And This Brings Me To Mention The Shipwrights, Who Are
Employed In The East Part Of The Town, On Both Sides The River
Thames, In Building Ships, Lighters, Boats, And Other Vessels; And
The Coopers, Who Make All The Casks For Domestic And Foreign
Service.
The anchorsmiths, ropemakers, and others employed in the
rigging and fitting out ships, are very numerous; and brewing and
distilling may be introduced among the manufactures of this town,
where so many thousand quarters of malt are annually converted into
beer and spirits:
And as the various kinds of beer brewed here are
not to be paralleled in the world, either for quantity or quality,
so the distilling of spirits is brought to such perfection that the
best of them are not easily to be distinguished from French brandy.
Having already mentioned ship-building among the mechanic trades,
give me leave to observe farther, that in this England excels all
other nations; the men-of-war are the most beautiful as well as
formidable machines that ever floated on the ocean.
As to the number of foreigners in and about this great city, there
cannot be given any certain account, only this you may depend upon,
that there are more of the French nation than of any other: such
numbers of them coming over about the time of the Revolution and
since to avoid the persecution of Louis XIV., and so many more to
get their bread, either in the way of trade, or in the service of
persons of quality; and I find they have upwards of twenty churches
in this town, to each of which, if we allow 1,000 souls, then their
number must be at least 20,000. Next to the French nation I account
most of the Dutch and Germans; for there are but few Spaniards or
Portuguese, and the latter are generally Jews; and except the raree-
show men, we see scarce any of the natives of Italy here; though the
Venetian and some other Italian princes have their public chapels
here for the exercise of the Romish religion.
End of London in 1731, by Don Manoel Gonzales
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