94 ^- ^- '544' 



acre yearly rent. This is a better guide to the true value of lands in 

 thofe times than the preceding quotation from c. 21 of the fame year, 

 which lands may at prefent be worth near twenty times as much. 



In the fame year we have another ftatute [c. 4.] for repairing and re- 

 building decayed houfes and wafte places in the following towns (exacft- 

 ly in the fame ftyle as the ads of 1535, 154I' and I54;2), viz. Shrewf- 

 bury, Chefler, Ludlow, Haverford-weft, Pernbroke, lenby, Caermar- 

 then, Montgomery, Cardiff, Swaneile, (i. e. Swanfey) Cowbridge, New 

 Radnor, and Prcftend (/. e. Prefteing) in Radnorfliire ; Brecknock and 

 Monmouth ; Maiden in EiTex ; Abergavenny, Ufke, Caerleon and New- 

 port in Monmouthfliire ; Lancafter, Prefton, Lyrepoole, (?. e. Liverpool) 

 and Wigan in Lancalhire. 



A judicious obferver will naturally remark that there is fuch a thing 

 as falhion or example even in the important fubjtd of ads of parlia- 

 ment. Thus one age (from an applauded example or two) runs more 

 into one kind of reformation of abufes, another age into fome other 

 kind, for the fime reafon. This and the before mentioned other three 

 ftatutes fufFiciently exhaufted the fubjed they relate to, having therein 

 adually gone through not only alraofl: all the confiderable cities and 

 towns of the kingdom, London excepted, but have even defcended to 

 feveral towns which neither are, nor ever were of confideration enough 

 to have fo much regard paid to them ; yet it is not to be denied that 

 the defign in general is very laudable. After the refloration of King 

 Charles II, the making of rivers navigable, and the repairing and deep- 

 ening of harbours, had a confiderable run ; and the lait and prefent ge- 

 neration have run partly into that likewife ; but the prefent age more 

 efpecially into bridges and public roads. 



1545;. — According to Herrera's Hiftory of Spanifh America, the un- 

 paralleled filver miines of the mountain Potofi in Peru, which had been 

 difcovered a little time before, but till now concealed from tbe king's 

 officers, were now firfl regiftered in the king of Spain's books. • It feems 

 an Indian, running up that mountain after a deer, dif:overed the firft 

 mine^ by laying hold of and tearing up by the root a flirub which grev/ 

 out of a vein of ore. The next year other veins were difcovered on this 

 feemingly inexhauftible mountain, which being noifed abroad, it brought 

 moft of the inhabitants of the town of La Plata to fettle there ; fo that 

 in a fliort time, in the neighbourhood of thofe mines, there fprung up 

 the largefl town in all Peru, where there is a prodigious trade. The 

 mountain lies in 21 degrees and 40 minutes of fouth latitude, yet, be- 

 caufe of its great height, it is cold and dry, and by nature barren, pro- 

 ducing neither fruits nor grafs. The colour of its earth is a dark red. 

 Such was the riches drawn from thofe mines, that even in thofe times 

 the king's fifth amounted to one milhon and a half of pieces of eight 

 yearly, although in thofe early days they robbed the king of much of 



