because their policy hath been otherwise, and we are not so thrifty, circumspect, industrious; Idleness is the malus Genius of our nation. For as Boterus justly argues, fertility of a countrey is not enough, except Art and Industry be joyned unto it, according to Aristotle, riches are either natural or artificial; natural are good land, fair mines, &c. artificial, are manufactures, coines, &c. Many kingdoms are fertile, but thin of inhabitants, as that Dutchy of Piedmont in Italy, which Leander Albertus so much magnifies for Corn, Wine, Fruits, &c. yet nothing neer so populous as those which are more. barren. "England," saith he, " (London only excepted) hath never a populous City, and yet a fruitfull Countrey. I finde 46 cities and walled towns in Alsatia, a small Province in Germany, 50 castles, an infinite number of Villages, no ground idle, no not rocky places, or tops of hils are untilled, as Munster informeth us. In Greichgea, a small territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20 walled towns, innumerable villages, each one containing 150 houses most part, besides castles and Noblemen's Palaces. I observe in Turinge in Dutchland (twelve miles over by their scale) 12 counties, and in them 144 cities, 2000 villages, 144 towns, 250 castles. In Bavaria 34 cities, 46 towns, &c. Portugallia interamnis, a small plot of ground, hath 1460 parishes, 130 monasteries, 200 bridges. Malta, a barren Island, yeelds 20000 inhabitants. But of all the rest, I admire Lues Guicciardine's relations of the Low-countries. Holland hath 26 cities, 400 great villages. Zeland, 10 cities, 102 parishes. Brabant 26 cities, 102 parishes. Flanders 28 cities, 90 towns, 1154 villages, besides Abbies, castles, &c. The Low-countries generally have three cities at least for one of ours, and those far more populous and rich: and what is the cause, but their industry and excellency in all maner of trades? Their commerce, which is maintained by a multitude of Tradesmen, so many excellent chanels made by art, and opportune havens, to which they build their Cities: all which we have in like measure, or at least may have. But their chiefest Lodestone which draws all maner of commerce and merchandize, which maintains their present estate, is not fertility of soyl, but industry that enricheth them, the gold mines of Peru, or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oyl, or scarce any corn growing in those united Provinces, little or h Increment. urb. 1. 1. cap. 9. Angliæ, excepto Londino, nulla est civitas memorabilis, licet ea natio rerum omnium copia abundet. d Cosmog. lib. 3. cop. 119. Villarum non est numerus, nullus locus otiosus aut incultus. • Chytreus orat. edit. Francof. 1583. Maginus Geog. Ortelius è Vaseo & Pet. An hundred families in each. de Medina. no no Wood, Tin, Lead, Iron, Silk, Wooll, any stuff almost, or Mettle; and yet Hungary, Transilvania, that brag of their mines, fertile England cannot compare with them. I dare boldly say, that neither France, Tarentum, Apulia, Lombardy, or any part of Italy, Valence in Spain, or that pleasant Andalusia, with their excellent fruits, Wine and Oyl, two Harvests, no not any part of Europe is so flourishing, so rich, so populous, so full of good ships, of well built cities, so abounding with all things necessary for the use of man. Tis our Indies, an Epitome of China, and all by reason of their industry, good policy, and commerce. Industry is a Load-stone to draw all good things; that alone makes countries flourish, cities populous, and will enforce by reason of much manure, which necessarily follows, a barren soyle to be fertile and good, as Sheep, saith Dion, mend a bad pasture. d Tell me Politicians, why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, so much decayed, and (meer carcasses now) faln from that they were? The ground is the same, but the government is altered, the people are grown sloathful, idle, their good husbandry, policy, and industry is decayed. Non fatigata aut effata humus, as Columella well informs Sylvinus, sed nostrá fit inertia, &c. May a man believe that which Aristotle in his politicks, Pausanias, Stephanus, Sophianus, Gerbelius relate of old Greece? I find heretofore 70 Cities in Epirus overthrown by Paulus Æmilius, a goodly Province in times past, now left desolate of good towns and almost inhabitants. 