leaving, and also to a month's wages, as though in lieu of warning; but,

10006. County Court.-All matters of pecuniary dispute between domestic servants and their employers are open to adjustment or settlement by the County Court, at the motion of either of the parties; for,

10007. No Magisterial Jurisdiction.-Magistrates have no special jurisdiction as regards domestic servants and their employers; so that,

ADVANTAGE OF SERVANTS.

10008. Stronger Position.-Upon the general question of pecuniary disputes between domestic servants and their employers, the servants are usually in the stronger position; for,

10009. Good Prospects of Redress.—If money is really due to a domestic servant, she can generally proceed in the County Court with a tolerably good prospect of recovering what is owing; but,

DISADVANTAGE OF EMPLOYERS.

10010. Poor Prospects of Redress.—If a domestic servant leaves at a moment's notice without justification, and a month's wages thereby becomes due from her, an action against her, when she is probably penniless, is a poor prospect; so that,

10011. Detention of Property.-The only security which an employer can have for a payment due from a domestic servant is the poor property of the servant (often of no pecuniary value whatever) which the employer in such case is entitled to detain; though,

10012. Lien. The property of a domestic servant, if justly detained by an employer, can only be dealt with as a lien (5511) in the strictest sense.

YOUNG GIRLS.

10013. The fact that so many young girls are engaged in domestic service renders it important to consider, as especially applying to them, the law which absolves all minors except apprentices (10034) the from responsibility for their contracts (3167); thus,

JUVENILE SERVANTS.

IRRESPONSIBLE.

10014. All servants under twenty-one years of age, being minors (3167) and not apprentices (10034), are absolved from obligation to continue in any service, unless it can be proved that the contract is for their advantage.

VAGUE MODIFICATION.

10015. One of the interpretation clauses of the "Masters and Servants Act, 1867," is open to the interpretation that certain minors, if under contract of service (3167), are bound to their service in like manner as adults; but,

10016. Strictly speaking, a minor cannot be under a contract of service unless an apprentice (10034); and

10017. The Masters and Servants Act, 1867," only applies to servants in mechanical trades subject to the jurisdiction of magistrates (9858, 10182).

10018. Upon the whole, it appears that the interpretation clause referred to above requires interpretation itself, and there are no cases recorded under it; at any rate,

10019. Right to Leave.—If a domestic servant under twenty-one finds a better place, or one more to her liking, she may enter upon the new place forthwith and relinquish the old one without notice or apology; and

10020. Right to Remain.—If an employer engages (9595) a young servant while she has another engagement uncompleted, not only must the previous employer let her go, but the new employer is bound to take her, unless the young servant expressly declared at the time of hiring that she was under no other engagement; for,

10021. Employer Bound.—In a contract of hiring and service, or anything else, the fact that one of the parties is a minor will not absolve the other party who is not a minor (3164); and

10022. Right to Wages. If a young domestic servant tihnks proper to leave at a moment's notice, with or without cause, she is entitled to her full wages up to the time of leaving; and

ONLY REMEDY.

10023. If an employer is aggrieved by a young domestic servant leaving without notice, and is disposed to punish her by resisting payment of her wages, he must, to ensure success, be prepared to prove that it would have been to the advantage of the girl to re

main-generally impossible of proof sufficient; provided always

that,

10024. Infancy must be Pleaded.—The infancy of a servant is no legal excuse for a breach of contract on its merits, unless the "infancy" is expressly pleaded; and

PARENTS' LIABILITY.

10025. If the parents of juvenile servants make the contract of hiring on behalf of their children, such parents are answerable and liable for all pecuniary consequences; hence,

10026. Desirable Precaution.-In hiring juvenile domestic servants it is very desirable to take the precaution of associating one of the parents with the contract of service :

10027. Either parent will suffice; and

10028. The verbal assent of the parent will do (9678); or, 10029. The acceptance of earnest money (9679) by the parent is peculiarly binding (10032).

JUVENILE CLERKS AND "BOYS."

10030. Juvenile clerks, and the countless thousands of nondescript "boys" who are so extensively employed in London, and to a smaller extent elsewhere, in connection with business of every imaginable description, are, like young domestic servants, under no legal obligation to fulfil their contracts with their employers; and

YOUNG LADIES.

