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uiflinient, fince they became the caufe of raifing on themfelves the 

 price of every article of food and cloathiiig they confume, of every 

 tool they employ in their refpeftivc trades. Let not, then, the com- 

 bining tradefman, or labourer, vainly imagine, that he fliall become 

 richer, or increafe his comforts by extorting encreafed wages from his 

 employer ; nothing can be farther from the truth : for if he gains, on 

 the wages of the one rrade exercifed by himfelf, he is fure to lofe, 

 in proportion, on all the trades and callings, exercifed by all other la- 

 bouring men in the community : for, to every one of them he will 

 find occafion to refort, in the courfe of the year, by purchafmg fome 

 thing or other which it produces. He will find himfelf obliged to 

 pay dearer, than he otherwife would, for his bread, his beer, his po- 

 tatoes, his meat; — the hat, the coat, the.fliirt, the flioes he wears; — 

 for the apparel of his wife and children ; — for the- room which he in- 

 habits ; — the very bench or flool on which he fits, and the tool, or in- 

 {trument, with which he executes his labour. Thus, by the deftruftive 

 fpirit of combination, the labouring poor are, without being fenfible of it 

 themfelves, engaged in a cruel inteftiue warfare of exaftion, and eagerly 

 employed, to diftrefs and impoverifli each other. 



There are two great caufes which promote the fpirit of unlawful com- 

 bination by a fort of authority, and the profpeft of impunity. The 

 exiftence of corporate privileges, tending to raife an improvident and 

 impolitic monopoly of employment ; and the deficiency of the laws, as 

 they now ftand, which do not fufficiently provide for a cheap and fum- 

 mary mode of redrefs, in all cafes, againfl; the violence and outrage of 

 the combining manufafturer. It is a melancholy truth, that, the la- 

 bouring people, particularly, in the metropolis of Ireland, where many 

 manufaftures are carried on, and many improvements in buildings are 

 projefted, have, with one confent, entered into combinations to raife 

 the price of labour, in their refpeftive departments, to an exorbitancy 

 wholly inconfiftent with the profperity of the country, and deftruftive 

 of the cxtenfion and improvement of manufaftures. 



But 



