The Sun.
London, England, 1819-08-11 00:00:00

Committee therefore have added to this Report I
an-eligible form in which these accounts and lists
Play be exhibited, in the hope that this practice
may be very generally adopt ea, even without a
compulsory enactment, to .which however it may
`yet be,wise to resort ; and further, to direct that
the clerk of each subdivision meeting of magis-
trates should • form an abstract of the total ex-
pence incurred in each year, for the support of
the poor within such subdivision, and return the
_same to the clerk of the peace of the county at
the next ensuing quarter sessions, who should be
required to publish such abstracts from all the
subdivisions of the county annually, together
with the amount of charge of each subdivision
in
the preceding year, so as to afford a comparative
view of the diminution or increase of each respec-
tively ; and should make an annual return of the
aggregate expeuce ot each county to the Secre-
tary of State for the home Department, for the
Purpose of bringing the same under the view of
Parliament.
In order to prevent litigation in cases of re-
moval, a practice has been in some instances
adopted by Magistrates df causing a communica-
tion to be made personally, or by letter (whiCh it
would be extremely difficult to regulate by law)
to she parish to which the removal is proposed to
be made, of the day on which. the 'adjudication of
the Settlement will take place; a fair hearing of
both parties commonly ensues, and the expence
of
an apperters!lluently prevented.
ley ,itch provisions, and more especially by the
establishment. of select vestries and assistant
overseers, your Committee are, sanguine in their
hopes, that themischief resulting from the reli-
ance on parish support may be ,in some degree
palliated, and .that the loose and, careless Otitis
vistiation ofethe law,, by which it has been 'ag7
gravated, will be essentially corrected.
But this is not all that your 'Committee 06,
requisite to secure the Kingdom' from the cala-
mities that most attend the continued.progrese df
this evil ; and they do not believe that such Se-
curity can be obtained, .as long as by an erroWe-
out construction, as.your tenumittee believe,
the Act of Elizabeth, parishes are supposed liable
to be callednpon to effect the impracticablee put-,
piese Of finding employment ior all who may at
any time require it; they believe the ill conse-
toences which have arisen front this practice are
most palpable, and most mischievous, and they
are therefore peculiarly anxious to recal the most
'serious attention of the House to the construc-
tion which has been put practically on this part
.of
the statute. •
Pecuniary raja' seems,,indiaputably to have been
oisly contemplated by this
.Act.for " the lame,
impotent, old, blind, and such. Other among then~
being poor and not ableao work, and also for
putting out children to be apprentices;" hitt Abe
direction to " set to work all persons having
oteaus to maintain them, and, using no ordinary or
daily' trade of life to .get:i heir living, by," has
been acted upon as if it were a clear authority for
requiring the parish to .find 'employment for .tell
avito want it. .The Committee in 1817 (location-
ed.the soundness of this construction, in the fad-
lowing.teross : " If the object of the Statute was
merely to. set, to hard labour such.. idle wandering
persons as might.be found in a state nearly ap
proachiugao that of vagrancy, such an object
might possibly be carried into eftect with a fairhope of beneficial consequences ;tut it the object
of the Statute wt-s (as it is now interpreted), that
the State is to find work for all who in the pre-
sent, and in all succeeding tine may require it,
your Committee are of opinion, that this is a con-
dition which it is not in the power of any law 'to
fulfil ; what number of persons can be employed
in labour, must depend absolutely-upon the amount
of
,the funds which 'alone are applicable to the
maintenance of labour." The Committee pro-
ceeded to illustrate their position by a traits of
reasoning, which will be found in the 14th page
of that Report.
The further consideration and investigation of
this subject has confirmed their opinions ; for
your Committee are not aware that the Courts of
Law have at any-time construed the Act accord-
ing to this practice ; indeed the decision referred
to in the former Report (p, 20.), in which it was
held that an order of maintenance is not valid
without it 'adjudges the party seeking relief to be
impotent, leads_ to an opposite conclusion. If
referencebe had also to the authority of early
miters, or to those who in modern times have
, bestowed the most attention on this subject, the
same inference would follow. In a work which
has been lately cited by au able anonymous author
intituled "'A Description of England, by W.
Harrison," and which, as published in the Clan-
•oicles of Holingsbed, is brought down to the year
1586, it is stated that " the poor are divided into
three, sorts, So that sonte are poor by impotency,
as the ratuctli.,.. ,4,aa, the aged, blind, or lame,
and the diseased person that is judged to be in-
curable ; the second are poor bycasualty, 'as the
wounded .soldiere.the decayed householder, and
,the sick person visited with grievous and painful
•diseases ; the third consistetb of, thriftless poor,
as the rioterahat heti; consumed all,,the vagabond
that will abide •no where, but tunneth up and
down from place-tO place (as it were seeking
work, and finding none) and finally, the
.rogue, &c.
" The two first sorts, that is to say, the poor
-by impotency, andi the poor by casualty, are the
trite poor, indeed, and for whom' the word doth
bind its to make some daily provision ; there is
order taker' throughout every parish in the 'calm
that weekly collection shall be matte for their help
and sustentation ; but they refuse to be sup-
,ported hy,thia benefit of the law, apd will rather
.endeavour, by going to and fro',„ to maintain their
.idle trades, then they are parcel of the third sort,
,atid so, instead of courteous refreshing at home,
.are. often corrected with sharp execution, and whip
.ot justice abroad-."
••.. Now this classification of the poor, in the very
sAge of-. Elizabeth, leads us to the conclusion, that
she persons designed by the terms, " using no
ordinary or daily trade of life to get their living
'by," were, as the Committee of 1817 supposed,
hit iltierl class who are deemed " tioitticis poor,
whee,,,it.would seem, were made to labour
•as long as tbs.y continued wiciin their. own pa-
-1 but it they left it, were subject to the ...vete
penalties then tuflicted on 'vagrancy and-would

• Davettant'a Es.,ays.
t Sur F. M. Eileh on- the state W the Poor.