No. I: 13 Geo. III. c. 32. Persons stealing turnips, potatoes, cabbages, &c. from any gar shall forfeit 10s. on conviction, besides the value of the goods stolen. and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, if any person shall steal and take away, or maliciously pull up or destroy, any turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, pease or carrots, growing or being in any garden, lands, or grounds, open or inclosed, and shall be thereof convicted before any justice or justices of the peace for the county or place where the offence shall be committed, either by the confession of the party offending, or by the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses (which oath such justice or justices is den, lands, &c. and are hereby impowered to administer), every person so offending, and being convicted as aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay, upon such conviction, such sum of money not exceeding the sum of ten shillings, over and above the value of the goods stolen, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet; which sum of money shall be distributed between the owner of such turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, pease, or carrots, and the overseers of the poor, or other persons having the charge and disposal of the funds of the poor of such parish or place where the offence shall be committed, for the use of the poor of such parish or place, in such proportion as such justice or justices shall think fit; or the whole of such sums shall be given to the owner of such turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, pease, or carrots, or to the overseers of the poor, or other persons having the charge and disposal of the funds for the use of the poor of such parish or place, according to the discretion of such justice or justices: And in default of payment of such penalty, of which the offender had been convicted as aforesaid, such justice or justices shall and may commit such offender to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding one calendar month, unless such penalty shall be sooner paid or satisfied: And if the offence is committed in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, such justice or justices shall and may commit such offender to prison, there to remain any time not exceeding one calendar month, unless such penalty shall be sooner paid or satisfied; And the bringing of the offender or offenders before such justice or justices of the peace may be done, and the proceedings against offenders, under the authority of this Act, may be carried on in the most summary manner. Informations of owners to be taken and allowed. Where conviction shall be on oath of the owner, the forfeiture to be paid to the overseers of the poor. Conviction to be drawn in the following form. II. And, for the more easy conviction of persons offending against this Act, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in all informations, and other proceedings for any of the offences aforesaid, the evidence of the owner or owners of such turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, pease, or carrots, and of the inhabitants of the parish or place where the offence shall be committed, shall be taken and allowed; any law, custom, rule, order, or usage, to the contrary notwithstanding. III. Provided always, That where any such conviction shall be upon the oath of the owner or owners, the whole of the penalty or forfeiture shall be paid to the overseer or overseers of the poor for the parish or place where the offence shall be committed, for the use of the poor of such parish or place. IV. And for the more easy and speedy conviction of offenders against this Act, be it further enacted, That all and every the justice or justices of the peace, before whom any person or persons shall be convicted of any offence against this Act, shall and may cause the conviction to be drawn up in the following form of words, or in any form of words to the same effect, as the case shall happen, videlicet: BE it remembered, That on the day of in the year of our Lord A. B.having been brought before me, or having been duly summoned and not having appeared, or having appeared (as the case may happen), and having confessed, or being convicted (as the case may happen), of the charge exhibited against him, is duly convicted before me C. D. one of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county of [specifying the offence, and the time and place when and where the same was committed, as the case shall be]. Given under my hand and seal, the day and year aforesaid. V. Provided always, That no person shall be prosecuted for any such offence, unless such prosecution be begun within thirty days after the offence committed. No. I. 13 Geo. III. c. 32. VI. And be it further enacted, That so much of an Act, made in the twenty-third year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, intituled, An Act to continue several Laws for the better regulating of Pilots Proviso. for the conducting of Ships and Vessels from Dover, Deal, and Isle of Tha- 23 Geo. 2. so net, up the River of Thames and Medway; and for permitting Rum or far as the same Spirits of the British Sugar Plantations to be landed before the Duties of relates to the Excise are paid