private Hands lying dead, there is not other way to dispose of
it, but in buying of Land; which consequently makes the Owners
hold it so high.
Besides paying the Nation's Debts, the Sale of these Lands
would have many other good Effects upon the Nation. It will
considerably increase the Number of Gentry, where the Bishops
Tenants are not able or willing to purchase; for the Lands will
afford an Hundred Gentlemen a good Revenue to each. Several
Persons from England, will probably be glad to come other hither,
and be the buyers, rather than give Thirty Years Purchase at
home, under the Loads of Taxes for the Publick and the Poor, as
well as Repairs; by which Means, much Money may be brought among
us; and probably some of the Purchasers themselves, may be
content to live cheap in a worse Country, rather than be at the
Charge of Exchange and Agencies; and perhaps of Non-solvencies in
Absence, if they lett their Lands too high.
This Proposal will also multiply Farmers, when the Purchasers
will have Lands in their own Power, to give long and easy Leases
to industrious Husbandmen.
I have allowed some Bishopricks, of equal Income, to be of
more or less Value to the Purchasers, according as they are
circumstanced. For Instance: The Lands of the Primacy, and some
other Sees, are lett so low, that they hardly pay a fifth Penny
of the real Value to the Bishop, and there the Fines are the
greater. On the contrary, the Sees of Meath and Clonfert,
consisting, as I am told, much of Tythes, those Tythes are
annually lett to the Tenants, without any Fines. So the See of
Dublin is said to have many Fee-Farms, which pay no Fines; and
some Leases for Lives, which pay very little, and not so soon nor
so duly.
I cannot but be confident, that their Graces my Lords the
Arch-Bishops, and my Lords the Bishops, will heartily join in
this Proposal, out of Gratitude to his late and present Majesty,
the best of Kings, who have bestowed on them such high and
opulent Stations; as well as in Pity to this Country, which is
now become their own; whereby they will be instrumental towards
paying the Nation's Debts, without impoverishing themselves;
enrich an Hundred Gentlemen, as well as free them from
Dependance; and thus remove that Envy which is apt to fall upon
their Graces and Lordships, from considerable Persons; whose
births and Fortunes, rather qualify them to be Lords of Mannors,
than servile Dependents upon Churchmen, however dignified or
distinguished.
If I do not flatter my self, there could not be any Law more
popular than this. For the immediate Tenants to Bishops, being
some of them Persons of Quality, and good Estates; and more of
them grown up to be Gentlemen by the Profits of these very
Leases, under a Succession of Bishops; think it a Disgrace to be
Subject both to Rents and Fines, at the Pleasure of their
Landlords. Then, the Bulk of the Tenants, especially the
Dissenters, who are our true loyal Protestant Brethern, look upon
it, both as an unwanted and iniquitous Thing, that Bishops should
be owners of Land at all; (wherein I beg to differ from them)
being a Point so contrary to the Practice of the Apostles, whose
Successors they are deemed to be, and who, although they were
contented that Land should be sold, for the Common Use of the
Brethren; yet would not buy it themselves; but had it laid at
their Feet, to be distributed to poor Proselytes.
I will add one Word more; that by such a wholesome Law, all
the Oppressions felt by under Tenants of Church Leases, which are
now laid on by the Bishops; would entirely be prevented, by their