a foot-soldier in the French army, &c. who for his long service and bravery receives pay above private sentinels. These have been suppressed in France. France, except in the regiment of French guards, where forty appointees are still retained to each company of 150 men.

Till the year 1670, they had also captains and lieutenants under the appellation of appointees, who, without residing in the regiment, received their pay.

**Appointee**, in heraldry, the same as *aguifée*: Thus we say, a cross appointee, to signify that with two angles at the end cut off, so as to terminate in points.

**Appointment**, in a general sense, the same as assignment.

**Appointment**, in a particular sense, denotes a pension or salary given by great lords and princes to persons of worth and parts, in order to retain them in their service. The term is chiefly used among the French. The king of France gives large appointments to several of the officers in his service. Appointments differ from wages, in that the latter are fixed and ordinary, being paid by the ordinary treasurers; whereas appointments are annual gratifications granted by brevet for a time uncertain, and are paid out of the privy purse.

**Apposer** signifies an examiner. In the court of exchequer, there is an officer called the foreign apposer. In the office of confirmation, in the first liturgy of Edward VI, the rubric directs the bishop, or such as he shall appoint, to appose a child; and a bishop's examining chaplain was anciently called his poser.

**Apposition**, in grammar, the placing two or more substantives together in the same case, without any copulative conjunction between them; as, *Ardebat Alexim, delicias domini*.

**Appraiser** (from *ad*, "to," and *pretium*, "value"), one who rates or sets a value upon goods, &c. He must be a skilful and honest person. It is not a business of itself, but is practised by brokers of household furniture; to which set of men the word is chiefly applied: Yet upholsterers and other brokers are employed, or even any person or persons who are supposed to be skilled in the commodities to be appraised or valued. They are employed in cases of death, executions brought in upon goods, or of stock to be turned over from one person to another, or divided between co-partners; and are called sworn appraisers, from their taking an oath to do justice between party and party. They sometimes appraise on behalf of both sides, each party agreeing to have the same appraiser or appraisers; sometimes in opposition, each party choosing one or more of a side; and sometimes by commission or deputation of trustees, matters in chancery, &c.

**Appraising**, the act of rating, valuing, or setting a price on goods, by a person who is a competent judge, and is authorized thereto. See Appraiser.

**Apprehension**, in logic, denotes the simple attention of the mind to an object presented either to our sense or our imagination, without passing a judgment or making any inference.

**Apprehension**, is likewise used to express an inadequate and imperfect idea: and thus it is applied to our knowledge of God, in contradistinction to comprehension.

**Apprehension**, in law, signifies the seizing a criminal, in order to bring him to justice.

**Apprentice**, (from *apprendre*, "to learn") one who is bound by covenant to serve a tradesman or artificer a certain time, upon condition of the master's apprenticeship.

Apprentices may likewise be bound to husbandmen, or even to gentlemen; and they, as well as tradesmen, in England, are compellable to take the children of the poor, whom the overseers, with the consent of two justices, may bind till the age of twenty-four years. Apprentices may be discharged on reasonable cause; but if any, whose premium has been less than ten pounds, run away from their masters, they are compelled to serve out the time of absence, or give satisfaction for it, at any period within seven years after expiration of the original contract. Apprentices gain a settlement in that parish where they last served forty days; and by the 5th of Elizabeth, c. 4, they have an exclusive right to exercise the trade in which they have been instructed, in any part of England. However, the resolutions of the courts have in general rather confined than extended the restriction of this statute. See Blackstone's Com. Vol. I. p. 426, &c.

In France, the sons of tradesmen, living in their father's house till seventeen years of age, are reputed to have served an apprenticeship. In that country, the times of serving are different in the different professions, from three years to eight. After serving out an apprenticeship, the person becomes what they call an aspirant, or candidate for mastership, and is to be examined by proper officers as to his skill and proficiency, and also to exhibit a chef d'œuvre or masterpiece in the art he has been bred to, before he is suffered to set up to practise for himself. And the custom of France in regard to apprentices, is not unworthy the imitation of other nations.

Anciently, benchers in the inns of court were called apprentices of the law, in Latin *apprenticii juris nobilis*; as appears by Mr Selden's note on Fortescue; and so the learned Plowden styles himself. Sir Henry Finch, in his Nomotechnia, writes himself, apprentice de ley; Sir Edward Coke in his Institutes says, *Apprenticii legis*, in pleading, are called homines confiliarii et in lege periti; and in another place, apprentices and other counsellors of law.

Apprentices indentures and articles of clerkship, pay of duty six shillings. Parish indentures are excepted, and pay sixpence only, by 5 W. 3, c. 21. For fees given with apprentices, clerks, or servants, bound or articled by indentures, from 1l. to 50l. matters pay for every pound sixpence; and for fees above 50l. one shilling in the pound. 8 Ann. c. 9.

