unbound, to be an author, and write books; which I hope you will approve of, as it doesn't require any premium. But perhaps you would like to have me at home, and to be nothing at all, with which I remain,

My dear mother, your dutiful and affectionate son,

RICHARD RUGGLES.

As the above letters are genuine, it is probable that many of my readers, who are parents or guardians, have received similar epistles from their sons or wards before or after their being articled to a trade or a profession; at least there is reason to believe that the above case is one of ordinary occurrence. Taking it, therefore, as a fair sample of the practice in England, I was anxious to compare it with the course of a negro apprenticeship in the colonies; and with this view my next visit was paid to my old friend Colonel C., who had recently arrived from Jamaica with a black "turn-over" in his service. Having described the scene at the shop in the Strand, and explained my errand, which, of course, subjected me to some raillery, my request was acceded to, and Sambo was ordered to attend me to a private conference in the study. He was a stout good-humoured African, with rather more than the twilight intelligence allowed to the race by the late Monk Lewis; but with all the characteristic relish for a talk with Massa, ascribed to his brethren by the same pleasant authority. He entered therefore into the discussion with the greatest good-will; and the following, divested of his outlandish jargon, is the substance of his evidence.

To my first question, whether he had ever betrayed any original inclination to go into the rice, sugar, and tobacco line, he gave a decided negative. He had no occasion, he said, to labour for a livelihood, having been in his own country an independent black prince, and heir-apparent, as I understood him, to the king of the Eboes. He acknowledged, however, that he could neither read nor write, and consequently had never applied personally, or by letter, post paid, to any transatlantic A. B. C. or X. Y. Z., in answer to an advertisement for an "Articled Pupil." He was taken, he affirmed, at unawares, and he was positive that no premium was required with him. It appeared, however, that he had been regularly bound, but on explanation it turned out that it had been done with rope-yarn, and the only indentures he knew of, were on his wrists and ankles, from the pressure of his fetters. He had a decided impression that his parents or guardians were never applied to for their concurrence; indeed he had no recollection of being asked for his own assent to the arrangement. He would "take his dam" he was never carried before the Chamberlain or any official personage invested with similar functions, and denied ever having received the slightest hint that the binding him was necessary to entitle him to take up his freedom. In short, contrary to the experience of Richard Ruggles, his very first step appeared to have been into slavery, and it was only after a long term of severe service in

the rice-field and the cane-piece that he was constituted an apprentice. This being the point to which the public interest is mainly directed, my inquiries here became naturally more minute, and the evidence was proportionably circumstantial. Taking the Ruggles letters for my guide, I was at great pains to make out something analogous to the state of being what is called "upon liking," but I failed to elicit anything

He

of the sort; and from the
solemnity, not to say
awfulness, of Sambo's
asseverations, there ap-
peared no reason to sus-
pect his veracity.
denied most positively
and repeatedly his din-
ing, in any one solitary
instance, with his master
and mistress, and by
consequence the pleasure
of taking wine with
them after the social re-
past. He was equally
firm in disclaiming any
invitation to sit up to
supper; and instead of
being asked if he liked
music, he declared indig-
nantly that his favourite
instruments the kitty-

APPRENTICE ON LIKING.

katty and the gamby had been continually broken over his own head. He totally repudiated the notion of playing at Pope Joan with the company that came to his master's house; and insisted that the only notice he ever obtained from the visitors was his being "larrupped" by every gentleman that got drunk, and none of them ever went away sober. On the whole he would not allow himself to have received any personal benefit from his metamorphosis by Act of Parliament into an apprentice; no, not even to the extent of sparing him one single cut of the cowhide. He rather thought, on the contrary, that the prospect of his being out of his time in so many years had operated to the prejudice of the negro, by tempting the owner in the interim to get as much out of him, and pitch as much into him, as possible. To conclude, I charged Sambo very home with a question which has been much dwelt upon by certain members of both Houses; namely, whether the blacks were "properly prepared" to enter into a state of liberty? to which he answered very candidly, that he had not formally examined them on the subject, but judging by himself he should say they were quite as fit and prepared for freedom as they had been for slavery, to which they had mostly been introduced at an unfashionably

short notice.

For his own part he had been rather suddenly emancipated by simply stepping on English ground; but the only effect had been to inspire him with profound feelings of veneration and gratitude towards the soil, and a most fervent wish that he could send over a barrowful of the same earth for Black Juno and de pickaninnies to put him foot upon in Jamakey.

