Page:Protestant Exiles from France Agnew vol 2.djvu/272

 10 Aug. 1682. George Hager — making paper.

31 July 1682. John Duson — making salt and draining brine-pits and mines.

1 Aug. 1684. James Delabadie — an engine very useful for the beautifying of cloathes, freezes, and other woollen manufactures, in napping the same.

, by the grace of God, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas Anthony Du Vivier, Esquire, hath by his humble petition represented unto us that he hath by his industry found out and invented a way to make a ship go against wind and tide by a very easie and not costly machine, and yet knowne by noe others, which will be of great use and service to our subjects, &c. Westminster, 29th Feb., 4 W. & M. (1692).

2 Sept. 1698. Francis Pousset — an invention for making black and white silk crape.

12 Dec. 1701. Richard Laurence De Manoir and Lewis Anne St. Marie — an engine for the making of large rough-looking glass plates and chimney-pieces.

19 Nov. 1715. Peter Dubison — printing, dying, or staining of callicoes.

5 Feb. 1719. James Christopher Le Blon — multiplying pictures and draughts by a natural colloris with impression.

25 June 1720. John Theophilus Desaguliers and others — making the steam and vapour of boiling liquors useful for many purposes.

12 Aug. 1721. Isaac De la Chaumette — a cannon or piece of ordnance, also a machine to cure smoky chimneys, and several other new inventions.

20 April 1723. Nehemiah Champion — invention for making a much greater quantity of brass from the copper and calamy, and of nealing the plates and kettles with pit coal.

1 June 1727. James Christopher Le Blon — making or weaving tapestry in the loom.

One of the most celebrated of the Huguenot colonies still survives in London, namely, in Spitalfields and Bethnal Green. I have already quoted from the present vicar’s valuable Paper on this colony; he (Rev. Isaac Taylor) remarks as to the flight of this people’s ancestors from France:—

“Whole villages were depopulated. At Tours, of 8000 silk looms only 100 remained. Of 40,000 persons employed in the silk trade in that city, only 4000 were left. Of the 12,000 silk-weavers of Lyons, 9000 fled. It was the same throughout the manufacturing districts of France. The more skilful and intelligent of the artisans were those who had thought for themselves on religious questions, and had embraced the principles of the Reformation. The more cultured of the nobles and the more thoughtful members of the professional class had been the natural leaders of the Huguenot democracy. Hence it was that almost all of the manual skill, as well as of the brain, the intellect, the wealth and the thrift of France found itself proscribed. The unknown terrors of exile and the difficulties of flight once more morally winnowed the chaff from the wheat. The man of weak character conformed, outwardly at least; the grave, earnest men, men of powerful convictions, strong will, and dauntless courage, resolved to run the terrible risks of flight, and to endure the ruinous worldly losses which it involved. Hence, by a process of natural selection, the very cream of the manhood of France was lost to her for ever. Her chief industries were destroyed, or rather, transplanted to flourish more vigorously in rival lands.”

“From carefully-prepared statistics, compiled from a series of observations and enquiries made about the year 1810, it appears that at that date there were above 10,000 silk looms in Spitalfields and its neighbourhood. About the same period 2852 of these looms were unemployed, and the members of the families dependent upon those unemployed looms amounted to 9700. About 3000 looms are only half employed, implying half subsistence for nearly 10,000 other persons. . . . The weavers were at intervals in a state of comparative comfort and prosperity, but always liable to be overtaken by severe trial and poverty through enforced idleness. The more industrious and steady among them were famed for their love of flowers, which they cultivated abundantly in window-boxes at home, and on a more extensive scale in numerous small plots of land (on the allotment system) at Hoxton and the City Road, then a suburban district of gardens and brick fields, but now brought miles within the embrace of street and terrace, square and crescent.” (Life of Peter Bedford.)

I may here insert a compendious statement compiled for the first edition of this work from printed books and periodicals:—

Thousands of the Huguenot refugees made their way to London, and settled in fields near London called Spitalfields, belonging to St. Austin’s Spital (or Hospital). For a century they preserved their French habits, both social and religious, and they had mathematical, historical, and floricultural societies; Simpson and Edwards, the Woolwich mathematical professors, came to their chairs from the silk looms of Spitalfields. Huguenot weavers also went to Manchester. Dr. Aikin reckoned that before 1690, the manufacturers in Manchester earned no more than their livelihood. But “the second epoch extended from 1690 to 1730, where, from the time of their reception of the French emigrants they began to acquire little fortunes,