202 A HISTORY OF 



regulation of the wages of journeywomen as well as of 

 journeymen. A deputation on the subject was to 

 attend the Chief Secretary. This Act expired in the 

 year 1831, and the Society considered it inexpedient 

 to interfere with respect to the rate of any new wages 

 Parliament might establish. 



A committee was appointed in 1816, to enquire 

 into the state of the title to the silk warehouse in 

 Parliament street, when it was found that the Society 

 had no interest in it. A lease in trust, which was de- 

 posited with the Society, had been taken by Joseph 

 Webster and Richard Brett. When by Act of Parlia- 

 ment, in 1786, the Society's patronage over the silk 

 weavers came to an end, the lease, with declaration of 

 trust (as to the house) from Webster and Brett to 

 the corporation of Weavers, had been delivered to 

 them. 



What has been written has reference only to the 

 silk manufacture in connection with the Dublin Society ; 

 but, in addition, it may be well to make a few remarks 

 on the general aspect of the question, showing how it 

 presented itself to outsiders. The silk trade in Ireland 

 had been protected by paying a less duty on organised 

 silk than the London merchants paid, but that ceased 

 in 1821, when the duties were equalised. The silk was 

 sent to the warehouse directly by the weavers, and all 

 transactions were for ready cash, but the expense the 

 Society was put to was greatly in excess of the revenue 

 for encouraging arts, manufactures, &c. It was intended 

 to take the weavers out of the hands of mercers and 

 drapers, and let the silk manufacture come to market 

 without any intervening profit. The mercer and draper 

 were thus deprived of a good deal of their trade, which 

 in reality taxed them severely. What they sold then 

 must necessarily have been at a higher rate, and it was 



