150 . NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



not see that their standing armies are supported only to 

 keep them in perpetual slavery, and that in abolishing their 

 system of hired soldiery they would, at the same time, in- 

 sure the death of tyrants, and bring the resurrection-day of 

 the oppressed nations! 



Many years ago England adopted a ruinous policy in rais- 

 ing immoderately high the duties upon imported raw silk, 

 thinking thus to enforce its domestic production ; but the 

 stoppage of all the silk manufactories was the only result. 

 James I. was very solicitous to introduce the breeding of 

 silk-worms into England, and, in a speech from the throne, 

 he earnestly recommended his subjects to plant mulberry- 

 trees for this purpose ; but the project was a total failure. 

 That country does not seem to be well adapted to this spe- 

 cies of husbandry, on account of the great prevalence of 

 blighting east winds during the months of April and Ma} r , 

 when the young worms require a plentiful supply of mul- 

 berry-leaves. The manufacture of silk goods, however, 

 made great progress during that king's reign ; and it had 

 become so considerable in London, that the silk-throwsters 

 of the city and suburbs formed themselves into a corpora- 

 tion, and in 1661 they employed forty thousand persons. 

 The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685 by the fa- 

 natic libertine Louis XIV., who expelled all the Protestants 

 from France to gain divine absolution for his crimes, con- 

 tributed in a remarkable manner to the increase of the En- 

 glish silk trade by the introduction of a large colony of skill- 

 ful French weavers, who settled in Spitalfields. The great 

 silk-throwing mill erected at Derby, in 1719, also served to 

 promote the extension of this branch of manufacture ; for 

 soon afterward, in the year 1730, the English silk goods 

 were sold at a higher price in Italy than those made by tho 

 Italians. 



But a great revolution was effected in this manufacture 

 in 1825. Previously to that epoch the legislative enact- 



