i88i.j Industrial Training* ig 
reduced to the position of a serf or a bondsman. The 
master might be unwilling or unable to teach fully and truly 
the “ art and mystery ” to be learnt. The apprentice might, 
on further experience, find that his own qualifications, bodily 
or mental, were ill-adapted for the business which he had 
selected. Yet the tie could only be broken, if at all, at 
great cost and trouble. Custom has blinded us to the im- 
policy as well as the injustice of these features, but what 
should we think of a college which no pupil could leave 
until his education was complete ? A further drawback was 
the fixed term of years — generally the mystic number seven 
— imposed alike upon the industrious and idle, upon the lad 
of parts and the dullard. 
In the lapse of ages, however, all the good features of the 
system have melted away, all the defects have remained and 
become increased, and certain fresh faults have sprung up. 
In the olden time the master, who was always personally 
and practically acquainted with his trade, did, as a rule, 
give the apprentice thorough instruction in every feature 
and point thereof. If the latter, from dulness or sloth, did 
not profit thereby, the fault and the loss were his own. 
Again, in most of the cities of Europe, the young craftsman 
when “ out of his time ” underwent a kind of test examina- 
tion before experienced members of the guild. If he was 
found incompetent, the mere faCt of his having gone through 
the form of apprenticeship did not entitle him to set up in 
business as a master. The long term of years was also 
not without its justification. The master contracted to 
board, lodge, and clothe the apprentice, and as the fee — 
when one was paid at all — was moderate, equity required 
that he should have the benefit of the services of the latter 
for some time after they had become valuable. Such was 
apprenticeship in the days of yore — an institution far from 
faultless, but perhaps the best that could in those days be 
carried out, and deserving credit for having trained 
generation after generation of thorough workmen who took 
a pride in the quality of their handiwork. 
The causes which led to the entire corruption of the 
system have been fully shown elsewhere, and I will there- 
fore pass at once to its present state. Of its main features 
there survive merely the legal binding for a fixed term of 
years, the state of serfdom, and the initial fee, which often 
reaches to a heavy sum. The personal supervision and in- 
struction on the part of the master have entirely ceased ; 
the youth is turned loose into the workshop, and may, if he 
is sharp enough, pick up more or less of the details of the 
c $ 
