thus made in the mode of treating the two classes, and which is laid down with such minuteness in the present Act, although doubtless important, still ends in sending both the one and the other back to the place of their birth or previous residence; granting to the impotent permission to beg, and requiring, but not in any way assisting, the able-bodied to set themselves to work. No provision is made for sustaining the weak, or for helping the strong to find employment; and therefore, notwithstanding the severity of the punishments awarded, the statute was sure to fail of accomplishing the object for which it was designed. The fourth provision, inflicting punishment on scholars of the two Universities who go about begging without being duly licensed, seems at the present day an extraordinary enactment; but it was not then so regarded. The priests and inferior clergy were all, more or less, beggars, or solicitors of alms, and those of the mendicant orders were professedly such; so that partly from custom, and partly from teaching and example, not only was begging tolerated, but the profession of a beggar was not regarded as disgraceful. Against habits and impressions thus countenanced and upheld, the legislature had to struggle in its endeavours to suppress mendicancy; and it was not until after the Reformation had been established, and the monastic orders suppressed, that mendicancy can be said to have been materially lessened, or that habits of self-reliance and feelings of self-respect became prevalent with the people. This Act (22 Henry VIII. cap. 12) continued in force five years, when it was repealed, and another elaborate statute, framed with a like object, was passed. The present Act was, however, revived ten years afterwards, and appears to have been still relied upon for protecting the community against the spread of vagabondage and mendicancy. 27 Henry 25. The 27 Henry VIII. cap. 25, has the same title as 1535-36. the preceding Act, a deficiency in which it was intended VIII. cap. to supply, and which is thus described in the preamble" And forasmuch as it was not provided in the said Act how and in what wise the said poor people and sturdy vagabonds should be ordered at their coming into their countries, nor how the inhabitants of every hundred should be charged for the relief of the same poor people, nor yet for setting and keeping in work and labour the aforesaid valiant vagabonds,"-it is ordered that the mayors, bailiffs, constables, and other head officers of cities, towns, and parishes, "shall most charitably receive such poor creatures or sturdy vagabonds as are specified in the said Act," and shall succour, relieve, and keep the said poor people by way of voluntary charitable alms, in such wise as none of them shall of necessity be compelled to wander and go openly in begging; and also shall cause the said sturdy vagabonds and valiant beggars to be set and kept to "Valiant continual labour in such wise as they may get their are to be own living with the continual labour of their own hands. The mayors, bailiffs, constables, etc., are likewise "to endeavour to order and direct the poor people, valiant beggars, and sturdy vagabonds, in such wise that the present Act shall be duly observed and put in execution, upon pain that every parish shall forfeit twenty shillings for every month in which it is omitted and not done." This provision, or rather direction, for setting the "sturdy vagabonds and valiant beggars" to work, is an important advance upon the previous Act; but still it was evidently feared that there might be a want of means for carrying the provision into effect; and it is, therefore, further ordered, that the mayors and other head officers, etc., and the churchwardens or two others of every parish, "shall take such discreet and convenient order, by gathering and procuring voluntary beggars set to work. unable to relieved, and an account to be kept. alms of the good Christian people within the same, with boxes, every Sunday and holiday, or otherwise among themselves, in such good and discreet wise as Poor people the poor, impotent, sick, and diseased people, being work to be not able to work, may be provided, holpen, and relieved; and that such as be lusty, having their limbs strong enough to labour, may be daily kept in continual labour, whereby every one of them may get their own living with their own hands." It is then also further ordered, that every parson, vicar, and curate shall exhort people to extend their charitable contributions from time to time for and towards the above objects; and they, or some other honest man of every parish, are to keep a book of reckoning, and therein enter all such sums of money as shall be gathered by the charitable alms of the inhabitants, and in what wise any part of the same money shall be spent. The book is to be bought and paid for by the constable and churchwardens, and to remain in the custody of two or three of them, or of some indifferent man by their consent, and not with the parson of the parish. It is, however, expressly declared that the alms are not compulsory, and that no one is "to be constrained to any such certain contribution but only as their free wills and charities shall extend." The churchwardens and collectors are not to continue in office more than one year; and if there should be a surplus of alms collected in any one parish, it is to be applied in aid of other poor parishes near or adjoining. After thus organising the collection and appropriation of alms, the Act goes on to direct that no person shall make any common or open dole, nor shall give any money in alms, otherwise than to the common boxes and common gatherings, for the purposes of this Act, "upon pain of forfeiting ten times the value of all such money as shall be given contrary to the tenour and purport of the same." And all persons and bodies politic and corporate, that are bound to give or dis- to be "sturdy bonds." A new description of offenders are noticed in this statute. They are described as idle persons, "ruffelers," calling themselves servingmen, but having no masters. They are expressly subjected to the penalties provided "Ruffelers" in this and the previous Act; and if, after having been treated as once taken, whipped, and sent into any town, hundred, vaga or parish, any of the aforesaid "ruffelers, sturdy vagabonds, and valiant beggars" wander, loiter, or idly play the vagabonds, and absent themselves from such labour as shall be appointed unto them, then upon due examination and proof, they are not only to be whipped again, and sent to the town or parish whereunto they were first appointed, but also "have the upper part of the gristle of the right ear clean cut off, so as it may appear for a perpetual token that he hath been a contemner of the good order of the common wealth." And every constable, with the assistance of the most substantial people of every parish where such "ruffeler, sturdy vagabond, or valiant beggar" shall happen to be taken, shall do or cause to be done this execution, as found beg put to service. well in whipping as in cutting off the said upper gristle of the ear, upon pain of forfeiting five marks, and the inhabitants are to assist the said constables to the best of their power, upon the like pain. It is also further directed, that "if any ruffeler, sturdy vagabond, or valiant beggar, having the upper part of the right ear cut off as aforesaid," be apprehended wandering in idleness, and it be duly proved that he hath not applied to such labours as have been assigned to him, or be not in service with any master, "that then he be committed to gaol until the next quarter sessions, and be there indicted and tried, and, if found guilty, he shall be adjudged to suffer death as a felon." The only other section of this statute requiring notice is that which provides for placing poor children out in service. By the 4th section, it is enacted, that the governors, justices of the peace, and head officers and constables of every city, town, or parish, shall have Children authority "to take up all children between the ages of ging to be five and thirteen years, who are begging or in idleness, and appoint them to masters in husbandry or other crafts to be taught, by which they may get their livings when they shall come of age, giving to them of the said charitable collections clothing to enter into such service." And if any of such children between the ages of twelve and sixteen refuse such service, or depart from the same without reasonable cause, they are to be apprehended and openly whipped with rods, at the discretion of the said officers. The several provisions of this comprehensive statute go a long way towards creating a parochial machinery for the relief and management of the poor, and seem in fact to have been the foundation of what was afterwards done in this respect. The Act is therefore deserving of particular notice, as well on this account as because it embodies all that the experience of the statesmen of the day could devise on the subject; and at no other |