1881.J Industrial Training . 23 
fair hearing from the capitalist, is at once scouted by the 
British workman on the plea that, never having “ served 
his time,” he is a mere ignorant outsider, and that anything 
he proposes may, or rather should be, set aside without 
further scrutiny. It is a great mistake to imagine that 
“ red tape ” is confined to governmental or municipal bodies. 
There is not often found a manufactory without its small 
“ circumlocution ” department, and if the proprietor does 
not indulge in this feature his men rarely fail to make up 
for the deficiency. 
Lastly, but not least, apprenticeship is the true reason 
why the sons of the poorer middle-class families prefer the 
semi-starvation of a clerkship to the higher emoluments of 
the artizan. It is quite a mistake to imagine, as is done by 
some hasty observers, that this preference is due to any 
abstract contempt for manual labour or love for “gentility.” 
There is a more tangible hindrance. There is the burden 
of the premium to be paid down at once, often before it can 
be ascertained whether the master is really a person to 
whom the guidance and control of a youth can fitly be 
entrusted. Above all there is the state of serfdom, not 
merely in relation to the master, but to every rough about 
the place who is “ out of his time.” What this serfdom 
means to a youth who has been brought up with habits of 
decency and ideas of self-respeCt, it would take an abler 
writer than I am to picture. Suffice it to say that to the 
average “ British workman ” (I fear it might be said to the 
English mind altogether) there is no being so incomprehen- 
sible and ridiculous as a poor gentleman. The Spaniard, 
the Frenchman, the German — I may add the Scot and the 
Irishman — can appreciate refinement, courtesy, high- 
mindedness in any position. We are unable to do so, unless 
to these attributes is added the power to fling shillings to 
every man who says “ It is a dry day.” Then, indeed, we 
touch our caps, and say “ That’s a real gentleman !” Does 
the reader now understand why the sons, e.g., of struggling 
professional men, of “ younger sons of younger brothers,” 
and of all whose culture is higher than their means, are 
compelled to hold aloof from the trades, and must remain 
so until the guardian imp “ apprenticeship ” is exorcised ? 
It may, however, be asked, if apprenticeship is so de- 
cidedly hurtful, how does it happen that its formal abolition 
has not long ago been effected ? I answer that the case is 
very similar to that of our defective patent-law system. 
The evils are manifold and serious, but they do not lie on 
the surface. The whole affair, moreover, is one of a plain, 
