B O U 369 



This measure excited against him a great deal of po- 

 pular odium, and made D'.-:in Swift his inveterate 

 enemy. But he had fortitude enough to despise the 

 clamours of the multitude, and the enmity of the 

 Dean : and experience soon demonstrated, that his 

 knowledge of political ceconomy, and of the best in- 

 terests of the country, was, in this matter, far supe- 

 rior to theirs. Perhaps the opposition which he met 

 with in his efforts to regulate the coinage, was owing, 

 in a great degree, to his well known preference of 

 what was called the English to the Irish interest. 

 Such a preference he did in fact aver, in so far as he 

 always recommended persons from England to the 

 places of chief trust and authority. But he acted 

 thus from no selfish views or national partialities, but 

 from a firm conviction that the welfare of Ireland, 

 and the king's service, were thereby most effectually 

 promoted. His wisdom in this proceeding may be 

 fairly questioned. But the uprightness and integrity 

 of his motives can be doubted by nobody who is ac- 

 quainted with his character. To the prosperity of 

 the church, and the security of the Protestant reli- 

 gion, he was remarkably attentive; and took an ac- 

 tive part in framing and passing the bills which parlia- 

 ment enacted at that period, with reference to these im- 

 portant objects. He seems to have enjoyed, above most 

 statesmen of his day, the confidence of the govern- 

 ment ; and the confidence which he acquired by his 

 well known judgment and talents, he continued to re- 

 tain to the end of life, by the prudence and modera- 

 tion that he displayed, with regard to every scheme 

 on the adoption of which he was consulted, or in the 

 execution of which he was employed. As a proof of 

 the estimation in which he was then held, it may be 

 mentioned, that he was no fewer than thirteen times 

 one of the Lords Justices, or Chief Governors of 

 Ireland. He set out for England on the 2d of June 

 1742 ; and, after an illness of two days, died at his 

 house in St James's, on the 27th- of September fol- 

 lowing. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, 

 where a stately monument has been erected to his 

 memory. The temper of Primate Boulter was re- 

 markably meek and pleasant. His aspect was vene- 

 rable : and his demeanour grave and sedate. To the 

 rich he %vas affable, and to the poor kind and conde- 

 scending. To the principles of civil and religious li- 

 berty he was firmly attached. He was well known 

 to possess a great deal of learning : but as his life was 

 almost wholly spent in action, he has scarcely left any 

 memorials of it behind him. He wrote and published 

 some Charges to the clergy of his diocese, which are 

 judicious and instructive. It may be easily supposed, 

 that his political correspondence, while he had so 

 much to do in the government of Ireland, would be 

 extensive and interesting. Fortunately it has been 

 preserved. It was published in 1709, at Oxford, in 

 two volumes 8vo, with this title, Letters iviittcn by 

 his Excellency Hugh Boulter, D. D. Lord Primale of 

 all Ireland 'f^c to sci-cial Ministers of State in Eng- 

 land, and some others, SfC. These letters deserve a 

 cartful perus-'l from dll those who wish to be parti- 

 cularly acquainted either with the real character of 

 Dr Boulter himself, or with the history of the Irish 

 government during the period in which he flourished. 

 See Bi'ig. liril. (T) 

 VOL. IV. PART I. 



B O U 



BOUNTY, signifies a pecuniary gratification paid 

 from the public revenue of a state, for the en 

 cmu,i:;emcnt of navigation and shipping; or of 

 some particular branch of agriculture, trade, or ma- 

 nufacture. 



Bounties may be divided into two sorts ; as they 

 relate to the defence, and as thr:y re-late to the com- 

 mercial prosperity of a state. The lirit may be call- 

 ed their political, in contradistinction to the second, 

 their commercial object. A bounty of the former de- 

 scription may be politically right, while it is commer- 

 cially wrong. A bounty of the latter description 

 can never be right either in the one way or the other. 



First, From the insular situation of Great Britain, 

 the bounties which relate to the defence of the state, 

 are chiefly those given for the direct and avowed pur- 

 pose of encouraging its navigation and shipping. 

 Bounties of this description seem, on the whole, ex- 

 pedient. It is certain, that, like all other bounties, 

 their effect is to force a greater proportion of the ge- 

 neral capital into that sort of employment than would 

 otherwise go into it, and thus to stunt other occupa- 

 tions of the capital, which would naturally tend thi- 

 ther without any national premium. In a commer- 

 cial point of view, therefore, bounties of this nature 

 produce a double disadvantage. They produce a 

 negative disadvantage, by drawing capital from its na- 

 tural, and therefore productive, employment, to one 

 that is losing ; and they occasion a positive disadvan- 

 tage, in the tax which must be raised upon the peo- 

 ple to defray the bounties themselves. The principle 

 of this description of bounties, however, is still poll- 

 ticilllij good. The defence of the country depends 

 mainly on its maritime force. The superabundant 

 capital invested in navigation and shipping, by the 

 encouragement of the bounties, necessarily implies a 

 certain correspondent superabundance of seafaring 

 men. But it is chiefly in this school of hardiness, 

 dexterity, and maritime attachment, that the national 

 security is raised, cherished, and preserved. To ac- 

 complish, therefore, this essential object, or at least 

 to render it as much as possible independent of the 

 power of accident, must be a political good, greatly 

 counterbalancing the commercial disadvantages to 

 which we have alluded. 



The bounties given directly and avowedly for the 

 purpose of augmenting the navigation and shipping of 

 the country, are principally the tonnage bounty on 

 the white-herring, and that on the whale fishery. 

 The injudicious manner in which these bounties, par- 

 ticularly the former, have been grunted, as well as 

 their unnecessary extent, has been clearly pointed out 

 by intelligent ceconomists. It has been thought that 

 the commercial disadvantages attending every species 

 of bounty, if not prevented, might at least have been 

 palliated. To connect with the tonnage bounty up- 

 on the white-herring fishery, a bounty upon the her- 

 rings exported, was the direct way to raise the price 

 in the home market, and thus, by a very plain opera- 

 tion, to embarrass the poorer sort of people with an 

 increased price, more or less, for all the necessaries 

 of life. Nor was a high rate of the tonnage bounty 

 necessary. It could only bribe the indolence of the 

 fishers, and, as has been smartly said, make them 

 more intent on catching the bounty than the fish. 

 3 A 



Bounty. 



