The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-20 00:00:00

BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.

(LEFT SPEAKING.)

LONDON CITY APPRENTICES.

Sir James Duke, Ur., in the course of a very eloquen,
speech, nn the occasion of a public testimonial to John
Robert Taylor, Esq., made some most pertinent remarks
npon the value of aapprenticeship in the city of London.
It will be seen that our noble forefathers thought simi-
larly, even so far back tic the time of Charles I. The
extract is from Whitfield's Memoirs, and is not unworthy
of notice:—

"A curious account of the mode of apprenticing at this
me is given in a letter from Mr. Howell to his father.
Our two younger brothers which you sent hither are
disposed of; my brother, Dr. Howell (afterwards Bishop
of Bristol), hath placed the elder of the two with Mr.
Hawes, a mercer, in Cheapside, and he took much pains
in it ; and I had placed my brother Ned with Mr. Bar-
rington, a silkman in the same street, but afterwards,
from some inconveniences, I removed him to one Mr.
Smith, at the Flower-de-lute, in Lombard-street, a
mercer also; their masters are both of them very well to
pass, and of good repute; I think it will prove some ad-
vantage to them hereafter, to be both of one trade;
because, when they aro cut of their time, they may
join stocks together; so that I hope, sir,
they are well placed as any two youths in
London; but you must not use to send
them such large tokens in money, for that may corrupt
them. When I went to bind my brother Ned appren-
tice in Drapers' Hall, casting my eyes upon the chim-
ney-piece of the great room, I might spie a picture of
an ancient gentleman, and underneath Thomas Howel;
I ask'd the clerk about him, and he told me that he
had been a Spanish merchant in Henry the Eight's
time, and coming home rich, and dying a bachelor, he
gave that hall to the Company of Drapers, with other
things, so that he is accounted one of their chiefest
benefactors. I told the clerk that one of the sons
of Thomas Howel came now thither to be bound, he
answered, that if he be a right Howel he may have,
when he is free, three hundred pounds to help him to
set up, and pay no interest for five years. It may be
hereafter we may make use of this. He told me also
that any maid that can prove her farther to be a true
Howel, may come and demand fifty pounds towards her
portion of the said hall. Because Mr. Hawes, of
Cheapside, is lately dead, I have removed by brother
Griffith to the Hen and Chickens in Paternoster-row,
to Mr. Taylor's, as gentile a shop as any in the city,
but I gave a piece of plate of twenty nobles price to
his wife."
There is some curious analogy in the above, inasmuch
that Mr. Taylor followed up the observations of Sir
James.

The city apprentices of the present day will read the
following with no great love of the " good old times:"—
"In the year 1582, the luxury of the times having
greatly prevailed among people of all degrees, in their
apparel, partifmlarly by apprentices, the Lord Mayor
and Common. Council enacted, 'that no apprentice
whatsoever should presume, 1. To wear any
apparel but what he receives from his mas-
ter. 2. To wear no hat, nor anything but a woollen
cap, without any silk in or about the same. 3. To wear
neither ruffles, cuffs, loose collars, nor anything than
a ruff at the collar, and that only of a yard and a half
long. 4. To wear no doublets but what are made of
canvas, fustian, sackcloth, English leather, or woollen,
without any gold, :giver, or silk trimming. 5. To wear
no other coloured cloth, or kersey, in hose or stockings,
than white, blue, or russet. 6. To wear no other breeches
but what shall, be of the same stuffs as the
doublets, and neither stitched, laced, or bordered. 7.
To wear no other than a plain upper coat, of cloth or
leather., without pinking, stitching, edging, or silk
about it. To wear no other surtout than a cloth
gown .3r cloak, lined or faced with cloth, cotton, or
baize, with, a fixed round collar, without stiching,
gnardi ng, lace, or silk. 9. To wear no pumps,
slippe' ts, or sheer, but of English leather
withc at being pinked, edged, or stitched; nor girdles,
nor ;arters, other than of crewel, woollen, thread, or
leath Er, without being garnished. 10. To wear no
savor, 3, dagger, or other weapon but a knife; nor a
ring, jewel of gold nor silver, nor silk in any part of
his a pparel, on pain of being punished at the dis-
cretii in of the master for the first offence; to be pub-
lickl y whipped at the hall of his company for a second
offer ce; and to serve six months longer than speci-
fied i u his indentures for a third offence. And it was
forth er enacted, " That no apprentice should frequent
or go to any dancing, fencing, or musical schools; nor
keep any chest, press, or other place for keeping of ap-
parel or goods, but in, his master's house, under the
penalti 'es aforesaid."
Sec% was the stat-e of " apprenticeship" in the year
1582.

