THE Golden Fleece. Wherein is related the Riches of English Wools in its Manufactures.  
Together with The true Uses, and the Abuses of the Aulnageors, Measurers, and Searchers Offices.  
By W. S. Gent.  
Pecunia à Pecude.  Guic. Plin. lib. 33. 
Omnes veterum divitiae in re pecuniari â consistebant.  
LONDON, Printed by J. G. for Richard Lowndes, at the white Lion in S. Paul's Churchyard, near the Little North-door. 1657.   

A Preface to the Reader.  
THere is neither House, nor City, nor Country, nor the universal Being of Mankind, nor the course of Nature, nor the World itself, which can subsist without Government, saith Cicero in his Discourse upon Laws; which Government intends and includes these two Fundamentals or corner stones, Power and Obedience, by which as the Regiment of every Commonwealth doth stand, so the flourishing Trade of England (under Societies and Companies) doth manifest the same to the whole world: Nevertheless, as in general all men cry up Liberty, so in particular each respective man desires that freedom gratis, though it cannot be granted without those contributory services which maintain that Government. The Seas exhale their Vapours to the Heavens, from whence they descend in Showers upon the earth, which being impregnated by their fertility, doth gratefully dismiss them again to the Ocean, Nature's Storehouse for the like coursary services; Alterius sic altera poscit opem, et conjurat amice.  
The regulated government of Merchandise performeth all this, by which it beautifies the Earth and Seas, giving intercourse and combination, supplies and riches to each industrious part of the world; It procures Amity's, Leagues, Confederacies, Conjugal and Consanguinary Alliances between Princes, and all by the necessary productions which one Nation wants of another's abundance, the purchase whereof to each others occasions nourisheth and beautifies each others People. How then should not Merchants be of principal renown to themselves and their Country, which with great hazards both of person and estate, they do so faithfully and profitably serve.  
We have a Record which doth worthily recite the ingenious expressions of a young Florentine Gentleman called Cosimo Ruchelli, who dying about the age of two and twenty years bewailed not his departure from his Kindred and Friends, nor from the riches of his Family, or pleasures of the world, but because he was summoned by Death before he had done his Country that retributary service which to it was due for his Being, or had gratified his Friends by reciprocal benefits for that they had bestowed upon him, nourishment and education. Another Author gives us a quite contrary opinion of one Theodorus, who thought, and taught it to be great injustice, that a wise man should in any case hazard himself for the good or benefit of his Country, which he said was to endanger his wisdom for Fools; now though each of these men's fancies had a rational foundation upon their respective principles, one to gratify and serve the world, the other to despise and reject its vanities, yet Nature's positive doctrine to all her Children, is, Non nobis solum nati sumus.  
God made the world in number, weight, and measure, because he would have it so preserved, and by that Precedent he appointed man to govern both it and himself; for as in Order there is beauty and continuance, each part in its proportion so supporting another as with comeliness it hath durance; so in government amongst men, that which we call Justice, is in its distribution the glorious preservation of the whole which it intends to govern, and that is, Honest vivere, alterum non laedere, suum cuique tribuere; and this is the work of every honest and wise man, so it is to follow the primitive un-erring pattern of Number, Weight, and Measure, which was observed by God himself.  
Prima sapientiae pars est bene numerare, saith Plato, and well to number a man's days is the ready way to wisdom, saith David: both these were excellent Divines, though not comparatives, yet without numbers we cannot so distinguish, but that Plato's heathen may claim as great esteem as David's heavenly wisdom; this gives to one the most excelling finite, and to the other the superexcellent infinite measure of his prudence; one of them fulfilling the first of the moral, and the other of the divine Virtues, and from these the equality of measuring between men, takes being, and is the life-blood of Trade.  
As without a common certainty of measure there can be no intercourse, nor transaction of trade between men or Nations, so in this of Clothing, (The glory of England) there can be no indifferency, rule, or continuance, without such an establishment of measure and proportion as may satisfy every man in his bargaining, bartering, buying, or exchangeing. In the following discourse will appear a great deviaton from the determined rules of Justiice provided in this case, and such a necessity of reformation, as Clothing cannot be freed from open or underhand abuses without it; nor can this peculiarised blessing of Wools in its streams of Manufacture answer to the cleareness of the fountain from whence it springs.  
There are now a Trinity of officers relating to the regulation of Clothing, all which were anciently comprised in the Unity of one man's person; these bear the distinct names of Searcher, Measurer, and Aulnageor, which last, though it be a tautological expression (Aulnage and Measure being the same work denoted in two languages) yet the long usage and custom have brought them to be distinct offices, and that which anciently was called Aulnage, from whence the Aulnageor takes his name, who was no more but measurer in signification, is now become Collector of the Subsidy granted to the State, by many precise Laws in that case ordained, still holding the name of Aulnageor, because the collection of that Subsidy was by King Edward 3. committed to the charge of the Aulnageor, and he nevertheless not abridged of his measuring and searching, till by his own wilful neglect they became separated, and that by distinct Laws; Insomuch as there is a peculiar Measurer, who ought to know, and allow the Assize of length and breadth to every Particular Cloth which is made in England and Wales: And because the Subjects of this Land should not be abused, their grave Senators in Parliaments have also established an office of searching, whose Officer ought by his Seals (judiciously and diligently affixed) to denote the defaults, and casual abuses which each particular Cloth doth contain.  
In the following discourse it will appear, that these offices were all of them under the cognizance of the Aulnageor, & until they shall be again restored unto his care, and that he be as well under strict terms obliged, as by competent Salaries enabled to see the duty discharged, Clothing in England will be so fare short of recovering its pristine worth, and honour, as it will undoubtedly run utterly to decay, & through necessity the materials (now forbidden to be transported under the penalty of life and limb) must be licenced to go to such places, as will more justly discharge the manufactures, and then will be found the irrecoverable want of those two great blessings, which our Ancestors so much endeavoured to increase, which are Wealth in general, and Strength in numbers of People, both of which have within these last 300. years so multiplied under the Monarches of England, as by the Trade of Clothing they have been loved or feared of all Nations.  
How those Officers stand now directed by the Laws, and how unable the people therein employed are to discharge those duties, will in the following work be found to be expressly and according to the Laws delivered; Insomuch as every man of judgement who will vouchsafe to read the relation, will by his natural affection to his Country, be induced to endeavour a timely reformation; lest as the most illuminating Tapers of Religion and Learning, are through the provocations of a sinful People whelmed under a Bushel of Obstinacy and Ignorance, so the Riches and Glories of this Lands peculiarized endowments in wool and clothing, will not so much be carried away by an invading enemy, as forced to be transplanted by its own People, who daily work so industriously in that Mine, as a very short time will bring the Stranger under the Walls of our safety, which God forbidden, and whereto every true Englishman will say Amen.   

THE GOLDEN FLEECE.  

CHAP. I. About Wool and Clothing.  
THere is nothing in this flourishing Nation of England so universally good, and beneficial to the people thereof, as is the conversion of Wool into its several Manufactures, wherein it answers the Invention of Man; the consequences whereof relate as well to the Soveriegn, as to the subject, to the Noble as well as to the Ignoble, comprising all conditions of men, women, and children. For as in Man the Brain and Liver assisting the Heart do no more but preserve themselves, and are chief in their own contemplation, though they seem only to compliment, and attend the Heart; and as the people's readiness to obey doth seem to ingratiate them to their supreme powers, yet do they indeed pursue their duty wholly to their own interest. Thus and no otherwise it is with the profits of Wool; The State gives safety and protection to the people's works, and the people give wealth and Revenue to the State's subsistence, but each of them to each of them chief for their particular benefit. Wool is the Flower and Strength, the Revenue and Blood of England. It is a Bond uniting the people into Societies and Fraternities for their own Utility. It is the Milk and Honey of the Grazier, and Countryman. It is the Gold and Spices of the West and East India to the Merchant and Citizen; In a word, it is the Exchequer of Wealth, and Sceptre of protection to them all as well at home as abroad, and therefore of full merit to be had in perpetual remembrance, defence, and encouragement.  
The Wools of England have ever been of great honour and reception abroad, as hath been sufficiently witnessed by the constant amity which for many hundred years hath been inviolably kept between the Kings of England and the Dukes of Burgundy, only for the benefit of Wool; whose subjects receiving the English Wool at six pence a pound, returned it (through the manufacture of those industrious people) in Cloth at ten shillings a yard, to the great enriching of that State, both in Revenue to their Sovereign, and in employment to their subjects; which occasioned the Merchants of England to transport their whole Families in no small numbers into Flanders, from whence they had a constant Trade to most parts of the world. And this intercourse of Trade between England and Burgundy, endured till King Edward the third made his mighty Conquests over France and Scotland, when finding fortune more favourable in prospering his achievements then his alledgeate subjects were able to maintain, he at once projected how to enrich his people, and to people his new conquered Dominions, and both these he designed to effect by means of his English commodity, Wool; All which he accomplished, though not without great difficulties and oppositions, for he was not only to reduce his own subjects home, who were and had long been settled in those parts, with their whole families; many of which had not so certain habitations in England as in Flanders, but he was also to invite Clothiers over to convert his wools into clothing, (and these were the subjects of another Prince) or else the stoppage of the stream would soon choke the Mill, and then not only clothing would every where be lost, but the materials resting upon his English Subjects hands, would soon ruin the whole Gentry and Yeomanry for want of vending their wools. Now to show how King Edward smoothed these rough and uneven passages, were too tedious to this short Narration, though otherwise in their contrivance they may be found to be ingenious, pleasing, and of great use; which relation must await another opportunity.  
By this it must be granted, that King Edward was Wise as well as Victorious, & in both he was fortunate, which last was much nourished by his bounty; for upon a visitation made by himself to the Duke of Burgundy, during his residence there, he employed such able Agents amongst the Flemish Clothiers, as (barely upon his promises) he prevailed with great numbers of them to come into England soon after him, where he most Royally performed those promises, in giving not only a free Denization to them, but he likewise invested them with Privileges and Immunities beyond those of his native subjects, which peculiarities their posterities enjoy to this day. Surely the seasonable bounty of a Prince rightly placed, will not be found the weakest instrument to his achievements of honour and success. The liberality of Alexander amongst his Macedonians, brought three parts of the world under his Dominion; because amongst other his valuable considerations towards that rich purchase, he summoned by Proclamation the Creditors of all his soldiers, and discharged their Debts; wherein afterwards divers of the Roman Emperors, as Julius Caesar, Pertinax, and others followed his great example by other bounteous actions, in which rank of wise and indulgent Princes, we place this Royal and true Lover of his native Nation, King Edward.  
But for the more sure establishment, and before these preparations came into effect, King Edward upon his return called a Parliament, and that in the beginning of his Reign, where he so wrought with the Commons-House (who had not the least knowledge that the King had moulded the design) as after long debate (which all motions in that House ought to undergo) it was presented to the Lords, and so to the King; who amongst other objections, urged the loss which must necessarily befall his Revenue, as well in respect of the outward Subsidy of a Noble upon each sack of wool which was to be transported, as of the inward Custom which the cloth paid upon return, according to the rates then established; but these soon met with an expedient: For the cloth in time to come, must needs yield a far greater custom upon that which was to pass into all parts of the World from England, than it could do upon that small return which came only to the service of England, and for the wool which from that time forward was to be wrought in England (with prohibition under penalty of life and limb at the King's pleasure, that none in any sort without the King's especial licence, should be transported) the Parliament gave unto the King that Subsidy of a Noble upon a sack, the Collection of which Subsidy the King entrusted with his Aulnageor: and this was the original, and is the continuance of that money, which at this day is collected and ought to be paid upon all wools wrought into any sort of manufacture, and is called (though most improperly) The Aulnage money, from whence many inconveniences will presenly appear.   

