1597.]

PARLIAMENT STATUTES REGARDING THE POOR.

267

be content to starve whilst beggary or thievery offered a last resource. The nation, generally, was growing richer in the advance of profitable industry; but there was a large body who found no place in the ranks of the industrious. The feudal organisation was gone. The more healthful organisation of free labour was essentially imperfect. All the irregular modes of subsistence which belonged to the transition period, when the unreclaimed portion of the land was, to some extent, for common use, were passing away. In the towns, the organisation of trades, with their strict laws of apprenticeship and their guilds, excluded from competition with the recognised artisan all those who had not the claim of caste-for caste it was, when a workman must have been brought up to a calling, and could follow that calling and no other. The population of England at the end of the sixteenth century was probably not far short of five millions. Some of the more fortunate of the humbler classes were forcing their way into wealth; for although there was a jealous system of exclusion against a general invasion of the domain of profitable employment, the more resolute spirits, having conquered some small vantage-ground, could readily win a higher position by never-ceasing toil and thrift. One of the wits of this age who, as he says, "had spent many years in studying how to live, and lived a long time without money," looks around him and sees how some thrive whom he considers as base men: "I called to mind a cobbler that was worth five hundred pounds; an hostler that had built a goodly inn, and might dispense forty pounds yearly by his land; a carman, in a leather pilch, that had whipped a thousand pounds out of his horse tail.”* The way to wealth was open to the meanest, if they could find an entrance into the road. But there was a large body who never found the way even to a bare subsistence. It was impossible to have been otherwise in a country where the local divisions that belonged to the times before the Conquest were still so rigidly preserved; and where the means of communication were still so imperfect. In such a condition of society, with the larger number of the more fortunate prospering, and a comparatively few, but still a large body, driven into vagabondage, it was necessary to do something more than enforce the old terrors of the stocks and the whip. A legal provision for the poor, supplied by the assessment of all property, was perfected at the close of Elizabeth's reign by bold and far-sighted legislation. This was the result of a series of experiments which are in themselves a conclusive indication of the gradual advance of society to a condition sufficiently stable to dispense with temporary expedients,-to build up a system which would endure through all political vicissitudes, and without which the inequalities of modern competitive life would be fatal to the security of the whole social fabric.

The tentative process by which the principle of a public contribution for the relief of the poor was first approached, is distinctly set forth in the Statute of 1551-2.† A book was to be kept for each parish, in which should be entered the names of the householders and of the impotent poor. In Whitsun week two or more persons were to be appointed as collectors of alms; and on the Sunday following, when the people are at church, "the said collectors shall gently ask and demand of every man and woman, what they of their charity will give weekly towards the relief of the poor." The sums so collected weekly were

*Nash, "Pierce Pennilesse," p. 6.

+ 5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 2.

268

PROGRESS OF POOR-LAW LEGISLATION.

[1597.

to be distributed by the same collectors, "after such sort that the more impotent may have the more help, and such as can get part of their living have the less; and by the discretion of the collector to be put in such labour as they be able to do." If any person, being able, refused to contribute, he was to be gently exhorted by the parson and churchwardens; and if their exhortations failed, he was to be sent for by the bishop, to be induced and persuaded to so charitable a deed. A Statute of 1555, and another of 1557, continue to provide for the impotent poor by weekly collections, the principle being held "good and beneficial for the common wealth of this realm." The same principle is maintained by the Statute of 1562-3;* but there is to be now something more stringent than the exhortations of parson, churchwardens, and bishop. "If any person of his froward or wilful mind shall obstinately refuse to give weekly to the relief of the poor according to his ability," the bishop had power to bind him to appear at the next sessions, when the justices, if he continued obstinate, might determine what sum he should pay, and commit him to prison if he persisted in his refusal. This first assertion of the principle of a compulsory assessment of property for the relief of the destitute is the foundation of the system of Poor Laws, which has endured through all the changes of three centuries. In a few years the general application of the principle was to be gradually effected by a far more perfect machinery. In 1572-3 was passed "An Act for the punishment of vagabonds, and for relief of the poor and impotent."+ It repeals all previous enactments by one sweeping law, in which the old principle of severity against "rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars" receives little mitigation, but which also emphatically declares that poor, aged, and impotent persons should be provided for. The justices of the peace in their several divisions are to use diligent inquiry as to all such impotent poor; to make a register of the names of those who were born within such divisions, or have been living there by alms within three preceding years; to assign them convenient places for their habitations, if the parish does not provide for them; to assess the inhabitants of such division to a weekly charge; and to appoint overseers of the poor, who shall have the power of setting to work all such diseased or impotent persons who are not wholly past labour. In this Act the system of parochial administration was not fully developed; the justices were to make the assessment. By an Act of 1575-6 a stock of wool and hemp was to be provided for setting the poor at work; and "houses of correction be established. The law remained in this state of transition till 1597-8, when it took the form in which it subsisted, with various slight modifications, till within the last quarter of a century. The Statute of the 39th Elizabeth provides for the appointment of overseers of the poor in every parish, who were to make a rate with the consent of the justices. This Act "approximates very closely to that passed four years afterwards (the 43rd of Elizabeth), which still continues in force, and is the foundation and ground-work of our English Poor Law."§ But the Act of the 39th Elizabeth, which makes so wise and merciful a provision for the helpless portion of the community, was accompanied by "An Act for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and

