common workhouse provided and maintained at their common expense; and also a common fund to which each of the parishes of which it consists shall contribute (d): and on this fund is now, by a recent alteration of the law (viz., by 28 & 29 Vict. c. 79, s. 1), charged all the cost of the relief of the union poor as well as certain other expenses incurred by the board of guardians (e).

This short historical review of the principles on which the poor law is founded seemed a proper preliminary to the consideration of the practical system now existing, which may be compendiously explained as follows.

E 2

According to the present law, a settlement is acquired by the following methods. 1. By birth. For wherever a child is first known to be, that is always primâ facie, and until some other can be shown, the place of its settlement (f). But if its parents can be proved to have acquired a settlement, either by birth or otherwise, in another parish, then the primâ facie settlement of the child will be superseded by a derivative one, viz. the settlement by parentage, of which we are about to speak next (g). 2. By parentage. For all legitimate children take the last settlement of the father, and, after his death, of the mother; till they are emancipated from parental authority by marriage, or by attaining the age of twentyone and living permanently separate from the parent, or by contracting some relation inconsistent with domestic subjection (h): and when emancipated, they retain the parental settlement last acquired before that event took place. A bastard child, on the other hand (having in the eye of the law no parent) was at one time held incompetent to claim a derivative settlement. By a provision, however, in the Poor Law Amendment Act, an illegitimate child born since that statute passed, is now to follow the settlement of his mother; until he attains the age of sixteen, or gains another for himself (i). But besides those of birth or parentage, there are also settlements acquired by the party's own act. For a female gains a derivative settlement: 3. By marriage, i. e. she may claim the settlement which belongs to her husband; and she

(f) As to the proof of settlement by birth, see the Queen v. Crediton, 1 Ell. Bl. & E. 231.

(9) See R. v. St. Mary, Leicester, 3 Ad. & Ell. 644; v. Walthamstow, 6 Ad. & El. 301.

(h) See R. v. Witton cum Twanbrookes, 3 T. R. 355; v. Sowerby, 2 East, 276; v. Everton, 1 East, 526; v. Lilleshall, 7 Q. B. 159; v.

Scammonden, 8 Q. B. 349; v. Inhabitants of Selborne, 2 Ell. & Ell. 275.

(i) 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 71. See R. v. Walthamstow, ubi sup.; v. Wendron, 7 A. & E. 819; v. St. Mary, Newington, 4 Q. B. 581; v. Sutton Le Brailes, 5 Ell. & Bl. 814; v. Combs, ibid. 892.

retains that settlement after his death. If her husband has no settlement (being born abroad and having acquired none), or if his settlement is unknown, then she retains that which belonged to her before marriage. But she cannot, in any case, acquire one in her own right during the marriage. A settlement may also be acquired, 4. By renting a tenement, coupled with residence in the same. parish for forty days (k). For this purpose, however, it is requisite that the person should have bonâ fide rented a tenement, consisting of a separate or distinct dwellinghouse or building, or of land (or of both), for the sum of 107. a-year at the least for the term of one whole year; and that he should have occupied the same under such hiring, and actually paid the rent to the amount of 107. for the term of one whole year at the least; and that for the same period, he should have been assessed to and paid the poor rate in respect thereof (1). 5. A settlement may also be gained by being bound apprentice (m), under indenture or other deed, and inhabiting for forty days under such binding; either in the same parish where the service takes place, or a different one. But no settlement can be acquired by being apprenticed in the sea service, or to a householder exercising the trade of the seas, as a fisherman or otherwise (n); and the indenture must in all cases be

(k) See R. v. Snape, 6 A. & E. 278; v. Berkswell, ibid. 282; r. Henley-upon-Thames, ibid. 294; v. Hockworthy, 7 A. & E. 492; Overseers of Willesden v. Paddington, 3 Best & Smith, 593; The Queen v. Exeter, Law Rep., 4 Q. B. 341.

(1) 6 Geo. 4, c. 57, s. 2; 1 Will. 4, c. 18, s. 1; 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 66. See R. v. Hertsmonceaux, 7 Barn. & Cress. 541; v. Stow, 4 Barn. & Cress. 87; v. Kibworth Harcourt, 7 Barn. & Cress. 790; v. Usworth, 5 Ad. & E. 261; v. Benje

worth, 3 Ell. & Bl. 637; v. Halifax, 4 Ell. & Bl. 647.