Such was the result of my conference with Sambo; and it served to account for the conduct of the tradesman in the Strand, by proving, that instead of being treated as one of the family, in a limited sense, the Negro is hardly looked upon as a member of that great domestic circle which has a circumference of 360 degrees. It appears from the facts, that an apprenticeship in Jamaica or Barbadoes has little or nothing in common except the name, with an apprenticeship on our own side of the Atlantic :-that under the same title there exists two diametrically opposite systems, literally as different as light and dark; and of course, as the hand said of the pair of gloves, "They cannot both be right." As the collective wisdom of the country has decided that the Black style of binding is the correct pattern, and that the Negroes are properly "done up," it necessarily follows, that our homemade articles are very loosely stitched. and without a due provision for rough usage and durability. Assuming the sable race to be subject to only a wholesome severity, it results that our London 'Prentices and their kind, are held by indentures shamefully lax in their conditions, and are allowed a most culpable latitude and indulgence. To place this gross partiality in the strongest light and shade, let the servitude of the born Blacks be compared with that of those "Africans of our own growth," as Elia calls them, who derive their nigritude not from nature but from soot. Simply because they have once been whites, and are still white, or nearly white, once a year, like the hawthorns in May, they are protected and even pampered by laws, the framers of which have assuredly considered their own crows as the fairest. Let any one turn to the Statute Anno Quarto et Quinto Gulielmi IV. Regis, cap. 35, intituled "An Act for the Better Regulation of Chimney Sweepers and their Apprentices," and he will find that the Climbing Boy, compared with the African, is almost a spoiled child. Instead of allowing him to be nabbed or grabbed, anyhow and willynilly, like our friend Sambo, the statute insists, by article 9, that the binding shall not take place without the concurrence of “a parish officer, or the parent, or next friend." Article 10 provides, that instead of rope-yarn, as in the case of Sambo aforesaid, the binding shall only be effected with "paper or parchment," and even before enduring such very mild ligatures, article 13 declares, that the boy is to be regularly "asked out," before two Justices of the Peace, and in case such boy shall be unwilling to be bound with " paper and parchment," "such Justices shall, and they are hereby required to refuse, to sanction or approve of such binding." The 12th clause allows the practice of "liking," or what, in electioneering cases, would be called "treating;" and before any boy shall be bound as an appren

tice, "it shall be lawful for the intended master of such boy to have, and receive such boy in such master's house, on trial-or liking'for any time not exceeding two calendar months." In plain English, it shall be lawful for the said master elect to tempt and bribe the said apprentice, like Richard Ruggles, during eight weeks, by dinners of "delicate cow-heel, with the sauce His Grace is so fond of," and suppers of hot sausages. And that the cow-heel and sausages may not be too minutely subdivided, clause 14 enacts, that Mr. or Mrs. Chimney Sweeper shall not have more than two apprentices on trial or "liking" at the same time. The same considerate clause forbids Mr. or Mrs. C. S. to have more than four apprentices at once, so that nothing like the close packing, which so often incommodes the race of Africa in a ship's hold, may inconvenience the favoured sooterkins in the cellar. A taste for music is not specially mentioned or protected; but as clause 17 empowers any two or more magistrates to hear "all complaints" of hard or ill usage, the breaking of a fife or his pan's pipes, over the head of an apprentice, would be certain to be listened to, and in all probability entail on the master a forfeit, fixed, by clause 16, at not exceeding 101. nor less than 40s." The 18th clause enjoins, on all builders and bricklayers, under extremely heavy penalties, to construct safe and comfortable chimneys that shall not be "hard to climb;" and finally, as if a sweeper on such very eligible terms could have anything to weep for, article 15 forbids, somewhat superfluously, his crying about the streets!!! The incredulous reader who may wish to verify this statement by reference to the Act itself, will find it at full length, and shown "all up" in a well-conceived little volume, called "The Mechanics of Law Making," by a Member of Symond's Inn. He will there find too truly that, compared with the genuine black, the sweeper is treated by law with as much tenderness as if each climbing-boy were, like the stolen Montague, a well-born white young gentleman in disguise. The tendency of such over-indulgent enactments to spoil the youth of this country is evidenced in the fact, that whilst the planter will give a considerable sum for a black assistant, a white articled pupil is hardly acceptable as a present, and in most cases, like Richard Ruggles, must have a handsome premium given along with him to purchase him a master. As a mere matter of economy, therefore, the matter is worth the consideration of parents and guardians, and parish officers; whilst the advocates of equal justice to all will imperatively insist that if the blacks cannot be treated like whites, the whites ought to be treated as blacks. For my own part, as a simple admirer of consistency, I cannot help thinking that the whole system of apprenticeship, as regards its home practice, requires to undergo a rigorous revision, and above all, that the act Anno Quarto et Quinto Gulielmi IV. Regis, cap. 35, with all its sweeping clauses, ought to be immediately repealed.

Musician. Faith, we may put up our pipes and be gone. Honest good fellows, ah! put up, put up! For well you know this is a pitiful case.