
 this immense wealth of the Indies, which otherwise might have 
 given strong and wholesome nourishment to the body politic of 
 Spain, by misapplication has proved only oil to the flame of 
 their more than inhuman inquisition. As to the destruction, if 
 not of the greatest, at least of the best part, it has chiefly been 
 this monopoly of their souls that has thus depraved the religion, 
 perverted their morals, and depressed the genius of the remain- 
 ing Spaniards ; so it is to their before unheard-of kind of mono- 
 poly of the Indies they owe the strengthening their presumption, 
 and weakening their industry, to such a degree, that the freights 
 of shipping, and consequently of all other things relating to the 
 navigation of Spain and the North-sea countries of America, are 
 at this day at about four times the rate of those in England and 
 of the United Provinces. Again, the freights of shipping and 
 other industry in the South-sea countries do exceed the price of 
 those of Spain and the North Sea at least three to one ; and the 
 price of a negro, which is the labouring man in America, and 
 has used in a medium to be at about 80 pieces of eight at 
 Jamaica or Cura9ao, is in J'eru or Charcos from 800 to 1,500 
 or 1,600, and in the medium cannot be less than 1,000 pieces of 
 eight. So, although the best iron may usually be had for about 
 three, or not exceeding four, pieces of eight per quintal, or one 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIBN. 131 
 
 hundredweight, yet the common price of such iron in the country of 
 the South Sea is hardly ever less than fifty or sixty pieces of eight 
 per quintal, and so of other European commodities and manu- 
 factures. Then the meanest able-bodied negro will not be hired 
 in the South-sea country under a pistole or four pieces of eight per 
 day, and at the mines the wages are still much higher, nay, in 
 some places, even to the double of this. So, although in Hoi"- 
 land and Geneva, which are so far from the fountain-head, 
 interest of money hardly exceeds two per cent, per annum on 
 current securities, yet among the Spaniards in the very Indies it 
 is from ten to twelve, and even to twenty per cent, per annum. 
 From all which it must needs follow, that the gleanings of the 
 grapes of other nations should be better than the vintage of the 
 Spaniards in this their new world. 
 
 And thus, upon due consideration, it will be apparent that the 
 want of people, the great distance and separation of their do- 
 minions, and consequently the occasion of dividing their forces, 
 and of double expense and hazard, great debts upon a mis- 
 management of the public revenues, and the late accession of 
 power to the nobles or grandees, which have been commonly 
 talked of, and given out for the great and principal causes of the 
 decadency and present low ebb of the monarchy of Spain, are 
 either but very superficial, or only effects of their grasping at 
 such vast dominions, without the so necessary helps of a general 
 naturalisation, liberty of conscience, and a permission trade ; — 
 but, on the contrary, they have consumed their nation's and 
 people's spirit and genius by those two unheard of and monstrous 
 monopolies, the one upon the neck of the other, viz. that of the 
 very souls of the Spaniards by their priests, and that again of the 
 Indies by the Spaniards. 
 
 The unaccountable Stupidity of the Statesmen of the last Two 
 Centuries in matters relating to the new discovery and increase 
 and progress of Trade and Navigation. 
 
 Thus,^ whatever some unthinking and misinformed persons 
 
 K 2 
 
132 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 may otherwise suppose or guess at, yet it is manifest it has only 
 been from accident of the unaccountable mismanagement of the 
 Spaniards that any of the nations of Europe worth looking after 
 have been left in a condition to preserve their liberty, or of 
 gaining ground in the points of manufactures, navigation, and 
 plantations. And certainly it administers no small cause of 
 wonder that the best and most capable spirits of Christendom 
 have hitherto been so stupid, so dull and little concerned in a 
 matter of so^vast vveight and consequence, that none of those we 
 commonly call all the politicians of the last two ages have been 
 at any tolerable pains or expense to search into the source and 
 original of this violent evil, this negative kind of destruction, 
 introduced into the rest of the world by their not only new, but 
 new kind of discoveries in the Indies ; — that our ancestors, like 
 so many intoxicated fishes and birds in a maze, should so long 
 sleep upon this precipice, and either not think at all, or think 
 themselves secure with this razor at their throats, — so quiedy 
 and unconcernedly to see Charles the emperor and Philip his 
 son, even by the untoward way he went to work, from those 
 unparalleled mines within six or eight years to import gold and 
 silver sufficient, not only to conquer, but, by good directions, 
 even to purchase the very property of the rest of Europe ; — to 
 suffer Spain, by means of her Indies, during the course of more 
 than an age, besides what they have done in America, to put the 
 rest of Europe to the expense of so many millions of lives, and 
 so many hundred millions of money ; — and that it should be in 
 the nature of the rest of mankind, especially of this nation, 
 within the last fifty years, when it was plainly so very much in 
 their power to make it otherwise, calmly and implicitly to run 
 the risk of the rising of some great prince, or perhaps of some 
 considerable subject of a suitable genius, or other like accident 
 among the Spaniards, — so to new model their Indies, instead of 
 being so much a dead and insupportable burthen and weight to 
 themselves, to become, not only their firm and permanent 
 support, but a most tempting and effective bait to their neigh- 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIBN. 133 
 
 bours, the which, to all human appearance, could not but have 
 had the designed effect. 
 
 Inciiements to the Study of the Principles of Trade and its 
 
 But as, when Almighty God in his providence will deliver a 
 people from the dangers that attend so fatal an infatuation as 
 this, mankind are commonly awakened, either by some excellent 
 or capable person raised up for that purpose, or by some very 
 unexpected and awakening providence, so it is hoped our states- 
 men and politicians, who not many months ago would have 
 reckoned it altogether absurd in any one to expect, or so much 
 as dream of, this late formidable conjunction of France and 
 Spain, will now be brought to account the study of matters 
 relating to trade, navigation, discovery, and improvement in the 
 world worthy of their regard. And as an incitement and in- 
 vitation before hand, we now venture to assure them that, when 
 they shall begin once to give it a reasonable thought, they will 
 quickly find there is somewhat more, and quite otherwise, in the 
 mainsprings and principles of trade and industry, than only to 
 manage a little conceit or selfish intrigue, — to encourage and 
 procure a monopoly, exclusion^ pre-emption, and restraints or 
 prohibitions ; — to tax the nation for encouraging the exportation 
 of corn when cheap, but to discourage its exportation when dear j 
 "—to settle the price of corn, salt, and such like ; — raise or force 
 the value, name, or interest of money ; — to restrain, prohibit, and 
 disjoin, not the industry of his Majesty's subjects with other 
 nations, but even with and respect to one another. They will 
 find that all these and many more pretended encouragements are 
 so far from the things they are called, that they are not only 
 intrigues to make private advantage from the ruin of the public, 
 and arise from the mistaken notions and conceits of unthinking 
 men, who neither have temper nor allow themselves time or 
 opportunity to consider things as they are, — but only take them 
 as they seem to be, — a soti of presumptuous meddlers, who ar^ 
 
134 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 continually apt to confound effects with causes, and causes with 
 effects, — and not to measure the trade, or improvement of house, 
 family, or country, and even that of the universe, by the nature 
 and extent of the thing, but only by their own narrow and mis- 
 taken and mean conceptions thereof; — then they will be quickly 
 convinced how much the last two ages have not only suffered, 
 but of the danger Christendom has been in, and the needless 
 expense they have been put into by the reason of the want of the 
 due sense and knowledge of the effects of the importation of gold 
 and silver and other wealth from the Indies; and they will easily 
 be capable of seeing what Europe, and especially the trading 
 part thereof, may justly expect if they shall be so stupid and in- 
 sensible as to allow the house of Bourbon to unite the purse of 
 the world to the sword of France. 
 
 But in hopes that the surprising occasion will now suflSciently 
 awaken those concerned, and give them an inclination to dive 
 deep and look far, and to be no more for putting far away the 
 evil day, — or for any skinning over thk dangerous sore, — but 
 quite otherwise, for the future to spend a little of their time and 
 thoughts in considering where and of what nature the principal 
 support of this consuming and destructive Hannibal is, and, like 
 the " Great Scipio," go or send to the fountain-head, and then 
 to give the decided blow, — we shall come now to speak of the 
 most proper and effective means for avoiding this imminent 
 danger; and therein shall first consider not only what those 
 three combined nations have in their power, but likewise the 
 steps they may take if they should now be able to patch up a 
 peace, and therein preserve their respective interests in the 
 Indies wholly and entire. 
 
 Dangers of a Peace with France and Spain under the present 
 constitution of things. 
 
 Could we reasonably suppose that the French and Spaniards 
 have c apacity , inclination, or^both, all of a sudden so much to 
 change their measures from worse to better as to lay aside their 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 135 
 
 mitred and booted apostles, and instead thereof grant but a tole- 
 rable ease to tender consciences ; and, instead of an exclusive 
 trade, and heaping monopolies and impositions one upon an- 
 other, to grant an easy naturalisation to the merchants, manu- 
 facturers, and mariners of all nations, and add to this a 
 permission trade upon reasonable terms ; and to crown this 
 work, and the more effectually to allay all jealousies and sus- 
 picions for the present, to seem very free in parting with some 
 of the most remote corners of their dominions in Europe, under 
 the usual pretence of an ardent desire and real inclination to 
 continue peace ; — ^it is very much to be feared that this or the 
 like bait would easily take ; — and that so great a present pro- 
 spect of advantage would so blind the eyes of those who have the 
 influence, as to make them altogether insensible to future 
 danger; — and not a few even of those who are counted our 
 brightest men would think they had done or gained wonders, — 
 so that in this manner France and Spain could hardly miss of 
 gaining the ascendant in point of trade, manufactures, and navi- 
 gation, and of time to regulate, fortify, and secure their inte- 
 rests in the Indies, so as quickly to be in a condition of putting 
 what terms they please on the rest of mankind. 
 
 But since such great an d unwieldy societies of men and con- 
 siderable states and nations, especially so very much depraved as 
 the Spaniards are, and the Portuguese too, and the French now 
 begin to be, are not easily brought to make so great and funda- 
 mental reforms, especially at once ; and as their past stupidity 
 seems to have proceeded very immediately from the hand of 
 God, whose first step to destroy or disappoint a people is usually 
 to harden their hearts and blind their eyes; — it is hoped 
 Almighty God has better things in store for this age and pos- 
 terity than can reasonably be expected from such vast effects of 
 the new union. Still it must be confessed that this fatal con- 
 junction hath laid open so many ways to ruin Europe, that in 
 all appearance nothing less than the utmost foresight, care, and 
 diligence can possibly prevent it ; however, in order thereunto. 
 
136 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 and by way of caution to those who are principally concerned, 
 we shall endeavour to represent the steps and methods those 
 combined nations are the most cnpable of, and most likely to 
 take. 
 
 The Steps and Methods the French and Spaniards are most 
 likely to take and follow. 
 
 In case of Peace. 
 
 Firstly. It is probable they will, by all possible ways and 
 means, endeavour to recover and reform the present constitution 
 of the revenues of Spain, the which, under but a very indiiferent 
 management, are doubtless capable of being the most consi- 
 derable of any prince or state in Europe. 
 
 Secondly. In matters of religion, although perhaps neither the 
 French may be easily prevailed upon to part with the gentle 
 discipline of their booted, nor the Spaniards from that of their 
 cassock, apostles ; yet is it reasonable to think they will bring 
 both the power and revenues of the Church to be much more 
 subservient to the civil government than hitherto ; — and by this 
 means, besides other supports and advantages, be capable of 
 raising a new revenue of not a few millions a-year, since the 
 yearly revenues of the Church are at present not less than two- 
 fifths of the value of the lands of all the kingdoms and dominions 
 of or under the obedience of Spain. 
 
 Thirdly. They will endeavour to establish a near and close 
 correspondence and communication of trade between themselves, 
 and thereby join the shipping people and manufacturers of 
 France to the best and most advantageous way now in the hands 
 of Spain and Portugal. 
 
 Fourthly. It is possible they may carry this design of a union 
 of trade much further, and, by some kind of immunities, com- 
 munication, or at least by granting a permission trade to all 
 Roman Catholic nations, come even to join the industry of the 
 popish world to the Indies. 
 
 Fifthly. Nay, it is likely they may at first not only grant this 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 13? 
 
 permission trade upon the footing of a supportable duty to 
 Roman Catholics, but even to the English and Dutch; and 
 though they may not allow any -but Roman Catholic merchants, 
 mariners, or manufacturers, to dwell in or go to the Indies, yet 
 they may allow those of England and Holland to reside in 
 Spain. 
 
 Sixthly. If by this or the like means they shall be able to 
 break this alliance, and to disunite the grand confederacy of 
 Europe, — then, as they begin gradually to get the power into 
 their hands, they will endeavour — not all at once, but insensibly 
 — to exclude those they call heretics from trade, first by doub- 
 ling and afterwards by trebling the duty, until the impositions 
 shall at last become insupportable. 
 
 Seventhly. They will endeavour, by good regulations and new 
 and vigorous institutions, to revive and recover the old decayed 
 and decrepid constitution of the government of Spain and domi- 
 nions thereof, and contrive and invent good and firm ways of 
 correspondence between the places of their several dominions, in 
 the which they will be the better enabled by the addition of 
 France and Portugal. 
 
 Eighthly. They will reform, order, and new discipline the 
 inhabitants of America, and fortify and secure the Isthmus, 
 Havannah, and other places of consequence, — not only so as to 
 render them impregnable in themselves, but formidable to the 
 navigation of both seas and the rest of the Indies. 
 
 In case of War. 
 
 Firstly. They will possibly not only give and continue the 
 before-spoken-of or like encouragement of trade to Roman 
 Catholics and other nations who shall come to be allied to themj 
 but, instead of sending out or bringing home their returns from 
 the Indies in old-fashioned, unwieldy, and cumbrous Spanish 
 ships, they will now be for cari-ying out or bringing home their 
 effects in ships built and manned after the newest and best 
 fashion i 
 
138 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 Secondly, By the use they will make of convenient ways of 
 building, manning, and sailing their ships, taking advantage of 
 the respective situations of their ports, the different winds, cur- 
 rents, weather, and seasons of the year, they will endeavour to 
 render all or the greater part of our designs on their trade, ship- 
 ping, or navigation wholly ineffectual. 
 
 Thirdly. By the encouragement and support they will give 
 the company, and the number, good order, and disposition of 
 their ships and the men-of-war, they will endeavour to make the 
 remaining footing in, and the navigation to, the Indies, not only 
 unprofitable but unsafe and destructive to all other nations. 
 
 Thus, instead of the harsh and rugged ways and methods 
 introduced by Fernando, Emperor Charles, and King Philip the 
 Second, those united nations will now begin, by these or the like 
 methods, to slacken that high and insupportable hand, — and 
 thus to unite the rest of Christendom, or at least the Popish 
 world, to them, by the purse, — the which,^sjt jsjhe most easy, 
 so it is the most effectual way of securing subjects and allies that 
 ever was, or perhaps can be, in the world. If they should, 
 under pretence of granting these or the like things, by treaty or 
 otherwise, be able, not only to break the confederacy, but to 
 reduce the trade, navigation, and manufactures of England and 
 Holland to so easy and insensible, and, consequently, effectual, a 
 decay as this naturally would be, — and, on the contrary, to bring 
 that of their own proportionably upon the reviving hand, — is it 
 not to be justly feared that there would be no probable way of 
 preventing those rich and potent nations of England and Hol- 
 land from being taken by this bait, from prostituting themselves 
 to the feeding upon the scraps and crumbs that, whatever the 
 pretence might be, should, for this very purpose, be thrown 
 under the table of this Catholic combination, or to convince 
 them of the danger, before they shall find it, if not too late to 
 repent, at least to extricate themselves ? 
 
 But better things are hoped for, and that Almighty God, who 
 has suffered France and Spain to have so much means and 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 139 
 
 inclination to lay foundations for the destruction of the rest of 
 mankind, has not likewise given them suitable hearts and a pro- 
 portionable measure of understanding ; that He will now begin 
 to raise up and awaken some capable persons and spirits to fore- 
 warn and make Europe sensible of the danger it is at present 
 in ; — and that, in a more particular manner, this kingdom will 
 now be suflSciently awakened and stirred up to take the season- 
 able care that our trade and navigation to the Indies, which hath 
 been gained I'ather by accident than good conduct, may not be 
 lost by the like occasion ; and to look and seek further, and not 
 unconcernedly to stand still until the trade, navigation, ma- 
 nufactures, home industry, and, consequently, the nation, shall 
 begin sensibly to decline, instead of being further enriched by 
 their navigation with, and interest in, the Indies, until there 
 shall be nothing left for them to do in America but to plant 
 sugar and tobacco for their own consumption, and even that at a 
 d^ar rate, until others shall have got the start and ascendant so 
 far as to make it altogether impossible for this nation to recover 
 itself till the disease be past a remedy and all possibility of a cure. 
 
 Third general head. — The most proper ways and means for secur- 
 ing ourselves and depriving those our rivals of this dangerous 
 handle. 
 
 This brings us naturally to the third general head, which re- 
 lates to the most proper ways and means of securing ourselves, 
 and depriving those our rivals of this dangerous handle. 
 
 And for this Nature hath sufficiently provided, since all that 
 is most valuable in the Indies, or Indian trade and navigation, 
 may be better and more effectually secured, at less than a twen- 
 tieth part of the expense of men and money, and but in the 
 well-ordering and securitv of only two or three, than by so many 
 thousand posts and places as the Spaniards have hitherto pre- 
 tended to secure, guard and possess. 
 
140 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 Of the Isthmus of America. 
 
 The first and most considerable of these places is the Isthmus 
 of America, the which, if we reckon it only to extend from the 
 the Gulf of Uraba on the east unto the river of Chagre westward,* 
 will be about eighty leagues in length, and from about twenty to 
 more than thirty leagues in breadth from the one to the other 
 sea ; but if the length of the Gulf of Uraba, and the rivers that 
 run into it, so far as they will admit of water carriage, should be 
 likewise reckoned a part thereof, it will be found more than twice 
 this length, and much about the same kind of breadth. The 
 westernmost point or Cape of the Gulf of Uraba lies in eight degrees 
 and about twenty minutes ; and the mouth of the river Chagre 
 in somewhat more than ten degrees of north latitude. 
 
 This country is in a great degree mountainous, and in most 
 places not easily passable, especially from the north to the south; 
 and therefore it is that in all this tract of land there is reckoned 
 but four ordinary passes between the one and the other sea, viz. 
 that of Chagre, that of Conception, that of Tubugantee, and that 
 of Uraba, or otherwise called by the several names of Cacarico 
 or Paya. 
 
 Pass of Chagre. 
 
 To begin towards the west. The firet of the passes is that of 
 the before-mentioned river of Chagre ; the which, although it be 
 barred, as are almost all those upon this coast by reason of the 
 contrary or interfering winds, tides, and currents, yet is not the 
 bar such but that ships of two or three hundred tons may go in 
 and out ; and, when in, there is safe riding under a very strong 
 and almost inaccessible castle. The convenience of the water 
 carriage of this river continues for about eighteen Spanish, or 
 twenty-two French leagues, to a place called Venta Crucis. From 
 Venta Crucis to Panama, upon the South Sea, there is by land 
 about eight short French leagues, six whereof is- so level that a 
 canal might easily be cut through, and the other two leagues 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 141 
 
 are not so very high and impracticable ground, but that a cut 
 might likewise be made were it in these places of the world, 
 but, considering the present circumstances of things in those, it 
 would not be so easy. However, in the mean time, with no great 
 pains and expense, a good and passable way, not only for man 
 and horse, as it already is, but for carts, waggons, or other sort 
 of carriage, might easily be made. 
 
 The South Sea part of this pass, being that of Panama, might 
 also be made an excellent harbour as any in the world, although, 
 by the negligent and untoward management of the Spaniards, it 
 be not very convenient, and no ways safe, had they but the least 
 apprehension of enemies in the South Seas. The passage over- 
 land from Portobello, about twelve leagues to the eastward of 
 Chagre, or the north to Panama, on the South Sea, is designed, 
 and ought in this description only to be understood, as part of 
 the Pass of Chagre, since they have a communication, with only 
 this difference, that the one is altogether by land, but the other 
 by a considerable part of water carriage, (App. U U.) 
 
 Some make a question whether Portobello ought not to be 
 dismantled, because, although it be an excellent harbour, yet it 
 is withal not very habitable, by reason of the excessive rains and 
 damp. But there are others who say there is no real necessity 
 for this, since those excessive rains and damps, besides that of the 
 bordering mountains, do proceed chiefly from other causes, -viz. 
 the near adjoining woods, morasses, and standing waters, the 
 which, at no very great expense and labour, considering the 
 weight and consequence of the work, may be removed, and the 
 place rendered thereby abundantly more healthy and easy to its 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Pass of Conception, 
 
 In about nine degrees of north latitude, and near forty leagues 
 to the eastward of Chagre, lies the port of Conception; but 
 as neither this in the North, nor the corresponding river of 
 Chiesso on the South Sea, have, or lie near, any convenient 
 
142 A PROPOSAL, TO 
 
 harbour, and that, besides about eight days of very trouble- 
 some water passage, there is still four or five days' tedious travel 
 over mountains, rocks, rivers, morasses, and other no very pass- 
 able ground, we shall not further proceed in the description of 
 this pass, as being no way comparable to the other three. 
 
 Pass of Tubugantee. 
 
 About thirty leagues to the eastward of Conception river, and 
 in about eight degrees and forty minutes north, lies Caledonia 
 Harbour, where the Scots were lately settled. From this har- 
 bour on the north, which is very convenient and defensible, they 
 have but seven short French leagues of good, or at least easily 
 capable of being made good, way to a place called Swattee; and 
 from Swattee to the navigable part of the river of Tubugantee 
 there is about two leagues more, the which, by reason of a steep 
 hill and the frequent occasion there is of passing and repassing a 
 river, is at present troublesome enough ; but that two leagues 
 might likewise easily be made good and passable by an indus- 
 trious hand. 
 
 From Tubugantee on the south there is nine or ten feet water, 
 and not less into the Gulf of Ballona, and these are about 
 sixteen leagues. This Gulf of Ballona on the South Sea re- 
 ceives several great rivers, hath a tide of at least three fathoms 
 water, and several excellent harbours and places of good riding 
 for shipping. (App. W.) 
 
 Pass of Uraba. 
 The fourth and last pass is that of Uraba, usually called by 
 the natives, " the Pass Cacarico or Paya," the one being the 
 river of communication with the North, and the othei". with the 
 South Sea. ' The distance of the pass from Caledonia Harbour 
 is reckoned thus, viz. to the northern point or cape of the Gulf 
 of Uraba nine leagues ; from the cape to the river in the bottom 
 of the gulf about thirty leagues ; up the great river to that of 
 Cacarico, on the right, about ten leagues ; and after a passage 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN BAKIEN. 143 
 
 up the river of Cacarico of about eight leagues, they come to a 
 narrow neck of land not exceeding two short English miles ; the 
 which, although it be rising ground, yet it is such as might easily 
 be made a good cart or waggon way. After passing this neck 
 of land, we come to the navigable part of the river called Paya, 
 where, so far as we can learn, they have about twenty-five or 
 twenty-six leagues into the South Sea. It is plain th^t the 
 Pass of Cacarico hath by much the shortest and most easy land 
 carriage; but, because it hath not the conveniency of a good 
 harbour for shipping on either side nearer than that of Cale- 
 donia, it serves only to render the Pass of Tubugantee much 
 more considerable, and therefore ought not to be reckoned a 
 port, but only as an appendix thereof: insomuch that, all 
 things considered, those four passes are in effect but only two, 
 since that of Conception can hardly be rendered very easy and 
 practicable, and this of Cacarico is only a part of Tubugantee. 
 (App. WW.) 
 
 City and Harbour of Carthagena. 
 Although the city and harbour Carthagena be not a part of 
 the Isthmus, yet, by reason of the vicinity thereof, its excellent 
 harbour, strong and good situation, and the command of, or in- 
 fluence upon so many great rivers and rich countries within the 
 land, it ought nevertheless to be reckoned a part of this design 
 of establishing three or four permission and staple ports in the 
 Indies ; and whether it shall be agreed to be one of these ports 
 or not, yet should it at least never be suffered in the power of 
 any nation which may but seem to threaten or endanger a 
 rivalship. 
 
 The Port and Town o/Havannah. 
 Next the Isthmus, which is the natural centre, not only of 
 America but of the whole Indies, and the only place on earth 
 most capable of being the common storehouse of the neighbour- 
 ing oceans, the Atlantic and the peaceable seas, the town and 
 
144 A PEOPOSAL TO 
 
 port of Havannah is of the greatest consequence, as well by 
 reason of the excellent climate and soil, as of its situalion at the 
 western entrance of the Gulf of Florida, the most considerable 
 sea-pass in America, as of the conveniency of its port and harbour, 
 which is one of the most secure and commodious in the world. 
 This port of Havannah is situated on the north side, over towards 
 the west end of the great and famous island of Cuba, in the 
 height of twenty-three degrees and about thirty minutes north. 
 (App. XX.) As we have already mentioned the most conve- 
 nient and easy passes between the two seas, so there are others, 
 although much less commodious, yet ha\e been, and still are 
 sometimes used : the principal of them are these — 
 
 1st. Pass of Magellan, or Cape Horn. 
 
 The first is the pass by sea through the Straits of Magellan, 
 in about three-and-fifty, or round Cape Horn, in about sixty, 
 degrees of south latitude, which, considering the frequent changes 
 and rigour of the climate, the contrary winds and currents which 
 must be overcome, the distance of little less than six thousand 
 leagues, and that this difficult navigation, so far as it relates to 
 the passage through the Straits of Magellan, or round Cape 
 Horn, can only be made in a certain time or season, being two 
 or three months in the year, it will be found that whatever this 
 navigation may be capable of contributing towards getting the 
 command of the South Sea, yet, when the passage of the Isthmus 
 shall be cleared and opened, there will not, nor cannot, remain 
 any degrees of comparison between the one and the other. 
 
 2nd, Pass of La Plata, 
 
 The second pass is that of the river De la Plata, in about 
 thirty-six degrees of south latitude ; the which, besides a conve- 
 niency of water-carriage, has little less than six hundred leagues 
 of no very easy way to the mountains of Potosi, and much 
 further to the other mines of Pert!, Los Chacos, and Chili ; so 
 
PLANT A COIiONY IN DABIEN. 145 
 
 that, although the water be no less, yet the land-carriage will 
 differ ten to one. 
 
 3rcl. Pass of Nicaragua. 
 The third pass is that of the Lake of Nicaragua, in about 
 eleven degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, the which, by 
 reason of its want of » harbour on the North Sea, and that no 
 small pains and expense would be requisite to make such a con- 
 veniency on that of the South, that there is at least fifty leagues 
 of very difficult water-carriage, and little, if any, less of trouble- 
 some way by land, can hardly be rendered of considerable use, 
 much less of entering into competition with the passes of Cacarico 
 and Tubugantee. (App. YY.) 
 
 4^A. Pass of Acapulco. 
 The fourth pass is that of Acapulco, on the South Sea, in 
 between sixteen and seventeen degrees, and of La Vera Cruz, 
 on the north, in about eighteen degrees and ten minutes north 
 latitude ; but, although this pass be the most usual and conve- 
 nient for all or most of the adjacent provinces of that end of 
 America commonly called Mexico, yet it has, besides other incon- 
 veniences, at least one hundred and sixty leagues of land-passage, 
 and this neither of the best nor easiest way. Besides, were there 
 no such passes as those of the Isthmus, the Port of Havannah 
 is capable of being such a bridle to this, and the whole Bay or 
 Gulf of Mexico, as to render the navigation from thence to 
 Europe in the greater part, if not altogether, impracticable. 
 
 Deigned, not for exclusive Ports of Trade, but the contrary. 
 
 Beside these there are, or may be made, other passes, but none 
 Comparably so convenient or easy as those we have mentioned ; 
 and, doubtless, were the design of this proposal either for the 
 thing as hitherto practised, or even for refining considerably 
 upon exclusive ports and trade, all that we have or can say of 
 the conveniences of the one pass or port above another could be 
 but little available ; for when the monopoly and management, 
 
 VOL. I. L 
 
146 A PaOPOSAL TO 
 
 the price and value of the navigation, labour, and other things, 
 should gradually come to be raised to double, or, as the present 
 case of the Spaniards, to more than a quadruple of what, by a 
 good and prudent management, they need be, then, doubtless, 
 others might and would have the same success against us in the 
 west that the Dutch have had against the Portuguese in the 
 east. A total exclusion, or exorbitant duty or difficulty, would, 
 in such a case, gradually eat or break through stone walls. The 
 thirst of gain, and temptation of so great advantage, would of 
 course make men not only improve to the utmost what is already 
 known, but likewise to exert themselves in finding out new and 
 before unthought-of discoveries and inventions. Instead of such 
 unwieldy ships as the Spaniards now use, they, although at much 
 more trouble, and greater expense, would make and preserve 
 sharp, and well-built, and windwardly ships and vessels; and, 
 by beating up to the windward passage or passages, be able to 
 avoid the danger from or by the reason of an enemy or rival 
 possessed of the port of Havana, which they might otherwise 
 expect attending at the entrance or in the passage through the 
 Gulf of Florida. Also, to avoid those or the like dangers, they 
 might find it worth while to sail through the Straits of Magellan, 
 or round Cape Horn, and encompass not only America, but, if 
 need were, the world. The greatness of the prospect might 
 move and enable them, not only to encounter the difficulty and 
 hazard of long and dangerous voyages by sea, or travels by land, 
 but even to turn the course of rivers, drain lakes, and morasses, 
 to dig or blow up the very rocks and mountains, or, as it is pre- 
 tended Hannibal did, invent a new way or ways to melt them. 
 
 But, quite contrary to all this, not only no occasion is pro- 
 posed to be given to tempt men to such extraordinary thoughts 
 or proceedings, but the causes of such alterations as might other- 
 wise be expected, from force, envy, or necessity, are designed 
 to be altogether taken away, since the duty proposed will only 
 be some small consideration towards maintaining and securing 
 the ports, and for guarding the seas ; and, in the whole, will be 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 147 
 
 SO far from being one-half, that they will not be, nor ought to 
 be, at any time to exceed one-third part of the expense and 
 danger of these roundabout passages or voyages, and such as, 
 for the payment thereof, it will never be worth while to make 
 any difficulty to shun or avoid. Suppose, for example, that the 
 duties of those staple ports should never be allowed to exceed, 
 in the first place, five per cent, upon the value on expbrtations 
 only to the natives ; and, in the second place, five per cent, upon 
 the value upon the importations as well as exportations to allies ; 
 and, thirdly, five per cent, upon the importations, and ten per 
 cent, upon the exportations, to such other aliens as are not allies ; 
 and that, besides this, no advantage to be taken of merchants, 
 their ships, merchandises, or other effects, for or by reason of 
 any embargo, breach of the peace, letters- of marque or reprisal, 
 or war with any prince or state ; but, notwithstanding these and 
 the like difficulties, all merchants, merchant-ships, mariners, 
 passengers, goods, or effects may be free from capture, seizure, 
 or forfeiture within the same ports or their dependencies, or in 
 the coming unto or going from the same : certainly these or 
 the like orders or institutions would naturally for ever deprive 
 all others, not only of the means, but of the inclination and 
 courage, so much as to think of any byways or new undertak- 
 ings. Thus, after this brief hint of the circumstances and ten- 
 dencies of this design, we shall now proceed to the giving of a 
 fuller view of the reasonableness and advantage thereof, together 
 with the good consequences that may be expected therefrom. 
 
 The Proposals. 
 
 First. That, after having possessed ourselves of these doors bf 
 what the Spaniards used to proudly call their king's summer 
 chambers, or, more properly speaking, the keys of the Indies 
 and doors of the world, the passes between the seas and of the 
 Gulf of Florida, we endeavour to secure the same to posterity 
 by breaking to pieces those unheard-of prohibitions and exclu- 
 sions in all those places of the world. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 Secondly, That we not only grant a permission trade to the 
 people of all nations upon easy and reasonable terms, but like- 
 wise, by means of those staple ports, and of our command of the 
 sea, we order matters so as may best shake and overturn the 
 present tyranny in the Indies, that the natives everywhere may 
 get an opportunity and be induced to set up for themselves, and 
 be for the future enabled to maintain the freedom of their go- 
 vernments and trade, under the glorious and easy protection of 
 his Majesty. 
 
 Thirdly. That the permission-trade to and at our staple ports 
 be settled and established on the following terms ; that is to say, 
 — that a duty of not exceeding five per cent, of the value of their 
 importations be paid by all subjects or natives ; secondly, that 
 such aliens as are allies be admitted to trade upon paying a duty 
 not exceeding five per cent, of the value of their importations 
 over and above the like duty of five per cent, on the exporta- 
 tion ; and thirdly, that all such aliens as are not allies may be 
 permitted upon payment of five per cent, on the value imported, 
 as likewise a duty of not exceeding ten per cent, of the value ex- 
 ported from the said ports. 
 
 Fourthly. That the ships, goods, and merchandise, persons, or 
 other effects belonging to merchants or others, of what nation or 
 quality soever, either in the said ports or their dependencies, or 
 in the way of directly going or coming from the same in the way 
 of trade, may be free from any restraint, for or by reason of any 
 breach of the peace, declaration of war, other reason of state, or 
 pretenpe whatever, real damages done, or debts bond fide con- 
 tracted, only excepted. 
 
