432 APPENDIX II. POOR LAW 



giver. It was a moral income-tax from which no person escaped, according 

 to his ability and substance. Whether the payment was urged as a Christian 

 obligation, or enforced as a duty which no one had the right to refuse, or 

 demanded by the civil power as a legal liability, it preserved this universal 

 character, universal both as to persons and as to sources of income. 



Gradually the optional charity passed into compulsory alms-giving, and 

 finally into local taxation. Because this last stage was reached in the latter 

 years of the reign of Elizabeth, it is usual to say that the Poor Law dates 

 from 1601. In principle there was undoubtedly an important change. But 

 in practice it had come to matter little whether the universal obligation to 

 contribute, which attached to all persons according to their ability, was 

 enforced by religious, or by legal, penalties. For agriculturists, the really 

 serious change came later, when the universal income-tax raised from all 

 inhabitants became a rate levied upon occupiers in proportion to the annual 

 value of the immovable property which they occupy. It grew still more 

 important, when practically all other rates were levied according to the annual 

 value of property rateable to the Poor Bate. 



The charitable relief of the poor was never a national, but always a local 

 burden. Hence some law of settlement was necessary. When in 1388 

 (12 Ric. II. c. 7) " beggars impotent to serve " were confined to the places 

 where they happened to be at the passing of the Act, local provision was 

 obviously needed for their support. For a time, the amis of the faithful 

 provided adequate funds. When, however, not only " beggars impotent to 

 serve," but " valiant vagabonds," and " able-bodied vagrants " were saddled 

 on their birthplace or last permanent abode, 1 their maintenance imposed a 

 heavy burden on parochial charity. Voluntary effort begins to flag and 

 compulsion to be applied. The machinery is still the alms-box ; the donors 

 are still all inhabitants according to their general ability. But if any parish 

 fails to provide sufficient funds to succour the impotent poor, or to keep 

 " sturdy vagabonds and valiant beggars " to continual labour, the defaulting 

 parish was to forfeit 20s. a month. 2 



Charity did not, however, provide the whole funds. In the legislation of 

 Edward VI. a distinction begins to be drawn between the actual support 

 of the poor and the expenses incidental to their maintenance. Thus the 

 money administered in direct relief was still to be raised by charitable dona- 

 tions. But the costs of removing the poor to their birthplace or last permanent 

 abode, or the initial sums expended in providing " convenient houses " for 

 the impotent, 3 or the expenses of building Houses of Correction, 4 are to be 

 compulsorily raised by means of existing methods of taxation. 



The growing burden of poor relief, the inadequacy of the voluntary prin- 

 ciple, perhaps, also, the relaxation of any sense of the moral obligation of 

 charity, are shown in Elizabethan legislation. Alms-giving is abandoned 

 for compulsory provision. In the Act of 1572 (14 Eliz. c. 6) the voluntary 

 principle of charity survives only in name. The justices are to number the 

 poor, calculate the weekly sums required for their support " by their good 

 discretions," tax and assess " all and every inhabitant," register the names 

 of the taxpayers, and the amount of their taxation, appoint collectors, as well 

 as overseers of the poor. If any person, thus taxed and assessed, " obstinately 

 refuses to give towards the help and relief of the poor," or " wilfully dis- 

 courages others from so charitable a deed," he is to be brought before two 

 justices, and committed to gaol until he is " contented " with their order. 

 Finally, in 1597 (39 Eliz. c. 3) the appeal to charity is practically thrown 



i E.IJ. 19 Hen. VII. c. 12 (1503-4) ; 22 Hen. VIII. c. 12 (1530-1). 

 227 Hen. VIII. c. 25 (1535-6). 



* 1 Ed. VI. c. 3 (1547), and 3 and 4 Ed. VI. c. 16 (1549). 

 nSEliz. o. 3(1575-6). 



