1801.] 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR; 
ff RS. CAPPE’s Letter, in your Ma- 
gazine for Auguft, has recalled my 
attention to a fubject that has often great- 
ly interefted me, efpecially when I have 
witneffed the forlorn fituation of orphans, 
abandoned by a parifh to the uncertain 
treatment of an interefted mafter. Warm- 
ly as I defire to promote the welfare and 
improve the condition of fuch children, I 
do not fee how the practice of apprenticing 
them, as fhe contends, can be wholly abo- 
lifhed, 
Domeftic fervitude will not occupy all 
the children of the poor; befides, in that 
line of employment, there are but few per- 
fons that will be troubled, for a number of 
years, with the requifite care and inftruc- 
tion, unlefs from ‘compulfion, or for the 
. fake of the bounty that is given with them 
as an apprentice-fee ; nor can it be expect- 
ed, that parifh-officers will be burthened 
with transferring them continually from 
one place to another, as muft be the cafe, 
were the mafter and apprentice not bound 
together by contract. 
The claims of juftice likewife demand 
that the mafter, who has had the wearifome 
tafk of initiating a child into the know- 
ledge of a trade, or a mechanic-art, fhould 
reap fome advantage from his labour, 
when able to perform it in a fkilful man- 
ner. 
The good of the community alfo feems 
to require that a numerous fucceffion of 
mechanics and artifts fhould be raifed from 
amongft thofe children who are deltined 
to earn their living by the labour of their 
hands; and what method can be pointed 
out fo effe€tual for this purpofe as appren- 
ticefhips ? 
The influence-of cuftom is great in af- 
fairs of this nature; and, unlefs an entire 
new fyftem of providing for the children 
of the parifh poor thould be adopted, 
there is greater probability of fuccefs, in 
' propofing beneficial regulations, than in 
attempting to overthrow an order fo long 
eftablifhed, and fo univerfally adopted, as 
that of binding thefe children for aterm 
of years. 
A legal reftraint to prevent a mode of 
Gifpofing of parifh-children, now very ge- 
neral, would probably operate much in 
their favour. It has been a frequent prac- 
tice of late years, when parifhes are over- 
burthened with children, to fend them in 
numbers to Nottingham, and other manu- 
facturing-towns, where they are out of the 
reach of tlie care or infpection of thofe wha 
MeontuLty Mas. N°, 78, 
i 
Remarks on Pari/h-apprentice/bipse 
193 
fhould protect them. Without entering 
into the unfavourable circumftances of 
their fituation to happinefs, or moral im- 
provement, whilft toiling from day to day, 
with but little remiffion for relaxation or 
inftruétion ; I wifh to draw the attention 
of thofe who have power to enforce a re- 
medy, to the ill effeéts of removing them 
to a great diftance from home, believing 
that the fufferings and corruption to which 
they are expofed, would be confiderably 
diminifhed, were parifh officers compelled 
to place them within a certain number of 
miles from the boundaries of their own 
parifh. — 
Let us fuppofe the limitation to be con- 
fined to fix-or ten miles at fartheft, the 
diftance would not exceed the poffibility of 
inveftigation. It would operate as a power- 
ful check upon mafters, were parifh- officers 
required tomakean annualreturn of the ftate 
of all children placed out as apprentices. 
But it may be urged, that parifh-bufinefs 
is already fufficiently. burthenfome, with- 
out the addition of fo troublefome a tatk. 
Admit that it is fo. The magnitude and 
importance of the object demand that per- 
fons be appointed in every parifh, exprefily 
to fuperintend the children belonging to it, 
who fhould be obliged to examine in peér~ 
fon the fituation of all apprentices, feveral 
times in a year, but not at ftated periods. 
And here let me advert to the propriety. of 
configning the care of female children to 
infpectors of their own fex, as beft adapt- — 
ed, in all points of view, for the office. 
What an extenfive field for the exertions 
of benevolence would this {cheme afford ! 
the leifure enjoyed by women of a certain 
rank would enable them to render their 
vifits of examination ieffons of ufeful in- 
ftruétion : the good condu&, as well as 
the proper treatment, of the young people 
would be promoted, and many would be 
taught the value of character, who have 
now fcarcely any ftimulus to deferve one. 
The number of vifitors might be regulated — 
by circumftances and the population of 
the parifh; and the parifh might be, dif- 
tributed into diftriéts, and one or more 
vifitors appointed to each. 
The benefits that would arife from the 
adoption of fome fuch fcheme, eftablifhed 
on the principle of perfonal inveftigation, 
are fo numerous, and of fuch importance, 
that I flatter myfelf, that perfons qualified 
for the talk will be excited to arrange and 
modify a plan that fhallebe both praéti- 
cable and effeétual, to prevent the poffibi- 
lity of a repetition of fuch criminal cone 
duct towards parifh-children, as of late 
Cc | years 
