pposing what ought to be supposed in a
well-governed state, that all petticoats are made of that stuff, would
amount to thirty millions of those of the ancient mode. A prodigious
improvement of the woollen trade! and what could not fail to sink the
power of France in a few years.

To introduce the second argument, they begged leave to read a petition
of the ropemakers, wherein it was represented, that the demand for
cords, and the price of them, were much risen since this fashion came
up. At this, all the company who were present lifted up their eyes into
the vault; and I must confess, we did discover many traces of cordage
which were interwoven in the stiffening of the drapery.

A third argument was founded upon a petition of the Greenland trade,
which likewise represented the great consumption of whalebone which
would be occasioned by the present fashion, and the benefit which would
thereby accrue to that branch of the British trade.

To conclude, they gently touched upon the weight and unwieldiness of the
garment, which they insinuated might be of great use to preserve the
honour of families.

These arguments would have wrought very much upon me (as I then told the
company in a long and elaborate discourse) had I not considered the
great and additional expense which such fashions would bring upon
fathers and husbands; and therefore by no means to be thought of till
some years after a peace. I further urged, that it would be a prejudice
to the ladies themselves, who could never expect to have any money in
the pocket, if they laid out so much on the petticoat. To this I added,
the great temptation it might give to virgins, of acting in security
like married women, and by that means give a check to matrimony, an
institution always encouraged by wise societies.

At the same time, in answer to the several petitions produced on that
side, I showed one subscribed by the women of several persons of
quality, humbly setting forth, that since the introduction of this mode,
their respective ladies had, instead of bestowing on them their cast
gowns, cut them into shreds, and mixed them with the cordage and
buckram, to complete the stiffening of their under-petticoats. For
which, and sundry other reasons, I pronounced the petticoat a
forfeiture: but to show that I did not make that judgment for the sake
of filthy lucre, I ordered it to be folded up, and sent it as a present
to a widow gentlewoman, who has five daughters, desi