The Case of Ireland's Being Bound by Acts of Parliament Made in England
In Ireland, the English Protestant gentry wielded total power over the landless Catholic Irish peasants. At every corner, there were new impositions, usually revenue-gathering ones. The Cattle Act, first introduced in 1663, was but one; its effect being to cut Irish livestock exports. In 1663 and 1670, British navigation acts decreed that all Irish goods destined for America were to be carried in English ships. Dublin-born William Molyneaux (1656-1698), who is claimed to be the founder of modern science in Ireland, argued in the treatise displayed that it was against reason and the common rights of mankind that Ireland should be bound by English acts of parliament.