J 20 A. D. 1555. 



And this mucli we thought fufficient to ferve for a fummary hif- 

 tory of the laws relating to the roads of England, fo as not to have 

 •much occafion to mention them any more in this work. 



What we have here faid concerning keeping the roads of England in 

 repair, may alfo be partly applied to the fubjedl of deepening rivers and 

 harbours. With refpecl: to the former, we have feen that the firfl inftance 

 thereof in the ftatute-book is found in the acSs for deepening the river 

 • Lea from Ware to London [3 Hen. VI, c. 5. and 9 Hen. VI, c. 9.] After 

 that we find none till the reign of King Henry VIII, who repaired and 

 fortified feveral harbours : for that of the fourth of King Henry VII, 

 for preferving the river Thames, relates merely to the fifhing therein ; 

 (and that of the eleventh of the fame king, for removing wears and en- 

 :gines from Southampton harbour, was for the like end. But we find 

 -no more fiatutes of either kind till Queen Elizabeth's reign ; fome of 

 .which, as alfo fom.e fubiequent ones, we may perhaps think it necefiliry 

 ;to take a more particular notice of in their refpedlive places ; as alfo 

 for bridges over rivers. 



It mud needs be a miofl afFeding confideration, to read what the 

 bifhop of Chiapa in Mexico relates concerning the deftru6lion of the 

 native Indians of America by the Spaniards. In that humane prelate's 

 account of their firfl voyages to, and difcoveries in, the new world, 

 (which country, he aflerts, was granted to Spain by the papal fee, upon 

 •the exprefs condition alone of their inftruding the Indians in the chrif- 

 tian religion ; wherea?, inftead of converting their minds to the faith, 

 they, by unparalleled cruelty, firfl: tortured and then butchered their bo- 

 dies, merely for obliging them to difcover their treafures) it is related, 

 that in the early times of the Emperor Charles V they had butchered 

 upwards of forry millions of thofe poor Indians! 



The goldfmiths of Scotland having debafed their filver plate to fix or 

 feven penny fine, an a6t of the Scottifli parliament fixed the ftandard 

 of filver plate at eleven penny fine, and gold plate at twenty-two carrats 

 fine, both upon pain of death. By eleven penny fine here mufl: be un- 

 derftood eleven ounces fine to a pound troy, and not eleven penny weight 

 to an ounce ; fince the other fuppofition mufl: not only leave their filver 

 plate very bafe, but it would alfo be greatly difproportioned to the fine- 

 nefs of their gold plate. 



John Bodin of Angers, the famous civilian and hiflorian, eftimates 

 the number of fouls in Venice at this time to be i 80,440, which is about 

 10,000 more t'nan they are reckoned in our time. If his account be 

 true, the decreafe is n >t improbably owing to the great decay of their 

 commerce, fince the Portuguei'e, by their difcoverv of a way by fea to 

 India, have di'pr ved them of the vaft advantage of fupplying moft part 

 of Europe with the nerchan lize of the Euft. 



Huet obferves (in his Memoirs of the Dutch commerce) that the religi- 