thereon; and to continue and amend an Act for preventing stealing of turFrauds in the Admeasurement of Coals within the City and Liberty of West- nips. minster, and several Parishes near thereunto; and to continue several Laws for preventing Exactions of Occupiers of Locks and Weirs apon the River Thames, Westward, and for ascertaining the Rates of Water Carriage upon the said River; and for the better Regulation and Government of Seamen in the Merchants Service; and also to amend so much of an Act made in the first Year of the Reign of King George the First, as relates to the better Preservation of Salmon in the River Ribble; and to regulate Fees in Trials at Assizes and Nisi Prius, upon Records issuing out of the Office of Pleas of the Court of Exchequer; and for the apprehending of Persons in any County or Place, upon Warrants granted by Justices of the Peace in any other County or Place; and to repeal so much of an Act, made in the twelfth Year of the Reign of King Charles the Second, as relates to the Time during which the Office of Excise is to be kept open each Day, and to appoint for how long Time the same shall be kept open upon each Day for the future; and to prevent the stealing or destroying of Turnips; and to amend an Act made in the second Year of his present Majesty, for better Regulation of Attorneys and Solicitors; so far as the same relates to the stealing of turnips, shall, from and after the commencement of this present Act, be Repealed. repealed. [No. II.] 42 George III. c. 67.-An Act to extend the Provisions of an Act made in the thirteenth Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An Act for repealing so much of an Act, made in the twenty-third Year of his late Majesty King George the Second, as relates to the preventing the stealing or destroying of Turnips, and for the more effectually preventing the stealing or destroying of Turnips, Potatoes, Cabbages, Parsnips, Pease, and Carrots, to certain other Field Crops, and to Orchards; and for amending the said Act.-[22d June 1802.] No. II. c. 67. WHEREAS an Act was passed in the thirteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, for the more effectually preventing the stealing or destroying of turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, pease, and car- 42 Geo. III. rots, growing or being in any garden, lands, or grounds open or inclosed; whereby certain penalties are inflicted upon persons offending against the said Act: And whereas it is expedient that the provisions of the said Act 13 G. 3. c. 32. ❝ should be extended and amended;' May it therefore please your Majesty Persons stealthat it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King's most excellent ing or deMajesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Act, if any person shall steal, take away, wilfully or maliciously pull up, injure, or destroy any turnips, potatoes, cabbages, parsnips, beans, pease, or carrots, growing or being in any garden, orchard, lands, or grounds, open or inclosed, and shall be thereof convicted before any justice or justices of the peace for the county or place where the offence shall be committed, in manner directed by the said recited Act, every such person so offending, and being convicted as aforesaid, shall forfeit and pay, upon such stroying turnips, &c. growing in any grounds open or inclosed, and convicted in manner directed, by recited Act, shall forfeit not exceeding No. II. c. 67. conviction, such sum or sums of money, not exceeding the sum of twenty 42 Geo. III. shillings over and above the value of the goods stolen, taken away, wilfully or maliciously pulled up, injured, or destroyed, as to such justice or justices shall seem meet; which penalties and forfeitures shall be recovered and applied in the same manner and upon the same evidence as the penalties and forfeitures imposed by the said recited Act are thereby directed to be recovered and applied; and in default of payment of the said penalty, such justice or justices shall commit the offender to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding two months, unless such penalty shall be sooner paid or satisfied. 20s. besides the value of the goods. PART VI.-CLASS XXXVIII. VAGRANTS.* [No. I.] 7 James I. c. 4.-An Act for the due Execution of divers Laws and Statutes heretofore made against Rogues, Vagabonds, and sturdy Beggars, and other lewd and idle Persons. [Inserted ante. Title Gaols and Houses of Correction, Class XXI. No. 7.] Some of our ancient statutes contain very severe regulations respecting vagrancy. By stat. 22 Henry VIII. c. 12. a vagrant, after being whipped, was to take an oath to return to the place where he was born, or where he has last dwelt before the punishment, for the space of three years, and there labour as a true man ought to do. Persons found a second time in a state of vagrancy were not only to be whipped, but to have the upper part of the gristle of the right ear clean cut off; for a third offence, the punishment was death. By 1 Edward VI. c. 3. a person adjudged to be a vagabond was to be marked with a hot iron on the breast with the mark of V. and adjudged to be a slave to the person who brought him for two years. The person was to keep him on bread, water, or small drink, and refuse meat, and cause him to work by beating, chaining, or otherwise, in any work or labour he pleased, be it ever so vile. If the slave absented himself for fourteen days, he was to be marked on the forehead or ball of the cheek with the sign of an S, and adjudged to be a slave to his master for ever: and if he ran away a second time, was to be deemed a felon. Any child of the age of five years, and under fourteen, might be adjudged to the apprehender till twenty-one if a female, and twenty-four if a male: the child to be treated as a slave, and punished with irons if he run away. If such slaves, either during their slavery, or after they were set free, beat or wounded their masters, or conspired with others so to do, they were to suffer as felons, unless the person injured would take the offender as a slave for ever.