Charles II
fresh rebellion in order to find a pretext for a policy of extermination.77 Sir William would himself have been content with a less drastic remedy. It was, he urged, a monstrous absurdity "that men born in England, who have lands granted to them by the King for service done in Ireland to the Crown of England, when they have occasion to reside or negociate in England, should, by their countrymen, kindred and friends there, be debarred to bring with them out of Ireland food whereupon to live; nor suffered to carry money out of Ireland, nor to bring such commodities as they fetch from America directly home, but round about by England, with extreme hazard and loss, and be forced to trade only with strangers and become unacquainted with their own country; especially when England gaineth more than it loseth by a free commerce, as exporting hither three times as much as it receiveth from hence: insomuch as 95£ in England is worth about 100% of the like money in Ireland in the freest time of trade."78 "If it be just," he says in another passage, "that men of English birth and estates, living in Ireland, should be represented in the legislative power; and that the Irish should not be judged by those who they pretend do usurp their estates; it then seems just and convenient that both kingdoms
95