 Fifthly. That the ships, merchants, mariners, manufacturers, 
 and other labouring people who shall come to dwell or inhabit 
 in the islands of Britain or Ireland, or any of the territories or 
 dominions thereunto belonging, may, after six weeks' abode, and 
 the payment of two-and-a-half per cent, of their estates' value or 
 worth during the first three years, be of course naturalised; 
 wherein it is always understood that no man or woman of twenty 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 149 
 
 years and upwards be valued at less than five-and-twenty pounds 
 sterling. 
 
 Sixthly. That over and above the said duty on importations 
 and exportations towards supporting and maintaining the guard 
 and commerce of the sea, securing and maintaining of the ports, 
 one-tenth part of all gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, pearls, 
 stones of value, ambergris, spices, salt, pitch, precious woods, and 
 such like, as the same shall be found or procured, be likewise 
 yielded and paid by the government. 
 
 Seventhly. That, besides the said duties, no impositions may 
 for ever be laid upon the inhabitants without their own consent, 
 and that neither, excepting only toward securing and maintain- 
 ing their respective governments. 
 
 Eighthly. That besides the necessary fleets, guards of the seas, 
 convoys, cruisers, runners, and the like, to be furnished by the 
 government, a sum not exceeding the sum of 2,400,000/., or 
 800,000/. per annum for three years, either by the government 
 as a national stock, and to be managed by a national council of 
 trade, or by particular undertakers, or by both, be raised for 
 carrying on this design. 
 
 Ninthly. That Scotland and Ireland may not only be admitted 
 into this trade^ but likewise to advance and put in such share of 
 the stock or capital fund as may be proportionable, and not ex- 
 ceeding their respective values or capacities in the payment of 
 public duties as compared with England. 
 
 Tenthly, That in case the said stock or fund or any part 
 thereof shall be agreed to be raised by particular undertakers, 
 such particular stock may have only one moiety of the before- 
 proposed duties or impositions in consideration of the whole, and 
 so proportionable to the share or part of the stock raised by such 
 particular undertakers, and this only for the term of twenty 
 years, and afterwards to have their first stock or principal 
 money refunded by the government: but that the remain- 
 ing part of such duties and impositions may for ever be 
 appropriated towards supporting and maintaining his Majesty's 
 
150 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 royal navy, the command of the sea, and the extraordinary 
 charge of the ports, places, and possessions in the Indies. 
 
 Eleventhly. That however the stock be advanced, yet the 
 matter may be governed by a national council of trade ; and that 
 the proprietors, in case the whole stock be raised by such, may 
 only depute one moiety of the managers and directors, or other- 
 wise, in proportion to the part or share of the said joint stock 
 advanced and paid in by such particular persons. 
 
 Twelfthly. Over and above what encouragement and support 
 the government of these nations shall have given to the said 
 design, as it was before proposed, that, in case of war, there 
 be a fund settled by Parliament for allowing twenty or five- 
 and-twenty per cent, of the equipages that shall be made by 
 particular persons for making captures on the enemy by sea or 
 by land. 
 
 Thirteenthly. That, since the experience gained and dis- 
 coveries made in the late expeditions and attempt of the Scots 
 may doubtless be of great advantage and use to any future 
 attempt of this nature, it is therefore proposed that their 
 loss thereby may be refunded out of the success of the design ; 
 the which will not be only an act of justice, but of the 
 greatest prudence, and capable of giving entire satisfaction, 
 and effectually to gain the hearts of that people in this juncture. 
 
 Tfie Benefits and Advantages to be gained or expected from this 
 
 Design. 
 
 The advantages we have to expect in return for the first ex- 
 pense and hazard may be herein guessed at in the following 
 manner : — 
 
 First. Although the extraordinary sum proposed be two mil- 
 lions, and four hundred thousand pounds, to be paid in three 
 years, yet, if this design shall be begun and carried on by the 
 before-mentioned method and institutions with anything of a 
 reasonable management, we may justly hope that one-half of this 
 sum may be suflScient ; since, even during the three years pro- 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 151 
 
 posed for laying the foundation thereof, our enemies or rivals 
 may possibly be brought to furnish no small share of those ex- 
 penses ; and after the said three years we trust this undertaking 
 shall not only be capable of supporting itself, but likewise of 
 bringing great advantages and benefit to the government and 
 mother country. But if, instead of a reasonable probability, 
 we were next to certain the expense could not exceed one-half of 
 the sum proposed, yet, in the nature of the thing, there ought to 
 be a double stock in such doings or designs; that is to say, one 
 moiety to be at home, as well to support as to secure the good 
 success of the other abroad. 
 
 Secondly. In the second place, let us suppose that the returns 
 from the West may for the last thirty years, in a medium, have 
 amounted to about eighteen millions of pounds sterling yearly, 
 and those from the East Indies about three — suppose four — 
 millions of pounds sterling yearly; in all, about twenty-two 
 millions yearly ; that these returns will not be less consider- 
 able in time to come, and that by good order and management 
 at least two-thirds thereof, or about fifteen millions yearly, may 
 in a few years be brought to enter in and circulate through 
 these passes and staple ports ; and that one-third, therefore, or 
 five millions yearly, may now be traded for by natives of his 
 Majesty's dominions, and to pay five per cent, duty, or about 
 250,000/.; but that the remaining two-thirds, being traded for 
 by foreigners, may, one with the other, pay at least one-tenth 
 part upon the import and export, or about one million sterling, 
 which would make in all, export and import, about 1,250,000/. 
 Then for the tenth part of the productions of nature, such as 
 gold, silver, copper, quicksilver, stones of value, pearls, spices, 
 saltpetre, ambergris, precious woods, and such like, we shall 
 not here venture to guess at the whole, but only give a hint at 
 the mines already known and discovered up the isthmus of 
 America, viz. those of Taligne, Achiere, and Sabulas, which 
 were first found about the year 1682, and the great mine of 
 Cana, which was discovered about a year ago. In those mines 
 
152 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 there are employed, or were lately employed, near 2,000 
 negroes, and room enough, as they say, for more than ten times 
 as many, who, one with another, are obliged, besides their own 
 subsistence, to get for their masters at the rate of three castel- 
 lanos of gold per day, or, in the whole, about the rate of 720 
 marks of silver per weeki Now, if this were in our hands, who 
 can find and aiford negroes at a sixth part they usually cost the 
 Spaniards, there is no doubt we could and would employ at least 
 ten times as many on this and the like work, and have thereby 
 reason to believe we should be able weekly to produce a propor- 
 tionable quantity of gold, or about 7,200 marks, the tenth part 
 whereof would be 720 marks per week, or about one million of 
 pounds sterling yearly; and, together with the sum proposed 
 to arise from the duties and impositions, would amount to 
 2,250,000/. yearly ; the which sum of 2,250,000^. is supposed to 
 arise from the impositions and the duties on the mines only, 
 without reckoning what may be supposed to be produced by the 
 other extraordinary productions of nature, and besides what 
 may justly be expected to arise by the improvement of the 
 general trade, when it shall come to be delivered from the un- 
 toward management of the Spaniards. And if, as in the like 
 cases, the consumption may be supposed to rise and increase in 
 proportion to the fall in the price, then we justly suppose that 
 the computations may, in a few years, not only be much higher 
 but at least double what they are here stated. 
 
 Fourthly. So that, besides the returns and advantages that 
 may be supposed to arise for and in consideration of the ad- 
 vancement of the stock, those duties arising from a permission 
 trade may be made capable of being a most noble and inex- 
 haustible fund for the support and maintenance of the naval 
 forces of this island, and abundantly sufficient, not only to enable 
 his Majesty to be the true and effective guardian of the sea and 
 protector of the commercial world, but all this without impo- 
 sitions or expense to his dominions in Europe, excepting only for 
 the maintenance of the civil and military government ashore. 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DARIEN. 153 
 
 For, although the maintenance of the civil and military govern- 
 ment of those places -in the Indies will doubtless be very ex- 
 pensive, yet excise and other easy ways of taxing might be 
 thought on sufficient to maintain their respective governments, 
 and so as these duties for the permission trade might come 
 without any abatement or defalcation to the mother country. 
 
 Fifthly. When these doors of the seas and the passes of the 
 Indies shall be possessed, secured, and regulated by rules by no 
 means interfering with these solid, safe, general, extensive, and 
 advantageous principles of a general naturalisation, liberty of 
 conscience, and a permission trade, the rest of America, without 
 leave from, or a good correspondence with these, can never after 
 be worth the expense of keeping to any European nation, unless 
 such place or places can possibly produce another better or far 
 cheaper commodity, the which, under these circumstances, can 
 hardly be supposed to happen. 
 
 Sixthly. When to the command of the one and the other sea 
 we shall have added those staple ports of the Isthmus and the 
 Havannah, by keeping good and well-ordered fleets, convoys, 
 cruisers, and runners of our own, and given sufficient encourage- 
 ment for captures upon our enemies, the French, Spaniards, or 
 others with whom we may happen to be at war, may easily be 
 brought to be at the expense at least of three halfpence for every 
 penny or penny's-worth they can possibly get from the Indies, 
 the which will doubtless be the most certain and effective means, 
 not only of bringing them to peace, but such a peace as it shall 
 never more be in their power to break. 
 
 Seventhly. Likewise, by the command of those passes and the 
 seas, we shall be easily able either to give way to the natives to 
 break and shake off the unjust and tyrannical yoke of the 
 Spaniards, or, at least, break to pieces and banish from among 
 mankind these unheard-of and barbarous exclusions, which render 
 all their ports and places, so far from being a benefit, to be for 
 ever a great loss and disadvantage to your Majesty. 
 
 Eighthly. As the greatest and most sensible expense of the 
 
154 A PROPOSAL TO 
 
 nations of Europej in their expeditions to and settlements in the 
 Indies, is that of the loss of people by wants and hardships, and 
 the many changes and rigours of the climate : wherefore, how 
 destructive must it be for any country to create a trade, or make 
 settlements in the Indies, on the foot of exclusions, and not upon 
 those of a general naturalisation, liberty of conscience, and a per- 
 - mission trade, as hereinbefore proposed; since the consequence 
 of the one must needs be, in the end, to ruin, as of the other to 
 enrich the mother country. 
 
 Ninthly. By this constitution we shall be the better enabled to 
 banish, exterminate, and root out all those pernicious restraints, 
 prohibitions, pre-emptions, and exclusions now in these nations, 
 not only in respect to foreigners, but even with respect to one 
 another, since here will be a door opened at once to double, 
 treble, nay, with anything of a good direction, to quadruple our 
 present trade, and so to place matters as from henceforward to 
 be rather in danger of wanting hands for our work than work for 
 our hands. 
 
 Tenthly. Herein may be found easy and sufficient room and 
 opportunity for satisfying that late national loss of the kingdom 
 of Scotland, contracted by their earnest endeavours to be the 
 beginners and harbingers to this noble undertaking, and thereby 
 everlasting obligations might be laid upon them, which would 
 not only be a far more effective, but a cheaper and easier sort of 
 conquest than has been lately talked of by some ; since by this 
 means not only the heads, hands, and civil industry of that 
 kingdom, but likewise of Ireland, may be effectually added 
 towards the strengthening of this centre nation, and consequently 
 of the common cause, instead of being, as hitherto, no small part 
 of our weakness, and left as a back door for the entrance of 
 mischief upon every critical juncture. 
 
 Eleventhly. These small and easy duties upon the exportation 
 and importation at the staple ports will, so far from being an 
 uneasy imposition, as has been said, that they will not come up 
 to one-third, or perhaps to one-fourth of the expense and danger 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 155 
 
 of any of the other roundabout ways, insomuch that it will be 
 hardly worth while to avoid the ports for fear of paying the duty. 
 Thus is it expressly designed to be so easy and secure, as natu- 
 rally to deprive others, not only of the courage, but of the 
 temptations and means of attempting any other new or byways 
 that may in the least interfere herewith ; and as so small a con- 
 sideration for and towards guarding of the seas, securing the 
 ports and navigation against invaders, cannot justly seem un- 
 reasonable, or be invidious to any princes or states of Europe, 
 especially the northern nations, trading towns of Germany, and 
 other countries bordering upon the sea, who stand now excluded 
 from trade and navigation in the Indies. They may hereby be 
 entirely gained to our support and interest; for the thus having 
 their ships, merchants, and other effects, as it were, in hostage, 
 will be another kind, and more solid and effectual security and 
 pledge of friendship than the old, and now the threadbare, way 
 of mere treaties and covenants have been. 
 
 Twelfthly. Particularly here will be room enough in the 
 design to allow of equal, safe, just, reasonable, and durable con- 
 ditions of trade and navigation with the Hollanders, whose 
 welfare, next and equal to that of these nations, all wellwishers 
 to God's religion and the liberty of mankind ought to seek. 
 Their no small share in the trade in the west will be naturally 
 added to that vast dominion and mighty engine of theirs in the 
 east ; the which may likewise be thereby greatly corroborated, 
 strengthened, and augmented, as well by the growth and increase 
 of the trade, as by the addition of the Philippine Islands and 
 other acquisitions bordering upon that side of the great South Sea. 
 
 Thirteenthly. For the obviating any reasonable jealousy, envy, 
 designs, or rivalship in other nations, let them but consider that, 
 since there is such a natural centre of the world, and staple ports 
 for trade, were there no such juncture as this, they will certainly 
 be always in hazard of falling into some dangerous hand. So, 
 if this danger is so to be taken off and removed with understand- 
 ing and judgment, there is no nation in Christendom with whom 
 
156 A PBOPOSAI. TO 
 
 such pledges may and can be safely entrusted, or who in justice 
 ought so reasonably to expect to be their keeper, as the British j 
 not only by reason of their command of the seas, and the great 
 expenses they have and must continue to be at for this, and in 
 their holding and maintaining the balance and umpirage of 
 Europe, and consequently of the world ; but since, although it 
 be doubtless the interest of these islands of Britain and Ireland, 
 not only to be united among themselves in name and in word, 
 but in deed and in thing, and that their hearts be effectually 
 joined, that they should not, as hitherto, consist of several inter- 
 fering jurisdictions, but be united into one empire, whereof 
 England to be the centte country, and London to be the centre 
 city : so whatever seems to be so much believed by some, yet it 
 is likewise their interest never to have any great acquisition, nor 
 to be potent on the continent, to add house to house, country to 
 country, or heap kingdom to kingdom, as it is reckoned, or may 
 seem to be, the interest of France, Spain, or other powerful 
 nations of Europe. Conquest and acquisitions on the continent 
 can never be otherwise than troublesome and expensive, if not 
 dangerous to these nations ; and, upon any considerable increase 
 of such acquisitions, the removal of the empire and seat of govern- 
 ment might, and would of course, from one of the most happy 
 and flourishing nations, bring England to be one of the most 
 miserable provinces upon the earth : since, after the removal of 
 the seat of its government could hardly pass, but the shipping, 
 trade, and industry would so quickly and naturally follow, as to 
 leave it hardly in a condition of being able to maintain sufficient 
 troops to keep the poor, oppressed, and abandoned people in 
 obedience, suppose the troops were to be of the number of fifty 
 battalions of foot and so many squadrons of horse, according to 
 the present French mode. 
 
 Fourteenthly. His Majesty hath not only most reason to 
 expect being master and keeper of these keys of the Indies, 
 because of his command of the sea, situation of his dominions, 
 and the great expenses be has and must be at in holding the 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DAKIEN, 157 
 
 balance of Christendom, the natural security our neighbours 
 have against so much pretending to make any acquisitions or 
 encroachments in Europe, but because of the power and faculty 
 for acquiring thereof. Notwithstanding all the neglects and 
 mismanagements passed, these islands of Britain and Ireland 
 and the Dutch have at least two-thirds of the mariners, not only 
 with respect to the three combined nations, but, as we have 
 reason to believe, of Christendom ; and not only so, but our and 
 their shipping and niai'iners are by much the most vigorous, 
 active, and capable of increase or improvement. As our southern 
 plantations in the Indies will be excellent nurseries for transport- 
 ing of seasoned men into this great garden, so those of the north 
 may have as respectable and commodious nurseries to supply and 
 support them with all manner of necessaries. Besides all this, 
 blessed be God, we have already a liberty of conscience, and may 
 easily be made capable, if not of a general, at least a naturalisa- 
 tion for merchants, mariners, manufacturers, and other industrious 
 people, as likewise of a permission trade, with a better, nearer, 
 and a more solid union among ourselves, most of all, which thing 
 can hardly be less easily practicable among us, were there even 
 such a thing as an inclination ; and to this we may add, which is 
 none of the least advantages, that, perhaps, among his Majesty's 
 subjects there are, and can be found, more and better fitted and 
 qualified persons for the leading and directing of this or the like 
 undertaking than in all the rest of Europe beside. 
 
 A Brief and Summary Account of the Whole. 
 
 To conclude. There will be herein more than means sufficient 
 for laying the foundations of our trade, and improvement as 
 large and extensive as his Majesty's empire, and to order matters 
 so, that the designs of trade, navigation, and industry, instead of 
 being like bones of contention, as hitherto, may for the future 
 become bands of union to the British kingdoms ; since here will 
 not only plainly and visibly be room enough for these, but, if 
 need were, for many more sister nations. Thus they will not 
 
158 A PKOPOSAL TO 
 
 only be effectually cemented, but, by means of these storehouses 
 of the Indies, this island, as it seems by nature designed, will of 
 course become the emporium of Europe. His Majesty will then 
 be effectually enabled to hold the balance and preserve the peace 
 among the best and most considerable, if not likewise amongst 
 the greatest part of mankind, from which he hath hitherto prin- 
 cipally been hindered and disabled by the mean and narrow con- 
 ceptions of monopolists and hucksters, who have always, and, if 
 not carefully prevented, will still be presuming to measure the 
 progress of the industry and improvements of the very universe, 
 not by the extent and nature of the thing, but by their own poor, 
 mistaken, and narrow conceptions thereof. 
 
 Finally, herein and thereby it will be manifest that trade is 
 capable of increasing trade, and money of begetting money to 
 the end of the world. 
 
 Since the Isthmus of America, all things considered, is in 
 healthfulness and fruitfulness inferior to few if any of the other 
 places in the Indies, as naturally producing plenty of gold-dust, 
 dye-woods, and other valuable growths, vast quantities and great 
 variety of the best timber for shipping in the known world, and 
 is capable of yielding sugar, tobacco, indigo, cocoa, vanilla, 
 annatto, cotton, ginger, and such like, of the best, and in very 
 great abundance. But besides, and above all, as being an 
 isthmus, and seated between the two vast oceans of the universe, 
 furnished on each side with excellent harbours, between the prin- 
 cipal whereof lies the more easy and convenient passes between 
 the one and the other sea. These ports and passes, being pos- 
 sessed and fortified, may be easily secured and defended by eight 
 or ten thousand men against any force, not only there already, 
 but that can possibly be found in those places which are not only 
 the most convenient doors and inlets into, but likewise the 
 readiest and securest means, first of gaining, and afterwards for 
 ever keeping, the command of the spacious South Sea, which, 
 as has been already said, as it is the greatest, so even, by what 
 thereof we already know, it is by far the richest side of the world. 
 
PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 159 
 
 Those ports, so settled with passes open, through them will flow 
 at least two-thirds of what both Indies yield to Christendom, the 
 sum whereof in gold, silver, copper, spices, saltpetre, pearls, 
 emeralds, stones of value, and such like, will hardly amount to 
 less than thirty millions of pounds s;;er]ing yearly. The time and 
 expense of the voyage to China, Japan, and the richest part of 
 the East Indies, will be lessened more than a half, and the con- 
 sumption of European commodities soon be more than doubled, 
 and afterwards yearly increased. 
 
 The addition of the port of Havannah to those ports and 
 passes of the Isthmus will render this design altogether complete. 
 The Havannah is capable of being defended with five or six 
 thousand seasoned men ashore, and the situation thereof upon 
 one of the best and greatest islands, not only of America, but, it 
 may be, in the world, — as lying in the centre between the 
 northern and southern parts of America, and thereby making a 
 pass of the greatest consequence, and a natural bridle to all that 
 great inlet commonly called the Gulf, and no small awe to the 
 navigation of the whole Bay of Mexico, — with a fruitful soil and 
 healthful climate as any in the Indies, insomuch that we may 
 venture to affirm that the ground aijd the soil of this island 
 being added to that of the isthmus, if need were, might easily be 
 made to produce a greater quantity of sugar, tobacco, indigo, 
 cocoa, and such like Indian growth, than ever can possibly be 
 demanded or consumed by the trading world. Thus these doors 
 of the seas and the keys of the universe would of course be 
 capable of enabling their possessors to give laws to both oceans, 
 and to become the arbitrators of the commercial world, without 
 being liable to the fatigues, expenses, and dangers, or of con- 
 tracting such guilt and blood, as Alexander and Caesar; since, 
 as ui theirs and all other empires that have been anything uni- 
 versal, the conquerors have at least been obliged to seek out 
 their conquests from far ; so the force and universal influence of 
 those attractive magnets are such as can much more efifectually 
 bring empire home to their proprietors' doors. 
 
160 A PROPOSAL TO PLANT A COLONY IN DABIEN. 
 
 The Conclusion. 
 Having said thus much of the nature, tendency, weight, and 
 consequence of this design, we ought, in the next place, to pro- 
 ceed to the thought of an ample scheme of mature and ripe 
 instructions for the more exactly describing and delineating the 
 respective places, situations, difficulties, and the several natures 
 and manners of the necessary attempts and undertakings; but, 
 partly because there appears to be a considerable space of time 
 to the execution, wherein it is likely some, and perhaps material, 
 change and alteration may happen in these or some of those 
 matters ; as likewise, notwithstanding any care that may be taken 
 to the contrary, yet, lest these papers might in the meantime 
 come to be seen or perused by others than those for whom they 
 are designed, we shall, for the present, delay our thoughts of the 
 particular methods to be taken and means to be used in the 
 execution ; and shall, God willing, make this, together with 
 some of our most material thoughts of the better ordering and 
 regulating the naval forces of this island, the second part of this 
 discourse. 
 
THE 
 
 WEDNESDAY'S CLUB DIALOGUES 
 
 THE UNION. 
 
 (London, 8to. 1706, pp. 156). 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 M 
 
EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 The form of this tract, in conversations of members of a club in the 
 City of London, and the abrupt opening, as if the club were met on a certain 
 day after a previous adjournment, give to it the appearance of being a 
 report of real proceedings. It is nevertheless probable thaf Paterson 
 feigned this society, as a convenient way of producing and combating the 
 various opinions prevalent on the subject of the Union of England and 
 Scotland, in which he at last includes Ireland. Like his illustrious fellow- 
 patriot, Wallace, four hundred years before, he advocated that Union on 
 equal terms ; and a striking point in this tract is its historical deduction, 
 not only that, till late events had irritated Scotland, the wish for a legisla- 
 tive Union was once all but universal, but that for " ages " the Union was 
 felt to be essential to the general welfare of the island. 
 
 One of the members of the club, Mr. Hope, says, " above five years ago, 
 and so for twenty years before, I did not know one in Scotland who was 
 not for the Union at any rate." Another, Mr. Rose, observes, " There is 
 nobody in Scotland against the Union ; only the question is, what kind of 
 Union it shall be." A third, Mr. Bruce, adds, " I am one of those who 
 believe few, if any, of my countrymen are against the Union." And Mr. 
 Grant concludes, " I incline to Mr. Brace's opinion ; and the rather because 
 before these angry times (viz. before the Darien troubles) my countrymen 
 were zealously for the Union, as thinking nothing less could make this 
 island, especially their part of it, happy and easy." 
 
 All these are Scots, who testify positively to a recent fact thus declared 
 in 1705 as not capable of denial. The more remote historical deduction to 
 the same effect follows : " For a considerable time before the union of the 
 Crowns, all the more understanding part of the inhabitants of this island 
 concluded nothing under heaven could contribute more to its security than 
 by removing separate jurisdictions and interests, to bring them to be one 
 people, having one heart and one inclination. Accordingly, at the acces- 
 sion of King James the First to the throne of England, an end was expected 
 to be put to animosities which for ages had been so fatal to the British 
 interest in the world." 
 
 In an historical point of view this tract well deserves to be studied ; and 
 it is a mystery, if not a reproach, that at the close of the last century, when 
 the government was anxious to obtain a correct account of the antecedents 
 of the Union with Scotland, in order to guide them in the question of the 
 same measure with Ireland, Paterson's work should have been totally over- 
 
 M 2 
 
164 EDITOR S PREFACE. 
 
 looked. At that time a very able keeper of the records, Mr. Bruce, was 
 employed to draw up such an historical statement ; and his production, 
 privately printed for the ministers, is rare and very costly. It trusts ahnost 
 entirely to Defoe's History of the Union ; and, compared with Paterson's 
 work, it may, not hypercritically, he called meagre. It, however, has the 
 merit of containing a corrected copy of Paterson's remarkable report on the 
 public accounts of the two kingdoms. 
 
 The profound reflections following upon the intrigues which prevented a 
 thorough Union in former reigns, not excepting King WOliam's — especially 
 upon the intrigues of the men who had enriched themselves by the dis- 
 orders they encouraged, " in the matters of trade, about which most of the 
 diiferenoes began," are worthy of Tacitus. 
 
 As those intrigues were "an ungodly work, a curse," it is asserted, "seems 
 to have followed ; for at this day we can hardly find a family, or but the 
 remainder of one, raised by those means." 
 
 Paterson insists strongly on equal taxes, free trade, and a proportionate 
 representation in parliament, as the rules for his scheme of Union. He is 
 sanguine in his estimate of the growing prosperity of Scotland ; and expa- 
 tiates with obvious satisfaction upon the effects of improved methods of 
 managing "the public revenue;" nor does he fail to say something upon 
 the idle poor, the extension of fisheries, storing corn in years of plenty, 
 equalising weights and measures, and the " silly and destructive scheme of 
 altering the coin." His eulogy of free trade is perhaps unequalled in 
 clearness and force. 
 
 The interests of the merchants were largely enlisted in favour of the 
 Union ; and the objection to their narrowness of spirit was popular, at atime 
 when a violent rivalry still prevailed between the proprietors of the land 
 and the traders. To this objection Paterson, himself a merchant, replies: — 
 " Merchants, in a limited sense, may be bad advisers ; that is to say, mere 
 buyers and sellers, whose business and prejudices allow them not means nor 
 time to enter into consequences, who, to get one, or perhaps half per cent, 
 more for a commodity, care not who loses, or what others may suffer, and 
 who for this reason are not only for limiting trade to their own countries, 
 but to their own towns, or even to their own houses, if they knew how. 
 
 " The merchants, in an extended sense, are quite another sort of men, — 
 their education, genius, general scope of knowledge of the laws, governments, 
 polity, and managements of the several countries of the world, allowing them 
 sufficient room and opportunity, not only to understand trade as abstractedly 
 taken, but in its greatest extent ; and these merchants accordingly are 
 zealous promoters of free and open trade, and consequently of liberty of 
 conscience, general naturalizations, unions, and annexions.'' 
 
 It is not an uninteresting proof of this tract having been written by Pater- 
 son, to find it attributed to him in the handwriting of Lockhart of Carnwath, 
 and others of the reign of Queen Anne. 
 
AN INQUIRY 
 
 EEASONABLENESS AND CONSEQUENCES 
 
 AN UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 A BRIEF DEDUCTION OF WHAT HATH BEEN DONE, DESIGNED, OR PROPOSED, IN 
 THE MATTER OF THE UNION DURING THE LAST AGE ; A SCHEME OF AN 
 UNION, AS ACCOMMODATED TO THE PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE TWO 
 NATIONS ; ALSO, STATES OF THE RESPECTIVE REVENUES, DEBTS, WEIGHTS, 
 MEASURES, TAXES, AND IMPOSITIONS, AND OF OTHER FACTS OF MOMENT. 
 
 BY LEWIS MEDWAY. 
 
 WITH OBSERVATIONS THEREUPON. 
 
 AS COMMUNICATED TO LAURENCE PHILIPS, ESQ. 
 NEAR YORK. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PRINTED AND SOLD BY BENJAMIN BRAGG, 
 
 AT THE BLACK RAVEN IN PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 1706. 
 
SiRj 
 
 By the herewith inclosed proceedings, you will see that, 
 although the point of an Union of this island be reasonable and 
 plain, yet, like some other good things, it hath had the fate to be 
 rendered intricate and doubtful to many, through the prejudices, 
 humours, and secret designs of a few, by whom the necessary 
 facts and material truths relating to this noble subject have 
 been confounded and perplexed with names and phrases, and 
 involved in multitudes of words without understanding. 
 
 And therefore it is that, after having omitted the trivial and 
 frothy parts of the occurrences, and corrected the different dia- 
 lects, our society have thought fit to transmit those inquiries in 
 their native habit, and without any dress, that thus not only the 
 matter, but likewise the manner, might the better appear, and 
 that the characters of the persons speaking, as well as the things 
 spoken, might be more easily seen. 
 
 This point being over, at least at present, the club have now 
 before them the following subjects of inquiry : 
 
 1. Into the past and present state of the trade and public 
 revenues of England. 
 
 2. Into the consequences of the late progress of navigation 
 and foreign trade, particularly of the new discoveries in the 
 Indies. 
 
 3. Into the reasons for establishing a national council of 
 trade. 
 
 There are likewise several other things, of great weight and 
 consequence in their view, the which shall be carefully com- 
 
168 
 
 municated from time to time, in order to the having your 
 society's advice and concurrence therein. 
 
 But, since they are sensible that this island owes all the late 
 distractions and disorders, by which it hath lost so much of its 
 value at home, and of its weight abroad, to the want of an Union, 
 and cannot be otherwise than of opinion, that the experience of 
 the last age ought to convince those of this, that a kingdom 
 divided within, or against itself, cannot stand. 
 
 Wherefore, as thinking the Union to be, not only a conve- 
 nient, but necessary introduction to all their other public views, 
 they have accordingly ordered me to request your application 
 to this point, in the first place, and that you would omit no 
 opportunity of transmitting your thoughts. 
 
 In expectation whereof, I am, with all possible regard, 
 
 Your affectionate friend and ready Servant, 
 
 LEWIS MEDWAY. 
 
 To Laurence Philips, Esq. near York. 
 April 9, 1706. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Opinions of books and pamphlets written upon the Union 
 
 Of leagues and confederacies 
 
 A scheme of a confederacy, by some called a federal union 
 
 Opinions upon this scheme 
 
 A scheme of limitations for the next successors in Scotland 
 
 Opinions upon this scheme 
 
 The general disposition of the kingdom of Scotland to the Union at the time 
 of the Revolution ..... 
 
 A letter from King William to the estates of Scotland upon this subject 
 
 The return from the said estates to his majesty's most gracious letter 
 
 Why the Union was not concluded at the Revolution 
 
 That the Union will be a security and balance to the respective church 
 governments and the toleration in both kingdoms . 
 
 That the laws and judicatures of both nations ought to continue the same as 
 they now are after the Union . 
 
 The rank and interest of the nobility of Scotland will not be prejudiced by 
 the Union .... 
 
 A deduction of what hath passed in the matter of the Union since the acces- 
 sion of the kings of Scotland to the throne of England 
 
 The pretences for rendering the treaty in the year 1604 ineffectual 
 
 Proceedings of the commissioners of the two kingdoms on that treaty 
 
 Supposed motives of some who were then against completing the Union 
 
 How the effects of the want of an Union broke out in the years 1639 and 40 
 
 Consequences of the following leagues and confederacies 
 
 They terminate in a war between the two kingdoms, in which Scotland wa 
 reduced by the then prevailing power of the House of Commons 
 
 How upon this reduction the Long Parliament sent commissioners into Scot- 
 land to treat with the estates of that kingdom of an Union 
 
 The Union agreed on by the estates of Scotland 
 
 The Long Parliament being dissolved or broken up before the Act for an 
 Union was read the third time, Cromwell afterwards, having taken the 
 government, united the three nations under a new regulation as to their 
 representatives in parliament . . . . . 
 
 A scheme of this representation of the three kingdoms, as likewise of the 
 several proportions in the assessment in the year 1656 
 
 Observations upon the said scheme 
 
 Cromwell's ordinance for uniting of Scotland 
 
 Observations on the said ordinance 
 
 The ordinance for the distribution of elections in Scotland 
 
 PAGE 
 
 173 
 174 
 176 
 177 
 178 
 178 
 
170 CONTENTS. 
 
 The like in Ireland . . ' ' 
 
 State of the Union till the Restoration . • ' 
 
 Differences which afterwards arose from several negative and prohibitory 
 
 laws relating to trade . • • ' 
 
 Commissioners appointed to adjust these differences 
 A paper from the commissioners on the part of Scotland conteining the state 
 of their grievances . . . . • 
 
 A paper presented to his majesty King Charles II. by several of the most 
 considerable persons of Ireland, containing reasons for an union with 
 that kingdom ..... 
 
 The king empowered by the respective parliaments of England and Scotland 
 
 to nominate commissioners to treat of an Union of the two kingdoms 
 Proceedings of those commissioners 
 How and by whom this treaty was at last broken up 
 Disadvantages to the two nations for want of an Union 
 An observation that the reduction of Scotland brought an Union of course, 
 and that it would still be the same if either kingdom should come to be 
 reduced by the other .... 
 
 The mischievous consequences of a spirit of contradiction after the Accession 
 and Restoration ..... 
 
 The excellent temper and disposition of the Parliament of England manifested 
 in their frank and ready repealing of the late prohibitory clauses with 
 regard to Scotland ..... 
 
 An eminent instance of the bravery of the Privemates and of the generosity 
 of the Romans ..... 
 
 A scheme for uniting the two kingdoms 
 
 Observations upon this scheme .... 
 
