[168] “Check,” or “daunt.”
[169] This is similar to the proverb now in common use: “’Tis the last feather that breaks the back of the camel.”
[170] The state.
[171] Though sumptuary laws are probably just in theory, they have been found impracticable in any other than infant states. Their principle, however, is certainly recognized in such countries as by statutory enactment discountenance gaming. Those who are opposed to such laws upon principle, would do well to look into Bernard Mandeville’s “Fable of the Bees,” or “Private Vices Public Benefits.” The Romans had numerous sumptuary laws, and in the Middle Ages there were many enactments in this country against excess of expenditure upon wearing apparel and the pleasures of the table.
[172] He means that they do not add to the capital of the country.
[173] At the expense of foreign countries.
[174] “The workmanship will surpass the material.”—Ovid, Met. B. ii. l. 5.
[175] He alludes to the manufactures of the Low Countries.
[176] Like manure.
[177] Sometimes printed engrossing, great pasturages. By engrossing, is meant the trade of engrossers—men who buy up all that can be got of a particular commodity, then raise the price. By great pasturages is meant turning corn land into pasture. Of this practice great complaints had been made for near a century before Bacon’s time, and a law passed to prevent it.—See Lord Herbert of Cherbury’s History of Henry VIII.