The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-25 00:00:00

ALLEGED FICTITIuUS APPREN-

TICESHIP.
Last week memorials were presented to the master,
wardens, and court of assistants of the Vintners' Com-
pany of the City of London, charging a member of the
court with having been concerned in a case of appren-
ticeship rendered fictitious and nominal by nOn.servi'
tude, for the purpose of obtaining and using the privi-
leges of the company. One of the memorials stated
that by charter the freemen of the company of vint-
ners were entitled to certain privileges, and amongstt
others to keep wine taverns, and to sell by retail and
wholesale all sorts of wine drank in their dwellings,
and that admission to the freedom by servitude can be
only obtained upon testimony of the master that
the party applying served the full term of
seven years, without fraud or deceit. That on
the 6th of April, 1842, a lad who resided with
his father was bound apprentice to a tradesman who was
a vintner to serve for seven years; that he continued to .
live with his father during the seven years, without ever
having attended to the trade of his master, and that he
intended to apply to be admitted to the freedom by so'
vitude of the company, upon the ground of his having
duly served his apprenticeship under inden-
ture; which the memorialists consider to be
contrary to the charter end to the rules and cos'
toms of the company, and in direct violation of the terms
of the indenture of apprenticeship. The memorial
concluded with submitting that the applicant for the
freedom was not entitled, and requesting that the court
would examine witnesses on the subject, and that
admission be not granted until such evidence
should be heard. The second memorial which gene;
rally complains of a serious abuse of the privileges of
the company, " that of fictitious apprenticeship by
non-servitude," connived at by freemen of the tom'
pany for a valuable consideration, states that such it'
practice deprived the inland revenue of the trier;
chant's annual wine license of 101. 108. and
the licensed victualler's annual retail wine license
of 2/. 2s. ; that the putting down by the strong
arm of the law, carried out by the Excise authori-
ties in conjunction with the company, " the old pro'
tice of freemen lending their names for a valuable Coe'
sideration," by fining both lender and borrower
heavy penalties, had caused many ingenious or artful
persons to adopt this mode of fictitious apprenticeships
by non• servitude. That the memorialists recommend
that an oath or some stringent system of tests be adopted,
so that the candidates for the freedom of the compsnY'
as well as their masters, prove to the satisfaction of the
court the just and legitimate performance of their ser-
vitudes according to their respective indentures of sir
prenticeship, or that some periodical visitation take
place during apprenticeship at the business premises '91,.
the master, in confirmation of the servitude, either bir
their beadle or by some officer appointed by the court.
We are given to understand that the memorialists 05"
pect the matter of the memorials, which have been re;
ferred to a committee of privileges, and will be discusse'
with closed doors, and that neither the memorialists nor
their solicitor will be allowed to be present. It is stir
posed that there are above 300 fictitious apprenticeshiPs
at the present time. In 1831 the court was thrown open
for the examination of 16 cases of freemen of the cel;
pany, charged with having lent their names for a valusb
consideration; and in one of these cases a wealthy Will
merchant in the neighbourhood of Tower-street, a free.'
man of the company, was convicted of having lent his
name to the keeper of that notorious den of villany the
Finish, in James-street, Covent-garden, and suspended
from the enjoyment of the privileges of the company for
six months.