224 



DICKSON ON THE MANUFACTURE. 



plying the shuttle, whilst the loom works from six to six 

 o'clock, and if attended properly, more than treble the 

 quantity of linen would be produced, with less than half the 

 capital required in hand-loom weaving. Would Manchester, 

 with its palace-like warehouses, ever have arrived at the 

 emiDent position it can boast for wealth and production, if 

 they had confined their manufactures to hand-loom weaving ? 

 or would the London shop-windows be crammed, as they 

 undoubtedly are, with cotton shirts and indispensable linen 

 fronts (because they will not be purchased without linen 

 fronts) at 3s. 6d. to 5s. 6d. each, to supersede, as they have 

 done, Irish linen ? No, sir, it is to the power-loom alone that 

 Manchester owes its greatness ; and those who have read the 

 history of Lancashire and Yorkshire, and watched the in- 

 crease of the commerce and population of Belfast, must admit 

 that the more machinery can be got to do the work of 

 spinning and weaving, the cheaper the goods must be made, 

 the more they must come into use and find their way to the 

 gold and other regions, where such arts are unknown, or if 

 known, not followed as a matter of business, as more profit- 

 able and easy employment is to be had in abundance. 



' • Another advantage in factory labour is, that girls and 

 boys who rove about in the country in idleness, only winding 

 bobbins for their father a few hours in the day, whilst he, their 

 only provider, toils from six in the morning to ten o'clock at 

 night, may earn nearly as much as he can. If such is not 

 the case, how could the factory workers in Manchester go to 

 the market on a Saturday night, and pay 6s. for a fat goose, 

 or 7s. or 8s. for a turkey, such as can be had in Belfast for 3s. 

 to 4s. each ? It often happens that a sober, industrious man, 

 having a family brought up similarly, can soon elevate himself 

 above the toil of hard work ; whilst the less industrious man, 

 who has no family, must work on all his life* I have known 

 many industrious weavers in Ireland very poor and badly off 



