Penny Dreadfuls, 1736 · page 11 of 16
Thoughts on Trade — page 11: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a page of running prose from what appears to be a petition or appeal document addressed to Parliament. The visible text argues for measures to prevent Irish depopulation and reduce Irish immigration to England, describing the severe poverty of Irish poor living in hovels without proper food or furnishings. The page then shifts to a separate petition addressed to Parliament's members, arguing that early European practitioners of distillation would not have blamed spirituous liquors for society's wickedness, and therefore (the argument continues on the next page) the British distillery industry deserves support. The text employs 18th-century typography and spelling conventions.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
7 “°° ~ Oe betes €D oo for ‘Trifles: May not thefe ‘Things comepro- perly before a Britifh Parliament, to pre- vent the farther Depopulatin Ireland, and the Increafing the great Number of Jri/p al- ready in England The Dwellings of thefe. moft miferable Poor are in Hutts, Cells and Caves; no Houthold Furniture, and often not Straw or Ferne to repofe on ; their Food is Roots, no Bread, Milk, Butter, Cheefe, EBS Fleth, Fifh or Fowl, or even Salt, and their Drink Water: Can there be room farther to _re- {train the Induftry of fuch Deplorables 2 Zo the Right Honourable and Honourable the Kuights, Citizens and Burgeffes im Parliament Affembled, an hu ppli- cation in Favour of the Britifb Difillery Rt. Hon, and Hon. Gentlemen, Did the Italians, Spantards, Germans, French and Dutch, the firft Encouragers of the Art of Diftillation, believe the Wicked- nefs of the Age was the Effeéts of the Con- {umption of Spirituous Liquors, certainly the a fome where would have been furpreis’d: Therefore as We, as° well B 2 | as