 An expedient for the peerage of Scotland 
 
 Those who will heartily endeavour the Union ought not to range themselves 
 
 on one side or other but be equally for the whole . 
 Why the number of forty is proposed as the representative for Scotland 
 Reasons for some ease to the kingdom of Scotland in the matter of the assess 
 ments on land . . . . ■ 
 
 Abatement or inequality of customs or excises contrary to the nature of the 
 Union ...... 
 
 That the equivalent to Scotland for the present debts of England ought either 
 
 to be by way of ease in the land tax or in ready money . 
 
 An estimate of the present revenue of England 
 An estimate of what the revenue of Scotland may produce after the Union, 
 
 and when upon the foot of tlie present taxes of England 
 An estimate of the iiresent debts of England . 
 A computation of the expense of the particular government of Scotland after 
 the Union . . . . _ 
 
 An estimate of the equivalent to the kingdom of Scotland for the present 
 
 debts of England . . . , 
 
 Difference betwixt the proposed interest of five per cent, and that of the 
 present annuities ... 
 
CONTENTS. 171 
 
 226 
 227 
 
 227 
 229 
 229 
 
 231 
 
 231 
 
 Why the interest of the sum proposed for the equivalent is put only at five 
 per cent, per annum ..... 
 
 The present waste and expense for subsistence of the poor in England 
 
 Why the rent-charge for raising the equivalent to Scotland is proposed to be 
 made upon her majesty's revenue .... 
 
 A. state of the weights and measures of the two nations . . 
 
 Of the several customs, excises, and new dulies 
 
 By the new or additional excises the Scottish nation will be only obliged to 
 contribute a small part of what they will gain by the Union . 
 
 Inconsistency of difference of taxes and contributions with an equal and 
 
 I* 1 / TT • 
 
 complete Union ...... 
 
 The dangerous tendency of the least remainder of restraints and prohibitions 
 
 between the two nations after the Union . . . 232 
 
 A view of what benefits the kingdom of Scotland will receive by the Union . 233 
 The damage or prejudice which happened to Scotland by a late scarcity or 
 
 famine for five years together ..... 233 
 
 ""' Advantages of national granaries ..... 234 
 
 Benefits which may accrue to Scotland by the application of the proposed 
 ^™ stock for the encouragement of their trade and fisheries . . 235 
 
 The ports of entry in Scotland, with what relates to the different coins, 
 :S3 weights, measures, and such like things, may be regulated after the 
 
 1st Union ....... 235 
 
 An alteration of the coins in Scotland about twenty years ago . . 236 
 
 k^ Consequences of this alteration ..... 236 
 
 Doubts and scruples on the part of Scotland against the Union . . 237 
 
 That the expense of the kingdom of Scotland by attendances at London will 
 
 after the Union hardly be more than it now is . . . 237 
 
 Doubts and scruples on the part of England against the Union . . 238 
 
 jike Answers or returns to those doubts or scruples . . . 239 
 
 The objections usually made against the Union, under pretence of preserving 
 jjji trade, are, upon examination, rather found reasons for than against it . 239 
 
 jie The wealth and power of nations consists in the numbers and industry of 
 
 their people ...... 241 
 
 jjjii A good institution of the national fisheries and granaries capable of employ- 
 ing and subsisting all the idle persons in the three kingdoms . . 241 
 jglij That the British fisheries will not, or at least need not, be a prejudice to the 
 
 Dutch, as is vulgarly pretended .... 242 
 
 That the Hollanders ought not to be clamoured against, but on the contrary 
 ■^r; deserve the greatest commendations for their economy and industry . 242 
 
 That the commerce of the world, as extensively taken, would not be advanced, 
 but, on the contrary, rather brought upon the decline, by the fall of the 
 Dutch ... ... 243 
 
 How dangerous it is for governments or states to listen to the insinuations of 
 
 selfish negotiators in matters of trade .... 243 
 
 The Hans Towns, as likewise Spain and Portugal, have lost their trade by 
 ,, restraints and prohibitions ..... 243 
 
 ' ' The fisheries of Scotland ruined by restraints and prohibitions . . 244 
 
172 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The manner how . . . . • ■ • 244 
 
 Several Acts of the Parliament of Scotland relating to their fisheries in the 
 
 fourteenth and fifteenth centuries . • • • 244 
 
 Observations thereupon . . . • , • • 245 
 
 The clamorous pretences for making monopolies of the fisheries in Scotland 
 about two ages ago, much the same with those now brought against the 
 Union . . ■ • • • .245 
 
 A distinction made betwixt mere buyers and sellers and merchants, as taken 
 
 in an extended sense ..... 246 
 
 The general knowledge of the laws, governments, and policies of the world, 
 enables the accomplished merchant to enter into consequences, and judge 
 of things, not as they seem, but as they really are . . . 247 
 
 Accoi-dingly such men as these are promoters of naturalisations, unions, an- 
 nexations, and other such noble and generous principles . . 247 
 
 The intervening of the sea no objection against uniting witli Ireland . 247 
 
 Opinions of the objections, or rather clamours, usually brought against the 
 
 Union . . . . . .248 
 
 Nothing less or below a complete Union, capable of securing the religion, 
 
 laws, liberties, peace, and happiness of this island . . , 249 
 
 No negative put upon any part of the laws, liberties, or constitutions of either 
 
 nation by the proposed scheme of an Union . . .249 
 
 The Union a necessary preliminary to all the great and good things those 
 
 nations have in view ..... 250 
 
 Her majesty's most gracious speech to the commissioners of both kingdoms, 
 
 at the last treaty of Union, to this purpose . . .251 
 
PROCEEDINGS 
 
 WEDNESDAY'S CLUB H FRIDAY STREET, 
 
 OPON THE SUBJECT OF 
 
 AN UNION WITH SCOTLAND. 
 
 Wednesday, December 19th, 1705, 
 
 The society having upon the 14th of November adjourned 
 the further consideration of the point of an Union with Scot- 
 land to this day. 
 
 When, being accordingly met, Mr. Brooks said, he had of 
 late employed no small part of his time in perusing such books, 
 pamphlets, or papers, as have been written, either for, against, 
 or any way relating to an Union with Scotland. 
 
 But, to his great disappointment, found the most part to 
 consist either in long, tedious, and perplexed heaps of words, 
 or at best but of ordinary and trifling matter. 
 
 Mr. May said he was sorry to find that, instead of coming to 
 the point, the writers upon the Union had spent so riiuch of 
 their time in distinguishing and refining upon such niceties as 
 either signify nothing, or at best very little to that or any other 
 purpose. 
 
 But I make a great difierence between the former and latter 
 performances (says Mr. Sands) ; for, although those have 
 usually handled the matter as if they were filled with their 
 own conceits, more than the thing, or as if they had been 
 somewhat too long at school, yet are they still so good natured 
 
174 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 as either to wish us a nearer and more complete union, or at 
 least that things may remain as they are. 
 
 But some of our new politicians are pleased to reason from 
 the things, not as they are, but as they would have them to be. 
 First supposing the two nations divided, and afterwards to be 
 linked or tied together by some league, covenant, confederacy, 
 or I know not what. 
 
 I likewise have seen all or most of the books and pamphlets 
 you seem to mean (says Mr. Jones from the chair), but look 
 upon them, especially those of late, only to be the performances 
 of prejudiced, splenetic, and uneasy people, or at best of such 
 as either cannot or will not go to the bottom or root of any- 
 thing. 
 
 It is therefore my opinion we come directly to the point of 
 the reasons for the conveniences of an Union, without amusing 
 ourselves with heaps of books and pamphlets, little, if any at 
 all, to the purpose. 
 
 I am as much as any for coming close to the point, but, pray 
 let us first see if we are agreed in it (says Mr. Hunt), for it is 
 said there are not a fetv of the most considerable men in Scot- 
 land utterly against an Union, and, if so, we may spend our 
 time to better purpose than upon a thing people will not have, 
 though perhaps otherwise very good and advisable in itself. 
 
 I am sorry to find any gentleman so much misinformed about 
 the tempers and dispositions of my countrymen (says Mr. 
 Rose), since 1 am satisfied there is not a man of consequence 
 in Scotland against an Union, the question being only about the 
 manner, viz. whether it shall be an entire or incorporating, or 
 only a federal union. 
 
 What do you mean by a federal union (says Mr. Jones) ? 
 
 Such an union (replied Mr. Rose) as was formerly among the 
 Grecian republics, and is between the cantons of Switzerland, 
 and the United Provinces, at this day. 
 
 We have but a dark view of things so very remote as the 
 leagued governments of Greece (says Mr. May) ; only this is 
 
WEDNESDAY'S CLUB. 175 
 
 sufficiently known, that unless they were in war with, or at 
 least in imminent danger from some foreign power, they were 
 almost always together by the ears, or in broils among them- 
 selves. 
 
 The present leagues of the Switzers have their subsistence 
 principally from the great superiority of the Protestant cantons, 
 and the immediate danger of the whole from the neighbour- 
 ing potentates on the least misunderstanding among them- 
 selves. 
 
 The United Provinces of the Netherlands are kept together 
 by the like causes, viz. the power, or influence at least, which 
 the province of Holland hath over the other provinces, and of 
 the city of Amsterdam over other cities of that province, 
 together with the danger they are in from without. 
 
 And whatever speculations we at this distance may have, the 
 wisest and most unprejudiced persons in those countries do 
 daily desire and wish that their governments were more of a 
 piece, and are sufficiently apprehensive that those diflerent and 
 interfering parts and interests shall one time or other be their 
 ruin. 
 
 And certainly it would be inexcusable in us of this island to 
 take these inconveniences of choice, which some of our neigh- 
 bours on the continent have only from necessity. 
 
 You talk of leagues and confederacies, but with whom would 
 you make them (says Mr. Brooks) ? 
 
 With the Parliament of England (says Mr. Rose). 
 
 The Parliament can make no leagues, nor have any treaties 
 (says Mr. Brooks); that is the Queen's prerogative, and not 
 only inherent to the Crown, but absolutely necessary for the 
 protection of her subjects. 
 
 Possibly we may difier more in words than in things (says 
 Mr. Rose) ; and so handing Mr. Jones a paper, he said, here is 
 a scheme of what I mean by a federal union, the which I desire 
 may be read. 
 
 This paper was accordingly read three times, but being long 
 
176 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 and perplexed, it was, after much debate, by common consent 
 reduced to the following heads, viz. : — 
 
 1 . That the two kingdoms be united in the same successor, 
 but have their different parliaments and judicatures, 
 
 2. That the management of what may relate to them in 
 common be committed to a committee or common council, 
 consisting of ten or twelve of each nation. 
 
 3. That the quantities and quotas of taxes be agreed upon 
 from time to time by common consent. 
 
 4. That there be an equal communication and intercourse 
 of trade between the two nations. 
 
 By this scheme, if we may venture to call it so (says Mr. 
 Sands), the Government of the two nations is proposed to be 
 transferred to twenty or twenty-four committees or directors. 
 If this be a settlement, it is hard to say what is not. 
 
 Where intend you those commissioners or directors shall 
 reside (says Mr. Hunt) ? 
 
 Doubtless at York (says Mr. Speed). Methinks Berwick 
 should be a fitter place (says Mr. More). 
 
 Certainly, if we in England should propose such a league, 
 the gentlemen of Scotland might very reasonably ask, who 
 should be the guarantees (says Mr. Gage) ? 
 
 Tush ! that is easy (says Mr. Heath) ; I doubt not but the 
 House of Bourbon would readily accept of this good office. 
 
 But this must be after such a peace as I hope is pretty 
 remote to them (says Mr. North). 
 
 I wonder how it ever came to be imagined that we in 
 England should be inclined to the secret of such a league (says 
 Mr. Brooks). 
 
 And much more, that we should be willing to keep it, if 
 made (says Mr. Farr). 
 
 But how came you to call a thing by the name of an union 
 which hath so manifest a tendency to a separation (says Mr. 
 Hall)? 
 
 Whilst every one thus gave their sentiments at random, Mr. 
 
Wednesday's club. 177 
 
 Jones, seeing Mr. Rose somewhat out of countenance, said, 
 gentlemen, the matter we are upon is an Union ; pray let us 
 come to the point. 
 
 After some silence, Mr. Carr said, my friend Rose, you know 
 I always told you, that though this fancy of a confederacy, or 
 federal union (which name you said they gave it to set it the 
 better off), might serve to please a few splenetic or discon- 
 tented people, whilst kept up and whispered as a secret among 
 them, yet when once abroad, it would never bear the light, but 
 be ridiculed and run down, as now you see it is. 
 
 Instead of uniting, it so manifestly tends to divide the two 
 nations, that I wish those you had it from have a good 
 meaning. 
 
 Doubtless you know Mr. Perth, who first communicated this 
 scheme to me (says Mr. Rose) ; he is a good sort of well-mean- 
 ing inan, and has taken a great deal of pains in this matter ; so 
 that, however it proves, I dare say it proceeds from no bad 
 meaning in him. 
 
 Mr. Rose cannot but remember (says Mr. Grant) that I have 
 more than once told him, whatever might be intended, yet to 
 me it did not look very well that upon other occasions he has 
 been sufficiently convinced ; that of all sorts of deceivers your 
 honest and well-meaning deceivers are the most dangerous j 
 and that when a man has, by taking a great deal of pains, 
 at last made shift to deceive himself, he from thenceforward 
 becomes very sincere in his endeavours of that kind with others. 
 
 I am as much for an Union as any (says Mr. Shaw), and 
 therefore always told Mr. Rose that whatever name himself or 
 his friends might impose upon this their scheme, yet they could 
 never cover or hide its manifest tendency to divide and distract 
 rather than to unite ; and, therefore, as a medium or expedient 
 between an entire union and this sort of confederacy, some 
 friends of mine proposed limitations. 
 
 That is a hard word, too (says Mr. Jones) : pray what did 
 you mean by it ? 
 
 voj:-. I, N 
 
178 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 We meant the settling the succession, with conditions upon 
 the successors (says Mr. Shaw). 
 
 That might be well (says Mr. More) if the conditions were 
 but good ; but for better information be pleased to let us see 
 them upon paper. 
 
 Mr. Shaw produced the limitations proposed to be made 
 upon the successor, and they are as follow : — 
 
 1. That the next successors should not have the power of 
 calling or dissolving of parliaments. 
 
 2. That they should not have the power of peace and war. 
 
 3. That they should not raise or keep up any forces by land 
 or sea. 
 
 4. That they should not have the power of making or con- 
 tributing to the making of any officers, civil or military, or in 
 the disposal of any public places, stations, or benefits whatsoever. 
 
 This is a short, but comprehensive paper (says Mr. Jones) ; 
 but to whom did you intend to give the things mentioned in 
 this paper, since I find not you were inclinable to take them 
 from the successors ? 
 
 To the Parliament (replied Mr. Shaw) ,• to whom else should 
 we give them? 
 
 And when you had agreed upon those or the like conditions, 
 to what would you have proceeded next (says Mr. Sands) ? 
 
 To nominate the successor, and afterwards to make a treaty 
 of commerce with England fsays Mr. Shaw). 
 
 Successor to what (says Mr. Sands) ? 
 
 To what but our crown (says Mr. Shaw) ? 
 
 What you mean by your crown I cannot tell (says Mr. Sands) ; 
 but certainly, after all these negatives put upon it, if it had been 
 a crown it would have been a very metaphysical one, since I 
 see nothing under heaven they could be successor unto : they 
 were to have no money, no troops, no power, or means to 
 reward or punish, or indeed to have or be anything else ; and 
 yet after all this you talk of settling your succession, your 
 crown, and I know not what. 
 
Wednesday's club. 179 
 
 I fancy (says Mr. North) this project has not been far abroad 
 neither, it looks so very oddly, to say no more. 
 
 It is Tisibly of the same stamp, and has the like tendency, 
 with that of the confederacy (says Mr. Brooks), and must pro- 
 ceed from men of the same principles, though perhaps of dif- 
 ferent humours and views. 
 
 It is somewhat tender, therefore I am unwilling to make 
 further observations, but refer it to any cool or unbiassed person 
 to consider what must have been the consequence of either of 
 these schemes, contrivances, or what else you please to call 
 them. 
 
 They know I have often told them (says Mr. Grant) that 
 these fancies of confederacies and limitations could have no 
 other consequence than proving a means of setting my country- 
 men together by the ears, and thereby the putting one of the 
 parties under a necessity of delivering up not only their limita- 
 tions and confederacies, but everything else, to those who should 
 be able and willing to free them from, and revenge them of, 
 their foes. 
 
 You judge rightly (says Mr. Speed) ; sucli causes must have 
 such effects, especially in a nation who are not altogether with- 
 out heats and animosities already, and who are naturally pretty 
 warm as well as we. 
 
 We have had sufficient experience of the bad effects of dif- 
 ferent humours and interests since the union of the crowns (says 
 Mr, May) ; how much more may we expect if ever this island 
 should be so unhappy as to have the administration of the. 
 governments of the two nations entirely separated ? 
 
 I have no mind to see the experiment (says Mr. Sands), but 
 wonder how any one could suppose we in England should come 
 up to a treaty of commerce under those or the like circum- 
 stances, especially since without a communication of govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It is utterly impossible for a communication of trade to 
 subsist. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 But suppose any troubles we were in, or the apprehensions of 
 them, had induced us to make some impossible treaties or con- 
 tracts, how long did they think we would keep them (says Mr. 
 Gage) ? 
 
 Till an opportunity for breaking them offered itself (says Mr. 
 Heath). 
 
 The more I think of these confederacies and limitations the 
 more I see their inconsistencies (says Mr. Jones); certainly 
 had we proposed or offered such things as these to the gentle- 
 men of Scotland they would have been very angry. 
 
 If you have any angry things to spare I entreat you would 
 dispose of them elsewhere (says Mr. Hope), since 1 am afraid 
 some of my countrymen are so angry already as not to stand in 
 need of further provocations. 
 
 I also have had hints to this purpose (says Mr. Hunt). 
 Pray what is the matter ? what do they want ? I speak not 
 this as of myself only, but as from others who have a great 
 disposition to please or do them good. 
 
 I shall endeavour to inform myself how the matter stands, 
 and report it with the first opportunity (says Mr. Hope). 
 
 If you find they know what they want, or what they would 
 have, even although they be angry, yet there is hope (says Mr. 
 Speed) ; but if otherwise they are in a dangerous condition, 
 
 I hope you do not think any of my countrymen are so very 
 angry as not to know what they want, or what they would have 
 (says Mr. Bruce). 
 
 I wish none of my countrymen were (says Mr. Gage). 
 
 It is strange to see how men change with the times, the times 
 with men, or something or other (says Mr. Hope); for about 
 five years ago, and so for twenty years before, 1 did not know 
 one in Scotland who was not for the Union at any rate, and 
 now I know not what some men are for. 
 
 As I told you before I tell you again (says Mr. Rose), there 
 is nobody in Scotland against the Union ; only the question is, 
 what kind of thing it shall be ? 
 
Wednesday's club. 18I 
 
 What they do in Scotland (says Mr. Sands) I cannot tell, 
 but it is not the manner here in England for people to say they 
 are against a good or popular thing, only that this is not the 
 right way, the proper persons, the fit time, or the like. 
 
 I am likewise one of those who believe there are few, if any, 
 of my countrymen against the Union (says Mr. Bruce), only 
 perhaps some may be a little troubled with the spirit of oppo- 
 sition, as I am apt to be when in a fit of the spleen or out of 
 humour, but when we come to the business that will soon be 
 over. 
 
 I incline to Mr. Bruce's opinion (says Mr. Grant), and the 
 rather because that before these angry times my countrymen 
 were zealously for the Union, as thinking nothing less could 
 make this island, particularly their part of it, happy and easy. 
 
 This disposition of theirs appeared eminently at the Revolu- 
 tion, as you may see by King William's letter to the Estates of 
 Scotland, dated at Hampton Court, the 7th of March, 1689, 
 wherein his Majesty was pleased to express himself thus : — 
 
 " We were glad to find that so many of the nobility and 
 gentry, when here at London, were so much inclined to an 
 union of both kingdoms, and that they did look upon it as one 
 of the best means for procuring the happiness of these nations, 
 and settling a lasting peace among them, which would be advan-- 
 tageous to both — they living in the same island, having the 
 same language and the same common interest of religion and 
 liberty, — especially at this juncture, when the enemies of both 
 are so restless, endeavouring to make and increase jealousies 
 and divisions, which they will be ready to improve to their 
 own advantage, and the ruin of Britain. We, being of the 
 same opinion as to the usefulness of this Union, and having 
 nothing so much before our eyes as the glory of God, the 
 estabhshment of the Reformed Religion, and the peace and 
 happiness of these nations, are resolved to use our utmost 
 endeavours in advancing everything which may conduce to the 
 eflfectuating the same." 
 
 £., 
 
182 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 And this general disposition of theirs appears still further and 
 more amply in the letter of the Estates of Scotland to the King, 
 with the offer of their crown, dated the 24th of April, 1689, and 
 signed by Duke Hamilton, their then president, wherein they 
 thus expressed themselves : — 
 
 "We are most sensible of your Majesty's kindness and fatherly 
 care of both your kingdoms in promoting their union, which we 
 hope hath been reserved to be accomplished by you. That as 
 both kingdoms are united in one head and sovereign, so they 
 may become one body politic — one nation to be represented in 
 one Parliament. 
 
 " And, to testify our readiness to comply with your Majesty 
 in that matter, we have nominated commissioners to treat of 
 the terms of an entire and perpetual union betwixt the two 
 kingdoms, with reservation to us of our Church government, as 
 it shall be established at the time of the Union. 
 
 " These commissioners do wait your Majesty's approbation 
 and call, that they may meet aqd treat with the commissioners 
 to be appointed for England, at what time and place your 
 Majesty shall appoint. 
 
 " And if any difficulty ^hall arise in the treaty we do upon 
 our part refer the determination thereof to your Majesty : and 
 we assure ourselves, from your Majesty's prudence and good- 
 ness, of a happy conclusion to that important affair, so as the 
 same may be agreed to and ratified by_^ your Majesty in your 
 first Parliament." 
 
 Nothing can be more full or expressive upon the Union than 
 this letter ; wherein the word " entire " is made use of the first 
 time I remember it in any public paper upon the subject ; and 
 therefore how some of my countrymen come now to be so much 
 at variance with their own word I cannot imagine. 
 
 One would conclude from this (says Mr. Jones), that at the 
 Revolution the Union was in a fair way. Pray what then hin- 
 dered it from being effected ? 
 
 Upon this the king recommended it very earnestly to the 
 
Wednesday's club. 183 
 
 parliament of England (continued Mr. Grant), but nothing was 
 done. 
 
 Pray what do you think was the reason of the coldness on 
 the part of England at the Revolution (says Mr. North) ? 
 
 The reason was plain (says Mr. Grant) ; my countrymen pro- 
 ceeded to the declaring King WilUam and Queen Mary upon 
 the bare promise of an Union, without seeing it first effected, 
 and were afterwards (as is usual with them) left to repent at 
 leisure what they had done in haste. Since their crown .being 
 once settled they were thought no more worth notice, much less 
 the trouble of a treaty. 
 
 This neglect bore very hard upon their spirits ; and no doubt 
 has been one of the principal causes of their discontents ; though 
 the miscarriage of their late undertakings to the West Indies 
 proved the occasion of their breaking out. 
 
 After some effects of their discontents upon this miscarriage, 
 the king did what he could to compose those matters, but still 
 reckoned, as formerly, that nothing but an Union could do it 
 effectually ; he therefore recommended a nearer and more com- 
 plete union to the Parliament of England with great earnestness, 
 renewing this his recommendation a few days before his death ; 
 and how much her present Majesty has pressed this matter 
 since her happy accession to the throne is sufficiently known. 
 
 But must not we be obliged to part with our sovereignty and 
 independency by this Uniofi (says Mr. Carr) ? 
 
 Neither nation can be said to part with or lose their sove- 
 reignty by the Union (replied Mr. May), since the two sovereign- 
 ties will thereby be made or consolidated into one ; and thereby 
 those partition walls of independencies with regard to one another 
 will be taken away. 
 
 To come to particulars (says Mr. Carr), what has always 
 frightened me most from the thoughts of an Union has been the 
 apprehensions of its inconsistency with the preservation of the 
 Presbyterial Church government in Scotland. Wherefore, in 
 in the first place, I desire to know how that can be secured ? 
 
184 PBOCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 The security of the Church governments of both kingdoms 
 (says Mr. May) is expressly provided for in the respective acts 
 of parliament lately passed for a treaty; the which of course 
 makes this to be the first fundamental condition of the Union ; 
 and not only so, but by the Union the two Churches and the 
 toleration will become a natural poise and balance to one another; 
 whereas otherwise (as we have formerly seen) some or other of 
 these will always be in hazard upon the least rupture or mis- 
 understanding between the two nations; so that, instead of 
 bringing the Church government of either kingdom in danger, 
 the Union will certainly be the greatest human security fo^ 
 them both and for the toleration, upon which their quiet and 
 happiness so very much depends. 
 
 But how shall our laws and judicatures be preserved by this 
 Union (says Mr. Shaw)? 
 
 Without doubt, the laws and judicatures of both kingdoms 
 will be continued entirely as they are (says Mr. May) ; and thus 
 it has been in all unions happily made, and of which we have 
 examples almost everywhere, particularly in this island, where 
 not only the principality of Wales, but likewise the counties 
 palatine of Chester and Durham, have for several ages remained 
 as a sort of separate jurisdictions in points of law and judica- 
 tures, although in a manner inclosed by several parts of Eng- 
 land. Insomuch as it is but of late they have had the privilege 
 of sending knights and citizens to Parliament. 
 
 The difference of laws and customs are certainly so far from 
 being arguments against, that they are and ought to be taken 
 among the principal reasons for an Union ; since thereby the 
 worst parts of both will the more naturally come tO be disco- 
 vered and mended, and the better parts improved. 
 
 This was the opinion of my Lord Bacon, and all the consi- 
 derable men, who were for the Union in the last age (says Mr. 
 Sands), but, as has been hinted, must be left to time, and the 
 general concurrence. We see the different laws and customs of 
 Wales, Chester, Durham, and other places of England, have 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 185 
 
 never received any alteration without the unanimous consent 
 and application of the places and parties concerned. 
 
 But what say you to the rank of our nobility (says Mr. 
 Bruce) ; will not that be prejudiced by this Union? 
 
 Instead of losing anything, either in rank or otherwise (says 
 May), the interest and influence of the peerage of Scotland in 
 this island, and consequently in the rest of the world, may be 
 considerably advanced by the Union. 
 
 If you make your Union upon this foot (says Mr. Rose), it 
 will certainly be a federal union. 
 
 We shall not differ with you about words or names (says 
 Mr. May), if you are but pleased to let us have the thing. 
 
 Men are sometimes apt rather to differ about words or 
 names, than substantial or things (says Mr. Brooks) ; pray 
 therefore let us agree upon the name before we proceed 
 further. 
 
 When men are inclinable to differ and misunderstand one 
 another, they are usually very nice about words, phrases, and 
 names (says Mr. May) ; but I hope it is not so among us ; 
 however, I think Mr. Brooks has made a good motion. 
 
 I love words as well as things, when plain and easy (says 
 Mr. Jones) ; pray therefore let us not pester and clog this word 
 union with the epithets or additions of entire, incorporate, 
 federal, or any other, but rather call it (as I hope we all mean it), 
 a plain union. 
 
 Since I perceive the company are agreed upon the name, by 
 which I reckon they have made a considerable progress (says 
 Mr. Sands), pray let us now come to the thing. 
 
 Mr. Grant has been pleased to give us a very pertinent and 
 succinct account of what passed in the matter of the Union 
 since the Revolution (says Mr. Brooks) ; but I wish he or 
 some other of the gentlemen would be at the trouble of giving 
 a deduction of what hath been done, or endevoured in it, from 
 the beginning of the last age. 
 
 This is the true way of discovering the necessary facts, and 
 
186 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 consequently of being rightly informed (says Mr. Grant), and 
 in which we have none so capable as our friend Mr. May, if 
 he will please to favour us. 
 
 Sir, you hear what the gentlemen say (says Mr. Jones) ; and 
 since I doubt not but you come prepared, pray be pleased to 
 gratify them in their request. 
 
 Mr. May made some difi&culty at first, and would have put 
 others of the company upon it ; however, after this and some 
 other such excuses as are usual on like occasions, he proceeded 
 to give the following deduction. 
 
 For a considerable time before the union of the crowns, all 
 the most understanding and least prejudiced part of the inhabi- 
 tants of this island concluded, nothing under heaven could 
 contribute more to the security and happiness thereof than by 
 removing the separate and interfering jurisdictions and interests 
 therein to bring them to be one people, having one interest, one 
 heart, and one inclination. 
 
 And accordingly upon the accession of King James of Scot- 
 land to the throne of England, every one concluded this would 
 of course unite the several interfering jurisdictions and interests, 
 and consequently put an eflFectual end to those humours and 
 animosities which for several ages past had been so fatal to the 
 British interest in the world. 
 
 Yet after all this, to the great surprise of every one, the work 
 of completing this happy union M'as first brought to a stand, 
 and in a very few months all thoughts thereof laid aside. 
 
 From whence could this proceed (says Mr. Sands) ? since it 
 is plain the King at his first accession to the crown of England 
 had sufficient influence in both kingdoms, and could not but 
 know that by the removal' of the seat of the government from 
 Scotland, the completing of the Union was become not only 
 necessary to the well being but to the very being of that 
 country. 
 
 It is a hard matter to judge of things at such a distance 
 (says Mr. May) : but the blame is usually laid upon some of 
 
Wednesday's club, 187 
 
 his majesty's followers, whose secret reason of being against it 
 was, that they doubted whether they could be so considerable 
 in an united nation as in one divided. But whose pubhc pre- 
 tences were, the preservation of sovereignties, independencies, 
 and such like, as you will find by the limitations of the com- 
 missioners appointed by the two kingdoms to treat in the year 
 1604. 
 
 Who (as these had very superficial, perplexed, and precarious 
 powers) handled the matter accordingly : and, not to trouble 
 you with their long and intricate papers, I shall in a few words 
 give you what I take to be the substance of what they then 
 did, viz. 
 
 1. They agreed upon the abolishing of all hostile laws, and 
 the memory of all hostilities on the Borders. 
 
 2. Upon a reciprocal naturalisation of the subjects of both 
 kingdoms. 
 
 3. Upon a communication of trade and mutual commerce 
 between the two kingdoms; but this last was clogged with 
 several perplexed restraints, impositions, and exclusions. 
 
 These things went very well down in Scotland, where the 
 court had still the sole influence ; but in England, where the 
 credit of some of King Jameses followers began to decline, they 
 were not so easy ; however, the Parliament here readily pro- 
 ceeded to the confirmation of such parts of the treaty as re- 
 garded the abolishing of the hostile laws and the memory of all 
 hostilities upon the Borders. 
 
 But the articles relating to the naturalisation and communi- 
 cation of trade, they could not be brought to understand, as not 
 knowing how they could subsist between nations who, though 
 under the same king, yet still pretended to preserve their sove- 
 reignty and independencies with regard to one another. 
 
 However the judges found out a way sometime after, to de- 
 clare and allow the natives of Scotland, after the accession of 
 their king to the crown of England, to be Englishmen, and so 
 it has remained to this day. 
 
188 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 The informations I have had of this matter (says Mr. Grant) 
 leave me no room to doubt but the unhappy loss of that occa- 
 sion of completing the Union was due to some about the king, 
 who reckoned it their interest to keep the nations divided, that 
 so by the playing the parties and humours against one another, 
 they might not only have the better harvest but likewise more 
 safety, and easily reap the public spoils. 
 
 Thus, as favourites often do, they sacrificed their prince and 
 country to their own little mean conceits, avarice, and ambition, 
 and left the Scottish nation without government or order, from 
 which time their distresses and grievances, and consequently 
 their discontents, increased ; the which after having for a long 
 time burnt inwardly and preyed upon themselves, at last the 
 fatal effects thereof broke violently out in Scotland in the year 
 1639, and in England and Ireland in the years 1640 and 41, 
 effects whereof we find not a few are now changed into causes, 
 of which it grieves me to think, and still more to mention, 
 
 Mr. Grant has brought us insensibly to the times of our late 
 misfortunate intestine broils, which begun about the year 1640, 
 and lasted near twenty years (says Mr. May) ; and since I am 
 sensible of your uneasiness at the remembrance of those un- 
 happy things, I shall not mention more of them than what may 
 some way or other relate to the Union, or at least to what was 
 done or intended therein. 
 
 Soon after these misfortunate broils began, there was a 
 league or confederacy made between the two kingdoms, the 
 which, with various interruptions, continued for some years, 
 until it was entirely broken in the year 1650. 
 
 When a war breaking out between the two nations, Scotland 
 was thereby reduced to the obedience of the prevailing power 
 of the House of Commons, who styled themselves the Parlia- 
 ment of England. 
 
 Well! and what was the effect of this (says Mr. North)? I 
 hope when they had them in their power they took care to 
 manage them. 
 
Wednesday's club. 189 
 
 So they did (says Mr. May), for they immediately nominated 
 commissioners to treat with them of an Union. 
 
 Did you not just now say they had reduced them by force of 
 arms (says Mr. North) ? Certainly, if so, they could have united, 
 annexed, or done what they would without consulting them ; 
 what need was there then of the trouble of a treaty ? 
 
 Though they had reduced Scotland by force of arms (says 
 Mr. May), yet by what they did it is plain they thought it 
 could not be so well kept or secured as by an Union. And that 
 an union could never be so happy, when imposed, as by a treaty 
 and mutual consent. 
 
 For immediately after the battle of Worcester, which hap- 
 pened in September, 1651, that is to say, in the month of 
 October following, the Parliament nominated and appointed 
 eight of their principal members, as commissioners, to go down 
 to Scotland, and there to treat with the Estates of that kingdom 
 of an union between the two nations. 
 
