A N S W

E R

TO SEVERAL

LETTERS from unknown PERSONS.

I

Written in the year 1729.

GENTLEMEN,

AM inclined to think, that I received a letter

from you two laft Summer, directed to Dublin, while I was in the country, whither it was fent me, and I ordered an answer to it to be printed; but it seems it had little effect, and I fuppofe this will not have much more. But the heart of this people is waxed grofs, and their cars are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed. And, Gentlemen, I am to tell you another thing: That the world is too regardless of what we write for the public good: That, after we have delivered our thoughts, with out any profpect of advantage or of reputation, which letter is not to be had but by fubfcribing our names, we cannot prevail upon a printer to be at the charge of fending it into the world, unless we will be at all, or half the expence : And

* Trueman and Layfield.

And although we are willing enough to bestow our labours, we think it unreasonable to be out of pocket; because it probably may not confift with the fituation of our affairs.

I do very much approve your good intentions, and, in a great measure, your manner of declaring them; and I do imagine you intended, that the world should not only know your fentiments, but my answer, which I fhall impartially give.

That great Prelate, in whofe cover you directed your letter, fent it to me this morning; and I begin my answer to-night, not knowing what interruption I may meet with.

I have ordered your letter to be printed, as it ought to be along with my anfwer; becaufe, I conceive, it will be more acceptable and informing to the kingdom.'

I shall therefore now go on to answer your letter, in all manner of fincerity.

Although your letter be directed to me, yet I take myself to be only an imaginary perfon. For although I conjecture I had formerly one from you, yet I never anfwered it otherwife than in print; neither was I at a lofs to know the reafons why fo many people of this kingdom were tranfporting themselves to America. And if this encouragement were owing to a pamphlet written, giving an account of the country of Pennsylvania, to tempt people to go thither; I do declare, that thofe who were tempted, by fuch a narrative, to fuch a journey, were fools, and

1

the

the author a moft impudent knave; at leaft, if it be the fame pamphlet I saw when it firft came out, which is above twenty-five years ago, dedicated to William Penn, (whom, by a mistake, you call Sir William Penn), and styling him, by authority of the Scripture, Moft Noble Governor. For I was very well acquainted with Penn, and did, fome years after, talk with him upon that pamphlet, and the impudence of the author, who spoke fo many things in praife of the foil and climate, which Penn himself did abfolutely contradict. For he did affure me, that this country wanted the fhelter of mountains, which left it open to the northern winds from Hudfon's Bay and the Frozen Sea, which deftroyed all plantations of trees, and was even pernicious to all common vegetables. But, indeed, NewYork, Virginia, and other parts lefs northward, or more defended by mountains, are described as excellent countries: But upon what conditions of advantage foreigners go thither, I am yet to feek.

What evils our people avoid by running from hence, is eafier to be determined. They con ceive themselves to live under the tyranny of most cruel exacting landlords, who have no view further than encreafing their rent-rolls. Secondly, You complain of the want of trade, whereof you feem not to know the reason. Thirdly, You lament moft juftly the money spent by abfentees in England. Fourthly, You complain

that

that your linen manufacture declines. Fifthly, That your tythe-collectors opprefs you. Sixthly, That your children have no hopes of perferment in the church, the revenue, or the army; to which you might have added the law, and all civil employments whatfoever. Seventhly, You are undone for want of filver, and want all other money.

I could easily add fome other motives, which to men of fpirit, who defire and expect, and think they deserve the common privileges of human nature, would be of more force than any you have yet named, to drive them out of this kingdom. But as thefe fpeculations may probably not much affect the brains of your people, I fhall chufe to let them pafs unmentioned. Yet I cannot but obferve, that my very good and virtuous friend, his excellency Burnet, (O fili, nec tali indigne parente!) hath not hitherto been able to perfuade his vaffals, by his oratory in the ftyle of a command, to fettle a revenue on his Vice-Royal perfon. I have been likewife affured, that in one of thofe colonies on the Continent, which nature hath fo far favoured, as (by the industry of the inhabitants) to produce a great quantity of excellent rice; the ftubbornness of the people, who having been told that the world was wide, took it into their heads that they might fell their own rice at whatever foreign market they pleafed, and feem by their practice very unwilling to quit that opinion.

But to return to my subject: I must confefs to you both, that, if one reason of your people's deferting us, be the defpair of things growing better in their own country, I have not one fyllable to answer; because that would be to hope for what is impoffible; and fo I have been telling the public these ten years. For there are three events which muft precede any fuch bleffing: First, A liberty of trade; fecondly, A thare of preferments in all kinds, equal to the British natives; and, thirdly, A return of those abfentees, who take away almoft one half of the kingdom's revenue. As to the first and fecond, there is nothing left us but defpair; and, for the third, it will never happen till the kingdom hath no money to fend them, for which, in my own particular, I should not be forry.

The exaction of landlords hath indeed been a grievance of above twenty years ftanding. But, as to what you object about the fevere clauses relating to improvement, the fault lies wholly on the other fide: For the landlords, either by their ignorance or greediness of making large rentrolls, have performed this matter fo ill, as we fee, by experience, that there is not one tenant in five hundred who hath made any improvement worth mentioning. For which I appeal to any man who rides through the kingdom, where little is to be found among the tenants but beggary and defolation; the cabbins of the Scotch themselves, in Ulfter, being as dirty and miserVOL. XI.

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