In 1635, seventy-eight years after the art was introduced into England, Sir Robert Mansell introduced the use of coal fuel instead of wood, and obtained from the English government the monopoly of importing the fine Venetian drinking-glasses, an evidence that the art in England was confined as yet to the coarser articles. Indeed, it was not until the reign of William III. that the art of making Venetian drinking-vessels was brought into perfection,--quite a century after the art was introduced into England; an evidence of the slow progress made by the art in that country. As France was indebted to Venice for her workmen, so also was England indebted to the same source. Howell, in one of his "Familiar Letters," directed to Sir Robert Mansell, Vice-Admiral of England, says: "Soon as I came to Venice, I applied myself to dispatch your business according to instruction, and Mr. Seymour was ready to contribute his best furtherance. These two Italians are the best gentlemen workmen that ever blew crystal. One is allied to Antonio Miotte, the other is cousin to Maralao." Although Sir Robert procured workmen from Venice, they were probably of an inferior character, and a space of fifty years elapsed before the English manufactories equalled the Venetian and French in the quality of their articles. Evelyn, in his "Diary," states: "On the proclamation of James II., in the market-place of Bromley, by the sheriff of Kent, the commander of the Kentish troops, two of the King's trumpeters, and other officers, drank the King's health in a flint wine-glass three feet tall." In the year 1670, the Duke of Buckingham became the patron of the art in England, and greatly improved the quality and style of the flint-glass, by procuring, at great personal expense, a number of Venetian artists, whom he persuaded to settle in London. From this period, _i.e._, about the commencement of the eighteenth century, the English glass manufactories, aided by the liberal bounties granted them in cash upon all glass exported by them or sold for export, became powerful and successful rivals of the Venetian and the French manufactories in foreign markets. The clear bounty granted on each pound of glass exported from England, which the government paid to the manufacturer, was not derived from any tax by impost or excise previously laid, for all such were returned to the manufacturer, together with the bounty referred to; thereby lessening the actual cost of the manufacture from twenty-five to fifty per cent., and enabling the English exporters to drive off all competition in foreign markets. This bounty provision was annulled during the Premiership of Sir Robert Peel, together with all the excise duty on the home consumption.