CHAP. X. 



MIDDLE AGES. %99 



reserved to the crown, yet the business of mining 

 has been practically free from restrictions, though 

 not from some antiquated trammels *. 



The trammels which the feudal system had 

 imposed must naturally have operated as an 

 obstacle to the extension of all those domestic 

 articles which are composed chiefly of mineral 

 substances. The partial removal of those tram- 

 mels under Elizabeth and the establishment of 

 manufactures, though by a kind of corporate 

 body, produced some considerable beneficial 

 effects. Before her time our acquaintance with 

 minerals was almost lost, and the manufactures 

 which depended on them were either abandoned 

 or in a state of decay. 



At the commencement of that reign, we im- 

 ported from Germany, through the ports in the 

 Netherlands, our swords, knives, stirrups, bits, 

 and even our pins, as well as all our articles of 

 brass and copper, and also our wire, excepting a 

 small quantity which was worked by hand. That 

 penetrating princess invited to her dominions 

 foreign miners, foreign smelters, and foreign ar- 

 tificers of metallic productions ; and, having 

 prohibited the importation of metal goods, in a 

 few years the inhabitants were supplied with 



1 The greater part of this history of the law relating to 

 mines in England has been abridged from the account given 

 by Pennant, vol. i. p. 101, et sequitur. 



