bought and sold; that they should be freely exported to foreign parts, paying customs; but that Welsh cloths should not be sold "by any foreigners" by retail within the town of Shrewsbury or any other corporate town or privileged place contrary to any lawful charter then in use.
Apart from the clear view presented in this Act of the social and industrial prosperity of a large class of the Welsh people at this time, it also shows that the general opinion of the Principality was formally deferred to and consulted upon a question materially affecting its inhabitants.
In consequence of the loyalty and dutiful subjection of the subjects of the Dominion of Wales, the section of the Act of Wales of 1542, giving King Henry the Eighth power to alter any laws or make any new laws concerning the Dominion or Principality of Wales, was repealed by 21 James 1, c. 10. All distinction between the subjects of England and Wales was abolished, "His most excellent Majesty tendering the common and constant good of the said country and Dominion of Wales."
Section 5 of a further Act of the same session (21 James 1, c. 28) regulated the quantity and quality of Welsh cottons. By the nth section of the same Act the cruel laws, which formed the coercion acts of Henry the Fourth, together with the Act passed in 1446-1447 confirming all statutes against Welshmen, were formally repealed.
The Commonwealth Period.
During the period of the Commonwealth there were four statutes directly relating to Wales which require notice. They are not to be found in the Statutes at Large, because for lack of any royal assent they were not Statutes in the legal acceptation of the term.
These Acts were not considered or passed by the House of Lords, for that legislative body was abolished on February 6, 1649, by a resolution, passed without a division, of
