SERPEXS. 



SERVANT. 



470 



Christian ordinance and the assisting the people in their devotions, to 

 one which was of teaching, if not exclusively, yet principally. It was 

 not very unusual in the 1 7th century for congregations to listen to 

 sermons which occupied one, two, or even three hours in the delivery. 

 Many of these sermons are in print, and may therefore be now read 

 and judged of. 



There is a singular work by a minister of the French Reformed 

 church at Charenton, Monsieur Claude, entitled ' An Essay on the 

 Composition of a Sermon.' This waa translated by Robert Robinson, 

 a Baptist minister at Cambridge, who has illustrated the rules by 

 numerous quotations from English sermon writers. This translation 

 i iii two volumes, 8vo., 1779. 



SERPENS (the Serpent), a constellation which is astronomically 

 distinguished from OPHIUCHUS, but not mythologically, being the ser- 

 pent carried by the Serpent-bearer. The windings of the figure bring 

 it in contact with AquUa, Ophiuchus, Libra, and Hercules. 



Character. 



A 

 



f 



Magnitude. 

 3 

 I 

 4 

 3 

 4 

 3 

 3 

 4 

 4 

 4 

 3 

 3 



SHKI'KNT, a musical instrument, a long conical tube of wood 



1 with leather, having a mouth-piece, ventages, and keys, and 



bent in a serpentine form ; hence its name. The compass of the 



serjent is from B Hat below the base staff, to G, the treble clef lino, 



including every tone and semitone between these extremes. Or 



The use of this is confined to military bands, though it might have 

 l>< <-n rendered valuable in the orchestra. The ophecleide however, an 

 instrument applicable to the same purposes, but of far superior 

 utility, has already obtained a place in the concert-room, and will, 

 prul>ably, supersede altogether its ancient and imperfect precursor. 



[Ol'UKCLEIDE.] 



BEBPENTABIK. Synonymous with ARioTOLOcinx. 



V ANT, one who has contracted to serve another. The person 

 whom he has contracted to serve is styled master. Servants are of 

 various kinds ; apprentices [Ai'i'itKNTiCKJ, menial or domestic servants 

 who reside within the bouse of the master, servants in husbandry, 

 workmen or artificers, and clerks, warehousemen, Ac. From the 

 relation of master and servant a variety of rights and duties arise. 

 Some of these are founded on the common law, and some oh special 

 statutory enactment*. 



A contract of hiring and service need not bo in writing unless it be 

 for a period longer than a year, or for a year to commence at some 

 future time. I f in writing, it is not liable to any stamp duty, unless 

 it a] iply to the superior classes of clerks, &c. To all such contracts 

 the law attaches an implied undertaking on the part of the servant 

 faithfully and carefully to serve the master, and to do his lawful and 

 reasonable commands within the scope of the employment contracted 

 M the part of the master, to protect and fairly remunerate the 

 servant. This implied undertaking to remunerate may be rebutted by 

 circumstances showing that it never was contemplated, as where it 

 appears that the servant merely came on trial, or where a party has 

 brought to England a person who was his slave abroad. In all hiring 

 where no time of duration is expressed, except those of menial servants, 

 it is a rule of law that the contract shall continue for a year. lu the 

 case of menial servants it is detenninable by a month's warning, or the 

 payment of a month's wages. Servants in husbandry can only be 

 discharged or quit the service upon a quarter's notice. This rule as to 

 time may of course also be rebutted by any circumstances in the con- 

 tract inconsistent with its existence, lu the case of immorality, or 

 any kind of offence amounting to a misdemeanor committed during 

 the time of the service, or of continued neglect, or determined dis- 

 obedience, a servant may be immediately discharged ; and the service 

 having been determined before the expiration of the time contracted 

 for, in consequence of the fault of the servant, he is not entitled to 

 claim wages for any portion of the time during which he has served. 

