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BOOK been enacted, that the purchase even of a freehold eftate of less than thirty pounds value, shall not gain any perfon a fettlement, as not being fufficient for the difcharge of the parish. But this is a fecurity which scarce any man who lives by labour can give; and much greater fecurity is frequently demanded.

In order to restore in fome measure that free circulation of labour which thofe different ftatutes had almost entirely taken away, the inven tion of certificates was fallen upon. By the 8th and 9th of William III. it was enacted, that if any perfon fhould bring a certificate from the parish where he was last legally fettled, fubfcribed by the churchwardens and overfeers of the poor, and allowed by two juftices of the peace, that every other parifh fhould be obliged to receive him; that he should not be removeable merely upon account of his being likely to become chargeable, but only upon his becoming actually chargeable, and that then the parish which granted the certificate fhould be obliged to pay the expence both of his maintenance and of his removal. And in order to give the most perfect security to the parish where fuch certificated man fhould come to refide, it was further enacted by the same statute, that he should gain no fettlement there by any means whatever, except either by renting a tenement of ten pounds a year, or by ferving upon his own account in an annual parish office for one whole year; and confequently neither by notice, nor by fervice, nor by apprenticeship, nor by paying parish rates. By

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the 12th of Queen Anne too, ftat. 1. c. 18. it was c HA P. further enacted, that neither the fervants nor apprentices of fuch certificated man should gain any fettlement in the parish where he refided under fuch certificate.

How far this invention has restored that free circulation of labour which the preceding statutes had almost entirely taken away, we may learn from the following very judicious obfervation of Doctor Burn. "It is obvious," fays he, " that "there are divers good reafons for requiring "certificates with perfons coming to fettle in "any place; namely, that perfons refiding un"der them can gain no settlement, neither by "apprenticeship, nor by fervice, nor by giving "notice, nor by paying parish rates; that they "can fettle neither apprentices nor fervants; "that if they become chargeable, it is certainly "known whither to remove them, and the "parifh fhall be paid for the removal, and for "their maintenance in the mean time; and "that if they fall fick, and cannot be removed, "the parish which gave the certificate muft "maintain them: none of all which can be "without a certificate. Which reasons will "hold proportionably for parishes not granting "certificates in ordinary cafes; for it is far "more than an equal chance, but that they will "have the certificated perfons again, and in a "worfe condition," The moral of this obfer. vation feems to be, that certificates ought always to be required by the parish where any poor man comes to refide, and that they ought very feldom

to

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BOOK to be granted by that which he propofes to leave. "There is fomewhat of hardfhip in this matter "of certificates," fays the fame very intelligent Author, in his Hiftory of the Poor Laws, "by "putting it in the power of a parish officer, to "imprison a man as it were for life; however "inconvenient it may be for him to continue at "that place where he has had the misfortune to "acquire what is called a fettlement, or what"ever advantage he may propofe to himself by "living elsewhere."

Though a certificate carries along with it no teftimonial of good behaviour, and certifies nothing but that the perfon belongs to the parish to which he really does belong, it is altogether difcretionary in the parish officers either to grant or to refuse it. A mandamus was once moved for, fays Doctor Burn, to compel the church. wardens and overfeers to fign a certificate; but the court of King's Bench rejected the motion as a very strange attempt.

The very unequal price of labour which we frequently find in England in places at no great distance from one another, is probably owing to the obstruction which the law of fettlements gives to a poor man who would carry his industry from one parish to another without a certificate. A fingle man, indeed, who is healthy and induftrious, may fometimes refide by fufferance without one; but a man with a wife and family who should attempt to do fo, would in most parishes be fure of being removed, and if the fingle man fhould afterwards marry, he would generally be removed

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removed likewife. The fcarcity of hands in one CHAP. parish, therefore, cannot always be relieved by their fuper-abundance in another, as it is conftantly in Scotland, and, I believe, in all other countries where there is no difficulty of fettlement. In fuch countries, though wages may fometimes rife a little in the neighbourhood of a great town, or wherever elfe there is an extraordinary demand for labour, and fink gradually as the distance from fuch places increases, till they fall back to the common rate of the country; yet we never meet with thofe fudden and unaccountable differences in the wages of neighbouring places which we fometimes find in England, where it is often more difficult for a poor man to pass the artificial boundary of a parish, than an arm of the fea or a ridge of high mountains, natural boundaries which sometimes feparate very diftinctly different rates of wages in other countries.

To remove a man who has committed no mifdemeanour from the parish where he chufes to refide, is an evident violation of natural liberty and juftice. The common people of England, however, fo jealous of their liberty, but like the common people of most other countries never rightly understanding wherein it confifts, have now for more than a century together fuffered themselves to be exposed to this oppreffion without a remedy. Though men of reflexion too have fometimes complained of the law of fettlements as a public grievance; yet it has never been the object of any general popular clamour,

fuch

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BOOK fuch as that against general warrants, an abufive practice undoubtedly, but fuch a one as was not likely to occafion any general oppreffion. There is fcarce a poor man in England of forty years of age, I will venture to fay, who has not in fome part of his life felt himself most cruelly oppreffed by this ill-contrived law of fettlements.

I fhall conclude this long chapter with obferving, that though anciently it was ufual to rate wages, firft by general laws extending over the whole kingdom, and afterwards by particular orders of the juftices of peace in every particular county, both these practices have now gone entirely into difufe. "By the experience of above "four hundred years," fays Doctor Burn, " it "feems time to lay afide all endeavours to bring "under ftrict regulations, what in its own na"ture feems incapable of minute limitation: for "if all perfons in the fame kind of work were "to receive equal wages, there would be no "emulation, and no room left for induftry or " ingenuity."

Particular acts of parliament, however, ftill attempt fometimes to regulate wages in particular trades and in particular places. Thus the 8th of George III. prohibits under heavy penalties all master taylors in London, and five miles round it, from giving, and their workmen from accepting, more than two fhillings and fevenpence halfpenny a day, except in the case of a general mourning. Whenever the legislature attempts to regulate the differences between masters and their workmen, its counsellors are

always