I could repeat many such particular grievances, which must disturb a body politic.  To shut up all in brief, where good government is, prudent and wise princes, there all things thrive and prosper, peace and happiness is in that land:  where it is otherwise, all things are ugly to behold, incult, barbarous, uncivil, a paradise is turned to a wilderness.  This island amongst the rest, our next neighbours the French and Germans, may be a sufficient witness, that in a short time by that prudent policy of the Romans, was brought from barbarism; see but what Caesar reports of us, and Tacitus of those old Germans, they were once as uncivil as they in Virginia, yet by planting of colonies and good laws, they became from barbarous outlaws, [529]to be full of rich and populous cities, as now they are, and most flourishing kingdoms.  Even so might Virginia, and those wild Irish have been civilised long since, if that order had been heretofore taken, which now begins, of planting colonies, &c.  I have read a [530]discourse, printed anno 1612.  “Discovering the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued, or brought under obedience to the crown of England, until the beginning of his Majesty’s happy reign.”  Yet if his reasons were thoroughly scanned by a judicious politician, I am afraid he would not altogether be approved, but that it would turn to the dishonour of our nation, to suffer it to lie so long waste.  Yea, and if some travellers should see (to come nearer home) those rich, united provinces of Holland, Zealand, &c., over against us; those neat cities and populous towns, full of most industrious artificers, [531]so much land recovered from the sea, and so painfully preserved by those artificial inventions, so wonderfully approved, as that of Bemster in Holland, ut nihil huic par aut simile invenias in toto orbe, saith Bertius the geographer, all the world cannot match it, [532]so many navigable channels from place to place, made by men’s hands, &c. and on the other side so many thousand acres of our fens lie drowned, our cities thin, and those vile, poor, and ugly to behold in respect of theirs, our trades decayed, our still running rivers stopped, and that beneficial use of transportation, wholly neglected, so many havens void of ships and towns, so many parks and forests for pleasure, barren heaths, so many villages depopulated, &c.  I think sure he would find some fault.

I may not deny but that this nation of ours, doth bene audire apud exteros, is a most noble, a most flourishing kingdom, by common consent of all [533]geographers, historians, politicians, ’tis unica velut arx, [534]and which Quintius in Livy said of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus, may be well applied to us, we are testudines testa sua inclusi, like so many tortoises in our shells, safely defended by an angry sea, as a wall on all sides.  Our island hath many such honourable eulogiums; and as a learned countryman of ours right well hath