III. Whether the general Idleness in the meaner sort of People, either not working at all, or else at Excessive Rates, doth not render our Cloath or Stuff-makers uncapable to make the Manufacture at as easie Rates as Foreigners do, therefore cannot Vend as cheap as they in Foreign Marts?

To this latter Cause, I shall endeavour to apply a Reme­dy that may both keep our Wooll at home, and work it out: Viz.

I. An Act of Parliament to Erect Workhouses in all Counties more or less, suitable to the Extent or Commodious­ness of each County for Manufacture, on the Bublick Charges.

II. That in these Workhouses several Wards or Apart­ments should be for Male Children from Six years and upwards, Female from Five and upwards. Over the Males an Expert Clothier, over the Females a Grave Matron, skilled in Spin­ning, Knitting, &c. All the Males to be released at 24 years of Age, the Females at 21, to obviate the Reproach of Bon­dage.

III. That instead of the Act of 43 of Elizabeth, this Act should require the Churchwardens and Overseers of all Parishes, to send in all Children that are Chargeable, or likely to be so at the Ages aforesaid, into the said Workhouses, and to pay in part of the Monies collected in each Parish half yearly, to defray the Charge of the said Operatories, and to send in Wooll, Flax, Hemp, &c. to set the said Poor on work.

[Page] IV. That every Parish should send once in the Year one able Person to examine the Accompts of the House, and en­quire into the Behaviour of the Governors and Officers there­of, and to place and displace, as they shall see Cause.

V. A pound Rate of 12 d. per l. on all Lands and He­reditaments, Personal Estate, &c. over England and Wales, may probably defray the Charge of building Workhouses; And the 2 d. Year 6 d. per l. as aforesaid, may defray the Charge of Looms, Stockeards, Hand-Cards, and all working Tools and Ʋtensils for the said House.

VI.That after the Houses are thus erected and setled, the Poor all over the Kingdom will be so lessened, that a small Charge will maintain these younger sort of Children in work, and take off so much Charge of the Parishes, that they will have little to do, but to relieve the Aged and Impotent; which may be done by voluntary Collections, and charitable Benevo­lences in every Parish.

The Benefit that will certainly attend the whole King­dom by the aforesaid means, are these: Viz.

I. It will take off the Charge of all indigent People in all Parts of the Land, that they shall be inured with Work, before they be corrupted with Idleness and Thievery.

II. It will be a means to work out all our Wooll that now either rots at Home, or is transported by desperate Men that have little to venture but their Lives, they only making the Gain, the innocent Grasier getting nothing but the hazard of an Information against him, when the Transporter is caught, [Page] who palliates his Fact with Perjury, and disappoints the Seller.

III. What hath only been pretended to by the Clothiers and Workers of Wooll, viz. the whole and sole Manufacture of all English, Irish, and Scotish Wooll, may in one Year or two, by the aforesaid means, be happily accomplish [...]d, and never till then shall we be able to undersel the French, Fleming, and all other Foreign Manufacturors, our Work being done cheaper than theirs, being carried on not only by private Hands, but the publick Purse of the Kingdom, and by that which is now worse than lost. I mean relieving the Poor in Idleness.

IV. This will raise the price of Wooll, and keep it up to that degree, that Tenants may be enabled to pay their Rents, and pre1118 serve the Marshes, Fenns, and Sheep Walks from fur­ther Spoil and Destruction, which the many late Years of Cheap­ness hath exposed to Fire and Ruine: For in most Wooll-grow­ing Countries, their best Breeding Walks are so wasted by De­vonshiring, that all succeeding Ages will feel the Inconve­nience, and our present time suffers in the abundance of Corn and Grain thereby produced, that our Arable Farms, instead of bringing in Rent, scarcely defrays the Charge of Agriculture.

I would not have it thought that I have forgotten to have the sturdy Vagrants and Beggars set on work that swarm in all parts of this Land, provoking God by a lewd Life, starving the Poor, by eating the Bread of their Neigh­bours Charity, the Houses of Corrections should be filled with these, and there are enough already erected, if well governed, and such Masters appointed over them, as should not only moderately correct them, but carefully provide Work of all sorts as such People are capable of, and [Page 5] no great Charge will they put the Country to, if Care be taken that they eat no more than their Wages, for Chri­stianity tells us, Such as do not work, should not eat.

I do never expect to see England flourish, until it returns unto this old and good way of Industry; For as the dili­gent Hand makes Rich, so the Sluggard will fall into ex­treme Want; And as Poverty brings particular Men into Contempt, so a Kingdom will no longer retain Reputation, than it can advance the Price of its Native Growth. And for the clamorous Clothiers and Merchants that spend Vollies of Complaints upon Transporters, do not once offer any way to work our Wooll cheap, but trouble all Parliaments with making Acts against the Transporters, in order to have the sole Monopoly of Wooll, and bring­ing all the Grasiers in England under their Girdles. If they be truly Ingenious, (as I believe some of them are not so unreasonable as the Merchants and Staplers are) they will readily comply with these Proposals, there being nothing in them may prejudice their Trade, but truly com­pass their pretended Design to set the Poor on Work, and advance the Price of Wooll, and the Dearer that is, the greater will the Price of all their Manufactures be both at Home and Abroad. And there is no Cloathworker but confesses, the dearer Wooll, the more the Price of Manu­factures advance also. Upon these Considerations, a Free Trade will certainly be effected.

Thus have I cast in my Mite towards the Recovery of a sinking Manufacture, and a decaying Kingdom, humbly imploring Almighty God to bless all Endeavors of this kind, that may proceed from better Hands, and apter Heads than his that is the least in Politicks and Georgicks.