Among these few was John Barton. At all times it is a bewildering
thing to the poor weaver to see his employer removing from house to
house, each one grander than the last, till he ends in building one
more magnificent than all, or withdraws his money from the concern,
or sells his mill, to buy an estate in the country, while all the
time the weaver, who thinks he and his fellows are the real makers
of this wealth, is struggling on for bread for his children, through
the vicissitudes of lowered wages, short hours, fewer hands
employed, etc. And when he knows trade is bad, and could understand
(at least partially) that there are not buyers enough in the market
to purchase the goods already made, and consequently that there is
no demand for more; when he would bear and endure much without
complaining, could he also see that his employers were bearing their
share; he is, I say, bewildered and (to use his own word)
"aggravated" to see that all goes on just as usual with the
millowners. Large houses are still occupied, while spinners' and
weavers' cottages stand empty, because the families that once filled
them are obliged to live in rooms or cellars.
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