ie 
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TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 89 
the opposite bank of the river, at the distance of a mile, and at a great sacrifice of 
time and labour. 336 of the working classes receive assistance from the Cork Loan 
Bank, the average amount of each loan being 2/. 10s. ; 38 have deposits in the Savings’ 
Bank, averaging 10/. each ; 300 have articles pledged, the amount of the united pledges 
of each individual averaging 2/.; 300 are in arrear of rent, at an average of 3/.; the 
whole amount of arrear is 9007. 
Education.—190 Roman Catholic males attend the Blackrock National School; 
165 Roman Catholic females attend Mrs. Murphy’s Free School in Ballintemple ; 
181 Roman Catholic females attend the Convent Free School; 80 Roman Catholic 
males and females attend Mrs. Meade’s school at Ballinlough; 37 Protestant males 
and females attend the Protestant Free School in Ballintemple; 26 Protestant males 
attend Mr. Rudkin’s academy, Blackrock; 16 Protestant females attend Miss 
Bergin’s academy, Blackrock. 
Thus more than two-thirds of the children of the working classes, under 14 years 
of age, are in progress of education; 142 children pay for their education an average 
yearly sum of 3/. Of the 457 families into which the population is divided, and 87 
of which alone are gentry, 435 families possess books, and 236 the Bible. 
The moral condition of the working classes is extremely good; the only crimes 
committed are petty larcenies, and there are only two illegitimate children in the 
parish. Habits of intemperance, as regards intoxicating liquors, are little known, nor 
ean this be attributed—unless, perhaps, by the influence of example—to the temper- 
ance or total abstinence system, for out of the whole working population of 2258, 
only 160 males and 60 females, or less than one-tenth, are members of the Tem- 
perance Society. 
The large proportion of unemployed persons, particularly females, among the work- 
ing classes of this district, is much to be deplored, and demands the attention of the 
benevolent. It may be mainly attributed to the large proportion of land under pas- 
ture in the demesnes of the gentry, which thus limits the field-work to little more 
than one-fourth of the area of the parish. There is no manufactory or public work, 
with the exception of small lime-works and brick-making, which employ but a very 
limited number of persons, the latter for only three months of the year. 
On the Irish Silk Manufacture. By Dr. W. C. Taytor. 
Dr. Taylor commenced by stating that the silk manufacture was introduced into 
Treland by the French refugees, whom the revocation of the Edict of Nantes com- 
pelled to abandon their country. There are no certain records for fixing the precise 
date when silk weaving was commenced in Dublin, but it is generally believed that an 
ancestor of the present respected family of the Latouches commenced the weaving of 
tabinets or poplins and tabbareas in the liberties of Dublin about the year 1693. A 
eat and fatal error was made by the new settlers in the very outset of their career ; 
they adopted the principle of excluding the native Irish from the benefit of all the 
improved arts which they introduced, refusing to receive any of them as apprentices. 
The manufacture was consequently an exotic forcibly prevented from taking root in 
the soil, and deriving its support chiefly from a system of artificial patronage. So 
weak, indeed, was it, that, in 1733, the Ivish manufacturers of silks and stuffs waited 
on Archbishop Boulter, who then virtually ruled Ireland, to obtain his influence in 
passing a law to prohibit the wearing of East India goods. In the year 1764, an act was 
passed to place the silk trade under the direction of the Dublin Society, as far as it 
extended within two miles anda half round the Castle, and the Society was empowered 
to make such laws and regulations for its management as they should deem necessary. 
It has been generally asserted, that under this system of management the silk trade 
attained a high degree of prosperity; in a paper furnished to the Hand-Loom Com- 
missioners, it was stated that in the year 1775 there were 3400 looms in Dublin in 
full employment. That this return is grossly exaggerated will appear obvious from 
the following considerations. In the thirteen years, from 1752 to 1764, the average 
imports of silk into Ireland were 
15,760 lb. Manufactured. 
48,132 lb. Raw. 
275 1b. Riband. 
