this great bounty, I have been informed, was
not likely to produce any considerable effect.
The sixth bounty of this kind was that
granted by 11th Geo. III. chap. 50, for the
importation of pipe, hogshead, and barrel-staves
and heading from the British plantations.
It was granted for nine years, from
1st January 1772 to the 1st January 1781.
For the first three years, it was, for a certain
quantity of each, to be at the rate of L.6;
for the second three years at L.4; and for the
third three years at L.2.
The seventh and last bounty of this kind
was that granted by the 19th Geo. III. chap.
37, upon the importation of hemp from Ireland.
It was granted in the same manner as
that for the importation of hemp and undressed
flax from America, for twenty-one years,
from the 24th June 1779 to the 24th June
1800. The term is divided likewise into
three periods, of seven years each; and in
each of those periods, the rate of the Irish
bounty is the same with that of the American.
It does not, however, like the American
bounty, extend to the importation of undressed
flax. It would have been too great a
discouragement to the cultivation of that plant
in Great Britain. When this last bounty was
granted, the British and Irish legislatures
were not in much better humour with one
another, than the British and American had
been before. But this boon to Ireland, it is
to be hoped, has been granted under more
fortunate auspices than all those to America.
The same commodities, upon which we
thus gave bounties, when imported from
America, were subjected to considerable duties
when imported from any other country.
The interest of our American colonies was
regarded as the same with that of the mother
country. Their wealth was considered as our
wealth. Whatever money was sent out to
them, it was said, came all back to us by the
balance of trade, and we could never become
a farthing the poorer by any expense which we
could lay out upon them. They were our own
in every respect, and it was an expense laid out
upon the improvement of our own property,
and for the profitable employment of our own
people. It is unnecessary, I apprehend, at
present to any any thing further, in order to
expose the folly of a system which fatal
experience has now sufficiently exposed. Had
our American colonies really been a part of
Great Britain, those bounties might have
been considered as bounties upon production,
and would still have been liable to all the
objections to which such bounties are liable, but
to no other.
The exportation of the materials of manufacture
is sometimes discouraged by absolute
prohibitions, and sometimes by high duties.
Our woollen manufacturers have been more
successful than any other class of workmen,
in persuading the legislature that the prosperity
of the nation depended upon the success
and extension of their particular business.
They have not only obtained a monopoly
against the consumers, by an absolute
prohibition of importing woollen cloths from
any foreign country; but they have likewise
obtained another monopoly against the sheep
farmers and growers of wool, by a similar
prohibition of the exportation of live sheep
and wool. The severity of many of the laws
which have been enacted for the security of
the revenue is very justly complained of, as
imposing heavy penalties upon actions which,
antecedent to the statutes that declared them
to be crimes, had always been understood to
be innocent. But the cruellest of our revenue
laws, I will venture to affirm, are mild
and gentle, in comparison to some of those
which the clamour of our merchants and
manufacturers has extorted from the legislature,
for the support of their own absurd and
oppressive monopolies. Like the laws of
Draco, these laws may be said to be all
written in blood.
By the 8th of Elizabeth, chap. 3, the exporter
of sheep, lambs, or rams, was for the
first offence, to forfeit all his goods for ever,
to suffer a year's imprisonment, and then to
have his left hand cut off on a market town,
upon a market day, to be there nailed up;
and for the second offence, to be adjudged a
felon, and to suffer death accordingly. To
prevent the breed of our sheep from being propagated
in foreign countries, seems to have
been the object of this law. By the 13th and
14th of Charles II. chap. 18, the exportation
of wool was made felony, and the exporter
subjected to the same penalties and forfeitures
as a felon.
For the honour of the national humanity,
it is to be hoped that neither of these statutes
was ever executed. The first of them, however,
so far as I know, has never been directly
repealed, and serjeant Hawkins seems to
consider it as still in force. It may, however,
perhaps be considered as virtually repealed by
the 12th of Charles II. chap. 32, sect. 3,
which, without expressly taking away the penalties
imposed by former statutes, imposes
a new penalty, viz. that of 20s. for every
sheep exported, or attempted to be exported,
together with the forfeiture of the sheep, and
of the owner's share of the sheep. The second
of them was expressly repealed by the
7th and 8th of William III. chap. 28, sect.
4, by which it is declared that 'Whereas the
statute of the 13th and 14th of king Charles
II. made against the exportation of wool,
among other things in the said act mentioned,
doth enact the same to be deemed felony, by
the severity of which penalty the prosecution
of offenders hath not been so effectually put
in execution; be it therefore enacted, by the