A. D. 1719. 11 



going by water, or oihcr work whatfoever, fhould be ereded in any of 

 the plantations, for making fows, pigs, or caft iron, into bar or rod iron. 

 This fecond claufe, lays the fame author, muft have ruined all the 

 iron works in the colonies, to the great lofs of their proprietors, and 

 have given the French a fair handle to tempt them into their iettle- 

 ments which join to ours. The chief oppofers of the manufafture of 

 iron in our American plantations, were the proprietors of our iron 

 works at home ; and our author adds, (what is probable enough, or 

 rather within bounds) that the iron manufadure of England, which 

 is deemed the third of the kingdom, employs 200,000 perfons : that 

 the wafte and deflruction of the woods in the counties of Warwick, 

 Stafford, Worcefter, Hereford, Monmouth, Glocefter, and Salop, by 

 thefe iron works, is not to be imagined ; and that, if fome care be not 

 taken to preferve our timber from thefe confuming furnaces, there will 

 not be oak enough left to fupply the royal navy, and our mercantile 

 (hipping: that within thefe 60 years Ireland was better flocked with 

 oak timber than we now are ; but the iron works, fince fet up there, 

 have in a few years fwept away the wood to that degree, that they 

 have not fmall rtuff enough left to produce bark for their tanning, nor 

 timber for common ufes ; infomuch that at prefent they are forced 

 to have bark from England, and building timber from Norway, &c. 

 and to fuffer their large hides to be exported untanned to Holland, 

 Germany, &c. : that about 20,000 tons of iron are annually imported 

 to England from foreign parts, over and above what is made at home, 

 for which we pay ready money; and at L12 per ton, comes to 

 L240,ooo, paid annually to foreigners ; and the boards and other tim- 

 ber which we take of them, come to L20o,ooo more : whereas, our 

 own plantations would be paid for their iron and timber in our own 

 manufadures, thereby evidently bringing a double benefit to the na- 

 tion : that they have iron-flone all along the continent, from the 

 fouthernmofl part of Carolina, to the northernmofl part of New-Eng- 

 l^and, in great plenty ; and no part of the world abounds more with 

 prodigious quantities of wood, nor with more rivers and flreams : that 

 the Swedes have laid near 25 per cent additional duty on their iron ; 

 and that the interruptions of our trade in the Baltic had greatly diftrefi- 

 ed our iron manufadurers for want of iron : that by the naval-llore 

 laws, now in force, which comprehend only pitch, tar, and turpentine, 

 fuch great quantities thereof are produced and imported from our 

 plantations, as enables us to export great quantities thereof to the 

 Straits, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Bremen, and Hamburgh : that tak- 

 ing timber and iron, as well as hemp and llax, froui our own planta- 

 tions would employ a vafl; many fliips and people : that iron, in par- 

 ticular, is a commodity of univerfal ufe, and certain in all parts of the 

 Vol. III. K 