CHAP. II. Concerning the Aulnageor, and the legality of his office.  
THough Aulnage is an office of this Nation, which is of as great antiquity as Traffic; for the very Title which comes from Ulna in Latin, and Aulne in French, either of them signifying an Ell, shows, that the Aulnageors office was to provide that all such measurable commodities as came into England, should be of lawful assize in length and breadth. And from the ancient Records it may be gathered, that in measuring the Aulnageor had the same charge upon all foreign measurable Merchandizes, from the finest Silk, Gold, or Tissue, to the coursest Hemp, as may be found granted to several persons of worth, in the first, the fourteenth, and the seventeenth years of King Edward the second, which was before Clothing was made in England, (as hath been said) when that Subsidy upon all manufactures of wool was granted to him, and his successors, which he entrusted with his Aulnageor, who was nevertheless to continue his attendance upon the searching and measuring, as anciently he had done. And accordingly he did attend both offices for many years; but finding that the clothing so increased as it became scattered all over the Land, notwithstanding that it was by divers Statutes confirmed to Towns Corporate; insomuch as the Aulnageor finding the collection of the Subsidy to be of far greater profit, and less trouble than the salary which related to the searching and measuring, he neglected those, and betook himself wholly to his collection, after which, through the misbehaviour of Weavers, and other handicrafts relating to the making, and accomplishing of Clothing, such and so many grew the abuses to be, as the Cloathiers themselves became Petitioners to the King to be incorporated into Fraternities, and Societies, and to have officers distinct from the Aulnageor to search and measure their clothing; nevertheless the Aulnageor continued his office of collecting the said Subsidy, and was enjoined, upon receipt of his moneys, to affix a seal of Lead whereon was to be stamped some part of the King's Arms, which is now become a justification to that cloth, or else that cloth is a great dishonour to the Nation which bears that seal throughout the World; and this seal was to be annexed after the measurers and searchers seals were on; to the end that those seals denoting what faults those  contained, the cloth was seized if it were not vendible, or else the faults were discovered to the buyer; and for this purpose the Aulnageor was to keep a book of his Receipts and Seizures, and once yearly to present the same to the Lord Treasurer, or Barons of the Exchequer, who were to assign the Aulnageor his reward; and this course continued till the Aulnage was made Farmable, which was Enacted by Parliament in the seventeenth year of King Edward the fourth.  
This relation shows that all the officers, Aulnageor, Searcher, and Measurer, were to be knowing men, as the Statutes also do deliver more at large; for want of which the Trade of clothing is almost quite lost in England, and daily increaseth in Holland, by the help of English wool, and Fuller's earth, the prevention of whose exportation is provided by more ancient and severe Laws, than any other Laws, than any other Laws relating to Trade; all which is grown originally from the neglect of the Aulnageor, who hath detained the Title from the other officers, and neglected his own, thereby confounding the duties of their works, as though the Aulnageor was then made Collector; yet now the Collector is not (either in propriety of name or execution of office) to be called Aulnageor, yet so he accounts himself to be to the no small prejudice of clothing. Again, since the Aulnageor left his other works of measuring and searching, his Subfidy money hath in all times declined, for he wilfully neglecting to survey the clothing, taught the Collectors to convey many from his sight in point of the Subsidy; insomuch as they have practised to put on counterfeit Seals, or else to procure the Seals to be cut from such  as have been sold, and delivered out of the market, of which to this day there is a common trade between the Clothiers and their Chapman's Apprentices, or their Drawers; which deceptions are generally used at this day, as shall be made more apparent.  
Again, by the Aulnageor's only neglect the Clothiers have (through the help of some incendiary Attorneys, who would burn their neighbour's house to roast their own eggs) found an invention to make a difference between old and new Draperies; a distinction not once thought upon in the Primitive Statutes for Clothing, by which they endeavour to work a division in payment of the Aulnage; for the old Draperies they allow to be paid, but the new, which are Perpetuanoes, Serges, Says, and all other Stuffs (though made of wool) they deny to pay, because, say they, these are not mentioned in the Statute; Now if the answer to this ill grounded exception be well weighed, it may appear more agreeable to the Law, that the new Draperies have transgressed the Statute even in the letter itself, for whose benefit they do so much quarrel. For the Law showeth the precise length, breadth, and weight of all Manufactures contained in the Statute; and saith, that whatsoever shall be made contrary or defective to those ordinations, shall be seized, without any clause or reservation to the new inventions, which is a chief part of their Plea: nor doth it once name new Draperies, either in point of Aulnage, nor any other consideration, till about the end of Queen Elizabeth's Reign, and in the beginning of King James, where because the exception runs to new Draperies, the Statute saith, That payment shall be made of the Subsidy or Aulnage upon cloth, and all other sorts of manufactures of Wool; and one of the most learned Judges of his time hath set down a positive interpretation this doubt (for more it is not) that even in mixtures where the major part is wool, the Aulnage ought to be paid, which conclusion the wisdom of the last age ordained to be kept as authentic in answer to this objection. And surely the learned Judges have ever been more properly the Interpreters of the arduous points of the Law, than the Attorneys, who have no such interest as the Judges have in making the Laws, all men holding this for a maxim, that Ejus est legem interpretaricujus est condere.  
Now concerning this doubt which hath in late years been raised about exemption of the new Draperies, and is of as new an invention as the Stuffs in question, it may peradventure prove of little encouragement or advantage to the opposers, if it be considered that where a doubt rests upon the Law, the favour of interpretation doth ever incline to the advantage of the State till a Parliament come, and make a final resolution, which also is seldom determined by that grave Assembly, to the prejudice of their Ancestors judgements, who in a case of such gratitude did not probably intent in any measure to abridge their liberality to the King.   

CHAP. III. An Answer to such as call the Aulnage a Monopoly.  
THere are yet another sort of opposers who charge the office of the Aulnage with the ignominious Title of a Monopoly; Surely Monopoly is and hath always been a name of Scandal, for it cannot subsist without injury to another, and yet there is a glimmering of it in very worthy Societies; For all order, and government hath in it a sort of Majesty, as is seen in Corporations and companies, where they exercise  power by virtue of their Statutes; and scarcely any of them would bear the affront, if their ancient Customs and Grants should be branded with the Title of Monopolising, yet their whole Societies do rather savour of a Monopoly, than doth this Subsidy of Aulnage; but we free them both, though of the two the over-strict regulating of a Company carries with it the more resembling marks of a Monopoly. As for the Aulnage, it may be presumed that very few of those who term it a Monopoly, do know what a Monopoly is.  
Monopoly is a Greek word, and intends (in all its interpretations) the diversion of of a Commerce from its natural course, into the hands of some few, by which (for their sole interest) others are prejudiced. This is the opinion of Althusius, and other learned Civilians; whereby it appears that one alone cannot be a Monopoliser, though in some carriages of Trade one alone may bear the ignominy of an Engrosser, and so may raise the price of the commodity which he deals in: yet others say, that a Monopoly is a kind of Commerce in buying, selling, changing or bartering, usurped by a few, and sometimes only by one person to his proper gain, and to the detriment of other men; But neither in this definition is this Subsidy a Monopoly, for there is neither buying, selling, changing, nor bartering in it, but it is a free gift of the Common wealth to that King and his successors in this government; Then which no Demise or Grant of Land (let the consideration be what it will) can be more firm in Law, for herein no man is restrained or prohibited, nor is any price imposed by the Statute Laws; and these two are the only supporters of a Monopoly.  
And whereas from the beginning of this Grant, the want of the Aulnageors seal, is the forfeiture of that Cloth which is taken so defective, in any Market, Shop, Warehouse, Customhouse, or Ship; Now it is come to a further consideration, and necessity, for no foreigner will value that cloth which wants this seal; because the seal (ever containing a part of the Arms of England) is by foreigners looked upon as a justification of the true making of the said cloth, as indeed it ought to be, and herein both a necessity of the office, and a necessity of the due execution of the office is very apparent, over and besides a necesfity of an exact collection of the State's Revenue, wherein the losses are less visible because the practice is continual.  
By that which hath been said the world may see that this Subsidy stands clear from that charge of a Monopoly, seeing it neither offends in equity, by supplanting or undermining another's freedom of equal rank and condition, nor in utility, by giving a particular price to the common interest for the Aulnageors private benefit; without the proof of which particulars, a Monopoly cannot subsist. And we have this moreover to say, That neither the Grand Assembly of Parliament, nor the lesser Brotherhoods of Companies, would conclude it to be worthy or just that future conventions shall brand their Acts with so ignominious a title as that of a Monopoly; which being granted, this Subsidy is out of danger, for it hath the consent and fortification of more Acts of Parliament, by hundreds, than any temporal affair whatsoever.  
And yet you may be pleased further to take an additional precedent, both where and why the King hath of his own goodness forborn his Aulnage or Subsidy; In some of the North parts of this Nation, whilst clothing hath been in the infancy, and where the substance was very course, as as it were but for practice to future increase; the King upon petition of the workmen, hath (for their better encouragement) been pleased for a time to remit his Subsidy, even upon such as they call old Draperies, they allowing it to be chargeable with the said Subsidy; but so as such manufactures have afterwards fallen into constant payment, and do continue the same unto this day without any exception or once pleading the said favour of the King now to excuse them.  
Take yet if you please a precedent of a foreign nature to this work. There is in Dorset shire, in that part which was the Forest of Blackmore, an Imposition upon all the Tenants, called White Hart Money, of as long a standing peradventure as this of the Aulnageors Subsidy, though not of so worthy a foundation, where the Land and Inhabitants upon it by way of punishment, for killing the King's White Hart, have for divers hundreds of years, paid, and do (notwithstanding the disafforesting the same) still continue constantly to pay a yearly Tax, which the State doth upon no condition remit or forbear to demand and receive. And surely no man that is a Tenant there will endanger his Lease for want of paying this Tax, yet it never was renewed, if ever it was established, by Parliament, or had it been so grounded, it could never have been called otherwise then a punishment; and let all men judge if a punishment have as good right to charge the people, as hath an act of their own grateful bounty.  
But this particular of the equity of payment upon the new Draperies is come to such a height of opposition, as peradventure it may not become this humble relation, and, as it were, single opinion, to wade too far in so troubled waters. Therefore because the Aulnageors deputies are not always men of that integrity in their places as is required, we will now proceed to show you wherein their illegal carriages are manifest, and the execution of their office may be reform.   