-The seve rity of this Act having prevented its being carried into execution, it was repealed by stat. 3 and 4. Edw. VI. c. 16. which ordained, that the ordering of vagrants should depend upon stat. 22 Henry VIII. By the 14 Eliz. c. 5. and 18 Eliz. c. 3. provisions were made for the punishment of vagabonds, by gaoling, boring through the ears, and death in the second degree. These were repealed by 35 Eliz. c. 7. By stat. 12 and 13 Chas. II. c. 18. ante. Title Poor, a provision is made, which is still in force, for subjecting incorrigible rogues to transportation. General directions concerning vagrants, conformably to the principles of the present system, were given by statutes 12 Anne, st. 2. c. 23: 13 Geo. II. c. 24. Vagrants. Class XXXVIII.] No. II. 17 Geo. II. c. 5. WHEREAS the number of rogues, vagabonds, beggars, and other idle and disorderly persons, daily increases, to the great scandal, loss, ' and annoyance of the Kingdom; For remedy thereof, be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That all persons who Particular threaten to run away and leave their wives or children to the parish; and offences and all persons who shall unlawfully return to such parish or place from whence their they have been legally removed by order of two justices of the peace, (1) punishments. without bringing a certificate from the parish or place whereunto they belong; and also persons who, not having wherewith to maintain themselves, live idle without employment, and refuse to work for the usual and common wages given to other labourers in the like work, in the parishes or places where they then are; and also all persons going about from door to door, or placing themselves in streets, highways, or passages, to beg or gather alms in the parishes or places where they dwell, shall be deemed idle and disorderly persons; and it shall and may be lawful for any justice of the peace to commit such offenders (being thereof convicted before him, by his own view, or by their own confession, or by the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses) to the house of correction, there to be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding one month: (2) And it shall and may be lawful for any person to apprehend and carry before a justice of the peace, any such persons going about from door to door, or placing themselves in streets, highways, or passages, to beg or gather alms in the parishes or places where they dwell; and if they shall resist, or escape from the person apprehending them, they shall be subject to the same punishment as rogues and vagabonds are made liable to by this Act: And it shall and may be lawful for the said justice, by warrant under his hand and seal, to order any overseer of the poor of the parish or place where such offender shall be apprehended, to pay the sum of five shillings to any person or persons in any such parish or place so apprehending them, for every offender so apprehended; which sum shall be allowed to such overseer in his account, he producing the justice's order, and a receipt under the hand of the person or persons to whom such sum was paid: But if such overseer shall neglect or refuse to pay the said sum, the said justice, on oath thereof made, may by warrant under his hand and seal, order the same to be levied by distress and sale of the goods of such overseer; and the overplus (if any) after the charges of such distress satisfied, shall (1) By stat. 13 and 14 Chas. II. c. 12, sec. 3. ante. Title Poor, persons removed returning of their own accord may be committed to the house of correction, there to be punished as a vagabond, or to a workhouse, to be employed in work or labour. A commitment for the offence of returning must be either according to the directions of that Act in the terms above specified; or, under the authority of this Act, to be kept to hard labour for a precise time, not exceeding a month; and a commitment until discharged by due course of law is illegal, and an action may be maintained against the justice; Baldwin v. A commitment for Blackmore, 1 Bur. 595. returning must state to what place the person returned; Rex v. Cole, 2 Bott. 683. The coming to reside on a tenement of 10l. a year is not within the Act, which only prevents returning in a state of vagrancy; R. v. Fill Offences of a higher nature. Five shillings reward for apprehending offenders. Penalty on overseer not eward. paying the ingley, 2 T. R. 709. It is an important question, whether a single woman, removed as actually chargeable on