第316页 / 共2651页

In Sheffield, no master cutler can have more than one apprentice

at a time, by a bye-law of the corporation. In Norfolk and

Norwich, no master weaver can have more than two apprentices,

under pain of forfeiting five pounds a-month to the king. No

master hatter can have more than two apprentices anywhere in

England, or in the English plantations, under pain of forfeiting;

five pounds a-month, half to the king, and half to him who shall

sue in any court of record. Both these regulations, though they

have been confirmed by a public law of the kingdom, are evidently

dictated by the same corporation-spirit which enacted the bye-law

of Sheffield. The silk-weavers in London had scarce been

incorporated a year, when they enacted a bye-law, restraining any

master from having more than two apprentices at a time. It

required a particular act of parliament to rescind this bye-law.