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royal hospital at Greenwich. They have the power to exercise trades, and of making nuncupative wills, and further, no seaman on board his majesty's ships can be arrested for debt for a sum under twenty pounds.

CHAPTER XIV.-MASTER AND SERVANT.

PREAMBLE.

The great relations in private life are:

1. Master and Servant. This is founded in convenience, whereby a man is directed to call in the skill of others, where his own skill and labor are insufficient.

2. Husband and Wife. This is founded in nature, but modified by civil society.

3. Parent and Child. This is consequential to marriage, being its principal end and design.

4. Guardian and Ward. This is a kind of artificial parentage, to supply the deficiency of the natural, whenever it happens.

I. THE SEVERAL SORTS OF SERVANTS.

Slavery. Pure slavery does not exist in England, whereby an absolute and unlimited power is given to the master over the life of the slave. It is repugnant to reason, and the principles of natural law, that such a state should subsist anywhere. Justinian gives three erroneous origins of the right of slavery:

Jure Gentium. First, he alleges it to have arisen jure gentium, from a state of captivity in war. The conqueror, say the civilians, has a right to the life of his captive, and having spared that, may deal with him as he pleases. But it is an untrue position, that by the law of nature, a man may slay his enemy. He has only a right to kill him in case of absolute necessity, for selfdefence. War is itself justifiable, only on principles of self-preservation, and gives no other right over prisoners, but merely to disable them from doing harm to us, by confining their persons.

Jure Civili. Secondly, it is said that slavery may begin, jure civili, when one man sells himself to another. This, if it refers to contracts to work for another, is very just, but when applied to strict slavery, is impossible. Every sale implies a

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price, a quid pro quo, an equivalent given to the seller in lieu of what he transfers to the buyer, but what equivalent can be given for life or liberty? Even the price he receives pertains ipso facto to the master, the instant he becomes his slave.

Jure Naturæ. Lastly, it is said, that slavery may be hereditary. Servi nascuntur; the children of slaves are jure naturae by a negative kind of birth-right, slaves also.

Slavery Under Edward VI. England abhors, and will not endure the existence of slavery in the nation. Under Edward VI, a statute was enacted, that all idle vagabonds should be made slaves, and be fed upon bread and water; should wear a ring of iron around their necks, arms or legs, and should be compelled, by beating and chaining, to perform their allotted work, however vile. Two years later, this act was repealed.

Slavery Forbidden. The law as now laid down, frees a slave the instant he lands in England, and he will be protected in person and property. A contract of apprenticeship, however, is not interfered with.

Menial Servants. These are domestics or intra moenia, between walls. The contract between them and their masters arises from hiring. If the hiring be general, without any particular time limited, the law construes it to be a hiring for a year, upon a principle of natural equity, that the servant shall serve, and the master maintain him, through the seasons, when there is work to be done, and when there is not.

Vagrants Compelled to Work. All single men, between the ages of twelve and sixty, and married ones under thirty years of age, and all single women between twelve and forty, not having any visible means of livelihood, are compellable, by two justices, to go out to service in husbandry, or certain specific trades, for the promotion of industry, and no master can discharge his servant, or servant leave his master, after being so retained, without a quarter's warning, unless upon reasonable cause to be allowed by a justice of the peace. They may however, part by consent, or make a special bargain.

2. Apprentices. This word is derived from the French, apprendre, to learn. Apprentices are usually bound for a term of years by deed indented, or indentures, to serve their masters, and be instructed and maintained by them. The object fre quently is to learn a trade, a mystery or art. Sometimes large

sums are given for this instruction. Children of poor persons may be apprenticed out by overseers, with the consent of two justices, till twenty-one years of age, to such persons who are thought fitting. It is held, that they are compellable to receive them, and that gentlemen of fortune, and even clergymen, are liable to such compulsion.

Discharged or Absconded. They may be discharged for reasonable cause, either at the request of themselves or their masters at the quarter sessions, or by one justice, with appeal to the sessions, who may, if they deem fit, direct restitution of a ratable share of the money given with the appentice. An apprentice who has absconded, and has received less than ten pounds, is compellable to serve out his time of absence, or make satisfaction for the same, within seven years from the expiration of the original contract.

3. Laborers. These are only hired by the day or the week, and are not part of the family. Concerning these, some excellent regulations exist: (1) Directing, that all persons, who have no visible effects, must work. (2) Defining, how long they must continue at work in summer and in winter. (3) Punishing such as leave or desert their work. (4) Empowering the sheriff or the justices in sessions to settle their wages. (5) Inflicting penalties on such as give or exact more wages, than are so settled.

