overfeers of the place to which the apprentice belongs, any fum not exceeding 10l. to be applied by them, under the order of the juftices, for the original binding out fuch apprentice, or otherwife for his benefit; and alfo to pay any fum not exceeding 57. in cafe the mafter refufes to deliver up fuch cloaths; these funs on refufal to be levied by diftrefs, with the costs. And the justices may compel the church-wardens and overfeers, to enter into recognizance for the effectual profecution, by indictment, of the mafter, for the ill treatment of his apprentice; and order the expenfes of fuch profecution to be paid or reimbursed, one moiety out of the poor rates of the parish, and the other out of the county rate. Or two juftices in petty feffions may impofe, upon conviction, any reafonable fine not exceeding 10 s. upon fuch mafter, as a punishment for fuch ill ufage: and if not paid, may levy the fame by direfs; to be applied at their difcretion, either to the ufe of the poor, or for the benefit of the apprentice, towards recompenfe for the injury he may have fuitained by reafon of fuch ill ufage.

Two juftices may alfo, on complaint on oath by any master or miftrefs, against any fuch apprentice, concerning any mif demeanor, mifcarriage, or ill behaviour, hear and determine the fame, and punish the offender, by commitment to the house of correction, there to remain and be corrected, and held to hard labour for a reasonable time, not exceeding one calendar month, or otherwife by difcharging fuch apprentice. In all thefe cafes, perfons aggrieved may appeal to the quarter

feffions.

By 6 Geo. III. c. 25, if any apprentice fhall abfent himself from his matter's fervice, before the term of his apprenticeship fhall be expired, he fhall, at any time thereafter, whenever he fhall be found (fo it be within feven years after the expiration. of his term), be compelled to ferve his faid mafter, for fo long time as he fhall have abfented himself; unless he fhall make fatisfaction to his master for the lofs he fhall have sustained by fuch abfence and if he shall refuse so to serve, or to make fatisfaction, the mafter may complain upon oath to one justice where he fhall refide; who fhall iffue his warrant for apprehending fuch apprentice. And fuch juftice, on hearing the complaint, may determine what fatisfaction fhall be made to fuch mafter by the apprentice. And if the faid apprentice fhall not give fecurity to make fatisfaction according to fuch determination, fuch juftice may commit him to the house of correction for any time not exceeding three months.

The inticing of an apprentice to depart from his mafter is not an offence of a public nature, for which an indictment will

Cc 3

lie;

lie; but the party's remedy is by an action on the cafe. · An apprentice is protected alfo from being impreffed.

By the common law, no man may be prohibited to work in any lawful trade, or in more trades than one, at his pleasure : so that without an act of parliament, no man may be reftrained, either to work in any lawful trade, or to use divers mysteries or trades; therefore an act of parliament made to restrain. any perfon herein, must be taken ftrictly and not favourably, as acts made in affirmance of common law. The restraining claufe in the statute of 5 Eliz. c. 4. is as follows: it fhall not be lawful to any perfon, to fet up, occupy, ufe or exercife, any craft, mystery, or occupation, now ufed or occupied within the realm of England and Wales, except he fhall have been brought up therein seven years at the leaft, as an apprentice by this ftatute, nor to fet any perfon on work therein, except he fhall have been apprentice as aforefaid, or elfe, having ferved as an apprentice, will become a jonrneyman, or be hired by the year; on pain of 40s. a month; half to the king; and the other to the informer. By the 15 Chas. II. c. 15. Hempworkers of all kinds, net makers, and makers of tapestry hangings are excepted; they may fet up, without having ferved feven years; and by 3 Geo. III. c. 8. All officers, mariners, and foldiers, who have been employed in his majesty's fervice, and not deferred, may exercife fuch trade as they are apt for, in any town or place And by 6 and 7 W. c. 17. An apprentice difcovering two offenders guilty of coining, fo as they are convicted, shall be deemed a freeman, and may exercise his trade as if he had ferved out his time.