DEATH OF LIEUT.-COLONEL W. H. DAVIES, UN-
ATTACHEI —Li'Jut.- Colonel Davies, who died on the 11th
inst., aged 175 yearB, entered the army in 1799. In 1806 he
served wit h the 47th Regiment in South America. After-
wards he s erved in the Peninsula, and was present at the
sieges of C. Wiz, T arragona, and Tarifa. On the 31st Decem-
ber, 1811, h e com mended three companies of his regiment,
the 47th, o A the memorable occasion when the French in
great force atten.li )ted to storm the town ; but were driven
back great loss both of men and artillery. The late
Lieut..t.4/10itel Da vies had been in the half-pay list since 1830.

Sir J. WILLOUGHBY called the attention of the
Noble Lerd the Member for Bath (Lord Duncan) to
certain expressions which the public journals had re-
ported him to have used at a public meeting. It ap-
peared that the Noble Lord had said the people had no
right to express their regret at anything done in the
House of Commons.
Lord DUNCAN bore testimony to the wonderful ac-
curacy with which the proceedings of the House of
Commons and public meetings were reported, but
stated he had been misrepresented by the public
journals in the present instance. What he mid
was this—that he had been called to order by
the Speaker, and told that the people of England had
no right to express their surprise or regret in any
matter under debate in the House of Commons, which
only reached them through the reports in the public
journals, which were not authorised by the House.
LAW OF PARTNERSHIP.
toMr. SLANEY rose to move for a Select Committee
to consider the law of partnership, and a proposed limi-
tion of liability, with a view to encourage useful en-
terprise and the additional employment of labour. He
considered that the law which he now proposed to amcud
was a great check to the industry and energy of the
working men of the country. Now he would direct his
attention to the way in which the lower classes w( re
affected by the several Bills which bad been passed on
that subject. In other countries such an evil as this
would have been productive of the most serious
effects; and by the policy which they had adopted the
contrast between the condition of the peasants of other
countries and those of this. In this country the great-
est amount of capital bad been accumulated which had
ever been gathered together in the world before,
and yet they derived no benefit from it. Ile
was connected with an interest which had suffered more
than any other. The interest from which he derived his
humble income was the landed interest, but all his hopes
had been disappointed, and the measures from w hien he had
anticipated relief had produced no benefit. From the
returns of a society with which he was connected, and
which extended to twenty-six counties, he found
that the working daises were in a far worse
condition than they had been for some
years parts. That society had offered a reward for any
proof of the redundancy of the population in these coun-
ties, but no one had appeared to claim that reward.—
(Hear, hear.) His Right Hon. Friend below him
(the Chancellor of the Exchequer) could go into the
City and borrow money at 2 per cent., to any amauni,
while the working community were obliged to borrow
at the rate of 60s. for the 1001, Thei Bank
and any of the other great discount houses
could do the same, and he asked under the circumstances
whether some alteration ought not to be made in order
to increase the welfare of the lower classes, and under
capital more available for the general benefit.
And yet just at this time they found men were out of
employment—men only half employed, and men able-
bodied and ready to work emigrating to distant parts
of the world. He did not state this as a
cause of bitter complaint, but as a cause why they
should inquire into the subject. The agricultural
party was peculiarly interested in this question, for the
more they held the working men of this country
to buy cheese, drink malt, and wear wool, the
more they would benefit themselves. At present
capital was confined to a few hands, it was, in fact,
monopolised by a number of speculators, who, in-
stead of applying it to the employment of home
labour operated with it, abroad, and much of the evil—
for an evil it was, and a great one too—was created and
fostered by the cobwebs of the law. For instance, a
man with a small estate could not raise money upon
its security without going through an expensive process
of law, and the consequence was he had to pay 4 per
cent., where he should only pay 3 per cent. The second
action of the law which restricted the application of
capital to works capable of largely employing labour,
such as water-works, bridges, and gas-works, was
found in expensive obstacles which Parliament
threw in the way of such works. Now, instead
of having an especial Bill for every scheme of that
sort, why could they not pass a general Act similar
to the Commons Inclosuro Act, and get rid of
all this difficulty.