CHAP. IU. Showing the illegal execution of the Aulnageors office.  
THe legality of the Aulnage or Subsidy is (by that which hath been said) visible to all who will not be blind, but the illegality in the execution is carried with a far greater secrecy; When the Aulnageor (whose ancient duty enjoined him to search and measure all Trade which came into England) was by King Edward, as hath been said, commanded to receive that Subsidy which the Parliament had granted unto him upon all such Wools as in time to come should be wrought into any kind of manufacture in England and Wales, he was also still engaged as formerly, to visit, search, and measure all such  as were to be made in England; but finding that the dispersing of the Manufactures was of much more difficulty, pains and charge to him in visiting the several Countries, and respective Towns wherein clothing was placed, than it was when the clothing which was made in foreign parts, came only to the Custom houses, where by casting a line of seven yards in length, four times over the cloth, his measuring office was performed, but now the clothing was become scattered all over the Land. He considered with himself that his Collectorship was of more gains, and far less pains than his former office of Aulnage, which consisted of searching for the truth in making, and of measuring for the assize of lengths and breadths; and that of these two works there were many branches both of charge and trouble, and that the Reward by Law established, was very small; he contented himself with the execution of that which had most ease, and most profit, whereupon clothing speedily corrupted into many abuses, as being in a manner lest without Survey, each man doing what pleased or profited himself without any reverence to the Law, or fear of punishment.  
The Clothiers therefore coming to London to their general Market, and there conferring their grievances, and complaining each to other of their abusive servants, false Weavers, and the like; they applied themselves to the State for remedies, and so became incorporated into Societies and Fraternities, and to have the works which were made in and about them brought into their Hals, & there to be searched, measured, and sealed; which order doth in some kind continue to this day, and this also pleased the Aulnageor, who by a Deputy with seals placed in such a Town dispatched his work with ease. In which times also the Aulnageor having the custody and use of the King's money, was answerable for the same to the State but once every year, and then passed his Accounts with great favour from the Lord Treasurer, to whom he also at the same time presented a book, containing the relation of the moneys he had in that year received for the Subsidy, and of the seizures he had made upon the defective clothes; which being done he had his quietus, and his reward for the year past, which he received sometimes by the appointment of the Lord Treasurer, and sometimes from the Barons of the Exchequer; for from one or some of them he likewise received his commission to seize into his hands all such  as were not statutable in assize, and substance, as also such as were put to sale without the Subsidy seal.  
It was no longer since then in King James his Reign, that the Mayor of one of the most eminent Cities in England for clothing, was compelled by the Aulnageor, nolens volens, to seize his own  (which were taken in offence) to the King's use; which Mayor afterwards compounded with the Aulnageor for no less than an hundred pounds. The same power also hath the Aulnageor over  which are not of assize, though in the presence of any Mayor, Bailiff, or other Magistrate, which argues that there is great credit and trust reposed upon the Aulnageor. Besides, the Statute doth allow him an half penny upon a cloth for his pains in affixing his said seal, which half penny in those times was in value worth two pence in these days, & yet his pains were not then so much by a tenth part as now they are, as also the faults were few and easily suppressed. But the abuses herein soon increased to such height, as they begot him great trouble; and therefore he neglected measuring and searching offices, but still kept the name of Aulnageor, under which Title he doth to this day execute the office of Collecting the Subsidy, calling that the Aulnage, when indeed the true Aulnage is the measuring only, and of antiquity established by Laws far more ancient than any Parliament in England; of which we shall speedily say more when we speak of measuring.  
The Aulnageor is by the Statute required to be a person qualified to the place with knowledge and a responsible estate, as also for the execution of the place, he is to be an Englishman; but for receiving the profits and revenue, there hath ever been some person of honour and principal dignity thereto deputed; which office some Queens and Princes have not been ashamed to undergo. And further it is observable, to the credit of the Aulnageor, that in all Parliaments, where Statutes were ordained in order to Clothing, the Aulnageors' power and privileges were ever preserved; which gracious providence ought much to work upon his care, as it is evidently a signature to all men of his honour.  
In the seventeenth year of the Reign of King Edward the fourth, the Aulnage was made Farmable, and then the Aulnageors Fee was established; soon after the Counties were farmed out, some to one, some to another, as pleased the King reigning. In the beginning of King James his reign, this office was by him Farmed to Lodowick, late Duke of Richmond and Lennox, for the term of about sixty years (whereof many were expired) with the reversion of a considerable Rent; the reversion of which Lease, after the Duke Lodowick his decease, descended upon his most Honourable Brother, Esme Duke of Lennox; who disposing the profits thereof to his younger children, the possession of the whole is now in right descended upon the Right Honourable the Lord D'Aubigny, as only Survivor and Heir to his Father and Uncles; who being in minority of age, the execution of the place is by his Honourable Guardians disposed to such persons as to them seems meet; who again for their best improvement of its profits, do grant Leases, and Deputations to others, with a clause and penalty of reentry upon nonpayment of their Rents; by which means many controversies do grow, for amongst the diversity of Tenants, such suits and troubles do arise, as in the interim the Clothiers not knowing whom to obey, do pass without any seal, or paying any Subsidy, to the great detriment of the State and the Honourable Aulnageor, whose rights failing, his rents also to the State must necessarily so do.  
All this while the cloth wants the justification of the seal, to the great confusion of the Clothiers, for a double seal may not be put upon their , upon penalty of five pounds for every such seal twice annexed, and without a Seal the cloth will have no credit in sale, besides that it is liable to be seized by the several Aulnageors; for which causes the Clothier is encouraged, and in some sort compelled to offend (which needs not) for rather then the Clothier will have his cloth dishonoured for want of the seal, he will either counterfeit a seal, or else covenant with the Draper's servants or Drawers to cut the seals from such  as have passed the Marker, whereas the Draper is by the Law required to keep his seal upon his cloth to the last remnant, and then to demolish the seal, and by these opportunities the Clothier justifies all his faults to the buyer.  
Again, the present execution of the office is by Deputies, who for saving charge do deliver upon account their seals, either to the Clothiers themselves, or to the Fuller's to put them to the cloth after scouring, or else they are entrusted in some servant's hand of mean quality and less knowledge, with whom the Clothiers for easy rewards can prevail to pass such juggling tricks as may better be discerned in the Country, (for one half that are made come not into the Market to be sold) and then they annex counterfeits, or having the seals in their own power, they hang them so slightly upon the cloth as they can, without any defacing, take them off again after the cloth hath passed the Market, and affix them to others; by these proceed all the Clothier's faults are concealed, and so they pass to that part of the world where that cloth goes, which brands the clothing of this Nation, and advanceth that of other countries'. This was lately seen in Holland, where some English , faulty enough, were presented in open Markets, and a disgraceful Proclamation being published, the  were therewithal given to the view of the people to be warranted by the Arms of England, whereby not only great scandal was drawn upon English clothing and Merchants, but their own was brought into better credit, which not long before that were by thousands banished out of France for Rags, and Cheats.  
There is yet another great prejudice which comes to the Aulnageors loss, by such manner of entrusting seals with servants of Clothiers, or Clothiers themselves to affix them; for whereas the  are regulated by the Statute both in their length, breadth, and weight, yet they will most cunningly draw three clothes into one, and then cut it into two clothes, whereby the State is defrauded of a third part of the Subsidy; and this they do usually and so neatly, as a very good Drawer (not knowing it) shall not easily discern the fraud. This covenanting for seals doth also discover a false intention in the Clothier, even in the very bargaining; for whereas a cloth, by the primitive ordination, aught to weigh sixty four pounds, the Subsidy payment whereof amounts but to a groat, yet the Clothier usually pays six pence a piece for his seals, under colour that he would not have his clothes opened, or any way disordered before they go into the Market; yet the very truth is, he would not have his faults or defects discovered; and then again he secures the doubts of weighing, which would give the Aulnageor as good information, but would much reveal the Clothier's dishonesty, by the deficiency which would be found in want of weight; which shall be further declared, when we come to speak of the Searchers office, to which it hath now chief relation: In the interim we will proceed to show what prejudice is befallen to clothing by want of the Aulnageors duty in measuring.   

CHAP. V Of the Office of measuring, anclently called the Aulnageor.  
MEasuring is a work of that extent in government, as without it no man knows his own, nor is there any such thing as a man's own without Mensuration; how divine it is let Solomon speak, who saith, That divers weights and divers measures are abomination to God; we have now to do with measuring, that of weighing more properly coming within the discourse of Searching, whereof we shall presently speak.  
We cannot properly wade into the abuses of measuring, unless we begin our enquiry from the originals of clothing, which rests upon such as mingle, card, and spin Wools. The minglers are usually in great fault, for whereas by the Statute, clothing is to be made of Fleece wool only, nevertheless they mingle Fell wools and Lambs Wools with Fleece-wools, which are of nature's contrary one to another, and as contrary to the Statute Laws one to be mingled with another; yet these are daily practised: From whence come these Inconveniences, that the Cloth which is made of such disproportioned Stuff, doth render it uneven cockly, pursy, and rewey; and howsoever the Art of the Cloth worker doth in some measure cover these faults, yet that Cloth contains Deceptions and abuses, which will easily be found in wearing.  
Again, there is a great abuse in mingling fine Flox with long Wools (though course) these being Carded together, do (with no little care) hold Spinning and Working, but do prove most deceitful and abusive in use and wearing. The use of short Thrums produceth the same Cozenage in working, and abuse in wearing: For when they have cut the thrums into short lengths as they mean to use them, than they lay them to steep in strong Lie or Liquor, which openeth the Threads into Wool, which makes the Yarn more uneven than the Flocks; the practice of this is common and intolerable, insomuch as it hath been and is publicly known, that  have been made of two parts Flocks and Thrums, and but one part Wool; and that which helps the deception is, that it carries good and fair satisfaction to the Eye, but in wearing and service will not last a quarter of that time which a sound Cloth made of perfect Wool will do: But here the Clothier allegeth the loss that will be to him of his Flocks and Thrums, which is as readily answered; for there are several sorts of commodities to which they are only proper, and where the use of them may be preferred; the thing we complain of is, when they are used to evil purpose, with intent to make unlawful gain, and used with such subtlety and cunning, as the Buyers ignorance may be abused.  
The Weaver is proverbially a Thief, to which he is the more encouraged, by being acquainted with the Clothier's practices in false mingling his Yarn; and therefore in slaying his Warp, he will usually steal a whole Sley, which cosists of above thirty threads, and with instruments which he hath prepared, he will hold out his Cloth to the full breadth which the Statute requires; and though this cloth will sufficiently show the Robberies of the Weaver when it comes to the Mill, yet so soon as it is scowled, and comes to the Clothworker, he with his Tenters will bring it to the intended breadth; Such a Cloth will to a man of judgement soon be discovered, for it will feel slender, lose, and hollow in hand: Herein rests the Weavers chief gains, and because these deceptions cannot be practised without the Clothier's knowledge, he endeavours to make him amends by further cozening the Chapman, for he cunningly knits together the long Thrums left of Broad , which cannot be wrought to the shortness of narrow Clothes, and mingling them with Yarn of better nature, where by the help which each gives to other, the workmanship is eafed, but the wearing is highly abused; For by the inconveniences of the many knots in such a Cloth, which after scouring are Burled out, and then shut up again in the Mill, when this Cloth comes to wearing, it will soon prove to be full of holes, and will not be lasting.  
And yet further the Weaver is artificial in his cheats, for in slaying his Warps he will cast the Yarn to prove fine about a foot breadth from the Lists, which is so fare commonly as the Chapman looks into the Cloth, or the making it up with plights and threads will permit, when the rest of the Cloth is warped quite through with a for courser Yarn: It is also a common practice for the Weaver to cover a course Warp, being spun hard and small, with a fine Woof, spun soft and round; this conceals the Warp from sight, which otherwise in working would appear; but in wearing it is sufficiently found, and the practice of this is ordinary upon such  as are sold rough.  
They have yet another deceptious help for their masters, which is to shoot in a fine Woose at each end of the Cloth, which serveth for a muster to show and sell the Cloth, but all the rest of the Cloth is fare worse; and these ends doubtlessly want not workmanship to drive them in the Loom, for better show in sale.  
Such as make stuffs called new Draperies, that is to say, Serges, Seyes, Perpetuanoes, and the like, do despise all Form and order enjoined by the Laws to such kind of Manufactures in their making, and therefore the wonder is less why they so earnestly refuse, and by litigious and tedious Suits at Law do oppose the view of such Draperies to the Aulnager: For to give you an instance upon that of Perpetuanoes' (which was a Clothing of this Nation of principal esteem both at home and abroad) these stuffs in their first ordination had their pitch in the Loom at twelve hundred, which gave them substance and estimation, and being of acceptable wear to the Kings and Princes of Spain and Italy, are now brought to eight hundred in their pitch, and yet made to hold out their length and breadth; and some Merchants (who are a scandal to such as respect their reputation and Credit) do usually buy slight Seyes, which by artifice and cunning in Milling are brought to be Bastard Perpetuanoes', and in some measure acceptable to the sight, but so unprofitable are they in service and wearing, as they do discredit that Commodity, which for many years hath held as quick and creditable a Trade in their kind, as any Manufactures of Wool have done, which in these times is almost quite lost.  
Now for Kerseys, it is to be noted, that the original of that kind of clothing had gotten good reputation for its durable wearing both at home & abroad, but of late years a sort of cloth called Manchester or Lancashire Plains, which were usually made for Cottons and no other, about a yard in breadth, are now become the greedy purchase of some Merchants, who cut them in lengths according to that of a Kersey, which being dressed and died in the form of a Kersey, are both at home and abroad vented for Kerseys, which Cloth in wearing doth very much disgrace that which is true of that kind, and doth not a little abuse the wearer.  
And the more to abuse this sort of Cloth, which for long time hath given great credit to Devonshire, there be Merchants who deceptiously to imitate those Devonshire Kerseys, do cause counterfeits to be made in Yorkshire out of Washers and half Thicks which have contained such length and breadth, with slop Lists as true Devonshire Kerseys are used to do: These when they have been dressed, died, and hot pressed, have possed the Seas for Devonshire Kerseys, to the great abuse and discredit of that sort of Cloth; whereas the true Devonshire Kerseys ought to be marked at the head end, but being defective they are to be jagged at both ends, or to have the head Forell to be cut off, and the offender to be Fined as he deserves.   

