"A Dismal Depression in 1622/ J 71 



The influence of those who were specially interested in the home 

 manufactures, after leading in 1552 to the dissolution of the Easter- 

 lings of the Steel-yard, produced afterwards a series of enactments 

 in their own favour to the detriment of those who were exporters 

 of the raw material. In 1660 an act was passed by which the 

 exportation of English wool was strictly forbidden, and this Act 

 retained its place in the statute book for no less than one hundred 

 and sixty-five years. So great an accumulation of wool was the 

 unavoidable consequence of this statute that within thirty years of 

 its coming into operation another act was passed with a view of 

 forcing a consumption of it, by which it was ordained that all persons 

 should be buried in woollen shrouds. 



I have selected the year 1622 because I think, from some events 

 in that year, I can show, in a strain more in harmony with the 

 lighter entertainments of a conversazione, how causes were working 

 up to the dead lock which produced that forced legislation. 



I shall confine myself exclusively to gleanings from that wonderful 

 mine of historical information, the Domestic series of State Papers. 

 Canon Jones has given the information derivable from the statute 

 book. I shall try and supplement him from the writings of those 

 who made the statutes and, as those familiar with the State Papers 

 will know, a large proportion are private letters— private letters, 

 which, in their day, had their zest in the scraps of information 

 intended for the recipient alone, but which were written so long 

 ago that their confidences have survived the writers, and their 

 revelations lie open to the world of enquirers, while the correspon- 

 dents rest unknown and almost, if not quite, forgotten. 



I must, however, have a hero for my " tale/' and yet, before I 

 introduce him, I ask you to believe that I feel, as deeply as any 

 can, for his real sorrows, though— as with most— I do not find my 

 sympathy able to obliterate the sense of absurdity which will ever 

 cling to his memory. 



Times were bad in 1622. Things could hardly be worse than 

 they were. They had been getting very bad for three or four years 

 past, and perhaps this was a sort of a climax. I think I shall best 

 shew you how bad they were, and how deep the depression I am ta 



