190 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



English duties on imported Irish iron were removed.^ It is 

 dubious whether a chief share in the disappearance of Ireland's 

 woods can be attributed to the iron industry, although this was 

 apparently the current belief under William III.- Contemporary 

 evidence is conflicting and biassed. If undertakers wished to 

 set up iron-works they were certain to refer to the great store of 

 woods available in any proposal put before the Government : ^ 

 on the other hand, to their fellow-adventurers they were quite 

 likely to declare that they had access to the largest wood that 

 had survived in Ireland.* An adviser anxious to promote Irish 

 fisheries would point to the advantage to be derived from return 

 cargoes of Biscayan iron, which would preserve Irish woods 

 from destruction by iron-works."^ What is unmistakable is the 

 absence of any certain information in the hands of the Govern- 

 ment, and their vague good intentions which led nowhere. 



Any damage done by glass-works (with iron-mills, the twin 

 enemy of English woods) must certainly have been insignificant 

 in Ireland, however malevolent the intentions of some English 

 patriots may have been. The history of the Irish glass industry 

 in the seventeenth century is obscure. Several works appear to 

 have been set up by the English in the early part of the century, 

 the sand for use in the manufacture being obtained from 

 England,'' but in 1640 the making of glass in Ireland was 

 prohibited in the interests of the patentee in England." This 

 prohibition seems not to have been rigidly enforced, but the 

 industry in any case did not assume large dimensions.^ 



Besides the consumption of timber as fuel for English 

 industries in Ireland, there was, of course, a certain amount of 

 wanton destruction of woods by the English as an act of war : ^ 

 but it is well to be sceptical as to the extent of any devastation 

 wrought in this way. Even when the Government approved of 



1 Newenham, op. cit., p. 154. 



^ Ibid. St. 10 William III. c. 12 attributed the destruction of timber to the 

 late rebellion and the iron-works formerly in Ireland. 



^ Cal. State Papers {Irela)id), 1615-25, p. 429; 1633-43, p. 85. 



'^ Ibid.. 1625-32, p. 505. 



^ Ibid., 1615-25, p. 580. 



^ Boate, op. cit., p. 162: Cal. State Papers {Ireland). 1608-10, pp. 259, 

 370, 421 ; 1633-43, p. 37. 



■^ Tudor and Stuart Proclamations (Ir.), No. 330. 



* Dudley Westropp, Irish Glass, pp. 21 fif: Cal. State Papers {h-eland), 



1633-43, P- 318. 

 ^ Ibid., 1601-3, p. 253 : Boate, op. cit., p. 120. 



