perhaps be formed by a reference to the sums expended in litigation, and the removal of paupers at different periods. These sums, amounted in 1776, to 35,072l; in 1786, to 35,791.; in 1803, 190,072/; in 1815, 287,000l. And it appears that the appeals against orders of removal, entered at the four last quarter sessions, amount to about 4,700l. Great however as the inconvenience confessedly is of this constant and increasing litigation, there are still other effects of the law of settlement, which it is yet more important to correct; such are the frauds so frequently committed by those who are intrusted to prevent even the probability of a burthen being brought on their parish; and such are the measures, justifiable undoubtedly in point of law, which are adopted very generally in many parts of the kingdom, to defeat the obtaining a settlement: the most common of these latter practices is that of hiring labourers for a less period than a year; from whence it naturally and necessarily follows, that a labourer may spend the season of his health and industry in one parish, and be transferred in the decline of life to a distant part of the kingdom. If the means cannot be found of wholly removing both the mischief of litigation, and the hardship that in particular and not unfrequent instances attends the operation of this part of the law, still the committee hope much may be done to mitigate both. The entire abrogation of the law of settlement has indeed been suggested, and the suggestion has generally been accompanied with a proposal to maintain the poor from a national

fund, in order to relieve particular places from the pressure which might in that case arise from an accumulated number of paupers. But believing (for reasons which have been stated in a former part of this Report, to which it more properly belongs,) that transferring these funds from parishes to the government, would be on various grounds in the highest degree inexpedient, the committee cannot but feel, that as long as a provision for the poor is raised by compulsory parochial assessments, some means must continue to exist of assigning them to their respective parochial limits; and they are satisfied, that something short of a total repeal of the law of settlement, yet going further than all the various minor alterations which have been suggested from different parts of the kingdom, would simplify the law so much, as to reduce the subject of litigation to a very few questions of fact, place the maintenance of those who want relief upon a far more just and equitable footing, and at the same time consult in the greatest degree the comfort and happiness of the poor themselves. With these views, your committee recommend, that in future any person residing three years in a parish, without being absent more than months in

each year, and without being in any manner chargeable, should obtain a settlement in such parish; and to prevent as far as possible this faet becoming the source of such litigation as frequently arises, from the difficulty of ascertaining the most simple facts, by the evidence of the paupers themselves, it might be permitted that after

such

such residence was completed, a deposition of the fact might be made by the party before two jus tices, after notice given to the overseers. Your committee are persuaded, that if service was required to be combined with residence, it would not only render the provision complicated, but would prevent a settlement being acquired within either of the parishes in which the person serves or resides. And it is recommended, that no person, from a day to be named, shall acquire a settlement, by renting a tenement, serving an office, hiring and service for a year, apprenticeship or estate. With respect to such poor persons who, not being natives of England, may be without a settlement, the influx of them to particular places has been so great and oppressive, that the committee think provision should be made for passing such persons, upon their application for parochial relief, to the nearest ports or places, from which they may return to their native country; but that any native of the British Empire shall acquire a settlement in any parish in which he may have resided five years without being chargeable.

It is not to be supposed that such an abrogation in future of the 13th and 14th Car. II. and all that has been built upon that statute, can be wholly exempt from inconvenience: but the only objection that has appeared entitled to serious consideration, is founded on an apprehension that it might tend to the reduction of the number of cottages, a consequence which would be undoubtedly much to be lamented; but the inconvenience of driving labourers to a

distance from the farms which they cultivate, would tend, it is hoped, to counteract the evil; for it is chiefly from motives of this sort, that such tenements are in many instances at present upheld. It will, however, be for the House to consider whether the advantages resulting from such a change are not calculated to counterbalance this, which the committee deem the only substantial objection to the alteration; recollecting always, that inconveniences must be inseparable from such a compulsory provision for the poor, as exists in this part of the United Kingdom alone.

Your committee, however, may cite, in support of their opinion, the authority of the accurate and judicious author of the History of the Poor Laws, who says, "It must be owned, the statute of the 13th and 14th Car. II. hath exceeded, perhaps, the due bounds. If alterations should be thought requisite, it is submitted, whether it might not be reasonable to reduce the settlement to where it was before that statute, to wit, to the place of birth, or of inhahitancy for one or more years. For so long as this was the plain simple settlement, there were very few disputes in the courts of law about settlements. It was the easy method of obtaining a settlement by residency of forty days, that brought parishes into a state of war against the poor, and against one another; and caused the subsequent restrictive statutes to be made; all which would fall, of course, by reducing the settlement to its ancient (and indeed most natural) standard."

To state the advantages attend

ing the alteration fairly, it is necessary to direct the attention of the House to the sort of questions which arise out of each of the heads of settlement proposed to be abrogated.

In the case, for instance, of a settlement being supposed to be acquired by renting a tenement of the annual value of 10l. the question in dispute generally respects the value. If it may be really not far from that sum, and the family of the pauper be numerous, the interests of the contending parishes, supported by the conflicting opinion of their respective surveyors, leads to the utmost expense and extremity of litigation.

But this question of fact has not been the only subject of dispute. The kind of tenement, and the nature of the tenure, will be found, by a reference to the reports of the King's Bench, to have given rise to the most difficult and numerous questions; the same reference will afford a still greater variety of intricate questions, and of conflicting decisions, respecting hiring and service; as to who may be hired as servants; what the contract of hiring, whether general, special, customary, retrospective, conditional, personal; hiring' service in different places, with different masters; of marriage during the service; and absence from service.

