APPRENTICESHIP, is sometimes employed to ex press the contract by which the apprentice binds himself to his master, and sometimes the term or period of his service. In the preceding article, we have endeavoured to explain the nature and legal effects of this contract ; in the present, we shall consider its origin and its effects with regard to the community at large.
Apprenticeships, as they exist in modern Europe, seem to have been unknown among the an cients. The Roman law is perfectly silent on the sub ject , and it is believed there is no Greek or Latin word which precisely expresses the idea which we now attach to the word "apprentice." Apprenticeships, therefore, appear to have been the offspring of that corporation system which sprung up in Europe in modern times and what Ns as probably merely the interested policy of a few individuals concerned in manufactures and trade, has since almost uni.ersally received the sanction of the law. Thus, in England, by the statute 5 Eliz., commonly called the Statute of Apprenticeship, it was enacted, that no person should for the future exercise any trade, craft, or mystery, at that time exercised in England, unless he had previously served an apprenticeship of seven years at least ; and what before had been the bye law of many particular corporations, became the gene ral and public law of the land, with respect to all trades carried on in market-towns. The principle of this sys tem of apprenticeships seems to be founded on a dis tinction drawn between the labour employed in mechani cal trades, and common or country labour. The former Is supposed to be much more nice and delicate than the latter, and, consequently, to require a much longer period of instruction. For this reason, the laws and customs of Europe impose the necessity of an appren ticeship, in order to qualify a person for exercising any of these mechanical trades.
Seven years appear to have formerly been the usual term established for the duration of apprenticeships, in the greater part of incorporated trades, all over Europe. Such corporations were anciently called universities, which indeed is the proper Latin name for any incor poration whatever. The university of smiths, the uni versity of taylors, &c. are expressions which we com monly meet with in the old charters of ancient towns. The same principle appears to have been adopted at the institution of those particular learned incorporations, which arc now peculiarly called universities ; and the term of years during which it was necessary to study, in order to obtain the degree of master of arts, seems evidently to have been copied from the term of appren ticeship in common trades, of which the incorporations were much more ancient. Thus, while to have wrought
seven years under a master properly qualified, was ne cessary to entitle any person to become a master, and to have himself apprentices in common trades ; in like man ner, to have studied seven years under a master pro perly qualified, was necessary to entitle him to become a master, teacher, or doctor, in the liberal arts, and to have scholars or apprentices to study under him. The very term " apprentice" was for some time employed even in the liberal professions ; and barristers arc, in our old law books, stiled apprentices (atprentici ad legcm), being looked upon merely as learners, and not quali fied to execute the full office of an advocate till they were sixteen years standing ; at which time, according to Fortescue, (De LL. c. 50.), they might be called to the state and degree of scrjcants, or servientes ad legem.
In some countries of Europe, however, the principle has not been, in practice, carried to the same extent ; and in others, it has been mitigated by the interpretation put upon the laws which had been enacted for the pur pose of enforcing it. In England, although the words of the statute 5 Eliz. are very general, and seem plainly to include the whole kingdom, its operation has been, by interpretation, limited to market-towns ; and it has been held, that in country villages a person may exercise several different trades without having served a seven years apprenticeship to each. The courts of law, too, have generally shown themselves desirous of confirming rather than extending the restrictions of the statute, and have limited its operation to those trades which existed in the country at the period of its enactment, to the exclusion of those which have been introduced since that time. This limitation, indeed, has given occasion to several distinctions in practice, which, considered rules of policy, no doubt appear sufficiently absurd. It has been adjudged, for example, that a coach-maker can neither himself make, nor employ journeymen to make, coach-wheels, but must buy them of a master wheel wright; this latter trade having been exercised in Eng land before the 5 Eliz. But a wheel...N.:gut, on the other hand, though he has never served an apprenticeship to a coach-maker, may either himself make, or employ joun neymen to make, coaches, the trade of a coach-maker not being within the statute, because not exercised in England at the time it was made. For the same rea son, many of the manufactures of Manchester, Birm ingham, and Wolverhampton, are not within the sta tute.