466 P K L A W S formal apprenticing instead of placing out of children. The Act contains provisions for the rendering of accounts by the overseers. The foregoing short review of legislation exhibits the very gradual change by which the maintenance of the poor became much more a temporal than a spiritual concern. So gradual was this change that in some places the law was neglected and in others abused. The material changes in legislation subsequent to the reign of Elizabeth must now be briefly alluded to. James I. The efforts culminating in the statute of 1601 were not altogether attended with satisfactory results. At the end of eight years the Act 7 James I. c. 4 recited various defects. " Many wilful people finding that they, having children, have some hope to have relief from the parish wherein they dwell, and being able to labour, and thereby to relieve themselves and their families, do nevertheless run away out of their parishes and leave their families upon the parish." Again, ajid more prominently, " hereto fore divers good and necessary laws and statutes have been made and provided for the creation of houses of correction, for the suppressing and punishing of rogues, vagabonds, and other idle, vagrant, and disorderly persons ; which laws have not wrought so good effect as was expected, as well for that the said houses of correction have not been built according as was intended, as also for that the said statutes have not been duly and severely put in execution, as by the said statutes were appointed." r It was also convenient that the masters or governors of the houses of correction should have some fit allowance and maintenance " for their travel and care " to be had in the service, and also "for the relieving of such as shall happen to be weak and sick in their custody, and that the subjects of this realm should in no sort be over-charged, to raise up money for stocks to set such on work as shall be committed to their custody," and that there " shall be the more care taken by all such masters of the houses of correction that, when the country hath been at trouble and charge to bring all disorderly persons to their safe keeping, then they shall perform their duties in that behalf." Another grievance related to bastard children chargeable to the parish, of which more below. The remedy for these and other grievances was putting in execution " all laws and statutes now in force made for the creating and building of houses of correction, and for punishing of rogues, vagabonds, and other wandering and idle persons," and providing restraints in the same direc tion, and for the efficient discharge of duties of treasurers, constables, and other officers in rendering accounts. In 1630 a royal commission was issued to inquire into the neglect of the poor laws, and directions given for their enforcement. Common- By a Commonwealth statute of 1656, reciting that "the wealth, number of wandering, idle, loose, dissolute, and disorderly persons is of late much increased by reason of some defects in the laws, and statutes heretofore made and provided for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars (they being seldom taken begging), by means whereof divers robberies, burglaries, thefts, insurrections, and other misdemeanours have been occasioned, all and every idle, loose, and dissolute persons found and taken within the commonwealth of England, vagrant and wandering from their usual place of living or abode, and [who] shall not have such good and sufficient cause or business for such his or their travelling or wandering" as justices of the peace or mayors or other chief officers approved, were adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, within the statute 39 Eliz. c. 4, although not found begging ; at the same time fiddlers and minstrels were also adjudged rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars ; and by a statute of the same year persons having no visible estate, profes sion, or calling answerable to their rate of living expenses were indictable. Soon after the Restoration attention was directed to the Charik existing state of the law and some of its defects. In H- 1662 the statute 13 & 14 Charles II. c. 12 recites that " the necessity, number, and continued increase of the poor, not only within the cities of London and Westminster, with the liberties of each of them, but also through the whole kingdom of England and dominion of Wales, is very great and exceeding burthensome, being occasioned by reason of some defects in the law concerning the settling of the poor, and for want of a due provision for the regulations of relief, and employment in such parishes or places where they are legally settled, which doth enforce many to turn incorrigible rogues, and others to perish for want, together with the neglect of the faithful execution of such laws and statutes as have formerly been made for the apprehending of rogues and vagabonds, and for the good of the poor," "For remedy whereof and for the preventing the perishing of any of the poor, whether young or old, for want of such supplies as may be necessary," numerous additional provisions were enacted. In the first place, " by reason of some defects in the law, poor people are not restrained from going from one parish to another, and therefore do endeavour 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 destroy, and, when they have con sumed it, then to another parish, and at last become rogues and vagabonds, to the great discouragement of parishes to provide stocks, where it is liable to be devoured by strangers." Justices of the peace, upon com plaint by the parish officers, within forty days after any such person s coming to settle as before mentioned in any tenement under the yearly value of 10, were empowered by warrant to remove such person to the parish where he was last legally settled either as a native, householder, sojourner, apprentice, or servant for not less than forty days, unless he gave sufficient security for the discharge of the parish. In this way the law of settlement arose, with its numer ous complications and modifications engrafted by subse quent legislation on this its original trunk. The statute of Charles, however, allowed ( 3) any person " to go into any county, parish, or place to work in the time of harvest, or any time to work at any other work," provided he took with him " a certificate from the minister of the parish and one of the parish officers, that he or they have a dwelling house or place in which he or they inhabit, and have left wife and children, or some of them, there (or otherwise, as the condition of the persons shall require), and is declared an inhabitant or inhabitants there." In such case, if the person did not return to his parish when his work was finished, or if he fell sick, it was not " counted a settlement," and he was therefore removable, and, wilfully refusing, was punishable as a vagabond by being sent to the house of correction, or to a public work house, provision for which and for corporate bodies in relation to the poor in London and Westminster, and places within the so-called bills of mortality, was made at the same time. Funds raised for the relief of the poor in the city of London were, however, previously in the hands of a corporate body for that purpose. The same statute, reciting that " the inhabitants of the counties of Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, the bishopric of Durham, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, and many other counties in England and Wales, by reason of the largeness of the parishes
within the same," could not reap the benefit of the Act