half; whereas, it did not stand Sir Charles Coote in more than betwixt ten and eleven pounds sterling, all charges reckoned, as well of digging, melting, fining, as of carrying, boat hire, and freight, even the custom also comprehended in it.

"It is to be observed, that although there be wood enough upon one's land, and that not very far from the mine, together with the conveniences of water-courses, so as the water needeth not to be brought from very far off, nevertheless the charge is very great, both of erecting and stocking one of the iron-works, and of maintaining it and keeping it a-foot, and that by reason of the great number of workmen and labourers of several sorts which thereunto is requisite.

"Of all which sorts of men, Sir Charles Coote, the elder, that zealous and famous warrior in this present war against the Irish rebels (wherein having done many memorable exploits, he lost his life in the first year thereof), did continually keep at work some five-and-twenty, or six-andtwenty hundred, at his iron works, being three in number, whereby may easily be gathered the greatness of the expenses in the erecting and maintaining of iron-works; and for all this the owners thereof did greatly gain thereby, ordinarily no less than forty in the hundred per annum."

In the general destruction of property belonging to the English, almost the whole of the iron-works were destroyed by the rebels; in the neighbourhood of Lough Conn, in the county of Mayo, there were some valuable iron-works remaining, and these were continued as long as they could obtain a supply of fuel.

At a later period, about 1660, Sir William Petty* erected extensive iron-works, near the village of Blackstones, in the county of Kerry; these works were carried on till towards the middle of the last century, when, having exhausted all the timber in the neighbourhood, they were obliged to stop

* At the Restoration, Mr. Petty was treated with great attention by the King, and knighted, and created Surveyor-General of Ireland. His son was created Lord Shelburne by King William.-Lemp. Biog. Dict.

the works.

It seems a little surprising that Sir William Petty should not have taken more care to preserve his woods, by copsing them up as they were cut down, as the practice is in Sweden, and other countries where there are ironworks, by which means a continual succession of underwood is obtained, but as these woods grow upon the best and driest soils, the persons who first cut them down, found the ground, thus cleared of trees, to be the most suitable places for pasture, and therefore neglected to keep them up.

Sir William Petty, in his political anatomy of Ireland, remarks that in 1672 there were 1000 tons of iron made in Ireland, which gave employment to 2000 men and women; and that there were 6600 smiths' forges, or rather, as he thinks, one-fifth more, and that the men and women employed therein amounted to 22,500.

By an Act passed in England, in the eighth year of William the Third, the duties on bar-iron, and iron slit and hammered into rods, imported from Ireland, were taken off, in consequence of the then depressed condition of manufacturing industry in Ireland. This removal of duty naturally occasioned a great demand for Irish timber, which, moreover, was constantly imported into England at the value, as stated in the Book of Rates, of 13s. 4d. the ton, and, consequently, liable to scarcely any duty. The unsettled state, besides, in which Ireland had long been, and the refuge which its forests afforded to criminals, outlaws, and those who were hostile to the existing government, rendered the landlords careless with regard to the preservation of their woods, or rather, it should seem, averse to their existence; for in many old leases, clauses are to be found requiring the tenants to use no other article for fuel but timber.

From these causes, a scarcity was soon experienced, to such a degree as to lead the parliament of Ireland, in order to put a stop to this improvident waste, to pass an Act* for planting and preserving timber trees and woods, of which the preamble runs thus: "Forasmuch as by the late rebellion

* 10th William III. c. 12.

in this kingdom, and the several iron-works formerly here, the timber was utterly destroyed," &c.

This Act required that 260,600 trees should be planted in Ireland, proportionably in the several counties, and laid heavy penalties on such persons as neglected to comply with the requisition. It also required proprietors and tenants to plant a certain number annually, and the persons, or societies, who had iron-works, to plant 500 in each year, during the continuance of their works. But the number of trees was inconsiderable, and no effect of an extensive and permanent nature appears to have been produced. The Act too was defective, inasmuch as it did not provide against the waste of such few woods as still remained.

