cion, deprives him of his fecurity; and as this muft add greatly to the difficulty of obtaining credit, the poor, especially the lower fort of tradefmen, are the firft who would fuffer by fuch a regulation. As tradefmen must buy before they fell, you would exclude from trade two thirds of those who now carry it on, if none were able to enter into it without a capital fufficient for prompt payments. An advocate therefore for the interefts of this important clafs of the community will deem it more eligible, that one out of a thoufand fhould be fent to jail by his creditor, than that the nine hundred and ninety-nine fhould be ftraitened and embarraffed, and many of them lie idle, by the want of credit

CHAP.

СНА Р. XI.

CONTRACTS OF LABOUR.

SERVICE.

ERVICE in this country is, as it ought to be,

authority extends no farther than the terms or equitable conftruction of the contract will justify.

The treatment of fervants, as to diet, difcipline, and accommodation, the kind and quantity of work to be required of them, the intermiffion, liberty, and indulgence to be allowed them, muft be determined in a great measure by cuftom; for where the contract involves fo many particulars, the contracting parties exprefs a few perhaps of the principal, and by mutual understanding refer the reft to the known cuftom of the country in like cafes.

A fervant is not bound to obey the unlawful commands of his mafter; to minifter, for instance, to his unlawful pleasures; or to affist him in unlawful practices in his profeffion; as in fmuggling or adulterating the articles in which he deals. For the fervant is bound by nothing but his own promife; and the obligation of a promise extends not to things unlawful.

For the fame reason, the mafter's authority is no juftification of the fervant in doing wrong; for the fervant's own promife, upon which that authority is founded, would be none.

Clerks and apprentices ought to be employed entirely in the profeffion or trade which they are intended to learn. Inftruction is their hire, and to deprive them of the opportunities of inftruction, by

taking up their time with occupations foreign to their business, is to defraud them of their wages.

The mafter is responsible for what a fervant does in the ordinary course of his employment; for it is done under a general authority committed to him, which is in juftice equivalent to a specific direction. Thus, if I pay money to a banker's clerk, the banker is accountable; but not if I had paid it to his butler or his footman, whose business it is not to receive money. Upon the fame principle, if I once fend a fervant to take up goods upon credit, whatever goods he afterwards takes up at the fame fhop, fo long as he continues in my service, are juftly chargeable to my account.

The law of this country goes great lengths in intending a kind of concurrence in the mafter, fo as to charge him with the confequences of his fervant's conduct. If an inn-keeper's fervant rob his guests, the inn-keeper must make reftitution; if a farrier's fervant lame a horfe, the farrier must answer for the damage; and still farther, if your coachman or carter drive over a paffenger in the road, the paffenger may recover from you a fatisfaction for the hurt he fuffers. But these determinations ftand, I think, rather upon the authority of the law, than any principle of natural juftice.

There is a careleffnefs and facility in " giving "characters," as it is called, of fervants, especially when given in writing, or according to fome eftablifhed form, which, to fpeak plainly of it, is a cheat upon those who accept them. They are given with fo little referve and veracity, "that I fhould as "foon depend," fays the author of the Rambler, upon an acquittal at the Old Bailey, by way of recommendation of a fervant's honefty, as upon one of thefe characters." It is fometimes careleffness; and fometimes alfo to get rid of a bad fervant without the uneafinefs of a difpute; for which nothing can be pleaded, but the most ungenerous of

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all excuses, that the perfon whom we deceive is a ftranger.

There is a conduct, the reverse of this, but more injurious, because the injury falls where there is no remedy. I mean the obftruction of a fervant's advancement, because you are unwilling to fpare his fervice. To ftand in the way of your fervant's intereft, is a poor return for his fidelity; and affords flender encouragement for good behaviour, in this numerous and therefore important part of the community. It is a piece of injuftice, which if practifed towards an equal, the law of honour would lay hold of; as it is, it is neither uncommon nor difreputable.

A mafter of a family is culpable, if he permit any vices among his domeftics, which he might reftrain by due difcipline and a proper interference. This refults from the general obligation to prevent mifery when in our power; and the affurance which we have, that vice and mifery at the long run go together. Care to maintain in his family a fenfe of virtue and religion, received the divine approbation in the person of ABRAHAM, Gen. xviii. 19-" I know "him, that he will command his children, and his "household after him; and they fhall keep the way "of the LORD, to do juftice and judgment." And indeed no authority feems fo well adapted to this purpofe, as that of mafters of families; because none operates upon the fubjects of it, with an influence fo immediate and conftant.

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What the Chriftian Scriptures have delivered, concerning the relation and reciprocal duties of mafters and fervants, breathes a fpirit of liberality, very little known in ages when fervitude was flavery; and which flowed from a habit of contemplating mankind under the common relation in which they ftand to their Creator, and with respect to their intereft in another exiftence.* "Servants, be obedient to them that are your mafters, according to the * Eph. vi. 5-9.

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flesh, with fear and trembling; in fingleness of "your heart, as unto Chrift; not with eye fervice "as men pleafers, but as the fervants of Chrift,

doing the will of God from the heart; with good " will, doing fervice as to the Lord, and not to men: knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doth, the fame fhall he receive of the LORD, "whether he be bond or free. And ye mafters, do "the fame thing unto them, forbearing threatening; knowing that your mafter alfo is in heaven; "neither is there refpect of perfons with him.' The idea of referring their fervice to God, of confidering him as having appointed them their task, that they were doing his will, and were to look to him for their reward, was new; and affords a greater fecurity to the master than any inferior principle, because it tends to produce a fteady and cordial obedience in the place of that constrained fervice, which is juftly enough called eye-fervice. The exhortation to masters, to keep in their view their own fubjection and unaccountablenefs, was no lefs feasonable.

CHAP.