clergymen to preach and read the prayers in the churches.
27. It would be too long a story to tell you how he accomplished all this; but it was done. There were nearly a thousand religious houses, that is, convents, abbeys, and priories, in England, inhabited by monks and nuns, clerks and friars, of different orders, who had no other homes, nor any means of living, but on the property of the establishments to which they belonged; and these were all suppressed, together with many colleges and hospitals, which also supported a great many poor people.
28. The poor were very sorry the convents were broken up, for they had been accustomed to go there when they were in distress, for food, clothing, or medicine; and now they did not know where to get relief, as there were no workhouses; the hospitals, and all other charitable institutions, except some alms-houses, having been destroyed; nor was it till almost the middle of the reign of queen Elizabeth that any provision was made by law for the destitute poor.
29. The manufactures of England were now fast increasing. Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield, were beginning to be known as manu-
