198 
failed to do fo. Tiiey will only add, 
with refpeét to the morey drawa from 
Ereland, that remitiances to abfentees did 
exift before the reftri€tion to a conferable 
extent, without prodacing an exchange 
confantly unfavourabie; and that if the 
high rates of exchange really operate as a 
t2x on them, it does not appear politic or 
reafonable to contmue any (uch tax, with 
@ view to encumber the refort of any Irith 
fubjc& to the feat of government, and to 
the depolit of his dernier refort of juftice, 
more than that of any ichabitant of Scct- 
land,’or any county of England; and 
when it is confidered, that, tr in the na- 
tural order of things, urdifturbed by fuch 
a meafure as the reftrigiion on fp-cie, the 
remittances to abfentees, by caufing a ba- 
Jance of pecuniary intercourfe againft Ire- 
Jand, wou'd force an export from thence 
wherewith to pay it,.and reftore the level, 
it may be fairly concluded, that the ab- 
fentees, by bringing over their money to 
England, force the manufaciere or pro- 
duce to follow them, waich, but for their 
€oming, they would necefiarily have cauled 
to be ufed at home, the only difference is 
that the produce or manufactures whieh 
their incomes naturally promote, would 
come to be confumed or ufed in England, 
yn the flead of being confumed or ufed in 
Ireland; and thus the encouragement to 
the productive indufiry cf Ireland may be 
faid to operate in both cafes, though cer- 
tainly the non-refidence of men of fortune 
on their efiates is m many reipecis a great 
and Jamentablz misfortune to the country. 
—On the other fide of the account, with 
regard to the tempcrary infiux of money 
to Ireland, from loans for Ireland in Eng- 
fard, the temporary remittance of which 
has been faid to operate as a fet-off againtt 
the drain of the abfentees, much as they 
may occafionally tend towa:ds rendering 
the balance, and cf courfe the exchange 
favourable, your Committee cannot re- 
ecmmend them as defirable on that ac- 
eount. It fhould be remembered, that 
the relief they aff-rd is temporary, while 
the drain of intereft and charges which 
they create is permanect, and that the ad- 
vantages which the great Joan of th s year 
muft- produce to the «xchange, by its 
tran{miflion, ought not to tupericde refort- 
ing alfo to a diminution of papcr, as a 
means of p:rmanently reétifying the ex- 
change. Their injuscus cfiects go fiill 
farther ; each loan, by fupplying a means 
of paying any balance of debt due to Eng- 
Jand, interrupts the natural effeét of that 
debt, to force out export and check im- 
port, fo as to allow the money accounts to 
Report of the Committee on the State of Ireland. poe. dy 
right themfeves, and produce the proper 
level; it alio, by the fame operation, en= 
courages import, in providing a ready. - 
fund wherewith to pay for it; and it will 
appear from the papers before your Com- 
mittee, that the imports of Iveland in-:» 
created during the lait five years, (in each 
of which a confiderable losn was made) 
compared with the five preceding years, 
at ihe average rate of £.1,422,000 the 
year, and the exports decreafed during 
the fame time, on a like average, in the 
jum of £.259,000 cficial value; while 
the average annual remittances for the 
loans, including {ome {mall payments by 
Mv, Puget, during thofe laff five years, was 
£.1:406,000.. Your Committee feel with 
satisfaction, that this view of the injurious 
effeGis of the loans from England, tends 
to difpel the gloomy profpeét of the dif- 
treffing and itill more increaied height of 
exchange; when public circumfanees fhall 
allow the fyftem of Ireland's raifing the 
larger portion of her annual fupply by 
fuch loans, to be altered, the fuppreffion 
of this fyem will then naturally tend to 
make her increafe her exports and dimi- 
nifh her imports, and bring exchange to 
par. . 
The {pecie and current coin of Ireland 
remain to be confidered. The evidence 
very fully points out the miferable fitua- 
tion of the filver coinage, or rather of the 
bafe metal and notes and I. O. U's fub- 
ftituted ia i:s place. 
This cvil is clearly to be traced to the 
uofavourable exchange. The fate of the 
exchange naturally caufed the filver cur- 
rency of Ireland, fo long as it was de 
graded cnly in the fame degree with the 
fiiver currency of England, to transfer 
ifelf to this country, where it wou'd 
nals for the fame fum as Eng] fh filver 
money. ‘The place of the Irth filver coin 
fo withdrawn was fupplied in many parts 
of Ireland by filver no:es; but in Dublin, 
where notes of a very {mall de{cription are 
not iffuable, by an extremely bafe flver coin, 
whichwas privately fabricated ingreat quan- 
tities, and to which nothing but the want of 
any other medium capable of effecting {mall 
payments could have giver currency. Some 
impediment having arifzn to the circala- 
_ ton of the very bafe filver, the attention 
both ef the bank of Ireland-and of the 
Government was called to this fubjeét, 
and meafures appear to have been taken 
in confequence of a communication with 
his Majefty’s privy council, for the coin- 
age and iffue, by the bank of Ireland, of 
a coniiderable quantity of dollars, at the 
price of fx* fillings Irith per dollar. 
Thefe 
