95 Whether anything can be more ridiculous than for the north of Ireland to be jealous of a linen manufacturer in the south?
96 Whether the county of Tipperary be not much better land than the county of Armagh; and yet whether the latter is not much better improved and inhabited than the former?
97 Whether every landlord in the kingdom doth not know the cause of this? And yet how few are the better for such their knowledge?
98 Whether large farms under few hands, or small ones under many, are likely to be made most of? And whether flax and tillage do not naturally multiply hands, and divide land into small holdings, and well-improved?
99 Whether, as our exports are lessened, we ought not to lessen our imports? And whether these will not be lessened as our demands, and these as our wants, and these as our customs or fashions? Of how great consequence therefore are fashions to the public?
100 Whether it would not be more reasonable to mend our state than to complain of it; and how far this may be in our own power?
101 What the nation gains by those who live in Ireland upon the produce of foreign Countries?
102 How far the vanity of our ladies in dressing, and of our gentlemen in drinking, contributes to the general misery of the people?
103 Whether nations, as wise and opulent as ours, have not made sumptuary laws; and what hinders us from doing the same?
104 Whether those who drink foreign liquors, and deck themselves and their families with foreign ornaments, are not so far forth to be reckoned absentees?
105 Whether, as our trade is limited, we ought not to limit our expenses; and whether this be not the natural and obvious remedy?
106 Whether the dirt, and famine, and nakedness of the bulk of our people might not be remedied, even although we had no foreign trade? And whether this should not be our first care; and whether, if this were once provided for, the conveniences of the rich would not soon follow?
107 Whether comfortable living doth not produce wants, and wants industry, and industry wealth?
108 Whether there is not a great difference between Holland and Ireland? And whether foreign commerce, without which the one could not subsist, be so necessary for the other?
109 Might we not put a hand to the plough, or the spade, although we had no foreign commerce?
110 Whether the exigencies of nature are not to be answered by industry on our own soil? And how far the conveniences and comforts of life may be procured by a domestic commerce between the several parts of this kingdom?
111 Whether the women may not sew, spin, weave, embroider sufficiently for the embellishment of their persons, and even enough to raise envy in each other, without being beholden to foreign countries?
112 Suppose the bulk of our inhabitants had shoes to their feet, clothes to their backs, and beef in their bellies, might not such a state be eligible for the public, even though the squires were condemned to drink ale and cider?
113 Whether, if drunkenness be a necessary evil, men may not as well drink the growth of their own country?
114 Whether a nation within itself might not have real wealth, sufficient to give its inhabitants power and distinction, without the help of gold and silver?
115 Whether, if the arts of sculpture and painting were encouraged among us, we might not furnish our houses in a much nobler manner with our own manufactures?
116 Whether we have not, or may not have, all the necessary materials for building at home?
117 Whether tiles and plaster may not supply the place of Norway fir for flooring and wainscot?
118 Whether plaster be not warmer, as well as more secure, than deal? And whether a modern fashionable house, lined with fir, daubed over with oil and paint, be not like a fire-ship, ready to be lighted up by all accidents?
119 Whether larger houses, better built and furnished, a greater train of servants, the difference with regard to equipage and table between finer and coarser, more and less elegant, may not be sufficient to feed a reasonable share of vanity, or support all proper distinctions? And whether all these may not be procured by domestic industry out of the four elements, without ransacking the four quarters of the globe?
120 Whether anything is a nobler ornament, in the eye of the world, than an Italian palace, that is, stone and mortar skilfully put together, and adorned with sculpture and painting;and whether this may not be compassed without foreign trade?
121 Whether an expense in gardens and plantations would not be an elegant distinction for the rich, a domestic magnificence employing many hands within, and drawing nothing from abroad?
122 Whether the apology which is made for foreign luxury in England, to wit, that they could not carry on their trade without imports as well as exports, will hold in Ireland?
123 Whether one may not be allowed to conceive and suppose a society or nation of human creatures, clad in woollen cloths and stuffs, eating good bread, beef and mutton, poultry and fish, in great plenty, drinking ale, mead, and cider, inhabiting decent houses built of brick and marble, taking their pleasure in fair parks and gardens, depending on no foreign imports either for food or raiment? And whether such people ought much to be pitied?
124 Whether Ireland be not as well qualified for such a state as any nation under the sun?
125 Whether in such a state the inhabitants may not contrive to pass the twenty-four hours with tolerable ease and cheerfulness?
And whether any people upon earth can do more?
126 Whether they may not eat, drink, play, dress, visit, sleep in good beds, sit by good fires, build, plant, raise a name, make estates, and spend them?
127 Whether, upon the whole, a domestic trade may not suffice in such a country as Ireland, to nourish and clothe its inhabitants, and provide them with the reasonable conveniences and even comforts of life?
