TKADES UNIONS. 327 
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But, supposing that the journeymen were geneially oppiessed, 
would combinations like the trades’ unions remedy the evil ? 
They produce angry passions on both sides; obstinacy on both ; 
revengeful feelings, and occasional outrage. A hey cause tem¬ 
porary inconvenience to the master; they entail distress and 
starvation on the workman. The former can subsist for a 
while on his capital and his credit; the latter has no resource 
but a fund not too great for the ordinary claims upon it, and 
the demands upon which are now fearfully increased, and the 
sources of supply cut off. The parties do not, cannot meet on 
equal terms. The employer must conquer if he has but a suffi¬ 
cient resolution, and the employed must succumb after moie 
suffering, perhaps, than the humane man likes to contemplate, 
and probably being compelled to work on less wages, or, perhaps, 
not getting work at all; while he has deprived himself of that 
provision to which he had been previously accustomed to look 
forward as a refuge when sickness or old age overtook him. 
These general observations, however, hardly reach the questions 
which some of our correspondents have put to us. We aie asked, 
what is the state of the masters in our profession in the metropo¬ 
lis and its environs, and what are they doing ? 
Veterinary surgeons generally have not experienced any very 
<>reat inconvenience. There have been partial strikes with le- 
aard to the making of shoes, the number of apprentices, and 
the employment of those not belonging to the club ; but fresh 
hands have immediately filled the chasms. There are moie 
efficient men than we can employ, and who are unconnected 
(as they say) with the clubs and the unions, and who work for 
lo W er wages; while the funds of the unionists, vvhich^ were 
supposed^to be inexhaustible, are gone, perfectly gone. We are, 
therefore, now at perfect ease with regard to the striking of oui 
men, for they have not a sixpence left in their treasury ; and in 
three days we should have from the country double as many men 
as our business requires. But we are still subject to annoyances, 
not a little teazing; calumnies of every sort whispered among 
the menials of our employers, as to the manner in which our 
business is conducted; opposition of every sort; efforts dia¬ 
bolical, persevering, to seduce our friends to the forges of the 
unionists, or of those who are friendly to the union, or who nave 
made no stand against the union. Now and then we are insulted 
in the streets by those whom gratitude ought to have bound to 
us ; and our workmen are tampered with, annoyed, thieatened 
in some rare cases maltreated. 
What are we doing? why, speaking of the most influential 
part of us, nothing ! What were these persons doing when the 
