A curious occurrence, showing the perfection to which the English fabric has arrived, took place in 1824. A French manufacturer came over to England, and settled in London; a feeling of jealousy seems to have arisen against him, and it was broadly hinted that his manufactory was merely a cloak for the purpose of smuggling French silks. An inquiry was instituted, and his premises searched, when thirty-seven pieces of goods were seized, and condemned as foreign; and it was only after producing the individuals by whom they had actually been made, that he was able to remove the impression that they had been smuggled. In 1685, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and the persecution of the protestants in France, compelled many merchants, manufacturers and workmen to take refuge in England. Of these, a large number who had been employed in the silk manufacture resorted to Spitalfields, and at the present time, descendants of these emigrants may be found on the spot, engaged in the same employment. About the end of the sixteenth century, the Rev. William Lea, of St. John's College, Cambridge, invented a machine for the purpose of knitting stockings, by which the work was so much improved that vast quantities were exported, and their being of English manufacture was considered, in foreign countries, as a recommendation of their good qualities. About the same time, Henry the Fourth of France was making great exertions to extend the cultivation and manufacture of silk in his empire. To attain this end, he offered every facility to enterprising men, and, as an extraordinary inducement, proffered patents of nobility to such large manufacturers as should support their establishments successfully for the period of twelve years. He also extended the cultivation of the worm over the whole of France; but, probably on account of the climate, was obliged to abandon his plans in all but the more southern departments.