intended for the service of the crown, or the encouragement of seamen, but, on the contrary, had occasioned much charge, vexation, and trouble.[1] In this same year, 1696, the first light-house was begun to be erected on the Eddystone rock, off Plymouth, by Winstanley, at the expense of the corporation of the Trinity House. It was not, however, completed till the year 1700, and it was blown down on the 26th of November, 1703, when Winstanley himself, happening to be at the rock superintending some repairs, perished with all his workmen. A new light-house, entirely of wood (Winstanley's had been partly of stone), was some years after erected by Rudyerd, which stood till it was burned down in 1755, when it was succeeded by the present admirable stone structure, the work of the late Mr. Smeaton.
On the whole the reign of William, notwithstanding the pressure of the war which extended over the greater part of it, certainly did not by any means either reverse or interrupt the progress the country was previously making in economical prosperity, although it may have somewhat slackened the rate of its advance. It may be asserted, in the words of a late writer, "that manufactures flourished in the mean time; that there was a great demand for labour; that the foreign traffic and navigation of England doubled from the peace of Ryswick to the accession of Queen Anne. For the re-coinage of the silver, meantime, produced an exhilarating effect on industry, in the same proportion as the debasement of the current coin is always disadvantageous to the lower orders, and dishonourable to the state. The revival of public credit after the peace of Ryswick, and the rising of the notes of the Bank of England to par, strengthened private confidence, at the same time that these causes invigorated our manufactures and our trade. And the spirit of population was still more animated by the many acts of naturalisation which were readily passed, during every session, in the reign of William, and which clearly evince how many industrious foreigners found shelter in England
- ↑ 9 Anne, c. 15 (21 in common editions).
