A. D. 1662. 505 



fiderable force, diflodged our logwood cutters from the Laguna de Ter- 

 minos and the ifland of Trift, our people, till very lately, have remain- 

 ed in pofleifion thereof. But as the controverfy remains undetermined 

 to this day, it is to be feared it may ftill occafion much altercation *. 



At this time a ftatute was made [13, 14 Car. II, c. 12] for the better 

 relief of the poor of England ; whereby a corporation, chofen out of 

 the magiftrates of London, Weftminfter, and the fuburbs, on both 

 fides the Thames within the weekly bills of mortality, was eflablifhed, 

 for ereding work-houfes for employing the poor. A fubfequent ad: 

 [23 Car. II, c. 18] enabled that corporation to levy a certain aflelTment 

 on pariflies not exceeding one fourth part of the aflefl'ment to the poor, 

 for any refpedive year. Yet, to the fhame of the nation, nothing has 

 been efFedttally done for anfwering that truely great and good end even 

 to this day, fo many difficulties being ftarted to every fcheme hitherto 

 propofed to the public. 



This year the lord-mayor, aldermen, and common-council, of Lon- 

 don, petitioned the houfe of commons to erect the merchants trading to 

 France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, into four new corporations for con- 

 fining thofe trades entirely to Englifh natives ; the pretext for which 

 was, that moft part of the trade of exporting the commodities of Eng- 

 land was in the hands of aliens, whom they would have to be obliged by 

 law to pay double duties on all draperies exported by them. They alfo, 

 and fundry merchants of London in behalf of themfelves and the Eng- 

 lifh merchants of the outports, petitioned that the merchant-adventur- 

 ers, the Levant, the Eailland, the Ruflia, and the Eaft-India, companies 

 already eftablifhed, might have further privileges confirmed to them by 

 parliament, exclufive of foreigners. But the commons were wifer than 

 to liften to petitions for adding new fetters to our export trade. 



King Charles II having lavifhly confumed the large fupplies granted 

 by parliament, was now put upon the moft pernicious projed that could 

 have entered into the thoughts of the monarch of the firft commercial 

 kingdom in Europe, by yielding to France the town and port of Dun- 

 kirk, with all its fortifications, fluyces, dams, &c. and likewife the fort 

 of Mardyke, with the wooden fort, and the other great and fmall forts 

 between Dunkirk and Bergh St. Wynox, together with all the arms, 

 artillery, ammunition, 8cc. We have feen that Dunkirk had been fur- 

 rendered by France to Cromwell four years before, by a ftipulated agree- 

 ment, for the fuccours which that protedor had given to France againft 

 Spain. Our pafllve parliament feemed to content themfelves with 

 Charles's poor pretence, that, as it was only furrendered to an ufurper, 

 he had a right to difpofe of it as he pleafed. It was concluded at Lon- 



* A more copious explanation of this fubjeft by the board of trade will be found under the ysar 

 1717. A. 



Vol. II. 38 



