THE RELIEF AND CARE OF DEPENDENTS 489
the poor. Such burial is at the expense of the town or county, according as the town or county system is in use.
One further point remains to be spoken of. It is the legal disabilities of paupers their civic relations as altered by being public charges. Usually a person loses no rights what- ever upon becoming dependent. Frequently, on the other hand, he is relieved from working the roads, or paying the poll or other taxes. However, in eight states " paupers " are explicitly disfranchised. 1 In a few other states a payment of a tax is a requisite for the exercise of the franchise. This may exclude paupers from the right of suffrage ; but it is more probable that it merely causes their taxes to be paid by those interested in political affairs, and, therefore, does not disfran- chise them.
H. A. MILLIS.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.
1 Massachusetts (Amendment iii to the constitution) ; New Hampshire (art. 27, const., and I, 2, chap. 31); Maine (i, art. ii, const.); New Jersey (i, art. ii, const.) ; West Virginia (i, art iv, const., and Act of 1893) ; Delaware (i, art. iv, const.) ; South Carolina(Acl of Dec. 17, 1887); and Texas (art. 1687).
In the New Hampshire law a pauper is defined to be one who has received public relief within ninety days. Similarly, in Maine (7 M. 497), the court has held that, in the spirit of the law, one is a " pauper " who has received public relief within ninety days. On the other hand, the court in Massachusetts has held (124 Mass., 596) that one is a 44 pauper " only when in the receipt of public relief, and that, therefore, one cannot be debarred from voting if he has received relief within any specified time, unless that relief is still continuing at the time of the election. In South Carolina the law dis- franchises only those in the almshouses and asylums. In Texas, as the law applies to those " supported by any county," it might be similarly interpreted.
