If there be no protection for life, liberty, property,
and the fruits of accumulated industry, government becomes
comparatively useless, and society is driven back upon its first
principles.
Capital is the most sensitive of all things. It flies turbulence
and strife, and thrives only in security and freedom. It must
have complete safety. If tampered with by restrictive laws, or
hampered by combinations, it suddenly disappears. "The age of
glory of a nation," said Sir Humphry Davy, "is the age of its
security. The same dignified feeling which urges men to gain a
dominion over nature will preserve them from the dominion of
slavery. Natural, and moral, and religions knowledge, are of one
family; and happy is the country and great its strength where
they dwell together in union."
Dublin was once celebrated for its shipbuilding, its
timber-trade, its iron manufactures, and its steam-printing;
Limerick was celebrated for its gloves; Kilkenny for its
blankets; Bandon for its woollen and linen manufactures. But
most of these trades were banished by strikes.[5] Dr. Doyle
stated before the Irish Committee of 1830, that the almost total
extinction of the Kilkenny blanket-trade was attributable to the
combinations of the weavers; and O'Connell admitted that Trades
Unions had wrought more evil to Ireland than absenteeism and
Saxon maladministration.
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