o other
commodity by which they could pay England for their importations, and
must have recourse to other nations for a supply: that the industrious
inhabitants of England, if deprived of Irish provisions, which made
living cheap, would be obliged to augment the price of labor, and
thereby render their manufactures too dear to be exported to foreign
markets: that the indolent inhabitants of Ireland, finding provisions
fall almost to nothing, would never be induced to labor, but would
perpetuate to all generations their native sloth and barbarism: that
by cutting off almost entirely the trade between the kingdoms, all the
natural bands of union were dissolved, and nothing remained to keep the
Irish in their duty but force and violence: and that by reducing that
kingdom to extreme poverty, it would be even rendered incapable of
maintaining that military power, by which, during its well-grounded
discontents, it must necessarily be retained in subjection.

The king was so much convinced of the justness of these reasons, that he
used all his interest to oppose the bill; and he openly declared, that
he could not give his assent to it with a safe conscience. But the
commons were resolute in their purpose. Some of the rents of England
had fallen of late years, which had been ascribed entirely to the
importation of Irish cattle: several intrigues had contributed to
inflame that prejudice, particularly those of Buckingham and Ashley, who
were desirous of giving Ormond disturbance in his government: and the
spirit of tyranny, of which nations are as susceptible as individuals,
had extremely animated the English to exert their superiority over their
dependent state. No affair could be conducted with greater violence than
this was by the commons. They even went so far, in the preamble of the
bill, as to declare the importation of Irish cattle to be a nuisance. By
this expression they gave scope to their passion, and at the same time
barred the king's prerogative, by which he might think himself entitled
to dispense with a law so full of injustice and bad policy. The lords
expunged the word; but as the king was sensible that no supply would be
given by the commons, unless they were gratified in their prejudices,
he was obliged both to employ his interest with the peers for making the
bill pass, and to give the royal assent to it. He could not, however,
forbear expressing his displeasure at the jealousy entertained against
him, and at