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make a profit from the labour of the servant in the course
of a month's work over and above the amount of the month's
wages paid to that servant. That must be so for there would
be no profit to the master from the employment of the
servant if he only made enough to pay wages.
If therefore a servant may leave his
employ at any time by paying his master a sum equal to a
month's wages loss cannot but be entailed upon the master.
It follows then that to permit a
servant to leave his master at any time upon handing to him
a sum equivalent to a month's wages will certainly, whenever
the right is exercised cause pecuniary loss to a master,
(where the servant is other than one in domestic service,)
which will be more or less serious according as one or
more servants suddenly leave, and according as it may be
more or less difficult to supply the vacancy at short
notice. Indeed it is conceivable that, by causing stoppage
of work when some important contract had to be executed
within a limited time, a loss might be entailed upon a
master which the wages of his entire staff of servants
multiplied ten times over could not compensate him for.
Where the service is domestic in-
convenience rather than loss properly so called would be
felt except in the case of Hotels where immense loss added
to inconvenience might be occasioned if the servants were
at liberty to leave at any time upon handing to their em-
ployer an amount equal to a month's wages per head. In
ordinary domestic life inconvenience and discomfort would
follow but in the case of Hotels and other places that
provide for the public needs heavy pecuniary loss would be
added if they were suddenly left without servants; for it
is common knowledge that it is by no means easy to replace
even