THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 207 



community at large would benefit. These are general 

 principles ; but with regard to the particular instance of 

 the Dublin Society having established a retail ware- 

 house, that body had in reality created a monopoly in 

 the heart of a commercial city, with a result that in 

 the end a larger quantity of goods was imported. As 

 interest is ever the ruling principle in commerce, the 

 drapers, finding this shop open for retail, whither all 

 the ready-money went, and that the credit part of the 

 business fell to them, increased their imports. In all 

 European countries in which the woollen trade was 

 carried on, the retail business was conducted by shop- 

 keepers only, as necessary middlemen. The manu- 

 facturer sold his cloth, and was done with it ; but the 

 draper had a character for goods to maintain, and as 

 the system inaugurated by the Dublin Society helped 

 to ruin him, he, in self-defence, took the action that 

 he found beneficial to his interests, which was quite 

 opposed to the policy of the Society. Hence, after a 

 precarious existence, the woollen warehouse was finally 

 abandoned. 



In connection with the work of the Society in the 

 silk and woollen warehouses, it may be of interest to 

 note what was being done in the matter of worsted in 

 some parts of the country. In 1787, Sir John Parnell, 

 bart., laid before it an account of the progress made in 

 establishing a school in Maryborough for spinning 

 worsted warps, when he was thanked for his exertions 

 in promoting the woollen manufacture and market in 

 the Queen's county. Twenty-five wheels were directed 

 to be provided at the Society's expense for such girls in 

 Maryborough as should appear to deserve rewards. It 

 was resolved to open a second school there, to be con- 

 ducted under a mistress, as the first. In 1790, a 

 spinning school was opened in Cork. With a view to 



