SHEEP. Class I. 



ness lay for a considerable time in foreign hands, 

 and we were obliged to import the cloth manu- 

 factured from our own materials. There seems 

 indeed to have been many unavailing efforts 

 made by our monarchs to preserve both the 

 wool and the manufacture of it among our- 

 selves : Henry II. by a patent granted to 

 the weavers in London, directed that if any 

 cloth was found made of a mixture of Spanish 

 wool, it should be burnt by the mayor :* yet so 

 little did the weaving business advance, that 

 Edzvard III. was obliged to permit the im- 

 portation of foreign cloth in the beginning of 

 his reign; but soon after, by encouraging 

 foreign artificers to settle in England, and in- 

 struct the natives in their trade, the manufac- 

 ture increased so greatly as to enable him to 

 prohibit the wearing foreign cloth. Still to 

 shew the uncommercial genius of the people, 

 the effects of this prohibition were checked by 

 another law, as prejudicial to trade as the for- 

 mer was salutary; this was an act of the same 

 reign, against exporting woollen goods manu- 

 factured at home, under heavy penalties, while 

 the exportation of wool was not only allowed 

 but encouraged. This oversight was not soon 



* St«t0A\9> 