 The commissioners nominated for this purpose were — The 
 Chief Justice St. John, Sir Henry Vane, junior, Major-General 
 Lambert, Major-General Dean, Lieutenant-General Monk, 
 Colonel Fenwick, Alderman Tichburn, and Major Salway. 
 
 Accordingly in 'March following the Estates of Scotland, being 
 assembled at Dalkeith, twenty of the thirty-two shires and 
 thirty-five of the then fifty-seven boroughs, agreed to the Union ; 
 and in their assembly at Edinburgh, about two months after- 
 ward, the rest of the counties and boroughs did likewise 
 concur. 
 
 And since after this general agreement to the Union, several 
 particular things occurred, which required a further treaty, the 
 Estates of Scotland nominated twenty-one of their number, that 
 is to say, fourteen for the shires and seven for their boroughs, 
 to attend the Parliament of England, in order to the full set- 
 tlement and adjusting thereof. 
 
 In consequence whereof the Bill for an Union, as likewise an 
 Act for an Indemnity in Scotland, was, after several meetings 
 
190 • PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 with a committee of Parliament in the House of Lords, agreed 
 unto, and ordered to be reported. 
 
 But before this report could be made, the Long Parliament 
 was turned out of doors by Cromwell, by which there was a 
 stop put to the Union, as well as to several other considerable 
 things then depending. 
 
 The Long Parliament being thus dissolved, or rather broken 
 up in April, 1653, Cromwell took the government upon him, 
 and in December following assumed the name and style of 
 Protector, and at his instalment signed an instrument whereby, 
 among other things, the counties, cities, and boroughs of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland, were brought under a new regula- 
 lation, with respect to their representatives in Parliament ; as 
 you will see by the scheme thereof, of which here is a copy. 
 
 Upon which Mr. May delivered to Mr. Jones a copy of 
 Cromwell's scheme for a representation, as likewise of the seve- 
 ral proportions of the assessment of 35,Q00i. on England, 6,000t 
 on Scotland, and 9,000^. per month upon Ireland, in the year 
 1656, which is as follows, viz. 
 
 Four hundred members for England and Wales in propor- 
 tion to the rate of assessment of 35,000/. per month in the year 
 1656; thirty members for Scotland upon the assessment of 
 6,000/. ; and thirty for Ireland upon the assessment of 9,000/. 
 per month. 
 
 [The foregoing is the exact result of Cromwell's scheme, 
 which is given in the original dialogue, with the details of each 
 county and town returning members. (App, Z Z.] 
 
 By this scheme you see (continued Mr. May) that England 
 and Wales was to have four hundred representatives, Scotland 
 thirty, and Ireland as many. 
 
 You likewise see how those four hundred and sixty repre- 
 sentatives were distributed, and what proportion they bore in 
 the assessment of the year 1656, wherein although 70,000/. per 
 month was settled as the quota or share of England, when Scot- 
 land was brought in for 6,000/., and Ireland for 9,000/. per 
 
191 
 
 month ; yet since this kingdom had for several years past been 
 almost at all the expense of the war, they had the abatement of 
 one moiety of their share or proportion of the assessment for 
 three years. 
 
 That, with regard to England, Scotland paid somewhat more 
 than one-thirteenth part of th^ assessment, and had somewhat 
 less than a fourteenth part of the representation. 
 
 That Ireland paid near the ninth part of the assessment, yet 
 had but the same proportion in the representation with Scot- 
 land^ 
 
 This assessment of 70,000Z. per month for England, 6,000/. 
 for Scotland, and 9,000Z. for Ireland, was reckoned equivalent 
 to 2s. in the pound ; by which you see they then valued the 
 rents of England at 8,400,000/., those of Scotland at 720,000/., 
 and those of Ireland at 1,080,000/. 
 
 But it is said that those stated valuations did not amount to 
 above two-thirds of the real extended values. 
 
 Upon the 12th of April, 1654, Oliver and his council passed 
 the following ordinance for uniting of Scotland with England : 
 
 " His Highness the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, &c., taking into consideration 
 how much it might conduce to the glory of God, and the peace 
 and welfare of the people in this whole island, that, after all 
 those late unhappy wars and differences, the people of Scotland 
 should be united with the people of England into one common- 
 wealth and under one government ; and finding that in December, 
 1651, the Parliament then sitting did send commissioners into 
 Scotland to invite the people of that nation into such a happy 
 union, who proceeded so far therein that the shires and boroughs 
 of Scotland, by their deputies convened at Dalkeith, and again 
 at Edinburgh, did accept of the said Union, and assent there- 
 unto. For the completing and perfecting of which Union, be it 
 ordained, and it is ordained by his Highness the Lord Protector 
 of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and 
 the dominions thereto belonging, by and with the advice and 
 
192 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 consent of his council, that all the people of Scotland and of 
 the isles of Orkney and Zetland, and of all the dominions and 
 territories belonging unto Scotland, are, and shall be, and are 
 hereby incorporated into, constituted, established, and declared 
 and confirmed one commonwealth with England ; and in every 
 parliament to be held successively for the said commonwealth 
 thirty persons shall be called from and serve for Scotland. 
 
 " And for the more effectual preservation of this Union, and 
 freedom and safety of the people of this Commonwealth so 
 united, be it ordained, and it is ordained by the authority afore- 
 said, that all the people of Scotland and of the isles of Orkney 
 and Zetland, and of all the dominions and territories belonging 
 unto Scotland, of what degree or condition soever, be discharged 
 of all fealty, homage, service, and allegiance, which is or shall be 
 pretended due unto any of the issue and posterity of Charles 
 Stuart,late King of England and Scotland, or any claiming under 
 him; and that Charles Stuart, eldest son, and James, called Duke 
 of York, second son, and all other the issue and posterity of the 
 said late king, and all and every person and persons pretending 
 title from, by, or under him, are and be disabled to hold or enjoy 
 thecrown of Scotland and other the dominions thereunto belong- 
 ing, or any of them, or to have the name, title, style, or dignity of 
 king or queen of Scotland; or to have and enjoy the power and 
 dominion of the said kingdom and dominions, or any of them, 
 or the honours, manors, lands, tenements, possessions, and here- 
 ditaments belonging or appertaining to the said crown of Scot- 
 land, or other the dominions aforesaid, or to any of them, any 
 law, statute, usage, ordinance, or custom in Scotland to the 
 contrary hereof in anywise notwithstanding. 
 
 " And it is further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
 the said office, style, dignity, power, and authority of king of 
 Scotland, and all right of the three estates of Scotland, to con- 
 vocate or assemble in any general convocation or parliament, 
 and all conventional and parliamentary authority in Scotland, as 
 formerly established; and all laws, usages, and customs ordaining, 
 
Wednesday's CLUB. •ISS 
 
 constituting, or confirming the same, shall be, and are hereby 
 and from henceforth abolished and utterly taken away, and 
 made null and void. 
 
 "And that this Union may take its more full effect and 
 intent, be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
 the arms of Scotland, viz. a cross, commonly called St. Andrew's 
 Cross, be received into and borne from henceforth in the arms 
 of this Commonwealth as a badge of this Union ; and that all 
 the public seals, seals of ofl&ces, and seals of bodies civil or 
 corporate in Scotland which heretofore carried the arms of the 
 kings of Scotland, shall from henceforth instead thereof carry 
 the arms of this Commonwealth. 
 
 " And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
 all customs, excise, and other imposts for goods transported 
 from England to Scotland, and from Scotland to England, by 
 sea or land, are and shall be so far taken off and discharged as 
 that all goods for the future shall pass as free, and with like 
 privileges, and with the like charges and burthens, from England 
 to Scotland, and from Scotland to England, as goods passing 
 from port to port or place to place in England ; that all goods 
 shall and may pass between Scotland and any other part of this 
 Commonwealth, or dominions thereof, with the like privileges, 
 freedom, charges, and burthens as such goods do or shall pass 
 between England and the said parts and dominions, any law, 
 statute, usage, or custom to the contrary thereof in anywise 
 notwithstanding. 
 
 " And that all goods prohibited by any law now in force in 
 England to be transported out of England to any foreign parts, 
 or imported shall be and hereby are prohibited to be trans- 
 ported or imported by the same law and upon the same penal- 
 ties out of Scotland to any foreign parts aforesaid, or from any 
 foreign parts into Scotland. 
 
 " And be it further ordained by the authority aforesaid, that 
 all cesses, public impositions, and taxations whatsoever be im- 
 
 VOL, I, 
 
194* PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 posed, taxed, and levied from henceforth proportionably from 
 the whole people of this Commonwealth so united. 
 
 " And further, to the end that all dominion of tenures and 
 superiorities importing servitude and vassalage may likewise 
 be abolished in Scotland, be it further declared and ordained 
 by the authority aforesaid, that all heritors, proprietors, and 
 possessors of lands in Scotland, or the dominions thereunto 
 belonging, and their heirs, shall, from and after the 12th day of 
 April, in the year of our Lord 1654, hold their respective lands 
 of the respective lord and lords by deed, charter, patent, or 
 enfeoflfment, to be renewed upon the death of every heritor, 
 proprietor, or possessor (as now they do) to his or her heirs, by 
 and under such yearly rents, boons, and annual services as are 
 mentioned or due by any deeds, patents, charters, or enfeoflf- 
 ments now in being of the respective land therein expressed, 
 or by virtue thereof enjoyed, without rendering, doing, or per- 
 forming any other duty, service, vassalage, or demand whatso- 
 ever by reason or occasion of the said lands, or any the clauses 
 or covenants in the said deeds, charters, patents, or enfeoff- 
 ments contained, saving what is hereafter herein and hereby 
 particularly expressed and declared, that is to say — ^heriots, where 
 the same are due ; fines (certain where the same is aheady 
 certain, and where the fine is uncertain reasonable fines) upon 
 the death of the lord, and upon the death or alienation of the 
 tenant, or any of them, where the same have usually been paidj 
 which said fine (not being already certain) shall not at any time 
 exceed one year's value of the lands, and also doing suit and 
 service to such court and courts baron as shall be constituted 
 in Scotland in such manner as is ordained by one other ordi- 
 nance, entitled 'An Ordinance for erecting Courts Baron in 
 Scotland.' 
 
 " And be it ordained by the authority aforesaid, that all and 
 every the heritors, proprietors, and possessors aforesaid, and 
 their heirs, are and shall be from henceforth for ever discharged 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 195 
 
 of all fealty, homage, vassalage, and servitude, which is or shall 
 be pretended due from them, or any of them, unto any their 
 lords or superiors whatsoever, claiming dominion or jurisdiction 
 over them by virtue of the said patents, charters, deeds, or 
 enfeoffments, and other rights thereof, or of any clauses or con- 
 ditions therein contained other than is before declared and 
 ordained ; and that all the said superiorities, lordships, and 
 jurisdictions, other than as aforesaid, shall be and are hereby 
 abolished, taken off, and discharged ; and that all and every the 
 said deeds, patents, charters, and enfeoffments in that behalf 
 be, and are hereby declared and made, so far void and null; 
 and particularly that all and every the heritors, and others the 
 persons aforesaid and their heirs, are and shall be for ever here- 
 after freed and discharged of and from all suits, and appearing 
 at or any their lords' or superiors' courts of justiciary, regality, 
 stuartry, barony, bailiery, heritable sheriffship, heritable admi- 
 ralty, all which together, with all other oflSces heritable or for 
 life, are hereby abolished and taken away; and that all and 
 every the heritors and persons aforesaid, and their heirs, are 
 and shall be for ever hereafter freed and discharged of and from 
 all military service and personal attendance upon any their 
 lords or superiors in expeditions or travels, and of all casual- 
 ties of ward lands, formerly held of the king or other superiors, 
 and of the marriage, single and double avail thereof, non-entries, 
 compositions for entries, and of all rights and casualties pay- 
 able, if they be demanded, only or upon the committing of any 
 clauses irritant ; and that the said heritors and persons afore- 
 said be now and from henceforth construed, reputed, adjudged, 
 and declared free and acquitted thereof, and of and from all and all 
 manner of holding, suits, duties, services, personal or real, and 
 demands whatsoever, other than is before declared and ordained, 
 notwithstanding the present tenor of any their deeds, patents, 
 enfeoffments, or any clauses, articles, or covenants therein con- 
 tained or mentioned to the contrary in anywise ; and that in 
 time to come all and every clause, covenant, article, condition^ 
 
 o 2 
 
196 VEOCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 or thing to the contrary hereof shall be omitted out of all such 
 deeds, patents, charters, and enfeoffments. 
 
 "And be it further ordained, that all forfeitures, escheats 
 (simple or of life), rent, bastardy, and last heir, which hereto- 
 fore escheated, forfeited, and fell to the king, lords of regality, 
 or other superiors, shall from henceforth fall, escheat, and forfeit 
 to the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth for the time being. 
 
 "Passed 12th April, 1654. Confirmed 1656." 
 
 By the preamble thereof (continued Mr. May) you may see 
 that this Act for an Union with Scotland is founded upon the 
 proceedings of the Parliament in 1651 and 1652 upon that 
 subject. 
 
 Besides the exclusion of the royal family, there are several 
 other negative clauses therein little if at all to our purpose, as 
 the taking away the powers of assemblies, conventions, and 
 parliaments in Scotland, the altering their arms, seal, and such 
 like. 
 
 The taking away the wards, servitudes, and slavish tenures, 
 was thought a good and popular thing in those days, insomuch 
 that, even after the Restoration, they continued them abolished 
 here in England, and gave an excise to the Crown in lieu of 
 them ; although, at the same time, several other good things 
 were neglected for no other reason (I could never learn), unless 
 it were from the abhorrence of anything promoted or done in 
 those still recent times of usurpation and rebellion. 
 
 However, the wards and liveries were in the year 1660 again 
 restored in Scotland, and so continue to this day : and it is 
 none of our business to talk of taking them away, that motion 
 must come from themselves, as in everything else they may 
 find inconvenient ; for, as I said, the Union itself is not in- 
 tended to be such as to alter the municipal laws of either 
 kingdom. 
 
 On the 27th of June, 1654, Cromwell and his council past 
 the two following ordinances for the distribution of the repre- 
 sentatives for Scotland and Ireland, • 
 
Wednesday's club. 197 
 
 An Ordinance f 07' Distribution of the Elections in Scotland. 
 
 " Whereas, by the government of the Commonwealth of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, publicly declared at Westmin- 
 ter the 16th of December, 1653, it is declared that the distribu- 
 tion of the persons to be chosen for Scotland, and the several 
 counties, cities, and places within the same, shall be according 
 to such proportion of numbers as shall be agreed upon and de- 
 clared by the Lord Protector and the major part of the council, 
 before the sending forth writs of summons for the next Par- 
 liament. 
 
 " And whereas his highness and the major part of the council, 
 before the sending forth of any writs of summons aforesaid, did 
 agree and declare the distribution of the persons to be chosen 
 for Scotland, according to the proportion and numbers here- 
 after mentioned. 
 
 " It is therefore ordained, declared, and agreed by his High* 
 ness the Lord Protector, with the consent of the council, that 
 the persons to be chosen for Scotland, and the several counties, 
 cities, and places within the same, shall be according to the 
 proportions and numbers hereafter expressed, that is to say, 
 for the shires of Orkney, Zetland, and Caithness one, and the 
 place of meeting for the election of such person shall be at 
 Caithness. 
 
 " For the shires of Sutherland, Ross, and Cromarty one, and 
 the place of meeting for the election of such person shall be at 
 Ross. 
 
 " For the shire of Inverness one, and the place of meeting 
 for the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Elgin and Nairn one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be at Elgin. 
 
 •* For the shire of Bamff one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Aberdeen one, and the place of meeting 
 for the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
198 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 " For the shires of Kincardine and Forfar one, and the place 
 of meeting for the election of such person shall be at Forfar. 
 
 " For the shires of Fife and Kinross one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be in Fife. 
 
 " For the shire of Perth one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shires of Linlithgow, Stirling, and Clackmannan 
 one, and the place of meeting for the election of such person 
 shall be at Stirling. 
 
 " For the shires of Dumbarton, Argyle, and Bute one, and the 
 place for the election of such person shall be at Dumbarton. 
 
 " For the shires of Ayr and Renfrew one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be in Ayrshire. 
 
 " For the shire of Lanerick one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shaU. be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Edinburgh one, and the place of meeting 
 for the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Berwick one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Roxburgh one, and the place of meeting 
 for the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shires of Selkirk and Peebles one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be at Peebles. 
 
 " For the shire of Dumfries one, and the place of meeting 
 for the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Wigton one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " For the shire of Hadington one, and the place for the 
 election of such person shall be in the same shire. 
 
 " And for the boroughs of Dornoch, Tain, Inverness, Ding- 
 well, Nairn, Elgin, and Forres one, and the place of meeting for 
 the election of such person shall be at Inverness. 
 
 " For the boroughs of BamfF, CuUen, and Aberdeen one, and 
 the place of meeting for the election of such person shall be at 
 Aberdeen. . 
 
Wednesday's club. 199 
 
 " For the boroughs of Forfar, Dundee, Arbroth, Montrose, 
 and Brechin one, and the place of meeting for the election of 
 such person shall be at Dundee. 
 
 " For the boroughs of Linlithgow, Queensferry, Perth, Col- 
 ross, and Stirling one, and the place of meeting for the election 
 of such person shall be at Stirling. 
 
 "For the boroughs of St. Andrew's, Dysert, Kirkcaldy, 
 Cupar, Anstruther East, Pittenweem, Creil, Dumfermling, King- 
 horn, Anstruther West, Inerkeething, Kilrenny, and Burnt 
 Island one, and the place of meeting for the election of such 
 person shall be at Coopar, in Fife. 
 
 " For the city of Edinburgh two. 
 
 "For the boroughs of Lanark, Glasgow, Ruglan, Rothsay, 
 Renfrew, Aire, Irvine, and Dunbarton one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be at Glasgow. 
 
 "For the boroughs of Dumfries, Sanchar, Lochmaben, 
 Annan, Wigton, Kirkcudbright, White-Home, and Galloway 
 one, and the place of meeting for the election of such person 
 shall be at Dumfries. 
 
 " For the boroughs of Peebles, Selkirk, Jedburg, Lauder, 
 North Berwick, Dunbar, and Hadington one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be at Lauder. 
 
 " And it is further ordained by his said Highness the Lord 
 Protector, with the consent of the council, that for the effectual 
 and orderly election of the persons aforesaid, to be chosen to 
 sit and serve in Parhament, as in the said Government is 
 declared, several writs under the Great Seal of England shall 
 issue and be directed to the several and respective sheriflfs of 
 the several and respective shires, wherein the respective 
 elections are to be made of the respective persons to serve in 
 Parliament for the respective shires, and the respective sheriffs 
 of the county, where the elections for the boroughs are hereby 
 appointed to be made according to the distribution aforesaid ; 
 and that the respective sheriffs, to whom such writs shall be 
 directed, are hereby authorised and empowered to make, or 
 
200 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 cause proclamation to be made of such writ in all the counties, 
 boroughs, and places respectively for making such election and 
 elections, and to issue his warrant to the chief officer of the 
 place where such election for boroughs is to be made, notwith- 
 standing the same be not within the shire whereof such person 
 is sherifF, and to cause the elections to be made accordingly, 
 which writs the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the 
 Great Seal of England for the time being shall seal, issue, and 
 send forth." 
 
 An Ordinance/or Distribution of the Elections in Ireland. 
 
 "Whereas by the government of the commonwealth of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, publicly declared at West- 
 minster, the 16th of December, 1653, It is declared, that the 
 distribution of the persons to be chosen for Ireland and the 
 several counties, cities, and places within the same, shall be 
 according to such proportions and numbers as shall be agreed 
 upon and declared by the lord protector, and the major part of 
 the council, before the sending forth writs of summons for the 
 next Parliament. 
 
 " And whereas his highness and the major part of the council 
 before the sending forth of any writs of summons aforesaid did 
 agree and declare the distribution of the persons to be chosen 
 for Ireland, according to the proportion and numbers hereafter 
 mentioned. It is therefore ordained, declared, and agreed by 
 his Highness the Lord Protector, with the consent of the council, 
 that the persons to be chosen for Ireland and the several 
 counties, cities, and places within the same shall be according 
 to the proportion and number hereafter expressed, that is to say, 
 
 " For the province of Leinster ten, that is to say, for the 
 counties of Meath and Lowth two, and the place of meeting 
 for the elections of such persons shall be at Drogheda. 
 
 " For the counties of Kildare and Wicklow two. 
 
 " For the county and city of Dublin two, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Dublin* 
 
Wednesday's club. 201 
 
 "For the counties of Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, and 
 Queen's two, and the place of meeting for the election of such 
 persons shall be at Carlow. 
 
 " For the counties of West Meath, Longford, and Kings two, 
 and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall 
 be at Mullingar. 
 
 " For the province of Ulster seven, that is to say, 
 
 " For the counties of Down, Antrim, and Armagh, two. 
 
 " For the towns of Carrickfergus and Belfast one, and the 
 place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at 
 Belfast. 
 
 " For the counties of Derry, Donegal, and Tyrone two. 
 
 " For the towns of Derry and Coleraine one, and the place 
 of meeting for the election of such person shall be at Derry. 
 
 "For the counties of Cavan, Fermanagh, and Monaghan one, 
 and the place of meeting for the election of such person shall 
 be at Enniskillen. 
 
 " For the province of Munster, nine, that is to say, 
 
 " For the counties of Kerry, Limerick, and Clare two, and 
 the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at 
 RabeaL 
 
 " For the city and county of the city of Limerick and Kill- 
 mallock one, and the place of meeting for the election of such 
 person shall be at Limerick. 
 
 " For the county of Cork one. 
 
 "For the town of Cork and Youghall one, and the place of 
 meeting for the election of such person shall be at Cork. 
 
 "For the towns of Bandon and Kinsale one, and the place 
 of meeting for the election of such person shall be at Bandon* 
 
 " For the counties of Waterford and Tipperary two, and the 
 place of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at 
 Clonmel. 
 
 "For the cities of Waterford and Clonmel one, and the place 
 of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Water- 
 ford. 
 
202 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 "For the province of Connaught, except the county of Clare, 
 four, that is to say, 
 
 " For the counties of Sligo, Roscommon, and Leitrim two, 
 and the place of meeting for the election of such persons shall 
 be at Jamestown. 
 
 " For the counties of Galloway and Mayo two, and the place 
 of meeting for the election of such persons shall be at Gallo- 
 way. 
 
 " And it is further ordained by his said Highness the Lord 
 Protector, with the consent of the council aforesaid, that for the 
 eflfectual and orderly election of the persons aforesaid, to be 
 chosen to sit and serve in Parliament, as in the said govern- 
 ment is declared, several writs under the Great Seal of England 
 shall issue and be directed to the several sheriffs of the afore- 
 said counties and cities, to make the respective elections of 
 the respective persons to serve in Parliament for the said 
 respective counties, cities, towns, and hereinbefore declared, 
 which writs the Chancellor, Keeper, or Commissioners of the 
 Great Seal of England for the time being shall seal, issue, and 
 send forth." 
 
 About this time there were likewise several other ordinances 
 and regulations, with regard to Scotland, passed by Oliver and his 
 council, all of them, so far as I can learn, at their own request ; 
 the most part thereof, with several others for different purposes, 
 were confirmed by an Act of the Representatives of the Three 
 Nations, in 1656, which hath the following remarkable pream- 
 ble, viz. — 
 
 " Whereas, since the 20th of April, 1653, in the great exigen- 
 cies and necessities of these nations, divers acts and ordinances 
 have been made without the consent of the people assembled 
 in Parliament, which is not according to the fundamental laws 
 of the nations and the rights of the people, and is not for the 
 future to be drawn into example, yet the acting thereupon 
 tending to the settlement of the estates of several persons and 
 families, and the peace and quiet of the nations ; be it enacted, 
 
203 
 
 by his Highness the Lord Protector and this present Parlia- 
 ment/' &c. 
 
 Thus stood the Union for some years, during which, as I 
 have had it from some of the most knowing men of those times, 
 that nation was never more easy and happy in itself, nor justice 
 more impartially administered. 
 
 At the Restoration, everything relating to Scotland and Ire- 
 land was again put upon the same unhappy foot as before the 
 war. The ill efiFects whereof were soon after felt in many 
 instances, but particularly by the passing and execution of 
 several negative acts relating to trade, which not only awakened 
 the old, but begot and raised many new animosities. 
 
 The Scotch made heavy complaints and remonstrances against 
 these impositions and exclusions, but without any redress. 
 
 However, in the year 1667, the king was empowered to nomi- 
 nate commissioners to treat with those of Scotland, about the 
 taking off, altering, or superseding several duties, impositions, 
 restraints, or prohibitions ; and accordingly commissioners were 
 nominated, and had several meetings in January and February, 
 1667 j but after all found it impossible to come to any resolu- 
 tion, so this treaty broke up, and came to nothing. 
 
 The things which the commissioners, on the part of Scot- 
 land, principally complained of on this occasion, may be seen 
 by the following paper, the which Mr. May delivered to be read 
 and inserted in our books. 
 
 " We have received your lordships' paper of the first of Fe- 
 bruary instant, signed, by your lordships' order, John Walker, 
 in answer to ours of the twenty-fifth of January last. 
 
 " To which we return this answer : — ^That, as we are and shall 
 be very far from formalising in a business of such a concern- 
 ment, so when your lordships shall consider the dates of our 
 papers, we hope you will find we have not ieen the cause of 
 any loss of time or delay. 
 
 " By your lordships' first paper you desired to have the 
 whole in prospect, and we did conceive you had it by our first 
 
'1 
 
 204 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 paper, wherein we represented that, contrary to the privileges 
 declared to belong by law to his Majesty's subjects of Scotland, 
 born under the allegiance of the king, and contrary to that 
 freedom of trade enjoyed for so many years, some Acts have 
 been made since the twenty-fifth of March, in the twelfth year 
 of his majesty's reign. 
 
 " We expressed very particularly what related to the Act of 
 Navigation, and where we said that, by other Acts of Parlia- 
 ment, since that time some goods and commodities of Scotland 
 are at sometimes charged with a duty and imposition equal to 
 or above their value ; we doubted not but your lordships con- 
 ceived we meant that branch of an Act charging Scotch cattle 
 brought into this kingdom after the twenty-fourth of August. 
 And that by the custom and imposition charged upon some 
 goods of Scotland about sixteen times more than the foreign 
 goods of the like nature, we meant the Act imposing 16s. 8d, 
 on each weigh of the salt of Scotland, where only one shilling 
 is imposed upon foreign salt : we mentioned also unusual 
 custom exacted in Northumberland and Cumberland, which 
 we conceived might have been very obvious to your lord- 
 ships. 
 
 " These are the most material obstructions, and we little ex- 
 pected your lordships could reasonably apprehend any hetero- 
 geneous matters from us, seeing both our commissions are 
 limited to the freedom and liberties of trade betwixt the two 
 kingdoms, and to the impositions obstructing the same ; yet 
 seeing your lordships do still insist that we should first declare 
 more particularly what we have further to propose, and give 
 you a scheme of the whole, in compliance with this we do re- 
 present, that we expect your lordships will consent to the 
 restoring his Majesty's subjects of Scotland to the same free- 
 dom of trade here in England, and the dominions thereunto be- 
 longing, which they enjoyed during the happy reigns of his 
 Majesty's royal grandfather, and father of blessed memory. 
 And for that purpose to the repealing all the clauses of Acts of 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. .205 
 
 Parliament here in England, which obstruct and destroy that 
 freedom. 
 
 " Having fully expressed ourselves as to the first and greatest 
 obstruction, the Act of Navigation, 
 
 " We now mention further, the Act for encouraging of Trade, 
 the 15 Car. II. chap. 7, and by it the imposition on Scotch 
 cattle, from the twenty-fourth of August to the twentieth of 
 December, and what by that Act may be interpreted to concern 
 the subjects of Scotland, as to their importation of fresh and 
 salted or dried fish, which last clause depends in part upon the 
 Act of Navigation, 
 
 " An additional duty laid on Scotch linen cloth, by the Act 
 of Tunnage and Poundage, in the twelfth year of his Majesty's 
 reign, being one full moiety more than is mentioned in the 
 book of rates. 
 
 "That part of the Act 14 Car. II. chap. 7, which forbid the 
 carrying skins or hides, tanned or untanned, into Scotland. 
 
 " That part of the Act for preventing frauds and abuses in his 
 Majesty's customs, 14 Car. II. chap. 11, which obliges all goods 
 and wares that shall be brought out or carried into the kingdom 
 of Scotland to pass by or through the towns of Berwick or 
 Carlisle ; at least we shall desire an explanation of the same. 
 
 " The imposition laid upon Scotch salt, above sixteen times 
 more than that upon foreign salt, 14 Car. II. chap. 11. 
 
 " The imposition laid upon Scotch beer, viz. : ten shillings 
 per barrel, as if Scotchmen were foreigners, 18 Car. II. chap. 5. 
 
 "And we further expect that where foreigners or places 
 beyond the seas are mentioned in any Act, that it be declared 
 that his Majesty's subjects of Scotland, nor his kingdom of Scot- 
 land, are not meant, nor cannot be so understood to be meant. 
 
 "As concerning the unusual customs imposed lately in 
 Northumberland and Cumberland, we mean that of late there 
 have been demanded for every stoned horse carried into Scot- 
 land, 3/. 6*. 8ef. ; for every gelding, 1^.; for every raare 61. 6s. 8d.; 
 for every quarter of wheat carried by land, 5s. 4d. ; of rye, 4s. ; 
 
206 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 of peas, 4s. ; of big and barley, 2s. 8d. ; and of oats, 1*. 4d. ; 
 upon a pretence of the Acts made in the thirteenth and fif- 
 teenth years of his Majesty's reign ; and without any colour of 
 law new imposts, as we are informed, are laid upon Northum- 
 berland coals carried into Scotland, and unusual customs upon 
 ordinary market commodities brought every market day into 
 Berwick. 
 
 " Thus your lordships have now the full scheme of all that is 
 to be demanded by us in this treaty ; but, because what we have 
 given in relating to the Act of Navigation was the first in time, 
 and is the greatest obstruction of our trade, and indeed without 
 which our trade cannot be carried on, we still insist upon an 
 answer to it in the first place, and then we shall willingly pro- 
 ceed to treat on all the rest in order. 
 
 " And we hope it shall appear we do and shall desire nothing 
 but the just and reasonable removal of the obstructions of that 
 freedom of trade so long enjoyed ; and the continuing and 
 strengthening the happy agreement of both the kingdoms, 
 which is our greatest desire, and shall be pursued by us most 
 heartily and diligently. 
 "Feb. 3, 1667-8." 
 
 Upon the breaking up of this treaty (continued Mr. May) it 
 became still more manifest that nothing less than a nearer and 
 more complete union could remedy those growing evils ; and 
 and this not only with regard to Scotland but likewise to Ire- 
 land, as among other things appears by a paper about that time 
 presented to his Majesty by several of the most considerable 
 persons of that kingdom, to the following efiect : — 
 
 " His Majesty's good subjects in Ireland, upon the hearing 
 of a proposal not long since made for the uniting England and 
 Scotland, with all obedience and submission humbly conceive 
 it a means conducible thereto, if the like Union of England and 
 Ireland under one legislative power assembled in one Parlia- 
 ment might be settled dejure, in something the like manner as 
 
Wednesday's club, 207 
 
 it was formerly de facto, to the facilitating his Majesty's gracious 
 government of both kingdoms, dissolving of many intricate dif- 
 ficulties, taking away much of the root of difference and discord 
 between the now many parties in his Majesty's said kingdoms, 
 and strengthening his hands against all opposers both at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 " The Grievances fm want of Union. 
 
 " 1. The judges are not agreed whether laws made in England 
 (since Poyning^s law) do bind Ireland, though it be named in 
 them; so that embezzling, razing, and abusing records, too 
 often practised, is not felony there as in England. 
 
 " 2. The judges are not agreed how the Act 17 and 18 Car. I. 
 made in the Parliament of England may consist with the Acts 
 of Settlement and Explanation since made in Ireland. 
 
 " 3. The people of England sent over and living in Ireland for 
 his Majesty's service are accounted as foreigners and aliens in 
 many things, viz. : that their goods from Barbadoes must come 
 to England, that they pay double custom here, &c. 
 
 " 4. The colonies sent from England are therefore the more 
 disposed in a generation or two to turn Irish,* of whom at this 
 day two-third parts are degenerated English, and of the re- 
 mainder two-thirds are of the Welch ; and but one-ninth of the 
 old Biscainers chased by the Goths and planted there by leave 
 from England; and the best of these, as the O'Brians and divers 
 others, have become true English. 
 
 "5. If Ireland continue so to drain away men (as between 
 the year 1649 and 1653 above 50,000 soldiers), both that and 
 England, and our plantations in America, may want men, when 
 as it may be so ordered as to help all the rest with supplies. 
 
 " 6. Those turned Irish are against improvement, ornament, 
 
 the king's revenue and interest there, and the advancement of 
 
 trade. All these are promoted by the English planters, who, on 
 
 any commotion, lose their improvements and stock (generally five 
 
 * See Stat. 4 Eliz. for attainder of Tyrone ; and MUton's Histories. 
 
208 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 times more worth than their lands), their wives and children 
 driven into England in distress, moving a general pity of their 
 calamity, and indignation against their oppressors. 
 
 " Advantages by the Union. 
 
 " 1. The less army would serve ("trained bands might suffice), 
 the English pale there being not completely four counties, for 
 many years kept itself against the rest of Ireland without any 
 great charge to England. 
 
