declared object was the encouragement of home manufactures, and to restrain the growing vanity of the lower classes of the people. This statute, which affords evidence of the increasing intelligence and growing comforts of the middle class of English citizens, enacts, "That whoever shall wear silk in or upon his or her hat, bonnet, or girdle, scabbard, hose, shoes, or spur leather, shall be imprisoned during three months, and forfeit ten pounds;" excepting from this restraint magistrates of corporations, and all other persons of still higher condition. In the first year of the reign of James I. this absurd statute was repealed.

Guicciardini, in his description of the Netherlands, gives a long account of the prosperity of the city of Antwerp in the middle of the sixteenth century, which shows the great trade then existing in silk, and points out the countries which exported or imported that article. The merchants of Antwerp exchanged at Bologna their own serges and other stuffs, tapestries, linens, merceries, &c. for wrought silks, cloth of gold and silver, crapes, &c. To Venice they sent jewels and pearls, and the cloth and wool of England, and received in return the finest and richest wrought silks, &c. Naples took from them cloths of their own and of English manufacture, stuffs, tapestries, &c., and returned raw, thrown, and wrought silks, &c. Sicily obtained from them serges, cloths, &c. and paid for them in cotton, silk, &c. The consignments of Milan were pepper, sugar, &c. ; the returns, wrought silks. To Florence and Genoa, woollen stuffs, English wool, &c.: the imports from the first of these places were very fine wrought silk; and from Genoa, other wrought silks, satins, and velvet.

It would naturally be imagined, from this view of the trade of Antwerp, that its citizens were extremely partial to garments of silk, and that these formed a common article of their dress; but of all which they thus received in such profusion, no part was appropriated to their own use. "Never any country," said Sir William Temple, "traded so much, and consumed so little. They buy infinitely, but it is to sell again. They are the great masters of Indian spices and Persian silks, yet wear plain linen, and feed upon their own fish and roots; they sell the finest of their own cloth to France, and buy coarse cloth out of England for their own wear: they send abroad the best of their own butter, and buy the cheapest out of Ireland or the north of England for their own use. In short, they furnish infinite luxury which they never practise, and traffic in pleasures they never taste."

It is related by Howell, in his "History of the World,"

that queen Elizabeth, in the third year of her reign (1560,) was gratified by being presented with a pair of knit black silk stockings by Mrs. Montague, her silk-woman, at which she was so much delighted that she never afterwards condescended to wear those of cloth. It might have been supposed that Elizabeth's inordinate fondness for dress would have induced her to give every encouragement to the manufacture of so elegant a fabric as silk: it does not, however, appear that much progress was made in it during her reign. Content, probably, with her own acquisition, she might be desirous that the more becoming silken texture should remain a regal privilege; and while she displayed her own ancles in the delicate silken knit, was, perhaps, well pleased that her maids of honor should conceal theirs under the clumsy and inelegant cloth hose, lest, haply, among these some might have been found rather more beautifully formed than her own,

Henry VIII., that magnificent and expensive prince, could not in this respect indulge his vanity as successfully as his daughter, and was obliged to wear cloth hose, except when, by great chance, he was able to obtain a pair of silk stockings for gala days from Spain. Sir Thomas Gresham presented Edward VI. with a pair of long Spanish silk stockings; and, from their rarity, this offering was deemed worthy of much notice.

The city of Antwerp, having been taken after an obstinate resistance, in the year 1585, by the duke of Parma, then governor of the Spanish Netherlands, it was consigned during three days to indiscriminate plunder and destruction. Its ruin was a death-blow to the commerce of the Low Countries, and the noble manufactures of Flanders and Brabant were dispersed into various countries. About a third part of the artisans and merchants who wrought and dealt in silk took refuge in England, where they finally settled, and taught those arts by which they had long prospered in their native land.

By these means the manufacture was very materially im proved in England, and became one of national importance, so as to be the object of royal proclamations and legislative enactments for its regulation. For a long time, however, foreign silk goods continued to be preferred in this country; and in the year 1668 the tide of fashion set entirely in favor of French fabrics; so that it became a complaint that " the women's hats were turned into hoods made of French silk, whereby every maid-servant became a standing revenue to the French king of one half of her wages,"

Notwithstanding this predilection for foreign goods, which may have existed independently of their merits when compared with English fabrics, that which was foreign being chosen merely because it was foreign-a sort of preference which is not, perhaps, without a parallel in even this more rational age, notwithstanding this, the English manufacture has gone on steadily advancing in quality and amount, so as to afford one of the most striking instances on record, in which an art, borrowed from other nations, and employed on a material of entirely foreign growth, has been made at least to equal, if it does not surpass, the productions of those countries from which it was derived.