 The contract continues to exist, notwithstanding the disability of the 

 servant to perform his duties from illness, and he is in such a case 

 entitled to receive his wages. The master however is not bound n, 

 pay the charges incurred by medicine or attendance upon his sick 

 servant. In case the goods of the master are lost or broken by the 



carelessness of the servant, the master is not entitled to deduct their 

 value from the wages of the servant, unless there has been a special 

 contract between them to that effect. His only remedy ia by ail 

 action. Where a master becomes bankrupt, the commissioners are 

 authorised, on proof that they are due, to pay six months' wages to his 

 clerks and servants. If the wages for any longer period are due, they 

 must be proved for like other debts under the fiat. If a servant has 

 left his service for a considerable time without making any demand for 

 wages, it will be presumed that they are paid. A master may chastise 

 his apprentice for neglect or misconduct, but he will not be justified in 

 striking any other description of servant. Servants who steal or 

 embezzle their master's goods are subject to a greater degree of punish- 

 ment than others who commit those crimes. [LARCENY.] Masters 

 are not compellable to give a character to servants who leave their 

 employment. If they choose to do so, and they give one which is 

 false, they may be liable to an action at the suit of the servant ; but in 

 order to recover in such an action, the servant must prove that the 

 character was maliciously given for the purpose of injuring him. If 

 the master, merely for the purpose of confidentially communicating, 

 bond fide state what he believes to be the truth respecting a servant, 

 he is not responsible for the consequences of his communication. 



By a great variety of statutes, a special jurisdiction is given to 

 magistrates over servants in husbandry, and also in many classes of 

 manufactures and other employments. None of these rides of -law 

 apply to menial servants. The object of them, as relates to servants in 

 husbandry, is to compel persona not having any ostensible means of 

 subsistence, to enter into service, to regulate the time and mode of 

 their service, to punish negligence and refusal to serve, to determine 

 disputes between masters and servants, to enable servants to recover 

 their wages, and to authorise magistrates under certain circumstances 

 to put an end to the service. 



Those statutes which relate to servants in manufactures and other 

 employments prohibit the payment of wages in goods, and provide for 

 their payment in money, and for the regulation of disputes concerning 

 them. They also contain various enactments applicable to the cases of 

 workmen, &c., absconding, neglecting or mismanaging their work, 

 injuring or embezzling the materials, tools, &c., entrusted to them, and 

 fraudulently, receiving those entrusted to others. With respect also to 

 this class of servants, magistrates have authority to put an end to the 

 contracts of hiring and service. 



By reason of the relationship wliich exists between a master and a ser- 

 vant, and the protection which is thereby due from the former to the 

 latter, a master is not held to be guilty of the offence of maintenance 

 | MAINTKXANCE], though he maintain and support his servant in an action 

 brought by him against a third party. When a servant ia assaulted, his 

 master is justified in assisting his servant, and repelling the assault by 

 force, although he himself be not attacked ; and under similar circum- 

 stances a servant may justify an assault committed in defence of his 

 master. A master is answerable, both civilly and criminally, t'orthose acts 

 of his servant which are done within the scope of his employment. Thus 

 a master is indictable if a sen-ant commit a nuisance by throwing dirt 

 on the highway ; and a bookseller or newgvender is liable, criminally 

 a* well as civilly, for libels which are sold by his servant in his shop. 

 This liability of the master does not release the servant from his own 

 liability to punishment for the same otfeuce. The servant is also liable 

 when he commits a trespass by the command <>t' liii master. A master, 

 although liable civilly for any injuries arising from the negligence or 

 unskilfulness of his servant, is not responsible for the consequences of 

 a wilful act of his servant done without the direction or assent of the 

 master : in such case the servant alone is liable. Where a servant 

 makes a contract within the scope of his employment, what he does 

 will be binding on his master, just as if he had expressly authorised 

 the servant. But in all cases where there is no express evidence of the 

 delegation of the master's authority, there must be facts from which 

 such delegation can be inferred. Where a servant obtains goods for 

 his master, which the master uses, and he afterwards gives money tu 

 the servant to pay for them, the master will be liable to pay for thetn, 

 even though the money should have been embezzled by the servant. 

 If a coachman go in his master's livery to hire horses, which his master 

 afterwards uses, the master will be liable to pay for them, though the 

 coachman has received a large salary for the express purpose of pro- 

 viding horses ; unless, indeed, that fact were known to the party who 

 let out the horses. If a master is in the habit of paying ready money 

 for articles furnished to his family, and gives money to a servant, on a, 

 particular occasion, for the purpose of paying for the articles which he 

 is sent to procure, the master will not be liable to the tradesman if the 

 servant should embezzle the money. Where articles furnished to a 

 certain amount have always been paid for in ready money, and a 

 tradesman allows other articles of the same character to bo delivered 

 without payment, the master will not be liable, unless the tradesman 

 ascertains that the articles are for the master's own use. Whore :<. 

 tradesman, who had not before been employed by a master, was 

 directed by a servant to do some work, and afterwards did it without 

 any communication with the master, it was held that the master waa 

 not liable, though the thing upon which the work was done was the 

 property of the master. 



By the contract of hiring and service, the master obtains a right to 

 the service of the servant. Any one, therefore, who interferes with 



