The Querist Part 3

144. Qu. Whether there be any other nation possess'd of so much good land, and so many able hands to work it, which yet is beholden for bread to foreign countries?

145. Qu. Whether it be true that we import corn to the value of two hundred thousand pounds in some years?

146. Qu. Whether we are not undone by fas.h.i.+ons made for other people? And whether it be not madness in a poor nation to imitate a rich one?

147. Qu. Whether a woman of fas.h.i.+on ought not to be declared a public enemy?

148. Qu. Whether it be not certain that from the single town of Cork were exported, in one year, no less than one hundred and seven thousand one hundred and sixty-one barrels of beef; seven thousand three hundred and seventy-nine barrels of pork; thirteen thousand four hundred and sixty-one casks, and eighty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-seven firkins of b.u.t.ter? And what hands were employed in this manufacture?

149. Qu. Whether a foreigner could imagine that one half of the people were starving, in a country which sent out such plenty of provisions?

150. Qu. Whether an Irish lady, set out with French silks and Flanders lace, may not be said to consume more beef and b.u.t.ter than a hundred of our labouring peasants?

151. Qu. Whether nine-tenths of our foreign trade be not carried on singly to support the article of vanity?

152. Qu. Whether it can be hoped that private persons will not indulge this folly, unless restrained by the public?

153. Qu. How vanity is maintained in other countries? Whether in Hungary, for instance, a proud n.o.bility are not subsisted with small imports from abroad?

154. Qu. Whether there be a prouder people upon earth than the n.o.ble Venetians, although they all wear plain black clothes?

155. Qu. Whether a people are to be pitied that will not sacrifice their little particular vanities to the public good? And yet, whether each part would not except their own foible from this public sacrifice, the squire his bottle, the lady her lace?

156. Qu. Whether claret be not often drank rather for vanity than for health, or pleasure?

157. Qu. Whether it be true that men of nice palates have been imposed on, by elder wine for French claret, and by mead for palm sack?

158. Qu. Do not Englishmen abroad purchase beer and cider at ten times the price of wine?

159. Qu. How many gentlemen are there in England of a thousand pounds per annum who never drink wine in their own houses? Whether the same may be said of any in Ireland who have even? one hundred pounds per annum.

160. Qu. What reasons have our neighbours in England for discouraging French wines which may not hold with respect to us also?

161. Qu. How much of the necessary sustenance of our people is yearly exported for brandy?

162. Qu. Whether, if people must poison themselves, they had not better do it with their own growth?

163. Qu. If we imported neither claret from France, nor fir from Norway, what the nation would save by it?

164. Qu. When the root yieldeth insufficient nourishment, whether men do not top the tree to make the lower branches thrive?

165. Qu. Whether, if our ladies drank sage or balm tea out of Irish ware, it would be an insupportable national calamity?

166. Qu. Whether it be really true that such wine is best as most encourages drinking, i.e., that must be given in the largest dose to produce its effect? And whether this holds with regard to any other medicine?

167. Qu. Whether that trade should not be accounted most pernicious wherein the balance is most against us? And whether this be not the trade with France?

168. Qu. Whether it be not even madness to encourage trade with a nation that takes nothing of our manufacture?

169. Qu. Whether Ireland can hope to thrive if the major part of her patriots shall be found in the French interest?

170. Qu. Why, if a bribe by the palate or the purse be in effect the same thing, they should not be alike infamous?

171. Qu. Whether the vanity and luxury of a few ought to stand in compet.i.tion with the interest of a nation?

172. Qu. Whether national wants ought not to be the rule of trade?

And whether the most pressing wants of the majority ought not to be first consider'd?

173. Qu. Whether it is possible the country should be well improved, while our beef is exported, and our labourers live upon potatoes?

174. Qu. If it be resolved that we cannot do without foreign trade, whether, at least, it may not be worth while to consider what branches thereof deserve to be entertained, and how far we may be able to carry it on under our present limitations?

175. Qu. What foreign imports may be necessary for clothing and feeding the families of persons not worth above one hundred pounds a year? And how many wealthier there are in the kingdom, and what proportion they bear to the other inhabitants?

176. Qu. Whether trade be not then on a right foot, when foreign commodities are imported in exchange only for domestic superfluities?

177. Qu. Whether the quant.i.ties of beef, b.u.t.ter, wool, and leather, exported from this island, can be reckoned the superfluities of a country, where there are so many natives naked and famished?

178. Qu. Whether it would not be wise so to order our trade as to export manufactures rather than provisions, and of those such as employ most hands?

179. Qu. Whether she would not be a very vile matron, and justly thought either mad or foolish, that should give away the necessaries of life from her naked and famished children, in exchange for pearls to stick in her hair, and sweetmeats to please her own palate?

180. Qu. Whether a nation might not be consider'd as a family?

181. Qu. Whether other methods may not be found for supplying the funds, besides the custom on things imported?

182. Qu. Whether any art or manufacture be so difficult as the making of good laws?

183. Qu. Whether our peers and gentlemen are born legislators? Or, whether that faculty be acquired by study and reflection?

184. Qu. Whether to comprehend the real interest of a people, and the means to procure it, doth not imply some fund of knowledge, historical, moral, and political, with a faculty of reason improved by learning?

185. Qu. Whether every enemy to learning be not a Goth? And whether every such Goth among us be not an enemy to the country?

186. Qu. Whether, therefore, it would not be an omen of ill presage, a dreadful phenomenon in the land, if our great men should take it in their heads to deride learning and education?

187. Qu. Whether, on the contrary, it should not seem worth while to erect a mart of literature in this kingdom, under wiser regulations and better discipline than in any other part of Europe? And whether this would not be an infallible means of drawing men and money into the kingdom?

188. Qu. Whether the governed be not too numerous for the governing part of our college? And whether it might not be expedient to convert thirty natives-places into twenty fellows.h.i.+ps?

189. Qu. Whether, if we had two colleges, there might not spring a useful emulation between them? And whether it might not be contrived so to divide the fellows, scholars, and revenues between both, as that no member should be a loser thereby?

190. Qu. Whether ten thousand pounds well laid out might not build a decent college, fit to contain two hundred persons; and whether the purchase money of the chambers would not go a good way towards defraying the expense?

191. Qu. Where this college should be situated?

192. Qu. Whether it is possible a State should not thrive, whereof the lower part were industrious, and the upper wise?

193. Qu. Whether the collected wisdom of ages and nations be not found in books, improved and applied by study?