62 Cities in Macedonia in Strabo's time. I find 30 in Laconia, but now scarce so many Villages, saith Gerbelius. If any man from Mount Taigetus should view the countrey round about, and see tot delicias, tot urbes per Peloponesum dispersas, so many delicate and brave built cities with such cost and exquisite cunning, so neatly set out in Peloponesus, he should perceive them now ruinous and overthrown, turnt, waste, desolate, and laid level with the ground. Incredibile dictu, &c. And as he laments, Quis talia fando Temperet a lachrymis? Quis tam durus aut ferreus, (so he prosecutes it) Who is he that can sufficiently condole and commiserate these ruines? Where are those 4000 cities of Egypt, those 100 cities in Crete? Are they now come to two? What saith Pliny and Ælian of old Italy? There were in former ages 1166 cities: Blondus and Machiavel, both grant • Populi multitudo diligente cultura fœcundat solum. Boter. 1. 8. c. 3. Orat. 55. Terra ubi oves stabulantur optima agricolis ob stercus. < De re rust. 1. 2. c. p. 1. Hodie urbibus desolatur, & magna ex parte incolis destitu tur. Gerbelius desc. Græciæ lib. 6. e Videbit eas fere omnes aut eversas, aut solo æquatas, aut in rudera fædissimè dejectas Gerbelius. them them now nothing neer so populous, and full of good towns as in the time of Augustus (for now Leander Albertus can finde but 300 at most) and if we may give credit to Livy, not then so strong and puissant as of old; "They mustered 70 Legions in former times, which now the known world will scarce yeeld. Alexander built 70 cities in a short space for his part, our Sultans and Turks demolish twice as many, and leave all desolate. Many will not beleeve but that our Island of Great Britain is now more populous then ever it was; yet let them read Bede, Leland, and others, they shall finde it most flourished in the Saxon Heptarchy, and in the Conqueror's time was far better inhabited, then at this present. See that Domesday-Book, and shew me those thousands of Parishes, which are now decayed, cities ruined, Villages depopulated, &c. The lesser the territory is, commonly the richer it is. Parcus sed bene cultus ager. As those Athenian, Lacedæmonian, Arcadian, Aelian, Sycionian, Messenian, &c. Commonwealths of Greece make ample proof, as those Imperial Citics, and free States of Germany may witnesse, those Cantons of Switzers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscanie, Luke and Senes of old, Piedmont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Raguse, &c. That Prince therefore as, % Boterus adviseth, that will have a rich Countrey, and fair Cities, let him get good Trades, Priviledges, painful inhabitants, Artificers, and suffer no rude Matter unwrought, as Tin, Iron, Wool, Lead, &c. to be transported out of his Country. "A thing in part seriously attempted amongst us, but not effected. And because industry of men, and inultitude of Trade so much avails to the ornament and enriching of a Kigdom; those ancient Massilians would admit no man into their city that had not some Trade. Selym the first Turkish Emperor procured a thousand good Artificers to be brought from Tauris to Constantinople. The Polanders indented with Henry Duke of Anjou, their new chosen King, to bring with him an hundred families of Artificers into Poland. James the first in Scotland (as Buchanan writes) sent for the best Artificers he could get in Europe, and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects their severall Trades. Edward the third, our most renowned King, to his eternal memory, brought clothing first into this Island, transporting some families of Artificers from Gaunt hither. How many goodly cities could I reckon up, that thrive wholly by Trade, where Lib. 7. Septuaginta olim legiones scriptæ dicuntur; quas vires hodie, &c. Polit. 1. 3. c. 8. For dying of cloaths, and dressing, &c. i Valer. 1. 2. Hist. Scot. lib. 10. Magnis propositis præmiis, ut Scoti ab iis edo c. 1. cerentur. thousands thousands of Inhabitants live singular wel by their fingers ends: As Florence in Italy by making cloth of Gold; great Millan by Silke, and all curious Works; Arras in Artois by those fair Hangings; many cities in Spain, many in France, Germany, have none other maintenance, especially those within the Land. Mecha in Arabia Petræa, stands in a most unfruitfull country, that wants water, amongst the Rocks (as Vertomanus describes it) and yet it is a most elegant and pleasant city, by reason of the traffick of the East and West. Ormus in Persia is a most famous Mart-Town, hath nought else but the opportunity of the haven to make it flourish. Corinth a noble city (Lumen Grecia, Tully calls it) the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and Lecheus, those excellent Ports, drew all that traffick of the Ionian and Aegean seas to it; and yet the country about it was curva & superciliosa, as "Strabo terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say the same of