CHAP. VI Of Measuring.  
IT was requisite that these particularities of abuses should first be related, because it is necessary the Measurer should be a man known in them, and many more deceptions which are incident and daily practised upon Clothing: The Measurer is now become a distinct Officer about Clothing, who was once the chief of that Employment, known by the name of Aulnageor, the branches of whose Office, were Searching, Measuring, and collecting the Subsidy, formerly related; and a greater injury could not have come to the interest of the Common good, than the improvident separation of the Name & office of Aulnageor, who now only beareth the title, but to his own and the Nations general loss, hath formerly neglected and now is dismissed of that beneficial work, wherein almost every particular man's good is interessed.  
And the Aulnageor is herein as  towards himself, for though through his negligence, the Offices of measuring and searching became the employment of other men, who were to be sworn in Corporations by the Mayor or Bailiff, yet was the election of such men to be presented to the said Magistrate by the Aulnageor; from the neglect of which these mischiefs are grown: First, that ignorant persons, as Tailors, Tanners, Glover's, Butchers, Smiths, and the like, who have no judgement at all in Cloth, are chosen into the offices of measuring and searching: or, Secondly, if there be men elected of some knowledge in clothing, yet such men are chosen by the Magistrate himself, who in all clothing Townes is ever a Clothier; now if Malefactors may make choice of their own judges and jury, it is apparent how the Commonwealth would be eased of Crimes and Malefactors: and it is no better here, for the men by this office being to be regulated or punished are the Magistrates themselves, as is before said, & therefore not probably to be questioned by their own Substitutes: Thirdly, these officers ought annually to be changed, but now and of long time they are continued for life, or for many years, as they can prevail with the Mayors in succession; which seldom fails, because each man in his course hath need of them: and how foul and prejudicial a crime this doth prove both to the State and People, shall presently be found in our Discourse upon Searching.  
We have formerly shown that all Clothing in England was confined to Incorporate and great Towns, where in their Halls it was to undergo measuring and searching, and so it doth in such an imperfect and partial way, as hath been declared: But in the Villages which are not Incorporated, and where there is no magistrate, there is also no Officer in these Superintendencies of measuring and searching, by which means all their Clothes which pass immediately to the Ports, and thence to Foreign parts, are neither measured nor searched, whereby it may appear what vast Sums of the Subsidy money are lost, (for such Clothes seldom or never come under the Aulnageors' hand) or if they be sealed, it is performed (as hath been said) by deceptious and counterfeit Seals, and though true ones be sometimes taken from the Aulnageors Deputies, yet are they kept for the more visible use, and counterfeits clapped on.  
For such as are not measured in the Country (as out of Corporations none are) they coming to the general Markets in London, are there by power of the Lord Mayor measured by the City sworn Measurer, as he is called; and here the Clothier is in some sort punished for his other dishonesties but not legally; for when they are brought into the sworn Measurers hands, he there keeps them for some time, under pretence of leisure, which by others clothes is prevented, during which time the Clothes are so handled amongst those Officers, as their owners daily complain of abuses intolerable: For though the Clothiers which are makers of them, do measure them at home, yet after they come out of the sworn Measurers' hand, they receive them shorter by four or six yards, after their own account, than they delivered them; and it hath been & peradventure yet is a practice of such as have them so long under their custody, to cut a yard, four or five out of the middle or best part of a Cloth, and afterward to have it so curiously drawn up again as the place cannot be found: So again out of fine white or single coloured , they have cut what quantities they please, and with the like neatness have drawn in as much of a courser Cloth of the same colour, whilst the abused Clothier for want of witness knows not certainly whom to accuse, himself having before he came from home measured his cloth before good witness, and therefore must rest contented with the Loss.  
These abuses amongst the sworn Officers do teach the Clothiers to practise daily deceptions, some of which they do own and countenance; for they have in these late years invented the making of Stuffs of fantastical fashions, to which they give such names as the Law doth not comprehend; these under the name of new inventions do defraud the Law in their making, the State in their Revenue, and the People in their wearing: For to the Law they are not known either by name or assize of length and breadth; to the State they dare not appear, unless by quarrels, contentions, and Suits; and to the wearer they are so welcome, as where he once buys them he will come no more for the most part: Anciently the cloth Ray, and coloured clothes were limited to their length and breadth; since which time provision was made by several Laws for Broad Clothes, Kerseys, Dozen, Pennistones, Cottons, and the like, which did appoint unto them a length, breadth, & weight; but now if these present Manufactures be held before the Law, as once was josephs' Coat to his Father jacob, surely the Statutes beholding such rags as are now made in comparison of the ancient glorious clothing, without doubt the Law will take up jacobs' wonder and indignation, that some wicked beast hath slain the Ordinance, and torn the Coat; nevertheless jacobs' Law, that is, Anno quarto jacobi, if it be seriously prepended and put in execution, will give a speedy remedy to these insufferable abuses.   

CHAP. VII. Of the Searcher and his Office.  
THe Officers of Measurer and Searcher may better be called the Gemini, than Twins, for they are so much entrayned one within another, as in some passages we cannot speak of one without the other; for though the Searchers office be of first use in clothing, yet is the Measurer to see the  measured when they are wet at the Mill, and afterward when they are scoured and dressed, and this course the Law provides, to the end the wickedness of the Weaver may be prevented, if it be possible; for between the wetting and working of the cloth, there ought to be but half a quarter strained in breadth, and one yard in length, whereas it is now become a great courtesy to the cloth if they strain it but a quarter and half in breadth, and five yards in length, for many in these days go beyond this height.  
We have a Proverb which saith, where God hath his Church, the Devil will have his Chapel; so, soon after clothing came into England, deceptions and abuses were practised about it: For instance, there was in the thirty and ninth year of Queen Elizabeth, a Law made concerning the abuses in clothing, wherein orders were provided that all sorts of clothes should be truly searched, and their just contents of length and weight set upon every Piece, the Seal reciting the word (Searched) upon it, and this to be done upon pain of forfeiture; This Law doubtlessly intended the general good and reformation, yet in regard there was but two Counties named, which had most offended in this matter, therefore would all offenders in other places confine that Law to those two Counties, wherefore in the three & fourtieth year of that Queen's Reign, the Parliament did interpret that Act to extend over all and singular of woollen Broad-cloths, half-clothes, Kerseys, Cottons, Dozen, Penistons, Frizes, rugs, and all other woollen clothes of what nature, kind, or name soever they be, or shall be made within this Realm, to be viewed, searched, sealed, and subjected to penalties in such manner and form, to such purpose and intents respectively, as was limited to those Clothes: There is no doubt but if the question now started between old and new Draperies had then been thought upon, the Subsidy of Aulnage would then as precisely have been cleared, if in those words (subjected to all penalties) it be not already contained.  
But to come more exactly to the necessity of the Searcher, (of which officers in Towns and Villages not Corporate there is none) we will here enter upon the deceits as they are daily found, and as the Law detects them. The first deceit used about Wools, (whose own innocence is as much as the Sheep's which bears it) is commonly by mingling it in divers kinds, that is to say, Fleece wools, Fell wools, and Lambs wools, which are contrary of nature to be wrought together; this composition we have formerly denoted to render a cloth uneven, cockly, pursy, and the like; that mingling fine flocks with long Wools, but course, doth give an uneven thread in spinning, and proves deceitful in wearing; that short Thrums opened into wool, and carded again with other wool, which is worse than that of Flocks, doth also much embase the thread, and yet it is common to put two parts of Flocks and Thrums into a Cloth, and but one of good wool, which though it coseneth the eye, yet doth it prove so weak in wearing, as it will not last a fourth part of that time which a perfect cloth will do.  
These and some others are before recited, therefore we will proceed to the Mill, whither when a cloth comes, it would be there truly searched even by the Mill itself, which would lay open the faults; but the Miller's art prevents it, for with tallow, pig's dung, and urine, they keep in the flocks and help the thicking; and when a cloth proves slender, and will not thick kindly in the Mill, by reason of the defects, than they help it with the medicine of oatmeal, and the like, which remaining in the cloth, makes it feel fast and thick in hand until it come to dressing, where all that stopping vanisheth, but there the Clothworker useth his art to preserve it from shame: When a cloth wanteth of his substance & allowance in yarn, as hath formerly been observed, the defects would soon be discovered, being clean scoured, thicked and dried, therefore in such a case it shall be scoured by halves, the oil and seam being left in it, in which filth they will thick it up, which proves noisome in wearing.  
Then come we to the Tenters, which with great penalties are forbidden upon rough , yet in the Counties where those  are made, and aught to be sold rough, there are Tenters erected as commonly as in other places; and whereas such  ought to be left in the same order as they come from the Mill, they are nevertheless brought upon the Tenters, the better to conceal the recited abuses in the yarn, and weaving, which the Mill leaves shameful in cockles, pursinesse, and narrower in some places then other; these faults they pretend to even out, under which colour they strain them beyond the limits allowed for dressed .  
Again, because the Cloth; thus strained do leave visible marks upon the Lists and ends, whereby the abuses offered unto them may be plainly manifested, there the Clothworker goes to work, who with a wet cloth and a hot Iron runs over the sides and ends, and so smoothly shuts up the tongues of the Tenters as they tell no tales. And when by the same tentering the cloth doth prove hollow in hand, then is the same wet cloth and hot Iron used again about a span deep from the lists, (the binding up of the cloth with threads keeping it from further examination) and for so much the cloth feels close in hand, but the buyer must take the rest as he finds it: when any of their clothes fall out much too light, than they hang them abroad in an evening, and sometimes all night to receive the dew, and rather than fail, they spout water upon the cloth to weighten it, which will give it no less than seven or eight pounds in additional heaviness, besides that it makes it feel more kindly in hand; and this is so cunningly done, as it shall very hardly be perceived; nevertheless many of them are so over-watered, as in their travails into far parts, whilst they lie long in the hot holds of the Ships, they become rotten and are returned.  
Besides these tricks, the Clothworkers have a professed Art or Mystery of their Trade in dressing clothes: For instance, the weaver's falsehood in making up clothes with flocks and thrums would be to little purpose, if the Clothworker did not join his deceits; for finding those clothes to prove too tender for honest workmanship, there he will row them dry, and work them with solace, and soft liquor, to preserve the flocks from the force of the Tessel, and yet they will make it rise with a ground to work upon in shearing: and in streining upon the Tenters (as hath been said) they will so stretch a cloth, as they will bring that to thirty yards, which being wet again, a third part of the length and breadth is quite vanished.  
A Kersey is allowed to be strained but one nail in breadth, and half a yard and no more in length, yet such a Devonshire kersey of only twelve yards long, hath been strained a quarter of a yard in breadth, and three yards in length; so as in breadth and length the Tenters have lent such a cloth one half of the piece, which is no sooner come to the water, but the moiety flies invisibly away, worse than Hocus Pocus tricks. Again, if a cloth by much milling do run in, so as it causeth more than ordinary labour to bring it to the length and breadth which they appoint for it, than they will use warm water in the Tentering thereof, but more after the warmth of the Sun, which they know will make a cloth yield any way in stretching.  
Finally in the finishing their work of rowing and shearing, they will use a deceit with flocks of the same colour of the cloth, which they can shear as small as dust, this they mingle with solace, & spread upon the musters, and where the cloth may be seen, which makes it to seem much finer than it is, and feel more substantial in hand; But if this cloth lie a while after dressing, the solace drieth up, and those flocks fly away, leaving the cloth in his own nature again.   

