Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1860-01-23

"a loss to the Brandon workpeOpe in wages OF about
"El2 900 a year. DR.. Doye stated before the Irish
Committee of $780, that the almost total extinction oil
the blanket trade of Kilkenny was attributable to the
combinations of the weavers No sooner was it known
'that any manufacturer had taken contract than the
"weavers Immediately insisted advance. The CON
sequence was that manufacturers would never enter
Unto contracts they withdrew their capital, and the
blanket trade ruined the weavers became paupers
"and had to be maintained at the public eNpence Such
"are few Illustrations of the trumphs of strikes in Ire
Gland.
We obliged greatly to abridge this admirable essay
on Strikes although it gives but comparatively few
Illustrations of how the system of voluntary servude
works in country as free Great Britain but we can
not refrain from calling attention to the great pecuniay
losses and the disgraceu outages which attended it, 10y
means of the destruction Of reacOnay resistance to the
introduction of the most valuable inventions, and at
tacks upon the great benefactOrs OF mankind Tor the
very blessings thew confer "When the fashion of wig
wearing ceased aud distress fell upon the wig-makers
Richard Arkwright occupied his spare hours in invent
ing his spinning frame but like Kay and Hargreaves
he was forced to run from his native country carrying
the model of his machine with him" The two latter
after the valuable Improvements of the one in spinning
and the other in weaving had been destroyed by mobs
Nor do these great struggles the wOrkmen ondy call
them, of labor against capital of the fenen of England
against the Tyranny of the MASTER likely to end
Tue last accounts We have seen from London inform us
that the extensive strike among the builders was not yet
at an end though its speedy close was portended by the
fearful symptoms of the most appalling OF all miseries,
which no strength resist and TO which the hercest
spirit of man and beast inevitably bow down in humble
submssion-want, famine, starvation The metropolis
of that England which obtained the title Of merry
when she had her hradom and her serage and when by
statute all not gentlemen born were compelled to work,
at this moment under her Landed system OF voluntary
serytude exhibits and probably in rghtiul abundance,
the miserie which Burke so wildly described as having
involved the inhabitants Of the desoaed Carnatc, when
Escaping from exile from fire and slaughter they fell
into the jaws of famine Let the reader turn TO that
most magnificent of all speeches in the English language,
if his Imagination wants any aid in pcturing the appa
ing effects of famine No doubt it has often filed with tears
the ewes of many saints of Exeter Hail. and their shall
low apes in our Northern pulps. Such tears exactly
suit that race of Scbes and Pharasees which began so
long ago. and whose characteristics have remained so
much the same always 50 OuOus IL W nave pIONOh-
ed the immediate herald of salvation to address them as
generation of vpers and the sacred author of to
describe them as hypocrtes who ceansed only the out
side of the platter leaving unremoved and uncared for
every abominaton within. The hundreds whom Burke
described as perishing daily, the gIacs of Tanore,
and those who annually put to torture in British
India TO enforce the payment Of small rents may occas
ion preence of pity in the hearts of the genuine de-
scendants of the old generation of vipers.' They "a
outside of old EngIandon the outside Of the platter,
and should be attended to- But the over-asked dairy
maids and if possible overasked maids of all work.
whose numbers are counted by Of thousands and
hundreds of thousands these may break down in their
toll and be cas-, from service into wOrhouses and aims
houses, aud lunatc asylums, or buy bread with the
wages Of sin without rung the serenity of the self
adoring hypocres who swallow, doubtless, after long
PRAYER all the denominations of the inside of the platter
But all their howliugs can drown the voice which
speaks so plainly the foregoing facts and which proves
voluntary seryitude to be failure, in crowded COM
munities nay a miserable delusion, and cruel mockery
crushing the laborers, and filing ther communities
with horrors.