Magistrates have power to settle and arrange all disputes between masters and workmen about the price or wages to be paid for work done or being done, or arising out of, for or touching the particular trade or manufacture of the master, or contracts relating thereto, which cannot be otherwise mutually adjusted or settled; but magistrates cannot establish a rate of wages to be paid in future without the mutual consent of both master and workmen.

An Act was passed in 1875 which applies to any person who, being a labourer, servant in husbandry, journeyman, artificer, handicraftsman, miner, or otherwise engaged in manual labour, whether under the age of twenty-one years or above that age, has entered into or works under a contract with an employer, whether the contract be express or implied, oral or in writing, and be a contract. of service, or a contract personally to execute any work or labour, but it does not apply in any way to domestic servants, clerks, tutors, governesses, or other persons of the same kind who would not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, be reckoned among "the working classes."

By that Act, if an employer and his workmen have a dispute concerning wages, or any breach of contract, or any alleged wrong arising out of or incidental to their relation as such employer and workman, then either party may sue the other in the County Court, and in that case the Court on hearing the case may exercise the following powers in addition to those which it possesses in other instances:

(1) It may adjust and set off, the one against the other, all such claims, on the part either of the employer or of the workman, arising out of or incidental to the relation between them, as the Court may find to be subsisting, whether such claims are liquidated or unliquidated, and are for wages, damages, or otherwise; and,

(2) If, having regard to all the circumstances of the case, it thinks it just to do so, it may rescind any contract between the employer and the workman upon such terms as to the apportionment of wages, or other sums due thereunder, and as to the payment of wages, or damages, or other sums dae, as it thinks just; and,

(3) Where the Court might otherwise award damages for any breach of contract it may, if the defendant be willing to give security to the satisfaction of the Court for the performance by him of so much of his contract as remains unperformed, with the consent of the plaintiff, accept such security, and order performance of the contract accordingly, in place either of the whole of the damages which would otherwise have been awarded, or some part of such damages.

The security shall be an undertaking by the defendant and one or more surety or sureties that the defendant will perform his contract, subject on non-performance to the payment of a sum to be specified in the undertaking.

Any sum paid by a surety on behalf of a defendant in respect of his security, together with all costs incurred by such surety in respect of such security, shall be deemed to be a debt due to him from the defendant; and where such security has been given in or under the direction of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction, that Court may order payment to the surety of the sum which has so become due to him from the defendant.

In all cases where the amount claimed as wages or damages does not exceed ten pounds then the dispute may be brought before and disposed of by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction-that is:

(1) As respects the City of London, the Lord Mayor or any alderman of the City sitting at the Mansion House or Guildhall justice room.

(2) As respects any police court division in the metropolitan police district, any metropolitan police magistrate sitting at the police court for that division.

(3) As respects any city, town, liberty, borough, place, or district for which a stipendiary magistrate is for the time being acting, such stipendiary magistrate sitting at a police court or other place appointed in that behalf.

(4) Elsewhere any justice or justices of the peace: provided that, as respects any place within the cognizance of such justice or justices is last aforesaid, the complaint shall be heard and determined, and

an order for imprisonment made, by two or more justices of the peace in petty sessions sitting at some place appointed for holding petty sessions.

In any proceeding relating to a dispute between an employer and workman arising out of or incidental to their relation as such employer and employed, this Court of Summary Jurisdiction may order payment of any sum which it may find to be due as wages or damages or otherwise, and may exercise all or any of the powers of the County Court, which we have already mentioned. This is, however, subject to the proviso that the Court of Summary Jurisdiction-

(1) Shall not exercise any jurisdiction where the amount claimed exceeds ten pounds; and

(2) Shall not make an order for the payment of any sum exceeding ten pounds, exclusive of the costs incurred in the case; and

(3) Shall not require security to an amount exceeding ten pounds from any defendant or his surety or sureties.

A person desirous to enter an action before a Court of Summary Jurisdiction must begin by delivering to the clerk of the Court particulars in writing of his cause of action. These the clerk will enter in a book, and thereupon a summons will be issued which must be served upon the defendant not less than one clear day before that on which the Court is held at which the cause is to be tried. The summons may be issued in any district in which the defendant or one of the defendants dwelt, or carried on his business, or was employed, at the time the cause of action arose ; and it must be served either personally, or by delivering it to some person at the house or place of business or of employment of the defendant, or at his office.

If the plaintiff does not appear at the time fixed for the hearing of the summons, the cause will be struck out, and the Court may award the defendant, by way of costs and satisfaction for his attendance, such sum as in its discretion it shall think fit. If, on the other hand, the defendant does not appear (or sufficiently excuse his absence), the Court, upon due proof of the service of the

summons, may either adjourn the case from time to time, or proceed to the hearing of it on the part of the plaintiff only, and the judgment thereupon will be as valid as if both parties had attended. In any such case, however, the Court, at the same or any subsequent Court, may set aside any judgment which has been so given in the absence of the defendant, and may grant a new trial upon such terms, if any, as it may think fit.

CHAPTER XI.

CHARACTER.

Showing how little faith should be put in some servants' registries ;
that a master cannot be compelled to give a character at all,
but can be sued for damages if he give a maliciously false one;
that characters are generally privileged communications; and
that a servant is liable to imprisonment for offering a false
character.

How hard it is sometimes to get a situation! You may advertise,

and you may have a few answers, but the places vacant are not at

all suitable. You may answer hundreds of advertisements, but A. B. either regrets he is already suited, or more often he takes no notice of your application; or you may ask your friends to interest themselves to get you a situation, but their usual reply is, that had they known a little time ago, they could have got you the very place you want; but now they think it's been filled up. And why is this? Are there so few persons requiring governesses, clerks, and servants? Certainly the demand is not so great as the supply, but that is so in nearly every profession and employment now-adays; and for almost every situation that becomes vacant, however exalted or humble it be, there are many, and sometimes hundreds of applicants. But the fact is, that while those who are out of employment are all anxiously or eagerly looking out for situations, those who have situations vacant do not always take any trouble to make the fact known, so that while there are crowds of applicants for those vacant places that are advertised, few persons hear of those that are not, and were all vacant places advertised the demand would be more equal to the supply, and servants would nave a better prospect on leaving one place of obtaining another. There is another medium by which masters and servants become acquainted with each other, and that is by registries and agencies,