such servant leave his or her place (for men and maids might come
under the same regulation) till the time agreed on be expired,
unless such servant be misused or denied necessaries, or show some
other reasonable cause for their discharge. In that case, the
master or mistress should be reprimanded or fined. But if servants
misbehave themselves, or leave their places, not being regularly
discharged, they ought to be amerced or punished. But all those
idle, ridiculous customs, and laws of their own making, as a
month’s wages, or a month’s warning, and suchlike, should be
entirely set aside and abolished.
When a servant has served the limited time duly and faithfully,
they should be entitled to a certificate, as is practised at
present in the wool-combing trade; nor should any person hire a
servant without a certificate or other proper security. A servant
without a certificate should be deemed a vagrant; and a master or
mistress ought to assign very good reasons indeed when they object
against giving a servant his or her certificate.
And though, to avoid prolixity, I have not mentioned footmen
particularly in the foregoing discourse, yet the complaints alleged
against the maids are as well masculine as feminine, and very
applicable to our gentlemen’s gentlemen; I would, therefore, have
them under the very same regulations, and, as they are fellow-
servants, would not make fish of one and flesh of the other, since
daily experience teaches us, that “never a barrel the better
herring.”
The next great abuse among us is, that under the notion of cleaning
our shoes, above ten thousand wicked, idle, pilfering vagrants are
permitted to patrol about our city and suburbs. These are called
the black-guard, who black your honour’s shoes, and incorporate
themselves under the title of the Worshipful Company of Japanners.
Were this all, there were no hurt in it, and the whole might
terminate in a jest; but the mischief ends not here, they corrupt
our youth, especially our men-servants; oaths and impudence are
their only flowers of rhetoric; gaming and thieving are the
principal parts of their profession; japanning but the pretence.
For example, a gentleman keeps a servant, who among other things is
to clean his master’s shoes; but our gentlemen’s gentlemen are
above it nowadays, and your man’s man performs the office, for
which piece of service you pay double and treble, especially if you
keep a table, nay, you are well off if the japanner has no more
than his own diet from it.
I have often observed these rascals sneaking from gentlemen’s doors
with wallets or hats’ full of good victuals, which they either
carry to their trulls, or sell for a trifle. By this means, our
butcher’s, our baker’s, our poulterer’s, and cheesemonger’s bills
are monstrously exaggerated; not to mention candles just lighted,
which sell for fivepence a pound, and many other perquisites best
known to themselves and the pilfering villains their confederates.
Add to this, that their continual gaming sets servants upon their
wits to supply this extravagance, though at the same time the
master’s pocket pays for it, and the time which should be spent in
a gentleman’s service is loitered away among these rakehells,
insomuch that half our messages are ineffectual, the time intended
being often expired before the message is delivered.
How many frequent robberies are committed by these japanners? And
to how many more are they confederates? Silver spoons, spurs, and
other small pieces of plate, are every day missing, and very often
found upon these sort of gentlemen; yet are they permitted, to the
shame of all our good laws, and the scandal of our most excellent
government, to lurk about our streets, to debauch our servants and
apprentices, and support an infinite number of scandalous,
shameless trulls, yet more wicked than themselves, for not a Jack
among them but must have his Gill.
By whom such indecencies are daily acted, even in our open streets,
as are very offensive to the eyes and ears of all sober persons,
and even abominable in a Christian country.
In any riot, or other disturbance, these sparks are always the
foremost; for most among them can turn their hands to picking of