10031. Many of the "young ladies" who attend in restaurants and elsewhere may be presumed to be of an age which shields them against the possibility of legal coercion; but,

BEST DEFENCE.

10032. The best defence which employers have against the changeful freaks of juvenile servants is, that any extreme irregularity of their conduct in that respect would be fatal to their character and prospects of promotion; and

WORKING BOYS AND GIRLS.

10033. The better control of boys and girls engaged in mechanical and other trades, and "young men " in certain pursuits and professions, has been long since procured by means of the institution of apprenticeship, the consideration of which naturally follows upon reflections concerning juvenile servants.

APPRENTICES.

INTRODUCTION.

ANCIENTLY KNOWN.

10034. Apprenticeship arose in such ancient times that its origin is lost in oblivion; but,

not

10035. Common Law.-The common law with regard to minors, which has prevailed in England time out of mind, was anciently, and still is not, set aside by apprenticeship.

COMPULSORY APPRENTICESHIP.

10036. Act of Elizabeth.—By an Act of Queen Elizabeth, it was illegal for any person to set up as a master in any trade in England unless he had served an apprenticeship for seven years; but,

10037. Acts Repealed.-All Acts having for their object the enforcement of probation as an apprentice, are now repealed, except those referring to lawyers (10153) and apothecaries (10039).

10038. Attorneys and Solicitors.-The right to act as an attorney or solicitor is subject to special provisions (10153); and

10039. Apothecaries.-No person can practise as an apothecary until he has served as an apprentice to a qualified practitioner for five years.

GUILDS AND CORPORATIONS.

10040. The principal inducement for an apprentice in the middle and later ages to faithfully serve out his time, was the fact that his complete service generally made him a member of some secret, or privileged, or licensed guild or corporation, which conferred great benefits upon its members; therefore,

10041. Controlling Influence.-As an apprentice of the middle ages who failed to serve his time faithfully was excluded from all chance of rising in his trade or business, that circumstance alone exercised a large controlling influence in favour of the masters of those times, and served to make them content with the law as it then stood; notwithstanding,

MIDDLE AGES.

10042. Slender Hold.-It is clear that the recklessness of youth and other considerations must have rendered the hold of masters upon their apprentices in the middle ages very slender; hence,

10043. Prentice Knights.-The boisterous combinations called the "Prentice Knights," and other similar quasi-organizations, whose exploits form so considerable a part of the history of Old London, abundantly prove that the degree of licence accorded to senior apprentices by their masters of the olden time, was indulgent to a degree that would be considered intolerable in modern times.

10044. Grave Difficulty.-As the ancient guilds of trade and similar monopolies gradually decayed, and membership therein became less and less valuable, the inducement for apprentices to complete their terms grew correspondingly less and less, until the state of the law appears to have become a grave difficulty; for,

LEGISLATIVE INTERFERENCE.

10045. In the year 1766, being the sixth of the reign of George III., an Act was passed which recited as follows:

"Whereas persons employed in several manufactories of this kingdom frequently take apprentices who are very young, and for several years of their apprenticeship are rather a burden than otherwise to their masters; and whereas it frequently happens that such apprentices, when they might be expected to be useful to their masters, absent themselves from their service; and whereas the laws in being are not sufficient to prevent such inconveniences, &c., &c. ;" therefore

PECULIAR FOOTING.

10046. Since 1766 certain apprentices (10055) and their masters have been placed upon a different footing to that which they previously occupied; and

10047. Special Acts.-Masters and apprentices, with reference to their mutual obligations, are now subject to several special Acts of Parliament, of more or less universal application.

10048. Special Trades.-Many trades are peculiarly subject to statute law with reference to apprentices, which cannot be entered upon fully in a popular book; but,

TWO WAYS.

10049. There are now two ways in which the continued service of an apprentice to the end of his time may be secured or compensated for with considerable certainty, namely, by special covenants (10045), or proceedings before magistrates (10183).

SPECIAL COVENANTS.

10050. Relatives or Friends.-Though a minor apprentice cannot be actually bound under the civil law, an adult relative or friend