no subsequent act of his life would ever free him from that settlement. The statute 9 & 10 Vict. c. 66., preventing removal of the poor, in certain cases of long-continued residence, will be considered in the next chapter. In the meantime we may say of this law of settlement, that it is substantially as bad now as it was fifty years ago; and that, so far as its operations on the poor is concerned, it still deserves all the reprobation which was justly bestowed on it by those who, in the eighteenth century, pointed out its impolicy and injustice. the master having been induced to take the child by a fee of 5l., provided by some charity funds in the hands of the churchwardens. The child served and resided with his master more than forty days in St. L. M.; fell into society like that to which little Oliver Twist was exposed; was charged with felony, convicted, and imprisoned. His indenture was hereupon cancelled; and, on his discharge from prison, he wandered back to the parish of St. J. C. within six months of the day of his original binding: whereupon an order of removal was obtained for conveying him to the parish of St. L. M., in which, by virtue of the operation of the parish officers of St. J. C., a settlement had been created. The appeal was against this order of removal, which, however, on the trial, was properly confirmed, the present law undoubtedly sanctioning such a binding. CHAP. XIII. THE PAUPERISM AND POOR LAWS OF ENGLAND, SINCE THE PASSING OF THE POOR LAW AMENDMENT ACT, IN 1834. Hocc' est, advorso nixantem trudere monte LUCRETIUS. SLIGHTLY as the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 interfered with the principle of previous legislation, nevertheless, the creation of a central board able to repress administrative abuses, effected a great and immediate reduction in the sum annually expended in relieving the poor. The outlay of 6,790,7997. in 1833, was reduced, for the year 1837, to 4,171,6921., the price of wheat being nearly the same sum, 52s. 9d. the quarter, in each of those years. But even Gilbert's Act, 22 George III. c. 83., and its administrative reforms, seems to have been followed, at first, by a considerable diminution in the expense of maintaining the poor, although the provisions of that statute involved a wide and dangerous departure from the principle of the statute of Elizabeth. The Poor Law Commissioners, created by the statute of 1834, at first caused the workhouse test to be applied with great severity; and perhaps the sudden and great diminution in the cost of pauperism, which ensued, was, in part, owing to the severe application of that test. The merely "official pauperism" of relief lists, must vary with the nature of the conditions on which such relief is given. In the Third Annual Report of the Poor Law Commissioners, it is stated, in reference to the reduced expenditure of the previous year, that the new system of administration had passed through the ordeal of an extremely severe winter, and of a general rise in the cost of provisions; and latterly, moreover, through a year's poor-rate amounts to only 2d. in the pound on the rental; eight in which it varies from 24d. to 7d.; while, in eight other parishes of the union, where the burden of poor-rate is greatest, it varies from 1s. to 2s. 3d. in the pound. In cases where the owners of land have had the courage to disregard the tendencies of an unjust law, and adequately to discharge their duty to the poor labourer, by providing him with a decent cottage, the happiest effect has been produced. "To give an instance," says the late steward to the Earl of Scarborough, "of the effect upon the poor of a little kindness and attention, we rebuilt, in Wellow *, eight cottages, that were in a most miserable state: we made them clean and comfortable, and it seemed quite to change the nature of the inhabitants; from being the most dirty and wretched people they became neat and orderly, and took a great pride in showing you a clean house. They told me, that before they had nothing to cling to, they had not even a floor to clean.” † The dreadful condition of the cottages of agricultural labourers in respect of bedroom accommodation, leads not unfrequently, in courts of criminal justice, to investigations of cases unfit for all publication. More than once it has occurred to me to hear Mr. Justice Coleridge state, when performing his judicial functions, that a large proportion of crime, in his opinion, is produced by this want of proper cottage accommodation for the labouring classes. The same learned judge has said, more recently, in addressing a Labourers' Friends Association, "From my own experience as a judge, the painful conviction has been forced upon my mind, that very much. of the crime which disgraces our country, is mainly attributable to the mixture of sexes and of ages in the dwellings of the poor; a practice that debases and demoralises the human mind, and which, unless counteracted, must effectually neutralise every effort made towards the elevation or improvement of the people.” ‡ * Wellow is in or on the verge of Sherwood Forest, and in or on the verge of the region of " the Dukery" mentioned above. Reports to the Poor Law Board, 1850, p. 133. I quote from the Dean of Hereford's Suggestive Hints, p. 169. The present Dean of Hereford *, after justly observing that this opinion, sanctioned by such authority and experience, is entitled to the highest attention, himself avows, that the opinion "is one to which every inquiring mind must come, that has witnessed the low and degrading habits to which such practices lead." Such are some of the physical and moral evils afflicting the daily life of the agricultural labourer, throughout England, and which are mainly owing to the law of settlement and removal of the poor. * Ibid. p. 169. CHAP. XV. ON THE NECESSITY OF A TOTAL REPEAL OF THE LAW OF Cuncta prius tentata: sed immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum, ne pars sincera trahatur. OVID. MANY of the evils under which the whole country has long suffered, and which arise mainly from the law of settlement and removal of the poor, have presented themselves for consideration in the course of the previous pages. But the most striking, and most extensively injurious, of all the evil influences of that law remain to be pointed out; and will be found in the necessary effect of such a law on the distribution and wages of labour throughout the country. If a farmer, acquainted only with the neighbourhood of manufacturing regions of the North, occupying a farm in Nottinghamshire, or North Lincolnshire, or the West Riding of Yorkshire, were suddenly made acquainted with the condition of an agricultural labourer in Devon, or Somerset, or Hants, or any of our ten selected counties of pure agriculture and unmitigated operation of the law of settlement, he would hardly be able to credit, still less to understand, what he would find. The week's wage of the labourer which, in the one part of the country, is 11s., or 12s., or 13s., becomes, in the other, only 78., or 88., or 9s. The work done is the same in both districts; and if the necessities of existence had anything to do with the matter, the necessities of the man who receives the lower sum are the greater.* The effect of the law of settlement and removal affords the only explanation of this remarkable state of things. The natural and necessary tendency of such a law to produce *For instance, the price of fuel is much higher in the Eastern, Southern, and Western districts, than in the Northern. |