200 A HISTORY OF 



aid, owing to their distress ; but, from the state of its 

 funds, it was found impossible to do more than was 

 being done. 



Parliament had passed an Act during the session 

 of 1780, which placed the regulation of the wages of 

 journeymen silk weavers in Dublin, and a certain dis- 

 tance round it, in the hands of the Society, which was 

 also empowered to settle the prices of work. The silk 

 manufacture continued under the superintendence of 

 the Society until it was found that the trade had not 

 increased, and that the money spent on the warehouse 

 might be more satisfactorily employed. Parliament 

 enacted that from the 25th March 1786, none of the 

 Society's funds were to be applied to or expended in 

 support of any house for selling by wholesale or retail 

 any silk manufacture whatsoever. At this period 

 11,000 persons were engaged in the trade in Dublin. 



When the Society's connection with the warehouse 

 ceased, the manufacturers took the burden of it on 

 themselves, at an expense of about ^400 a year ; but 

 by 1795, the trade was in a most declining state, which 

 was attributed to change of fashion and preference for 

 cottons. The manufacturers thought the direct pa- 

 tronage of the Society would be invaluable, and would 

 afford employment, and the committee appointed to 

 investigate the matter reported that it appeared to be 

 essential to the preservation of the manufacture that 

 the Society should resume the responsibility for work- 

 ing it. Some steps must have been taken of which 

 there is no note in the minute book, as a committee is 

 found negotiating between the masters and journeymen 

 silk weavers. A book of orders for the regulation of 

 the silk manufacture, agreed to by the Society on the 

 3rd of March 1796, appeared, and public notice was to 

 be given of the agreement. In 1808 (at which period 



