according to their custom, by exacting and imposing upon the nobility
and gentry either as to the prices or the goodness." For I remember in
London upon a general mourning, the rascally mercers and
woollen-drapers, would in four-and-twenty hours raise their cloths and
silks to above a double price; and if the mourning continued long, then
come whining with petitions to the court, that they were ready to
starve, and their fineries lay upon their hands.

I could wish our shopkeepers would immediately think on this proposal,
addressing it to all persons of quality and others; but first be sure to
get somebody who can write sense, to put it into form.

I think it needless to exhort the clergy to follow this good example,
because in a little time, those among them who are so unfortunate to
have had their birth and education in this country, will think
themselves abundantly happy when they can afford Irish crape, and an
Athlone hat; and as to the others I shall not presume to direct them. I
have indeed seen the present Archbishop of Dublin clad from head to foot
in our own manufacture; and yet, under the rose be it spoken, his Grace
deserves as good a gown as any prelate in Christendom.[12]

I have not courage enough to offer one syllable on this subject to their
honours of the army: Neither have I sufficiently considered the great
importance of scarlet and gold lace.

The fable in Ovid of Arachne and Pallas, is to this purpose. The goddess
had heard of one Arachne a young virgin, very famous for spinning and
weaving. They both met upon a trial of skill; and Pallas finding herself
almost equalled in her own art, stung with rage and envy, knocked her
rival down, turned her into a spider, enjoining her to spin and weave