[73] "Irish Debates," vol. iii., 132. [74] "Parliamentary Register," 17, 255. [75] "Commercial Restraints," pp. 40-41. Speaking of the great distress in the years 1740 and 1741, Hely Hutchinson again deplores the inability of the Irish Parliament to alleviate the misery of the poor. "They (the Commons) could not have been insensible of the miseries of their fellow-creatures, many thousands of whom were lost in those years, some from absolute want and many from disorders occasioned by bad provisions. Why was no attempt made for their relief? Because the Commons knew that the evil was out of their reach, and the poor were not employed because they were discouraged by restrictive laws from working up the materials of their own country, and that agriculture could not be encouraged when the lower classes of the people were not enabled by their industry to purchase the produce of the farmer's labour."--("Commercial Restraints," pp. 47-48.) [76] "Commercial Restraints," pp. 210, 211. [77] 7 George II. (Irish) c. 13. This Irish Statute was framed on the model of an Act passed by the English Parliament in 1678, providing that all dead bodies should be wrapped in woollen shrouds. Dean Swift warmly approved of this measure which, however, he seemed to think would never pass the Privy Councils. "What," he says, "if we should agree to make burying in woollen a fashion, as our neighbours have made it a law?" Swift's Works (Scott's Ed.), vi., p. 274. [78] Finlayson's "Monumental Inscriptions in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin," p. 27. [79] Lecky's "Eighteenth Century," vol. ii., 215. [80] "Parliamentary Register," 17, 249. Mr. Lecky pays a high compliment to the exertions of the Irish Parliament to protect the material interests of their country. "During the greater part of the century (18th century) it had little power except that of protesting against laws crushing Irish commerce, but what little it could do it appears to have done."--"Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," p. 187. [81] "Parliamentary Register," 17, 249. [82] Mr. Lecky refers doubtless to the Treaty of Limerick. [83] "Eighteenth Century," vol. ii., 256. [84] "English in Ireland," vol. ii., 213. CHAPTER IV. THE IMMEDIATE EFFECTS OF ENGLISH LEGISLATION ON IRISH TRADE.