192 A. D. 1590. 



Ifaac Newton was the inventor of the refleding telefcope, confifting ol' 

 fpecula or mirrors, inftead of lenfcs. which has been fince much im- 

 proved, and is much more exad and uleful than refrading ones. The 

 microfcope, which magnifies the fmallefl objecl: fo as to be diflindly 

 viewed, was diicovered in the year 1621; and it is iaid this happened 

 both in Naples and Holland at the fame time *. 



By the telefcope aftronomy is brought to a degree of perfection un- 

 attainable by the antients. Navigation (and confequently commerce) 

 is likewife much aflifted from a more perfed diicovery of the heavenly 

 bodies ; and whole volumes have been publifhed on the amazing dil- 

 coveries made by the help of the microfcope. 



We have the beft authority for fixing the date of the firfl manufadure 

 of fail-cloth in England in the year 1590, being the preamble to an ad 

 of parliament, [i Jac. I, c. 23] reciting, that, ' whereas the cloths 

 ' called mildernix and powel-davies, whereof fails and other furniture 

 ' for the navy and (hipping are made, were heretofore altogether 



* brought out of France and other parts beyond fea, and the fkill and 

 ' art of making and weaving of the faid cloths never known or ufed in 

 ' England until about the 32d year of the reign of the late Qiieen 

 ' Elizabeth, about what time, and not before, the perfed art or fliiU of 

 ' making and weaving of the faid cloths was attained to, and fince prac- 

 ' tifed and continued in this realm, to the great benefit and commodity 



* thereof,' &c. 



As we fi:ill excel all the nations upon earth both in naval power and 

 in maritime commerce, every thing relative to either fhould, as far as is 

 pradicable, come to us at the firfl hand. Yet, though it may feem 

 Ibraewhat fi:range that a nation in thofe days, very far from being emi- 

 nent in {hipping, fliould have fo long fupplied us with this great article, 

 it ought to be confidered that they were, in thofe days and long before 

 we fell into it, eminent for the manufadure of many kinds of excellent: 

 cloths made both of flax and hemp; and that perfedion, in almoft 

 every art, is not to be attaii:ied but by very flow degrees. 



The ftates-general of the United Netherlands wrote to Queen Eliza 

 beth, complaining of the great and excefllve damages done to their mer- 

 chants and people by her fliips of war, as well in her ports as on the 

 feas, in their return homewards from the wefl;ern parts, (i, e. Spain and 

 Portugal), amounting, as by vouchers, to 1,600,000 florins. They 

 fubjoin, that the people of the United provinces do not depend either 

 on the intrinfic riches or extent of their country, both being very in- 

 confiderable ; but their whole dependence is on their navigation and 

 traffic, which mufl: be inviolably fupported, otherwife their merchants 

 will withdraw into oihei countries, and the fl:ates will be rerfdered ut- 



■* Mr Anderfon migtit liave alfo found the invention of the microfcope afcribed to Zatharias Janfcn 

 by an author quottid by Wotton, p. i8u. M, 



