APP 



APP 



Having observed thus much, and stated 

 the opinions of two such great men as 

 Lord Coke and Lord Mansfield, we can 

 only add one dixit of Lord Coke's, that 

 " acts of parliament, which are made 

 against the freedom of trade, merchan- 

 dizing, handicrafts, and mysteries, never 

 live long." 4th Inst. 31. 



It is to be observed that this very great 

 check upon trade, by not being able to 

 employ any hands that are able to perform 

 the work required, and especially in those 

 trades which are so easily learnt in a very 

 short space of time, greatly enhances the 

 prices of all articles, and that at a time 

 when population is daily increasing, and 

 the demand proportionably increasing. 

 And this statute is not only a restraining 

 statute, but also an enabling statute, as it 

 empowers the workmen to enter into 

 combinations against their masters, and to 

 dictate their own terms, encouraging 

 vice, idleness, and drunkenness; demands 

 being made on the masters for an increase 

 of wages ; those demands supported by 

 dangerous combinations and conspiracies, 

 and extorted by threats. And such in- 

 crease, when obtained, not applied for the 

 wholesome purpose of supporting them- 

 selves and their families, but to that very 

 destructive purpose, ruinous to their fa- 

 milies, and highly detrimental to the pub- 

 lic at large, the enabling of the parties to 

 spend more days of the week in idleness, 

 drunkenness, vice, and immorality. In 

 many manufactures, so much money is 

 extorted by the journeymen, by means of 

 these combinations, from their employ- 

 ers, that the journeymen will work but 

 three days in the week ; so that 600 are 

 necessarily required to do the work that 

 300 might do. 



Until these laws, restricting the binding 

 of apprentices, are repealed, all laws made 

 for the prevention of combinations among 

 workmen can be of no avail, and will re- 

 main a dead letter in the law books: as in 

 this free country, (however that freedom 

 may be limited as to the checking of mas- 

 ters binding apprentices,) no law on this 

 point can be so worded, that the art, wick- 

 edness, and ingenuity of men, will not 

 contrive to defeat. A bad and absurd law 

 is made, viz. the "ApprenticeAct," which, 

 by the extension of trade, is found detri- 

 mental to trade; and then, to do away the 

 mischiefs of that law, another absurd law 

 is made, viz. the law to prevent combina- 

 tion, so that mischief is heaped upon 

 mischief, and absurdity upon absurdity. 

 Trade should be as free as the air we 

 breathe. This is an axiom, the truth of 

 which every day convinces us. 



VOL. I. 



APPROACHES, in fortification, the 

 works thrown up by the besiegers, in or- 

 der to get nearer afortress, without being 

 exposed to the enemy's cannon : such, in 

 a more particular manner, are the trench- 

 es, which should be connected by paral- 

 lels, or lines of communication. 



This is the most difficult part of a siege, 

 and where most lives are lost. The 

 ground is disputed inch by inch, and it b 

 of the utmost importance to make the ap- 

 proaches with great caution, and to se- 

 cure them as much as possible. 



The besieged frequently make coun- 

 ter-approaches, to interrupt and defeat 

 the enemy's approaches. 



APPROPRIATION, the annexing a 

 benefice to the proper and perpetual use 

 of a religious house, bishopric, college, 

 &c. Where the king is patron, he may 

 make appropriations himself; but in 

 other cases, after obtaining his licence in 

 chancery, the consent of the ordinary, 

 patron, and incumbent, is requisite. Ap- 

 propriations cannot be assigned over, 

 but those to whom they are granted may 

 make leases of the profits. There are in 

 England 2845 impropriations. 



APPROVER, in law, a person, who, 

 being indicted of treason or felony, for 

 which he is not in prison, confesses the 

 indictment : and being sworn to reveal all 

 the treasons and felonies he knows, en- 

 ters before the coroner his appeal against 

 all his partners in the crime. All per- 

 sons may be approvers, except peers of 

 the realm, persons attainted of treason or 

 felony, orout-lawed, infants, women, per- 

 sons non compos^ or in holy orders. 



APPROXIMATION, in arithmetic and 

 algebra, the coming nearer and nearer to 

 a root, or other quantity sought, without 

 expecting to be ever able to find it ex- 

 actly. There are several methods for 

 doing this, to be found in mathematical 

 books, being nothing but infinitely con- 

 verging series, some approaching quick- 

 er, others slower, towards the truth. 



By such an approximation the value of a 

 quantity may be found, though not to the, 

 utmost degree of exactness, yet sufficiently 

 so for practice. Thus v/ 2 = 1.41421356, 

 &c. = the approximating series 1 -}- 



T 4 o + T^o + To 4 ** + -,*&* +' &c '. or 

 supposing x = _^, equal to the senes 



., . 



Again, supposing a 2 -\-b to be a non-qua- 

 drate number, and aS-^-b to be a non- 

 cubic one ; then will */ a- + b = a -f- 



O o 



