Ijgl' SILK REARED IN SCOTLAND. 2g 



art of cudng herrings, which had in the courfe of ages be- 

 come a fource of great wealth and profperity to the nation. 



Nor let thofe who have not turned their attention to mat- 

 ters of this nature, look upon this enterprife with any eye of 

 defpondence as a diflant eveat : — improvements, when once be- 

 gun upon rational foundations, advance with immenfe rapidity. 

 'It is not above fifteen or hxteen years, fmce the writer of this 

 article found a man, who, with much labour and ingenuity, 

 difcovered" a method of weaving a fmall web entirely of cotton, 

 fo fine as to be fit for being ufed as cravats. — This was thought 

 before that to be impoflTible, and it was looked upon as a great 

 curicfity — yet, fo rapid has the improvement in this refpeft 

 been, that Britifh nniflins are now brought into competition 

 with the finefl that have been m.ade in India ; and it has be. 

 come a great and growing manufacture, and an objedl of im- 

 menfe national importance. The late King of Pruflia, I have 

 already remarked, began to introduce the rearing of filk In his 

 dominions, about, as nearly as I can recolledt, the year i 760, 

 and he had the fatisfaftion to live to fee that it had beeome a 

 very great rational objeS. — His Prime Minifter, Count Hertz- 

 berg^ gives the following account of it in the year 1 785 : "• The 

 ''' lilk manufadures in Pruffia, fays he, employ more than 

 5000 perfons, who manufafture to the value of above two 

 millions, and who fabricated lafl year at Berlin^ 1,200,250 

 ells of ftufti, and 400,000 ells of gaufe : Ihey employed above 

 700,000 pounds of raw filk, of which a fixth part is already 

 the produce of the country. The produce of filk in the year 

 1784 in the Pruffian eflates, including Silefia, was 13,432!. 

 of which the great part is very fine, and equal to that of franco 

 and the ordinary filks of Italy. 



" What is laid above, only comprehends the manufactures 

 of Berlin and the Marc he : we have, belides thefe, at Crefeldt^ 

 in the principality of Meurs on the Rhine, tlie greateft and 

 the fineft filk manufacture perhaps in Europe. This eJtablillj- 

 anent was efJafted by the able and worthy mcrtliants the 

 Meffrs Layey-.s at their own ezpence — they there manufadfure 

 annually to the value of feveral millions of ecus of the bed 

 llufls, which they difpofc of to liic north, and even to the S*- 

 Taglio of Gonllantinople. — This manufafture, in which is em* 

 ployed five thoufand workmen, has given to the city of Cre- 

 feldt, formerly in-?(?i^fid;rabk', a population and neatnefs which 