4. Stewards, Factors and Bailiffs. These act in a ministerial and superior capacity, though the law holds them as servants pro tempore.

II. EFFECT OF SERVICE UPON MASTER AND SERVANT.

Exclusive Right to Trade. By hiring and service for a year, or apprenticeship under indentures, a person gains a settlement in that parish, wherein he has served forty days. In the next place, persons serving seven years as apprentices to any trade, have an exclusive right to exercise that trade in any part of England. Attempts have frequently been made to repeal the exclusive part of the act. but hitherto without success.

Restraints of Practicing Trade. At common law, every man might practice what trade he pleased, but this statute restrains that liberty to such as have served as apprentices. The adversaries of it say, that it tends to introduce monopolies, which are pernicious to trade, while its advocates allege, that unskilfulness in trade is equally as detrimental to the public as monopolies.

This reason only extends to such trades as require skill. Others say, that no one would undergo a seven years servitude, if others were allowed the same advantages, without having undergone the same discipline. For trading in a country village, apprenticeships are not requisite.

Correction of Apprentices. A master may, by law, correct his apprentice for negligence, or other misbehavior, so it be done with moderation. If any servant assaults his master, or his master's wife, he shall suffer one year's imprisonment, and other punishment, usually corporal,

Wages. By service, all servants, except apprentices, become entitled to wages, according to their agreement, if menial servants; or according to the appointment of the sheriff or sessions, if laborers or servants in husbandry.

III.

EFFECT OF STRANGERS ON MASTERS AND SERVANTS.

Suits at Law by Master. The master may maintain, that is assist his servant in any action at law against a stranger. He may also bring an action against any man for beating his servant, assigning as a special reason, his own damage by the loss of his service, and this loss must be proved on the trial. He may justify an assault in defence of his own servant, and a servant in defence of his master. Also he may sue any one, who knowingly employs his servant during the term of his employment with the master. If the stranger was ignorant of the servant's employment, no action lies, unless the stranger refuse to restore him on demand.

Master's Liability. If the servant commit a trespass by the command or encouragement of his master, both master and servant are guilty, for the latter is only to obey his master, in matters that are honest and lawful. If an inn-keeper's servants rob his guests, the master is bound to restitution, for his negligence in not obtaining honest servants is a kind of implied consent to the robbery. So if a servant at a tavern furnish bad wine, which results in the sickness of a guest, the master is liable.

Question of Agency. In the same manner, whatever a servant is permitted to do, in the usual course of his business, is equivalent to a general command. If I pay money to a banker's servant, the banker is answerable for it, but if I pay it to a professional man's servant, whose usual business is not to receive money for his master, and he embezzles it, I must pay it over

again. If a steward rents a farm without the owner's knowledge, the owner must stand to the bargain, for this is the steward's business. A wife, a friend, a relation, who is accustomed to transact business for a man, are quoad hoc his servants, and the principal must answer for their conduct, for the law implies, that they act under a general command. If I usually deal with a tradesman by myself, or constantly pay him ready money, I am not answerable for what my servant takes upon trust, for there is no implied order to the tradesman to trust my servant, but if I usually send him on trust, or sometimes on trust and sometimes with ready money, I am answerable, for the tradesman cannot tell when he comes by my order, and when he comes upon his own authority.

Negligence of Servants. If a servant by his negligence damages a stranger, the master shall answer for his neglect. But the damage must be done, while he is actually employed in the master's service, otherwise the servant shall alone answer for his misbehavior. On this principle, if a servant while lighting his master's fire, negligently sets fire to an adjacent house, the master is liable, because the negligence occurs in his master's service, but otherwise, if passing along the street, he negligently sets fire to some dwelling, for there he is not in his master's immediate service, and must himself answer for the damage personally. A master is chargeable, if a member of his family throws anything out of his house into the street, to the damage of any individual, or to the common nuisance of the public.

Master Responsible. In all such cases, the master may frequently be a loser by the trust reposed in his servant, but never can be a gainer, nor shelter himself from punishment by laying the blame on his servant. The reason of this is, that the wrong done by his servant is looked upon in law as the wrong of the master himself, and it is a rule, that no man shall take advantage of his own wrong.

CHAPTER XV. HUSBAND AND WIFE.

Preamble. The second private relation of persons is that of marriage, which includes the reciprocal rights and duties of

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