CHAP. VIII. Of deceits in colours and dying.  
DYing is of great importance, and of double concernment towards clothing; one in behalf of the people which use it, the other towards the wools, , and stuffs which are died: on the people's part it is so beneficial, as divers weighty Statutes made for the preservation of it, do relate the livelihood which it doth give to many thousands of people; and therefore the Laws ordained for it, do under great penalties oblige the professors of dying in wools, that they shall not teach their mystery to a foreign nation; yet in late years there have several Englishmen transported themselves into Holland for no other cause, but to enrich themselves with the spoils of their own Country; and have there practised, communicated, and taught the mysteries of dying colours in wool, so that the reformation hereof may seem to be too late undertaken; yet breention of the like false brothers in time to come may be provided, partly by encouraging the Dyers at home, which cannot better be done then by care that one do not undermine another by faleness in dying: And again, by keeping the materials (which are especially wools and white ) from being transported (as the Statutes do enjoin) that is to say, without Licence from the State, where also the petition ought well to be enquired.  
The other part of importance in dying, relates to the wools, , and stuffs, and therein that the colours be true and well grounded, for the truth of the colour is as material as the goodness of the cloth, because oftentimes a good cloth is spoilt by a bad colour, and as oftentimes doth a good colour mend and prefer a mean cloth: Such as intent to give beauty to false colours (as colours do to evil complexions) do practice with that so much prohibited ingredient called Logwood, which though forbidden by the Statute under severe penalties, is nevertheless as commonly used as colours; yet it is known to be a cheat as bad as picking a pocket, for it barely gives a vading gloss to the thing died, which changeth with the Sun, or Fire, blows away with the wind, and altars with the air; in a word, this abuse is intolerable, though common, and gives great discredit to the commodity so died.  
The ground of good and durable colours is substantial Woading, without which divers colours cannot perfectly be made, that is to say, Blacks, Russets, Tawneys, Purples, Green's, and the like; many of these colours in late years are made without the justifiable foundation of woading, which though they appear beautiful to the eye by the help of Logwood, as hath been said; yet in use and wearing they prove very false and disgraceful: to some colours they give a flight ground of Woad, though fare too weak to the depth of the colour it bears; nevertheless they have the art to set up a a true woad-marke, or woad-rose upon the piece, at a far richer depth than the cloth is woaded throughout: and some have yet a more neat and subtle art to set a woad-mark upon a cloth with a little Indigo, when there is no sort of woad at all upon the cloth; such as will do justly, must set a woaded seal upon woaded colours, which is better and more justifiable than the Rose mark so much abused.  
There be five especial degrees in woading, that is to say, a Huling, a Plounket. a Watchet, an Azure, and a Blue: every one of these exceedeth another in value, yet is every one of them fit for some colours: it is therefore very requisite that each of these degrees be truly expressed upon the woad-seale, that the buyer may know the truth of that colour which he hath for his money; by which reformation those intolerable abuses would be prevented, which cause such numbers of  and stuffs to pass beyond the Seas, and there to be dressed and died, to the exceeding great prejudice and detriment of the good people of this Nation, who might live, and very plentifully increase, maintaining themselves as happily, as any other people upon those employments.  
The Aulnageor of England hath also the intuition of colours, in a double capacity; one is to provide that the  be truly died, and for that purpose to have them truly marked, to the end the people who buy them be not defrauded by such practices as are before recited: the other is his care to see that the Subsidy be duly paid according to the Statute: for the Laws do give unto the State a Subsidy of six pence, five pence, four pence, three pence, according to the colours put upon the ; as also the moiety of those rates upon the half : the same also is proportionably allowed upon stuffs: it is therefore apparent how necessary it is for the Aulnageor and his deputies to be knowingly conversant in colours also, and in the truth of dying, for as upon false made, and false assized , his seal gives a great abuse to the buyers, be they natives or foreigners; so the granting the State's Arms to justify false colours, cheats the Chapmen, whilst both of them do dishonour the Nation.   

CHAP. IX. Of abuses in exporting Wools and Fuller's earth.  
THe whole world cannot produce such accommodations for accomplishing the work of clothing, as can the nation of England: for though most Countries do afford wools, and those of Spain are finer than in any other part of the world, yet will not those of Spain sort in work with any other Nations, unless it be these of England: a reason whereof may peradventure be, because the Spanish wools are grown originally from the English sheep, which by that soil, (resemblant to the Downs of England) and by the elevation of the Pole for warmth, are come to that fineness; yet keep they a natural conjunction & as it were, affection with these from whom they are descended: so we see the Wines of Canary which are planted from the grape of the Rhine, though they become much richer than those of their natural Climate, yet retain they the same flavour (as the Vintners call it) with the Rhenish, and before all other, do hold best with it in mixture: but to let pass comparisons, the wools of England are superlatives to all the world for fineness, except that of the Spanish, which neither by itself, nor by the incorporation with the wools of any other Nation, will be wrought into any cloth, without the help and mixture of English wools, which being carded together (as by the English Clothiers they are) they produce the richest manufactures in clothing which the whole world can show.  
Again, there is another material without which clothing cannot be perfected, which also in the excellency of it is only appropriated to England, that is Fuller's earth, without which clothing cannot be scoured from the Seam and Oils wherewith they must necessarily be wrought: It is possible and probable that other parts of the world may produce Fuller's earth, but neither in such fineness nor abundance as this in England; which approbation is highly confirmed by the appraisment which the Hollanders make of it, who spare not upon occasion to give ten pounds sterling a Tun for it, which any man may have in such places as it grows, for three shillings the same quantity; surely this is a great temptation to break a commandment or Statute of Parliament, and so they do familiarly, as presently shall appear.  
First therefore to return to the wools of this nation, such as shall be pleased to peruse the Statutes made in the beginning of King Edward the third his Reign, to prohibit the transportation of raw wool, white-Cloths, and Fuller's earth, after that clothing was confined to be made in England; shall find that the penalty which those Laws did inflict upon such as should break them, did extend to life or limb, at the King's pleasure, which of them he would please to take; for it is no more likely to make clothing, if the materials be carried away, than it is to preserve life without food, or government without power: true it is, that after clothing was settled, and that wools multiplied beyond the Manufactures, than (with licence from the State) wools were permitted to be transported, and by the like licence they have continued to be exported; yet for the most part the State did strictly regard the restraint, and in the chief liberty of exportation, the Grant was permitted only upon the meaner sort of wools, and those commonly from Ireland, where clothing might not be grieved.  
But the case is otherwise now, even in these days when clothing hath extended over this Land almost into every corner, when the great strength of the Nation in people lies upon the several relations to clothing; when the greatest Customs and Revenue of the State arise from clothing; when the largest negotiation of merchandises overspreading the world, issueth from clothing; when the mightiest power upon the Seas in Shipping grows from clothing; when the formidable obligation in awing all foreign States rests upon clothing, even now is the practice and trade of transporting its mateterialls become almost an open profession: and were this presumption but as formerly the permissions, grants, and licenses were, that is, upon the worst wools only, the faults were the less; but these men's trade consists of the best and finest wools, combed into jarsies presently fit for spinning, and these are contrived into Bales, as those of Drapery, and entered into the Custome-houses, and shipped as clothing, and in all points so cunningly carried as they are seldom discovered, and never seized as the Statutes do strictly require.  
All States and Common wealths are supported by two providential works, that is, Reward and Punishment; for as no law can compel men to be corporally laborious, or studious in knowledge of literature, unless rewards be annexed to all such compulsions; so no providence can attend the preservation of profitable designs either in learning or trade, unless punishments be enjoined; this opinion that profound Senator Cicero allegeth from Solon, one of the seven wise Grecians, and the only man of them which gave Laws; and this is the weak and frail estate of men and nations, that unless they be as well encouraged in their endeavours, as punished in their misdemeanours, they will speedily become Libertines and ruin all.  
Above three hundred years these works of clothing have been confined to this Nation, and until late years have been so preserved, by the diligence of such officers as have been ordained and empowered carefully to see the manufactures kept under those rules which the Laws have provided for their perfection; amongst which it must be concluded, that the materials were of especial regard, which (as we have said) are wools and Fuller's earth: and seeing this nation is by God peculiarised in the se blessings and through the vigilancy of its Monarches, safe guarded by Laws, that the native manufactures might not be undermined by the practices of foreigners, their ancient providence exacts from the present age the same preservation, that those particulars be not common to such as daily labour to supplant the very being of this so important trade, the negligence whereof hath already brought the Scales to an equality of the Beam between England and Holland, if rather the inclination tend not to their advantage.  
Again, we may be taught by their diligence, who spare no attendance in overseeing and searching the true making of their manufactures, giving therefore power and commissions to persons of more than ordinary worth amongst them, whom they call Cure-masters, which is Care-masters, to whom every piece of work of wools, be the condition of it what it will, is brought, opened, and surveighed from end to end, where the enquiry is not slight or short, but these officers do unpartially examine it through all the hands it hath passed, even to the minglers of the wools, which afterwards are carded, than spun, so weaved, scoured, died, strained, rowed, even from the first hand to the finishing of the Cloth: and where they find a defect, they make a default upon the cloth, which first is recompensed by a Fine to the State for abusing the Laws, and afterwards remains to admonish the buyer, who thereby may guard his purse; and in case the Clothier be abused by any of his before-recited work-folks, he checques his damage upon the true offender in his wages, and all this is done to their own manufactures; but when the business concerns English clothing, first, they load the cloth with Imposts and Taxes, contrary to the Law of nations, and freedom of the merchant, and afterwards are so rigorous in denoting faults upon it, as they oftentimes bring a great part of the price into taxes and abatements.  
The Premises considered, let any man be Judge whether that Nation ought to be helped with the wools and Fuller's earth, without which they cannot work, the exportation of which also is little less than Felony in punishment, and of more damage then ordinary Felonies, in consideration and comparison of the crime; nevertheless there is nothing which is prohibited to pass from England, more daily practised then these abuses; yea, they are rather oppressions, and robberies of the greatest magnitude.  
Nor is the transportation of these, in their loss, all the injury; but when honest men, well affected to the good of their Country, do detect these Caterpillars of the Commonwealth, who make so vast gain as hath been denoted upon the materials so carefully prohibited, when they do endeavour by due course of Law to make stoppage thereof, and to have the offenders punished, so many are the evasions, such combinations, and interest in the officers who ought to punish the offenders, such favour have they in Courts of justice, and deceptions in the return of Writs, and in general such affronts and discouragements, as the dearest lover of his Country, or most interessed in Trade, dares not attempt to prevent that mischief which his eyes behold to fall upon his nation, or which his own person feels to pick his pocket.   

