FROM 1583 TO 1702. 83 



arrival, by warrant, to the place where he or she was last 

 legally settled, unless the person give sufficient security for 

 the discharge of the said parish. The incidence of the 

 poor-rate during the reign of Charles II is the explanation, 

 if not the apology, for this atrocious law, which confined the 

 workman to the place of his birth or other legal settlement. 

 The high rate of rental at which the intending settler was 

 rendered liable to removal, also seems to imply that the design 

 of the Act was to check commercial competition, a fact which is 

 further illustrated by the vigorous efforts of the say and bay 

 weavers to exclude rivals by establishing onerous conditions on 

 those who entered on the manufacture in Norwich or Colchester. 



As the scanty number of hearths to a house, especially in 

 the counties of Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, York, 

 Lancashire, and Lincoln, points to the backward condition 

 of these districts, for in each of them there is less than one 

 hearth and a-half to each house, so the number of such con- 

 veniences in Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Kent, and Sussex, where 

 more than two hearths are given to each house, indicates that 

 considerable progress was being made in those counties. In 

 Middlesex of course the number of hearths to a house is 

 highest, and in all likelihood, this county, including all London 

 north of the Thames, contained a population of about 500,000 

 persons ; and including Southwark, which in 1649 was reckoned 

 the third borough in opulence throughout the kingdom, 8,000 

 to 10,000 more might be added to the number. 



The population of London had for the times become con- 

 siderable, its activity incessant, its wealth such that it was 

 probably second among commercial cities to Amsterdam only. 

 But the health of the city was far from satisfactory. The 

 deaths, if one can infer from the Bills of Mortality published 

 by Houghton, considerably exceeded the births ; and if this 

 ftigent person is accurate in his figures, the population of 

 London was sustained only by constant immigration. It 

 was subject to frightful visitations of the plague, the disease 

 which first appeared in 1348. The most severe and deadly of 



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