In all large establishments in England the men and women servants, in the intervals of their employments, are never allowed to sit in the same room, but have their separate places of resort, assembling together only at dinner and supper. It is the duty of the steward and housekeeper to see this regulation observed.

In servants generally we look for the essential qualities of integrity, sobriety, cleanliness, and general propriety in manner, with knowledge of their duties in the departments they profess to understand. A glance at some reprehensible practices among them may be useful, as every instance of pilfering and trickery accumulates odium on the whole class. One of the chief anxieties of housekeeping is the apprehension of the dishonesty of those who are under our roof and receiving bread from our hands; and suspicion, for which there is often just cause, injures both the employer and the employed. Cooks have been found to dispose of provisions in other ways than for the use of the family they serve. Presents are sometimes demanded by servants from the tradespeople dealt with by the master. The so-called "honor," which prevents a servant from exposing the frauds and misconduct going on among others, is but another name for deception and dishonesty. The servant who knows of frauds and is silent, becomes an accomplice.

Though it is very disagreeable to suspect any one's honesty, it is yet prudent to weigh meat, sugar, etc, when brought in, and to -compare the weight with the charge. Scales should be placed in the kitchen, near the door used by the tradespeople. The knowledge of such things as weights and scales being in use, will operate as a check to any petty fraud which might otherwise be contemplated.

In large establishments abroad the servants have sometimes an allowance of food, or are kept on board wages. The former system prevails on plantations at the South, among field laborers only; the servants in families, as in the Northern States, taking their meals immediately after, and on the remains of the family meals.

The perquisites of servants are, in many cases, so many encroachments on the property of their employers, who tacitly allow, while they in principle condemn the practice. There is no doubt that perquisites tend to corrupt the morals of domestics, placing their own interests in opposition to those of others, and offering temptation against which their integrity is not always proof. Among these objectionable customs, one that particularly calls for attention as an odious kind of taxation, is the practice of servants receiving vails, or presents in money, from visitors. It is a species of bribery for services which ought to be performed without it, and tends to make servants less attentive to those who cannot give them great pecuniary rewards. This custom has grown into disuse in England, and most highly respectable families make it a condition in hiring their servants, that they shall accept no such gifts, but when they are offered shall inform the visitor that it is contrary to the rule of the house to take them. It was formerly so usual in hotels in the United States for the attendants to expect gifts from the guests, that one could not obtain any service without it. I knew a party of travellers visiting Niagara, to leave the dining-room, unable to obtain any thing to eat, the waiters not attending to them. One who had been longer in the house, informed them they would not be served unless each person gave fifty cents to one of the waiters - who, in fact, were paid no wages, but allowed to extract all they could from travellers! This is downright swindling on the part of hotel proprietors, and no respectable landlord now permits such impositions. In all the first-class hotels in our cities, persons should be particularly requested to give no fees to servants. The charges per day at hotels certainly ought to cover ordinary attendance; extra services may be paid' for. But as the custom still prevails more or less among many travellers to give gratuities to servants, proprietors of public houses ought to be the more resolute in abolishing a practice tending to produce murmuring, discontent, and neglect of duties among their domestics. The caution should be inserted among the printed rules of the establishment, and the servant discharged who is known to receive any thing in this way.

Still more onerous and odious is the custom that inflicts a tax upon visitors in private families, in violation of the sacred obligations of hospitality. Such a burden is this felt to be, that many are compelled to refuse invitations to the houses of their friends on account of it. A lady friend of ours informed us that the expense of a short visit to one of her neighbors was made, by this necessity, to exceed what she would have paid at the highest rate of hotel fare. We found this the case on spending a day or so in a very large establishment at the invitation of the owner; each servant on the premises expecting gratuities. They learn, of course, to estimate the worth or standing of a guest by the amount bestowed on them, and frequently to treat with insolence or contempt those who cannot give so much. A '-help" in New Jersey was highly indignant at receiving a present of a mousseline de laine dress instead of a silk one, and declared she would not have it made up. We knew of another lady who emptied her purse to give five dollars each to several flaunting girls in the house where she was staying; though she was obliged to deny herself many things for want of the money. "If you do not give them something very elegant, they will make fun of you; nothing simple will please them;" said another lady when consulted on the subject. What a motive for liberality!

