lay out their own money in purchaſing materials for repairs, where there is not ſufficient within the pariſh, and ſhall be reimburſed by a rate, to be allowed at a ſpecial ſeſſions. 4. In caſe the perſonal labour of the pariſh be not ſufficient, the ſurveyors, with the content of the quarter ſeſſions, may levy a rate (not exceeding 6d. in the pound) on the pariſh, in aid of the perſonal duty; for the due application of which they are to account upon oath. As for turnpikes, which are now univerſally introduced in aid of ſuch rates, and the law relating to them, theſe depend entirely on the particular powers granted in the ſeveral road acts, and therefore have nothing to do with this compendium of general law.
VI. I proceed therefore, laſtly, to conſider the overſeers of the poor; their original, appointment, and duty.
The poor of England, till the time of Henry VIII, ſubſiſted entirely upon private benevolence, and the charity of welldiſpoſed chriſtians. For, though it appears by the mirrour[1], that by the common law the poor were to be "ſuſtained by parſons, rectors of the church, and the pariſhioners; ſo that none of them dye for default of ſuſtenance;" and though by the ſtatutes 12 Ric. II. c. 7. and 19 Hen. VII. c. 12. the poor are directed to abide in the cities or towns wherein they were born, or ſuch wherein they had dwelt for three years (which ſeem to be the firſt rudiments of pariſh ſettlements) yet till the ſtatute 26 Hen. VIII c. 26. I find no compulſory method chalked out for this purpoſe: but the poor ſeem to have been left to ſuch relief as the humanity of their neighbours would afford them. The monasteries were, in particular, their principal reſource; and, among other bad effects which attended the monaſtic inſtitutions, it was not perhaps one of the leaſt (though frequently eſteemed quite otherwiſe) that they ſupported and fed a very numerous and very idle poor, whoſe ſuſtenance depended upon what was daily diſtributed in alms at the gates of the religious houſes. But, upon the total diſſolution of theſe, the inconvenience of thus encou-
- ↑ c. 1. §. 3.
