REASONS Humbly offered against The SALT-PETRE Bill, Which is for Importing Petre for one Year, Paying the old Duty( 5 l. per Tun) and Selling the King at 75 l. per Tun, notwithstanding the Act of Navigation.  
1. THE Crown hath no necessity for this Bill, for the Stores at present are furnished, and if they should be exhausted they may be supplied from Holland without this Bill; and therefore the Officers of the Ordnance( who are not Members of the Honourable House of Commons) do declare that this Bill is a Mystery to them.  
2. This Bill is not for the Interest of the Crown for want of a high Impost, whereby the Crown might import it under 75 l. per Tun.  
But to Stave off an Impost the poor tradesman are made Petitioners, and it is observable that this Petition did not come into the House until the first Case was Printed against this Bill: In which an Impost was proposed, which was generally approved of; insomuch that the solicitors for the Bill, durst not proceed in it till they had got the Tradesmens Petition to offer against an Imposition; because they say, that tho' an Imposition makes it cheap to the Crown, yet it makes it dearer to the Subjects. But this is a Fallacy too, for if the Bill passes without an Impost, it raises Petre in Holland as much as the Impost comes to; and if it Passes with an Impost, it falls the Price as much as the Impost comes to; as for Example, if this Bill Passes without a New Impost, it is expected that Petre will be in Holland, at Eighty or Ninety Pounds per Tun; and if it Passes with a New Impost of Thirty pound per Tun, it will be Sold there under Sixty Pound, and then the Crown of England will receive Thirty Pound: So that the Bill without an Impost, gives the Thirty Pound per Tun to the Dutch, and with an Impost to the Crown of England; which will make no difference in the Price to any English Subject, except the solicitors of this Bill, for such Quantities as they have already bought; and it is not expected from them, that they will afford these tradesman this Petre as cheap as they can; but that they endeavour by this Bill to disable all others to buy so cheap as they have done.  
And if the Petitioners against this Bill might be heard, it would appear, that the Tradesmens pretences are frivolous and false; and that Salt-Petre is a very inconsiderable ingredient in any of their Trades, for the Diers who use most( and therefore are set in the Front of the Petition) use it only in Bow-dies, and there are not above ten in the Kingdom who die that Colour; and for every twenty Shillings worth of Salt-Petre which they use, they use twenty Pounds worth of Cocheneal, which is a Commodity prohibited by the same Act of Navigation, and by means thereof, is now at twice the Price in England as in Holland, and yet these Diers don't complain for want of Cocheneal; nor did they know their want of Petre, till the solicitors of the Bill  told them, and there are twenty other Commodities, which( by Reason of the same Act of Navigation) are now at twice the Price in England as they are in Holland; and had the solicitors of this Bill bought up as great Quantities of any of those other Commodities in Holland, as they have of Salt-Petre, they might have had as many Pretences and Petitioners for importing them, as they have for the Passing of this Bill; which if it doth pass, is to the Discouragement of all other English Subjects and Traders; who depend upon the Laws in being, and lay out their moneys and Trade accordingly; and if such fundamental Statutes as the Act of Navigation may be repealed on a sudden, by the instance of two or three Men, no Man can be safe in his dealings; and upon the Confidence of this Act, the East-India Company and Interlopers, have given out larger Commissions for Petre than ever they did before, and several Private Gentlemen in England have laid out above five thousand Pound apiece in Order to make Salt-Petre in England, and tho' they can't give Security to furnish the Crown, yet by this, and the expectance of the return of the East-India Ships, the Kingdom hath a greater expectance and Security for Petre, than ever it had before; and the solicitors of the Bill are ware of this, and therefore Press this Bill for one Year, in which they'll accomplish all their private ends, and occasion the carrying out from hence of a above hundred thousand Pounds to the Dutch, only to save a few tradesman a little Money in the Price of Salt-Petre, by which they lose nothing, thô the Price were higher than it is, for they are repaid it in the Sale of their Commodities. And by such means, the Dutch( by Computation of the Exchanges between England and Holland) have already, since the War, drawn from hence above three Millons of our Money upon the balance of Trade, and we are daily running in their Debt, by owing them our Money for their Commodities: And this Bill by discouraging all other Means of supplying the Nation with Petre, will put us under a Future Necessity of being beholden to the Dutch for our Stores, at what Rates they please.   

Against the Salt-Petre Bill.