imposed on masters and owners for carrying deck-loads of timber at certain seasons. The Act further provides for the marking of ships with deck and load lines, which must be done and reported to the collector of customs, and entered in the articles of agreement and in the log, before any engagement can be made with a crew. The name and address of the managing owner, or other party entrusted with the management of the ship, must be registered under penalty every time the ship leaves the kingdom. This Act repeals certain parts of previous statutes and the whole of that of 1875. (38 and 39 Vict. c. 88.)

CHAPTER V.

MASTER AND APPRENTICE.

757. The term apprentice is derived from the French word apprendre, to learn; and the contract of apprenticeship, accordingly, is one whereby one person becomes bound to teach, and another to learn, a certain trade or profession.

758. The obligation, on either side, may be either gratuitous or for a pecuniary consideration.

I. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF THE CONTRACT.

759. Apprenticeship originated in those guilds and corporations into which craftsmen entered, during the Middle Ages, for purposes partly of monopoly, and partly of mutual protection against feudal oppression. In all stages of society, more particularly in its earlier and simpler stages, trades and professions are frequently hereditary; and even where such is not actually the case, the relation between master and apprentice bears so close an analogy to that of parent and child, that apprenticeship has always been reckoned amongst the domestic relations. Much interesting and curious information and speculation as to

the origin of the "colleges," guilds, and corporations of modern Europe, and their relation to the previously existing organization of Roman provincial society, will be found in Sir Francis Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, i. p. 329 et seq.; see also his History of England and Normandy, i. 33.

760. Till recently, the members of the respective corporations of which the burghs of Scotland were composed, possessed exclusive privileges of trading within their bounds; and these privileges they communicated only to those who became members of their body by means of apprenticeship. These exclusive privileges are now abolished (9 Vict. c. 17); but the incorporations still retain their other corporate privileges; and their regulations for the admission of their members, unless contrary to law, are valid and binding. The same remark applies to such professional incorporations as the Writers to the Signet in Edinburgh, who still deny admission to their body unless an indenture be produced.

761. The rules by which it is intended that the relations of the master and apprentice shall be governed in each particular case must be embodied in a written instrument, regularly signed and tested, which is termed an indenture, from the English practice of cutting it in two, or rather dividing the duplicates of which it consists, in a waving line; so that when the one half, which is retained by the master, is applied to the other half retained by the apprentice, the two indented edges shall tally. Notwithstanding the origin of the name of this instrument, it has been decided in England that an indenture of apprenticeship need not be indented. (R. v. Stratton, Bur. Set. Ca. 72; see Arnold's Municipal Corporations, p. 59.) In Scotland it never is.

762. No technical words are necessary to constitute the relation of master and apprentice; though the decisions both here and in England seemed to be to the effect, that teaching on the

one hand, and learning on the other, must be expressly set forth as the primary objects of the contract, and will not be presumed, from the respective ages or other circumstances of the parties, or the nature of the employment. It is necessary that there should be some such mode of distinguishing between apprenticeship and service, because, if a person who is an apprentice be punished under the statutes as a servant, or vice versa, the whole proceedings will be illegal, and an action of damages will lie against the complainer. "The contract with an apprentice," said Lord Jeffrey, "though it may include a contract to work for hire, is primarily a contract to teach and to learn a certain handicraft.” (Frame v. Campbell, June 9, 1836.)

763. Who may enter into an Indenture.-An apprentice is generally under age. If he be a pupil (i.e. under fourteen), the indenture is signed by his father as his administrator-in-law, or his tutor, he being himself incapable of contracting. If he be a minor (i.e. from fourteen to twenty-one), his father, or his curators, if he have them, must be parties to the indenture (Low v. Henry, Hume, p. 422); but they only consent to the obligations which the apprentice, in this case, takes expressly on himself. If he have neither father nor curators, he may enter into the contract without them, though his deed would be liable to be reduced, on the ground that advantage had been taken of his inexperience. (Stair, i. 6. 32; Ersk. i. 7. 33.)

764. If the minor deceive the master, by representing either that he has no curators or that a wrong person is a curator, and that person sign the deed along with the minor, it will be binding on the minor. (Fraser, 340.)

765. In all these cases, the pupil or minor may be restored against the indenture, if he can prove that he has suffered lesion by it; for example, if it binds him to a trade obviously beneath his station, or imposes obligations of a harsh, griping, or immoral nature. (Harvie v. M'Intyre, March 7, 1829; Ersk. i. 7. 62.) 766. Contract must be in Writing.-Actual service or teach

ing on trial will complete a written contract of apprenticeship, although in many respects informal, but it will never supply the absence of writing, though it may, however, found an action to compel execution of the contract or for damages. (Fraser, 342.) 767. Stamp. The indenture must be stamped; the amount of duty increasing in proportion to the premium paid or the value of the interests involved. If the apprentice fee is not accurately set forth, the indenture will be void.

768. By the Merchant Shipping Act (17 and 18 Vict. c. 104, sec. 143), all indentures of apprenticeship to the sea service are exempted from stamp duty; and a similar exemption has all along existed in the case of pauper children apprenticed by the parish or by a public charity. In these cases it is unnecessary to state the premium.

769. Where there is no premium the duty is 2s. 6d.

770. Indentures may usually be stamped after the date of their execution, during periods which vary according to circumstances; but the safer course is to write them on stamped paper.

II. OBLIGATIONS OF MASTER AND APPRENTICE.

771. Almost all corporations and societies have peculiar arrangements with reference to their apprentices; and to these, if they do not interfere with law, the Court will give effect.

772. The apprentice cannot be called upon to perform menial or other duties unconnected with the trade of his master, unless they be stipulated in the indenture. (Peter v. Torrol, 2 Muir, 28 (1818).)

773. A mason, who kept his apprentice constantly hewing stones, without teaching him to build, was found to have committed a breach of contract. But in large cities, where hewing and building are separate occupations, carried on by different individuals, this rule probably would not apply. (James Carsewell, July 7, 1794; Fraser, 359.)

774. The master generally cannot fulfil the duty of teaching his apprentice unless he attends to his own business; but if he have a skilful partner or other superintendent, his personal superintendence will not be required. (Gardner v. Smith, M. 593.)

775. The master is not entitled to transfer his apprentice to another, unless it be the custom of the trade to do so; but in many trades the custom is so well established and so notorious, that both parties would certainly be held to have had it in view at the time of contracting. (Edinburgh Glass Co. v. Shaw, M. 597; Fraser, 361.)

776. Medical Attendance.-The position of an apprentice in this respect differs from that of a servant. On the principle that he is a quasi member of the master's family, the latter is bound to find him in proper medicine and medical attendance as long as there is any probability of his recovery. (Fraser, 363.) [For the penalty imposed on the neglect of this obligation, ride supra, 651.]

777. Enlisting.-By the common law of Scotland, the apprentice cannot enlist (M'Gregor v. Mitchell, May 31, 1825; Fraser, 348); but this is modified by the [Army Discipline and Regulation Act, 1879 (42 and 43 Vict. c. 33, sec. 92; continued annually). By that statute an apprentice "who has been attested as a soldier of the regular forces" may be reclaimed by the master while under the age of twenty-one, provided he was bound by a regular indenture for at least four years, and was under sixteen years of age when so bound. To do so he must make an oath before a justice of the peace within a month from the apprentice's absconding, to the effect that he was in his service in that capacity; that he left it without his consent, and that he was under twenty-one. The master then obtains a certificate from the justice of these facts. A Court of Summary Jurisdiction may then, on being satisfied of the master's claim, order the officer, under whose command the apprentice is, to deliver him