LI>: '.NUFACTURE. 105 



was chairman, eramir. '. .nal records with great at- 



tention, in order to JUCOVLT how long they had been irt it ; 

 .7 difcovered was that by aa act palfcd in i 543, the 33^. 

 cf Henry 8. linen and woollen yarn were enumerated among 

 :he moft confiderable branches of trade pofleued by the na- 

 l ;f Ireland in an .. . . g-rey merchants fore- 



ftallrng. The i itli cf Queen Elizabeth the lame act was re- 

 vived, and a further law m~ -g hemp or flax, 

 &c. in rivers. By the ijth of Elizabeth a'l perions were pro- 

 hibited from sporting -wool, lias, linen 2nd woollen yarn, ei- 

 cept meFch^mi reiiding in cities and boroughs; and by a 

 further aft the fame year, a jenalty of I2d. a pound was ina- 

 pokd on all na% or linen yarn exported, and 8d. more for the 

 ute of the town exported f.-rna. In this laft act it is recited, 

 that the merchants of Ireland had been exporters of thofe ar- 

 ticles in trade upwards of one hundred years preceding that 

 ptriod : and by many fubiequent acts, and proclamations dur- 

 irtg the reigns cf Charles I. and II. thofe manufactures were 

 particularly attended to; from whence it evidently appeared 

 that the kingdom polFeiTed an export trade in thefe commo- 

 :.t th^fe early periods. The Earl of Strafibrd, Lord 

 lieutenant in Charles I. reign, patTed feveral laws and took 

 various caeafares to encourage thio manufacture, infomuch 

 that he has by fome authors been faid to have eftablifiied it 

 originally. A: the end cf the loft century, in King William's 

 reign, it arofe to be an object of confequencs, but not fingly 

 fo, for it appears from a variety of records in both kingdoms, 

 that the Irifh had then a coniUerable woollen manufacture 

 for exportation, which railed the jeakmfy of the Engliih ma- 

 ":orers in that commodity fo much, that they prefented 

 I'D many pecitions to both fords and comorrons, as to induce 

 . bodies to enter fully into their jealoufies and illiberal 

 , lews; which occafiOHed the famous compact betwesa the 

 iwo nations, brought on ia the following mar. 



Die Jffsls 9. Junii. 1698. 



The Earl of Stamferd reported from the lords committees 

 (appointed to draw an addreis to be prefented to his Majefty, 

 relating to the woolkn manufacture in Ireland ) the follow- 

 ing addrefi, 



4i WE the lords fpiritual and temporal in parliament af- 

 fembled, Do humbly reprefent unto your Majeiiy, that the 

 growing manufacture of cloth in Inljnd, both by the cheap-* 

 neis of all forts of neceiTaries for life, and goodnefs of mate- 

 rials for making of all manner of cloth, doth invite your tub- 

 .f Eng-Jand, wkh their 'families and fervants, to leave 

 thetr habitatkr.i to fettle there, to the inereafe of the woollen 



Vtt. II. K manufaclure 