**Apprenticeship**, the servitude of an apprentice; or the duration of his indenture.

Seven years seem anciently to have been, all over Europe, the usual term established for the duration of apprenticeships in the greater part of incorporated trades. All such incorporations were anciently called universities; which, indeed, is the proper Latin name for any incorporation whatever. The university of smiths, the university of tailors, &c. are expressions which we commonly meet with in the old charters of ancient towns. When those particular incorporations which are now peculiarly called universities were first established, the term of years which it was necessary to study, in order to obtain the degree of matter of arts, appears evidently to have been copied from the term of apprenticeship in common trades, of which the incorporations porations were much more ancient. As to have wrought seven years under a master properly qualified was necessary in order to intitle any person to become a master, and to have himself apprentices in a common trade; so to have studied seven years under a master properly qualified was necessary to intitle him to become a master, teacher, or doctor (words anciently synonymous), in the liberal arts, and to have scholars or apprentices (words likewise originally synonymous) to study under him.

By the 5th of Elizabeth, commonly called the statute of apprenticeship, it was enacted, that no person should for the future exercise any trade, craft, or mystery at that time exercised in England, unless he had previously served to it an apprenticeship of seven years at least; and what before had been the bye-law of many particular corporations, became in England the general and public law of all trades carried on in market-towns. For though the words of the statute are very general, and seem plainly to include the whole kingdom, by interpretation its operation has been limited to market-towns; it having been held, that in country villages a person may exercise several different trades, though he has not served a seven years apprenticeship to each, they being necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants, and the number of people frequently not being sufficient to supply each with a particular set of hands.

By a strict interpretation of the words, too, the operation of this statute has been limited to those trades which were established in England before the 5th of Elizabeth, and has never been extended to such as have been introduced since that time. This limitation has given occasion to several distinctions which, considered as rules of police, appear as foolish as can well be imagined. It has been adjudged, for example, that a coachmaker can neither himself make, nor employ journeymen to make, his coach-wheels, but must buy them of a master wheelwright; this latter trade having been exercised in England before the 5th of Elizabeth. But a wheelwright, though he has never served an apprenticeship to a coachmaker, may either himself make, or employ journeymen to make, coaches; the trade of a coachmaker not being within the statute, because not exercised in England at the time when it was made. The manufacturers of Manchester, Birmingham, and Wolverhampton, are many of them upon this account not within the statute; not having been exercised in England before the 5th of Elizabeth.

In France, the duration of apprenticeships is different in different towns and in different trades. In Paris, five years is the term required in a great number; but before any person can be qualified to exercise the trade as a master, he must, in many of them, serve five years more as a journeyman. During this latter term he is called the companion of his master, and the term itself is called his companionship.

In Scotland there is no general law which regulates universally the duration of apprenticeships. The term is different in different corporations. Where it is long, a part of it may generally be redeemed by paying a small fine. In most towns, too, a very small fine is sufficient to purchase the freedom of any corporation. The weavers of linen and hemp cloth, the principal manufactures of the country, as well as all other artificers subservient to them, wheelmakers, reelmakers, &c., may exercise their trades in any town corporate without paying any fine. In all towns corporate, all persons are free to sell butcher's meat upon any lawful day of the week. Three years is in Scotland a common term of apprenticeship, even in some very nice trades; and in general there is no country in Europe in which corporation laws are so little oppressive.

Apprenticeships were altogether unknown to the ancients. The reciprocal duties of master and apprentice make a considerable article in every modern code. The Roman law is perfectly silent with regard to them. There is no Greek or Latin word which expresses the idea we now annex to the word apprentice; a servant bound to work at a particular trade for the benefit of a master during a term of years, upon condition that the master shall teach him that trade.

Long apprenticeships Dr Smith considers as altogether unnecessary. The arts, which are much superfluous, prior to common trades, such as those of making clocks and watches, contain no such mystery as to require a long course of instruction. The first invention of such beautiful machines, indeed, and even that of some of the instruments employed in making them, must, no doubt, have been the work of deep thought and long time, and may justly be considered as among the happiest efforts of human ingenuity: But when both have been fairly invented and are well understood; to explain to any young man, in the completest manner, how to apply the instruments and how to construct the machines, cannot well require more than the lessons of a few weeks; perhaps those of a few days might be sufficient. In the common mechanic trades, those of a few days might certainly be sufficient. The dexterity of hand, indeed, even in common trades, cannot be acquired without much practice and experience. But a young man would practise with much more diligence and attention, if from the beginning he wrought as a journeyman, being paid in proportion to the little work which he could execute, and paying in his turn for the materials which he might sometimes spoil through awkwardness and inexperience. His education in this way generally would be more effectual, and always less tedious and expensive. The master, indeed, would be a loser; he would lose all the wages of the apprentice, which he now saves, for seven years together. In the end, perhaps, the apprentice himself would be a loser. In a trade so easily learnt he would have more competitors; and his wages, when he came to be a complete workman, would be much less than at present. The same increase of competition would reduce the profits of the masters as well as the wages of the workmen. The trades, the crafts, the mysteries, would all be losers; but the public would be a gainer; the work of all artificers coming in this way much cheaper to market.