56 THE SHEEP. 



pal dyers of Europe. King James I., in the plenitude of his 

 wisdom, resolved to take the process of dyeing into his own 

 hands. He gave exclusive patents to persons at home to 

 perform it, and ordained that no cloth but that dyed in Eng- 

 land should b.e exported. The Dutch and Germans retaliated, 

 and refused to take cloth dyed in England. But jealousy 

 was not confined to aliens. The woollen manufacture had 

 taken root, and was making progress in the sister Island, 

 when addresses were presented to the King and both Houses 

 of Parliament, " beseeching his Majesty to take effectual 

 measures to prevent the growth of the woollen manufactures 

 in Ireland/' The exportation of Irish wool to any country 

 but England was rendered a felony ; and the importation of 

 manufactured goods into England itself was prevented by 

 restrictions equivalent to a prohibition. The exportation, 

 even, of our English wool, was rigidly prohibited ; and the 

 protection given to stranger artisans was so counteracted 

 by the miserable laws of corporations, that numbers of the 

 former refugees quitted the country in disgust. 



During the reigns of Queen Anne and the two first sove- 

 reigns of the House of Hanover, the home consumption of 

 woollen goods greatly increased, but the foreign woollen 

 trade remained nearly stationary. During the first part of 

 the reign of George III., it progressively extended, but yet 

 not to a degree corresponding with the increasing wealth of 

 the country. The chief demand was for the West India 

 Islands and the North American Colonies. After the year 

 1773, a revolution occurred in manufacturing industry, which 

 may be said to have changed the condition of human society. 

 Machinery was applied to the fabrication of cotton, and the 

 stupendous power of steam was called into more extended 

 action. First came the Spinning-jenny, by which a child 

 could direct a hundred spindles and more, all at a time ; then 

 the beautiful Frame of Arkwright, which required merely 

 that the raw material should be supplied, in order to be spun 

 into threads of surpassing fineness ; then the Mule-jenny ; 



