England's improvements in two parts : in the former is discoursed how the kingdom of England may be improved ... : in the latter is discoursed how the navigation of England may be increased and the soveraignty of the British seas more secured to the crown of England ... / by Roger Coke.

Annot.

And if it may preserve the Timber of England, I am sure it is more than time the English were permitted to buy

Ships in all other Trades but the Newcastle, East-Indie, and Turkie Trades: for by reason the Act of Navigation con∣fines the English to Trade and make Returns into the Ports of England only in English-built Ships; the English have not only not been able to build one ship for the Norway-trade for Timber, or the forrein Trade of white Herring or Cod caught upon the Coasts of England and Scotland, since the Rump-Parliament contrived the Act of Navigation, but to maintain the niggardly Trades we now drive; wherein upon the matter we consume all the Returns of our Manufactures, and the Product of our Plantations: The Timber of England is so wasted, that in any conveni∣ent distances for building Ships, there is not ¼ of Timber left standing, as was when the Rump-Parliament invented this Law. See more hereof, in the Annot. upon the 10, 11, 12 and 13 Propositions of The equal Danger of the Church, State, and Trade of England.

I have with as much Zeal endeavoured, yet without suc∣cess, to represent this to the Parliament, and the dire Conse∣quences of it, so far as I understood the Timber of England to be wasted upon the Coasts of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Es∣sex. And being last Easter-Eve was twelvemonth at Bristol, some Gentleman and I went to see the Oxford Frigat, then ready to be Lanched, and built by Captain Baily (a very Civil person, and I believe an excellent Builder.) After some discourse, I asked him if English Timber were plentiful in the West of England; and he told me, he with great diffi∣culty got Timber to build this Frigat; and that in building the Edgar-frigat, he bought the Timber twelve miles beyond Worcester, which is 50 miles from Bristol. I then asked him, what he thought of the State of the Nation, as it now stands, in reference to the Navigation of it, in English-built Ships, whenas the Ring with such difficulty built one Man of War: he told me, it was impossible to be continued, and that he had more reason than another to know it; for be∣sides his long being accqstiomed to build Ships, he had order from the King to survey his Western and Southern Forests, and to return an Account of it to the King himself. I

thanked him, and told him I was equally sorry with him for the condition of the Nation, yet was glad a man of his Knowledge and Experience had the same apprehensions as I had; though with all the Sollicitations I could use, I was so far from getting relief to the Nation herein, as that I could not get the Apprehensions he had herein, to be received by the Parliament.