much more inconfiderable than they certainly were, at the demife of Edward III. The informations of contemporary writers would, nevertheless, lead us to confider thofe early reigns as times of overflowing populoufnefs. Amidft all that depopulation, Edward III. is faid to have fuddenly collected, in 1360, a hundred thousand men, whom he transported in eleven hundred veffels to France*. It did not, however, escape the fagacity of Mr. Hume, when he reflected on the high pay of the foldiers, that the numerous armies, which are mentioned by the hiftorians of those days, confifted chiefly of raggamuffins, who followed the camp for plunder. In 1382, the rebels, fays Danielt, fuddenly marched towards London, under Wat. Tyler, and Jack Straw, and mustered on Blackheath fixty thoufand strong, or, as others fay, an hundred thoufand. In 1415, Henry V. invaded France with a fleet of fixteen hundred fail 1, and fifty thousand combatants, who not long after won the glorious battle of Azincourt. Our history is filled with fuch inftances of vast armies, which had been haftily levied for temporary enterprizes: yet, we ought not thence to infer, that the country was overftocked with inhabitants. This truth is extremely apparent from the ftatute of the 9th Henry V. which recites, "That whereas, at the * Ander. Chron. Ac. of Com. v. i. p. 191. "making "making of the act of the 14th of Edward III. "(1340) there were fufficient of proper men. "in each county to execute every office; but that, "owing to peftilence and wars, there are not now "(1421) a fufficiency of refponsible perfons to "act as fheriffs, coroners, and efcheators." The laurels, which were gained by Henry V. are well known, fays the learned obferver on the ancient ftatutes; but he hath left us, in the preamble of one of his ftatutes, moft irrefragable proof, that they were not obtained, but at the deareft price, the depopulation of the country: The facility, with which great bodies of men were collected, in thofe early ages, exhibits, then, for our inftruction, a picture of manners, idle and licentious; and fhews only, for our comfort, that the most numerous claffes of mankind existed in a condition, which is not to be envied by thofe, who, in better times, enjoy either health, or eafe. The period from the acceffion of Henry IV. in 1399, to the proclamation of Henry VII. in 1485, may be regarded as the most disastrous in our latter annals, becaufe, a civil war, remarkable for the inveteracy of the leaders, and for the waste of the people, began with the one event, and ended with the other. Doctor Campbel has collected the various circumftances of depopulation; tending to prove, that the number of inhabitants, which, before the bloody contests between the Lancaftrians and Yorkifts began, had been already much leffened, was in the end greatly reduced, by a series of the most deftructive calamities. The monuments of more fettled times were demolished; the country was laid wafte; cities funk into towns, while towns dwindled into villages: and universal defolation is faid to have enfued. Nor, was the condition of the country much meliorated, by the reeftablishment of domeftic quiet.. If, indeed, we could implicitly credit the recitals of the laws of Henry VII. we fhould find fufficient evidence, "That great defolations daily do increase, by pull ing down and wilful wafte of houfes and towns, "and by laying to pasture lands which cuftomably "have been used in tillage." An important change had certainly taken place mean while, in the condition of the great body of the people, which fortunately promoted their happinefs, and which confequently proved favourable to the propagation of the fpecies. There exifted in England, at the Conqueft, no free bands, or freemen, who worked for wages; fince the scanty labour of times, warlike and uninduftrious, was wholly performed by villains, or by flaves. The latter, who compofed a very numerous clafs, equally formed an object of foreign trade, for ages after the arrival of the Conqueror, who only prohibited the fale of them to infidels*. But the flaves had happily departed from the land before the reign of Henry III. This we may infer from the law declaring, in 1225, "How men * Dr. Henry's Hiftory of Great Britain, vol. ii. p. 479–80. of ર " of all forts fhall be amerced*": and it only mentions villains, freemen, (though probably not in the modern sense), merchants, barons, earls, and men of the church. Another order of men is alluded to rather than mentioned, during the fame feffion; whom we fhall find, in after times, rifing to great importance, from their numbers and opulence. And a woollen manufacture, having already increased to that ftage of it when frauds begin, was regulated by the act †, which required, "There shall be but one measure throughout the "realm." Yet, this manufacture continued inconfiderable, during the warlike reign of Edward I. and the turbulent administration of his immediate fucceffor, if we may judge from the vaft exportations of -wool. The year 1331 marks the firft arrival of Walloon manufacturers, when Edward III. wifely determined to invite foreigners into England, to inftruct his fubjects in the useful arts. As early as the Parliament of 1337, it was enacted, That no wool fhould be exported; that no one should wear any but English cloth; that no clothes made beyond feas fhould be imported; that foreign clothworkers might come into the king's dominions, and should have fuch franchises as might * 9 Henry III. ch. 14. † 9 Henry III. ch. 25. And. Chron. Ac. of Com. v. i. p. 162. C 3 fuffice suffice them. This may be confidered as one of the first statutes, which gave commercial efficacy to the mercantile fyftem. Before this time, fays De Wit*, when the tumults of the manufacturers in Flanders obliged them to feek shelter in other countries, the English were little more than fhepherds and wool-fellers. From this epoch, manufactures became often the objects of legiflation, and the spirit of industry will be found to have promoted greatly the state of population, and to have augmented confiderably the opulence of all ranks of men. The ftatutes of labourers of 1349 and 1359 demonstrate, that a considerable change had taken place in the condition and pursuits of the most numerous claffes. During feveral reigns after the Conqueft, men laboured, because they were flaves. For fome years before these regulations of the price of work, men were engaged to labour, from a fenfe of their own freedom, and of their Own wants. It was the ftatutes of labourers †, which, adding the compulfion of law to the calls of neceffity, created oppreffion for ages, while they ought to have given relief. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the time when villainage ceased in Eng Intereft of Holland. See the 12th Richard II. ch. 3, 4, 5, 6, 9. By thefe, no artificer, labourer, fervant, or victualler, shall depart from one hundred to another, without licence under the kings feal. Thefe laws, fays Anderfon, are fufficient proofs of the flavish condition of the common fervants in those times (1388). land, |