Whether in all public institutions there should not be an end proposed, which is to be the rule and limit of the means? Whether this end should not be the well-being of the whole? And whether, in order to this, the first step should not be to clothe and feed our people?
Whether a general habit of living well would not produce numbers and industry and whether, considering the tendency of human kind, the consequence thereof would not be foreign trade and riches, how unnecessary soever [sic: so ever]?
Whether, upon the whole, a domestic trade may not suffice in such a country as Ireland, to nourish and clothe its inhabitants, and provide them with the reasonable conveniences and even comforts of life?