With great respect to those-honourable persons, the committee of council in London, I have not understood them to be our governors, councillors, or judges. Neither did our case turn at all upon the question, whether Ireland wanted halfpence or no. For there is no doubt, but we do want both halfpence, gold, and silver; and we have numberless other wants, and some that we are not so much as allowed to name; although they are peculiar to this nation; to which no other is subject, whom God hath blessed with religion and laws, or any degree of soil and sunshine: But, for what demerits on our side, I am altogether in the dark.
But, I do not remember, that our want of halfpence was either affirmed, or denied in any of our addresses or declarations, against those of Wood: We alleged, the fraudulent obtaining and executing his patent, the baseness of his metal, the prodigious sum to be coined, which might be increased by stealth, from foreign importation and his own counterfeits, as well as those at home; whereby we must infallibly lose all our little gold and silver, and all our poor remainder of a very limited and discouraged trade: We urged, that the patent was passed without the least reference hither; and without mention of any security given by Wood, to receive his own halfpence upon demand; both which are contrary to all former proceedings in the like cases. These, and many other arguments we offered; but still the patent went on, and at this day our ruin would have been half completed; if God, in His mercy, had not raised an universal detestation of these halfpence, in the whole kingdom; with a firm resolution never to receive them; since we are not under obligations to do so by any law, either human or divine.
But, in the Name of God, and of all justice and piety; when the King's Majesty was pleased that this patent should pass; is it not to be understood, that he conceived, believed, and intended it as a gracious act, for the good and benefit of his subjects, for the advantage of a great and fruitful kingdom; of the most loyal kingdom upon earth, where no hand or voice was ever lifted up against him; a kingdom where the passage is not of three hours from Britain; and a kingdom where Papists have less power, and less land, than in England? Can it be denied, or doubted, that His Majesty's ministers understood and proposed the same end, the good of this nation, when they advised the passing this patent? Can the person of Wood be otherwise regarded, than as the instrument, the mechanic, the head-workman, to prepare his furnace, his fuel, his metal, and his stamps? If I employ a shoe-boy, is it in view to his advantage, or to my own convenience? I mention the person of William Wood alone, because no other appears, and we are not to reason upon surmises; neither would it avail, if they had a real foundation.