[Footnote 87: In the course of the Author's investigations, in his official situation as a Magistrate, he actually discovered that clubs of apprentice-boys were harboured in Public-houses, for the purpose of supporting their fellow-apprentices who ran away from their masters. The means of thus indulging themselves in lewdness and debauchery was obtained by pilfering from their Masters, and disposing of the property at Old Iron Shops.] Under the circumstances thus stated, where so many temptations assail the young and inexperienced, the transition from innocence to guilt is easy to be conceived.--And in a Metropolis where there are seldom fewer than 150,000 apprentices bound to mechanical employments, the crimes which spring from this source must be very extensive.--That there are, however, many good and virtuous young men among the class of apprentices, who, from a better education, or being under the control of reputable masters, and attentive parents, escape the snare, or resist these temptations, is _certain_; and fortunate too for the best interests of Society. It is to be lamented, however, that the major part, and particularly parish apprentices, have not always these advantages; and hence it is that so many become disorderly, and require the interference of legal authority and punishment for the purpose of compelling obedience and good conduct.[88] [Footnote 88: It is to be feared that much evil arises from the want of attention on the part of Masters among the superior classes of Tradesmen with respect to their apprentices, who too seldom consider the morals of their apprentices as a matter in which they have any concern.--It is even the practice to allow apprentices a certain sum of money weekly, for the purpose of enabling them to provide themselves out of doors, and to prevent the trouble of boarding them in the house. If it were possible for a Master, after exerting all his ingenuity, to invent one mode more likely than another to ruin his apprentices, it is by adopting this plan. If he means to subject himself to great risques with respect to the security of his property, he will permit his apprentice, at the age of puberty when open to seduction, to be at large in this great Town, where he is liable to be assailed by swindlers, cheats, and sharpers, who, availing themselves of the inexperience of youth, may corrupt the mind, and give it a wrong bias. The dangers arising from allowing apprentices to victual out of doors, extend much farther than masters are generally aware of: and they who suffer it do great injury to themselves, and even great injustice to their apprentices, whose morals they are virtually, at least, bound to preserve pure. This is not to be expected where apprentices are not under the eye of the master at Meal-times. Their Sundays, in such cases, are their own, which they waste in idleness, not seldom in water-parties on the River, where they are introduced