 "2. The English upon such evidence and ground of esta- 
 blishment, and quiet in their possessions, a main point (pos- 
 sessed and dispossessed being a great foundation of differences 
 there) in other things would be more disposed to any reasonable 
 conformity, which their dependence upon England will oblige 
 them to. 
 
 "3. The Irish being put from their hopes of having any 
 more Irish Parliaments, will be the easier disposed to English 
 habit, language, building of chimneys, and other manner of 
 English living, according to many of our statutes still in force 
 to that end ; the want of all which things make the great con- 
 sumption of the English there. 
 
 " Whilst this kind of union held de facto in the late times, 
 the Irish generally went to the English Protestant churches, 
 and did actually conform as above said. 
 
 " 4. Neither then would the great men of all parts there, as 
 hitherto, be so concerned to expel their English tenants and 
 take in Irish, though at less rents, partly because they are more 
 absolutely at their own command and slavish, partly to keep up 
 the pretence and necessity of a greater army, wherein their 
 relations, servants, and dependants have convenient entertain- 
 ments. 
 
 " 5. There is here the greater facility from the general use of 
 the same laws in both kingdoms." 
 
 And the disposition for an union with Scotland so far pre- 
 vailed, that in the year 1670 the king was empowered by the 
 
209 
 
 parliaments of both kingdoms to nominate commissioners to 
 treat; the which commissioners were accordingly appointed, 
 and had several meetings, but after all this treaty likewise came 
 to nothing, the commissioners on the part of Scotland not only 
 insisting upon their old pretences of preserving sovereignties 
 and independencies, but likewise that by their constitution 
 they could not so much as treat of an union until their 
 whole parliament, and even all their constituents, had con- 
 sented. 
 
 That at all adventures they would not treat of an union but 
 only in the line of their king, James VI. 
 
 Those were pretty remote reasonings (says Mr. More), did 
 they not come nearer to the point ? 
 
 In compliment to the king (continued Mr. May), they at last 
 oflfered to try if they could get their countrymen's consent to 
 have the two parliaments joined, but would not abate one of 
 their members upon any account whatsoever. 
 
 A good motion (says Mr. Gage) ; but did they pretend to 
 come in for the like proportion of taxes as of representatives in 
 Parliament ? 
 
 When the proportion of taxes was urged as the rule and 
 standard for that of their representatives in Parliament (replied 
 Mr. May), they said there were many small boroughs in England 
 which sent two members to Parliament, yet in the assessment 
 did not contribute one per cent, of what was paid by some of 
 the great counties and cities, and much more to this purpose, 
 and consequently not worth remembrance. 
 
 These reasons are somewhat faint, to say no more (says Mr. 
 Sands) ; we have had enough if not too much of them. 
 
 Thus you see (continued Mr. May) that though the first 
 motion of a treaty came entirely from themselves, yet it was 
 the gentlemen of )Scotland who broke it off. 
 
 But (says Mr. Sands) methinks, since they had so altered 
 their minds, they might at least have found more tolerable and 
 plausible excuses than these ; but pray what do you think was 
 
 VOL. I, P 
 
i210 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 the secret and true motives of their breaking up this their own 
 treaty ? 
 
 It is said that some about court who at first fancied they 
 could increase their power and influence by the Union (replied 
 Mr. May), being afterwards convinced it would have quite 
 another effect, accordingly took care to break up the treaty, as 
 you have heard. 
 
 It is evident that this conduct of the commissioners for Scot- 
 land could not proceed so much from anything as from the ill- 
 disposition of some who had the influence and secret of Scotch 
 affairs at court (says Mr. Grant), since, both before and for a 
 considerable time afterward^ they could and did command obe- 
 dience in Scotland without reserve, particularly in the matters 
 of trade, about which most of these differences arose. 
 
 Would it not be worth while to inquire what hath been gotten 
 or reaped out of these disorders (says Mr. Sands)? or what 
 families have been raised by these kind of means ? 
 
 As it was ungodly work (says Mr. Grant), so a curse seems 
 to have followed, for at this day we can hardly find a family, or 
 but the remainders of one, raised by these sorts of means. 
 
 It must needs have been a bad game where all have been 
 such losers (says Mr. Hope) : on the one hand the English 
 say that by the accession of the kings of Scotland to their 
 crown, instead of an addition of strength as expected, they have 
 had nothing but trouble and umbrage from that kingdom ; and 
 on the other it is plain that, for want of a nearer and more 
 complete union, the kingdom of Scotland hath been greatly 
 prejudiced, since before this loose and irregular tie of the union 
 of the crowns it is said to have been, with regard to England, 
 in people as one to four, and in wealth as one to seven, but 
 doubt if it can now come up to half that proportion. 
 
 I can hardly think your country ever came up to what you 
 seem to hint (says Mr. May) ; but by what papers I have seen 
 am apt to believe that Scotland was then much more consider- 
 able, with regard to the rest of the world, than it now is, since 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 211 
 
 we find that even by the regulation in Cromwell's time they 
 came in for about one-thirteenth part of the assessment, and 
 the question is if they are now capable of coming in but for 
 that proportion ? 
 
 By what I have lately understood (says Mr. Hope) they can 
 hardly come in for half what they did in Cromwell's time. 
 
 But what do you think could be the cause of such a decline 
 (says Mr. North) ? for one would think if they had been over- 
 run by an enemy and governed by an army for half an age 
 together they could hardly have been sunk so much as by this 
 you seem to hint. 
 
 There is no doubt but a country abandoned is rather in a 
 worse condition than when conquered (says Mr. Grant) : for 
 where a people are subdued the conqueror usually takes some 
 care of his acquisitions ; but when a place is thus left, although 
 the names and forms may be still the same, yet hardly any- 
 thing of the majesty or essential parts of government remain ; 
 the laws and magistratures being only so far in force as they 
 can do harm, and consequently the inhabitants are rendered not 
 only a prey to one another, but to the very servants of servants. 
 
 I am so far from wondering how Scotland comes to be so low 
 (says Mr. May), that, considering their circumstances, I am 
 amazed to think how they have made shift to subsist, as they 
 have done, for more than an age together ; for instance, let us 
 suppose two persons or families of lOOl. per annum each, the one 
 increasing and the other consuming, but only to the value of 
 lOOd. yearly, at the rate of six per cent, per annum, for one 
 hundred years' continuance. Pray what do you think would 
 be the diiFerence of those two estates at the determination of 
 that time ? 
 
 By this table of logarithms (says Mr. Grant) I find the estate 
 of the gainer increased to about 250/. per annum, but that of 
 the other utterly consumed, and he about 800/. in debt. 
 
 By this instance we may perceive the difference between a 
 thriving and declining state of a family, country, or whatever 
 
 p2 
 
212 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 it be (continued Mr, May) ; but besides this the progress trade 
 has made in the world during the last century must have very 
 much contributed to this alteration. 
 
 From whence I conclude that any tolerable conquest had 
 been much better for Scotland than this imperfect and partial 
 Union, which commenced in the year 1603. 
 
 You see the conquest in the year 1651 brought a Union of 
 course (says Mr. Brooks); and no doubt but that would still 
 be the consequence of either nation reducing the other. 
 
 That might do very well, for anything I know (says Mr. 
 Grant) ; however, I presume it may be better to do it now by 
 treaty than to stay till it be effected the other way. 
 
 Since the rest of the gentlemen seem to be of your sentiment 
 (says Mr. Jones), pray let us proceed to the necessary direc- 
 tions about forming a scheme to be presented next meeting. 
 
 By what standard or rule do you intend your scheme shall 
 be drawn (says Mr. More) ? 
 
 You see equality of taxes and trade, with a proportionate 
 representation in Parliament, were the rules about fifty years 
 ago (says Mr. May); can any one think of better? 
 
 I wish we could find some other standard or measure than 
 that of those times (says Mr. More) ; methinks I should be 
 unwilling to follow or imitate rebels and usurpers in anything, 
 especially in a matter of this moment. 
 
 I wish so too (says Mr. Sands), yet in the meantime find 
 myself so much in temper that rather than want a rule me- 
 thinks I could make shift with such as was in use even in those 
 evil times. 
 
 I hope our friend Mr. More is only in jest (says Mr. May) 
 otherwise I should tell him in earnest that to oppose or find 
 fault with good things because handed from bad times, bad 
 men, or perhaps only from such as we do not like, is as Uttle a 
 sign of sound judgment as it is of good nature. 
 
 Yet by this spirit of contradiction and opposition we may find 
 that not a few of the ill things of the world have had their rise, 
 
213 
 
 and of the good things their ruin (says Mr. Jones). Particularly 
 it is to be feared the matter of the Union now before us did 
 not fare the better in the reign of King James for being so 
 much in vogue in that of Queen Elizabeth ; nor upon the 
 Restoration, for having been so heartily espoused and brought to 
 such consistency during the preceding times of usurpation. 
 
 But let us forbear taking any further notice of humours, or 
 the eflFects of them, and proceed to name some persons to pre- 
 pare and bring in a scheme of an Union at our next meeting. 
 
 Accordingly, upon this motion, Mr. Brooks, Mr. May, Mr. 
 Grant, and Mr. Hope, together with Mr. Jones, were appointed 
 to draw up a scheme of an Union with Scotland, in order to its 
 being presented upon Wednesday, January the 16th, to which 
 time the society adjourned the further consideration of this 
 matter. 
 
 Wednesday, January 16th, 1705. 
 
 Mr. Jones acquainted the society, that since our last meeting 
 upon this subject the Parliament of England, to show their 
 good and friendly disposition to the kingdom of Scotland, and 
 the better to pave the way to the Union, had frankly and 
 unanimously concurred with our gracious Queen in repealing 
 certain negative and prohibitory clauses in the Act which passed 
 last sessions, for empowering her Majesty to appoint Commis- 
 sioners to treat of an Union. 
 
 I was much concerned some months ago (says Mr. May) to 
 find many so warmly inclined to the passing such negative and 
 hostile laws with regard to Scotland ; as thinking this was the 
 way rather to widen than to heal our differences ; to heighten 
 than to allay the heats and animosities among us. (App. AAA.) 
 » But now it has happily given the Lords and Commons of 
 England a noble opportunity of showing their temper and good 
 disposition. 
 
 Are you in England likewise apt to do things, when warm 
 and angry (says Mr. Bruce) ? 
 
214 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 You see we, as others, are sometimes troubled with negative 
 and prohibitory humours (says Mr. May) ; but that still we 
 retain the capacity of mending. 
 
 Certainly what hath passed in our Parliament, with relation to 
 the repealing those clauses (says Mr. Sands), deserves commen- 
 dation to posterity, and has expressed a generosity of mind fit 
 to be imitated by the best and bravest nations ; and it is hoped 
 the gentlemen of Scotland will thereby be induced to make such 
 returns as may not only fix and continue, but increase, this 
 friendly and regardful disposition, from which both nations may 
 hope to reap so excellent fruits. 
 
 Now those hostile clauses are repealed (says Mr. Bruce), 
 the Act intituled " An Act for the more effectual securing the 
 Kingdom of England from the apparent danger that may arise 
 from several Acts lately passed in the Parliament of Scotland," 
 looks more like, and corresponds somewhat better with the 
 title, than before ; and I hope it shall have all the good effects 
 in Scotland that can reasonably be expected. 
 
 This is certainly the true way to deal with my countrymen 
 (says Mr. Grant), who, though otherwise a good sort of people, 
 yet, like Rehoboam's subjects, are now and then apt to be a 
 Uttle stomachfull and stubborn. 
 
 This puts me in mind of a passage in Titus Livius * (says Mr. 
 May). When the Senate of Home had under consideration 
 what punishment should be inflicted upon the Privernates, a 
 people who had broken their federal union with the Romans, 
 
 A senator, who had been warm against that people, happen- 
 ing to ask one of their ambassadors or agents " What punish- 
 ment he thought in his conscience the Privernates deserved for 
 this breach of league ?" was, contrary to expectation, answered, 
 "Such as they deserve who think themselves worthy of freedom." 
 
 Upon this the consul, who had reduced Privernum, and was 
 better inclined to its inhabitants, perceiving those who before 
 were against the Privernates to be still the more exasperated by 
 * T. Livius, Deo. 1, 1. 8,§ 20, 21. 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 215 
 
 this answer, endeavoured by a gentle question to draw from 
 them some more modest and submissive language, and 
 
 Accordingly said, " But suppose we should wholly remit your 
 punishment, what kind of peace may we then expect with you?" 
 To which the other briefly, but still contrary to expectation, re- 
 turned, " If a good and equal peace, we shall faithfully observe 
 it for ever : but if hard conditions be imposed, we shall not 
 keep them long." 
 
 What did they with the fellows (says Mr. North) ? did they 
 not order them to be hanged immediately ? 
 
 Some were eager enough upon courses tending that way 
 (replied Mr. May), who accordingly cried out, this was plain 
 threatening, and the way to stir up quiet people to rebellion. 
 
 But there were others who gave this frank manner of ex- 
 pression a more favourable construction, saying, it was a speech 
 becoming a man, and one freeborn. 
 
 That it was not to be expected any state, or indeed any mortal, 
 would endure a bad and uneasy condition any longer than they 
 needs must : that the peace can only be sure and stable which 
 is voluntarily entered into ; but that fidelity ought not to be 
 expected where slavery is imposed. 
 
 That they deserved to be Romans, whose liberty was the 
 greatest part of their care. 
 
 Upon these considerations, the senate and people not only 
 pardoned the Privernates, but made and declared them citizens 
 of Rome. 
 
 Thus you see (concluded Mr. May) that after the Romans 
 had reduced Privernum they united with it, and that so did the 
 English with Scotland ; among many others that might be given, 
 certainly these two are lively and noble instances that unions 
 were and are good things. 
 
 After this Mr. Jones said, the gentlemen who were appointed 
 to draw up a scheme for an Union with Scotland have concerted 
 their thoughts thereof in the following heads, the which he read, 
 and afterward delivered them in to be entered in our books. 
 
^16 PtlOCEEDlNGS AT THE 
 
 Heads proposed for an Union between the Kingdoms of England 
 and Scotland. 
 
 " 1. That the two kingdoms of England and Scotland be 
 united into one, by the name of the Kingdom of Britain. 
 
 " 2. That this kingdom be represented by one Parliament, 
 under the happy government of our gracious Queen Anne, and 
 of her royal issue, and in default of such issue under that of the 
 most excellent Princess Sophia, electoress and Duchess Dowager 
 of Hanover, and the issue of her body being Protestants. 
 
 " 3. That the House of Peers of the Parliament of Britain 
 may consist of the present Peers of England, and of such 
 others as her Majesty shall (according to her royal prerogative 
 in that case) from time to time think fit to create, but whereof 
 not less than twenty to be of the present Peers of Scotland. 
 
 " 4. That the House of Commons of Britain do consist of 
 the present representatives in the Parliament of England, and of 
 forty others, as the proportion for Scotland. 
 
 "5. That the representation for Scotland be proportioned in 
 such manner as the Parliament of that kingdom shall determine 
 at the time of their agreement to the Union. 
 
 " 6. That the Church governments of both kingdoms of 
 England and Scotland thus united, do, after the Union, and 
 notwithstanding thereof, remain the same as they now are, 
 without alteration. 
 
 " 7« That the municipal laws and judicatures of each nation 
 do, notwithstanding this Union, remain the same without alte- 
 ration. 
 
 " 8. That from the time of concluding this Union there may 
 be a free communication and intercourse of trade between all 
 the parts of this united kingdom and dominions thereof, and 
 accordingly that all manner of restraints, prohibitions, monopo- 
 lies and impositions interfering therewith be taken ofi", repealed, 
 and for ever abolished. 
 
 " 9. As a necessary consequence of this free communication 
 
Wednesday's club. '2\J 
 
 and intercourse of commerce in the kingdom of Britain, that 
 there be the same home and foreign excises, customs, and other 
 taxes and impositions, as likewise the same restraints and pro- 
 hibitions through all the parts thereof. 
 
 " 10. And in regard the kingdom of Scotland may not at 
 present be capable of bearing such proportion of the assess- 
 ments on land as in some time after having reaped the fruits of 
 a happy Union, that therefore the quota thereof may not for 
 — — years exceed what has been therein usually paid, nor in 
 any valuations afterwards the medium of the six northern 
 counties of England. 
 
 "11. That her Majesty will be graciously pleased to consent 
 that a rent-charge of 30,000/. per annum, by quarterly pay- 
 ments, may be made upon her royal revenue, until a sum of 
 600,000Z., to be raised thereupon and allowed to the kingdom 
 of Scotland as an equivalent for the present debts of England, 
 shall come to be repaid. 
 
 " 12. That so much as shall be requisite of the said sum of 
 600,000/. be in the first place applied to refunding the expenses 
 and losses of the Indian and African Company of Scotland, with 
 interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, as likewise for 
 satisfying such public debts or obligations as there may be in 
 Scotland at the time of completing the Union, and that the 
 remainder thereof may for ever be applied and appropriated 
 towards a fund for employment and maintenance of the poor, 
 supporting, promoting, and encouraging the manufactures, 
 fisheries, products, and improvements of that end of this 
 island." 
 
 Thus (says Mr. Grant) the expense and loss of the Indian 
 and African Company, being about 140,000/. principal money, 
 which, with the interest at the rate of six per cent, for eleven 
 years, will amount to somewhat more than 230,000/. 
 
 And, supposing about 100,000/. to be necessary for satisfying 
 the public debts and engagements in Scotland, 
 
 There will remain about 260,000/., which, together with the 
 
218 PEOCBEDINGS AT THE 
 
 sums already imposed for the poor and the public charities, 
 may be made a fund for maintaining and employing the poor 
 and encouragement of the fisheries, manufactures, and other 
 improvements of that kingdom. 
 
 I like this expedient for the Lords better than any I have 
 hitherto seen (says Mr. Bruce), for here will be no breaking in 
 upon their constitution by deputations, rotations, or such like 
 things, not only quite contrary to the nature and dignity of the 
 peerage, but violently tending to party and faction, since those 
 deputies or plenipotentiaries would probably be all of a-piece to 
 what side soever they should incline or fall. 
 
 But why is not the least number of Lords on the part of 
 Scotland fixed at thirty (says Mr. Shaw), since possibly that 
 might not only include the most part of the considerable fami- 
 lies, but contribute the more towards making the remainder 
 easy, as thereby finding themselves in a better way of advance- 
 ment. 
 
 This number of twenty is only pitched upon as best suiting 
 with that of forty, proposed as their representation in the House 
 of Commons (replies Mr. May), but the queen is not Umited in 
 this matter ; there being no doubt but in the case of an Union, 
 not only twenty or thirty of them, but the rest of the noble 
 families of that kingdom, wiU naturally fall under her Majesty's 
 royal consideration and care. 
 
 I entirely approve of this expedient for the peerage (says 
 Mr. Carr), and think it not material whether twenty or thirty 
 be the stated number, since the thing has such evident reason 
 as gives it weight to make its way. 
 
 But I do not so well understand the quota of representatives 
 proposed for my country in the House of Commons (says 
 Mr. Rose), as being but forty to five hundred and thirteen ; at 
 this rate they may easily out~vote us at any time. 
 
 When the two nations are become one there neither wiU nor 
 can be any such thing as out-voting (says Mr, May). This 
 kingdom is at present founded upon its seven dominions of old, 
 
Wednesday's club. 219 
 
 together with those latter Unions with Wales, Chester, and 
 Durham ; yet we never heard that England went about to out- 
 vote Wales, or both of them Durham or Chester. Were they 
 only to be tied or tacked together by some covenant, confede- 
 racy, agreement, or bargain, there might be ground for scruples, 
 but the proposal being to bring them under one government, 
 direction, and interest, it consequently leaves not room for such 
 surmises. 
 
 Although perhaps one cannot in strictness insist for above 
 forty as the representation of Scotland (says Mr. Shaw), yet for 
 the sake of conveniency I could wish some few more were 
 allowed, since by a scheme I have lately seen, it appears their 
 counties and boroughs cannot very conveniently be cantoned to 
 less than a number of between fifty and sixty. 
 
 Although equaUty of taxes and a proportionate representation 
 be the rules by which those who pretend to reason upon the 
 affair of the Union ought to steer (says Mr. Brooks), yet I 
 doubt not but upon any treaty consideration would be had to 
 ease and conveniency of the several counties and towns of Scot- 
 land, and, if need were, a ready condescension to somewhat 
 more in the representation than can be admitted by the strict- 
 ness of the rule, provided it may not so far exceed as to give 
 just cause of umbrage. 
 
 Those who would cordially treat of an Union ought not to 
 range themselves on one side or other, but be for both (says 
 Mr. May), not on the part of England, nor upon that of Scot- 
 land as abstractedly taken, but on that of Britain, and accord- 
 ingly nothing should be required nor expected by one side, but 
 what ought to be readily granted by the other ; yet if all was con- 
 cluded to this point I doubt not but expedients would be found. 
 
 Since by the Union in the year 1654 the kingdom of Scotland 
 was allowed but thirty in the House of Commons, why then do 
 you now propose forty (says Mr. More) ? especially consider7 
 ing they pretend not to come up to the same proportion of taxes 
 they then did. 
 
220 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 By that Union they were allowed thirty to four hundred 
 (repUed Mr. May), and if 400, 80 — 513, SS^f ; so that we have 
 only in this, as in other things, proposed the gains to them as 
 to the weaker side, and we have not thought fit to lessen their 
 number in the representation, because it is hoped the fruits of a 
 happy Union hiay in a few years enable them to contribute the 
 same they then did, or possibly a greater proportion of the 
 taxes and public burthens. 
 
 I doubt not but what relates to the number of representatives 
 in either House of Parliament may be easily accommodated 
 when depending on those who have a mind to it (says Mr. 
 Sands) ; but let us come to the money matters, and, in the first 
 place, have your reasons for proposing such ease to the king- 
 dom of Scotland in the point of assessments on land. 
 
 The reason thereof is given in the body of the article relating 
 thereunto (replied Mr. Brooks), and both the sum and time are 
 left blank, that it may thereby appear we pretend not to state, ' 
 much less to determine, this matter. 
 
 Some present ease in the matter of the assessment may 
 perhaps be allowable, provided it be only for a time, and until 
 they come to be in a better state (says Mr. Gage) ; but why 
 may not those of Scotland be afterwards obliged to come in for 
 more than the medium of the six northern counties of England ? 
 since I could never yet understand why we in and about London 
 should be thus liable to contribute our full four shillings, when 
 those in the more remote and extreme parts of this kingdom 
 pay not two shillings, perhaps not twenty pence, in the pound. 
 
 I doubt not but upon inquiry it will be found that, suitably . 
 to their circumstances, ease ought to be given and allowances 
 made to places more remote from the seat of government and 
 centre of trade (replied Mr. May) j and certainly the scheme of 
 the year 1656, and the raising of the several excises in the 
 remoter parts of this kingdom, together with the daily ex* 
 perience of those who have estates in the different places, do 
 sufficiently manifest the truth of this position. 
 
Wednesday's club. 221 
 
 I hope you pretend not to plead for or countenance such 
 allowances as amount to one-half or perhaps two-thirds of the 
 real values (replied Mr. Gage)? 
 
 That is far from being my meaning (returned Mr. May)^ 
 although in the case before us possibly one-third, or were it 
 somewhat more, might not be unreasonable ; and in the mean 
 time it ought to be remembered that the kingdom of Scotland 
 is still more remote from the centre of government and trade 
 than the six northern counties of England. 
 
 You speak of the four shillings in the pound on land as of a 
 certain standing charge (said Mr. Gage), whereas I trust we are 
 far from that hazard, the rest of the funds, with good manage- 
 ment, being more than sufficient to defray the public expense 
 and discharge the national debts if the present war was but 
 once ended, which it is hoped may not be long ; from whence I 
 infer that the gentlemen of Scotland seem more afraid in this 
 matter than there is danger of their being hurt ; why do not 
 they therefore rather propose to have what they pretend by way 
 of ease or equivalent in customs and excises, as some more 
 standing and certain revenues than that of the land tax. 
 
 There is no possibility of making allowances or abatements 
 by way of customs or excise, without creating much greater 
 loss and disorder, not only in the trade, but likewise in the 
 public revenues, than the benefit to them (replied Mr. May) ; 
 wherefore what they have by way of ease or equivalent must 
 necessarily be either in the assessment, in ready money, or by 
 both. Accordingly we had regard to this in the following 
 article, whereby they are to have only 600,000Z. as an equiva- 
 lent for the present debts of England. Although this sum be 
 considerably less than what in strictness they might otherwise 
 pretend, as you will see by the following estimate of the reve- 
 nues and debts of the two kingdoms, from whence we have 
 drawn our positions. 
 
 Upon this, Mr. May read and <lelivered in the following 
 estimates of the revenues and debts of the two nations. 
 
222 
 
 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 Estimate of the present Revenues of England. 
 
 By the customs 
 
 Excise on beer and ale 
 
 Salt excise . 
 
 Low wines, &c. 
 
 Duty on coals 
 
 By paper and parchment 
 
 By the post ofiSce . 
 
 Small branches 
 
 Malt tax . 
 
 Land tax . 
 
 £ 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 1,100,000 
 
 180,000 
 
 160,000 
 
 120,000 
 
 90,000 
 
 90,000 
 
 70,000 
 
 600,000 
 
 3,000,000 
 
 £5,610,000 
 
 An EsTiMATK of what the Revenue of Scotland may produce 
 when upon the foot of the present Taxes of England. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 Customs .... 
 
 . 70,000 
 
 Excise on beer and ale 
 
 . 40,000 
 
 Malt and salt taxes . 
 
 . 40,000 
 
 Crown lands .... 
 
 6,000 
 
 Stamped paper and other small duties 
 
 . 10,000 
 
 The land tax, suppose 
 
 . 50,000 
 
 £216,000 
 
 An Estimate of the present Debts 
 
 By the annuities in the late reign . 
 
 The annuities of this reign 
 
 Banker's debt .... 
 
 Due to the Bank of England 
 
 To the new East India Company . 
 
 Remains of the first deficiencies . 
 
 By the second deficiencies likewise charged 
 
 upon the funds commonly called the 
 
 general mortgage 
 Arrears of interest upon the said debt for 
 
 about 7 years, suppose . 
 Debenture debt, suppose . 
 On the low wine duties 
 On the additional subsidies 
 
 of England. 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 1,881,745 
 
 15 
 
 
 
 5,140,189 13 Hi 
 
 664,263 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 2,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 618,317 
 
 15 
 
 8 
 
 2,338,628 
 
 15 
 
 5» 
 
 1,200,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 1,000,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 722,175 
 
 
 
 
 
 780,132 
 
 
 
 
 
Wednesday's club. 
 
 223 
 
 
 £ 
 
 s. 
 
 d. 
 
 On the lottery fund 
 
 400,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 On the coal fund .... 
 
 258,771 
 
 
 
 
 
 Household and other debts due from his 
 
 
 
 
 late Majesty, suppose 
 
 300,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Debts contracted since her Majesty's ac- 
 
 
 
 
 cession to the crown, suppose . 
 
 1,700,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 £20,204,223 
 
 
 
 2L 
 
 Considering the debts which have been annually contracted 
 since her Majesty's happy accession to the crown, and the pre- 
 sent prospect of aflFairs, it might be supposed this may be in- 
 creased to near if not quite twenty-two millions by the end of 
 the running year ; but we have only founded our propositions 
 upon a sum of twenty-one millions. 
 
 The government debts of Scotland are inconsiderable, being, 
 as it is said, not above 60,000^., but the expense of their civil 
 government may, after the Union, be supposed to be — 
 
 
 £ 
 
 To the Chancellor .... 
 
 2,000 
 
 Privy Seal ..... 
 
 1,000 
 
 President of the Council 
 
 1,000 
 
 One Secretary of State 
 
 1,000 
 
 President of the Session 
 
 1,000 
 
 Justice General .... 
 
 800 
 
 Treasurer Deputy .... 
 
 600 
 
 Justice Clerk .... 
 
 eoo 
 
 Register ..... 
 
 500 
 
 Fourteen Lords of the Session, 500Z. each . 
 
 7,000 
 
 Queen's Advocate .... 
 
 500 
 
 Queen's Solicitor .... 
 
 300 
 
 Two Clerks of the Council . 
 
 500 
 
 
 16,800 
 
 Allowance for grants, pensions, and other extraor- 
 
 
 dinary expenses 
 
 13,200 
 
 In all 30,000 
 
 So that, after the expense of the particular govern- 
 ment of Scotland shall be defrayed, there wiU 
 remain of the revenue of that kingdom an over- 
 plus of about ... 186,000 
 
224 PBOCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 And 186,000/. the revenue of Scotland, being to 5,610,000^., 
 the revenue of England, as one is to thirty very near, by 
 dividing twenty-one millions, the debt of England, by this 
 number thirty, we found the equivalent to the kingdom of 
 Scotland ought to be 700,000/. 
 
 But I observe you make no allowance for the expense of the 
 military government of Scotland after the Union (says Mr. 
 Sands). 
 
 The military expense of the government of Scotland after the 
 Union, as taken properly, will be very little (says Mr. Grant), 
 besides the assistance the queen will thereby have in her forces 
 both by sea and land will much more than compensate this ex- 
 pense, whatever it shall be. 
 
 Are you sure your estimates of the public revenues and 
 debts are right, and consequently your proportions well stated 
 (says Mr. More) ? 
 
 Upon which Mr. May said the customs and excises do so 
 very much depend upon the accidents of the war, with other 
 contingencies, and the national debts are continually so decreas- 
 ing on one side and increasing on the other, as makes it impos- 
 sible to form an exact state thereof; wherefore we pretend not 
 so much to exactness in the particular articles, having therein 
 kept up to round sums, as we do in the whole, which we have 
 stated at somewhat more than may be supposed to arise in the 
 time of war, yet at less than may be expected in a time of 
 peace, and consequently presume those estimates are so near 
 the truth as to be sufficiently capable of supporting our posi- 
 tions and conclusions. 
 
 Besides, at the draw^ing-up of this scheme it was observed 
 that the money proposed to be raised as an equivalent for the 
 debts of England was but upon an interest of five per cent., 
 whereas that of the annuities here is of six and a-half per cent, 
 per annum or upwards, the which, if nicely accounted for, 
 might make a difference of at least 210,000/. 
 
 Likewise, if- due allowances were made for such parts of 
 
WEDNESDAY'S CLUB. 225 
 
 the revenue of England as may be charged with grants, pen- 
 sions, or otherwise anticipated, this might possibly make an- 
 other difference of 30,000^. or 40,000?. ; and although the 
 revenue of Scotland, as all new duties may cost some time 
 before it be established, yet afterwards it would be proportion- 
 ably more improvable than that of England ; from all which it 
 was inferred that the equivalent for the said debts might thus 
 amount to near if not quite a million. 
 
 But because some of the gentlemen on the part of Scotland 
 seemed to insist upou a considerable allowance in the matter of 
 the assessment on land, and since a much less sum may supply 
 the public occasions of that kingdom, we stated this equivalent 
 only at 600,000?. 
 
 It ought likewise to be remembered (says Mr. Grant) that, 
 although the particular and immediate benefit thereof be de- 
 signed for Scotland, yet about one moiety of this sum of 
 600,000?. is proposed to be applied to public uses, which 
 will equally redound to the general advantage of this united 
 island. 
 
 If the rest of your positions be not better founded than your 
 comparison between this perpetuity of five per cent, and the 
 annuities, I fancy they may be easily overthrown (says Mr. 
 North), for you seem not to have considered that the one is a 
 p^petuity, whereas the other is only for a term of ninety-eight 
 or ninety-nine years. 
 
 Pray what difference in the purchase do you believe there is 
 between ninety-eight years and that of a perpetuity (says Mr. 
 Brooks) ? 
 
 I have often heard there is at least five or six years' purchase 
 difference (replied Mr. North). 
 
 There may be that and much more in the fancies of people 
 (says Mr. Brooks), but by the rules of compound interest there 
 is not six weeks' purchase difference between a rent-charge for 
 ninety-eight years and that of a perpetuity at an interest of 
 six and a-half per cent. : the very difference between quarterly 
 
 VOL. I. « 
 
226 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 and annual payments being capable of discharging the debt in 
 less than two-thirds of that time, 
 
 I therefore am of opinion that at this interest of five per 
 cent, the money will hardly come in (says Mr. More) : why, 
 therefore, did you not rather put it at six or six and a-half per 
 cent, per annum ? 
 
 Because (said Mr. Brooks) we were not only for concerting 
 things as reasonably, but likewise for making them as easy as 
 possible; besides, we put the interest only at five per cent, as 
 being satisfied this fund may be so ordered and methodised as 
 that the money may not only come in as well as if it were 
 higher, but so as this whole debt may be discharged in about 
 the space of forty years. 
 
 If this can be done there is certainly a great deal of ill hus- 
 bandry in our present funds of annuities (says Mr. Gage) ; but 
 how is it possible ? 
 
 It may be effected (replied Mr. Brooks) by appropriating a 
 sum of ready money of ten per cent., or perhaps somewhat less, 
 of the value, for circulating those securities at an interest of 
 four per cent, or under, and applying the remainder towards 
 paying off the debt until it shall come to be discharged. This 
 matter might be enlarged upon, but I shall forbear until we 
 come upon the point of inquiry into the past and present state 
 of the trade and public revenues of England. 
 
 In the meantime there can be no loss or hazard by this 
 experiment (says Mr. May), since the sum to be employed for 
 refunding the Indian and African Company, and discharging 
 the public debts in Scotland, which are to be paid in the first 
 place, will be but about one moiety thereof; and as the re- 
 mainder cannot all be laid out and employed together, but must 
 be the work of some years, so it will not be required all at once. 
 
