The Sun.
London, England, 1806-10-18 00:00:00

the inability of his master to furnish him with em-
ployment.
Your Committee felt surprised that any parents
corqd bepersuade'd to appientice their, children upoti
suell terms ;:bilt their surprise soon ceased when-
they. found that masters have ectnielled journey-
Merl in their service .sue to bind their chirtiren, under
the threat of dismissal from empiolment i 1 they re-
fused. . _

The rate of Wages .allowed to apprentices, is, ac-
cording to the minutes of evidence„ as fhllow4 : 3s.
Gd. per WeLk thetrst year ; 4s. the•second; 45.6 d.
the third ;• ss: the fourth -3, Gs. the fifth ; and 75.
the si's.th and seventh'; i.vhict, your Committee °la:.
serve, comprehends all the allowance granted. The
earnings- of the apprentices,. according to the rate of
journeyman's wageseis thus described by one of the
witnesses" It would'haveamoUnted to il. I is. Gd.
'or ss. 3d. per day- the first-year; in My 'second year
I did 34 colours per week,- of a more dalcult sort‘
worth ss. per day, at journeyman's Fices-; the other.
five years I should, on an average, have-earned, at
journeyman's prices, 255.- per week ; ;the reason
why it appears less in these last years is, that the
work required more skill, and therefore we had.
easier day's work set us.".
While such advantages are derived from appren
-tices, it is natural thet 'they should be preferied to
johrneyMen,and such preference-materidly affeiti
the hitter, nat'only at the houses where-the
.appren-;
tices engage, but throughout the country ;
for apprentices are driven to the necessity of search-
ing', for employment, as welt as the jeurneymen,
mine- to. the nature of the .loose agreement beta; e
,referred to. Thus, through the praktice at present.
.prevailing in this trjde, the duty which ought to at-
tach to an apprentice, and the right which ought to
•• belong to'a eourneyroaneare altogether extinguiihed.
When your coinmittee mention duty and tight,
they of course mean the duty of faithful service and.
obedience, which should-be imPosed upon the one.
by A' regular indenture, and tilts. right -ofpreferenee
to employment which the other should acquire by
a regular apprenticeship. •
Against the consequences naturally 'to be appre-
hended from the comparative unskilfulness of boys, .
the masters take care to provide a remedy; for irt-
any:Case-when work is spoiled by tlieboys, an equal
dedu6tion is made from their wages, and-such -de=
due ions, together with a- ,reduetion of the boy's
wages, which is occasionally made at the discretion
of the-mastersein prOportioneto a similar; redudion
of the wages•of the journeymen, are the principal,
causes of the turn-outs, and the quitting of the em---
ployments of their'masters, 'Which 'sometimes take
place among the. apprentices.'
To this description of the state of the apprentices,
Itl your Committee. think: it necessary to- add a fad
disclosed by one of the witnesses—that he has known
-of apprentices being- d.istnissed immediately. opoa
the,expiration of their apprenticeships, altho' -their
work was unfinished, the' masters . being unwilling
to pay •thern journeymen's wages even until siren
work 'was finished. •
' The consequence resulting from this systerti hay
been a great difficulty, nay, as soir._ of the Witt-testes
state, an absolute impossibility, on the part of the
journeymen, to procure employ Merit,.... One of the
witnesses indeed asserts, that the'calico printing bu-
siness-is overstocked completely • with: hands ; and
further, that•it must, continue. so, if the system of
multiplying apprentices be allowed to, go' on. '" • •
The distress of journey arising, •oet. of their
inability to find work, appears from several parts of
the. evidence ; and -this distress is aggravated- by
the following. circumstances, as,&%-scrined by one of
the witnesses e.—" The- excessive heat Of the print-
ing-shops affe&s the workmen so as-to debilitate the
journeymens' . constitution, it promoting • too great &
quantity of perspiration, as printers are in general
obliged to work neatly naked, and confined nearly
eleven ortwelve hours,in the clay, which tends to
weaken the constitution in such a manner as .to
able them from procuring: a livelihood at any out-,
• doof work."—Again, " That the effluvia of the
drugs used in printing adds'to the bad effects of the-
beat, and produces, among the generality of jour-
neymen printers, a great difficulty of breathing, dis-
,
eases of the lungs, &c."—lt is also alledged, that
their sight is apt.to fail them at any early age, and
that the period of old age very soon reaches them.

Next Thursday Dame Fortune will re-assume, for
the second time. this. season, her favourite Aniuse-
,ment:of dealing out Capital Prizes to her votaries,.
at her Temple, Cooper's Hall.; and from the Speci-
inen she gave the first Day • of Drawing, there Tis
-every probability that those who purchase Tickets or
Shares-previous to that, day, will be most liberally
rewarded with her golden favours. '