By the last years of the sixteenth century the problem of regulation was still unsolved, and apparently it was decided that even more vigorous measures should be adopted. In 1597 an Act[37] was passed “against the deceitful stretching and tentering of Northern cloth,” and, in the preamble, it was stated that notwithstanding the many good and wholesome laws enacted hitherto, the cloths had grown worse and worse, were more stretched and strained, and were made lighter than ever before. The remedy adopted was to prohibit all tenters or engines for stretching cloth in the northern counties, and the Justices of Peace had to appoint overseers to enforce the regulations as to length and weight. In the year following the enactment of this statute a report was sent to the Council,[38] in which it was stated that, although sundry letters had been written to the Justices of Peace in Lancashire and Yorkshire, pointing out their duty in enforcing the statute, the regulations which it contained had not been observed. Consequently a recommendation was made that two honest men be appointed to inspect the making of kersies, northern dozens and cottons, with power to enforce the regulations. In the last year of Elizabeth’s reign it was found necessary to pass another similar statute with application to the whole country.[39] [Footnote 37: 39 Eliz., c. 20.] [Footnote 38: _S.P.D. Eliz._, vol. cclxix. 45.] [Footnote 39: 43 Eliz., c. 10.] The mere record of the futile attempts to enforce these statutes is sufficient proof that they were inappropriate to the situation. During the sixteenth century considerable changes were taking place in the English cloth industry. It was the period when the “New Drapery” was being introduced and attempts were being made to regulate it on the lines of the “Old Drapery.” The regulations never corresponded with the facts of the case and their effective enforcement was impossible.[40] It was not only the length, breadth, and weight of the cloths that caused difficulty. What were regarded as inferior materials were being introduced into them, something which the statute of 1551 attempted to cope with. This was not a new grievance at that time, but in the sixteenth century it may have had a new significance. In 1606 an attempt was made to distinguish between cloths made of perfect wool and those into which Flocks, Thrums, and Lambs’ Wool entered, by insisting that the latter should have a black yarn on the one edge and only a selvedge on the other. Afterwards, no person had to put any Hair, Flocks, Thrums, or any yarn made of Lambs’ Wool or other deceivable thing or things, in or upon any Woollen Cloth, Half-Cloth, Frieze, Dozen, Bays, Penistone, Cotton, Taunton Cloth, Bridgewater, Dunster Cotton, or any other cloth, upon pain of forfeiting such cloth.[41]