 I perceive a part of this equivalent is to be employed in refund- 
 ing the late losses of the Indian and African Company of Scot- 
 land (says Mr. More) : I should be glad to be rightly informed in 
 the matter of their late attempts to the West Indies, some say 
 
WEDNESDAY'S CLUB. 227 
 
 it was an ill-founded, rash, and precipitant undertaking, but 
 others again affirm that it might not only have had success, but 
 been of the greatest consequence, if duly supported. 
 
 The reasons for that undertaking, together with the causes of 
 its miscarriage, and the consequences thereof (replied Mr. Jones), 
 will more properly fall under consideration when we shall be 
 upon thepoint of inquiry into the consequences and tendency 
 oftlie late progress of navigation and foreign trade, particularly 
 of the new discoveries in the Indies. (App. BBB.) 
 
 I very much like the appropriating so considerable a sum of 
 money towards employing and relieving the people, encouraging 
 the fisheries, manufactures, and other improvements in Scotland 
 (says Mr. Gage), but wish at the same time we could have a 
 proportionate sum applied to the like uses here in England, 
 
 Among other happy fruits of the Union, 1 doubt not but it 
 may contribute to the introducing of such a constitution into 
 England (returned Mr. May) ; but he who designs such things 
 must think of taking step by step, and doing them by degrees. 
 
 But where should we find the money for so great a design 
 (said Mr. Gage), especially in this time of war and difficulties ? 
 
 In the same manner as this for Scotland is found (replied 
 Mr. May), that is to say, by management and good husbandry. 
 England is at present at the annual expense of at least a million 
 for maintenance of their poor, yet they hardly half live ; if but 
 one moiety of this income was only settled for fifteen years, a 
 sum of five or six millions might be raised upon this fund, the 
 which, together with the other moiety, would with good 
 direction be a sufficient and perpetual provision for the 
 poor, and spring for the encouragement of trade and improve- 
 ments. 
 
 But we shall have occasion to enlarge upon this subject when 
 the reasons there are for establishing a national council of trade 
 shall be under consideration. (App. CCC.) 
 
 How came you to propose this rent-charge of 30,000/. per 
 annum to be made upon the hereditary and temporary revenue 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 (said Mr. More), and not rather think of some other way which 
 might make it more easy ? 
 
 Because (replied Mr. May) the Queen's hereditary and tem- 
 porary revenue of Scotland, consisting in customs, excises, 
 crown lands, and small duties, in value about 80,000^. per 
 annum, will not only be improved about one-third by the 
 Union, but, after the completing thereof, the particular charge 
 of the government there will not amount to much more than 
 one-third part of the present expense. 
 
 If this be the case (says Mr. Gage) there is no doubt but 
 you have put it upon the best and most reasonable foot, since 
 it will be but a part of what her Majesty in her proper revenue 
 will save by the economy of the Union ; but why then did you 
 propose this charge upon the revenue in general, and not rather 
 upon that of Scotland in particular ? 
 
 Because (replied Mr. May) we were of opinion that, for the 
 better economy thereof, the receipts and payments of the public 
 revenue ought as much as possible to be reduced into one 
 current or channel ; and that, though the security would be the 
 same, yet it might be more satisfactory to those here about 
 London who should advance their money upon this fund to find 
 it a general charge upon the revenue, in the nature of the 3,700^. 
 per week, than only upon the particular revenue of Scotland, 
 the which, especially at first, might to them possibly seem too 
 remote. 
 
 However it be, I see no great difficulty in fixing the manner 
 of this thing, the matter being the same (says Mr. Grant), since 
 there is no doubt but that after the Union the particular revenue 
 of Scotland will be a sufficient security for this charge, as may 
 be seen by our estimate thereof. 
 
 By this estimate (said Mr. Carr) I perceive the kingdom of 
 Scotland will by the Union be charged with several new duties, 
 of which I should be glad to see a state, together with the 
 requisite observations upon what effects they may have. 
 
 In order to the better undestanding the nature and effects of 
 
Wednesday's club. 229 
 
 those duties (said Mr. May), it will be first necessary to have a 
 state of the weights and measures of the two nations. 
 
 Upon which Mr. May delivered a paper containing the state 
 of the weights and measures of the two nations, together with that 
 of the several duties as they now stand, which are as follow : — 
 
 The weight in Scotland, upon which not only their other 
 weights, but likewise their liquid and dry measures, are founded, 
 is the French troy ounce, being about one and four-fifths per 
 cent, lighter than ours, but their pound consisting of sixteen 
 ounces, whereas that of ours is only of twelve.* 
 
 There is no doubt but this ounce was originally the same 
 with ours, and that it is only time and neglect hath made this 
 difference. 
 
 The Scottish pint, upon which all their wet and dry measures 
 are founded, ought to weigh of the running water of Leith fifty- 
 five of those ounces, and to contain about 99 square inches. 
 Consequently their three pints being as 297 is to 282, they are 
 five per cent, better than our beer gallon, near 103 of such pints 
 going to our beer barrel. 
 
 Their ordinary peck consists of 21i of such pints, but the 
 peck used for oats, barley, and malt, contains near 31 of such 
 pints ; and their boll consists of four such pecks. Thus their 
 ordinary peck is about one-fifteenth part less than our bushel, 
 but the extraordinary about a fourth part more. 
 
 The duties upon the importations are much lower in Scot- 
 land than in England, and consequently they will be consider- 
 ably raised by the Union. 
 
 In England the strong beer and ale, with the additional nine- 
 pences, is 4s. 9d., but the small beer is but \5d. per barrel excise. 
 
 The standing excise of beer and ale in Scotland is, of three of 
 their pennies, or an English farthing per pint, and consequently 
 about 2s.2d.o\xr barrel, but with the additional two-pennies, which 
 hath been sometimes imposed, would be near 3s. 8d. per barrel. 
 
 * However in the practice there ia a difference, the right French troy ounce 
 being near half per cent, better than the Scottish. 
 
"1^ 
 
 230 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 But considering that at least two-thirds of their common beer 
 and ale can by the rules of the excise pass only for small beer, 
 their beer excise will not upon the whole be heavier than now 
 it is. 
 
 During this time of war, there hath been annually imposed 
 four shillings per quarter, or six pence per bushel, on malt here 
 in England. 
 
 There is likewise a duty of 3s. Ad. per bushel on salt, and 
 another by stamped paper and parchment. 
 
 The duties on marriages, births, and burials, are not to be 
 continued after the first of August next. 
 
 Besides these, there is only a small duty on glass windows, 
 but so inconsiderable in England, that we thought it not worth 
 a place on our schemes, and therefore left it open towards ma- 
 king up such deficiencies as may be in some other estimates. 
 
 After having viewed the state of the weights and measures, 
 together with that of the several impositions of the two nations 
 given in by Mr. May, Mr. Shaw said, I understand that by those 
 new and additional duties the customs or foreign excise in 
 Scotland will, in several cases, possibly be doubled, how then 
 will that nation be able to bear it ? 
 
 Your countrymen (replied Mr. May) will herein be but 
 obliged to pay a small part of what they directly gain by the 
 communication of trade ; besides, those duties may be made much 
 easier by being laid more by way of excise and on the consump- 
 tion, and consequently less upon the merchant and navigation, 
 than they now are. 
 
 I take it for granted (says Mr. Carr), that in what quantities 
 or manner soever the impositions on foreign trade shall be laid, 
 they must still be equal in all the parts of the United Kingdom, 
 otherwise the communication of commerce, which is so essential 
 a part of the Union, can never subsist. But the question with 
 me is, how those of Scotland will be able to pay the additional 
 excise on beer and ale ? 
 
 I see not that there will be any additional excise on beer and 
 
Wednesday's club. 231 
 
 ale introduced into Scotland by the Union (replied Mr. May), 
 since at least two-thirds of the malt drink of that kingdom 
 cannot be reckoned otherwise than small beer, so that upon the 
 whole the duty will be little if anything heavier than it now is. 
 
 By what I have observed in the practice in several parts of 
 England (said Mr. Bruce), I am apt to think the beer excise in 
 Scotland will after the Union be near, if not quite, as easy as 
 now ; wherefore I am not so much in doubt about that as the 
 malt tax, which will be altogether new, and, as I apprehend it, 
 very heavy. 
 
 Even in the malt tax, of which you seem so very apprehensive 
 (replied Mr. Brooks), the Scottish nation will only be brought in 
 to pay a part of their gain, since the value of the duty will be 
 doubly compensated in the advance of the price of malt, barley, 
 and oats by means of the communication of trade ; besides, this 
 excise upon malt is only from year to year during this time of 
 war. 
 
 But you have not the like to say of the excise on salt (replied 
 Mr. Bruce), the which is not only perpetual, but being 6^. 13s. M. 
 per weigh, is at least three times the original value thereof. 
 
 Salt exported or employed in the fisheries is altogether free 
 from this duty (returned Mr. May) ; besides, instead of any dis- 
 advantage, the raisers of salt in Scotland will have a great deal 
 of benefit by the Union, since it will create a much greater con- 
 sumption and demand for that commodity ; and thus I doubt 
 not but the duty on salt will be found as easy and supportable 
 as any other. 
 
 I am glad to find the tax on births, burials, &c., wUl not be 
 continued after the first day of August next (said Mr. Rose) ; it 
 is enough that mankind must expect to be pestered with duties 
 and difficulties in their passage through, but a great deal too 
 much to find impositions upon their very coming into and going 
 out of the world. 
 • Since the duties on stamped paper and glass windows will be 
 very inconsiderable in Scotland, and not very much relate to 
 
232 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 trade (said Mr. Shaw), I hope if we of that kingdom shall be 
 brought in for all the rest they will at least abate us those. 
 
 The Union (replied Mr. May) is proposed to be founded 
 upon the principles of justice and equality, and consequently 
 cannot possibly admit of the least abatement or difference in 
 the point of taxes or contributions ; for otherwise it would not 
 be properly an Union, but rather a contract or bargain. 
 
 After all I am not yet convinced (said Mr. Shaw) that ease 
 or forbearance of some of the excises, particularly those on 
 malt and salt, would be so inconsistent with the Union and 
 communication of trade as is usually represented, since those 
 commodities might in the mean time be prohibited from coming 
 into England. 
 
 The least root or remainder of restraints or prohibitions 
 (replied Mr. May) would not only be wasteful and destructive 
 in itself, but the occasion of dangerous animosities and struggles, 
 wherein although both would be losers, yet the weakest still 
 the most, and therefore it is that those who will endeavour a 
 happy Union, especially on the part of Scotland, ought to avoid 
 the very appearances thereof. 
 
 But the jealousies of those new and additional duties will 
 appear still the less excusable, when it shall be considered that 
 the very advantages the particular commodities will receive in 
 the rise of their price at home, by means of their currency 
 abroad, will much more than compensate these impositions. 
 
 And that not only these but all the others will receive the 
 like benefit, such as their corn, cattle, linen, cloth, or whatever 
 else is or shall be produced by that country, as likewise the 
 labour of their people will be raised at least twenty per cent., or 
 one-sixth part, in a very little time, and afterwards be upon a 
 foot of continual advance. 
 
 And thus, supposing the people of Scotland to be in number 
 one million, and that as matters now stand their industry yields 
 them only about five pounds per annum per head, as reckoned* 
 one with another, or five millions yearly in the whole, at this 
 
Wednesday's club. 233 
 
 rate these five millions will by the Union not only be advanced 
 to six, but put in a way of further improvement ; and allowing 
 100,000/. per annum were on this foot to be paid in additional 
 taxes, yet there would still remain a yearly sum of about 
 900,000Z. towards subsisting the people more comfortably, and 
 making provision against times of scarcity and other accidents, 
 to which, I understand, that country is very much exposed. 
 
 I am of opinion (said Mr. Grant), that if such a sum as 
 is now proposed for the encouragement of the trade of that 
 kingdom had, between the years 1689 and 1695, been laid out 
 in stores of corn for public support, that, besides other great 
 advantages, it had been capable of saving at least 80,000 lives, 
 which perished or were otherwise lost for want, and 400,000/. 
 in money exported for bread, during their five following years 
 of scarcity and famine. The which hath chiefly contributed 
 towards bringing that nation so low as it now is, especially as 
 being attended with the expenses and losses they had in their 
 attempts to the West Indies, and followed by the bad efiects of 
 some uneasy tempers, who, instead of endeavouring to establish 
 their country by good and wholesome provisions after that mis- 
 carriage, have made shift to restrain and prohibit away mueh of 
 what little trade there still remained. 
 
 Although the impatience of my countrymen's tempers (said 
 Mr. Hope) hath not hitherto allowed them to be very provident 
 in public things, yet, considering the uncertainty and rigours of 
 their seasons, where the years of plenty are almost always fore- 
 runners of those of dearth and scarcity, I wonder how they 
 could so long avoid making national provisions of corn. 
 
 In other countries, as well as yours (said Mr. Brooks), ex- 
 tremities (like the years of plenty and scarcity formerly in 
 Egypt) commonly produce one another, and as there is no 
 doubt but all governments ought to make suitable provisions 
 for contingencies, so those particularly whose countries are ex- 
 posed to the greatest uncertainties. 
 
 But instead of the economy you seem to mean (replied Mr* 
 
234 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 Hope), my countrymen usually take quite another, and, as I 
 understand it, contrary course, as may be seen by their practice : 
 in summer 1695 they were very busy in giving rewards for 
 having their corn carried abroad, and in a few months after as 
 impatiently employed in buying it back again. 
 
 Possibly they may have learned this piece of management 
 from us (said Mr. Brooks), for we, too, are inclinable to give 
 premiums to have our corn carried away when cheap, and as 
 eager in giving the same or greater allowances to fetch it back 
 again when dear. If half the money which, during the last 
 age, hath been confounded this way, had, on the contrary, been 
 employed in national granaries, the price of grain might thereby 
 have not only been kept upon an equal and current foot, to the 
 great advantage of the raisers thereof, but by this time the 
 national stock thereby increased to the value of several 
 millions. 
 
 Do you, then, by means of this stock, intend to make a 
 monopoly of the granaries, fisheries, and such other things 
 (said Mr. Rose) ? 
 
 We pretend not in the least to hinder any from buying or 
 selling those or any other commodities (replied Mr. May), but, 
 on the contrary, rather to help such as shall need assistance, 
 our design being only, by buying, to prevent the price of grain 
 from falling extremely low, and by selling, from rising extremely 
 high, and still not so much with a prospect of particular advan- 
 tage of the stock as to that of the public, for which it is 
 wholly designed to be employed. 
 
 At this rate you must needs expect to be losers in whatever 
 you deal (replied Mr. More). 
 
 You will, doubtless, find reasons to have other sentiments in 
 this matter (returned Mr. Grant), when you shall consider that 
 the kingdom of Scotland is, one way or other, at considerably 
 more than one hundred thousand pounds per annum expense 
 towards the maintenance of their poor, and that yet they hardly 
 half live. Now, suppose this annual income were for fifteen or 
 
Wednesday's CLUB. 235 
 
 twenty years applied to the like uses with the sum now pro- 
 posed for the encouragement of trade and maintenance of the 
 poor of that nation, do not you think that with anything of a 
 tolerable management a great deal might be thereby gained or 
 saved ? 
 
 A bad economy (said Mr. Brooks) is still better than none. 
 Upon the drawing up of this scheme it was observed that in 
 such case it might be hoped the poor should, during that time, 
 be better maintained, the fisheries put in a way of raising and 
 keeping up fifteen or twenty thousand seamen, the which would 
 of course make room for the employment of at least times as 
 many hands on shore. Finally, that nation thereby put in a 
 way not only of maintaining their poor better than they now 
 do, but likewise of increasing this stock at less than half the 
 present waste and expense. 
 
 Upon the whole (said Mr. Hope), I am fully convinced that, 
 without a communication of government and taxes, the Union 
 can never be equal, and consequently not an Union, but rather 
 an agreement or bargain, which, if ever made, one may venture 
 to say it will not be easy, or hold long ; that the increase of 
 taxes in Scotland, when balanced with the advantages of the 
 Union, will be very inconsiderable, and for that reason, were 
 there no other, ought cheerfully to be acquiesced in. 
 
 After this there was silence, and Mr. Jones observing that 
 every one seemed to acquiesce in what Mr. Hope had said, and 
 consequently that the present conversation upon this subject 
 was near a conclusion, said. Gentlemen, you have now the point 
 of an Union fuUy before you, my advice therefore is, that we 
 adjourn the further, or rather reconsideration thereof, for some 
 weeks, that we may hereby have an opportunity, not only to 
 recollect ourselves, but likewise have the thoughts of our 
 friends. 
 
 Upon which motion, the company adjourned this point to 
 Wednesday, the 27th February. 
 
236 proceedings at the 
 
 Wednesday, February 27, 1705. 
 
 After several letters from York and other places were read, 
 Mr. Carr desired to know in what manner the ports of entry 
 were proposed to be settled in Scotland. 
 
 Upon which, Mr. May said it was his opinion seven or eight 
 ports of entry might be sufficient for that kingdom, the which 
 ought to be such as lie most convenient for trade, and are best 
 for collecting and securing the customs ; but that this matter, 
 with that of the different coins, weights and measures, and other 
 such things, may be regulated after the Union shall be con- 
 cluded. 
 
 The coin in Scotland (said Mr. Shaw) was altered about 
 twenty years ago, that is to say, it was raised in its denomination 
 or sunk in its value about a thirteenth part. I could never yet 
 understand whether my countrymen have gained or lost by this 
 project. 
 
 You may assure yourself (replied Mr. May) that they, as well 
 as other states who have been drawn into this siUy and 
 destructive secret of altering their coin, are considerable losers. 
 
 But is there any way of discovering the quantities of loss and 
 gain herein, and consequently the certainty of this position of 
 yours (says Mr. Grant) ? 
 
 This evil (replied Mr. May) is very subtle, and therefore all 
 the particular mischiefs and disorders thereby occasioned, 
 especially at home, cannot so easily be described, but the 
 knowledge of the rates of exchange, together with the sums 
 remitted or negotiated, are capable of giving great light into 
 such of its effects as directly relate to foreign trade. 
 
 Since our last meeting upon this subject (said Mr. Rose), I 
 have had much converse with several of my countrymen, who 
 still affirm that an entire or incorporating Union, as they call it, 
 will undoubtedly ruin Scotland, since it must certainly draw all 
 the remaining people and money from thence. 
 
 Did you not tell them (says Mr. Brooks) the Union we pro* 
 
Wednesday's club. 237 
 
 moted was not merely entire, incorporating, or federal, but only 
 a plain, upright Union ? 
 
 So I told them (returned Mr. Rose), yet they still insisted 
 that if we united the parliaments it would be the same thing ; 
 that their country was already sufficiently drained by the per- 
 petual recourse to London for places and preferments, and how 
 much more must it be so if to this there shall be likewise added 
 that of representatives in Parliament? 
 
 Is this all (said Mr. Sands) ? 
 
 Is it not enough (replied Mr. Rose) ? 
 
 Yes (said Mr. May), and a great deal to omuch, if true ; but 
 when duly examined I doubt not but this will be found so far 
 from being capable to be made an objection on the part of 
 Scotland, that it is the principal motive, and ought above all 
 other things to induce the Scottish nation to desire an Union, 
 since, were the Union complete, all the expense of those who 
 should come to Court or Parliament would perhaps not amount 
 to more than it now does, and that is not five per cent, or a 
 twentieth part of what that nation would naturally gain by the 
 Union. 
 
 I wish we could hear that made out (said Mr. Rose). 
 
 To begin then vnth the expense of Parliament (returned Mr. 
 May) : do you think that forty shillings per day to the Lords and 
 Commons, one with another, during the session thereof, might 
 not defray their necessary expense ? 
 
 Doubtless it might (replied Mr. Rose). 
 
 Then (continued Mr. May) let us suppose forty shilUngs per 
 day to sixty persons, viz. twenty Lords and forty Commoners, 
 for four months, or one hundred and twenty days, to how much 
 does that amount ? 
 
 I find it 14,400/. per annum (replied Mr. Rose). 
 
 Then 14,400Z. is the expense of the ParUament, the which 
 likewise includes the greatest part of that of the court (returned 
 Mr. May) ; on the other hand, you ought to consider, that, as 
 matters now stand, the commissioner to your ParUament has 
 
238 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 every year 3,500^. allowed for his equipage, besides 551. per day 
 for at least such one hundred and twenty days, the which 
 amounts to 10,100/., and if to this you reckon the annual sums 
 allowed to your officers of state and others as expenses for their 
 coming up to London, that may possibly amount to near if not 
 quite so much more ; thus the very government of Scotland is 
 now at more expense in this matter than the nation need to be 
 at after the Union shall be complete. 
 
 It is true, were your law-suits to come up to London, at so 
 great a distance, it might possibly be a damage to that country, 
 one way or other, at least five times this sum ; but, as it is, you 
 may now see how easy it will be. 
 
 I have formerly had this objection, or rather scruple, under 
 consideration (said Mr. Grant), but upon examination soon 
 found it groundless. 
 
 I likewise (said Mr. Hope) have found sufficient reasons to 
 be of Mr. Grant's opinion, not only from the state of the facts 
 which Mr. May has urged, but also from other reasons, the 
 which, as unnecessary, I forbear to mention. 
 
 After this there was silence for some time, which Mr. Jones 
 observing, said, to the point, gentlemen, — are there any more 
 objections ? 
 
 Upon which Mr. Stone said, I have been hitherto silent, as 
 being willing to hear what others could say to the point of this 
 Union, and, upon the whole, I do think the objections or doubts 
 on the part of the gentlemen of Scotland, are either ill-grounded 
 or very frivolous, since certainly, without entering into particu- 
 lars, one may easily see how greatly that nation will be advan- 
 taged by such an Union as is proposed ; but I am of opinion, 
 you have hitherto heard but one side, and that on the part of 
 England there are insuperable difficulties against it. 
 
 When Mr. Stone had thus expressed himself, the gentlemen 
 looked upon one another, as if in some surprise, which Mr. 
 Jones perceiving, said, pray let us have some of your doubts, 
 sir ; you see the gentlemen are attentive. 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 239 
 
 Here hath been a mighty stress put upon their church, their 
 nobility, their laws, and I know not what else (continued Mr. 
 Stone) ; whereas, what signifies it what church government, so 
 we have but the Christian religion and liberty of conscience, — 
 or what laws, or from whence they come, so they be but good, — - 
 or how many, or what sort of nobility, so we can prevail with 
 them to do but little hurt ? but it is the trade of England which 
 must maintain and support the churchmen, the nobility, the 
 lawyers, and everything else, yet it is this trade which now runs 
 the risk of being distracted and ruined by your Union. 
 
 As the case already stands, a man cannot get above ten or 
 fifteen per cent, per annum by his money in trade, whereas I 
 have known the time when twenty or twenty-five per cent, per 
 annum was to be got ; thus trade is already half ruined, and 
 what confounds it, but only too many traders ? had we but 
 half the traders, we should be in a better condition. But how, 
 then, must it be when we admit the Scotch among us ? certainly 
 one man will not be able to live by another. For my part, I 
 have followed trade above these forty years, and never knew so 
 bad times as now, insomuch, that I have already some thoughts 
 of leaving it oflf, but, should this Union be concluded, it will 
 certainly determine me ; I shall retire and live upon what I have. 
 A man had better take six, seven, or perhaps eight per cent, of 
 the Government for his money, wherein there is no risk or 
 trouble, than, besides his labour and pains, to run the hazard of 
 his estate in trade for double this prospect. 
 
 I presume (said Mr. Sands) Mr. Stone may venture to leave 
 off trade, as having not only been many years a dealer, but, as 
 I am informed, got pretty well by it ; at which I do not wonder, 
 since, by what he says, his heart appears to have been so very 
 much in it, as to leave him little room or inclinations for any- 
 thing else. 
 
 What should I mind but my trade and family (returned Mr. 
 .Stone) ? I think that is taking care of the public, or at least of 
 my part of it. My business has always been to take advantages 
 
240 VUOCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 where they could be had, and to make the best of things as I 
 found them, without troubling myself about or pretending to 
 mend the world, as not a few idle people are apt to do. I ob- 
 serve few of these fellows ever get anything, but rather spend 
 what they have ; some, indeed, there are who have got consi- 
 derable estates by those sort of things, but those have only been 
 such who, although they made the public business their pre- 
 tence, yet were so wise as to make it subservient to their 
 interest. 
 
 Since Mr. Stone (said Mr. May) seems so unwilling to be 
 questioned for following his proper business, or taking care of 
 his family, it is strange he should not at the same time have 
 leisure to think that churchmen, nobility, lawyers, and those of 
 other professions, may possibly apprehend themselves as much 
 concerned to support their stations and ways of living as mer- 
 chants or other sort of traders do that of theirs ; likewise, that 
 those who are paid and employed by the public, ought to take 
 the same care thereof as private men of their families ; and that 
 the ill-success of those who have public spirit, is an evil which 
 ought to be rectified in all governments, particularly in ours, as 
 I doubt not but this society will sufficiently find, when they 
 come to inquire into those matters. 
 
 Those who have the charge of governments (said Mr. Brooks), 
 are commonly better paid, and have more advantageous returns, 
 than heads or masters of families usually find, and there is no 
 doubt but the people in their charge should be as carefully 
 and tenderly looked after. Particularly it ought to be their busi- 
 ness not only to protect, but as much as possible to assist every 
 honest industrious man in his way, yet so as not to give to any 
 one, or number of them, such advantages as may be detrimental 
 to the community, for which they are equally concerned. 
 
 I must confess (says Mr. Sands), that, in the disorders of a 
 state, especially when xisen to a considerable height, it is very 
 discouraging to find not a few of the fault-finders rather quali-, 
 fied for marring than for mending them, as having every whit 
 
Wednesday's club. 241 
 
 as much ignorance, and many more conceits and preposses- 
 sions, than those who, in a selfish way or humour, are against 
 all alterations. 
 
 Although (said Mr. Brooks) the ignorance and emptiness of 
 not a few of those who pretend to reformations may be stum- 
 bling blocks to the blind, or to such who look only to appear- 
 ances, yet, since we do and posterity must owe all their excel- 
 lent things to some or other, who have or shall first introduce 
 them, — ^men of an extensive and superior genius ought not to 
 be the less, but rather the more, prized and valued by those 
 who would be reckoned the most valuable part of mankind. 
 
 To come to the point (said Mr. May), I think the objections, 
 or rather doubts, which Mr, Stone has raised may more pro- 
 perly be used as reasons for than against the Union, since 
 even his own conduct, as well as other parts of our experience, 
 sufficiently convinces us that it is in the numbers, good dis- 
 posal, and employment of their people, that the wealth, power, 
 and happiness of governments or nations doth consist. 
 
 It is true when, as in our present case, a considerable part 
 of the people either are not employed at all, or at least not half 
 so profitably as they might, thus, instead of doing good, they 
 serve only to be a dead weight upon the others, for mankind 
 must consume, whether they work or not. 
 
 But where will you find work for them (says Mr. Stone) ? in 
 some heat. 
 
 I doubt not (replied Mr. May) but the employments now on 
 foot, if well looked after, would be found capable of great im- 
 provements ; but, without entering into the detail of them, I 
 shall only instance the fisheries and granaries, already men- 
 tioned, the which are in a manner new, and, with their neces- 
 sary dependencies only, might be made more than sufficient to 
 employ and subsist all the idle people of the three kingdoms. 
 
 But will not the Hollanders be against you (objected Mr. 
 Stone) ? 1 have heard much talk of these fisheries, but they 
 always say it will ruin the Dutch. 
 
 VOL. I. ^ 
 
242 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 If those are the sentiments of any (returned Mr. May), it 
 must be only of such whose education hath been so much in 
 the negative part of trade as to disable them from coming up 
 to the affirmative, — ^who consider trade only as a little monopoly 
 or intrigue, and not as the general scope of the industry of the 
 world, and that consequently trade is still capable of being in- 
 creased, as people shall be multiplied and employed, upon 
 whose numbers and labours it wholly depends. 
 
 And upon this foundation it is, and from those motives, I 
 profess myself to be one of those who believe, that, though the 
 proper fisheries of these British Islands might greatly help us, 
 yet it would not, at least need not, hinder the Dutch. For 
 instance, suppose there are two millions of people in the three 
 kingdoms who do not half live, and that the other half of their 
 maintenance was made out upon fish, — by having stores thereof 
 in all the considerable places, in order to their being distributed 
 as occasion should require, this might be capable of consuming 
 at least two thousand last per week more than there now is, 
 which at but 10/. per last would be upwards of the yearly value 
 of a million. 
 
 Instances might hkewise be given of the granaries, and other 
 things, but, as not being directly to our point, I shall refer 
 them to a more convenient opportunity. 
 
 Provided they bring meat in their mouths (said Mr. Stone), 
 that is to say, new employments, and ways to subsist along 
 with them, unite them with all my heart ; otherwise, as I told 
 you, I am sure it will not do. After Mr. Stone had expressed 
 himself to this purpose he took his leave of the company. 
 
 Upon which Mr. May said, I have often heard the Hol- 
 landers clamoured against for their economy and industry, the 
 things in the world for which they deserve the greatest commen- 
 dation; but this hatli always been either from ignorant or envious 
 people, such lovers of themselves as hate all others, and there- 
 fore deserve no credit with the human race. For my part I believe 
 not that we, or any other nation, would have more, but rather 
 
Wednesday's club. 243 
 
 the less, trade were there no such people as the Dutch. It is 
 plain trade in those parts of the world has greatly increased 
 during the last century, wherein the Netherlanders have had 
 their rise. And, notwithstanding the advantages some few might 
 make of the present Dutch markets, until by their laziness and 
 presumptions they had ruined them, or diverted trade another 
 way, yet I am of opinion the fall of the Dutch would bring the 
 commerce of the world, as extensively taken, upon the decline. 
 
 All trading nations have found in their turns, that mere 
 buyers and sellers, negociators, or money getters, are not only 
 the worst judges but the most prejudiced against all the most 
 generous and extensive parts of trade, and, to pass by many 
 other instances that might be given, it was by the fatal advice 
 and conduct of their purblind and selfish negociators, that the 
 Hans Towns first restrained and prohibited away almost all the 
 trade of this side of the world, which they had possessed for 
 some ages, and with a little more industry, but less presump- 
 tion, might in all probability have preserved to this day. 
 After them the Spaniards and Portuguese have hedged out the 
 vast advantages they might otherwise have had by the Indies, 
 and that which humanly speaking might otherwise have raised 
 them to be the greatest people ever was, has been thus the 
 principal means of bringing them so low as we now find they are. 
 
 We need not go so far as the Hans Towns, or to Spain or 
 Portugal (said Mr. Grant), to find the fatal eflfects of such 
 narrow, selfish, and contracted views, since we have enough 
 of them at home. Among which the ruin of the fishery in 
 Scotland, which hath by much the greatest conveniences for 
 it of any other country in Christendom, is, in my opinion, one 
 of the most eminent and surprising instances. 
 
 I have often heard (said Mr. Gage) that there are great con- 
 veniences for the fisheries in Scotland, but never that they 
 made any considerable use of them. 
 
 By the accounts of those times (returned Mr. Grant), I find 
 that nation had a great interest, and made considerable pro^ 
 
 R 2 
 
244 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 gress in the fishing, for near an age together, viz. from the year 
 1470 until about the time of the Reformation. 
 
 How did they make shift (said Mr. Gage) to chase away the 
 fisheries, since we hear the fishes are there still ? 
 
 Only by this witchcraft and enchantment of restraints and 
 prohibitions (replied Mr. Grant). 
 
 But was this done by the government (said Mr. Shaw) ? 
 
 Yea, by the government of Scotland (replied Mr. Grant). 
 
 That is somewhat too severe upon our country (said Mr. 
 Shaw). Do you think ever the government of Scotland could 
 be capable of discouraging their fishing, which they could not 
 but be sensible was the most considerable thing that either did, 
 or possibly could, belong to their country ? 
 
 I do not say they intended it (said Mr. Grant), peojjle are 
 sometimes apt to do the greatest hurt when they do not intend 
 it, or perhaps intend any thing at all. 
 
 It may be so (replied Mr. Shaw), but I shall never believe 
 the government of Scotland prejudiced their fishing, unless you 
 can show it me upon record. 
 
 Then, to come to matters of record (returned Mr. Grant) ; in 
 the fifteenth century, the Parliament of Scotland, by several of 
 their Acts, gave great encouragement to their fisheries, which 
 were then in a flourishing condition, particularly by the forty- 
 ninth Act of the fourth Parliament of King James the Fourth,* 
 which mentions " the great and innumerable riches (as it is there 
 expressed) which were lost to that kingdom, for want of con- 
 venient ships and busses, to be employed in fishing, wherefore 
 for the great advantage that might thereby be had, and to cause 
 idle men and vagabonds to labour for their livings, and for 
 eschewing of vice and idleness, and the common profit and uni- 
 versal welfare of the realm, his Majesty and Estates of Parlia- 
 ment appoint, that fishing ships and busses, of twenty tons 
 burthen or upwards, be made in all boroughs and towns of the 
 realm, in proportion to the ability and substance of each town." 
 
 ♦ Anno 1493. 
 
WEDNESDAY S CLUB. 245 
 
 This, with several Acts and encouragements given before 
 and about that time, brought the fishing of Scotland, and con- 
 sequently the naval forces and other improvements of that 
 kingdom, to a considerable height, but, to my countrymen's 
 great misfortune, their conceits and presumptions were in- 
 creased at least in proportion, as you may see by another Act 
 of their Parliament, passed within less than half an age after this 
 good disposition,* whereby, among other things, it is enacted. 
 That no man, merchant or others, should send any white fish 
 out of the realm, but permits strangers to come and buy them 
 of merchants or freemen of boroughs with ready gold or 
 silver, or bartering of sufficient merchandise. 
 