account of being with child under the authority of 35 Geo. III. c. 101, ante. Title Poor, is punishable as a vagrant for returning after her delivery? I have always acted upon the impression that she is not, as the cause of removal is done away. In Burn, Title Poor, there is a note expressing an opinion that it is not advisable to commit the party returning until after the expiration of the time of appeal. But to this opinion I cannot by any means subscribe, as the order is clearly legal in every thing depending upon the execution of it, until re. versed. I apprehend that a subsequent reversal of the order would be no defence to the overseer, in a proceeding for not receive ing the paupers. (2) See note to section 7, infra. No. II. 17 Geo. II. c. 5. Other offences, and their punishment. Proviso. Incorrigible rogues. 13 George I. c. 23. be returned to such overseer, who in such case shall not be allowed the sum so levied in his account. II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all persons going about as patent-gatherers or gatherers of alms, under pretences of loss by fire, or other casualty; or going about as collectors for prisons, gaols, or hospitals; all fencers and bearwards; all common players of interludes; and all persons who shall for hire, gain, or reward, act, represent, or perform, or cause to be acted, represented, or performed, any interlude, tragedy, comedy, opera, play, farce, or other entertainment of the stage (3), or any part or parts therein, not being authorized by law; all minstrels, jugglers; all persons pretending to be gypsies, or wandering in the habit or form of Egyptians, or pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palmestry, or like crafty science, or pretending to tell fortunes, or using any subtil craft to deceive and impose on any of his Majesty's subjects, or playing or betting at any unlawful games or plays; and all persons who run away and leave their wives or children, whereby they become chargeable (4) to any parish or place; and all petty chapmen and pedlars wandering abroad, not being duly licensed or otherwise authorised by law; and all persons wandering abroad, and lodging in alehouses, barns, outhouses, or in the open air, not giving a good account of themselves, and all persons wandering abroad, and begging, pretending to be soldiers, mariners, seafaring men, or pretending to go to work in harvest; and all other persons wandering abroad and begging, shall be deemed rogues and vagabonds within the true intent and meaning of this Act (5). III. Provided always, That this Act, or any thing herein contained, shall not extend, or be construed to extend, to soldiers wanting subsistence, having lawful certificates from their officers or the secretary at war, or to mariners or seafaring men licensed by some testimonial or writing under the hand and seal of some justice of the peace, setting down the time or place of their landing or discharge, and the place to which such soldiers or mariners are to pass, and the names of the chief towns or places through which they are to pass, and limiting the time of such their passage, while they continue in the direct way to the place to which they are to pass, and during the time so limited (6); or to any person or persons going abroad to work at any lawful work in the time of harvest, so as he, she, or they carry with him, her, or them a certificate in writing, signed by the minister and one of the churchwardens or chapel-wardens, or one of the overseers of the poor for the time being, of the parish, chapelry, or place where they shall respectively inhabit, declaring that he, she, or they hath or have a dwelling-house, or place there, in which he, she, or they inhabit. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all endgatherers offending against an Act made in the thirteenth year of his late Majesty King George the First, intituled, An Act for the better Regulation of the Woollen Manufacture, and for preventing Disputes among the Persons concerned therein; and for limiting a Time for prosecuting for the Forfeiture appointed by an Act of the twelfth Year of his Majesty's Reign, in case of Payment of the Workmen's Wages in any other Manner than in Money, being convicted of such offence; and all persons apprehended as rogues and vagabonds, and escaped from the persons apprehending them, or refusing to go before a justice or justices of the peace, or to be examined upon oath before such justice or justices, or refusing to be conveyed by any such pass as is herein after directed, or knowingly giving a false account of themselves on such examination, after warning given them of their punishment; and all rogues or vagabonds who shall break or escape out of any house of correction, before the expiration of the term for which they were committed or ordered to be confined by virtue of this Act; and all persons who after having been punished as rogues and vaga. (3) See ante. Title Players. (4) A commitment for running away and leaving the family to be maintained by the parish, is bad; R. v. Hall, 3 Bur. 1636. (5) By 27 Geo. III. c. 1, ante. Title Gam ing, persons selling illegal lottery tickets are to be deemed vagrants, and subject to the penalties of this Act. (6) See st. 32 Geo. III. c. 45. s. 7; and 43 Geo. III. c. 61, post, |