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EQUALITY OF WAGES.

pelled to serve an apprenticeship of seven years to a busin which he might have learned in two or three years, he m obtain a proportionally higher rate of wages after the expi tion of his apprenticeship, than would otherwise have suffic for his remuneration. The institution of unnecessarily lo apprenticeships is, therefore, productive of a double inju It injures the employers of workmen, by artificially rais the wages of journeymen; and it injures the workmen, fr its tendency to generate idle and dissipated habits, by maki them pass so large a portion of their youth without a sufficient motive to be industrious.

By the common law of England, every man has a right employ himself at pleasure in every lawful trade. But t sound principle was almost entirely subverted by a statu passed, in compliance with the solicitations of the corpor bodies, in the 5th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, co monly called the Statute of Apprenticeship. It enacted t no person should, for the future, exercise any trade, craft, mystery, at that time exercised in England or Wales, unl he had previously served to it an apprenticeship of se years at least; and what had before been a bye-law of few corporations, thus became the general and statute 1 of the kingdom. Fortunately, the courts of law were ways singularly disinclined to enforce the provisions of t statute. Though the words of the act plainly include whole kingdom of England and Wales, it was interpreted refer only to market towns; and it was also interpreted refer only to those trades which had been practised in E land when the statute was passed, and to have no refere to such as had been subsequently introduced. This interp tation gave occasion to several very absurd and even lu crous distinctions. It was adjudged, for example, that coachmaker could neither himself make nor employ a jo neyman to make his coach-wheels, but must buy them o master wheelwright, this latter trade having been exercis in England before the 5th of Elizabeth. But a wheelwrig though he had never served an apprenticeship to a coa

maker, might either make himself, 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 passed. The cor tradiction and absurdity of these regulations, and the impolicy and injurious operation of the statute had long been obvious; but so slow is the progress of sound legislation, and so powerful the opposition to every change affecting private interests, that it was not repealed until 1814. The Act for this purpose did not, however, interfere with any of the existing rights, privileges, or bye-laws of the different legally constituted corporations. But wherever these do not interpose, the formation of apprenticeships and their duration is now left to be adjusted by the parties themselves.

The class of female domestic servants comprises one of the largest divisions of the labouring population, and that, perhaps, which is best provided for. And as most descriptions of in-door female labour may be practised with but little training, it may seem difficult to account for the high wages paid to domestics, and for their superior condition as compared with needle-women, washer-women, and those females generally who depend on chance employment. But, though in many respects desirable, the situation of domestic servants, whether male or female, has several considerable drawbacks. They are subject to numerous restraints. And, besides performing their respective menial offices, they are obliged to conform, whether they like them or not, to the rules and regulations of the families in which they live. Most people have, however, a disinclination to be thus dictated to by others. And those who consent to execute menial offices at the bidding of masters and mistresses, feel that they are engaged in what is reckoned a mean and servile employment, and that they occupy a low position in the public estimation. There is, no doubt, much ill-founded prejudice in the estimate that is thus commonly formed of the station of household servants. We do not well see, supposing their education and other attainments to be equal, why a man's servants

EQUALITY OF WAGES.

should be deemed to be of a lower class than his tradesme But such, whether right or wrong, is the opinion of t public; and its influence, and the various restraints to whi they are subject, prevent many from entering service, and lessening their numbers, contribute to raise the wages those engaged in it.

These circumstances account, in so far, for what has be reckoned the extraordinary fact of great distress frequent prevailing amongst needle-women in London, while the co dition of female servants is so very good. But very few the former class have any desire to range themselves in t latter. They are mostly the daughters of professional peop decayed tradesmen, shopkeepers, and such like parties; an have from infancy been taught to look upon domestics as lower class, to which, rather than descend, they would unde go any privation. And it is not to be denied, that their co dition, besides its higher place in the public estimation, h some real and some supposititious advantages on its side. they be less comfortably provided for than household servan they at all events enjoy a greater degree of freedom; a have more opportunities of becoming known, and of formi connexions and liaisons, sometimes of a more and sometim of a less respectable kind. And thus it is that domestics ov to the servitude in which they are placed, and the unjust low estimation in which they are held, their high wages, a comparatively comfortable condition.

The case of the hand-loom weavers affords a striking illu tration of the unfavourable influence which the easy acqui tion and conduct of a business usually has over the conditi of those engaged in it. The art of weaving most fabrics m be learned with the greatest facility. And the lightness of t work, and the circumstance of its being principally carried in the houses of the weavers, who are assisted by their familie make it be resorted to by a very large class of persons, mai of whom are of weakly constitutions, and unable to engage employments requiring considerable physical vigour. Hen the wages of hand-loom weavers are almost always below t

ordinary level of wages in the generality of businesses. Latterly they have, through the increasing competition of power looms, been reduced to a very low rate indeed, and the weavers have frequently been involved in extreme distress. But despite their low wages, the probability is, that the spread of power looms will in the end effect the all but total annihilation of the hand-weaving business. And there can be no doubt that the labouring class, as well as the other classes, will eventually gain by the change. In the meantime, however, the weavers have strong claims on the public sympathy; and every practicable means should be tried that may seem most likely to abridge and facilitate the painful state of transition in which they are involved, by introducing their children to other businesses, and by facilitating their emigration, or otherwise.

Thirdly, The wages of labour, in different employments, vary with the constancy and inconstancy of employment.

Employment is much more constant in some trades than in others. Many trades can only be carried on in particular states of the weather, and seasons of the year; and if the workmen who are engaged in such trades cannot easily find employment in others during the time they are thrown out of them, their wages must be proportionally augmented. A journeymen jeweller, weaver, shoemaker, or tailor, for example, may, under ordinary circumstances, reckon upon obtaining constant employment. But masons, bricklayers, paviors, and, in general, all those workmen who carry on their business in the open air, are liable to perpetual interruptions. Their wages must, however, not only suffice to maintain them while they are employed, but also during the time they are necessarily idle. And they ought also to afford them, as Dr. Smith has remarked, some compensation for those anxious and desponding moments which the thought of so precarious a situation must sometimes occasion.

This principle shows the fallacy of the opinion so generally entertained respecting the great earnings of porters, hackney

-e constant occupations.

he interruption to employments occasioned by the tion of holidays, has a similar effect on wages. Ther ntries in which the holidays, excluding Sundays, rly a third part of the year; and the necessary wag our must there be about a third part, or 333 per ater than they probably would be were these holi lished.

Fourthly, The wages of labour vary according to the s great trust reposed in the workmen.

The wages of goldsmiths and jewellers are everyw erior to those of many other workmen, not only of eq of much superior ingenuity; on account of the prec terials with which they are instrusted.

We trust our health to the physician; our fortune, netimes our life and reputation, to the lawyer and attor ch confidence could not safely be reposed in people y mean or low condition. Their reward must be s refore, as may give them that rank in the society wh important a trust requires. The long time and the g ense which must be laid out in their education, w bined with this circumstance, necessarily enhance ther the price of their labour."

Fifthly, The wages of labour, in different employments, ording to the probability or improbability of succes

m.

1 Wealth of Nations.

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