By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 



37 



trade be very brisk, he may reckon on five days of such work each 

 week: often he has to be content with three, or none. On the 

 whole, it may be questioned whether he is better off than his agri- 

 cultural brother, as regards means of living : in respect of strength 

 and health, he is certainly in a worse condition. Nor is the pros- 

 pect before him re-assuring. That he has so long held his own 

 against the steam power-looms of the factory is a marvel to all ob- 

 servers, a strong evidence of his skill, endurance, and energy. 

 Time was, when the weaver kept his hackney or pony on the 

 common, and drove backwards and forwards with his "goods" to 

 his master at Trowbridge in style. Now he is compelled to trudge 

 a-foot, driving a pair of hand-trucks before him ; and is glad 

 enough to bring back a " chain " with him, after hanging about 

 master's office all day for it. Within the last few years, the de- 

 scription of cloth thus manufactured has entirely changed. It 

 used to be all "broad." Now none is so. The power-looms do all 

 this. Our cloth is "narrow," "fancy stuffs" for summer wear, jacket- 

 ings, trouserings, and waistcoatings. That the hand-loom weaver 

 retains this slender portion of the trade is greatly owing to the 

 circumstance, that the master manufacturer doubts as yet, whether 

 it be worth his while to lay out his capital in the purchase of looms 

 and machinery, specially adapted to this kind of cloth. "Were his 

 orders greater, and likely to be permanent, he would imitate his 

 Yorkshire confrere, enlarge his mill, and do all there. With this 

 indifferent present, and worse future before him, why does not the 

 weaver turn his hand to something else ? Why not become an 

 agricultural labourer ? Employment on the land is increasing and 

 will increase. This is easier said than done. Transplanting full 

 grown trees is an operation attended with very poor success. In- 

 door and out-door habits, the loom and the plough, the shuttle and 

 the sickle, the soft hand and the hard hand, cannot be interchanged 

 at pleasure. The female Spitalfields silk weaver dares not even do 

 the household work about her own house: her hand would be 

 "furry," would catch the delicate threads like briars, and the 

 "goods" would be spoilt. The nervous system must be cared for, 

 though of course not so carefully, where wool is the material. Be- 



