tolls or dues as are levied to the use of the body corporate (q). And whereas in divers boroughs a custom had prevailed, and bye-laws had been made, that no person not being free of the borough, or of certain guilds, mysteries, or trading companies therein, should keep a shop for merchandise, or use certain trades or occupations for gain within the same,-the Act provides that every person may in future keep any shop in any borough, and use every lawful trade and occupation therein, any such custom or bye-laws notwithstanding (r).

It remains only to observe, that the several provisions of this statute are applicable not only to the boroughs enumerated in the schedules, but to every other (whether before incorporated or not) which shall obtain a new charter of incorporation, on petition to the crown for that purpose (s). And that with respect to every borough falling within the Act, all former statutes, charters and usages therein, so far as consistent with the provisions of the new statutes, are to be considered as still in force; while, on the other hand, so much as is not consistent with them is in express terms repealed (t).

(q) 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 2. See 6 & 7 Will. 4, c. 104, s. 9.

(r) 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 14. (8) Sect. 141. As to boroughs incorporated since the Municipal Corporation Act, see also 7 Will. 4

& 1 Vict. c. 78, s. 49; 5 & 6 Vict. c. 111; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 93; 13 & 14 Vict. c. 42; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 79; 18 & 19 Vict. c. 31; 20 & 21 Vict. c. 10.

(t) 5 &.6 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 1.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE LAWS RELATING TO THE POOR.

66

[UNTIL the time of Henry the eighth, the poor subsisted entirely upon private benevolence, and the charity of welldisposed Christians. For though it appears by the Mirrour (a), that by the common law the poor were to be "sustained by parsons, rectors of the church, and the parishioners, so that none of them die for default of "sustenance," yet till the statute 27 Hen. VIII. c. 25, we find no compulsory method chalked out for this purpose; but the poor seem to have been left to such relief as the humanity of their neighbours would afford them. The monasteries were, in particular, their principal resource; and among other bad effects which attended the monastic institutions, it was not perhaps one of the least, (though frequently esteemed quite otherwise,) that they supported and fed a very numerous and very idle poor, whose sustenance depended upon what was daily distributed in alms at the gates of the religious houses. But upon the total dissolution of these, the inconvenience of thus encouraging the poor in habits of indolence and beggary was quickly felt throughout the kingdom: and abundance of statutes were made in the reigns of King Henry the eighth and his children, for providing for the poor and impotent; which, the preambles to some of them recite, had of late years greatly increased.

These poor were principally of two sorts: sick and impotent, and therefore unable to work; idle and sturdy,

(a) Chap. 1, sect. 3.

[and therefore able, but not willing to exercise any honest employment. To provide in some measure for both of these in and about the metropolis, Edward the sixth founded three royal hospitals: Christ's and St. Thomas's, for the relief of the impotent, through infancy or sickness; and Bridewell, for the punishment and employment of the vigorous and idle. But these were far from being sufficient for the care of the poor throughout the kingdom at large; and therefore, after many other fruitless experiments, by statute 43 Eliz. c. 2, (which is generally considered as the foundation of the modern poor law,) overseers of the poor were appointed in every parish.] And it was provided that the churchwardens of every parish should also be the overseers (b); and that there should also be appointed two, three, or four, but not more, of the inhabitants (c): such last-mentioned overseers to be substantial householders, and to be nominated yearly by two justices dwelling near the parish (d).

(b) As to churchwardens and overseers for separate townships, see R. v. Yorkshire, 6 A. & E. 863, and 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, ss. 22, 23.

(c) By 12 & 13 Vict. c. 103, s. 6, no person shall be appointed overseer who is engaged in any contract for the supply of food for the relief of the poor. By 29 & 30 Vict. c. 113, s. 11, in the case of a small parish, a single overseer may be appointed by the justices; and, if need be, he may be an inhabitant householder of an adjoining parish. But as the general rule the appointment of a single person as overseer is void (see The Queen v. Cousins, 4 B. & Smith, 849). By sects. 10, 12 of the Act just mentioned the same person may hold jointly the offices of churchwarden and overseer, but cannot at the same time be overseer in one

parish and assistant overseer in another. The office of overseer is compulsory; but the following classes of persons are exempted from serving:-Peers and members of parliament; justices of the peace; aldermen of London; clergymen ; dissenting ministers; practising barristers and attornies; registered medical practitioners; and officers of the courts of law, of the army and navy, and of the customs and excise. (See Archbold's Justice of the Peace in tit. Poor, 13; and 21 & 22 Vict. c. 90, s. 34.) On the other hand, the office may be filled by a woman. (See R. v. Stubbs, 2 T. R. 395.)

