e making
thereof within this realm ingrossed; whereby the price of gunpowder had
been excessively raised, many powder works decayed, this kingdom very much
weakened and endangered, the merchants thereof much damnified, many
mariners and others taken prisoners and brought into miserable captivity
and slavery, many ships taken by Turkish and other pirates, and many other
inconveniences had from thence ensued, and more were likely to ensue, if
not timely prevented. (17 _Car. I._ c. 21.)

Lord Clarendon, in reviewing the various "important laws" of the Long
Parliament to which the king assented, makes the following observations
with reference to this particular act:

"'An Act for the free making Saltpetre and Gunpowder within the
Kingdom:' which was a part of the prerogative; and not only
considerable, as it restrained that precious and dangerous commodity
from vulgar hands; but, as in truth it brought a considerable revenue
to the crown, and more to those whom the crown gratified and obliged by
that license. The pretence for this exemption was, 'the unjustifiable
proceeding of those (or of inferior persons qualified by them) who had
been trusted in that employment,' by whom, it cannot be denied, many
men suffered: but the true reason was, that thereby they might be sure
to have in readiness a good stock in that commodity, against the time
their occasions should call upon them."--_History of Rebellion_, book
iii.

On the 3rd April, 1644, the Lords and Commons passed an ordinance for the
making of saltpetre, &c. This was grounded on the following allegations:

"1. The great expence of gunpowder, occasioned by the then war within
his Majesty's dominions, had well near consumed the old store, and did
exhaust the magazines so fast, that without a larger supply, the navy
forts and the land armies could not be furnished.

"2. Foreign saltpetre was not in equal goodness with that of our own
country, and the foreign gunpowder far worse conditioned and less
forcible than that which is made in England.

"3. Divers foreign estates had of date prohibited the exportation of
salt-peter and gunpowder out of their own dominions and countries, so
that there could be but little hope or future expectation of any peter
or powder to be brought into this kingdom, as in former times, which
would enforce us to make use of our own materials."

Fro