Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/146

 *ple were still Catholics, she made a law that every body should go to Protestant churches; and those who did not were put in prison, or made to pay such large sums of money, that they were quite ruined.

6. In other countries, particularly the Netherlands, the Protestants were as ill-treated as the Catholics were here, so that a great many of them came to England, and were very useful in teaching the English several arts and manufactures they did not know before.

7. Pins, needles, and paper, were now first made in England, and the cotton and other factories were greatly improved, so that there was more employment for the working classes.

8. Then workhouses were established for the destitute, and all householders, for the first time, were obliged to pay a tax, called the poor rate, to support and find the poor in food and clothes, so that they might not be driven, by want, to beg or steal.

9. The middle classes became more wealthy, and lived in better style than at any former period, especially the citizens of London, many of whom were rich merchants, living like noblemen, and among these was Sir Thomas Gresham, who built the first Royal Exchange, at his own ex