STATE PAPERS. 



299 



such residence was completed, a 

 deposition of the fact might be 

 made by the p irty before two jus- 

 tices, after notice given to the 

 overseers. Your committee are 

 persuaded, that if service was re- 

 qiiiretl to be combined with resi- 

 dence, it would not only render 

 the provision complicated, but 

 would prevent a settlement being 

 acquired within either of the pa- 

 rislies in which the person serves 

 or resides. And it is Tcconunended, 

 that no person, from a day to be 

 named, shall acquire a settlement, 

 by renting a tenement, serving an 

 office, hiring and service fi>r a 

 year, apprenticeship or estate. 

 With respect to such poor persons 

 who, not being natives of Eng- 

 land, maybe without a settlement, 

 the influx of them to particular 

 places has been so great and op- 

 pre-sive, that the committee think 

 provision should be made for pass- 

 ing such persons, upon their ap- 

 plication for parochial relief, to 

 the neatest ports or places, from 

 which they may return to the.r 

 native country ; but tnat any na- 

 tive of the British Kmpire shall 

 acquire a settle inent in any parish 

 in which he may have resided five 

 years without being chargeable. 



It is not to be .supposed that 

 such <an abrogation in future of 

 the 13th and 14th Car. II. and all 

 that has been built upon that sta- 

 tute, can be wholly exempt from 

 inconvenience : but the only ob- 

 jection that has appeared entitled 

 to seriousconsidetation, is founded 

 on an apprehension that it might 

 tend to the reduction of the num- 

 ber of cottages, a consequence 

 whiclj would l)e undoubtedly inuch 

 to be lamented; but the inconve- 

 nience of driving labourers to a 



distance from the farms which 

 they cultivate, would tend, it is 

 hojied, to counteract the evil; for 

 it is chiefly from motives of this 

 sort, that such tenements are in 

 many instances at present \ipheld. 

 Jt wdl, however, be for the H^iuse 

 to consider whether the advantages 

 resulting from such a cliange are 

 not calculated to counterbalance 

 this, which the committee deem 

 the only substantial objection to 

 the alteration ; recollecti/ig always, 

 that inconveniences must be in- 

 separable from such a compulsory 

 provision for the poor, as exists 

 in this part of the United King- 

 dom alone. 



Youi committee, however, may 

 cite, in supi^ort of tlieir opinion, 

 the authority of the ac urate and 

 judicious author of the History of 

 the Poor Laws, who says, " It 

 must be owned, the statute of the 

 13th and 14th Car. II. hath ex- 

 ceeded, perhaps, the due bounds. 

 If alterations should be thought 

 requisite, it is submitted, whether 

 it might not be reasonable to re- 

 duce the settlement to where it 

 was before that statute, to wit, to 

 the place of birth, or of inha- 

 bitancy for one or more years. 

 For so long as this was the plain 

 simple settlement, there were very 

 few dispvites in the courts of law 

 about settlements. It was the easy 

 method of obtaining a settlement 

 by lesidency of forty days, that 

 brought parishes into a state of 

 war against the poor, and against 

 one another; and caused the sub- 

 sequent restrictive statutes to he 

 made ; all which would fall, of 

 course, by reducing t!ic settlement 

 to its ancient (and indeed most 

 naturid) standard." 



To state the advantnges attend- 

 ing 



