A. D. 1696. 685 



from profecLiting that filliery till the year 1725, when the South-fea 

 company revived it, though much to their lofs, as will be feen. 



Great lums being cnntinnally carried out of England for hemp, flax, 

 and linen, which might in a great meafure be fupplied from Irelautl, if 

 proper encouragement were given to induce foreign proteflants to fettle 

 in that kingdom, the parliament palTed an ad for allowing hemp, flax, 

 hnen, and linen yarn, the produce or manufacture of Ireland, to be im- 

 ported into England by natives of England or Ireland without paying 

 any duty. And the manufacture of fail-cloth being already brought to 

 good perfedion in England, all Enghfli-made fail-cloth was thenceforth 

 allowed to be exported without paying duty, either in the piece, or 

 made into fails. [7, 8 Gul. Ill, c. 39.] 



This law was wifely framed, for the encouragement of French pro- 

 teftant refugees, many of whom were well (killed in the once noble li- 

 nen manufadure of France, fince funk to almofl; nothing ; and experi- 

 ence has fliewn that this law laid the foundation, of the great and flou- 

 rifliing manufadure of linens and cambrics in Ireland. 



The foreign commerce of Ruflla, except what was carried on by the 

 Englifli and Dutch at Archangel, was till our own times fo inconfider- 

 able, as hardly to deferve being mentioned. But the czar Peter, fo 

 jufl;ly titled the Great, had now formed vafl: plans of commerce and 

 conquefl:, and alfo naval power. By his conquefl of the fl^rong fortrefs 

 and port of Afoph, near the mouth of the river Don, he opened for the 

 RuiTian vefl^ls a paflage into the Black lea, upon which he determined 

 to keep a naval force fuflScieiit to cope with that of the Turks, who, for 

 fome centuries pafl:, had excluded all other nations from the navigation 

 ot that fea. For this end he procured fliip-wrights from Holland for 

 conflruding great fliips of war, and from Venice for galleys ; and he 

 got no fewer than forty of the former, and fifty of the later, befides 

 bomb ketches, &c. built at Woronitz on the river Don, and thence 

 conveyed to Afoph ; which mighty enterprife was completed, through 

 liis vafl; genius, in three years time, having oak-timber and other naval 

 ftores in plenty of his own, and ready at hand. He alfo fortified the 

 port of Taganrock on the Black fea ; at which work, it is laid, above 

 300,000 perfons periflied through hunger, and by diflempers contrad- 

 ed from lying on the marfliy ground. Had the czar iucceeded in com- 

 pellmg the Ottoman Porte to allow him a free paflage by the Propontis 

 and Dardanelles into the Archipelago and Mediterranean fea, what 

 ftrange alterations might not his fuccefs have produced in the balance 

 of power in Europe ; and how difadvantageous would it probably alio 

 have proved to the Turkey trade and the general commerce of the 

 other European nations in thofe feas ? How precarious alio would the 

 very exiftence of the Turkifli empire have thereby been rendered.'' But 

 in the next century we fliall fee this towering prolped overclouded, iuad 