Athens, Actium, Thebes, Sparta, and most of those towns in Greece. Nuremberg in Germany is sited in a most Barren soil, yet a noble Imperial city, by the sole industry of Artificers, and cunning Trades, they draw the riches of most countries to them, so expert in Manufactures, that as Salust long since gave out of the like, Sedem anime in extremis digitis habent, their soul, or intellectus agens, was placed in their fingers end; and so we may say of Basil, Spire, Cambray, Francfurt, &c. It is almost incredible to speak what some write of Mexico, and the Cities adjoyning to it, no place in the world at their first discovery more populous, "Mat. Riccius the Jesuite and some others, relate of the industry of the Chinaes most populous countreys, not a begger or an idle person to be seen, and how by that means they prosper and flourish. We have the same means, able bodies, pliant wits, matter of all sorts, Wool, Flax, Iron, Tin, Lead, Wood, &c. many excellent subjects to work upon, only industry is wanting. We send our best commodities beyond the seas, which they make good use of to their necessities, set themselves a work about, and severally improve, sending the same to us back at dear rates, or else make toyes and bables of the Tails of them, which they sell to us again, at as great a reckoning as the whole. In most of our cities, some few excepted, like Spanish loyterers, we live wholly by Tipling-Inns and Ale-houses; Malting are their best 1 Munst. cosm. 1. 5. c. 74. Agro omnium rerum infœcundissimo aqua indigente inter saxeta, urbs tamen elegantissima, ob Orientis negotiationes & Occidentis. m Lib. 8. Geogr: ob asperum situm. n Lib. Edit. à Nic. Tregant. Belg. A. 1616. expedit. in Sinas. Ubi nobiles probri loco habent artem aliquam profiteri. Cleonard. ep. 1. 1. ploughs, ploughs, their greatest traffick to sell ale. P Meteran and some other object to us, that we are no whit so industrious as the Hollanders: "Manual trades (saith he) which are more curious or troublesome, are wholly exercised by strangers: they dwell in a Sea full of Fish, but they are so idle, they will not catch so much as shall serve their own turns, but buy it of their neighbours.” Tush Mare liberum, they fish under our noses, and sell it to us when they have done, at their own prices. "Pudet hæc opprobria nobis Et dici potuisse, & non potuisse refelli.” I am ashamed to hear this objected by strangers, and know not how to answer it. . T Amongst our Towns, there is only London that bears the face of a City, Epitome Britannie, a famous Emporium, second to none beyond Seas, a noble Mart: But sola crescit, de crescentibus aliis; and yet in my slender judgement, defective in many things. The rest (some few excepted) are in mean estate, ruinous most part, poor and full of beggers, by reason of their decayed trades, neglected or bad policy, idlenesse of their Inhabitants, riot, which had rather beg or loyter, and be ready to starve, then work. I cannot deny but that something may be said in defence of our Cities, "that they are not so fair built, (for the sole magnificence of this Kingdom (concerning buildings) hath been of old in those Norman Castles and Religious Houses) so rich, thick sited, populous, as in some other countries; besides the reasons Cardan gives, Subtil. Lib. 11. we want Wine and Oyl, their two Harvests, we dwell in a colder Air, and for that cause must a little more liberally feed of Flesh, as all Northern Countries do: Our provisions will not therefore extend to the maintenance of so many: yet notwithstanding we have matter of all sorts, an open sea for traffick, as well as the rest, goodly Havens. And how can we excuse our X P Lib. 13. Belg. Hist. non tam laboriosi ut Belgæ, sed ut Hispani otiatores vitam utplurimum otiosam agentes: artes manuariæ quæ plurimum habent in se laboris & difficultatis, majoremq; requirunt industriam, à peregrinis & exteris exercentur; habitant in piscosissimo mari, interea tantum non piscantur 9 Grotii Liber. · Camden. quantum insulæ suffecerit sed à vicinis emere coguntur. Urbs animis numeroque potens, & robore gentis. Scaliger. u M. Gainsford's Argument: York, Bristow, Norwich, Worcester, &c. Because Gentlemen dwell with us in the Country villages, our Cities are lesse, is nothing to the purpose: put three hundred or four hundred villages in a Shire, and every village yeeld a Gentleman, what is four hundred families to encrease one of our Cities, or to contend with theirs, which stand thicker? And whereas our's usually consists of seven thousand, their's consists of forty thousand inhabitants. * Maxima pars victus in carne consistit. Polyd. Lib. 1. Hist. VOL. I. G negligence, |