A person may work as a journeyman who has not served a regular apprenticefhip; or a perfon brought up to the trade may take a partner, who has not ferved an apprenticeship to the trade, provided the partner share only in the profits or lofs of the bufinefs, and do not actually exercise the trade. And the words of the ftatute "now used", are conftrued to refer to the 12th of January, 1562, when that parliament began; no trades therefore, but fuch as were trades at the time of making this ftatute, are within it. This ftatute has of late years been regarded by the courts with an unfavourable eye, as being in derogation of the liberty of the subject, and in restraint of the freedom of trade. It has almost become inoperative by the construction it has received, and it may be at any time rendered altogether nugatory by a party unqualified reaping the profits of a trade by means of a qualified partner.

JOURNEYMEN AND SERVANTS. The confideration of thefe two claffes becomes connected because of the extensive fignification of the term fervant, and the fimilarity of regulation

which prevails with refpect to journeymen in trades, and

domeftic fervants.

HIRING. By the 5 Eliz. c. 4. perfons brought up in certain mechanical trades, and not being married, or if married, not being above thirty years of age, nor having an estate of inheritance of 40s. a year, nor being worth 10%., nor exempted by serving a nobleman, gentleman, or other perfon, nor by holding a farm, must, on request made by any perfon ufing the art and mystery wherein the faid perfon has been exercised, be retained, and ferve for a term to be agreed on, or if no term agreed on, for one year at the leaft, and of the end of the fervice, except the fervant is turned away for misconduct, a quarter's notice is to be given. In fimilar manner, perfons aged between twelve and fixty, who do not fall within certain defcriptions enumerated in the ftatute, are compellable to serve in hufbandry. Women between twelve and forty years of age, may also be compelled to ferve, by two juftices, or by the mayor or other officers in towns corporate, by the year, week, or day, for wages to be by them fixed; and if they will not confent may be committed to prifon till they do. If a fervant retained for a year, happen within the time of his service to fall fick, or to be hurt or difabled by the act of God, or in doing his mafter's bufinefs, the mafter muft not therefore put fuch fervant away, nor abate any part of his wages for

fuch time.

CHARACTER. A mafter is not bound to give a fervant any character at all, but if he gives any, it must be a true one. If a falfe character is given to the prejudice of a fervant, he can maintain an action for damages; and the 32 Gev. III, after reciting, that falfe and counterfeit characters of fervants have either been given perfonally or in writing by evil difpofed perfons, contrary to truth, and to the peace and fecurity of his majefty's fubjects; enacts that, if any person fhall falfely perfonate any mafter or mistress, or the executor, administrator, wife, relation, housekeeper, fteward, agent, or fervant of any fuch master or mistress, and fhall, either perfonally or in writing, give any falfe, forged or counterfeited character of any perfon offering to hire; every fuch perfon fo offending fhall forfeit 201. a fimilar penalty is extended to other falfe reprefentations, and to fervants offering themfelves with falfe ftories, or with forged or falfe certificates of character.

WAGES, &C. The ftatute of Elizabeth, which is very minute in its provifions, empowers the juftices, annually, at Eafter feffions, to fix the rate of wages for artificers, handicraftsmen, husbandmen, labourers, fervants, and workmen; which rates are to be proclaimed, and kept among the records

of the county or town corporate, and the mafter must not exceed them, under the penalty of 5 1. and all contracts for fuch exceeding wages are void. The fame ftatute alfo directs the number of hours in which the artificers and labourers fo hired shall work, and how many fhall be allowed them for food and repofe. And perfons refufing to work in harvest time, are to be fet in the ftocks two days and a night.