The settlement by serving an apprenticeship has also its various decisions, arising out of the nature of the binding, the time of the service, the place of the service, the discharging the indentures, and the service with different masters, the execution of indentures, and stamps. The last head of

settlement by estate, it is obvious, besides the question of value, which, in case of purchase, must amount bonâ fide to 30l. involves necessarily some of the most intricate questions respecting real pro perty and testamentary bequests and devises. The committee are persuaded they need do no more than refer to these several heads of litigation to shew its extent; and that minor alterations in any of these, while each head of settlement is retained, would only lead to new questions. It has, for instance, been suggested, that the rent of the tenement should be substituted for its value; but the question would then be shifted, and every agreement for a rent a little above or a little below 10. would be impugned as collusive. Raising the sum from 10l. to 201. has been also suggested, and would have its advantages by diminishing litigation; but it would at the same time increase the difficulty of changing a settlement, and, consequently, of permitting skill and labour to find its best market. It has been proposed also to the committee from various quarters, that under the head of hiring and service, a contract of hiring should be dispensed with, and service for a year confer a settlement. But your committee fear, that the same means which are now successfully adopted to prevent a settlement from being obtained under this head, would in that case operate more prejudicially to the labourer, by preventing his remaining a year in one place; at present he can do so, under successive hirings, for a shorter period. If these apprehensions are well founded, the change would be most preju

dicial to him, and so impolitic in its effects, as to counteract any advantage which could be derived from such diminution of litigation. These are among the reasons for which the committee suppose that no alteration, short of that which they venture to propose, would have the effect of removing the evil of litigation incident to the present law of settlement. But it is to the labouring class of the community that they conceive this great alteration would be most beneficial. It would insure their being maintained where they had maintained themselves; where they would be more likely, if meritorious persons, to experience in case of need the kindness of real benevolence. It is hoped also that it might operate as an inducement to active and faithful service on the one hand, and on the other, to prevent such service being interrupted by an interested consideration for parochial funds. And they propose this alteration with the more confidence, because they thereby recommend the restoration of that law, which was coeval with parochial contributions, whether voluntary or compulsory; and because it is still the existing law in that part of the United Kingdom, Scotland, where the local management and maintenance of the poor has been best conducted.

There are some other suggestions of inferior importance, which have not found a place in the foregoing part of the Report, to which your committee would refer before they conclude their observations.

It appears desirable, that justices out of sessions should have the power, which they can now

only execute in sessions, of making orders of maintenance on near relations.

That a power should also be given to enable overseers to recover, by a summary process, the possession of tenements which they may have rented and used for the accommodation of the poor, without being driven to the tedious and expensive proceeding by way of ejectment.

Your committee moreover think, that the vexation and expense of removals might, in some instances, be saved, by an arrangement for postponing the execution of the order, till after a final decision in case of appeal.

It is also suggested, that the power given by the Mutiny Act (vide 56 Geo. III. cap. 10, sect. 70,)" to any justice of the peace, where any soldier shall be quartered, in case such soldier have either wife, child, or children, to examine such soldier as to the place of his last legal settlement, and which requires him to give an attested copy to such soldier, of any affidavit made by him in this respect, in order to be produced when required; and which provides that such attested copy shall be at any time admitted in evidence, as to such last legal settlement," be extended to any person confined in any gaol or place of safe custody in Great Britain, provided that such copy of the examination shall not be admitted in evidence after the discharge of such prisoner.

By the act 22 Geo. III. c. 83, it is provided, that when any application shall be made to a justice of the peace for relief, such justice shall not summon the guardian,

unless

unless application shall have been first made by the applicant to the guardian, and if he refuses redress, to the visitor. In incorporated parishes, the visitor is frequently from ten to fifteen miles distant from the residence of the pauper, and frequently absent from home. Some alteration in the law appears necessary to obviate this inconvenience.

Your committee have thus stated to the House the result of a laborious investigation, which has been protracted to a period of the session which precludes their proposing at present such legislative enactments as it might be thought fit to adopt. They cannot, however, regret this circumstance; for, conceiving that the House expected at their hands a general revision of the whole system of our Poor Laws, in which, though it be not difficult to point out inconveniences and mischiefs, yet the task of providing practical remedies is so arduous that your committee is persuaded, that even more time and labour would not have been mispent in considering further the various provisions of the law, and the numerous proposals which, from different quarters, have been submitted to their judgment. The House also will not be called upon to adopt any of the suggestions of this Report, till an ample opportunity will have been afforded to correct any errors in the judgment of your committee, or to confirm their opinions: and this delay will above all be salutary, if the lapse of time, aided by a more favourable season, should restore the kingdom in some degree to its wonted and healthy state. For, though a pe

riod of depression and distress may bring out more prominently the weak and unsound parts of the system, it is obvious that the application of the most effectual remedies is at such a moment of more than ordinary difficulty. And if it should be the pleasure of the House that the consideration of this subject should be resumed in the next session of parliament, no inconsiderable advantage will be derived from that mass of information contained in the returns in 1815, to which they have not yet had access, and from a further valuable accession of detailed accounts of the admirable practice of Scotland.

July 4, 1817.

The Committee appointed to examine the several Petitions, which have been presented to the Mouse against the Employment of Boys in sweeping Chimneys; and who were empowered to report the same, with their Opinion and Observations thereupon, together with the Minutes of the Evidence taken before them ;-having examined Evidence upon the subject, have agreed to the following Report.

Your committee have felt it their duty, in the first place, to inquire into the laws that at present regulate the trade of chimneysweeping; and they find, that in the year 1788 an act of parliament (29 Geo. 111. chap. 48.) was passed, entitled, "An Act for the better regulation of Chimney-sweepers and their Apprentices." To the preamble of which, they wish to direct the attention of the House :-Whereas the laws now