There are very few who have moral courage enough to be independent in such things, even though their charities have to be stinted in consequence; especially when it is known that the mistress fre quently asks her servants what they received from her guests, and even draws conclusions founded on their information! So at the risk of inconvenience or impoverishment, the tax must be paid; though as a rule it is always paid with secret dissatisfaction. What an insult to the name of hospitality is this!

The prevailing motive for this kind of liberality is not the charity which delight-eth in giving - but a selfish fear of being thought penurious by one's friends, or of being ridiculed by saucy servants. We do not remember a single instance in which the custom, considered imperative, when mentioned at all, has not been mentioned with condemnation. It should be utterly and for ever abolished. The mistress, in hiring a domestic, should make known her invariable rule that such things are not to be allowed, and should let it be known among all her friends.

We do not object to the largest kind of liberality in giving. The poor and needy have claims that meet us at every turn; and the most rigid self-denial to satisfy their just demands, is commendable. It is an excellent rule - "My superfluity must give way to my neighbor's convenience; my convenience to his necessity; my necessity to his destitution." In instances where our regard is attracted by a kind and faithful domestic in a friend's family, or where circumstances would render a gift peculiarly acceptable, it is pleasant to give and right to receive. We object to the system which makes present-giving compulsory without regard to the feelings or means of the donor, or the necessities of the receiver. And what well-bred lady who invites her friends for the pleasure of their society, would willingly have them feel under the necessity of putting themselves to inconvenience to give large fees to her servants, already well paid for the trifling services they render?

The custom which we have understood is actually prevalent in some places, of visitors " making up in presents " the expense incurred by their friends in hospitably entertaining them, - is certainly "better honored in the breach than the observance." What hospitality can there be, when an equivalent is offered and received? It would be more fair and open to make the bargain regularly in dollars and cents. The indirect exaction of compensation in this way, frequently beyond what could reasonably be charged, appears to us to be speculation without the s. Yet we occasionally hear of this as expected from visitors. A lady in the States once said to her guest: "I know you will want to make me some nice present before you go away; I will tell you what I would like: etc." A lady from the country who staid a fortnight with a city friend, left money when she went away to purchase "some sort of a present." All we have to say of this and every other practice tending to make gifts (which should be free as the love that ought alone to prompt them) in the slightest degree compulsory, is, that it is wrong, and entirely subversive of true friendship.

To return to our subject. It is in vain that societies are formed for the encouragement of faithful domestics, by giving premiums and high testimonials to those who serve a reasonable time in the same family. These last are not valued, where a choice of places can be had without them, and the roving disposition is fostered by the notion of independence and the certainty of being well paid for doing as one pleases.

The only protection to housekeepers from this endless source of discomfort, is to be found in correcting the mistaken notion among American girls that a place in domestic service is less honorable than the severer toils of seamstresses, binders, shopkeepers, or milliners' workwomen. If they could be persuaded, instead of wasting away their lives in health-destroying needlework, miserably paid for by speculators in female servitude, - to engage in the active and varied duties of domestics, secure of a good home and abundant wages - a new era would commence for American housewives.

Something might be done towards this end by regulating the hours devoted to household employments, in such a way as to leave a portion of the day for the girl's own time, which she is at liberty to employ as she pleases; and by encouraging her to use it in the acquirement of useful knowledge. "It requires a refined mind to dust properly;" and the cultivation of intellect will not be thrown away in any department. Let the humiliation of servitude be thus taken away, and persons who have seen better days will engage in the occupation. We would recommend the establishment of an Association in our large cities - to find suitable places for persons of a respectable class, stipulate for suitable privileges, and persuade them to this easy mode of earning a livelihood. The gratitude of the community would be due to such an institution.