CHAP. X. Concerning Apprenticeships.  
SUch is the pravity and weakness of man's nature, as without industry, art, and discipline, he remains but the only degree of Reason from a Beast: For as after the Creation of the first man, the world's increase and continuance of people hath by God himself been established by way of generation, so the arts of men and polishings of nature came first from God to man by some singular inspirations to certain particular persons, which afterwards continued amongst men by nourtrature, education and discipline; the fundamentals of which are superiority and inferiority, power and obedience, knowledge and ignorance: now as the jews comprehended all the people of the world between themselves and Barbarians, so all conditions of men are comprised between wise and ignorant; this made Solomon say, That the Fool shall be servant to the wise in heart. Therefore men learn not of men as beasts do, barely to obey, but so to inform themselves, as they may instruct them which come after, whereby even the world itself subsisted, and must continue; that sort of youth being most miserable which wants education.  
There be, or aught to be in every parent two degrees of providence towards their children, one to have them live, the other to have them live well; nature hath accomplished one, and instruction must give the other, which the Ancients and learned men call Discipline: not only the Church and People of God from the Primitive times, have ordained this as a religious care, but the heathens, that is, the Persians, Lacedæmonians, Romans, and Turks, have framed Laws, enjoining Parents to instruct their children, and compelling children to obey their Parents on pain of death; which the weak and partial affections of Parents neglecting, the Commonwealth itself hath undertaken, and upon pious foundations have established prudent Laws, to the end Youth may be educated to the competent election of a vocation, answering their own genius and inclination, yet all this is but to solicit nature to perfect her own work, which must be done by Art, and Art is a work of time, to which, that Youth may bequeath themselves, the Laws of each nation have proportioned a certain number of years, and that is generally seven.  
It is not without mystical signification, that servitude is so generally fastened upon this number of seven years; jacob covenanted for seven year's service, and trebled them rather than he would not enjoy the freedom and purchase of that he so much loved and desired; seven times seven years must pass before a Jubilee of deliverance could enfranchise offenders; the number of seven gave perfection and rest to God's works: this number also is harmonical, comprising all kinds of proportions, Arithmetical, Geometrical, and Musical: It is the number of sanctification, as may appear in several passages of Moses Ceremonial Law: it is the Climaterique, and consummation of man's age: It is the comparison of the most sacred word of God, which David resembles to silver seventimes refined: it is also Solomon's Palace of Wisdom, supported by seven Pillars: and finally, to instance our own argument, it is the ternary seven of the age of Youth from the second seven, which makes fourteen, to the third seven, which reacheth one and twenty; in which time the Brain, and Memory, best receive and retain the Institutions, which that Party intends to follow in course of his nature, and inclination.  
There is a double reason why Youth is almost in all Nations obliged to a seven years' Apprenticeship, before they can obtain a Freedom to practise the Trade to which they are engaged: one is to teach the Disciple or Apprentice; for such is the dulness of man's nature, that repetitions and multiplications of one and the same instruction, are little enough to fasten doctrines upon the judgement and memory of the learner, in matter of Art and Trade.  
The want of instruction and teaching in Clothing, is the principal cause that the Manufactures of wool are so abusively and deceptiously made; and teaching is thus wanting, because there is no regular or legal course followed, either for time or form in working; there is not any of the relations to clothing which doth observe this rule of Apprenticeship not withstanding it is enjoined in very strict and penal manner by the Statute Laws; The chief inconvenience of which is, that a Trade so general in use, and maintenance of even numberless Families, doth by its own vast exuberance convert into corruptions; and so those great multitudes of People become discredited, beggared, and finally ruined, to the destruction of themselves, and that nation which gave them so great a blessing.  
Another prejudice, and not the least, is, that the nation which hath given them being, and invested them with such materials for clothing, is dishonoured by false and abusive work: & it is not a little scandal to that nation, which God hath particularly endowed with those blessings that others want, when its people shall divert those good things which God hath bestowed upon it, to evil and deceptious practices: In this consideration it is very observable, how little comparatively, is the drunkenness of those Countries which produce wines, and wherein lies their personal riches, and their Nation's honour; Though their other sins may sufficiently swell their ultimate account, yet doubtlessly it strengthens their last apology, in that they abuse not that endowment, which God hath made the original of their being and subsistence.  
A third consideration is the cheat it puts upon all the world, for though every country have not the benefit of the Manufacture in themselves, yet are there few of them condemned to such ignorance, as not to discern the Cozenage which false clothing puts upon them; in which case to the foresaid dishonour they add a curse; and it was a chief care in jacobs' practice for the blessing, that he turned it not into a curse: how much more is this of consideration, when the blessing comes by gift and not by design or procurement?  
And lastly, great is the thought of heart, when the sins of false lucre & covetousness are in the full pursuance of such as have the full plenty to make weight and measure, yet make it the art of their practice as well as the practice of their art, to cozen both the wise and weak; it can be no great wonder, nor without abundance of Precedents, if God for sins of such wilfulness remove his blessings, with which this nation is peculiarly enriched and dignified, and give them to a People which will render him a better, and more just, and more profitable account of his talon: and it is no news, that though England be by the Almighty, chief ordained to produce the materials, yet the manufactures be given to a people which will render a better account.  
All this, and much more is expected, if the Native people continue to abuse the Native commodity, as of necessity they must, when they know not how to use it; the wisdom of our Ancestors hath been liberally manifested in this particular; for more or better Laws are not ordained in any relation to Trade, then that the manufactors be constantly made Apprentices for seven years at least, in stead of which provident ordination, there is not one of a thousand made apprentice at all, but entering into Covenant with a workman in that he intends to profess, after three or six months at the most, he leaps forth a workman for his own account, and so brings his work peradventure to the height of his Skill, which height is ignorance, and so the abuses are unremediable.  
The other reason, and yet untouched, why Apprentices are generally confined to seven year's servitude, is to theend that in each art professors multiply not beyond the support of their trade, which were not to increase good Subjects, but Vagabonds & Rogues, to furnish prisons & the gallows, which was not the intention of King Edw. the third, when in his design of bringing clothing into England, a chief part was so to multiply his People, as by his native and alleadgeate Subjects he might securely possess the Conquests wherewith God had blessed him, which were beyond any Christian Prince of his time.  
It is utterly against reason that a nation can be poor, whose people are numerous, if their industries be compelled and encouraged, and their idleness be punished and reform; it is not the barrenness of a Country which can forbid this maxim. The Scots are an abounding and numberless people, and they have a Soil which to a Traveller's eye, seems to produce nothing towards so vast a maintenance of the body of that People, yet are they in all parts of the world a warlike and honoured nation, helpful to all Princes in their Wars, and readily upon occasion returning to the assistance of their brethren be their cause good or bad. The Dutch are a numerous Nation, daily multiplying in a Country which hath in comparison, nothing of its own growth to support them either in food or clothing, yet they want nothing either in necessaries or wealth, because they are industrious; what Creek of the Seas do they leave unvisited? And in Shipping are so stored, as most parts of the world do love or fear them.  
Now a great increase of People rests upon the regulation of Trade; for it is not the number of workmen, but the number of good workmen which increaseth Families; and it is Families which increase and spread good people; the other for want of knowledge and Skill, being fixed no where, because their labours will not maintain themselves, much less a family; for who will use a workman who hath neither Skill nor Credit, when he can employ one that hath both? Of principal importance therefore is the regulation of Apprenticeships, both towards the best increase of people, and to the honest, creditable, and wealthy manufactures of wools, and especially of clothing; for want of which, not only the former denoted defaults are daily found in their works, but good workmen are undersold and ruined by bad, and the whole Nation involved in great dishonour; therefore we will resort to the Reformations.   

CHAP. XI. Showing the abuses of those Laws whereby Clothing aught to be remedied.  
Justice (which all men cry up and few practice) is a virtue both divine and humane: Divine Justice is either from God to man, wherein his Providence is his Justice, by which he governeth the world; or it is from man towards God, and then it is Piety, whereby he returns to God praise and glory for his numberless blessings: In Republics, Cities, and Towns, it is Equity, the fruit whereof is Peace and Plenty: In Domestic relatitions between man and wife, it is unity and concord; from Servants to Masters it is goodwill and diligence; from masters to servants it is humanity and gentleness, and from a man towards his own body and soul, it is health and happiness; There is none of all these relations, but is necessary and important to the reformation of the abuses, defaults, deceptions, and grievances committed upon clothing, which in this discourse have been in some measure discovered, and by which both God and man are justly provoked.  
The justice we are to use to the relief of the complaints before exhibited is either distributive, or commutative; Justice distributive is to give each man according to his deserts, whether it be honour or punishment; and commutative justice, is in bargaining, bartering, exchanging, or in any transactions between man and man to keep promises, covenants, and contracts, and for a man to behave himself as he would have others do unto him; to receive the innocent into protection, to repress and punish offenders, without which, common intercourse and humane society must necessarily be dissolved, and for the preservation whereof, amongst the ancient Fathers have not spared their own sons. The Egyptian Kings, to whom antiquity gives the privilege of making Laws, did engage their Magistrates in an oath, that in judicature they should resist any unjust Commands even from their Princes themselves: The Grecians and Romans deified justice, and would not violate it towards their enemies; so just also were the Lacedæmonians, and so free from distrusting each other, as even for the public safety they used neither locks nor bars; insomuch that one ask Archidamus who those Governors were which so justly, happily, and gloriously, governed the Common wealth of Lacedaemon, answered, that they were first the Laws, and afterwards the Magistrates executing those Laws; for Law is the rule of Justice, and Justice is the end of the Law.  
Rectum est index sui & obliqui, a right Line doth not only justify itself, but accuseth the crooked, say the Mathematicians; by which it may seem, that the ready way to rectify abuses about clothing, were to compare them with the Rule of the Laws provided for them, which nevertheless holds not in all points; for instance, the Law empowers the Merchants and Drapers to be their own Searchers, and to punish the Clothier's purse, as they find his works to be faulty; and so they do, to the no small grief of the Clothier: but cui bono? For the retailing buyer is not hereby at all relieved, the Draper selling to him those faults for which he was before paid by the Clothier; the Merchants do the same, by causing their Clothiers to bring their manufactures into the Merchant's private Ware houses, where their own servants are Judges, who upon searching the Clothes do make, and mark faults enough, for which they have reparable abatements, but themselves again do practice all fraudulent ways they can to barter and exchange those faults away, without giving any allowance for them; and though sometimes they be detected, yet find they means to save their purses, whilst their Nation suffers in honour, and the Laws are vilified to Foreigners, who slain the Justice of the Nation with weakness and fraud: true it is that in the Netherlands, where their cunning is as piercing, as their practice is common, they (even every buyer) do search with diligence, and make themselves reparations, first to the Merchants great loss, and so in course to the Clothiers no small damage: but in all this the State remains much dishonoured by the scandal, and robbed of those Fines which the Laws in punishment do give to the public Revenue, which if they were rightly and legally attended, would render a vast gain to the Common wealth.  
As in diseases where the causes are mistaken, the remedies are consequently misapplyed, whereby a disease in supposition becomes one in fact; so in the foregoing instance, the remedies being misapplyed, are themselves brought to be a disease almost incurable: therefore though in finding out the causes why manufacture in clothing becomes so abused, there may be good use of the Drapers & Merchant's knowledge and Skill, yet the application of the remedy is a work of State and Policy, in making and executing the Laws proportionably to the grievance, in which instance it doth not hold; for though the Merchants and Drapers be able Searchers of the abuses, yet they are not competent reformers of the grievances, because they are interessed in participating of those gains which the faults occasion and intent.  
Nor is this all the abuse, for in such parts of the world as the buyers are not in ability of knowledge, like the Dutch, who make  themselves, and especially in those parts where the difference in Religion is so great as it is between Christians and Turks, there the corrupt Merchant causeth the name of God to be blasphemed; for when those people, whose eye and judgement gives them not so good information as doth their proof and wearing, do find themselves cheated in their garments, they presently conclude, that there is no fear of God in that place, nor obedience to their Rulers for conscience, which must assuredly procure much scandal to Christian Religion.  
Now as Pliny observes (as in the Front you have it) that Pecunia dicitur à Pecude, thereby bringing the original of money from sheep; affirming that the ancient signature upon money was a sheep; he also thereby shows that merchandises were the cause of money, and there being no greater merchandises than are from the sheep, he makes it evident that there is nothing more requisite towards the enriching this nation, whose peculiar blessing rests in sheep, then strictly to hold the manufactures to the letter and rule provided for their just making, and that the laws be unpartially executed; For, Necessarium illud dicitur sine quo fieri non potest, and it being apparent that this Nation cannot be rich without a constant utterance of clothing, nor can that be done without a perfect reformation in the particulars of the works, it doth undeniably follow, that clothing must be purged from its corruptions, or England must be poor: It is therefore the Manufactors which abuse the wools, and thereby improvidently give advantage to the Dutch; whereas a perfection in the making of  in England, will gainfully undersell the Hollander a Noble in a Pound sterling.   