At the close of the sixteenth century, the English, who had previously been content to adopt the inventions and the plans of others, began upon that course of mechanical improvement, which has since been prosecuted to such import ant results. An engine for knitting or weaving stockings was at that time inverted by the Rev. William Lea, of St. John's College, Cambridge, which was important, not only as it enabled our ancestors to discard their former inelegant hose, but likewise as it caused the English manufactures to excel all of foreign production, and to be sought after accordingly. The invention of this stocking frame enabled the manufacturer to export vast quantities of silk hose to Italy. These maintained their superiority for so long a period, that Keysler, in his Travels through Europe, as late as the year 1730, remarks, that "at Naples, when a tradesman would highly recommend his silk stockings, he protests they are right English."

The success attendant upon Mr. Lea's invention was not, however, immediately consequent upon its introduction. On the contrary, the small use made of stockings in England at that time caused the machine to be long neglected; and so small was the encouragement which he met with at home, that Mr. Lea was led to comply with the invitation of Henry IV. of France, and, accompanied by several journeymen, established his looms for a time at Rouen, in Normandy. The subsequent assassination of his royal patron, and the consequent internal troubles of France, compelled him, however, to abandon this establishment; and falling into a state of destitution, he soon after died in Paris.

CHAP. III.

HISTORY OF SILK CONTINUED

ATTEMPTS TO NATURALIZE THE

SILKWORM IN DIFFERENT COUNTRIES.

Extension of the Culture in France by Henry IV,-Efforts of James I. to promote the same object in England.-His Failure.-Partial and temperary Success in American Colonies.-Renewal of the Attempt in England, -Signal success in India.-Exertions of the Russian Government.-Silk produced in Bavaria.-In Prussia.-In the Mauritius.-Notice of an Attempt in Sweden.-Formation of a Silk Company in England.-Endeavor to produce Silk in Ireland.-This Attempt abandoned.-Hopes of Success in Malta.-Recent Attempt at St. Helena.

NEARLY at the close of the sixteenth century, the attention of Henry IV. of France was particularly turned towards enlarging the silk manufactures in his kingdom. The silkworm and the mulberry tree had been previously propagated in the Lyonnois, Dauphiné, Provence, and Languedoc; but the king now naturalized the insect as far north as Orleans, and brought silk to be a very general manufacture in France.

There had been no silk manufactories in Paris until the Parisians were encouraged by him to form establishments for this purpose. The letters-patent which the king granted on this occasion are remarkable, as they conferred on success and perseverance in this pursuit no smaller rewards than titles of nobility. These were bestowed upon the first manufacturers, on condition that they should support the manufac ture for twelve years. The ambition of sundry good citizens seems strongly to have excited them to weave, in this novel manner, the silken web of their exaltation; and the manufacture speedily flourished.

Mezeray says, that Henry also planted mulberry trees near Paris, and attempted to breed silkworms at the Tuileries, Fontainebleau, and the castle of Madrid.

These efforts appeared for a time to be attended with suc cess; but later experience has shown that the silkworm cannot be profitably propagated in any place north of the river Loire. The climate in the neighborhood of Paris is decidedly unfavorable to the attempt. The labors of the insect have, for a long period, been again confined to those departments of the south, whence Henry sought to colonize his more northern provinces.

The cultivation of the mulberry tree in France has been represented as occurring so early as the beginning of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Charles VIII., and its intro

duction ascribed to some of the nobles who accompanied that monarch in his Italian campaign. Other authorities as confidently assert that Sicily was the country whence the mulberry was first transplanted into France. However this may have been, its cultivation was at first confined to Provence, and was not even there attended with much success until the time of Henry IV.

In his endeavors to promote in every possible manner the production of silk in his dominions, this king offered great encouragement to the cultivators of mulberry trees, and established nurseries whence young trees were freely given to such landed proprietors as chose to apply for them.

Great anxiety has, at various times, been shown by the French government for the extension of this culture; but the greatest wisdom has not been always evinced in the choice of means for attaining their object. Colbert, minister of Louis XIV., in his impatience to increase the production of silk, did not content himself with merely giving trees from the royal nurseries, but also caused them to be removed and planted at the government expense. This over-degree of liberality, however, defeated its object. The trees thus easily acquired were but little valued, and were either fatally neg lected or wilfully destroyed by the peasantry. The error of the government was by this means soon made apparent, and a plan much more rational and efficacious was adopted. A reward of three livres was offered to the cultivator for every tree that should be found in a thriving condition three years after it had been planted. Thus stimulated, the cultivation was conducted with greater carefulness, and Provence, Languedoc, Dauphiné, Vivarais, Lyonnois, Gascony, and Saintonge became speedily covered with mulberry trees, although the production of silk was confined to the four first-named of these provinces.

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The degree of success which attended the efforts of the French monarch to extend in his kingdom the production of silk, excited in James I. of England an active zeal for its introduction into this country. This object appears to have been a favorite with him, as he took great interest in stimu❤ lating his subjects to reduce it to practice. Having seen," says king James, "that in a few years' space our brother the French king hath, since his coming to that crown, both begun and brought to perfection the making of silk in his country, whereby he has won to himself honor, and to his subjects a marvellous increase of wealth."*-After which preamble,

* Harleian Miscellany, vol. ii.