(m) As to what constitutes hiring as apprentice, see R. v. Billinghay, 5 A. & E. 676. As to service by apprenticeship generally, see R. v. Sandhurst, 6 A. & E. 130; v. Closworth, ibid. 286; v. Exminster, ibid. 598; v. Barmston, 7 A. & E. 858; v. Fordingbridge, 1 Ell. Bl. & Ell. 678; v. Barton-upon-Irwell, Best & Smith, 604; St. Pancras v. Clapham, 2 Ell. & Ell. 742.

(n) 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 67; see R. v. Maidstone, 5 A. & E. 326.

executed by the apprentice, except in the case of one bound by the parish (o). 6. A settlement is gained, of a temporary kind, in any parish, by having an estate of one's own there, of whatever value, and whether the interest be legal or equitable (p); a particular species of settlement founded on the principle of the common law, that a man shall not be removed from his own property (q). It has, however, been provided by statute, that no person shall retain a settlement gained by virtue of any estate or interest in a parish, for any longer time than he shall inhabit within ten miles thereof(r): and that in case he shall cease to inhabit within that distance, and shall afterwards become chargeable, he shall be liable to be removed to the parish in which he was settled previously to such inhabitancy; or if he have gained a settlement in some other parish since the inhabitancy, then to such other parish (s). 7. Lastly, a settlement may be gained by being charged to and paying the public taxes, and levies of the parish (t),—those for scavengers and highways and the duties on houses being however excepted. But it is provided by the 35 Geo. III. c. 101, s. 4, that no person shall gain a settlement on this ground in respect of any tenement or tenements not being of the yearly value of 107.; and by 6 Geo. IV. c. 57,

(0) As to the binding of poor children as apprentices, see also 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 15; 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 12; R. v. Arnesby, 3 Barn. & Ald. 584; v. St. Mary Magdalen, 2 Ell. & Bl. 809.

(p) As to settlement by estate, R. v. Ardleigh, 7 A. & E. 70; v. Belford, 10 B. & C. 54; v. Knaresborough, 16 Q. B. 446; Wendron v. Stythians, 4 Ell. & Bl. 147; The Queen v. Belford, 3 B. & Smith, 662; v. Thornton, 2 Ell. & Ell. 788.

(9) 2 Nolan, 58.

(r) As to the mode of calculating

this distance, see Queen v. Saffron Walden, 9 Q. B. 76.

(8) 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 76, s. 68; see R. v. Hendon, 2 Q. B. 455.

(t) 3 W. & M. c. 11, s. 6. See also 6 Geo. 4, c. 37, s. 2; 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 42, s. 5; and the following cases: R. v. Stoke Damerel, 6 A. & E. 308; v. St. Giles, 7 Ell. & Bl. 205; v. Westbury-on-Trym, ibid. 444; v. St. Anne's Westminster, 2 Ell. & Ell. 485; Everton v. South Stoneham, ib. 771; St. George's Hanover Square v. Cambridge Union, Law Rep., 3 Q. B. 1; The Queen v. St. Thomas, ib., 5 Q. B. 371.

that no settlement shall be acquired by paying parochial rates for any tenement (not being the person's own property), unless it consists of a separate and distinct dwelling-house or building, or land (or both), bonâ fide rented by him for 107. a year at the least for a whole year, and be occupied under such hiring for a year at least. This title to a settlement is therefore nearly merged in that of renting a tenement (u).

Such are the modes in which a settlement may now be acquired, and in which it has been capable of being acquired, since the 14th August, 1834, the date of the passing of the Poor Law Amendment Act of that year; by which statute some material alterations were made in this branch of the law. As questions, however, may still arise with respect to settlements gained immediately before those alterations, it may be desirable to observe, that before the 14th August, 1834, they could be acquired by forty days' residence, accompanied with other circumstances of notoriety, in addition to those which have been above enumerated, viz., 1. By hiring and service; which was where a person, being unmarried and childless, was hired for a year, and served a year in the same service. 2. By executing any public annual office or charge within the parish for one whole year. We may also notice that the settlement by renting a tenement was at that period capable of being acquired without payment of the poor rate, or being assessed to the same.

On this part of our subject we shall only add, that when by any of the modes above enumerated a person has gained a settlement in any parish, he is considered as settled there until he acquires a new one in some other place; but the later acquisition supersedes the earlier.

All those who stand in need of relief, and apply for it, are entitled to be relieved in the parish (or union) in

(u) See Arch. P. L. Act, Introduction, p. 3; St. George's Hanover

Square v. Cambridge Union, Law
Rep., 3 Q. B. 1.