AN ESSAY ON CHARITY-SCHOOI,$. brought with them, and sensible inconveniences are hereby sus- tained : But all these inconveniences find an easy remedy, if the servant can use a pen : He puts down on a scrap of paper, some memoirs of his several orders, and he punctually fulfils them all. This is a known and common case, and among other things may plead for servants learning to write. 3. When masters are at a distance from their households and leave their servants in trust with their affairs, is it not a most unhappy thing if a household servant cannot communicate to his master by writing any sudden accident that may attend his con- cerns, his goods or his dwelling ? If he cannot give notice of any new occurrencethat relates to his master's interest ? Is it not a most lamentable circumstance if a servant be left in the city or in a country-house for a few days together, and any terrible sudden calamity should attend his habitation or the family, ant4 no servant could give notice of it to his distant master ? Are not masters willing to know what messages have been left for them during their absence ? And must every such be trusted merely to the untaught and unfaithful memoryof a servant, for many days together till they shall see their master ? If know there are such cases wherein persons of good figure in the world, who keep two dwellings at some distance from each other, are unwilling to hire those servants, whom they must leavebehind them at one of their habitations, if they are not able to write ; because they expect frequent notice from their servants by letter, whereby they may be informed of the affairs of one part of their family or another ; and this makes their minds easy wheresoever they are, by the pleasurable tidings of the welfare of their absent children, and the regular conduct and peace of the distant part of their household. 4. I might add in the last place, if servants have never learned to write themselves, it is very seldom they are capable of reading what is written : And would it not be a great and fre- quent inconvenience to a master, when he is absent from his home, if lie could not send a command to a servant in writing, about some necessary affair of his household, but this servant must go to some learned neighbour to read it for him, and thus communicate the concerns of his master to any one who could assist him to read his master's letter ? Let things of this kind, which are transacted between master and servant, be never so important and momentous, let it be never so much for the wel- fare of thefamily, the young children, the goods, or the estate, it is all one in this case where the servant cannot write : The loss must be sustained, the damage must be incurred, all incon- veniences must be borne ; and these masters at least, may thank themselvesfor it, who discourage the support of these schools of
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