STATE PAPERS. 



^95 



ance corrosponiling to the I'ate of 

 such pension ; and the directors 

 and governors of Chelsea and 

 Greenwich respectively should di- 

 rect the quarterly issue of any 

 pension so assigned to be paid to 

 such overseer, in reimbursement 

 .of the weekly advance, under 

 proper regulations to be made for 

 that purpose. In the one case, 

 the parish will be reimbursed the 

 sums advanced, as in justioti it 

 ought to be ; and in the other, the 

 temptation to extravagance being 

 removed, the want perhajjs will 

 not be created. 



Having thus considered the de- 

 scription of persons to be relieved, 

 either by employment or pecuniaiy 

 assistance, it remains to your 

 committee to direct the attention 

 of the House to the place in which 

 such persons were respectively to 

 be so relieved or set to work, em- 

 bracing what is termed the Law 

 of Settlement; which, if not the 

 most important branch of the 

 subject in other respects, yet, as it 

 affects the comforts, the happiness, 

 and even the liberty of the gieat 

 mass of our population, is of the 

 highest interest. 



From the reign of Richard H. 

 impotent beggars w'ere directed 

 to repair to the place of their 

 birth ; afterwards, to tlie place 

 wheie they had last dwelled or 

 were best known, or were born, 

 or had "made last their abode by 

 the space of three years.' And 

 such continued to be the law at 

 that period, when funds for the 

 relief of the poor were lirst r.iised 

 by a com])ulsory assessment ; a 

 provision which rendered it still 

 more important to define cor- 

 iiTtly, wiuit [)ersons weie locally 

 entitled to partake of tiiis local 



fund; and the 14th Eliz. conse- 

 quently authorised the removal of 

 persons " to the place where they 

 weie born, or most conversant for 

 the space of three years next 

 before." And this enactment ap- ■ e 

 pears to have remained unaltered^ -•. 

 by any act of the legislature, ex- 

 cept in the case of rogues and 

 vagabonds, who were to be sent i 

 to their last dwelling, if they had 

 any ; if not, to the place where 

 they last dwelt by the space of 

 one year ; though decisions of the 

 courts of law seem to have con- 

 sidered a mf)nth's abode, or a re- 

 sidence of forty days, in some 

 cases sufficient to gain a settle- 

 ment. The doubts which, how- 

 ever, existed on this subject, were 

 removed by 13 and 14 Car. II. 

 c. 12, which established a new 

 system, imposing a restraint on 

 the circulation of labour, essen- 

 tially affecting the domestic com- 

 forts and happiness of the poor, 

 and giving rise to various sub- 

 sequent provisions, which hav« 

 become the fruitful source of liti- 

 gation. 



The statuteenacts, that, "wheie- 

 as Ijy reason of some defects in tiie 

 law, poor people arc not restrained 

 from going from one pari.^h to 

 another, and tlierefore do endea- 

 vour to settle themselves in those 

 parishes where there is the best 

 stock, the largest commons or 

 wastes to build cottages, and the 

 most woods for them to burn and 

 destioy ; and when they have con- 

 sume<l it, then to anotlier parish, 

 and at last beconie rogues and 

 vagabonds, to the great discou- 

 lagement of parishes to provide . 

 slock, when it is liable to be.de- 

 >'oured I>y strangers : Be it tliere- 

 fore enacted by tlic autliority afoie- 



said. 