CHAP. XII. Showing how the Laws are used to cross and destroy each other about clothing.  
BY that which hath been said, it doth appear that there may be too much Law, though there cannot be too much justice, and where the Law abuseth justice, that Common wealth is in a desperate condition: England will be found in little better state, if a short review be taken of some preceding passages: for the Laws are made to fight against themselves in that tedious cont roversie about the Aulnageors' Subsidy: for though there be none more authentic than such as establish that Imposition, nevertheless the litigations about the legality of this Subsidy, and the opposition to the State revenue hath for some late years been carried on with such heat, as some innocent officers for doing their duty, have been no less then ruined: For which cause the deputies and subservient Aulnageors become very remiss in their office, as well in selling their Seals by dozen to such as will buy them (the inconvenience and loss whereof is formerly declared) as by neglecting to survey and examine what clothes are Statutable or truly sealed: Again the Farmers and sub-farmers of the Aulnage, being (through the troubling and interrupting their servants) made unable to pay their Rents, the Lessors to them ever premising a Clause in their Lease for reentry upon nonpayment of their covenanted Rent, do presently upon default grant a new Lease to another man utterly unknown to the preceding Tenant; by which promiscuous course there are divers Aulnageors for one and the same place, at one and the same time; whereof the Clothier soon getting knowledge, by their exercising a double duty, he pays to neither, yet gets his Clothes sealed by such indirect means as is before declared; in all which proceed, the Law is abused under pretences of legality.  
As for the duty of searching, the former powers granted by that Statute of quarto jacobi to the Merchants and Drapers, and the inconveniences thereupon denoted, are enough to show the Imperfections of that Statute to that use; nevertheless not only the prejudice to the buyer, and dishonour to the Nation, are thereby as it were authorized, but the loss to the State is not easily to be valued, seeing that in that only Country of the Netherlands, the taxes or abatements for defects in Clothing have been by that State punished to the damage of ten thousand pounds in one year; what then must be the Income of the like abuses upon the whole clothing of England in those Fines which the Statutes give to the State? all which are lost for want of legal searches, where the faults being detected and marked upon the edges of the Clothes, as the Statutes require, all future buyers are satisfied of their worth, and the State secured of the revenue: and that these faults cannot be few, the Reader may be pleased to cast his eye over their works, in mingling, carding, spinning, weaving, scouring, milling, rowing, tentering, and many other works, wherein every one helps his Lawful living by unlawful practices. True it is, that the foresaid Statute of quarto jacobi, by the largeness of it seems to be an epitome of all the Statutes made in three hundred years before; yet such are the insufficiencies, and the incongruities of the commands, and powers thereby established, as the Subject, and more especially Foreigners are rather grieved then relieved by it, wherein the dishonour of the State and Nation is very great and apparent.  
Now for the weight of Clothes so precisely commanded, and by the Statute strictly enjoined, the Clothiers are herein generally abusive; for whereas they were originally ordained to weigh sixty four pounds a Cloth, and afterwards by degrees came to fifty eight, yet now for want of exact searching they hold themselves very obedient to the Law, when their Clothes hold fifty six pounds a piece, whereof more come short then over, their general answer being, that they cannot cast their Clothes in a mould, yet when they please they will bring twenty Clothes together not differing from each others weight so much as a quarter of a pound in a Cloth, so as indeed one may judge that they were cast in a mould, which men could as well make them hold as near to fifty eight pounds; but herein lies the Weavers chief practice of falsehood, for they will many times make them four or six pound short of the Statutes established weight, and then they find tricks with Stones, Leaden weights, and the like ponderous things to give them weight, which upon the Aulnageors legal search, may soon be discovered and seized.  
Again, the Law is by the Law crossed and abused even in those places where they pretend they have legal established Searchers; first in their number, there ought to be six or eight in a town, according to the capacity of the Corporation, and clothing in it: secondly, those Searchers ought to give security of forty pounds' penalty at the least, and to approve themselves men of knowledge, wealth, and integrity, to the end the search may be throughly performed once in a month or oftener: and they are by the Law furnished with power to carry their search through Warehouses, Shops, Ships, or any other place which shall harbour any clothing or manufactures searchable, the resistance or concealment whereof, is put under strict and valuable penalty: thirdly, they are by the Sature appointed in their Search what faults to denote, and what penalties to declare on each fault.  
In performance of which Injunctions, first, out of towns Corporate there is no Searcher appointed, but all is left at liberty to the Clothier, who useth his liberty so much to his own advantage, as should a Searcher be there established by a justice of Peace, as the Law requires, he shall assuredly be affronted, sued, and imprisoned by such secret helps as the Clothier can procure in the Exchequer, carrying therewith such abusive countenance of the Law, as a single and simple Officer dares not resist. Secondly, in Towns Corporate, where this office ought to be attended with numbers, there is sometimes none, but never above one, and that an ignorant man, as also both nominated and sworn by the Magistrate, who undoubtedly is ever a Clothier, and as likely by his power to be an offender, whom such a worthless officer as himself puts in, dares not control, much less correct or seize his Clothes: Add to this also, that as he is an abject person, and the creature of the Magistrate, so is he wanting in knowledge to judge of good and true work, as also of estate or ability to answer his neglects, or to give security therefore.  
Thirdly, there is neither fault nor penalty denoted, or put upon the Seal or Cloth, wherein the State is abundantly damnified: but because in such a constant practice it is impossible but some people must be punished, and some clothes seized, in such cases another law appears (in opposition to the Statute which directs the deciding and adjudging such faults to the Lord Treasurer) by which the Magistrate of the place where such seizure is made, takes upon him more than the Lord Treasurer, for he not only condemns the culpable goods, but ex officio, he appropriates the confiscation to himself.  
If in Villages there be a Searcher established by the Justice (as the Law enjoins) than such seizures come to the Quarter Sessions, where by favour and friendship the offender escapes, and the State is the fufferer: in a word, it is very material to observation, that of so many thousands of Clothes as are made defective and deceptious in England and Wales, the Exchequer neither sees one Cloth so seized or seizable, no nor a Penny for all the Fines or redemption of such a Cloth, but the abuses continue, increase, and are maintained, the Common wealth and foreigners are generally wronged, the State is deprived of its Revenue, even to vast sums, the Nation is dishonoured over all the world, and the continuance of it, if not speedily reform, will plead prescription.  
We will now walk through the Measurers' office, who (since the Aulnageor left it) is ordained by the Statute to be sworn in Corporations by the Magistrate, and in Villages by the Justice adjacent, but no Law allows either them to nominate or appoint the said officer; yet in Corporations it is so ordered, as well to the Subjects, as to the Foreigners great damage, whereof daily precedents may be produced: out of Corporations there is no such officer; which defect the Clothiers as well as others do feel; In which proceed there is also Law against Law; First, in Corporations where the Aulnageor ought by the Law to present his deputies, to whom the Magistrate is bound under the Penalty of five pounds to give an oath, there the Magistrate finds a Law to claim both, & therein proceeds as he did about the Searcher, which is formerly related; and out of Corporations there is Law against Conscience, where the Clothiers for want of a legal Measurer, do bring them unmeasured to London, and because they dare not so appear in the Market, the Lord Mayor, ex officio, causeth his sworn Measurer to measure them, yet the Clothier for his private satisfaction causeth them to be most exactly measured before he brings them from home; nevertheless he receives them again from the aforesaid sworn Measurers hands, with the ordinary loss of four, and sometimes six yards in a piece, of which abuse, the Day men in Essex make no small complaint.  
The Mill-men and Clothworkers can find small colour of Law to countenance their misbehaviours, yet they spare not to practcie their deceptions, and because they have no shadow of Law, they find out the more Art to keep their Cheats from discovery, which through use and continuance are now become the chief secret and mystery, yea the principal part of their trade, (there being very few able to make a perfect Cloth.) There be indeed some casualties which are pardonable, as heat in the Mill to the prejudice of a Cloth which goes in too dry; some come by small stones undiscerned in the Fulling-earth; some oils change colour, and alter the cloth, and some other there be of such kinds.   

CHAP. XIII. The crossing of the Law by their own Ministers, in exporting raw wools, Fuller's earth, etc.  
IN this part of our complaint, we presume not to meddle with Licences granted by the State to export Raw wools, or white Clothes, both of which have been permitted to pass the Seas, as well for the good of the People, as for the benefit of Clothing itself, yet so as to have the same limited, and joined with the transportation of coloured Clothes, may be found much to the advantage of the Nations commodity in Clothing: and likewise to observe times in such Licences is very requisite; for many Acts of Parliament (useful and important without doubt to the good of the public when they were ordained) have nevertheless within few years following, not only been suspended but repealed; in which condition the state of white Clothes hath been sometimes found; at present the liberty is great, and and thought to be good, converting to the utility of the Merchant adventurers, but (without denial) it is a great prejudice to the Dyers, and therein to many thousands of People: As for Raw Wools there may be advantage to the Common wealth by their exportation, namely, when the Cloth trade is obstructed, and the manufactures lie upon the Clothier's hand, which at present is so found, both by the troubles of the Seas, and the daily Wars, which stopping the utterance of Cloth, leaves the wool upon the Graziers hands, and extends to the prejudice of almost all the People of England: nevertheless such as can find a market for Wools, may if they please, find the same for Clothes, and therefore they are fit to pass together, so as the wools in smaller quantity, may help off the Clothes in greater measure.  
The place also to which Wools may be licenced to pass, aught to be considered, and that may rather be any where then the Netherlands, where their whole drift is to undermine the English Cloth-trade, which they cannot so profitably accomplish, if they be forced to procure the wools through many hands and several voyages: by no means therefore is the present practice to be borne, which daily carrieth away of the finest sorts of Wools ready combed into Jarsies for work, which they pack up as Bales of Cloth, and accordingly they do enter and Custom them: Lastly, for Fuller's earth, there is never any occasion why that should be transported, therefore to have it licenced either by its own name, or by that of Tobbaco-pipe-earth, or by any other title, is clearly the greatest injury which can be done to Clothing: It is a commodity which the  cannot get in any quantity, or worth, nearer than the straits, unless from England, where the total exportation being by the Statutes most strictly prohibited, their clothing being the more laden with charge, the English will be better able to undersell them.  
Now to show the Reader how the Laws are crossed and daily obstructed to such as endeavour to serve their Country, by such as ought to encourage the Prosecutors; surely there will be very many practices of evil consequence discovered: for first, in the Custome-houses where Bonds are taken to the intent these prohibited commodities pass not by means of Mariners out of the Nation, but only from Port to Port, for accommodation of such parts as want such commodities, they are very remiss and careless in taking account of the Seaman's discharge of their obligatory conditions, where also it is usual with the Sea men to bring fraudulent Certificates, and so do cheat the State's providence, who keep servants at great wages purposely to prevent such abuses; or if there be a regular return of the Bonds, yet there is commonly a fraudulency in giving them, for the Masters of Ships will so contrive their design, as he who is Master at giving the Bond, and is legally bound, shall immediately pass his interest to another man, who taking charge of the Vessel and Voyage, is notwithstanding not engaged in the Port-Bonds, and therefore neither is he accountable for breach of their condition: Again, when the Port-Bonds are justly taken, and as justly returned, yet to prevent the true and real detection of the offender, and to dishearten the legal Prosecutor, some friend of the offenders will clap in an information against him, purposely to hinder and divert others, and soon after will let the prosecution fall at his pleasure; nay, it hath been said, and peradventure not unjustly, that such preventing Informations have been antedated, to the overthrow of the real information; But when all is granted, and a full and formal hearing and Decree passed to the just condemnation of the offender, yet when Judgements and Inquiries are granted, and do without Errors of the Clerks, (which is not always) empower the Sheriffs and their Bailiffs to see execution thereof made, it is familiar with those officers to return a Nonest inventus, or a Mortuus est, even then when the offender and the officer have been known to be drinking together at that very time when the Writ should have been executed.  
After all this, one step further will show how charity itself abuseth Justice; for let all the former proceed be granted to be candid and clear, and that the Law be indeed juftly and legally executed, the offender in custody, and nothing remaining but that he honestly discharge himself with money, (seeing bail will not be admitted) nevertheless upon a lamenting Petition, and urging a great charge of children to the Bench, the offender is usually admitted to compound for ten in the hundred, or less, when by his offence he hath gained a hundred for ten, or more, and peradventure hath undone a hundred Families in so doing; yet all this while the honest Prosecutor, the only man that appears for the good his of country, who ought by the law to have the full benefit and advantage of the Law gratis, it being enough that he spends his time for promotion of the Public weal, after it hath cost him several great sums of Money, and large expense of time to bring the offence to Trial and Conviction, is dismissed with little or no satisfaction, unless he be rewarded with the Brand of an informing Knave; surely they who made these Laws for the benefit of themselves and their Country, did intent a more currant and just passage towards them, than thus to be obstructed and baffled; But at the present time Felis dormit, et mures saltant, every man doth as he pleaseth; Prosecutors and Informers have paid for their Learning, that it is better to lose a Coat then a Skin: such abuses as these made Theodorus say, as in the Preface you have it, that a Wiseman did himself injustice, by hazarding his wisdom and estate for the benefit of his Nation; and therefore some have not spared to urge, that Customs and Imposts, and Tolls and Taxes, might be taken away from honest, laborious, hazardous Trades and Adventurers, and be put upon litigious Suits at Law, and such as make benefit of their corrupt breath, that is to say, upon such Lawyers as abuse their Clients, and such malicious Clients as abuse the name of a just and innocent defendant; but righteousness must be expected in another world, for in this he that endeavours to remove discommodities, and inconveniences from the Laws, doth undertake to cut off Hydra's heads, saith divine Plato, which Seneca cofirmeth in saying, Nullum sine auctoramento est malum.   

