to those trades which were established in England
before the 5th of Elizabeth, and has never
been extended to such as have been introduced
since that time. This limitation has
given occasion to several distinctions, which,
considered as rules of police, appear as foolish
as can well be imagined. It has been adjudged,
for example, that a coachmaker can
neither himself make nor employ journeymen
to make his coach-wheels, but must buy them
of a master wheel-wright; this latter trade
having been exercised in England before the
5th of Elizabeth. But a wheel-wright, though
he has never served an apprenticeship to a
coachmaker, may either himself make or employ
journeymen to make coaches; the trade
of a coachmaker not being within the statute,
because not exercised in England at the time
when it was made. The manufactures of
Manchester, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton,
are many of them, upon this account, not
within the statute, not having been exercised
in England before the 5th of Elizabeth.
In France, the duration of apprenticeships
is different in different towns and in different
trades. In Paris, five years is the term required
in a great number; but, before any
person can be qualified to exercise the trade
as a master, he must, in many of them, serve
five years more as a journeyman. During
this latter term, he is called the companion of
his master, and the term itself is called his
companionship.
In Scotland, there is no general law which
regulates universally the duration of apprenticeships.
The term is different in different
corporations. Where it is long, a part of it
may generally be redeemed by paying a small
fine. In most towns, too, a very small fine is
sufficient to purchase the freedom of any corporation.
The weavers of linen and hempen
cloth, the principal manufactures of the country,
as well as all other artificers subservient
to them, wheel-makers, reel-makers, &c. may
exercise their trades in any town-corporate,
without paying any fine. In all towns-corporate,
all persons are free to sell butchers'
meat upon any lawful day of the week. Three
years is, in Scotland, a common term of apprenticeship,
even in some very nice trades;
and, in general, I know of no country in Europe,
in which corporation laws are so little
oppressive.
The property which every man has in his
own labour, as it is the original foundation of
all other property, so it is the most sacred and
inviolable. The patrimony of a poor man
lies in the strength and dexterity of his hands;
and to hinder him from employing this
strength and dexterity in what manner he
thinks proper, without injury to his neighbour,
is a plain violation of this most sacred
property. It is a manifest encroachment
upon the just liberty, both of the workman,
and of those who might be disposed to employ
him. As it hinders the one from working
at what he thinks proper, so it hinders the
others from employing whom they think proper.
To judge whether he is fit to be employed,
may surely be trusted to the discretion
of the employers, whose interest it so
much concerns. The affected anxiety of the
lawgiver, lest they should employ an improper
person, is evidently as impertinent as it is
oppressive.
The institution of long apprenticeships can
give no security that insufficient workmanship
shall not frequently be exposed to public
sale. When this is done, it is generally the
effect of fraud, and not of inability; and the
longest apprenticeship can give no security
against fraud. Quite different regulations
are necessary to prevent this abuse. The
sterling mark upon plate, and the stamps upon
linen and woollen cloth, give the purchaser
much greater security than any statute of apprenticeship.
He generally looks at these,
but never thinks it worth while to enquire
whether the workman had served a seven
years apprenticeship.
The institution of long apprenticeships has
no tendency to form young people to industry.
A journeyman who works by the piece
is likely to be industrious, because he derives
a benefit from every exertion of his industry.
An apprentice is likely to be idle, and almost
always is so, because he has no immediate interest
to be otherwise. In the inferior employments,
the sweets of labour consist altogether
in the recompence of labour. They
who are soonest in a condition to enjoy the
sweets of it, are likely soonest to conceive a
relish for it, and to acquire the early habit of
industry. A young man naturally conceives
an aversion to labour, when for a long time
he receives no benefit from it. The boys who
are put out apprentices from public charities
are generally bound for more than the usual
number of years, and they generally turn out
very idle and worthless.
Apprenticeships were altogether unknown
to the ancients. The reciprocal duties of master
and apprentice make a considerable article
in every modern code. The Roman law is
perfectly silent with regard to them. I know
no Greek or Latin word (I might venture, I
believe, to assert that there is none) which expresses
the idea we now annex to the word
apprentice, a servant bound to work at a particular
trade for the benefit of a master, during
a term of years, upon condition that the
master shall teach him that trade.
Long apprenticeships are altogether unnecessary.
The arts, which are much superior
to common trades, such as those of making
clocks and watches, contain no such mystery
as to require a long course of instruction.
The first invention of such beautiful machines,
indeed, and even that of some of the instruments
employed in making them, must no