places in which they were found begging, if they had not been born in such places, or had not resided there three years. The removal was to be to their places of birth, or of residence for three years, "there to be provided for, kepte and nourished of almes." A proviso of the act authorises a discretionary punishment for the idleness of all impotent poor persons, who were not so impotent as that they could not do some manner of work; and this punishment was to be "with chayninge, beating, or otherwise," as should seem convenient.

For the great purpose of relieving "suche which ar in unfayned miserie, and to whome charitie ought to be extended," it is enacted that, every Sunday and holyday, after the reading of the Gospel, "the curate of every pishe doo mak, according to suche tallent as God hath given him, a godlie and brief exhortacon to his pishoners, moving and exciting them to remembre the poore people, and the dewtie of Xpian charitie in reliving of them which be their brethrene in Christe, borne in the same pishe, and neding their helpę.”

Rapin gives us an account of the real occasion of passing this statute, which, so far as one class of its provisions is concerned, may properly be called, a "very remarkable act against vagabonds." He says: "This law was thought very severe in a country like England, where slavery seems inconsistent with the privileges of the people. But herein the Court, by whom the Parliament was governed, had an eye only to the monks, who being gone from their monasteries, little inured to labour, could not think of working for their livelihood. Those men spent their time in going from house to house to cabal against the Government, and inspire the people with the spirit of rebellion. So the Court judging it to be an effect of their idleness, and that if they betook themselves to some employment, they would at length lose this habit, resolved to make them work, how loth soever they might be. Meanwhile, as the law was general, it occasioned great murmurings among the people. Wherefore it was never rigourously executed, and another parliament repealed it.” *

* Rapin's History of England, book xvi. vol. viii. p. 34. London, 1732.

Bishop Burnet has also observed of this statute *, that "it was chiefly levelled at the monks and friars," who, their occupation now gone, went up and down the country and found the people "apt to have compassion on them." This repressive legislation was, perhaps, none the milder, because it proceeded in good part from those who had got possession of the lands of the wandering monks, and from ecclesiastics of the new establishment.

This savage and inhuman law, as we have already seen, did not remain long on the statute book. Some of its cruel penalties against vagrants were repealed, and its other provisions modified, by 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 16.

The character of Henry the Eighth's legislation to repress vagrancy, was, certainly, severe enough; but it becomes humanity itself if compared with the law before us. It would be a mistake to suppose that the legislature, in the first year of the reign of Edward VI., intended to diminish the severity of the previous penalties against vagrancy.† The statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 25., against vagrants, passed just before the statute for the dissolution of the lesser monasteries (27 Henry VIII. c. 28.), contained an express provision, in favour of the very men who were so soon to be made wanderers, and who were now, in the reign of Edward VI., to be hunted down, like so many wild beasts. A mild and humane provision, of the former statute, enacted, on the very eve of the dissolution of the smaller monasteries that, "In as moche as friers mendiantes have litle or nothing to lyve uppon, but onely by the charitie and almes of Christien people, this acte therefore, ne any thing therin conteyned, shalbe Bjudiciall or hurtfull unto any psonne or psonnes, for gyving of theym in genal or pticular any man almes in money, vitaile, or other thing, ne also to theym or any of them, for beyng or remaynyng out of theyr places where they were

* History of the Reformation, pt. ii. bk. i. p. 83.

† Report from the Commissioners for Inquiring into the Poor Laws, in 1834, p. 7. "It appears that the severity of this act (27 Henry VIII. c. 25.) prevented its execution. Such, at least, is the reason assigned for its repeal by the 1 Edw. VI. c. 3., which recites, &c., and as a milder punishment, enacts," &c.

borne or had their last habitacion, or for passing abrode to gather the almes and charitie of Christen people, or for contynuance of theyr religion as they have been accustomed to do."

The provision for the poor, under 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 16., was still a charitable voluntary contribution, made by the devotion of the good people of the city, town, or place, where the poor were born, or had dwelt for three years.

So far the voluntary principle alone was appealed to, and the appeal, seemingly, was not successful; for by 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 2., collectors appointed under the statute are enjoined, on the Sunday next, or next but one, after Whitsunday, gently to ask every man and woman, what they of their charity will give eekly towards the relief of the poor, to write the same in a book, and to distribute what they collect weekly to the poor and impotent. If any one able to further the charitable work, do obstinately and frowardly refuse to give, or do discourage others, the minister and churchwardens are gently to exhort him; if he will not be so persuaded, the bishop is to send for him, and induce and persuade him, by charitable ways and means, and so according to his discretion, take order for the reformation thereof.

This statute (5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 2.), passed in 1551, seems, like those which preceded it, to have been ineffectual for the adequate relief of the poor. It was thought necessary to repeat its preamble and enactments in the statute, 2 & 3 Philip & Mary, c. 5., passed in 1555. But under the Roman Catholic, as under the Protestant reign, the gentle askings of the collectors, the gentle exhortations of the ministers and churchwardens, and the charitable ways and means of the bishop, failed "to induce and persuade" the parishioners to "give weekly of their charity," as it was intended they should, towards the relief of the poor.

Religious feelings, and ecclesiastical authority, were in vain invoked, to enforce on the people the performance of their Christian duty. The Reformation had taken away from the Church, before Queen Mary's accession, a large part of its wealth; and lay impropriators, whether under a Roman

Catholic or a Protestant sovereign, felt no such obligation as had certainly attached on the clerical holders of tithes and other possessions.

It cannot be doubted, that during eight or nine hundred years, a large part of what had been given to the Church, for the use and benefit of the poor, was applied, by the Church, to the purposes for which it was given. But, the statute book, throughout the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and Mary, bears ample testimony to the magnitude of the evil of an increasing pauperism, with which society, and not the Church alone, had then to deal; and which, towards the close of Elizabeth's reign, ended in the casting of a burden on property, locally situated in each ecclesiastical district, the parish; and in authorising the taxation of the occupiers and inhabitants of each parish, for the relief of its poor.

CHAP. VI.

PAUPER LEGISLATION OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH.

Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo. — VIRGIL.

It appears that, during the whole of the long and glorious reign of Queen Elizabeth, the statesmen by whom she was served made the condition of the poorer classes of her subjects an especial object of their attention and care. Legislative provisions, for a pauperism which seemed to grow with the very growth of the country itself, were slowly and gradually adopted.

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Pauper ubique jacet!" is said to have been a frequent exclamation of the Queen in her various progresses, as she beheld the immense numbers of destitute poor people who, in every part of the country, flocked to see her. It is said that she made it a continued study how to release her people from the poverty which was so widely diffused, and to make their labour more profitable to themselves and the nation. It is therefore probable, that the personal feelings of the Queen may have been interested in such acts of her parliaments as related to the poor. She may thus have striven to make compensation for sternness and cruelty to some, even of her own sex, by that long course of benevolent legislation in behalf of the most helpless classes of her subjects, which characterises her reign, and was closed by the celebrated statute, passed shortly before her death, under the provisions of which all relief of the poor of England and Wales has now been administered for 250 years.

We shall best understand the grounds of that statute, the 43 Eliz. c. 2., and the intention of its framers, if, in the first instance, we take a survey of the series of provisions which had previously been made by parliaments of Queen Elizabeth, respecting the relief of the poor. This survey will not only