' Opinions of Judges of Assize may be urged with the continual practice
' of most Justices of Peace, and some of them very learned; ever since 43
' Eliz.  And the Resolution of the Justices, falsly so called, for the Reasons
' hereafter expressed.  So on the other side, it may be truly said,
' That this matter was never yet judicially and solemnly resolved; for as
' I have heard that ancient learned Judge, Justice Twilden say, That in
' the Lord Chief Justice Rolls time one having removed an order, whereby
' he was charged to take an Apprentice into the Kings Bench, appeared
' thereupon; and upon several motions against him, there he was often
' chid, and went away as he said with a scratched face; but nothing more,
' was done thereupon, and the Reasons of the other side are very weighty
' against such Imposition.  It is one purpose of the Poors Tax, mentioned in
' the Statute of 43 Eliz. 2 to raise a Stock (amongst other things) for
' putting out of Poor Children to be Apprentices; and the words that insue
' in that Act, That it shall be lawful for the said Churchwardens and
' Overseers, by the assent of two Justices of Peace, to bind any such Children
' as aforesaid to be Apprentices, where they shall see convenient, &c.
' must needs be understood of doing it with, and out of such Stock; and
' that Clause doth only inable the Officers with such stock to bind them
' out, for otherwise there had been no compulsary power given to the
' Officers, to oblige the Children to be bound, or the Parents to suffer it:
' And the Statute of 1 Jac. 25, continuing the Statute of 43 Eliz. adds
' this, That all persons to whom Overseers shall bind any Children Apprentices
' may take, receive, and keep them as Apprentices; which, it
' seems, was doubted soon after the making of 43 Eliz.  Which need not
' have been doubted, if the Statute of 43 Eliz. had intended or wrought
' such Compulsion to take; besides the putting out Children by stock, is
' the most equal way; for thereby every one pays his equal proportion:
' Also the Statute of 43 Eliz. mentions not what age such Children must
' be of, that are so put out; nor provides any appeal or relief for the
' party, to whom such Child shall be put Apprentice, being grieved
' thereby, as it hath done for a man that is over-taxed.  Also the Authority
' seems to be too great, and the inconvenience too manifest; for a
' Man that wants no Servants, shall by this means be compelled to keep
' one or more; and a Child perhaps, neither cleanly or honest, obtruded
' on a Gentleman for so long a time, as till their age of twenty one or
' twenty four.  And it is well known, and easily apprehended, that such
' persons, as Overseers usually are, would prove partial to those of their
' own condition, and be unequal in such Imposition on Gentlemen.  But
' this matter being directly under consideration of the Court of Kings
' Bench, in the Case between King and Pyne.  A Case being made and
' agreed, and the Court having resolved to confer with the rest of the Justices
' and Barons thereupon, we may well hope for a speedy decision of this
' so long controverted point.