Edgeware Road,
June, 1825.
DEDICATION;
Respectfully addressed to the Heads of Families
OF THE
UNITED KINGDOM.
We feel persuaded that the following work, professedly written for the use and instruction of Domestic Servants, may, with great propriety, be dedicated to the Illustrious Heads of Families in the United Kingdom;—to you, who are the immediate Patrons of that numerous Class of the Community. We are aware too, that, by endeavouring to instruct and improve those around you in the moral and practical Duties of their respective Stations, we best evince our attention to your particular Interests, and indirectly promote your Domestic Comforts:—and we feel further assured, that the same precepts that are calculated to teach servants the duties of their several occupations, will serve to remind their masters and mistresses of what they have to expect from them. Under these impressions we presume, with the greatest deference and respect, to claim your patronage and protection.
And, though Domestic Servants are the principal Agents by means of whom the greater part of all Household Concerns are transacted, yet, there are many important branches of family arrangement, the direction and controul of which, either directly or indirectly, fall within the sphere of the Heads of Families, some of which are exclusively their own Concerns, and others necessarily and unavoidably connected with the business of Servants, but respecting which no instruction can be given to them. On these points, therefore, we shall, in this place, take the liberty, respectfully, to offer a few observations previous to entering on a subject of so comprehensive and complicated a nature as that of A General Directory for Servants.
Dr. Johnson held as a maxim, that “Every man’s first care is necessarily Domestic.” Independent, therefore, of public Engagements,—of Politics, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature;—of attention to Horses, Hounds, &c. it is considered that the first care, and the peculiar province of the Master of a Family, is his Revenue; and that attention to his Land-Stewards, Agents, and Tenants, and to his Expenditure, are the principal objects that most immediately solicit his regard; and when a gentleman has satisfied himself that his real or net Income exceeds his Expenditure, then, and not till then, may he consider himself as an Independent Man—for, “it is not abundance that maketh rich, but Economy;” and Lord Chesterfield has truly remarked, that “great Fortunes frequently seduce their possessors to ruinous profusion.” The great Bacon has also observed, “that he would live even with the world should calculate his Expenses at half his Income, and he who would grow Rich; at one-third.” A few Minutes in every Day, spent in keeping a regular Account of all Monies received and spent, Dr. and Cr. will afford any gentleman the satisfaction of knowing the true state of his affairs,—will operate actively against excess of Expenditure,—will imperceptibly teach him the art of practical Economy, and will enable him to appropriate due portions of his Income to the support of his different Establishments.
With a view to this latter point, the following Rule, though given in round numbers, may be considered as affording Gentlemen a brief, but tolerably correct, idea of the most eligible and practical mode of appropriating a large Income.—