and in this view, the advantage of the employment is commensurate with the increase of distance.

Are then Foreign nations to be supplied with these Tropical Productions from the Western or from the Eastern divisions of the globe?

Are they to be supplied through the medium of the British or Foreign flag?

Are they to be supplied by means of the labor of slaves employed on the soil of other countries, or by means of the labor of native, free, British subjects, employed on British territory?

Two things being premised, the conclusion is direct and unavoidable.

Provided the British Western interests be fully protected, and provided these commodities can be delivered at market of equal quality and at equal price, the duty and the policy of Great Britain cannot be mistaken. By supplying and conveying Tropical productions from her own dominions in the East, she obtains for her own subject, the preference of employment in the production of the commodity required; she prevents a Foreign demand for slave labor, and she displaces one Foreign ship by the substitution of two British ships. Two cargoes of cotton or other produce may be conveyed to Europe from the West, in the time which would be required to convey one such cargo from the East.

It has already been endeavoured to be shown, that the British Western interests admit of full and complete protection, consistently with the extension of the demand upon Asia for Tropical supplies; the questions of quality and price only, therefore, remain be noticed.

Saltpetre, pepper, indigo, rice, cotton-wool, sugar, coffee and tobacco, are the chief of the bulky Tropical productions.

Saltpetre and pepper are not the subject of competition between the West and the East, the first being entirely, and the second almost exclusively, derived from the East. Indigo, which was formerly derived, with trifling exception, from Foreign Colonies in the West, has been cultivated under the fostering hand of the East India Company, and more recently by individual enterprise, with great success in the British dominions in India, and the Foreign indigo of the West, is, in consequence, nearly supplanted by the British indigo of the East. The rice of the East is incomparably superior in quality to the rice of the West (Carolina); the condition in which the East India rice is brought to market checks its consumption, but notwithstanding this great impediment to its introduction into general use, the consumption of East India rice in England, on the continent of Europe, and in the West Indies, renders it a considerable object of commerce, and the better quality (more

nutritious) and lower price, assisted by the improving condition in which it is brought to market, cannot fail to obtain for it, gradually, a decided preference over the rice of the West. The cotton-wool of India, which when burdened with high freight and charges, was not an object of attention to the merchant or manufacturer, is now an object of the first importance in the trade and manufactures of the country. The consumption in England and on the continent of Europe is very considerable, and it is, therefore, a production of great importance; but the effect of the large importations and extensive use of the East India cotton-wool, and of the low rate of price at which it is imported, upon the price of Foreign cottonwool, is a more weighty and important consideration. To these causes must be ascribed a large proportion of the considerable reduction in the price of cotton manufactures, and to the low price at which these manufactures can be afforded at market, must be ascribed, in great part, the extended and increasing demand for such manufactures. The low price of the East India cotton-wool, is a consideration of great moment to Great Britain, and the consumption, if not bounded by the low price which the Foreign cotton planter is compelled to accept for his produce, in consequence of the price of East india cotton-wool, and the want of attention in India to the condition in which the East India cotton-wool is sent to market, must necessarily increase. The sugar of India is become the subject of extensive consumption on the continent of Europe, and notwithstanding the higher duty which is imposed upon it, is the subject of consumption even in England, to an extent plainly indicating that the demand would be considerable, if admitted upon equal terms with British West India sugar. The coffee of India-(the produce chiefly of the Dutch settlement in Java) is also a very extensive subject of trade with Europe, and excepting tobacco, the bulky Tropical productions of the East, appear to be forcing their way, in all kinds, into the markets of Europe, by means of the low price at which they can be afforded. Tobacco is produced in India, very generally, for native consumption, but whether that production will be added to the evidence of the resources of India for the supply of the European market, can only be determined by more experience: that its introduction will be attempted, under the better commercial principles now in operation, or expected to be bronght into operation, cannot admit of doubt; and the same advantage of cheap labor may be expected to produce results similar to those which are actually experienced in indigo, rice, cotton-wool and other productions.

The British Eastern dominions, although not the exclusive, are the principal source or medium of these supplies, and whether the resources of these dominions be contemplated in reference to

the cheap and abundant supply to the manufacturer of the unwrought material, the permanent and steady demand for British artificery and manufactures, the repression of the Foreign employment of slaves, the improvement of the condition of the Asiatic subject, the general increase of civilisation, or the increase of the British marine, separately, or be contemplated in a connected and combined view of these important considerations, British India is a subject of deep and impressive interest to the Merchant and Manufacturer, the Philanthropist, the Philosopher and the Statesman.

HISTORY

OF

THE PENAL LAWS

AGAINST THE

IRISH CATHOLICS;

FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE UNION.

WITH AN INDEX.

BY SIR HENRY PARNELL, BART. M. P.

NEW EDITION, CORRECTED FOR THE PAMPHLETEER

EXCLUSIVELY.

LONDON:

Α

HISTORY

OF THE

PENAL LAWS,

&c. &c.

WILLIAM III.

WHEN James II. abdicated the throne of England, he retired to France, to solicit the aid of Louis XIV. to enable him to secure the possession of Ireland, where he was still acknowledged as the lawful sovereign. On the 12th of March, 1689, James landed at Kinsale with about 1200 of his own subjects in the pay of France, and 190 French officers. He was received with open arms, and the whole country seemed to be devoted to him, for although the Protestants in the north had declared for the new government, their strength and number were inconsiderable, when compared with the forces of the Lord Deputy Tyrconnel. This minister had disarmed all the other Protestants in one day, and assembled an army of 30,000 foot, 8,000 cavalry. Addresses were poured in upon James from all orders of the people. The established clergy among the rest, congratulated him upon his arrival, a certain sign that his chance of success was not contemptible.

James continued to govern Ireland, without any interruption from William, till the 13th of August, when Schomberg landed at Belfast with an English army of 10,000 men. To oppose him, James collected his forces, amounting to 30,000, at Drogheda.3 Schomberg who had arrived at Dundalk, thought it prudent to advance no farther; and instead of reducing Ireland, after having lost one half of his army by sickness, he at the end of the campaign was under the necessity of entrenching himself against an

'Smollett, 1. 36.

2

Leland, v. 3, b. 6. c. 6.

3 Ib.