a thousand
pounds with an apprentice; a thing which formerly would have been
thought monstrous, and not to be named.

The ill consequences of giving these large premiums are such and so
many, that it is not to be entered upon in such a small tract as this;
nor is it the design of this work: but it is thus far to the purpose
here--namely, as it shows that this sets up servants into a class of
gentlemen above their masters, and above their business; and they
neither have a sufficient regard to one or other, and consequently are
the less fit to be trusted by the master in the essential parts of his
business; and this brings it down to the case in hand.

Upon the whole, the present state of things between masters and servants
is such, that now more than ever the caution is needful and just, that
he that leaves his business to the management of his servants, it is ten
to one but he ruins his business and his servants too.

Ruining his business is, indeed, my present subject; but ruining his
servants also is a consideration that an honest, conscientious master
ought to think is of weight with him, and will concern himself about.
Servants out of government are like soldiers without an officer, fit for
nothing but to rob and plunder; without order, and without orders, they
neither know what to do, or are directed how to do it.

Besides, it is letting loose his apprentices to levity and liberty in
that particular critical time of life, when they have the most need of
government and restraint. When should laws and limits be useful to
mankind but in their youth, when unlimited liberty is most fatal to
them, and when they are least capable of governing themselves? To have
youth left without government, is leaving fire in a magazine of powder,
which will certainly blow it all up at last, and ruin all the houses
that are near it.

If there is any duty on the side of a master to his servant, any
obligation on him as a Christian, and as a trustee for his parents, it
lies here--to limit and restrain them, if possible, in the liberty of
doing evil; and this is certainly a debt due to the trust reposed in
masters by the parents of the youth committed to them. If he is let
loose here, he is undone, of course, and it may be said, indeed, he was
ruined by his master; and if the master is afterwards ruined by such a
servant, what can be said for it but this? He could expect no other.

To leave a youth without government is indeed unwort