Why should the humour of our people in England so far engage them to an old custome of burying the dead in Linnen, as to contradict and disobey so good a Law as was lately made by Act of Parliament, for the burial of our dead in Woollen, doubtless there was reason enoug then produced in Parliament, to sway with the King and those two Honourable Houses for the Enacting the same, and whether it be not as decent to cover the dead Corps in Flannel, as it is with Linnen; beside the burial of the dead in Flannel will greatly advance the Manufacture of the Nation, and in reason advance the prizes of all other Woollen wares, and this Woollen Cloth is of our own production, and when we bury our people in Linnen, that causeth so much expence (for the generality) of the goods of other Countries; and whether it ought not to be considered, that the Law provided in this case, ought to be re-inforced.
Now to draw towards an end, I have met with an Objection to this Treatise, that it may be judged Superflous, because several Books are extant concerning this Subject; to which I Answer.
Though I have reason to beleive them that told me so, yet I do beleive that the Reader will find a great difference between this and any other, if they be compared together, and that in many respects.
And again I Answer, that the more Complaints are made, of the Abuses and great Losses to the Kingdome, so much the more ought all good men to enquire into the truth of those Complaints, and endeavour for sutable Remedies; in Tendency whereto, I have presented something here by way of Quære, &c.
And now methinks I hear some wise men say, that it is Reason that such abuses should be punished, and that severely, if any should presume to act such things, as are here complained of, or any waies vindicate those that do them; to the which I answer, that I wish that I were called to prove my knowledge of those things, without too much charge or Attendance, before any that should be appointed, to enquire into and to regulate the same, for I do not make it my business to set forth in this discourse the perticuler abuses of those Countrey Atturneys, Under-Clerks, Under-Sheriffs in their returns, and the abuses of their Officers, and the Assistance that some great Smugglers have, from some Magistrates and Justices of the Peace in the Countrey, together with the affronts that have been offered to our good Lawes, of which I have had a large and sad experience: And although our Lawes are good, and our Judges are just, yet the corruption in the practice of the Law, by under-Officers, is so exceeding bad and destructive to the Trade and publique good of the Kingdome, that in case I should perticularly recite those abuses that I my self have met with among the Practicers of the Law, I should fill a Book many times bigger than this.
And now I shall conclude, with the true and hearty wishes of an Englishman, that all our Ministers of State may so agree especially in this juncture of time, that they may unanimously joyn together, as one intire body, against all Intruders upon our Trade and Priveledges both at Sea and Land; that the Walls of this Kingdome may be built up and preserved, and our Tradeing may encrease and flourish, so that no cunning Usurpers may rob us of our old Prerogatives of the Seas, or the Manufacture of our native Trade upon the Land.
FINIS.
