"
If such be the actual result in some instances, then is that consequence
still more to be regretted than the other.
Moreover, if the master-tradesmen are willing to sell themselves into
this slavery, the consequence, to the much more numerous classes of
apprentices and journeymen, remains to be taken into the account. The
apprentices, at least, are not paid for the hardships which ensue to
them. There is an occurrence mentioned by George Alexander Steevens, of
a fashionable frequenter of taverns in his time, who threw the waiter
out of the window, and told the landlord to put him into the bill. Had
the landlord himself been the party ejected, this might or might not
have been a satisfactory proceeding, according to the light in which he
might be disposed to regard a contusion or a fracture. But it will
hardly be contended that such a proceeding could be satisfactory to the
waiter. Yet, we may seriously say, that the fate of the waiter was not
more to be deprecated, than that of some descriptions of the apprentices
of the trades-people who contend for the custom of the fashionable
world.
Many is the milliner's apprentice whom every London season sends to
her grave, because the dresses of fine ladies must be completed with a
degree of celerity which nothing but night-labour can accomplish.
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