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if the master and intended apprentice agree together, they fhall then declare the fame at the faid office, where the indentures will be made out at the expence of the master (being only five fillings and four-pence, the fimple cost of the indenture and stamp) and the five pounds bounty, will then be paid upon the master's giving a receipt on the back of the indenture.

5. THE objects proper to be recommended, are

ift. ORPHANS, who are the fons of men, who have followed the trades above-mentioned.

2d. ORPHANS born of any parents, and left in distress.

3d. A son of a numerous family, the father of whom is poor and induftrious.

4th. In want of fuch as are above defcribed, the boy who has the reputation of being most ingenious, and beft inclined to do his duty to God and his parents, will be preferred.

6. THIS bounty will not be given to parents for taking their own children, as apprentices, as in this cafe there could be no fecurity to the fociety, that the indenture would not be immediately cancelled, in whatever manner fuch parents might think proper.

7. ANY inhabitant of the trades and occupations, mentioned in the article of bounty, in Stepney, London, and Westminster, or within five miles round, are entitled to this bounty on the conditions mentioned: but it is understood, that if the inhabitants of Stepney and its districts come, in proper time, and if more should offer than can be admitted for want of money, thofe of Stepney and its districts will be preferred.

8. No

8. No fee or reward whatever fhall be taken by any fecretary, clerk, or other perfon acting for the ftewards, either of the mafter or apprentice, or of the parents of the apprentices, at any time, or upon any occafion whatsoever.

VII. Encouragement to the APPRENTICES.

1. As a distinction of lads who make choice of fuch ufeful occupations, and behave well to their masters, a handsome hat and cockade, coat and pair of breeches, &c. is given them on the first feaft-day, after their apprenticeship, for which purpose they are to attend at the fociety's office, on the fecond, or third Thursday in April, in order to have their measures taken; and the masters will be reminded, by letter from the treasurer, when and where the feaft is, that the apprentices may attend it, to receive this mark of the fociety's favor.

2. THESE lads are entertained at dinner on the feast-day, the first year of their apprenticeship, and a filling each is alfo given them.

3. THE last year of their apprenticeship, they likewife attend the faid feast, the mafter having notice given by letter from the treasurer: viz. those who appeared, for the first time, at the feast, in 1754, may give the fociety the pleasure of feeing, if they are alive and well, in 1760, and fo on, in future years. And upon this occafion they will be entertained at dinner, and a good hat and cockade, and a fhilling each, will be given to those who shall deferve it, as an honorary token of the approbation of this fociety.

4. INSTRUCTIONS to the boys are printed and bound together, with the bishop of Tuam's Chriftian Knowledge, and given to them with a manufcript, or printed lift in each book, of the fewards of the year, by whom they are placed out, and of all the boys put out apprentice in the year, with their names, mafters names, trade, and place of abode.

VIII. General

VIII. General Rules obferved in relation to the FEAST-DAY.

1. NOTICE is given, by the treasurer, on what day the feast will be, a month, or at least three weeks before the time, which is generally the firft, fecond, or third Saturday in May, as the PRESIDENT fhall please to appoint.

2. THERE are public prayers at church, and a fermon proper to the occafion is preached on the feast-day.

3. THE apprentices attend, and march in proceffion (together with the stewards and other company) to church, in the clothing given by the fociety, with a ribbon hanging on their breaft, with gold characters, denoting their trade, the year of their apprenticeship, and the initials of their name.

4. THE bells ring, and the Admiralty flag is hoifted on the steeple of St. DunStan's church, Stepney, on this day, and a week before.

5. A LIST of the boys placed out as apprentices, viz. their names, master's name, and trade, is read in the church by the minister or his clerk, before the fermon begins.

6. THESE rules and orders of the fociety, together with a lift of the boys placed out apprentices, their names, age, master's name, and trade, with a general account of receipts and disbursements for the past year, are printed and put under every plate at dinner on the feast-day.

MORAL

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Y GOOD LAD, the noble patronage, under which you are now placed out apprentice, calls on you, in a particular manner, to reflect the more feriously on whatever is good and proper for you.

1. You greatest honor and happiness, in common with all the children of men, is to confider most attentively, and to remember moft conftantly that there is a GOD; that he made the world by his power, and governs it by his providence; that on him all things depend, and without him nothing can exist.

2. You have read the holy fcriptures at school, and have been taught the first principles of religion; namely, that man is not like the beast that perifhes. The dog, or the horse, or any other animal, when he is dead, there is an end of him, his being terminates with his life; but your SOUL IS IMMORTAL, it cannot perish or come to an end; it will have a being after death, and exist for ever. Tho' in the common notion of mankind eternity follows time, or the days allotted us to live on earth, yet, in reality, as we cannot cease to be, and death is only a paffage into another life, which is to laft for ever, eternity begun with us, as foon as we came into the world; and the dye being thus thrown, you, and I, and all of us, must be happy or miferable for ever!

* These instructions are read to them by the treasurer, on occafion of the anniversary meeting of the fociety, and given to them in a book, bound up with the bishop of Tuam's Chriflian Knowledge.

3. NOTHING

3. NOTHING is, or can poffibly be, half fo interefting to us as the confideration of the immortality of the foul. We naturally budder at the thought of falling. into nothing; as on the contrary, we ftill long to be happy fome-how, and somewhere and as we can never find complete happiness here on earth, we hope to find it in heaven. Dropping all kind of reafoning on the subject, how the foul is immortal, we know that it is fo, for God himself has declared it in the Holy Scriptures*; therefore it cannot be otherwise; and as no thought can be fo pleafing as this, when we do our duty, and delight in the law of the most High, no reflection can be fo dreadful, when we are careless of it, or live in rebellion against the commandments of God.

4. You have been taught, and you believe, in your heart, that GOD KNOWETH ALL THINGS, even the number of the hairs on your head; and that all your thoughts, as well as actions, are open to his view. If then he fees the most minute. and indifferent, as well as the most important concerns of your life; if he knows your thoughts, and hears your words alfo, you cannot stand too much in awe of him, in fecret, as well as when men's eyes are upon you.

5. You have been alfo informed, that it is by the wISE APPOINTMENT OF GOD, that fome of us are rich, and fome are poor; fome are appointed to govern, and others to obey: but God is Lord over all, and kings muft obey him with the fame reverence as fubjects. In the mean while it is very obvious, that as the rich are not always happy, nor the poor miferable, happiness must depend either on opinion, which is very changible, or on health of body, and contentment of mind. Now thefe two, health and contentment are confeffedly the greatest bleffings which are bestowed on man, and it is as true, that they are common to us all, and by no means confined to the rich. True contentment can arife only from virtue, whether a man be rich or poor. If the poor do their duty, in the manner which is very plainly pointed out

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* Our Savior himself, fpeaking of the refurrection of the dead, fays, " neither can they die any

more for they are equal unto the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the "refurrection," Luke, chap. xx. ver. 36.

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