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The cradle of the first generations was Asia; later races, and, with them, higher mental culture, sprung up on the southern shores of the Mediterranean, whence they crossed to the north; and Greece had the precedency of Rome, because her soil and climate were more favourable to youthful society than those of Italy. From Italy, again, at two different periods, the social arts spread themselves to the north; and France, not only because her natural circumstances were more capable of providing for the early wants of men, but as situated nearer to the source of improvement, had the priority of this island in the career of mind. But, as necessity is ever more powerful than example, and as greater obstacles, when not insuperable, always stimulate to greater exertions, it follows that, when the immediate wants of the inhabitants of the north are supplied, the ingenuity which was awakened in satisfying them is exercised upon other objects, and becomes a source of higher improvement than could be attained by men who, from their outset in life, have revelled in enjoyment. Thus Egypt, Greece, Italy, France, England succeeded each other in social progress, in periods nearly proportionate to the advantages which nature had bestowed upon the soil and climate of each; but the value of the civilization which they have enjoyed has been in a ratio as nearly inverse. The Greeks were far superior to their massive predecessors, not only in all the beautiful arts and accomplishments of life, but in philosophy and reason. The Romans, inferior to the Greeks in many respects, rose far above them in an art before which sculpture, painting, poetry, nay speculative philosophy itself must bow-the art of creating the greatest empire of the world from the smallest beginning, and of giving that empire longer freedom than the pettiest states have known. When social improvement flourished anew, after the dark ages, France was more tardy than Italy; but she had not long begun to advance before she outstripped her in useful industry, and composed a larger and a finer empire, one more swayed by reason, even than the spiritual realm of St. Peter. Last of all, necessarily came England; but the mental power which has been there developed exceeds all that antiquity, or even more modern ages, could have dreamed of. In every department of intellect, if it be but useful, Britain has no rival among nations; and she has opened and explored more new regions of thought in every direction than all the rest of the world since the restoration of knowledge.

At what period, or at what precise degree of social improvement the tardier nations begin to take a lead, may not easily be determined but, with respect to England, we have already shown in this article, that, in policy at least, she had the priority of France by more than one century and a half, at the epocha of our

Magna

Magna Charta. In other branches the genius of Britain was celebrated by the earliest Romans who visited the island; and, under the emperor Constantius Chlorus, the mechanical arts were so much superior to those of Gaul, that her architects and artifi cers were employed to repair the ruined fortresees upon the Rhine. But this advantage was soon lost when more barbarous invaders overran the country. A similar superiority was remarked by the Romans in the agriculture of Gaul; but as the German nations held this art in contempt, it declined after the irruption of the Franks. Thus then, even at this remote period, the career of both nations was marked out by their natural circumstances; and the advantageous territory and climate of France disposed her principally to the cultivation of the soil; while other wants and other opportunities determined the British to addict themselves to other arts, even more than to agriculture.

The further progress of these two nations was determined by the circumstances which act in general throughout the world: and the severer climate of England required harder labour than the fertility and warmth of France. In the former, industry at once assumed a character of utility which it wanted in the latter; and the luxury which there began to flourish at a much more early period, here gained footing only when the most imperious necessities were satisfied. The later developement of British industry was accompanied by the highest reach of intellectual civilization; and was incorporated with every branch of prosperity; but the industry of France was too much connected with ostentation and selfish enjoyment, to produce such enlarged advantages. In disproving the assertion of M. Dupin, we shall particularly attend to these distinctions; and consider the relative progress of both empires, not only as greater the one than the other, but as characteristic.

One of the earliest wants of men is clothing; the materials principally used for this purpose are wool, cotton, linens and silk. Now those which suit the wants of a northern climate are the two first; whilst the latter, but particularly silk, are appropriate to the demands of the south. An inquiry into the progress of these manufactures will, then, throw considerable light upon the present subject.

The first great historical encouragement given to the woollen manufactures of this country was in the reign of Edward III. though their introduction was prior to this period. The Romans, we are told by Camden, had a cloth manufactory at Winchester, and, under William the Conqueror, a body of Flemish weavers, expelled from home by an irruption of the sea, settled in this island. In the reigns of Henry I. and of Henry II. several privileges were granted to cloth-weavers; and, under Henry III. regulations

lations were made respecting broad-cloths, russets, &c. The office of aulnager is mentioned by Maddox, as existing in the time of Edward I; and thus the very early establishment of woollen manufactures is proved, although, under the Norman race, a common clothing still was leather. But, in 1331, John Kemp, with seventy Walloon families, was invited into England; and Kendal was the metropolis of this branch of industry. Many other towns, as Norwich, Sudbury, Colchester, and York had their own manufactories; and woollens were spun and wove in Devonshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Berkshire, Sussex and Wales.

A table of what the exports and imports of woollen goods were about the middle of the fourteenth century, and not more than twenty years after the arrival of the Flemish artificers, will show the progress which this manufacture had made in a very short time.

EXPORTS.