(d) The appointment is, by 54 Geo. 3, c. 91, to be made on the 25th March, or within fourteen days after. It may be observed here,

This Act of Elizabeth involves two principles; first, that every poor person shall be either relieved, or (what is equivalent) provided with work: next that this shall be done parochially; that is, out of funds to be raised and applied by parish officers within the limits of their respective parishes (e). It is to be understood, however, that it has not been the policy of the law to allow paupers to resort for relief indiscriminately to any parish they preferred: for, by certain statutes of date anterior to the above Act persons unable or unwilling to work were compellable to remain in the particular parishes where they were settled (f); that is, where they were born, or had made their abode for three years, or (in case of vagabonds) for one year only (g). And this was the origin of the law of settlement, with which that of relief holds a close connection; these being in fact the two main branches of which the poor-law (as established by 43 Eliz. c. 2) consists. Still there was no regulation either prior to that Act, or for a long period afterwards, to prevent an ablebodied and industrious pauper from resorting to any parish that he pleased for employment. But soon after the Restoration the more restrictive principle was introduced, of confining to his existing place of settlement every

that wherever, by 43 Eliz. c. 2, powers are given in respect of the poor to justices in counties, the same powers are by 12 & 13 Vict. c. 8, s. 64, (amended by 15 & 16 Vict. c. 38,) given to justices in boroughs.

(e) As to extra-parochial places, see 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 12, s. 22, and the modern enactments of 20 Vict. c. 19; by whieh last statute all extraparochial places where no poor rate is levied, and in respect of which there is no agreement for its contribution to the poor rate of any parish, shall now be deemed a parish

for all the purposes of assessment to the poor rate, the relief of the poor, the county police or borough rate, the burial of the dead, the removal of nuisances, the registration of parliamentary and municipal voters, and the registration of births and deaths. The above enactments are not retrospective. (The Queen v. St. Sepulchre, Northampton, 1 E. & E. 813.)

(f) 19 Hen. 7, c. 12; 1 Edw. 6, c. 3; 3 & 4 Edw. 6, c. 16; 14 Eliz. c. 5; see also 7 Jac. 1, c. 4, s. 8. (g) 1 Bl. Com. 361.

person whatever whose circumstances were such as to make it probable that he would become a charge upon the public; and new regulations were devised for carrying that principle into full effect. For by stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12, s. 1, it was (in substance) provided that persons newly coming to settle in any parish, and likely to become chargeable, might be removed by the warrant of two justices of the peace, on complaint of the parochial officers, to the parish where they were last legally settled (h). But that Act also materially altered the legal idea and definition of settlement; for it abridged the period at which a man becomes settled by residence, to forty days (i): and as it subjected the poor to removal from every place in which they were not settled, it had the farther and indirect effect of attaching to the condition of settlement the quality of a right, because that condition gave an exemption from removal. This state of the law led to unforeseen consequences. Persons who were desirous (for any reason) of gaining a settlementright in particular parishes, were soon found to resort to the expedient of intruding into them furtively, with the view of completing their forty days' residence before they should be discovered (k). To prevent which, provision was afterwards made, that the forty days should be computed only from the period when notice in writing of the new comer's abode should be given to the parish officers; such notice being dispensed with only in cases where the residence was attended with certain circumstances of notoriety, such as entering into a yearly service, or an apprenticeship (7). At a subsequent period, indeed,

(h) In R. v. St. James, 10 East, 31, Bayley, J., says, "before the "statute of Charles the second, a "settlement was gained by mere

66

inhabitancy, and the statute was "passed to prevent this."

(i) 1 Bl. Com. 362; see Jac. 2, c. 17, s. 3.

(k) Bl. Com. ubi sup.

(7) Ibid.; and see 3 W. & M.

c. 11.