Besides, the consumption of home-made iron and Irish timber was left unchecked by the importation of foreign iron and timber, as heavy duties on these continued until 1703, when they were reduced to 5s. custom and 5s. excise per ton on iron, 6d. custom and 6d. excise per 1000 staves, 1d. per 1000 on hoops and laths, and 1d. per barrel on bark. The same Act, 2nd Anne, c. 2, laid a duty of 21. 10s. on every ton of timber and plank, 5s. on every 1000 hoops or laths, and 37. on every 1000 staves exported from Ireland, except to England an exception which was calculated to render the Act in a great degree nugatory. Moreover, by the 4th Anne, c. 9, the penalties incurred by non-compliance with the requisitions in the 10th William III. c. 12, were remitted to such as had not paid them, and further time was given to avoid them-in other words, the latter statute was virtually repealed. It was finally so by the 8th George I. c. 8, which acknowledged that the Act in question had proved ineffectual.

The manufacture of iron was thus lost to Ireland, and, with a single exception, no attempt has been made to revive it. A furnace was erected about fifty or sixty years since by a family of the name of O'Reilly, and was worked by them, and also since, on two or three occasions. An English company, called the Arigna Company, took this property, and added a new furnace.

CHAP. IV.

BRITISH COLONIES IN AMERICA.

It was in the year 1516 that the British first took a share in American trade. Sir Walter Raleigh's discovery of Virginia, in 1584, and his attempts to colonise the English failed; but in the reign of James the First better regulations were made, and colonisation was successful for a time: in succeeding reigns it arrived at importance. We soon perceive the gradual increase of British dominion, and the colonies rising into consequence, and, by victory over the French, increasing, until the unhappy war with the mother country, which ended in the union of the States, and their establishment in independence.

Iron was first made in America in the province of Virginia, about the year 1715, and the example was quickly followed tie. by the provinces of Maryland and Pennsylvania. This opening of a new source of wealth was a subject of great satisfaction and importance to those who were interested in the prosperity of the colonies, presenting to their view, at no distant date, a prospect of independence of foreign countries for the supplies of those most essential articles, iron and timber. That it was considered in this light is shown by a writer of that day, who observes

"That the waste and destruction of the woods in the counties of Warwick, Stafford, Worcester, Hereford, Monmouth, Gloucester, and Salop, by their iron-works, is not to be imagined, and that if some care be not taken to preserve our timber from these consuming furnaces, there will not be oak enough left to supply the royal navy and our mercantile shipping. That, within these sixty years, Ireland was better

stocked with oak timber than we now are; but the ironworks since set up there have, in a few years, swept away the wood to that degree, that they have not small stuff enough to produce bark for their tanning, nor timber for common uses, insomuch that at present they are forced to have bark from England, and building timber from Norway, and to suffer their large hides to be exported untanned to Holland, Germany, and other countries. That about 20,000 tons of iron are annually imported into England from foreign parts, over and above what is made at home, for which we pay ready money, which at 127. per ton, comes to 240,000l., paid annually to foreigners; and the boards and other timber which we take of them come to 200,000l. more; whereas, our own plantations would be paid for their iron and timber in our own manufactures, thereby evidently bringing a double benefit to the nation. That they have ironstone all along the continent, from the southernmost part of Carolina to the northernmost part of New England, in great plenty, and no part of the world abounds more with prodigious quantities of wood, nor with more rivers and streams. That the Swedes have laid near 25 per cent, additional duty on their iron, and that the interruptions of our trade in the Baltic had greatly distressed our iron manufactures for want of iron. That, by the naval store laws now in force, which comprehend only pitch, tar, and turpentine, such great quantities thereof are produced and imported from our plantations as enable us to export great quantities thereof to the Straits, Spain, Portugal, Holland, Bremen, and Hamburgh. That, taking timber and iron, as well as flax and hemp, from our plantations, would employ a vast many ships and people. That iron, in particular, is a commodity of universal use, and certain in all parts of the world, and therefore as much to be valued as gold or silver. That the Dutch supply Portugal, the Straits, and Turkey, with great quantities of iron, and had we a full supply of it from our plantations, we might not only ballast our ships with it, but export great quantities to those countries, and even to Africa and India." But the proprietors of our own works took a very different view of the matter, to