Thirty-one thousand six hundred and fifty-one sacks
and a half of wool at £6 value each sack,
Three thousand thirty-six hundred and sixty-five felts
at 40s. value, each hundred at six score,
Whereof the custom amounts to

Fourteen last, seventeen dicher and five hides of leather,
after six pounds value the last, amount to
Whereof the custom amounts to

4,774 after 40s value is

8,061 of worsted after 16s. 8d. value the piece is Whereof the custom amounts to

Summary of the outcarried commodities in value

and custom,

IMPORTS.

1,832 cloths after £6 value each,

Whereof the custom amounts to

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}£294,184 17-2

397 quintals of wax after the value of 40s. the quintal, Whereof the custom is

6829 tons of wine after 40s. per ton,

Whereof the custom is

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Linen cloth, mercury, grocery wares and all other man

ner of merchandize,

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Whereof the custom is

285 18 3

Summary of the inbrought commodities,

£38,970 13 3

Summary of the surplus of the outcarried above the inbrought commodities amounteth to

255,214 3 11

It is remarkable that the value of the imported cloth, per piece, is here three times as great as that of the exported; and it may be inferred that the quality was also superior. It appears then that the fabrication of coarse cloths exclusively occupied the manufacturers of Britain, while the finer cloths were still imported from abroad; that is to say, that hitherto the wants of the people were the regulator of British industry.

But the manufactories of England were not yet sufficiently extensive to employ all the wool produced there; and much was still exported unwrought. They increased however; and, early in the reign of Edward IV. the importation of woollen cloth, caps, &c. was prohibited. The civil wars were of course prejudicial to them; but Henry VII. did more toward their prosperity than any of his predecessors, and gave them greater vigour than they ever had before. Fine cloths, in particular, seem to have been much improved about his time; neither was the end of the fifteenth century too early a period for the introduction of a little luxury into a branch of industry which had so long been devoted to comfort. The ostentatious reign of Henry VIII. gave a further impulse to the woollen trade; even in 1512, the cloth which but fifty years before was sold for forty shillings, was worth four and five marks; and a similar variation took place in the price of labour, so much had the demand increased, in consequence of increasing population, wealth and consumption. Beside the exports to Flanders, English cloth found its way to Holland, Hamburgh, Sweden and Russia; countries where the coarser and the warmer stuffs were the most necessary.

The protestants who fled from the persecutions of the Duke of Alva, in the Low Countries, brought a considerable accession of industry to England; and the woollen manufactures, together with all that related to them, became more flourishing than ever. Queen Elizabeth extended her strong protection to them; insomuch that, although, in 1552, a large quantity of the raw material was exported, in less than thirty years Germany, Poland, France, Flanders, Denmark and Sweden were overrun with British cloths. The price had nearly tripled; yet two hundred thousand pieces were annually exported to those countries.

The processes by which woollens are rendered beautiful were not yet performed in England; and a part of the operation was reserved for the Netherlands. Much of our exports consisted in white undressed cloth; and the profits upon dyeing and finishing, amounting as it was stated to a million a year, were lost to us. The exportation of white cloths was therefore prohibited; but the Dutch and the Germans forbad the entrance of any English woollens dyed in the piece, into their states. The export then

fell

fell immediately from 200,000 to 60,000, when it was found necessary to take off the restriction. This circumstance gave rise to the fabrication of what was termed medley cloths, or mixtures of wool dyed of different colours, and wrought into the same web. The Long Parliament still further promoted this manufacture; and the law enjoining the exclusive use of woollens in burials gave it fresh activity. The processes of dyeing and dressing were improved; and, in 1699, the quantity of manufactured cloth was estimated at eight millions, of which three-fourths were the price of labour. One-half of this quantity was exported; and thus did the woollen trade of England exhibit a very different appearance from what it wore when Flanders absorbed the whole raw material of the country. Neither can this success be ascribed to the prohibitory laws which were repeatedly enacted; but to the general expansion of industry, knowledge, and of that exalted civilization which creates and satisfies the noblest wants.

The following century witnessed a still more astonishing increase of this commodity. Some documents addressed to parliament in the year 1739, assert that one million and a half of British subjects were employed in this manufacture; now allowing to each workman the very moderate pay of 81. per annnm, the sum total of their stipends is twelve millions. But to this must be added, according to the proportion first stated between the material and the labour, four millions for the former: the total value then of cloths manufactured in that year was sixteen millions sterling; and therefore the woollen manufactures had exactly doubled between the years 1699 and 1739, that is to say, in the first forty years of the last century. But, in another period of equal duration, comprising thirty-one years of the last and nine of the present century, when the machinery invented by Arkwright, and used in the cotton manufactories, was, with other improvements, applied to the fabrication of wool, they became more than three times as extensive; and it is no exaggeration to say that, during the eighteenth century our woollen manufactures had increased in the proportion of six to one, and that the time which has elapsed since its conclusion has evinced a similar tendency.We know that M. Dupin's strictures do not fairly go farther back than the year 1770; but we could not resist the temptation of the present statement, though without any reference to him.

A part of the advantage derived from the application of machinery to this branch of industry may be learned from a statement made by his majesty's attorney general before parliament, in the year 1800, that one million and a half of persons were employed in the woollen manufactures of England, the same number as in the year 1739. But, during that time, the produce had been

tripled;

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