 To pass over several other Acts of less moment, as they stand 
 in the statute-book, I shall come to the sixtieth of the fourth Par- 
 liament of King James the Sixth, by which they at once totally 
 ruined and confounded the fishing, and whereby it is declared, 
 " That forasmuch as it was heavily complained, how that the 
 whole slayers of all kind of fishes within the realm, not regard- 
 ing the Acts made by our Sovereign Lord's dearest predeces- 
 sors, which are, that, when herring and white fish are slain, they 
 ought to be brought to the next adjacent borough or towns, 
 where the slayers thereof do dwell, to the eiFect that the lieges 
 may be first served. And that if abundance hath occurred, they 
 may be salted, and transported by free burgesses. - 
 
 " By the neglect whereof our Sovereign Lord is greatly de- 
 frauded of his customs, and the good subjects of this king- 
 dom want the fruits of the sea, appointed by God for their 
 nourishment ; and the burgesses and freemen of boroughs dis- 
 appointed of their traffic and commodity. 
 
 "Therefore our Sovereign Lord, with advice and consent of his 
 Regent's Grace and the Estates of Parliament, ordains, that all 
 fishers, and others whatsoever, who shall happen to slay any 
 herring, or white fish, do bring the same to free ports, there to be 
 sold first commonly to all the subjects, and afterwards the re- 
 * 98tb Act 7 Parliament, James V. 1540, 
 
246 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 mainder to freemen, under pain of forfeiture of the ships, and of 
 all the moveables of the offenders." 
 
 How was it possible (said Mr. More) for any Parliament, or 
 indeed any number of men, to be drawn into the secret of such 
 sorts of Acts as these ; certainly, had the greatest enemies of 
 that country been its councillors, they could hardly have devised 
 so destructive a monopoly, or, if they had, surely they would 
 have been more generous and humane than to have imposed it. 
 
 This matter being over (said Mr. May) the eflfects thereof are 
 more easily seen, but I wish we in this nation had not some 
 restraints and prohibitions now on foot every whit as unac- 
 countable as this monopoly was. We may be sure those of Scot- 
 land were then as full of, and as presumptuously conceited of, 
 their fisheries, as we now are of our wool, woollen manufactures, 
 and some other things ; and accordingly the advisers thereof 
 insinuated to their prince and Parliament that no other nation 
 had such quantities of fish, conveniences for fishing,- nor so 
 many well-experienced fishers; that there was no doubt but 
 strangers would not only run the risk of the sea, in those times 
 reckoned much more terrible than now, to fetch the fish from 
 Scotland, but, if need were, buy them at any rate ; and that as 
 matters stood, the silly, ignorant fishermen sold their fish for 
 half nothing, and this too to strangers, by which means the 
 natives not only paid dearer for their fish, but the king lost his 
 customs and the nation vast advantages. 
 
 Behold (said Mr. Sands) just such another heap of clamorous 
 prejudices and inconsistencies as we have from Mr. Stone. 
 This confirms me in my former sentiments, that merchants are 
 the worst and most dangerous advisers in matters of trade. 
 
 This may possibly be said of merchants in a limited sense 
 (said Mr. May), that is to say, of mere buyers and sellers, whose 
 business and prejudices allow them not means nor time to enter 
 into consequences, who, to get one or perhaps but half per cent, 
 more for a commodity, care not who loses or what others may 
 suffer, and who for this reason are not only for limiting trade 
 
WKUNBSDAY S CLUB. 24:f 
 
 to their own countries, but to their own towns, or even to their 
 own houses, if they could tell how. 
 
 But merchants in an extended sense are quite another sort 
 of men ; their education, genius, general scope of knowledge of 
 the laws, governments, polity, and managements of the several 
 countries of the world allowing them sufficient room and oppor- 
 tunity not only to understand trade as abstractedly taken, but 
 in its greatest extent, and who accordingly are zealous promoters 
 of free and open trade, and consequently of liberty of conscience, 
 general naturalisations, unions, and annexions. 
 
 If unions be so good things (said Mr. Gage), especially in 
 relation to trade, why do not you likewise propose the uniting 
 with Ireland ? 
 
 Let us first see how this with Scotland shall prove (replied 
 Mr. May), and afterwards we may have a fitter occasion to 
 consider of Ireland. 
 
 Hold (said Mr. Gage) ; although I am for uniting Scotland, 
 because only another part or piece of this island, yet I know 
 not what to say in the case of Ireland and other remote places. 
 Possibly by the aid of the sea, the opportunities of dark nights, 
 or dark times at least, those fellows may be tempted to run 
 away with our trade ; indeed, were there a bridge between us 
 and Ireland, I should be for an union likewise with that nation ; 
 but, since there is nothing of this, not a word of an union with 
 Ireland, I beseech you. 
 
 Although we have not a stone bridge as at Berwick (returned 
 Mr. May), yet we have a better : I mean our wooden bridge, 
 or shipping, and am of opinion that the uniting of Ireland, as 
 
 LIKEWISE WHAT OTHER DOMINIONS THE QUEEN EITHER 
 
 HATH OR SHALL HAVE, would be the most effectual way not 
 only of improving those places but for strengthening and pre- 
 serving this noble and valuable bridge between us ; and, if the 
 present union before us goes forward, I trust it shall produce 
 other unions and good things. 
 
 After all (said Mr. Rose) I see nothing in all these noisy 
 
248 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 objections, or rather clamours, whether from one side or the 
 other, against the union ; they appear to me rather to be the 
 effects of ignorance, ill nature, bad intentions, or all of them, 
 than anything else. Yet, in order to the humouring some 
 people, what if we should propose this union only for a space 
 of years, and thus they may have an opportunity to try how it 
 will do ? methinks this for ever is so long a time. 
 
 You are mistaken, Mr. Rose. It is no time at all (said Mr. 
 May, smiling) ; but, however, if you will, we shall propose it as 
 one of the conditions that after ten, fifteen, twenty, or such hke 
 number of years, upon two or three years' notice and your 
 countrymen's refunding what they have during that time gained 
 by the Union, you may be at liberty to set up again for your- 
 selves. 
 
 Do you think (said Mr. Sands) that Ireland would desire this 
 condition if an union with them was proposed, or that Wales or 
 Berwick would make use of this liberty if they had it ? 
 
 I believe not (said Mr. Grant), and dare even venture my 
 countrymen upon this point. 
 
 I suppose (said Mr. Jones) the gentlemen have done with 
 the business since they are so very merry ; if so, pray let us 
 adjourn the summing-up of this matter to some convenient 
 time ; meanwhile we shall see what other objections may be 
 brought against the Union. 
 
 Accordingly the company adjourned till Wednesday, the third 
 of April next. 
 
 Wednesday, April 3, 17O6. 
 
 Mr. Jones said, that, since our last meeting, her Majesty had 
 been graciously pleased to nominate commissioners for both 
 kingdoms, to treat of an Union, and, since every thing seemed 
 to concur in promising a happy issue to this treaty, it was 
 therefore requisite we should conclude our present proceedings 
 
WJSUJMiKOAl B ULUB. 249 
 
 on this subject, in order to the transmitting them to our friends 
 in the country. 
 
 Mr. May said, he readily concurred with this motion, but 
 first desired to know if there were any other objection, or ma- 
 terial difficulties, to be offered against the Union. 
 
 After silence for some time, Mr. Sands said, he was not only 
 fully convinced of the great benefits and advantages of the 
 Union, but that there neither was, or possibly could be, any rea- 
 sonable objection against it, 
 
 Mr. Brooks said, he had never j^et heard any thing said or 
 objected against the Union but what, when duly weighed and 
 examined, was really found an argument for it. 
 
 Mr. Grant said, that by all his inquiries he never yet found 
 any true reason, or real objection, against the Union, but that 
 the doubts, difficulties, or clamours on all sides, have either 
 proceeded from ignorance, humour, secret motives, or from all 
 of them ; that the thing was easy, if people have a mind to it, 
 which, after so many mischiefs and misfortunes befallen this 
 island for want thereof, he hoped they now had. 
 
 And, there being again silence for some space, at last Mr 
 Jones said. 
 
 Gentlemen, — after having had the affair of the Union directly 
 before you for several months, wherein after a full view of what 
 hath been done or intended therein, as likewise of the state of the 
 two nations, you have found reason to be of opinion that not 
 any sort of league, confederacy, limitation, agreement, or bar- 
 gain, or indeed any thing less or below a complete Union, can 
 introduce the good which may be justly expected therefrom, or 
 effectually deliver these nations from the mischiefs and incon- 
 veniences they labour under, and are exposed unto for want 
 thereof ; — 
 
 That nothing less than a complete Union can effectually 
 secure the religion, laws, liberties, trade, and in a word the 
 peace and happiness of this island ; — 
 
 You have observed, that the reduction of Scotland in the 
 
250 PROCEEDINGS AT THE 
 
 late intestine war not only produced a Union of course, but, 
 considering the then circumstances, upon so reasonable and 
 equal terms; — That had something like this Union been suited 
 unto, and continued after the Restoration, besides the many 
 mischiefs thereby prevented, that kingdom might now be in 
 a condition to furnish a much larger quota to the public 
 support. 
 
 And you therefrom naturally inferred, that since a civil war 
 can never have a happy or effectual end but in an Union, it 
 must certainly be better to make it by treaty than to stay until 
 it comes the other way. 
 
 From these views you have proceeded to draw a scheme of 
 an Union, whereby no hardship is proposed to be put upon 
 parties, persons, or circumstances, nor so much as one negative 
 upon the religion, laws, or constitutions of either nation. 
 
 And since, by the blessing of God, a happy occasion now 
 offers for completing this great and good work, not in humour 
 or in rage, but in cool blood, with reason and understanding, 
 it is hoped, that after all the troubles, hazards, and distresses of 
 these nations for want thereof, an Union shall in this temper 
 and disposition be concluded, to the glory and renown of our 
 excellent Queen, common benefit and general satisfaction of all 
 her subjects, who, as having but one interest and inclination, 
 may for ever after be of one heart and one affection. 
 
 But since the sense of my weakness gives me sufl&ciently to 
 understand, that by enlarging I cannot possibly add to the just 
 idea you already have of this necessary preliminary to all the 
 great and good things we of these nations can reasonably hope 
 for, I beg leave to conclude with the following inimitable ex- 
 pressions of our glorious Glueen : * 
 
 " My Lords, — I am so fully persuaded that the Union of my 
 two kingdoms will prove the happiness of both, and render this 
 island more formidaBle than it hath been in ages past, that I 
 
 * To the commissioners of both kingdoms at the last Treaty of Union, 
 Dec. 14, 1702. 
 
Wednesday's club. 251 
 
 wish this treaty may be brought to a good and speedy conclu- 
 sion. 
 
 " I am come to know what progress you have made in it, 
 and do assure you that nothing shall be wanting on my part to 
 bring it to perfection." 
 
 After the Society had expressed their general satisfaction 
 with those proceedings, and desired Mr. Jones to review them, 
 they ordered copies to be allowed the friends in town, as like- 
 wise to be transmitted to our correspondents at York. 
 
 Adjourned. 
 
ENGLAND'S GEEAT CONCEM. 
 
 London, 4to. 1702. 
 (Conjectured to have been written by William Paterson.) 
 
 It is well known that throughout King William III.'s reign the most 
 earnest attention was given to financial inquiries in and out of Parliament. 
 The stopping of the Exchequer by Charles II. had ruined thousands of 
 families, and there had grown up corruptions such as Andrew Marvel's 
 Spartan integrity did not compensate, and such as were hardly to be checked 
 by signal acts of vengeance, like the expulsion of Trevor from the Speaker- 
 ship of the House of Commons for receiving a bribe of 1,000 guineas to 
 promote the passing of a City Bill. The Lord Treasurer's post was the 
 most laborious of all the departments of the State in England, and as much 
 ingenuity was called for to devise remedies for evils that beset the expendi- 
 ture of public money, as to find facilities for its collection. The founder of 
 the Bank of England was equally skilful in both respects ; and a perpetual 
 Commission for checking the Public Accounts was proposed in 1702 in the 
 following tract, which is here offered as probably a work of Paterson's. It 
 is written entirely in his spirit and style; and in the letter to Lord Godolphin, 
 of 1709, he states that he communicated with King William on the subject, 
 and that in 1702 he laid such papers before his Lordship (above, p. xcix.) : — 
 
 "England's Great Concern. In the perpetual Settlement 
 of a Commission of Accounts: with Clauses and Powers 
 fixing National Benefit thereby in the several Branches 
 following; viz. 
 
 " The exact Quota of the Sums to be raised for Public Service, and the 
 
 faithful Collecting and Disposing thereof. 
 " The Securing to all Persons in the Army and Navy their full Pay at fixed 
 
 Times. 
 " The Providing for those that are Maimed, and for the indigent Widows 
 
 and Orphans of those that die in the Nation's Service. 
 "The due Payment of all Soldiers and Seamen's Debts to their Creditors, 
 
 without Suit or Charge at Law. 
 " The making good the Deficient Funds, Clearing the Nation's Debts, and 
 
 raising the Public Credit. 
 " And the ordering of Taxes so as may be most favourable to the Value of 
 Land and Advancement of Trader 
 
 " With A Discovery of some notable Frauds committed in 
 collecting the Supplies." 
 
254 England's great concern. 
 
 " Some Considerations upon the Great Concern of Eng- 
 land : in the Establishment of a Commission for Taking, 
 Examining, and Stating the Public Accounts, &c. 
 
 " The vast sums raised for support of the late war, the unac- 
 countable deficiency of the funds ordered in Parliament for 
 that end, the great public debts remaining upon the nation, 
 notwithstanding the additional supplies granted from year to 
 year for making good the said deficiencies, and the great 
 expense the kingdom is like to be put to by the ensuing war, 
 make it obvious how much it is the conjunct interest of the 
 Government and people, that a strict inquiry be made into 
 the disposal of the supplies given and to be given, and into the 
 faitliful application of them to all the ends and uses for which 
 they were, are, and are to be, designed for public service. 
 
 "Especially considering that no less did and does depend 
 thereon, in the way of rational human reckoning, than the secu- 
 rity or ruin of our religion, government, lives, honour, liberty, 
 and property on the one hand ; and the encouraging or dis- 
 couraging, resisting or assisting, the implacable enemies of all 
 these our chief interests on the other. 
 
 " A fraud in any matter of private trust is a thing hateful in 
 the eyes of all good men, which not only justice before God, 
 tut the common concern of all persons and societies in the 
 success of their private affairs, doth require that it be prose- 
 cuted and punished with the utmost strictness and severity of 
 the law. 
 
 "But a fraud in public trust, whereby the party trusted, 
 not being satisfied with the reasonable sufficiency, or perhaps 
 large recompense allowed him for his time, pains, and the repu- 
 tation due to his post, doth so abandon the fear of God, and 
 give himself up to the insinuations of Satan, as to prefer his 
 base covetousness, luxury, or ambition, to the safety, welfare, 
 and public good of a whole nation, and to the security of reli- 
 gion, the glory of God, and the common interest of all con- 
 
England's great concern. 255 
 
 cerned in it, is a crime of so deep a dye, so foul a nature, and 
 such dangerous consequence, as deserves to be guarded 
 against with all imaginable care and circumspection, and when 
 found out to be chastised with exemplary punishment. 
 
 " But seeing the depravity of human nature is such, that we 
 may find it sufficiently proved by a multitude of satisfying 
 instances at every sessions of the Old Bailey, that no fear of 
 punishment can make a knave an honest man, or deter him 
 from the worst of crimes, while he can flatter himself with any 
 probable hopes of escaping discovery ; it ought to be looked 
 upon as a chief concern of every well-established Government, 
 that all due precaution be used in the ordering of public trust, 
 in all its branches, after such a manner as that no person em- 
 ployed therein can do an ill thing, with any reasonable hope 
 of finding a lurking-place to keep him free from challenge or 
 just censure. 
 
 " The nation, therefore, must be accounted debtors to those 
 who were the first authors of so reasonable a motion as an 
 Ofldce of Accounts, and to all who have faithfully laboured 
 therein; it being such a necessary check upon the due ma- 
 nagement of what they bestow for public service, that not only 
 it ought never to have been wanting, but as makes it a thing 
 unsuitable to its nature and usefulness to be limited to any 
 time, that is, of less extent than while England hath a public 
 revenue to be accounted for. 
 
 "And amongst the many other proofs of his Majesty's care of 
 the welfare of his people, and of his royal intention to protect 
 none who shall be found guilty of any crime inconsistent there- 
 with, it is none of the least, that in his gracious speech at the 
 opening of the Parliament he hath so earnestly recommended 
 the estabhshing of an Office of Accounts ; declaring himself 
 for any farther way of examination, whereby it may appear 
 whether there were any misapplications and mismanagements, 
 or whether the debt that remains upon us has really arisen 
 from the shortness of the supplies, or the deficiency of the funds. 
 
256 England's ^. 
 
 " And it seems agreeable to a dutiful return that such an 
 office be ordered, as may not only secure the people from 
 frauds in the management of the supplies, but the King also 
 from being imposed upon by any whom he entrusts with a 
 matter of so great concern to the honour, dignity, safety, and 
 security of his government and person ; which makes the obli- 
 gation of its continuance perpetual. 
 
 " For seeing it is obvious to every attentive observer, that 
 abundance of men getting once into public trust, do in a short 
 time so overgrow in riches all that their known profits or 
 frugal management can reasonably account for, as makes it a 
 mystery to think by what ways and means so great and sudden 
 changes of their former condition have been attained to ; it 
 appears to be consonant to justice and reason that an inquiry 
 be made, whether this may not be a mystery of iniquity ? 
 And, if it is, whether the king, or people, or both are injured ? 
 And if neither, then the suspected person hath the benefit of 
 a cleared reputation. 
 
 " And such an inquiry appears to be so much the more rea- 
 sonable and necessary, that some outward motions do so plainly 
 discover hidden springs and engines to be set on work for de- 
 feating the design, by loading it with contempt and reproaches. 
 
 " Amongst other methods of this nature, there is a late author, 
 that perhaps may hereafter be spoke with on the subject, who 
 in his remarks on the Bill for stating the public accounts, that 
 was dropped in the House of Lords the last session, is at a great 
 deal of pains to put all persons out of humour with an Office 
 of Accounts ; finding many faults, and proving them by mat- 
 ters of fact, as he calls, neither the one nor the other whereof 
 ever had being. 
 
 "All I shall say at present is, that the book is a good book if 
 it be rightly understood. For though its whole bulk, in all 
 material points, is swelled up, ten parts to one, with lies and 
 calumnies, yet they all agree and terminate in a most convinc- 
 ing proof of the certain truths following. 
 
tswvsxijtioj a irlliliAX CONCERN. 257 
 
 " That there are some who are dreadfully afraid of an Office 
 of Accounts: 
 
 " That there are others, who, knowing of the matter, are em- 
 ployed to say all they can against it, without regard to truth 
 or falsehood : 
 
 " And that it is a particular instruction in their trust, that 
 they take care to spare no reproaches they are capable to 
 invent, against such whose service and skill in the affairs of 
 the office they have greatest reason to fear. 
 
 " For this cause it is that all the teeth of the book are chiefly 
 employed in tearing the reputation of an honourable person, 
 who is now at the helm of our public affairs, and formerly was 
 for several years a commissioner in the Office of Accounts. 
 
 " Upon the whole, we may conclude, that innocence can never 
 find cause to fear the standing of a fair trial ; that where such 
 fear betrays itself there is good case to suppose guilt is at the 
 bottom ; and that such ground to suppose guilt pleads the ne- 
 cessity of an Office of Accounts so qualified as may fit and 
 enable it for search and discovery. 
 
 " To proceed therefore to the consideration of the best means 
 for establishing it so as may make it most effectual for this 
 and other national services ; The first step, and that which is 
 of the highest concern to the prosperous success of all the 
 rest is, 
 
 " That, laying aside all regard of private interest and influ- 
 ence, persons be pitched on for commissioners of known parts> 
 integrity, and affection to the present government. 
 
 " To which a caveat is necessary to be added against such 
 as are known to be in the interest of those concerned in the 
 disposal of the public moneys, or are recommended by them, 
 unless of purpose to render them suspected. 
 
 " For the greater distance is observed in choosing persons 
 farthest from any concern in those whose fidelity must be in- 
 quired into, the surer foundation must be laid for a faithful 
 inquiry and public benefit. 
 
 VOL. I. s 
 
258 England's great concekn. 
 
 " Seeing also it is manifest, that new commissioners are like 
 to want greatly the help and counsel of some one or other 
 who is acquainted with the afFairs of the office, and hath for- 
 merly been in the same trust, without which it is reasonably 
 to he supposed that their proceedings must be very much in- 
 cumbered and retarded ; and if the fittest person for this 
 assistance is to be thought upon, it were much to be desired 
 that the honourable Speaker could be prevailed upon to return 
 into that charge, whereinhe is so capable to do eminent ser- 
 vice for the interest of his country. For which the unreason- 
 able pains of the mentioned author to prevent it, for the good 
 of his party, makes a strong' argument that it be done for the 
 good of the nation. 
 
 " And this I plead so much the rather that the present con- 
 stitution may be so ordered, according to the following 
 proposal relating to assistants, as shall make it no ways 
 so inconvenient for a Speaker to be concerned in it, as it 
 was when the honourable Paul Foley was Speaker and 
 Commissioner of the Office of Accounts together for a long 
 time. 
 
 Another consideration which I humbly offer is, that, seeing 
 the Office of Accounts is an office of the highest power, greatest 
 trust, and chief dignity of all others that are or ever were in 
 the nation, all the offices concerned in the public money being 
 accountable to it, and it to none but the Parliament, it appears 
 to be altogether reasonable, just, and suitable to the nature of 
 the constitution, 
 
 " That the commissioners be endowed with honourable sala- 
 ries in so great a trust, for supporting the eminent dignity 
 thereof; such as may be reasonably looked upon to be a suffi- 
 cient allowance for commanding their time, concern, cai-e, and 
 pains in that great national service ; such as may conciliate 
 from all persons the respect due to their post, and such as 
 may prevent any farther remarks like that of the mentioned 
 author, that few have pretended to zeal of serving the nation 
 
ii«Ui,AlSIU S liKKAT CONCERN. 259 
 
 in the Office of Accounts but in prospect of being taken off to 
 employments of greater profit. 
 
 " The next consideration which I am to offer relates to the 
 duration of the commission ; concerning which I have already 
 given some reasons why it ought to be fixed without limitation 
 of time, because the occasions of its usefulness, and hazard of 
 national loss by want of it, are perpetual. 
 
 " And it seems highly reasonable that, for effecting the end 
 designed by it, the commissioners have such time allowed them 
 as may encourage and give opportunity for deliberate pro- 
 ceedings and inquiries, rather than such as may seem to urge 
 them to make haste, by which all inquiries become liable to 
 oversight. 
 
 " Beside that anything like the former yearly commissions 
 must always make way for preparing and pushing interests, 
 either to shake off the commission altogether, if those con- 
 cerned in the public moneys are warmly alarmed or greatly 
 suspicious of discoveries, or to get such changed as they think 
 they have most reason to be afraid of, if frequent oppor- 
 tunities for altering are allowed, as past experience doth 
 verify, 
 
 " And, seeing the longer they continue they must be the more 
 expert in discovering, checking, and preventing frauds, and in 
 serving the nation's interest thereby, and by their well-digested 
 observations relating to the public revenue, it seems not to be 
 consistent with the common interest of the Government and 
 people that any should be changed, except for misdemeanour, 
 neglect, or sensible unfitness, who are able and willing to con- 
 tinue their service in such a trust. 
 
 " As to the powers and helps wherewith the commissioners 
 are to be entrusted and assisted for making effectual the use- 
 fulness of this great ofiice for the public good, they are to be 
 so considered as meriting the same extent in which we can 
 suppose frauds may be committed or advantages procured in 
 the various ways of raising, collecting, and distributing the 
 
 8 2 
 
260 England's great concern. 
 
 public revenue, of which, in all its branches and all its con- 
 cerns those commissioners are the only proper and chiei 
 guardians next under the Parliament. 
 
 "And here it is to be marked that there are three principal 
 ways whereby frauds may be acted respecting the public 
 supplies. 
 
 " One is by making higher demands upon the Parliament 
 than are really necessary for the year's service. 
 
 " Another is by unfaithful levying the supplies imposed, con- 
 sisting in false duplicates, false returns of money into the 
 Exchequer, and false collecting. 
 
 " And the third may be in the disposal of what is brought in, 
 by false distribution, and fraudulent misapplications thereof, 
 otherwise than as designed and ordered in Parliament. 
 
 " It is manifest, therefore, that, with respect to all those pos- 
 sible subjects of fraud, the commissioners of accounts are to 
 be entrusted with such suitable powers as may be reasonably 
 supposed needful to check, find out, and prevent the frauds, 
 and to recover the damages that have been, are, or may be 
 sustained thereby. 
 
 "With respect to which, the commissioners are to be em- 
 powered and ordered to take and prepare every year an exact 
 account of the whole establishment of the forces for that year, 
 of all alterations made therein, of all things requisite for the 
 service of the army and navy, as ammunition, ordnance, vic- 
 tualling, &c. and of the sums necessary for supporting the 
 whole charge, that when demands of supplies are made the 
 House, by having recourse to the accounts of the office, may 
 be certified at one view concerning the reasonableness or un- 
 reasonableness thereof. 
 
 " They are likewise to be empowered and ordered to take 
 such care, and to use such methods in inspecting, examining, 
 and securing the fidelity of collecting the public revenue in all 
 its several branches, and of the duplicates, receipts, and re- 
 turns of the moneys thereof, as they shall judge proper for 
 
England's great concern. 261 
 
 discovering all the frauds and opportunities for them which 
 that part of the public trust may be liable to. 
 
 " It hath certainly been a great defect in all the former 
 commissions that not only no assistance was asked or expected 
 therefrom for adjusting the supplies exactly to the occasions 
 requiring them, and for which they were granted, whereby it 
 can be cleared that several mistakes and oversights have hap- 
 pened, but that they were also chiefly intended for looking 
 back, and were not charged with a trust of overseeing the 
 present collections, for preventing those frauds which, perhaps, 
 the after discovery might be incapable to repair. 
 
 " And if some accounts I have heard are true, it may be 
 made appear that the nation hath suffered considerably by this 
 omission. 
 
 " It seems therefore most reasonable and necessary that 
 these two powers and trusts be added to the charge of the 
 commissioners; seeing without them great damages may be 
 sustained, and several national advantages lost, which by them 
 may be avoided or gained. 
 
 " As to the third great concern of the nation in the public 
 moneys, which relates to the faithful distribution thereof, it is 
 humbly proposed, 
 
 " That the commissioners be empowered not only to call 
 for, examine, and state all manner of accounts referring thereto; 
 but to stop all fraudulent misapphcations of public money, 
 which they are informed are to be made ; and to recall all such 
 misapplications already made contrary to the orders of Par- 
 liament. 
 
 " Seeing without this power immediately practicable on all 
 occasions, misapplications may be so ordered as to become 
 afterward irrecoverable, although they are found out, 
 
 " That they be empowered to inquire into, consider, and 
 rectify all abuses in paying the officers, soldiers, and seamen, 
 in the army and navy. 
 
 " To examine and rectify all abuses in victualling the fleet. 
 
262 England's great concern, 
 
 " To consider the best methods for bringing the full pay of 
 every officer, soldier, and seaman, at certain fixed times, such 
 as they may securely depend upon, into the hands or for the 
 use of those to whom it is due, without fraud or diminution ; 
 and to order accordingly. 
 
 " To consider all such other means as may most effectually 
 encourage the zealous service of the government by sea and 
 land, and to report to the House. 
 
 " And particularly to consider how a fund may be settled 
 for the benefit of maimed officers and soldiers, and of such 
 their widows and orphans as are rendered destitute of the 
 means of subsistence by their death in the service of the nation. 
 
 "■ Which last I mention not only as a just debt, which in 
 reason, conscience, and consideration of public interest, ought 
 to be charged in the general account of the nation's debts, and 
 consequently doth belong to the nature of the Office of Ac- 
 counts to see how the same is duly discharged. But, because 
 this trust being committed to the commissioners, I hope to 
 propose a way how so laudable a design may be accomplished, 
 to the great satisfaction of the army and all concerned, without 
 putting the nation to any charge thereby. 
 
 " And whereas many creditors of officers and soldiers have 
 in prospect of their growing arrears of pay furnished them 
 with money or necessaries, and often on such occasions that 
 they could not have subsisted in his Majesty's service without 
 those helps, and who being tradespeople, or others whose 
 sums will not bear the charge of a plea at law, or who cannot 
 spare time or money for that end, have had but too just cause 
 to raise complaints against the late method of paying the army 
 arrears after such a manner as enables the debtors to defraud 
 whom they will, unless pursued at law, which often also be- 
 comes impracticable through the uncertainty of their abode ; 
 whereby many poor people are ruined, and others suffer 
 greatly, who formerly had access to have any arrears stopped 
 for the payment of the debts due to them at a small charge in 
 
England's great concebn. 263 
 
 the Pay Office, upon production of a just claim ; for remedy 
 whereof it is humbly proposed, 
 
 " That the said commissioners be empowered to take cogni- 
 zance of and determine all such debts due by any employed in 
 his Majesty's service, in the fleet, army, guards, or garrisons, 
 and to grant such certificates thereupon as may be obligatory 
 on the pay offices, both of army and navy, to stop the arrears 
 or pay not affecting the subsistence of the debtors, until the 
 said just debts are cleared, and that this be done gratis 
 and without any expense to either party, debtor or cre- 
 ditor. 
 
 "And, seeing the nature of the trust committed to this office 
 is such as seems to reach all the concerns of public money,, by 
 which either loss may be saved to the nation, or benefit gained 
 relating thereto, and that it is reasonable to suppose that 
 preparatory considerations and schemes by those fit to digest 
 them about matters so intricate, as many of those are which 
 concern public money, might give great light and prevent 
 many difficulties in the resolutions of the honourable House 
 about ordering them so as is most for national benefit ; there- 
 fore it is humbly proposed, 
 
 " That the commissioners be entrusted and ordered to con- 
 sider the best methods for preventing deficiency of par- 
 liamentary funds, making goo.d the government's credit, clear- 
 ing the public debts, and raising supplies by such ways and 
 means as may prove most effectual for the service of the govern- 
 ment and interest of the nation, especially as relating to the 
 value of land and advancement of trade, which are the two 
 fountains of all supplies and national power respecting defence, 
 security, and balance of emtiire ; and therefore do merit a 
 watchful regard how they are affected by the manner of 
 charging them with public impositions. 
 
 " And that they be empowered to receive and examine pro- 
 posals offered relating to any of the mentioned heads, and 
 that they report their own opinions with what they think may 
 
264 England's great concekn. 
 
 merit consideration in any such proposals to the honourahle 
 House. 
 
 " But having thus carved out so much work and weight of 
 business for the ofEce, with all due submission to the wisdom 
 of Parliament, it appears necessary that in the next place it be 
 considered what number of commissioners may be in reason 
 supposed needful for so ample a charge, and if assistance is 
 necessary, and of what kind, for the discharge thereof. 
 
 " It must certainly be acknowledged to be a necessary con- 
 sequence, depending on the infallible rule of proportion, that 
 however many commissioners are employed in any other office 
 within the kingdom, if there is no evident reason to conclude 
 them more than are really needful for the business thereof, it 
 must follow that more be supposed needful for the office of 
 accounts, seeing the business thereof doth so far exceed all 
 that can be pretended in any other office, if the powers abso- 
 lutely necessary to its establishment are allowed, from which 
 the nation may have reason to expect effectual service and 
 benefit. 
 
 " If a due notion is admitted of the great trust and of the 
 numerous weighty affairs of the Office of Accounts, being the 
 largest in extent and influence, chief in power, and the over- 
 aweing head over all others within the kingdom ; there may, I 
 suppose, better reasons be given why the number of its com- 
 missioners should rather have been raised from nine to thirteen, 
 than reduced first to seven and afterwards to five, as formerly 
 was done. 
 
 " But it must be acknowledged that the former commissions 
 and commissioners were subjected to many inconveniences, and 
 liable to great difficulties, both by the want of several powers 
 and circumstances in their constitution necessary for making 
 their service more effectual for pubhc good, and also by a 
 heavy overbalancing restraint lying upon them, by which they 
 were in prudence obliged rather to conceal the discoveries they 
 had made than to lay them open at a time when a prevailing 
 
ENGLAND'S GREAT CONCERN. 265 
 
 party in the interest of those concerned might have occasion 
 to stifle them. 
 
 " And thence it happened that, being deprived of a fit oppor- 
 tunity to make the nation sensible of the real effects of their 
 successful industry and faithfulness in that trust, the useful- 
 ness of the constitution was not looked upon with such an eye 
 as it merited. 
 
 " Whereby its enemies, and such as were afraid of it, were 
 encouraged, and by degrees found ways to lessen its considera- 
 tion, until at length an interest was made to discharge those 
 commissioners altogether, and probably with a design in some 
 of securing themselves from fear of hurt in the next establish- 
 ment, had not these commissioners taken such prudent mea- 
 sures as were able to secure the nation from a stroke that might 
 have proved so fatal to its true interest. 
 
