Statutes relative to Apprentices. time the youth should not be adequately informed, the parent might be invested with power to extend the term. Besides the pernicious operation of the Statute of Elizabeth, in compelling youth to serve an apprenticeship of unnecessary duration; it operates also injuriously against persons of full age. It precludes a person who has served an apprenticeship in one trade, from changing his occupation, and being employed in another, either as a principal or a journeyman, unless he has served an apprenticeship in the latter (e); hence it frequently happens, that while excessive high wages are given to the workmen in one manufacture, those in another are obliged to content themselves with bare subsistence. The one is in an advancing state, and has therefore a continual demand for new hands, the other is in a declining state, and the superabundance of hands is continually increasing; but the prohibition precludes the workmen in the latter from employing themselves in the former, and consequently the price of the commodity to the consumer, is kept up at an excessive high rate; because it is several years before the increasing trade can be legally supplied with an adequate number of hands, to answer the demand of the public. That clause in the Statute of Elizabeth, which prohibits persons from employing those who have not served an apprenticeship, has of late been enforced in various instances, by actions in the (e) 1 Smith, 157.-1 Burr. 6. relative to Courts of Westminster, or by information at the Statutes Sessions. We may observe that these prosecu- Apprentices. tions have been uniformly instituted, not with a view to any advantage that might result to the public, but purely on the behalf of journeymen, in order to keep up the high price of wages, which would be diminished, if masters were at liberty to employ persons, who had not served an apprenticeship (*). Journeymen being thus enabled to exclude others from employment, are better enabled to carry into execution their combinations, which, it is obvious, from the great number of modern statutes upon the subject, have of late become very injurious to the community (g). By these means their wages are kept up to an enormously high price; and scarcely any mechanic employs his time in a steady course of industry, but, on the contrary, wastes the greater part of it in idleness and dissipation. And thus the very object of the legislature in passing the Statute of (*) It is not intended by this observation, that the amount of wages should unnecessarily be diminished; no one, who has considered the subject, can be an enemy to high wages. The comfort of the poor, and the security of the rich, depend on the liberal remuneration of the former for their honest industry; they should have wages sufficient to enable them and their families to enjoy the comforts of life, and occasional relaxation, according to their education, habits and degree. But when the wages are so high as to induce them to work scarcely more than three days in the week, the excess does not tend to their comfort or happiness. On the contrary, manu (g) Sec. 39th. 40th. Geo. 3. c. 106–6 East. 417, and facturers or mechanics, whose edu- (f) 1 Smith, 150. Statutes relative to Elizabeth, has been frustrated by their own proApprentices. vision. Repeal that statute, and all combinations will cease; wages will rise or fall in proportion to the real demand for labour, and mechanics and manufacturers will be induced, by the competition incident to the freedom of employment, to work with much more care and industry, and to become much better members of society than they are now found to be. Parish Besides this enactment in the statute 5 Eliz. Apprentices. c. 4. it was provided by the 45d of Eliz. c. 2. s. 1. with respect to parish apprentices, as they are usually termed, that the churchwardens and overseers of every parish, shall, with the consent of two or more justices of the peace, take order, from time to time, for setting to work the children of all such whose parents shall not, by the said churchwardens and overseers, or the greater part of them, be thought able to keep and maintain their children; and the 5th section enacts, that they may, with the assent of two justices of the peace, bind any such children to be apprentices, where they shall see convenient, till such man child shall come to be twenty-four years of age, (altered to twenty-one by 18 Geo. 3. c. 47.) and such woman child to the age of twenty-one, or the time of her marriage; the same to be as effectual to all purposes, as if the child were of full age, and had by indenture of covenant bound him or herself. From the recital in the 8th & 9th W. 3. c. 30. s. 5. it appears, that doubts were entertained whether the persons to whom such children are to be bound, are compellable to receive them, as appren Parish tices; and that in consequence, the provision had Apprentices. failed in it's due execution. By this statute of William, it is enacted, that where any poor person shall be appointed to be bound apprentice, the intended master shall receive and provide for him according to the indentures, signed and confirmed by the two justices, and also execute the other part of the said indentures, or forfeit ten pounds, subject to an appeal to the general or quarter sessions, whose order shall be conclusive. There is a similar provision relative to apprentices put out by particular incorporated districts, 20 Geo. 3. c. 36. upon which statutes it has been held, that, all persons are compellable to take a parish apprentice, even gentlemen of fortune, and clergymen. If on appeal to the sessions, the justices in the exercise of their discretionary power, think fit to decide that the master ought to take the particular apprentice (h), and if the master refuse to obey the order of the justices, or of the sessions, on appeal, he is liable to be indicted for his refusal; for it was observed by the Court, in the Queen v. Gold (i), that since justices are allowed the power to put out parish apprentices, the court must allow an indictment for disobedience, either in case of not receiving, turning off, or not providing for such apprentices, as the law requires. In the establishment of parish apprentices, the legislature do not appear even to have had in view (h) 1 Salk. 67. and 30 Bac. Ab. Master and - (i) Comb.289.-1 Salk. 67 Servant, C. Parish the instruction of youth, or to fit them for any Apprentices trade or useful occupation; it is a misapplication of terms to call the parties bound an apprentice," It may be proper to observe, that neither the sta tute 5 Eliz. c. 4, nor the 43d Eliz. c. 2. were enacted with a view to settlements. The first was designed to regulate trade, and the latter merely to maintain children actually settled and recognized as parochial poor (). The statutes relating to the settlement of an apprentice, by virtue of his apprenticeship, are the 13th and 14th Car. 2. c. 12, and 3 Will. and Mar. C. 11. s. 8. which entitle an apprentice, bound by indenture, to a settlement in a parish, where he resides forty days serving in that capacity (m). (k) The 32 Geo. 3. c. 57. s. 7. is a legislative declaration of the inconveniences occasion. ed by this description of ap. prentices; but see Lord Ken. yon's observations, in 2 Term (m) See 1 Nolan, 307, &c. |