CHAP. XIII.

Of the tradesman's leaving his business to servants : danger to a master that does so, even from a good servant; much greater than from a bad. Great remissness in masters now-a-days, with regard to the morals of their servants. Wholesome rules

enjoined by a certain eminent tradesman to his servants, and good effects thereof. Great difference in the family government of the last and present age. Our author's opinion in relation to the monies taken with apprentices: brief remarks thereupon. Duty of a good master with respect to his apprentices.

It is the ordinary excuse of the gentlemen-tradesmen of our times, that they have good servants, and that therefore they take more liberty to be out of their business, than they would otherwise do. O says the shopkeeper, I have an apprentice, 'tis an estate to have such a servant! I am as safe in him, as if I had my eye upon the business from morning to night; let me be where I will, I am always satisfied he is at home; if I am at the tavern, I am sure he is in the counting-house, or behind the counter; he is never from his post.

And then, for my other servants, the younger apprentices, says he, 'tis all one as if I were there myself; they would be idle, it may be; but he will not let them, I assure you; they must stick close to it, or he will make them do it: he tells them, boys do not come apprentices to play, but to work; not to sit idle, and be doing nothing, but to mind their

master's business, that they may learn how to do their own.

Very well; and you think, sir, this young man being so much in the shop, and so diligent and faithful, is an estate to you? and so indeed he is; but are your customers as well pleased with this man, too, as you are? or are they as well pleased with him as they would be if you were there yourself?

Yes, they are, says the shopkeeper; nay, abundance of the customers take him for the master of the shop, and do not know any other; and he is so very obliging, and pleases so well, giving content to everybody, that if I am in any other part of the shop, and see him serving a customer, I never interrupt them, unless sometimes he is so modest he will call me, and, turning to the ladies, say, There's my master, madam; if you think he will abate you anything, I will call him; and sometimes they will look a little surprised, and say, Is that your master? Indeed we thought you had been the master of the shop yourself.

Well, said I, and you think yourself very happy in all this, don't you? Pray how long has this young gentleman to serve? How long is it before his time will be out? O, he has almost a yearand-half to serve, says the shopkeeper. I hope then, say I, you will take care to have him knocked on the head as soon as his time is out. God forbid, says the honest man, what do you mean by that? Mean! say I, why if you do not, he will certainly knock your trade on the head, as soon as the yearand-half comes to be up; either you must dispose of him, as I say, or take care that he does not set up near you; no, not in the same street; if you do, your customers will all run thither: when they miss him in the shop, they will presently inquire for him;

and, as you say, they generally take him for the master, they will ask you, Whither the gentleman is removed that kept the shop before?

All my shopkeeper could say, was, that he had got a salve for that sore; and that was, that when Timothy was out of his time (that was his name), he resolved to take him in partner.

But

A very good thing indeed! So you must take Timothy into half the trade, when he is out of his time, for fear he should run away with three quarters of it, when he sets up for himself. had not the master much better have been Timothy himself? Then he had been sure never to have the customers take Timothy for the master; and, when he went away, and set up, perhaps at next door, leave the shop and go after him.

It is certain, a good servant, a faithful, industrious, obliging servant, is a blessing to a tradesman; but the master, by laying the stress of his business upon him, divests himself of all the advantages of such a servant, and turns the blessing into a blast; for by giving up the shop, as it were, to him, and indulging himself in being abroad, and absent from his business, the apprentice gets the mastery of the business, the fame of the shop depends upon him; and, when he sets up, certainly follows him. Such a servant would, with the master's attendance too, be very helpful, and yet not be dangerous; such a servant is well, when he is visibly an assistant to the master, but is ruinous when he is taken for the master. There is a great deal of difference between a servant's being the stay of his master, and his being the stay of his trade; when he is the first, the master is served by him; and when he is gone, he breeds up another to follow his steps; but when he is the latter, he

carries the trade with him, and does his master infinitely more hurt than good.

A tradesman has a great deal of trouble with a bad servant, but he must take heed is not wounded by a good one. The extravagant, idle, vagrant servant hurts himself; but the diligent servant endangers his master; the greater reputation the servant gets in his business, the more care the master has upon him, lest he gets within him, and worms him out of his business.

The only way to prevent this, and yet not injure a diligent servant, is, that the master be as diligent as the servant; that the master be as much in the shop as the man: he that will keep in his business, need never fear keeping his business, let his servant be as diligent as he will. It is a hard thing that a tradesman should have the blessing of a good servant, and make it a curse to him by his appearing less capable than his man; and so make that which would be a felicity to any other man, the ruin of himself.

Apprentices ought to be considered as they really are, in their moveable station; that they are with you but seven years, and then act in a station of their own their diligence is now for you, but ever after it is for themselves; that the better servants they have been while they were with you, the more dangerous they will be to you when you part; that, therefore, though you are bound in justice to them to let them into your business, in every branch of it, yet you are not bound to give your business away to them; the diligence therefore of a good servant in the master's business should be a spur to the master diligence to take care of himself.

There is a great deal of difference also between trusting a servant in your business, and trusting

him with your business; the first is leaving your business with him; the other is leaving your business to him he that trusts a servant in his business, leaves his shop only to him; but he that leaves his business to his servant, leaves his family at his dispose in a word, such a trusting, or leaving the business to the servant, is no less than a giving up all to him; abandoning the care of his shop and all his affairs to him; and when such a servant is out of his time, the master runs a terrible risk, such as indeed it is not fit any tradesman should run, namely, of losing the best of his busi

ness.

What I have been now saying is of the tradesman leaving his business to his apprentices and servants when they prove good, when they are honest and diligent, faithful and industrious; and if there are dangers even in trusting good servants, what then must it be when the business is left to idle, negligent, and extravagant servants, who both neglect their master's business and their own; who neither learn their trade for themselves, nor regard it for the interest of their masters? If the first are a blessing to their masters, and may only be made dangerous by their carrying away the trade with them when they go, these are made curses to their masters early; for they lose the trade for themselves and their masters too. The first carry the customers away with them, the last drive the customers away before they go. What signifies going to such a shop? (say the ladies, either speaking of a mercer, or draper, or any other trade), there's nothing to be met with there but a crew of saucy boys, that are always at play when you come in, and çan hardly refrain it when you are there; one hardly ever sees a master in the shop, and the young rude boys hardly mind you when you are