nd_; and yet without an effectual Law for Tillage,
that must unquestionably be our Misfortune for a while, and in some
Years our Ruin. I am at a Loss how to account for this universal
Conspiracy to destroy ourselves, which is the more alarming, as our own
Plots against our own Happiness generally succeed. Have we made a Vow
of Poverty, like the Capuchin Friars, or have we entred into a
Confederacy to enrich every Country but our own? For if not, whence
comes it, that above all other Nations we have the finest Ports,
without Ships or Trade, the greatest Number of able Hands, without any
care of Employing them, and that we are blest with so many Millions, of
rich arable Acres without Plowing them, and such Numbers of Men of Rank
and Fortune, without proper Zeal or Spirit, to remedy these Evils which
we groan under? But there are two Instances of our Folly as to Tillage,
that I cannot pass by. The first is, that we chuse the North, for the
main Store-House of the Kingdom, where we have not only the barrenest
Lands, but the worst Seasons, and where the Wet and Bleakness of the
Country, produce tardy Harvests, fierce Winds and heavy Rains; and
where the Ground is not near so fit for the Production of Wheat, as the
rich Plains of our other Provinces, that lye nearer to the Sun. The
other Instance of our Folly, is our rejecting in the Year 1710, the
Bill transmitted from _England_, that allowed a large Premium for our
exported Corn, which wou'd have been the greatest Encouragement to our
Tillage, and consequently the greatest Blessing to this unfortunate
Kingdom. I will not reckon up the Millions it wou'd have sav'd us, that
have since gone out for Bread; nor those it wou'd have gain'd us, by
the encrease of our Manufactures, and the keeping busy at Home, all the
Hands we have been depriv'd of by subsequent Famines; but I will say
this, that as our Zeal for his Majesty's Succession, our dread of the
Pretender, and our Jealousy of the Duke of _Ormond_'s popular Arts,
made us then throw out that Act; so it is to be hop'd, that the King
will in the Generosity of his Soul, restore us that desireable Bill
which we lost for him.

[3] _1 Chronicles, 27. ch. v. 25 and 26._

PRIOR. I heartily wish it, Mr. _Dean_, and tho' we had then a Lord
Lieutenant highly regarded by the Ministry, favour'd by the Queen, and
greatly belov'd in _Ireland_, yet it is as true, that we have one at
present, who is not inferior to him in those Advant