Foreigners were now driven out: Here is no Complaint brought against them; and yet the Evil was every Day encreafing. Nay, from the first Time Foreigners were put under fuch Reftraints and Difcouragements, the Country became apparently thinner of Inhabitants. And the Diminution of Inhabitants, much about this Juncture, is a Circumftance taken notice of by all Hiftorians, and even by the Statute Book. For Laws were made from

Time to Time, with an Intent to people the Country again. It was ordained, that all antient dwelling Houses, and Houses of Hufbandry, fhould be kept in good Repair: No Arable Land was permitted to be converted into Pasture: The Number of Farms, which any Person was suffered to hold, was limited, as was alfo the Number of Sheep he was allowed to keep: Upon which laft Article, I remember to have read fomewhere in Bishop Latimer, that the Sheep, tho' mild Animals, had deyoured more Men in England, than the most ravenous Beafts of Prey. He meant, that Agriculture was neglected, the Towns and Villages forfaken, and nothing to be seen, but a few Shepherds with large Flocks of Sheep.

IT is eafy to perceive, that these Laws did not reach the Root of the Evil, and could have very little Effect in removing the real Caufe of Complaint. But the English were refolved to try all Expedients, rather than admit the F 2 Perfons,

Perfons, against whom the national Prejudice was raised fo high. Nay, in the very midst of the Calamities of the Kingdom, the Citizens of London gave a new Specimen of their hereditary Hatred against the few Foreigners that remained, and obtained a fevere Decree in the Star-Chamber, the twenty firft of Henry VIII. to put all the penal Laws in Force against them. They took Care to exaggerate every Circumftance, and reprefented the Realm to be overrun with foreign Manufacturers; which, if true, muft have contradicted all that had been faid before, concerning the general Decay of Trade, the Depopulation of the Towns and Villages, and the running into Decay of the Farm Houfes. But the Truth is, they longed to recover the Monopoly they had loft by the nineteenth of Henry VII. c. 6. and therefore began, as ufual, with making their first Attack upon Foreigners or Aliens; in which they were fure to do an acceptable Thing to the reft of the Kingdom. Their Views will best appear, by producing fome of the Articles of their lamentable Bill of Complaint (these are their very Words) viz. " That Aliens, not "born within the King's Obeyfance, exported "Bacon, Cheese, Powdered Reef, Mutton, " and other Commodities of this Realm;" and that by the continual Recourse of Stran"gers Handicraftsmen, great Portions of Corn " and Victual, grown and bred within the "Realm, were confumed." To which, and

the

the like deftructive Caufes, they imputed many tragical Events; fuch as that "the English "Artificers, for lack of Occupation, be con"ftrained to live in Idlenefs, by Occafion "whereof they do continually fall to Theft, "Murder, and other great Offences, and con

fequently, in great Numbers be Numbers be put to Death c by the Laws." And with equal Juftice, the great Numbers condemned at present in every Seffions at the Old Bailey, may afcribe their Deaths to the fame Caufe:-And probably would have done it, if the Opponents of the late Naturalization Bill had been fo happy as to have suggested the Thought to them.

THUS Things went on, from bad to worse, till there were scarce any Remains of the Clothing Trade left in England. Foreigners being expelled, and no Recruits fuffered to come in, the native English foon commenced Monopolifts, and rofe the Price of their Manufactures upon their Fellow Subjects, which was attended with three very fatal Confequences, viz. 1. The Cloth, imported from abroad, could be had at a cheaper Rate than what was made at home; and whofoever fells cheapest, be he Foreigner or Native, will always have the Preference at Market. 2. The English Journeymen, and lower Manufacturers, who had been the most noify in their Clamours against Foreigners, being now deftitute of Work at home, were glad to retire to Foreign Coun

tries,

tries to feek for Employment. They then found to their Coft, that the Expulfion of Foreigners was the Caufe of taking the Bread out of their Mouths, not the Admiffion of them. 3. The Confumption of Provifions growing lefs every Day on thefe Accounts, there was no Encouragement to the Farmers and the landed Gentlemen to raise any Thing, but numerous Flocks of Sheep, which they were fure would turn to good Account by the Demand for Wool in Flanders.

AND fo great was the Decay of the Woollen, and all other Manufactures, that the very Remembrance seems to have been loft among us. For moft Perfons ufually fuppofe, that these Arts had gained little or no Footing in England, till the Reign of Queen Elizabeth; whereas, in fact, he was only the Reviver of them, by pursuing, or rather by not oppofing the Plan laid down fo long before, by Edward III. And it hath been fully fhewn, in the Course of this Narrative, that many Years before her Reign, the Woollen Manufacture had been confidered as the ftaple Commodity of the Kingdom, which employed vaft Numbers of People in the feveral Branches of it.

BUT having brought Matters to this Period, I must here obferve, that we owed the Revival of our Mercantile Knowledge, and that we ought to ascribe the great Progrefs which

hath

hath been made in the Arts of Commerce, more to the Perfecution by the Duke D'Alva, who acted upon Principles, in all refpects oppofite to the former Counts of Flanders, than to any found Policy of the English Nation. For though Queen Elizabeth, and before her, King Edward VI. did really receive the Refugees in an hofpitable Manner, yet it doth not appear, that the Majority of the Kingdom were in a right Difpofition to have invited them over, as foreign Workmen and Artificers. Indeed, an Increase of Trade was the Confequence of their coming, but that did not feem to be the National End aimed at in receiving them. The Reformation was then in its Infancy, and its Friends were defirous of having their Hands ftrengthened by the Acceffion of foreign Proteftants; many of whom were Men of Letters, and greatly ferviceable in carrying on the Work of the Reformation. The Government likewife had every Thing to fear, both from the Murmurs and Counfels of the Papifts at home, and the Power of the Pope abroad; and was glad of this Opportunity of encreafing the Number of Subjects, whofe Principles and Intereft were thoroughly connected with it. The long Wars, and bloody Perfecutions in the Netherlands, drove the People to feek for Shelter in England, a Country they would hardly have thought of retiring to (as knowing the inherent Antipathy of the Natives against Strangers, especially Artifans, Mer

chants,