The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-05-01 00:00:00

SETTLEMENT OF POOR.

air. S. BOURNE said, that in rising to move for
leave to bring in a Bill to amend the Laws of Settle-
meld of the Poor, he had not, in so doing, acted on
his own ripen sin, but solely under the aathority of
trie Report r.f the Committee on the Poor Laws,
made in the heat Session. Ile need not rensiasel the
House, that the first law respecting the Settlement
of the Poor WOO passed in the time of Quern Eliza-
beth—the first law that conferred a power of re-
moving certain descriptions of paupers to the place
of their birth, or last settlement. That law remain-
ed mothered for, near a century, till the 13th rod
141 h Charles 11. From trading the Reports of the
titte, and the opinions of the Judges, it seems to
base been a matter of doubt, what time was neces-
sary, under the former statute, to gain a settle-
meld. The latter statute was the looti• of the pre-
scut law of settlement'. h confined labouring per-
awls to their uwie parishes—than winch not hisig
could bee welder encroachment oil liberty, or more
oppressive. It declared a legal settlement rte Le
gniced by birth us residence, service or appren-
ticeship fur forty slays ; but empowering the
overseers to re iiiii ve all intruding with'', that
time., if likely to become chargeable, tittles* they
settled in a tenement of the }early vilu.! of 101.
The statute of 1 James 11. obliged the person set-
tling to give notice iii writing to the pared, ofhcer,
before a settlemetst could be acquired; but that
law bad not bran acted on. But the mils anal
leardahips of the statute of Charles 11. a ere so
great, that it was deems& esreqwr to toreelme the
Bth and 9th %Valiant 111. in alleviate them, and
by it poor persons were permitted to floss into Hoy
parish, no producing a certificate to tie metserra
of that parish, of settlement in another; and eerie
not reinoveable tiil they were actuall) abort cable.
'Fite law remained iu this state till the tear 1793,
when Sir Edward iii a Bill which
Was paa•eli ion, a law, and a law of none bene-
ficial e neequences to the lower orders Ili to :my
enacted for a eel)! I period. It enacted that
sin person should be removed tiel he became raisin/-
I!, chargeable. It delivered the pour man from the
dotainiou of palish officers. But not tvitlisiiiiithieg
the improvement, the law of settlement was still iu
many poiuts extremely defective. The moment
a labourer became entitled to relief, he could not
properly receive it, if he was not in his own
The t a man became infirm or diseased, he
was to lee removed to his own parish, in perhaps a
distant part of the kingdom, when least able to hear
a ftlHOWal; that was one of the evils of the existing
law. Besides. it was s i itilinite source of
the got-stools arising on it were que:stioiss
both of law and fact. It hall been said that so
many casts OH the Poor Laws Ii set been decided.
that any new undecided point of law could 'lilt
arise. The fact. however, war mot so ; tier, points
were constantly being referred to the Court of
King's Bench. The questions of fact were •
suitable. Lest year there were no Its. than 4.700
appeals from Quarter Sessions to the Court of King's
Bench. The holding of a tenement worth la a year
constituting a right to settlement, was also a fertile
source of disputed cases—es were also service and
apprenticeship. %Vital hr said was taken I. the
Report of last S:.ssitni. But iiiigailoH Ma% not the
predominant evil—the great paramount one was,
that a person might be rr tttttttttt the instant he be-
came chargeable, to a parish iss,as remote part of the
kingdom, where, when he recovered his health, lie
might be quite unable to earn a subsistence,
mere-
ly because he happened to have gained a settlement
in the latter in early life. The country was now
generally sensible of the incooveniences of the law,
and earnestly desired an alteration in it; hut to
take away the law of settlement altogether, would
be to mistake the mode of applying a remedy.
It could not be tequieed, that one parish should
be obliged to support all the poor that might block
to it, and it would introduce a system of yrs.:limey.
A Hatloll4l fund had been recommended by persons
who had bestowed considerable attention to the
subject, and might he supposed qualified to form a
correct judgment on it. Ile could not agree with
them in thinking such a plan practicable. It would
encourage the practice of fraud, through motives of
humanity —is national fund was impossible to be so
applied. The poor inuet be ultimately attached
to the parishes where they were entitled to relief.
If this title were to be estaldisheal by birth, that
would, in a few years, put an end to manly all liti-
gation—hut then, it would b, mast pregnant the
evil already complanied of—sod this objection
against it was completely decisive. The next
clams they could come to, was that of rest-
' dente. The first Act, making residence a title to