244 LECTURE XX. 



wlio have excelled in them ; and the improvements which have been made, 

 within a few centuries, in the British manufactures, liave obtained for them a 

 celebrity unrivalled by those of any other nation. The ancient Britons are sup- 

 posed to have made, in common with the other Celtic nations, coarse cloths and 

 felts of wool, and perhaps some articles of linen; their chariots of war, which 

 are mentioned by Caesar, could not have been executed without some skill in 

 the arts of the carpenter and the smith. The Romans introduced a certain degree 

 of civilisation into England, but it appears to have been in great measure 

 forgotten soon after they left the country. In the seventh century, several 

 architects and workmen were brought from the continent by Wilfrid and 

 Biscopj they restored the practice of building with stone, which had been 

 generally superseded by wood, and laid the foundation for other improve- 

 ments. In the time of king Alfred, the English goldsmiths began to excel, 

 and before the conquest, the woollen manufactures had acquired a consider- 

 able degree of perfection. The paper now in use vras introduced about the 

 year 1100; it was probably imported from the continent, since the linen 

 manvifacture was little advanced in England till 150 years later; but em- 

 broidery was much practised, although in the 12th century silks were princi- 

 pally woven in Sicily, The manufactory of cloth was considerably improved, 

 in the 14th century, by the establishment of Kempe and other Flemish weavers 

 in England: and many of the arts were benefited, about the same time, by the 

 inventioli of the method of drawing wire, which was first introduced at Nu- 

 remberg. In the succeeding century, the increasing number of hands em- 

 ployed in various manufactures, suggested to some mind of superior penetra- 

 tion the great principle of the division of labour, by which each individual is 

 enabled to acquire so high a degree of perfection in a very limited branch of 

 each manufacture, that the whole work is performed much more perfectly, as 

 well as more expeditiously, than if it had been begun and completed by any 

 one person, even of greater abilities and experience. The invention of the 

 modern spinning wheel is attributed to Jiirgen of Brunswick, and the year 

 1530 is assigned as its date: England soon profited by the improvement; 

 many manufacturers took refuge in this country from the Duke of Alva's per- 

 secutions in Flanders, and before the end of the century a new modification 

 of the art of weaving was introduced by Lee of Cambridge, who invented 

 the stocking loom, imitating the texture of the knit stockings, which were 

 first manufactured in Spain about the year 1550. Mills for drawing wire and 