RESPONSIBILITY. The refponfibility of a mafter for the act of his fervant is thus explained and illuftrated by Sir William Blackftone. As for thofe things which a fervant may do on behalf of his mafter, they feem all to proceed on this principle, that the master is anfwerable for the act of his fervant, if done by his command, either exprefsly given, or implied: nam qui facit per alium, facit per fe. Therefore, if the fervant commit a trefpafs by the command or encouragement of his mafter, the mafter fhall be guilty of it: though the fervant is not thereby excufed, for he is only to obey his master in matters that are honeft and lawful. If an inn-keeper's fervant rob his guests, the master is bound to reftitution: for as there is a confidence repofed in him, that he will take care to provide honeft fervants, his negligence is a kind of implied confent to the robbery; nam, qui non prohibet, cum prohibere poffit, jubet. So likewife if the drawer at a tavern fells a man bad wine, whereby his health is injured, he may bring an action against the master: for although the mafter did not exprefsly order the fervant to fell it to that perfon in particular, yet his permiting him to draw and fell it at all is impliedly a general command. In the fame manner, whatever a fervant is permitted to do in the ufual courfe of his bufinefs, is equivalent to a general command. If I pay money to a banker's fervant, the banker is anfwerable for it if I pay it to a clergyman's or a phyfician's fervant, whose ufual business it is not to receive money for his mafter, and he embezzles it, I must pay it over again. If a fteward lets a leafe of a farm, without the owner's knowledge, the owner must ftand to the bargain; for this is the fteward's bufinefs. A wife, a friend, a relation, that use to tranfact bufinefs for a man, are quoad hoc his fervants; and the principle must answer for their conduct; for the law implies, that they act under a general command; and without fuch a doctrine as this no mutual intercourse between man and man, could subsist with any tolerable convenience. If I ufually deal with a tradesman by myself, or conftantly pay him ready money, I am not anfwerable for what my fervant takes up upon truft; for here is no implied order to the tradefman to truft my fervant: but if I ufually fend him upon truft, or fometimes on trust and fometimes with ready money, I am answerable for all he takes up;

for

for the tradefman cannot poffibly diftinguish when he comes by my order, and when upon his own authority. And if, Mr. Christian adds, I once pay for what my fervant bought upon truft, without expreffing any difapprobation of it, it is equivalent to a direction to trust him in future; and I fhall be anfwerable for all he takes up upon credit, till an exprefs order is given to the tradefman not to give him further credit. If a fervant, laftly, by his negligence does any damage to a stranger, the master fhall anfwer for his neglect: if a fmith's fervant lames a horse while he is fhoeing him, an action lies against the master and not against the fervant, but in thefe cafes the damage must be done, while he is actually employed in the malter's fervice; otherwife the fervant fhall answer for his own mifbehaviour. Upon this principle, by the common law, if a fervant kept his mafter's fire negligently, fo that his neighbour's houfe was burned down thereby, an action lay against the mafter; because this negligence happened in his fervice: other wife, if the fervant, going along the street with a torch, by negligence fets fire to a houfe; for there he is not in his mafter's immediate fervice; and must himself answer the damage perfonally. But now the common law is, in the former cafe, altered by ftatute 6 Ann. c. 3. which ordains that no action fhall be maintained against any, in whofe house or chamber any fire fhall accidentally begin; for their own lofs is fuílicient punishment for their own or their fervants careleffness. But if fuch fire happens through negligence of any fervant (whofe lofs is commonly very little) fuch fervant fhall forfeit 100 /. to be diftributed among the fufferers; and, in default of payment, fhall be committed to fome workhouse, and there kept to hard labour for eighteen months. A mafter is laftly, chargeable if any of his family layeth or cafteth any thing out of his houfe into the street or common highway, to the damage of any individua!, or the common nuifance of his majesty's liege people: for the mafter has the fuperintendence and charge of all his household. And this alfo agrees with the civil law; which holds that the pater familias, in this and fimilar cafes, "obalterius culpam tenetur, five fervi libert." We may obferve, that in all the cafes here put, the mafter may be frequently a lofer by the truft repofed in his fervant, but never can be a gainer; he may frequently be anfwerable for his fervants misbehaviour, but never can fhelter himfelf from punishment by laying the blame on his agent. The reafon of this is ftill uniform and the fame; that the wrong done by the fervant is looked upon in law as the wrong of the master himfelf; and it is a ftanding maxim, that no man fhall be allowed to make any advantage of his own wrong. If a man intice away