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We rarely hear, it has been said, of the combinations of masters,

though frequently of those of workmen. But whoever imagines, upon

this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the

world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a

sort of tacit, but constant and uniform, combination, not to

raise the wages of labour above their actual rate. To violate

this combination is everywhere a most unpopular action, and a

sort of reproach to a master among his neighbours and equals. We

seldom, indeed, hear of this combination, because it is the

usual, and, one may say, the natural state of things, which

nobody ever hears of. Masters, too, sometimes enter into

particular combinations to sink the wages of labour even below

this rate. These are always conducted with the utmost silence and

secrecy till the moment of execution; and when the workmen yield,

as they sometimes do without resistance, though severely felt by

them, they are never heard of by other people.