X. it can afford no general refource to the work- c HA P. men of other decaying manufactures, who, wherever the ftatute of apprenticeship takes place, have no other choice but either to come upon the parish, or to work as common labour ers, for which, by their habits, they are much worfe qualified than for any fort of manufac ture that bears any refemblance to their own. They generally, therefore, chufe to come upon the parish. Whatever obftructs the free circulation of labour from one employment to another, obftructs that of stock likewife; the quantity of stock which can be employed in any branch of business depending very much upon that of the labour which can be employed in it. Corporation laws, however, give lefs obftruction to the free circulation of stock from one place to another than to that of labour. It is every where much easier for a wealthy merchant to obtain the privilege of trading in a town corporate, than for a poor artificer to obtain that of working in it. The obftruction which corporation laws give to the free circulation of labour is common, I believe, to every part of Europe. That which is given to it by the poor laws is, fo far as I know, peculiar to England. It confifts in the difficulty which a poor man finds in obtaining a fettlement, or even in being allowed to exercife his industry in any parish but that to which he belongs. It is the labour of artificers and manufacturers only of which the free circulation is obftructed by corporation laws. The difficulty BOOK of obtaining fettlements obftructs even that of I. common labour. It may be worth while to give fome account of the rife, progress, and prefent ftate of this diforder, the greatest perhaps of any in the police of England. When by the deftruction of monafteries the poor had been deprived of the charity of those religious houses, after fome other ineffectual attempts for their relief, it was enacted by the 43d of Elizabeth, c. 2. that every parish should be bound to provide for its own poor; and that overfeers of the poor fhould be annually appointed, who, with the churchwardens, fhould raife, by a parish rate, competent fums for this purpose. By this statute the neceffity of providing for their own poor was indifpenfably impofed upon every parish. Who were to be confidered as the poor of each parish, became, therefore, a queftion of fome importance. This queftion, after fome variation, was at last determined by the 13th and 14th of Charles II. when it was enacted, that forty days undisturbed refidence fhould gain any perfon a fettlement in any parish; but that within that time it fhould be lawful for two juftices of the peace, upon complaint made by the churchwardens or overfeers of the poor, to remove any new inhabitant to the parish where he was laft legally settled; unless he either rented a tenement of ten pounds a year, or could give fuch fecurity for the difcharge of the parish where he was then living, as thofe juftices fhould judge fufficient. Some X. Some frauds, it is faid, were committed in CHA P. confequence of this ftatute; parish officers fometimes bribing their own poor to go clandeftinely to another parish, and by keeping themselves concealed for forty days to gain a fettlement there, to the discharge of that to which they properly belonged. It was enacted, therefore, by the ift of James II. that the forty days undisturbed refidence of any perfon neceffary to gain a settlement, fhould be accounted only from the time of his delivering notice in writing, of the place of his abode and the number of his family, to one of the churchwardens or overfeers of the parish where he came to dwell. But parish officers, it feems, were not always more honeft with regard to their own, than they had been with regard to other parishes, and fometimes connived at fuch intrufions, receiving the notice, and taking no proper fteps in confequence of it. As every perfon in a parish, therefore, was fuppofed to have an intereft to prevent as much as poffible their being burdened by fuch intruders, it was further enacted by the 3d William III. that the forty days refidence should be accounted only from the publication of fuch notice in writing on Sunday in the church, immediately after divine fervice. "After all," fays Doctor Burn, "this kind " of fettlement, by continuing forty days after "publication of notice in writing, is very fel"dom obtained; and the defign of the acts is "not fo much for gaining of fettlements, as for "the avoiding of them by perfons coming into "a parish P 3 I. BOOK" a parish clandeftinely: for the giving of no "tice is only putting a force upon the parish "to remove. But if a perfon's fituation is "fuch, that it is doubtful whether he is actu ally removable or not, he fhall by giving of "notice compel the parish either to allow him "a fettlement uncontefted, by fuffering him to " continue forty days; or, by removing him, "to try the right." This ftatute, therefore, rendered it almost impracticable for a poor man to gain a new fettlement in the old way, by forty days inhabitancy. But that it might not appear to preclude altogether the common people of one parish from ever establishing themselves with fecurity in another, it appointed four other ways by which a fettlement might be gained without any notice delivered or published. The firft was, by being taxed to parish rates and paying them; the fecond, by being elected into an annual parish office, and ferving in it a year; the third, by ferving an apprenticeship in the parish; the fourth, by being hired into fervice there for a year, and continuing in the fame service during the whole of it. Nobody can gain a fettlement by either of the two firft ways, but by the public deed of the whole parish, who are too well aware of the confequences to adopt any new-comer who has nothing but his labour to fupport him, either by taxing him to parifh rates, or by electing him into a parish office. No X. No married man can well gain any fettlement C HA P. in either of the two laft ways. An apprentice is fcarce ever married; and it is exprefsly enacted, that no married fervant fhall gain any fettlement by being hired for a year. The principal effect of introducing fettlement by fervice, has been to put out in a great meafure the old fashion of hiring for a year, which before had been fo cuftomary in England, that even at this day, if no particular term is agreed upon, the law intends that every fervant is hired for a year. But masters are not always willing to give their fervants a fettlement by hiring them in this manner; and fervants are not always willing to be fo hired, because, as every last settlement discharges all the foregoing, they might thereby lofe their original fettlement in the places of their nativity, the habitation of their parents and relations. No independent workman, it is evident, whether labourer or artificer, is likely to gain any new fettlement either by apprenticeship or by fervice. When fuch a perfon, therefore, carried his industry to a new parish, he was liable to be removed, how healthy and induftrious foever, at the caprice of any churchwarden or overfeer, unless he either rented a tenement of ten pounds a year, a thing impoffible for one who has nothing but his labour to live by; or could give fuch fecurity for the discharge of the parish as two juftices of the peace fhould judge fufficient. What fecurity they fhall require, indeed, is left altogether to their difcretion; but they cannot well require less than thirty pounds, it having been P 4 |