a FSS 
ay 
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Tue fecond objection which I conceive might be urged 
againft this fcheme is, that it militates again{ft the exclufiye 
privileges of corporations, and the regulations of apprentice- 
fhip *. 
Tuts is the quarter from whence the moft ftrenuous op- 
pofition is to be dreaded. For when did any fet of men who 
enjoyed a monopoly agree to relinquifh it for the publick 
good? 
Bur the impolicy of all kinds of monopoly in trade may 
be eafily proved. The profits and the wages of all perfons who 
enjoy the benefits of a monopoly are greater than the {kill 
and labour of fuch perfons merit. This operates as an encou- 
Ghia) ragement 
* The regulations of apprenticefhip in Ireland are upon a different footing, 
and fomewhat lefs illiberal than in England. In the latter country a ftatute was 
enacted in the sth of Elizabeth, prohibiting all perfons from exercifing any craft 
or trade then ufed who fhould not have previoufly ferved an apprenticefhip for 
feven years. In Ireland fimilar prohibitions obtain in all corporate towns by 
authority of bye-laws of the feveral corporations. Thefe prohibitions, however, 
extend only to natives of Ireland; for by a rule made by the lord lieutenant and 
privy council, (which in this inftance has the force of a law, according to a ftatute 
pailed in the 17th and 18th of Charles the Second) all foreigners and aliens, 
as well perfons of other religious perfuafions as proteftants, who are merchants, 
traders, artizans, artificers, feamen, or otherwife {killed in any trade or the work- 
manfhip of any manufacture, or in the art of navigation, who come into any 
city, walled town or corporation, with intent there to- refide, fhall, upon requeft 
made and payment of twenty fhillings by way of fine to the chicf magiftrate and 
common council, or other perfons authorifed to admit freemen, be admitted free- 
men of faid city, &c.3; and in like manner fhall be admitted to the freedom of 
cuilds of their refpective trades, with the full enjoyment of all privileges of buy- 
ing, felling, working, trading, &c.; and any magiftrate refufing to admit foreigners 
fo applying fiall be disfranchifed. 