CHAP. XIIII. Containing some Queries of Remedies.  
WE have seen a short account of some abuses in relation to clothing; to speak of all the frauds and deceptions daily practised about these manufactures, were in substance to fill a volume, they being for invention far beyond the compass of one man's brain: but because it is concluded to be more easy to extinguish another man's virtue, then to establish a man's own; it will here be expected that some means should be proposed by way of reformation, proportionable to the offences and grievances related.  
A Ship is one of the most excellent structures both for wealth, and safety, and conquest, that ever was invented; yet that vast Body, that Magazine of wealth, that Castle of strength would be of no use, were it not for that small timber the Rudder, which contracting as it were all the Mathematical lines of the Hulls composition, every proportion answers in obedience to the commands and checques of that inconsiderable Mover, the Rudder. It is so in Government, which therefore magnifies Monarchy or single Dominion, for though the Art of man might frame two or more Rudders to one Ship, yet all the wisdom of man could not so proportion the obedience of the Vessel, but that there would be distraction in the course and sailing.  
Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, and though it be more easy to derive the errors then to contrive the remedies, yet it is a great step towards health for a man to know the cause of his sickness; and it may be concluded, that he who hath taken the pains to give himself knowledge of the several abuses arising upon so immense a work as Clothing is, would not trouble his Countrymen with relation of their grievances, unless he knew likewise how to shape the remedies in proportion to them; If the Reformation did rest only upon the offences, the respective Statutes provided for them may seem to expedite that work, but so many have been the inventions to carry these offences beyond the reach of these Statutes, that the reformation by them is not probable, whilst they disagree so in themselves,  
In the first place therefore we present the the Laws themselves to consideration, which are so, and so often used and managed one against another, as they may well admit a reconciliation, which is supposed to be most properly the work of the learned Judges, or else of a Parliament if it be sitting; and herein the first difference of note is, that of so long and great heat and contention between the old and new Draperies, wherein (if the question be not already resolved by the ancient Judges, as is supposed) it remains to be enquired why that Subsidy was granted, and upon what Manufactures it was granted, and what it was that was granted.  
Secondly, those Queries once resolved, and the Law being set clear from such bold Inquisitors, it is next to be vertuated by the power and countenance of the State; and that the Aulnageor who is trusted with so honourable a charge as is the Seal of the State, (which the Law requires him to use to the justice of the People, the advantage of the public Revenue, and to the honour of the Nation) may be so countenanced and encouraged as a minister of Justice, and the dignity pro●per to such trusts do require, and by no means to be affronted in the execution of his office.  
Thirdly, That it be resolved whether this Magistrates in Corporations (who are always men dealing in Clothing) ought both to nominate the Persons, and to administer the Oath, to the Searchers and Measurers of Clothing, and if not, who then ought to nominate or present those officers to the Magistrates, who also are bound under a penal sum to administer the said Oath.  
Fourthly, whether the Clothing which is now dispersed all over this Nation, as well without as within Corporations, may be searched and measured at those rates of allowance which the Statutes provided when Clothing was confined to Corporations only, or whether the neglect for want of a competent Salary, hath not been a great cause to let in manifold abuses upon Clothing. Which being granted, the next enquiry is, what shall be the Salary, and by whom it shall be paid.  
Fifthly, that in regard the manufactures of Clothing are by the Statutes confined to Corporations, and nevertheless are (through God's great blessing) so multiplied as the Corporations cannot contain them, whether the Clothing which is made in Villages, may not by the power of the State, be brought to some eminent villages or market towns, lying conveniently for their transportation to Markets, and there to be searched, measured, weighed, & sealed, provided the same be within fifteen miles off the Clothier's habitation, and whether in every such town it may not be convenient to erect Halls, and therein to place Tables, Pearches, Scales, Weights, and Measures, for the better discharging the said duties, and benefit of the Clothiers?  
Sixtly, whether the reformation of colours and dying be not belonging to the Aulnageor, in regard the Law gives him cognizance, and subsidy upon the said colours, and whether the prohibitions and searches for Block-wood, Logwood, and other forbidden materials do not belong, or are fitting to relate to the Aulnageors charge, who in regard of the subsidy is to see that the grounds of colours be justly and truly laid, to the lasting of the colours, advantage of the cloth, and to the honour and profit of the State.  
Seventhly, whether it be not requisite that the two principal materials belonging to clothing (which are Wools and Fullers-earth) for prevention of their illegal tronsportation, ought not most properly to be within the care and charge of the Aulnageor, and whether some speedy and strict course ought not to be taken with offenders herein, to prevent their evasions and abuses of the Laws in that case provided, and whether the intuition of the same belong not most properly to the Aulnageor?  
Eighthly, whether all those trades which are appertaining to any manufactures of wools, as Minglers, Carders, Spinners, Weavers, Fuller's, Cloth workers, and the like, ought not to be attended with servants of ability and good knowledge, for which each of the said servants ought by injunction of the Law, and many strict Statutes to that purpose, to be bound Apprentices, and to accomplish the number of seven years in attaining the said knowledge; and whether it be not proper to have the said Apprentices bound, enroled, and enfranchised in the Halls before named, to the end that false and ignorant work men be not admitted to abuse both Natives and Foreigners as they have done?  
Ninthly, whether all commodities coming from foreign parts, and measurable, be not properly belonging to the charge of the Aulnageor, as in King Edward the seconds time they were, and in some other Kings Reigns both before and since they have been, to the intent the native Subjects be not abused, as at this day is found in abundance, and whether a Fee for so doing be not in the power of the State, for the visible benefit of the People, it being established in proportionable manner to the works as we daily find it to be done in other States.  
Tenthly, whether the Manufactures of Cotton wool, converted into Ticking, Fustians, and the like merchantable commodities, ought not to be within the survey of the Aulnageor, or if not, then in whose power it is to regulate the said manufactures, in regard they are at present much altered and corrupted from their primitive ordination both in length and breadth; and whether likewise the State may not impose a Fee upon those works as in other clothing is done, to the end the natives be not abused as now they are.  
Thus we have proceeded upon the discovery of some abuses, being no small grievances, as also by an humble inquisition into some remedies, both of which may be enlarged as occasion and encouragement do invite; for it is not enough thus briefly and superficially to run over misdemeanours, and reformations, where the work extends to the universal good or ill of a Nation, no more than it is to take a general survey upon an entire and compacted body, to discover the diseases of all bodies; but when the Limbs, and Veins, and Nerves, and Arteries, when the noble parts, the heart, the brain, the liver of one man come to be dissected, the Anatomy will then show the infirmities and disorders which have brought that body, and by the same occasions, may bring others into a final dissolution: nevertheless the result in clothing will not be like the similitude in diseases; for by the inspection of one body many may be cured, but if Clothing must die, (as it is likely to do) for want of enquiry into the remedies, how then shall clothing be found again in this Nation to undergo the cure?  
It is not of small importance therefore well to consider the present state and condition of clothing, for though the materials be English, yet they have been sometimes converted into clothing in other Countries; and peradventure upon an ingenious and diligent inquisition, it may be found, that there was not more art and policy used in bringing home the work to the Wool, than now there is cunning and daily practices to carry the native materials unto foreign manufactures; to the help whereof, and in apology for illegal clothing, every man holds himself justified by the newness of the invention; but if the Laws for regulation must be bound to attend the Laws for invention, it will prove not only the greatest but the final destruction to the ancient and substantial Clothing, by degenerating into fantastical and invalid inventions.   

CHAP. XV. Of the benefits of Clothing.  
THough all that hath been said, hath been delivered with integrity as to truth, and with affection in reference to this Nation, yet the Author flatters not himself that he hath pleased all his Countrymen, for he expecteth opposers, and wisheth for them, if their intent and purpose be (as his is) to the good of his native Country; for so Contraria inter se posita magis elucescunt, and there is no doubt of a public benefit where all men endeavour it: To the end therefore that God may have his due praise and glory for his immense goodness and blessing bestowed in that peculiar of wool upon this Nation, we will conclude the whole with a short Survey of some particular immunities which clothing hath conferred upon England, with which the glory of it extends to the Verges and utmost inhabited parts of the world, and without which the Ark of God's mercy and the glory of this Land is like to departed.  
First, the reducing of clothing to England in manufacture as well as in materials; (which must a thousand times repeat England's gratitude to the memory of that ever renowned King Edward the third) hath produced such opulent and magnificent Societies of Merchants, as the whole world cannot again demonstrate, that is to say, first the Merchant Adventurers Company, whose Governors, Precedents, Consuls, and the like chief officers are not of less esteem (where they please to seat themselves) then are the Residentiaries of the greatest Princes; and so much the more cordial is their welcome, as each man's profit leads his affection beyond his reverence to public Embassies, because proximity to a man's personal interest sits nearer in his thoughts, then when he is involved in the public concernment.  
This Company hath by their Policy, and Order, supplanted those Societies of the Hans Towns, (as they are called) who vending an inconsiderable number of  and at low rates, did nevertheless account England obliged to them for their Markets and Shipping; whereas at this day the Merchant Adventurers do utter ten times as many  annually in the same markets, at fare better prices, and in answer to the Shipping which England had in those times from those Countries at dear entertainment: This trade of clothing, and this particular company of Merchants, have furnished the navy-royal from time to time, and upon all occasions with such strengths, as they have not feared, (if they have not awed) the greatest Naval Forces sailing upon the Ocean; he that may have the favour to peruse their Records shall find what opportune service they did for their Country in the year eighty eight, and since upon all military occasions wherein this Nation hath been embroiled with any other.  
Next, the East land Company hath planted the trade of Clothing all about the Baltic Seas, which at this day employs many warlike Ships, and gives a great increase of Mariners, to the no small growth of England's strength at Sea: The Muscovia Company have discovered the passage by the North Cape, and the great trade of Greenland; what wealth accrues to England by the Turkey and East Indian Companies is not easy to be numbered, their Shipping also being as strong and rich as any that swim upon the Seas: how one of them hath by the trade of Cloth only, engrossed all manner of wealth coming from the Levant-Seas, and how the other of them hath established the rich Trades of Silks, Spices, Jewels, etc. in the Southern parts of the world, is by all admired, though by none to be valued; and what strengths of Shipping these two Companies have produced, as they have been wonderful, so they have been formidable to all Nations: what contribution the clothing Trade with Spain and France have given to England's maritime powers, is by those Countries themselves feared, as well as by England found to its great security.  
And as these unvaluable blessings have befallen England by the trade of Clothing, politicly and providently drawn into Societies, Companies and Corporations; so the lose transactions of trade in other Countries have rendered them so poor at Sea, as were it not for the Shipping of England and Holland, the very life of commerce would perish, would return to the same wilderness and uselessness as it is now in Greenland, and the West India, where Civil Government hath not once been heard of.  
Again, if comparison be made for richness of Trade, between Clothing and any, or all other substances of Merchandises, whereby any Nation, but more especially England may be enriched; neither the Silks, nor Furs, nor Wines, nor Spices, nor Bullion itself of all other Countries can render that account to its own, or can in proportion equalise England in Clothing, Food, Shipping, Strength of People, or wealth of Money, the honour whereof, rightly derived must (next after that which in all Ages hath been and is due to the State for its providence) rest upon the Merchant Adventurers, upon whom nevertheless there have been, and at this present are, great oppressions and Impositions, especially those of Holland, whereof we here forbear particularly to enlarge, having confined this brief Discourse to the Land-bound grievances of England, yet so as we intent not to smother those just complaints of foreign abuses, which together with some other irregularities of Trade, and certain humble presentments of Reformation, shall hereafter attend the present acceptance of this small offering; in pursuance whereof peradventure upon Conference with some of the many Laws which the several Kings and Queens of this Nation have in Parliaments enacted for the advance and wealth of Trade, something more than is at present in visibility may be produced.  
To shut up all, because the absolute and most commodious reformation of the abuses, frauds, deceptions, together with the constant practices of evil works, and evil workmen doth cry aloud in the ears of Justice, and that they may with the same facility and obedience answer the rules of the Laws, and the many prudent orders of State, as a Ship doth the commanding Checques of the Rudder, (as hath been said) It is humbly proposed, that a well form Commission, comprehending all the branches of Trades incident to Clothing, and entrusted in the hands of persons honourable, judicious, and conscientious, conferring with the ablest and honestest Clothiers, and amongst them all establishing a competent to discharge the attendance of Officers, Deputies, and Servants, as in the Customs, Excises, and the like vast employments is done, will be found a true and most serviceable Rudder to this Ship of richest Fraight, which the whole world can produce; For nothing doth more prejudice the public utility, then that every man should exercise his own fancy, nor is any thing a greater Bane to a well governed Commonwealth, then ill governed and disorderly Trade.  
Civitais eversio, morum, non murorum casus.    

Postscript,  
SUch is the excellency of the Sheep above all the other irrational Creatures, as well in his natural as in his symbolical capacities, that not only morality, but piety itself may thereby receive instruction, even to the recreating the mind and soul; and because they may prove acceptable to deceive the melancholy of some men's leisurable hours, it is intended shortly to present the courteous Reader with some meditations, wherein shall be showed, that as every part of the sheep is useful in Food, or Clothing, or Physic, or Music etc. so also is he divine in his uses, and comparative considerations.  
FINIS.