THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 201 



there were about 1500 silk weavers in the city), the 

 masters and working silk manufacturers of Dublin, 

 considering that it had been empowered to regulate 

 wages, presented a memorial to the Society. They 

 prayed that, as employment for males had been de- 

 creasing, females should be excluded ; save in the case 

 of a wife or daughter, who might help in the loom. 

 The broad-silk weavers and master silk manufacturers 

 sent in a contrary petition, and the Society, as their 

 unanimous opinion, ruled that females should not be 

 excluded from any branch of the silk manufacture. 



The operative silk winders of Dublin claimed an 

 advance in their wages in 1813, as to which the 

 committee of trade and manufactures were asked to 

 examine and report. The committee expressed the 

 opinion that the Society was always most anxious to 

 help those who sought its aid "who, without it, 

 might be driven to the mischievous and dangerous 

 expedient of stubborn combination " ; and impressed 

 on the workers the necessity of keeping wages within 

 reasonable bounds, so as to avoid the danger of foreign 

 competition and injury to trade. A scale of wages 

 was annexed to the report. For some time, manu- 

 facturers of fine silk had experienced inconvenience 

 from delay in getting silks wound. In 1818, com- 

 plaints were again being made, and a committee was 

 appointed to examine the Acts of Parliament regu- 

 lating the silk manufacture in Dublin, and report 

 whether alterations were necessary. The silk winders 

 had sent in a memorial stating that the masters had 

 refused to comply with the Society's order fixing the 

 rate of wages, and the committee recommended that 

 the Act 19 and 20 George III should be amended by 

 inserting " mistresses " in the penal clause of the first 

 section, and that the Act should be extended to the 



