r9 EMBARGOES. 



EMBARGOES. 



OF all the reftrictions which England has at different times 

 moft impoliticly laid upon the trade of Ireland, there is none 

 more obnoxious than the embargoes on their proviiion trade. 

 The prohibitions on the export of woollens, and various other 

 articles, have this pretence at leaft in their favour, that thev 

 are advantageous to iimilar manufactures in England ; and 

 Ireland has long been trained to the facrifice of her national 

 advantage as a dependant country ; but in refpeft to embar- 

 goes even this Ihallow pretence is wanting ; a whole kingdom 

 is facrificed and plundered, not to enrich England, but three 

 <ir four London contractors ! a fpecies of men of an odious caft 

 as thriving only on the ruin and defolation of their country. 

 It is well known that all the embargoes that have ever been lai^> 

 have been for the profit of thefe fellows, and that the govern'- 

 raent has not profited a fhilJing by them. Whenever the affairs 

 of Ireland come thoroughly to be confidered in England a new 

 fyftem in this refpeft mud be embraced. It may not be 

 proper for the crown dire&ly to give up the prerogative of 

 laying them; but it ought never to be exerted in the cafes, 

 and with the views with which we have feen it ufed. The 

 (Ingle circumftance of facrificing the interefts of~a whole people 

 to a few monopolizing individuals in another country, is to 

 make a nation the beads of burthen to another people. But 

 this is not the only point ; the intereft of England and of go- 

 vernment is equally facrificed, for their object is to have beef 

 plentiful and cheap. But to reduce it fo low by embargoes 

 as to difcourage the grazier, is to leflen the quantity ; he in- 

 creafes his ftieep or ploughs more, or is ruined by his bufinefs, 

 which necefTarily renders the commodity too dear, from the 

 very circumftance of having been too cheap. A fteady regu- 

 lar good price, from an active demand encourages the grazier 

 fo much, that he will produce a quantity fufEcient to keep the 

 price from ever riling unreafonably high, and government 

 would be better fupplied. Another confideration is the lofs to 

 the kingdom by not taking French money, and fending them 

 to other markets ; if it could be proved, or indeed if the fact 

 was poflible, that you could keep their fleets in port for wane 

 of Iriih beef there would be an argument for an embargo, 

 perhaps, twice in half a century ; but when all experience 

 tells us that if they have not beef from Ireland they will get it 

 from Holftein, from Denmark and elfewhere, is it not folly in 

 the extreme to refufe their money, and fend them to other 

 markets. The Dutch were ridiculed in Louis XIV*s reign for 

 felling the French, before a campaign, the powder and ball 

 xvhich were afterwards ufed againft themfelves : but they 

 Ttere vdfe iu fo doing, they had not the ucjverfal monopoly of 



