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servants. I suppose it would. For it would not have an opposite tendency. But is it just or reasonable that for this small good masters should be made liable to the extent intended. That to prevent one accident through careless hiring of an incompetent fellow workmen, the master should pay a thousand compensations where he has done his best to get careful men. Is he not under sufficient inducements to be careful already? How rarely does an accident happen to the workman without mischief to the master and without an appeal to his charity. Further, I ask, would the workmen like that system which has prevailed in some employments, and to which the masters would be obliged to have recourse, viz., not employing a workman unless he produced a certificate of competency and fitness from his former employer? Still further, if some good would be done in this way, would there not be more mischief in another? Every one knows the recklessness bred by familiarity with danger. The man who would not open his lamp in a mine at first, will do so after a time. Another thing. It is a respectable feeling, though mistaken, which prevents servants doing what they call "split" on each other. The consequence being, that negligence leading to danger by one workman is concealed from the master by the others. Now I do not say that workmen will injure themselves for the sake of compensation; but I do say, that whatever tends to lessen their reason for care and good conduct as