 " But the reputation of the usefulness of such an oiEce being 
 now generally raised in the minds of the people, by the recom- 
 mendation in the King's speech, and the considerations of the 
 reasonableness of the thing occasioned thereby, it is hoped 
 that such an establishment thereof will be ordered, as may 
 render it most capable to answer their expectations. 
 
 " And, as the consideration of the number of hands for every 
 work is no less necessary to carry it on successfully than the 
 skill of those employed, and the methods of working to which 
 they are limited, it must in like manner be acknowledged that 
 a full view of the reasonable and sohd constitution of this 
 oflSce, doth not only require an account of the powers and 
 directive orders wherewith they are to be entrusted, but also 
 of the number of persons which may be supposed sufiicient 
 to put those powers and orders in due execution, so as the 
 main design of public good thereby may be carried on with 
 ease and success. 
 
 " And here it is to be noted that all pretensions to frugality 
 and saving expense in a matter of such weight, without regard- 
 ing a just balance thereof with the easy and successful progress 
 
266 ENGLAND'S GRKAT CONCERN. 
 
 of the afFairs of the office, must in reason be understood to 
 proceed either from a fear of its success or from a mistake of 
 the way to attain it. 
 
 " Being the same in this as in all other cases of great mo- 
 ment, which the more they are such do the more require for 
 their success fulness of intelligence, fulness of counsel, ful- 
 ness of help, and fulness of encouragement to those employed. 
 
 " It suits a wise reflection on the nature and tendency of 
 things to conclude, that pinching in great men and in great 
 undertakings must always lose more than it Se>ves. 
 
 "Solomon tells us, that to withhold more than is meet 
 tendeth to poverty ; that in the multitude of counsellors is 
 safety : the proverb is in every one's mouth, that many hands 
 make light work, and experience tells us that heavy work 
 makes both uneasy workmen and slow progress. 
 
 " Therefore, whatever the cost may be by the honourable 
 salaries of the commissioners before pleaded, if the men- 
 tioned necessary powers and trusts to be added to this office 
 for making it effectually useful are regarded, there is reason 
 enough to conclude that if ever nine were found to be a com- 
 petent number of commissioners for the service of the office 
 formerly, thirteen or fifteen may on as good ground be judged 
 no more than what ought to be found competent for it now, if 
 no consideration were to be added of any other superior 
 officers needful but those of the title and authority of commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 " But, seeing that I have formerly hinted at a proposal for 
 adding, as a help to the commissioners, another order of officers, 
 under the title of assistants, this occasion does require that it 
 be fully explained what is meant thereby. 
 
 " I am humbly of opinion that, whatever prospect has been 
 given of the national advantage from the several powers and 
 trusts hitherto pleaded necessary to a right constitution of the 
 office, the success of all does chiefly depend on this part of the 
 establishment which relates to assistants. 
 
England's great concern, 261 
 
 " And, that the truth hereof may appear, I shall first offer a 
 general account of the nature of the office of assistants as 
 proposed, and as distinct from that of the commissioners, and 
 then add some reasons clearing the necessity and usefulness of 
 this part of the constitution. 
 
 " The assistants are to be a degree of superior officers above 
 the secretary, controller, and clerks of the office, and only 
 inferior to the commissioners, who are chief. 
 
 " They are to be equal in number to the commissioners ; so 
 we shall suppose there are nine commissioners and nine as- 
 sistants. 
 
 " They are to sit, debate, and advise with the commissioners ; 
 no board of the latter is to be without the former, and five 
 commissioners, with four assistants, may make a quorum ; but 
 the power of voting is to remain only with the commissioners. 
 
 " The assistants may meet by themselves at their own ap- 
 pointment, when there is no meeting of the commissioners, to 
 prepare matters for the board, and to consider and digest 
 things recommended to them by the commissioners. 
 
 "And they are to be otherwise employed, as does more 
 fully appear in the following reasons, proving the necessity 
 and usefulness of their assistance to a successful carrying on 
 of the design of the office for national service : — 
 
 " It is to be considered that there is a double charge added 
 to the trust of this office above what any other had formerly ; 
 to wit, that of a yearly inquiry into the whole establishment of 
 the forces, including guards, garrisons, condition and victual- 
 ling of the fleet, ordnance, ammunition, incident charges, &c., 
 and to adjust exactly the quota of the necessary supplies 
 thereto; also a careful oversight and inspection into the 
 methods of collecting the whole revenue, for securing fidelity, 
 and preventing frauds therein. 
 
 " And this matter, being duly weighed, makes it not only 
 reasonable, but absolutely necessary, that there be a new con- 
 stitution of officers added, in consideration of a new trust 
 
268 England's great concern. 
 
 addedj requiring so great an addition of thought, counsel, 
 pains, and labour, and consequently of more heads and hands 
 to be employed. 
 
 " Especially considering that the last part of the mentioned 
 trust cannot be discharged without a necessity of sending 
 some of the assistants now and then into several places in the 
 country, for observing and making such inquiries relating to 
 the manner and fidelity of the collections as are not to be sup- 
 posed attainable by any intelligence at a distance without that 
 help. 
 
 "Upon which consideration the proposed extent of their 
 number, at least to seven, is reasonably founded ; because it 
 cannot be well supposed that fewer shall be able to answer the 
 necessary occasions requiring their service, which may happen 
 in the country and in the office at the same time. 
 
 "Seeing also it usually is so ordered that the exercise 
 of commissions granted in Parliament for general offices of 
 accounts does not commence till the session is up, whereby 
 much time may happen to be lost, the constitution of assistants 
 is so favourable for national service, both in this and the 
 following case, that the commission being passed at any time 
 of the session the commissioners may at one meeting choose 
 their assistants, who afterwards may have such frequent meet- 
 ings for preparing the affairs of the office as may enable the 
 commissioners, at the end of the session, to do more in a month, 
 by the help of that preparatory assistance, than otherwise they 
 should be able to do perhaps in six. 
 
 " The other case is that, seeing that there is good reason 
 that the commissioners be Members of Parliament, and as 
 good reason to suppose that that trust, and the trust of the 
 office at the same time, must infer an overcharge of business 
 upon them if they have no help, the addition of assistants 
 takes off the difficulty, and makes this matter easy, seeing the 
 affairs of the office may be so prepared and put in order by 
 them, during the sitting of Parliament, that the presence of 
 
ENGLAND'S GEEAT CONCERN. 269 
 
 the commissioners in the office, which formerly was necessary 
 after entering to the employment, even in time of Parliament, 
 may not be found needful, save a few hours once a week, or 
 perhaps sometimes once a fortnight, until freed from the other 
 charge. 
 
 " Seeing also one of the chief designs of this office is to find 
 out and pursue such lurking enemies of the government and 
 nation as for private interest do interrupt and pervert the 
 means ordered in Parliament for public safety, intelligence 
 must be supposed no less necessary in this case than in that 
 of an open war, it is plain that the assistants, both by their 
 number, and by their more extensive conversation, than that 
 of the commissioners, may very much contribute to the pro- 
 moting of that interest in the office. 
 
 " Their help also may be very useful in answering effectively 
 that part of the trust added to this commission which relates 
 to the finding out the best means and methods for preventing 
 deficiency of the funds, making good the credit, and clearing 
 the debts of the nation ; and for raising the supplies by ways 
 most convenient to the service of the government, and least 
 inconvenient to trade and other national interests ; and in 
 examining and digesting the proposals offered relating thereto. 
 
 "I shall sum up this argument for the reasonableness of 
 adding an equal number of assistants with that of the commis- 
 sioners in the present re-establishment of the office with the 
 following consideration : — 
 
 " That the greatness and dignity of the trust ; the concern 
 of the nation in the success of the office ; the multitude and 
 intricacy of the matters to be considered ; the extraordinary 
 pains and ripeness of judgment which they will require ; the 
 plain justice of the plea that the commissioners ought both to 
 be assisted therein, and eased in the numerous applications 
 that will be made about matters of such universal concern, 
 especially considering that they are often to be otherwise 
 employed than in the affairs of the office ; and the general 
 
STO England's geeat concern, 
 
 satisfaction it will give to see such care taken, that all things 
 be considered and performed in the office with such fulness of 
 council, mature deliberation, and help requisite thereto, seem 
 to make this part of the constitution relating to assistants so 
 absolutely necessary that the effectual serving of national 
 interest designed by such an office, and expected from it, must 
 in a great measure depend thereon. 
 
 " Concerning which clause I have only this farther to offer, 
 that, though it appears reasonable that the commissioners be 
 empowered to make choice of their own assistants, yet it seems 
 not to be agreeable to the design of the office, and usefulness 
 of that part of the constitution thereof, that, being once chosen, 
 they should be liable to any censure or power of discharging 
 any of them but that only of the honourable House, upon such 
 complaints made as they shall be satisfied with ; because such 
 a dependence on the commissioners might too much restrain 
 their liberty, and overawe them in advising, debating, and 
 reasoning about the affairs of the office, the success whereof, 
 with particular respect to their assistance, does certainly require 
 that they enjoy their offices by a right altogether independent 
 upon the commissioners, except only as to the mentioned power 
 of electing them. 
 
 " It remains, that, for a complete view of the constitution of 
 the office, something be added concerning the charge neces- 
 sary for its support, and on what fund it is to be raised. 
 
 " Though I have supposed nine commissioners necessary, and 
 as many assistants, with respect to the business of the whole 
 proposals, yet I shall now suppose that probably there may be 
 found reasons for settling at first rather upon the number of 
 seven of each ; according to which supposition I make my com- 
 putation as follows : 
 
 " Suppose twelve hundred pounds yearly salary to each of 
 seven commissioners. 
 
 " Half as much, to wit, six hundred pounds to each of seven 
 assistants. 
 
ENGLAND S GREAT CONCERN. 271 
 
 " To a secretary, a general accountant or controller, and a 
 head clerk, three hundred a-year each. 
 
 " To twelve under clerks, a hundred a-year each. 
 
 " To three copying clerks for the three offices mentioned, 
 sixty pounds a-year each. 
 
 " To four messengers, sixty pounds a-year each. 
 
 " For an office, a keeper of it, under servants, books, pens, 
 ink, paper, coal, candles, and for incidental charges of the 
 office, as sending assistants or messengers into the country, 
 rewarding intelligence, adding more clerks or messengers, if 
 found needful, &c., one thousand eight hundred and eighty 
 pounds. 
 
 " The whole yeai'ly expense of the office doth, according to 
 this calculation, amount to no more than seventeen thousand 
 pounds. 
 
 "Which seems to be but a small matter, being compared 
 with the reasonable prospect it gives of such great national 
 advantages as may be gained thereby. 
 
 " But much more it is to be so esteemedj if away is found 
 to support the mentioned charge after such a manner as 
 shall add no charge upon the nation more than it would be at 
 though no office were in being. 
 
 "For making good whereof I propose, as a fund for the 
 said charge, the poundage of the pay of the forces, which 
 will be able to bear the same though it were four times 
 greater, without either diminishing one penny of their usual 
 pay, or adding one penny more to the supphes given by the 
 people. 
 
 "And it will give great satisfaction to all concerned, both 
 in the army and navy, that what was once a due part of 
 their full pay is in part so employed as may serve to secure 
 to them the fulness of what remains at surer times than those 
 in consideration whereof the retention of the poundage was 
 first allowed by them. 
 
 " There is one power more, besides those above-mentioned. 
 
272 England's great conceen. 
 
 due to the right establishment of the office, the considera- 
 tion whereof I have reserved for this place, because its 
 being denied to all the former commissions obliges me to 
 insist a little upon clearing the reasonableness and usefulness 
 thereof. 
 
 " It is the power of force for commanding and making effec- 
 tual the orders of the commissioners, founded on the Act of 
 their constitution. 
 
 " And, to state the case right, before I enter upon the argu- 
 ments by which I am to plead for it, I suppose, as an instance 
 of fact, that the commissioners are authorised by Act of Parlia- 
 ment to call for and examine all public accounts, to stop and 
 recall all fraudulent applications of public money, otherwise 
 than is ordered in Parliament, &c., and that one refuses to 
 deliver us his accounts, or make equivalent frivolous excuses to 
 put off and shift the same ; another refuses to be interrupted 
 from paying, and a third to be interrupted from receiving and 
 disposing of pubHc money otherwise than as the Parliament has 
 ordered, or to pay back what hath been so disposed. 
 
 "The question is, whether ought the commissioners to be 
 entrusted with such power to force or restrain in those and the 
 like cases, as is absolutely necessary for making effectual the 
 other trusts committed to them by King and Parliament ? Or, 
 whether ought they to apply to any inferior court or judge for 
 power to command obedience, by seizing, confining, or impri- 
 soning the persons of those who deny it, until they find suffi- 
 cient surety that they shall obey the law ? 
 
 "To which it is answered, That the commissioners ought 
 to be entrusted with this power, and not obliged to apply for it 
 to any other court, judge, or judicature, for the reasons fol- 
 fowing : — 
 
 " There is no power of arguing that can find an evasion 
 against the force and certain truth of this maxim — that the 
 merit of a greater trust must always infer the merit of a 
 lesser. 
 
England's great concern. 373 
 
 " To conclude, one worthy to be entrusted to the value of a 
 thousand pounds, and at the same time to doubt or plead 
 ■ against his being entrusted to the value of five pounds, is a 
 thing contradictory and inconsistent. 
 
 " But it is plain that no such disproportion or inconsistency 
 can be reasonably supposed in denying one the trust of five 
 pounds, and at the same time committing to him the trust 
 of a thousand, as there is in committing to the commissioners 
 so great a trust as the overseeing and securing the faithful 
 management of the whole public moneys of the nation, upon 
 which the defence of their religion, government, liberties, 
 properties, and the securities of their persons doth so much 
 depend ; and at the same time denying them the small trust of 
 a power to secure such persons as obstinately refuse, or un- 
 reasonably postpone obedience to those orders of Parliament 
 relating thereto, which belong to the particular charge and 
 trust of the office. 
 
 " A second reason is, that the ordering a dependence in the 
 commissioners upon any other inferior court, judge, or judi- 
 cature for the said power, is a thing so very unsuitable to the 
 dignity of their oflSce, and nature of their trust, that all the 
 courts of Westminster Hall, entrusted with doing justice 
 betwixt man and man, have not perhaps in fifty years such a 
 value of private money and rights under their cognizance, as 
 as the commissioners of accounts have, or are to have in one 
 year of public money in their trust, of securing justice betwixt 
 private persons and the whole government and nation. 
 
 " And seeing a preference must be always acknowledged due 
 to pubUc interest and trust before private, I desire any man to 
 aasign a good reason why the commissioners, in the exercise of 
 so far greater trust, should be obliged to depend for a power 
 necessary to it upon any judge or judicature entrusted with it 
 in the exercise of so much. lesser trust? 
 
 " A third reason is, that all the cases in which the power 
 pleaded in the behalf of the commissioners is to be exerted, 
 
 VOL. I. T 
 
274 England's great concern. 
 
 being by authority of Parliament limited to particular facts of 
 refusing or unreasonably postponing obedience to the orders 
 thereof entrusted with them ; for the truth of all which facts 
 the commissioners are answerable, if any complaints were made 
 to the House ; this takes off all pretext of the need of applying 
 to any judge or judges of the law for assistance of their counsel 
 or power, seeing the exercise of the said power hath no legal 
 difficulty in it. 
 
 "And, if it had, the House only are the proper judges of 
 such facts, as, with consent of the King and Peers, themselves 
 declare and" limit." 
 
 "A fourth reason is, that seeing the honourable House do so 
 grant all supplies that no amendments can be made to their 
 money bills, it seems not more agreeable hereto that they, or 
 whom they think fit to pitch upon for that trust, have the over- 
 sight of the faithful management thereof for public benefit; 
 than that the overawing power of obliging the managers so to 
 do, and restraining them from doing otherwise, be lodged with 
 them, or those whom they entrust, and with no other. 
 
 " A fifth reason is, that the obliging the commissioners to 
 apply elsewhere for the said power may prove very detrimental 
 to public interest. 
 
 "There are many cases wherein this may happen, even all 
 that we can suppose may render fraudulent misapplications of 
 public money irrecoverable, in part or in whole, without a 
 power to prevent them, immediately practicable, and which is 
 liable to no such contingencies of delay as are incident to the 
 asking after it from another. 
 
 " For clearing whereof I offer one instance : suppose infor- 
 mation is brought to a meeting of the commissioners that a 
 person having in his hands a great sum of public money hath 
 so disposed of it as resolving to make no account, and is now 
 at such a place being ready to depart for France within an 
 hour, the commissioners being entrusted with the said power 
 can immediately order him to be seized, whereas the party is 
 
ENGLAND^S GREAT CONCERN. 275 
 
 gone and all the money lost before anything can be done to 
 prevent it in way of application to another ; yea, though they 
 had a day's warning or more there are many accidents by 
 which the same effect may become inevitable, if the said power 
 is not fixed in their own persons. 
 
 "Besides that those inclined to refuse or postpone obe- 
 dience to any of the orders entrusted with the commissioners 
 shall be encouraged thereto, knowing that they have no power 
 to force them but what is to be borrowed with reluctance, and 
 perhaps there where they may hope to find favour. 
 
 " The last reason I am to offer is, that it seems to be a thing 
 utterly unaccountable, and inconsistent with a due balance of 
 national trust and interest, that the meanest justice of peace in 
 the kingdom should have power to confine or imprison any 
 man, at the complaint of another, until he find bail to answer, 
 for securing justice betwixt man and man ; and that the like 
 power should be denied to a company of commissioners ap- 
 pointed by Parliament for securing justice from private persons 
 to the whole nation. 
 
 "Especially considering that every justice of peace is so 
 empowered for securing from private loss upon any alleged 
 claim, though not proved, whereas the same power in the com- 
 missioners for securing from public loss is only pleaded in the 
 case of a few particular facts proving themselves. 
 
 "It seems therefore to be a reasonable ground for deter- 
 mining the debate that the whole question be referred to this 
 issue, — that no man be acknowledged to plead pertinently 
 against the said power save he who can produce better reasons 
 to prove it due to justices of peace and not to the said com- 
 missioners, than those here offered to prove it due to the 
 commissioners, and no less but rather more due than to justices 
 of the peace. 
 
 " But though these reasons for a coercive power being 
 complexly considered may appear unanswerable, and though 
 most also, or all of the former powers above mentioned, which 
 
 T 2 
 
276 ENGLAND'S GREAT CONCERN. 
 
 my design of giving a full view of the capacities and usefulness 
 of the office obliged me to propose, might be urged by reasons 
 of no less force, if public good is allowed to be the hinge upon 
 which all arguing for the office may and ought to turn, yet I 
 am sensible that such difficulties do usually attend all innova- 
 tions in public affairs as suffer me not to expect so happy a 
 present establishment as to comprehend all the advantages 
 that may be reasonably pleaded for it. 
 
 " Only I am willing to flatter myself with hopes that motions 
 which have so much to be said for them may, after considera- 
 tion, come to be rightly understood at one time or another, 
 and that powers so strongly founded in reason and common 
 interest shall at length be able, not only to captivate weaker 
 resistances, but to overpower the more stubborn opposition of 
 those who have no mind to understand them. 
 
 " I suppose as to the coercive power, seeing it hath formei-ly 
 been pressed though not obtained, the reviving of it with the full 
 force of thereasons mentioned may go a great way to carry it. 
 
 " And for the other powers, if they are to be picked, and 
 those to have the preference for whom the greatest usefulness 
 if not absolute necessity in consulting public interest may be 
 reasonably pleaded, I need not speak for the power of inspect- 
 ing the faithful management of that part of the public trust 
 which relates to collecting the supplies, and for the addition 
 of an equal number of assistants with that of the commis- 
 sioners, without which it cannot be performed, seeing, I 
 suppose, both these clauses, if but looked upon, will be able 
 to speak and plead for themselves. 
 
 " For who can consider the first without thinking at the 
 same time upon the unaccountable deficiencies of passed funds, 
 and on the vast debts which the last war left upon the nation, 
 though all the supplies were from time to time granted that 
 ever were demanded for its support, as well as all ever de- 
 manded for making good the deficiencies, and what precau- 
 tion is needful of a more strict and larger inspection into the 
 
ENGLAND^S GREAT CONCERN. 277 
 
 managenaent of the supplies now granted and to be granted, 
 for preventing an effect at the end of another war which, 
 with the debts already contracted, might prove fatal to the 
 nation ? 
 
 " And who can consider the addition of assistants so neces. 
 sary for this great service, with their small charge of four 
 thousand two hundred pounds a-year, which costs nobody a 
 farthing, without thinking that probably so much money was 
 never bestowed to better purpose in the nation ? 
 
 "I shall sum up all with an account of a matter of fact, 
 which I have good reason to believe is so, as I have been told 
 and am to relate it. 
 
 " That some gentlemen, who have laid a perpetual obliga- 
 tion upon their country for so noble a service and of so great 
 consequence to public interest, having conceived some jealousies 
 of unfaithful returns made of supplies collected, did resolve to 
 essay such a proof as might satisfy them therein. 
 
 "Accordingly they went through a considerable number of 
 towns in the county of Devonshire, and examining the receipts 
 of the collectors in the particular fund of glass windows, and 
 taking the pains afterwards to inquire and compare them with 
 the returns made in the Exquequer for the said towns on that 
 fund, they made such a notable discovery as to find that for 
 one of these towns thirty shillings only were returned instead 
 of thirteen pounds ; in another six pounds only instead of 
 sixty really paid by the inhabitants and received by the collect- 
 ors, according to their own receipts, and proportionably in 
 other towns. 
 
 "I am assured that these gentlemen will, at a fit oppor- 
 tunity, to the lasting honour of their fame amongst all true 
 Englishmen, own the account here delivered before the 
 honourable House. 
 
 " It is to be marked that this matter of fact doth probably 
 suppose that the making up of the duplicates for those towns 
 hath been committed either to the collectors or the receivers. 
 
278 ENGLANU S liKKAT COlNCJiKJN. 
 
 as I am informed, is not unusual in some cases, whieh a due 
 inquiry will clear. 
 
 " If therefore a farther neglect of overseeing the collection, 
 as well as the distribution of the supplies, is not like to cost 
 the nation dear, if not timely remedied ? 
 
 " If the truth of what is offered, when owned and proved, 
 may not furnish to the honourable House a reasonable ground 
 for entering into new measures about ordering and securing 
 the faithful collecting and returning into the Exchequer of 
 those sums designed and appropriated by them for public 
 service ? 
 
 " And if the instance given ought not to be looked upon 
 as a satisfying argument for adding in the mean time to the 
 general commission of accounts depending before them the 
 mentioned power of overseeing and examining the collections, 
 receipts, and returns of the duplicates and money of the 
 supplies, with the power of force to check, restrain, and 
 recover damages by frauds, and for adding the assistants pro- 
 posed so absolutely necessary for rendering the office capable 
 to answer effectually such an addition of trust and more exten- 
 sive charge ? I leave it to consideration." 
 
 The foregoing tract was published at the time of the delivery 
 of the following speech of King William to Parliament. 
 
 " I do recommend these matters to you with that concern 
 and earnestness which the importance requires ; at the same 
 time I cannot but press you to take care of the public credit, 
 which cannot be preserved but by keeping sacred that maxim, 
 that they shall never be losers who trust to a parliamentary 
 security. It is always with regret when I do ask aids of my 
 people ; but you will observe, that I desire nothing which re- 
 lates to any personal expense of mine. I am only pressing you 
 to do all you can for your own safety and honour at so critical 
 and dangerous a time ; and am willing that what is given shall 
 be wholly appropriated to the purposes for which it is in- 
 tended. 
 
England's great concern. 279 
 
 " And since I am speaking on this head, I think it proper to 
 put you in mind, that during the late war I ordered the ac- 
 counts to be laid yearly before the Parliament, and also gave 
 my assent to several bills for taking the public accounts, that 
 my subjects might have satisfaction how the money given for 
 the war was applied, and I am willing that matter may be put 
 in any further way of examination, that it may appear whether 
 there were any misapplications and mismanagements, or 
 whether the debt that remains upon us has really arisen from 
 the shortness of the supphes, or the deficiency of the funds. 
 
 " I have already told you how necessary dispatch will be for 
 carrying on their great public business, whereon our safety and 
 and all that is valuable to us depends. I hope what time can 
 be spared, will be employed about those very desirable things, 
 which I have so often recommended from the throne, I mean 
 the forming some good bills for employing the poor, for encou- 
 raging trade, and the further suppression of vice." — Parlia- 
 mentary History, vol. v. p. 1S30. 
 
 It is no exaggeration to say, that the key to this speech, 
 and the measures it calls for, are to be found more precisely in 
 the writings of William Paterson, published in the present 
 volume, than in any other documents of the time. 
 
 The charge urged by Paterson against the practice of 
 secret treasury bargains, received an unexpected confirmation 
 in a declaration of Secretary Stanhope, that " all financial bar- 
 gains ought to be made in the face of the House of Commons." 
 (App. D D D.) 
 
2S0 Humboldt's encouragement of a 
 
 Bakon von Humboldt's Encouragement, given in 
 1856, to the united efforts of all the Maritime 
 Nations for the Construction of a Ship- 
 passage to the Pacific Ocean, upon the scene 
 of Paterson's great Undertaking in 1698. 
 
 The memory of William Paterson may well be called up to receive our 
 homage at a time when so much is doing to justify his high estimate of the 
 resources of Central America, and his conviction of its future influence 
 upon the civilization of mankind. Numerous lines of communication 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are fast opening, independently of 
 those of the frozen North, and stormy South, with their several sacrifices of 
 life, little compensated by admiration gratefully accorded to the heroic 
 victims of science and philanthropy. The Canadas have their overland 
 routes in no remote prospect ; the United States theirs, in eager preparation. 
 The Gulf of Mexico must ere long possess at least its cheap boat-passage 
 along the Tehuantepec, and both Honduras and Nicaragua will have their 
 works for like purposes ; far better occasions of rivalry than the present 
 barbarous conflicts. In Panama, a citizen of the United States has had the 
 courage and ability to solve one of the most difficult of problems, that of the 
 possible construction of a prosperous railway in a region of tropical torrents 
 and pestiferous forests. Experienced and intelligent persons have a strong 
 opinion that the Panama success will ere long promote the construction of 
 an adjacent canal, by facilities afforded it from the railway. Some calcula- 
 tions on these various works will be found in the notes. 
 
 Meanwhile, the several foundations actually laid, for the most efficient 
 ship-passage, merit immediate notice. Two of them concern the region of 
 the Strait, the existence of which Columbus firmly believed in when he died. 
 This scene of Paterson's disappointments also, and of Eliot Warburton's 
 frustrated explorations, has for some years past been an object of much 
 interest. The Government of New Grenada has entered into liberal engage- 
 ments with British subjects, in order to promote the accomplishment of the 
 work up the river Atrato, especially by Cupica Bay on the Pacific. Those 
 parties have encountered many disasters without losing courage. Another 
 citizen of the United States, Mr. Kelly of New York, has improved upon 
 their labours, and, striking upon a line unknown from Paterson's day, be is 
 now energetically seeking general support under the best auspices. 
 
 In April last a paper was read by him at the Geographical Society, 
 " On the Connection between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, via the 
 Atrato and Truando Rivers." Up to the year 1852, no surveys had been 
 
SHIP-PASSAGE TO THE PACIFIC. 281 
 
 attempted on the Atrato Kiver. In that year, Mr. Kelly and other gentle- 
 men despatched a party to survey it to its sources, with the dividing ridge 
 and the most practicable waters, to the Pacific. This was followed by two 
 others, at Mr. Kelly's expense. The information acquired induced him to 
 despatch a fourth expedition, to survey the Truando ; and he sent a fifth, 
 under Captain Kennish, an English engineer, to proceed to the Pacific, and 
 trace the coast from the Bay of Panama southward to 7° north latitude. 
 Captain Kennish found a harbour in the bay, and he observed the Cordillera- 
 to be diminished in height to some hundred feet. On crossing the water- 
 parting, he struck the Nerqua, a tributary of the Truando, and from thence 
 the party descended in boats to the Atrato. His survey and levellings have 
 resulted in a plan for a ship canal, without a lock or any other impediment- 
 The Truando is navigable for thirty-eight miles from the confluence ; and 
 the remaining twenty-five miles to the Pacific will require cutting, and a 
 tunnel of three miles and a quarter. The United States Government is vjill- 
 ing alone to proceed vnth the survey ; hut European interests ought also to be 
 represented. The English Oooernment is not unwilling to co-operate ; and all 
 that is required to insure the complete survey of the practicable routes between 
 the oceans, is the establishment of cordial relations between the Oovernments of 
 the United States and Oreat Sritain.''' 
 
 This is, in brief, the report of the proceedings of the Royal Geographical 
 Society on the subject; and more scientific details have been published 
 respecting it by the Society of British Engineers. 
 
 But, whilst so important a design may easily be thought to have attracted 
 the earnest attention of distinguished men of science, the most interesting 
 and the most powerful advocate of the enterprise is Baron Alexander von 
 Humboldt. Like General Lafayette, who, in advanced age, received affec- 
 tionate, universal homage in the great western republic he had tended in its 
 cradle, Baron von Humboldt now gives the effective aid of his warm 
 • approval, to a work worthy of that republic and its allies in both hemispheres, 
 for which, more than half a century since, he prepared the way. This 
 Nestor of Science has, in the present year, addressed the following letter to 
 Mr. Frederick Kelly to encourage him : — 
 
 " Berlin, 27th January, 1856. 
 
 "It is with the most Hvely satisfaction that I have taken 
 notice, during your too short visit to Berlin, of the great 
 and solid operations which you have caused to be executed 
 since the beginning of January, 1855, by Mr. William Ken- 
 nish, a skilful engineer, in surveying and levelling the course of 
 the great river Atrato and its affluents from the West. My 
 able and scientific friend Mr. Alexander Bache, superintendent 
 of the coast survey of the United States, had already drawn ray 
 
 VOL. I. U 
 
282 Humboldt's encouragement of a 
 
 attention to the previous investigations which you had caused 
 to be made ; and these researches are the more deserving of 
 regard in consequence of your proposal to extend the investi- 
 gation, with equal precision, to the passage between Port 
 Cupica and the river Napipi, as well as to other points situated 
 above the confluence of the Truando— positions of great im- 
 portance in the solution of the vast problem of an oceanic 
 canal. 
 
 " The great number of maps and sections on large scales, 
 which you possess, furnish all the necessary elements for 
 judging of the possibility of communication through the 
 mouths of the Atrato, the Truando, and a canal leading from 
 the latter to the South Sea. It is owing to such a complete 
 examination not having been effected of the mountainous 
 country between the Gulf of San Miguel and Caledonia Bay, 
 that Mr. Lionel Gisborne's project in 1852 was abortive. Igno- 
 rance of the locality, with the want of hypsometrical measure- 
 ments, led to the sad results of Lieut. Strain's courageous 
 expedition. 
 
 "The great object to be accomplished is, in my opinion, 
 a canal uniting the two oceans without locks or tunnels. 
 When the plans and sections can be submitted to the public, 
 a free and open discussion will elicit the advantages and disad- 
 vantages of EACH LOCALITY ; and the execution of this im- 
 portant work, which interests the civilized nations of the two 
 continents, should be entrusted to engineers who have success- 
 fully constructed similar works. The Junction Company will find 
 supporters among those governments and nations who, yield- 
 ing to noble feelings, will take pride in the idea of having con- 
 tributed to a work worthy of the progress of intellect in the 
 19th century. This opinion I have expressed with warmth for 
 more than fifty years. I have laboured, without ceasing, to 
 disseminate the geographical views which tend to prove the 
 possibility of commercial communications, whether by canals, 
 with or without locks, either simple or coupled with inclines 
 
SHIP-PASSAGE TO THE PACIFIC. 283 
 
 or by means of railroads, uniting coasts or rivers having an 
 opposite course. 
 
 " Through General Bolivar, I obtained the exact geodetic 
 levelling of the Isthmus of Panama. I was the first to make 
 known, in my Mexican Atlas, the course of the two rivers 
 Huasacoalco and Chimalapa, according to documents found 
 in the archives of the viceroyalty of Mexico. I indicated the 
 proximity of the almost unknown port of Cupica to the sources 
 of the Napipi and the waters of the Atrato, as well as the ex- 
 istence, unknown in Europe, of a canal of very small dimensions, 
 constructed in 1788, under the directions of a monk, curate of 
 Novita, by the Indians of his parish, for connecting the waters 
 of the Raspadura, an affluent of the Quito, with the waters of 
 the San Juan de Chirambira. I think there is nothing more 
 likely to obstruct the extension of commerce and the free- 
 dom of international relations, than to create a distaste for any 
 further investigation, by now discouraging, as some are too 
 positive in doing, all hope of an oceanic channel. 
 
 "I have described already in my 'Essai Politique de la 
 Nouvelle Espagne,' the immense operation of cutting through 
 mountains the open canal, called the Desague of Huehuetoca, 
 which was executed by the Spanish government at the com- 
 mencement of the seventeenth century ; and I have now too 
 much faith in the power of the resources offered by modern 
 civilisation, to be discouraged. 
 
 " I am indebted to Colonel Codazzi, and to the affectionate 
 kindness of the Minister of the Interior at Bogota, M. Pastor 
 Ospina, for important communications which remind me that 
 the route from Cupica to the river Napipi presents successive 
 elevations; and it would be an additional service to geography if 
 you would cause this route to be laid down." (Proceedings of the 
 Royal Geographical Society of Lond on, 1 856, No. 1 1 1 , 663-7 1 .) 
 
 All the lines thought to offer facilities for ship passages by the Isthmus to 
 the Pacific, are described in the notes. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED B1 J. B. NICHOLS AND SONS, 
 
 25, PARLIAMENT SIKEET.