1804. ConfidcrntloJis on Regulating the Vahie of Labour. 1^^ 



labourers thus employed. Wlioever is acquainted with the num- 

 ber of fuch days in the Highland cHmatc, will fee, in thiti alfo, 

 an explanation of the high rate of fuch work there. 



I have been thus explicit in detaiHng what I conceive to be a 

 few of the real caufes of the high rate of ikilled labour in the 

 Highland counties ; becaufe your correfpondent fecms to me to 

 have totally mifapprehended them, and to liave been led ineon- 

 liderately to this molt aRoniiliing of all coneluflons, that it arofe 

 from a combination of the workmen among themfelves •, and 

 that, therefore, the evil mull be checked either by a counter- 

 combination of the country gentlemen, or by the interference of 

 the civil magiltrate ; two meafures, than which, he could not 

 have imagined any more eftc6lual, for augmenting the evil he 

 feems defirous to diminilh — for iliiling the improvements which 

 he has already planned — for retarding the increafe of food and 

 population, and driving the inhabitants from their native land. 



The dread of combination, like that of monopoly and fore- 

 Hailing, and all the other fpecies of intelledual phantafmagoria, 

 which haunted for a while the heated imaginations of mcn,~had^ 

 I thought, been entirely expelled from the confines of this ifland, 

 by the Icfs clouded light of the nineteenth century, and the ex- 

 tenfivc circulation of the Farmer's Magazine; nor, it muib be 

 conieffed, did I.expetSl to iind, that even Highland hofpitality 

 could have atTorded it an afylum. 



if fuch an apprehenfion can admit of any excufe, it is only in 

 * the bufy haunts of men ; ' thofe crowded walks of manufac- 

 turing induflry, where a numerous clals of (hrewd and vigilant 

 artifans, by a corelation of intereft, and a co-operation of endea- 

 vours, have fome profpe£l of forming a combination with fuc- 

 cefs. But here, even the propriety of civil interference may be 

 difputed ; for as the mafters have the advantage of credit and 

 capital to fland out againfl fuch demands, wliile the workmen 

 have neither of thefe — and, depending altogether on employment 

 for fubfiftence, cannot abftain from labour above a few days at 

 moft — it is therefore the fault of the malters themfelves if they 

 are the lirll to yield ; — and this, fuppofmg even the ftrongeft 

 polfible cafe of combination, in wliich a joint fund may have 

 l3een provided by the journeymen for the purpofe of fupporting 

 their claims. But, that a general combination Ihould be fup- 

 pofed to take place through the Highland counties of Scotland, 

 among a fet of poor, haif-lkilled craftfmen, thinly fcattered, w^ith 

 the interval of miles, among the villages and clachins of the 

 country, wdio, till of late years, have been accuflomed to chiiTel 

 airf inltead of freellone, and plafher with mud in place of mor- 

 tar, and who are adually dependant on the lab.our of to-day, to 



fecure 