* 5 Eliz. c. 4.

+ 18 Eliz. c. 3.

+ 14 Eliz. c. .

were to

§ Sir G. Nicholls, "History of the English Poor-law," vol. i. p. 185.

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POVERTY AND VAGABONDAGE.

269

sturdy beggars." This Act repealed all previous Statutes. It prescribed the whipping, the stocks, and the passing from parish to parish, as of old; but it empowered the justices assembled at quarter-sessions to erect houses of correction within their respective counties or cities, and to provide funds for the maintenance of the same. The houses of correction were for the employment of vagrants till they could be placed in some service; or, if infirm of body, in some alms-house. Under the law of Henry VIII. destitution was

treated as a crime, and wandering poverty was to be stocked and scourged out of existence. By the law of Elizabeth the impotent poor were nurtured; the sturdy mendicant was punished. The spirit of Christian charity had systematised a provision for the poor, in each parish, even while the justices, under the Act of 1572-3 had the power of assessing the district. Stubbes, writing in 1583, says, "The sabbath-day of some is well observed, namely, in hearing the word of God read, preached, and interpreted; in private and public prayers; in singing of godly psalms; in celebrating the sacraments; and in collecting for the poor and indigent."* Individual benevolence might have mitigated much suffering by its merciful zeal; but legalised benevolence, by including alike the warm-hearted and the grudging, compelled every owner of property to recognise the absolute claims of the impotent poor to a small portion in the bounty of the All-giver.

The principle of compulsory assessment was immediately productive of the parochial despotism that has always attached to any Law of Settlement, even in the mitigated form which the law has assumed in modern times. Long before "the Settlement Act" of Charles II., their own parish was the boundary within which the poor might endeavour to obtain a livelihood; beyond that circle they could not pass. That Act recited that, "by reason of some defects in the law, poor people are not restrained from going from one parish to another; and therefore do endeavour to settle themselves in those

270

POVERTY AND VAGABONDAGE.

[1597.

parishes where there is the best stock." By "the best stock" is meant the largest amount of capital; and in those parishes where there was the best stock the funds for the maintenance of labour were most readily unlocked for the labourers there established. Of course other poor people would endeavour there to settle themselves. A natural struggle took place between those who wanted to come in, and the authorities who were resolved to keep them out. The dread that under-tenants might become chargeable led to a domestic inquisition of a very tyrannous nature. At Leicester a search was made every month to discover under-tenants. At Brighton no incomer was to be allowed until the constable and churchwardens had ascertained that he was of sufficient ability not to be likely to become burthensome to the town. A new tailor comes to Lyme, and he is met by a peremptory notice of a day on which he is to depart. The jury in that place even present a man who "harboureth his wife's sister."* We may also be assured that, armed with two such laws as those of the 39th Elizabeth, the justices and overseers often confounded the class that was to be relieved with the class that was to be punished. After the passing of these Statutes, instructions were issued by the judges at the assizes for carrying out their provisions.† They are very minute; and their precise directions were no doubt useful. But the definition of "a rogue," however intelligible to those who were practically acquainted with the species, must have been liable to the harshest misconstruction. The articles thus begin:"A rogue that saith he was born in such a town, in such a county, he ought to be sent thither." The ninth article runs thus: "No man is to be put out of the town where he dwelleth, nor to be sent to the place of birth or last dwelling, but a rogue." The third article says, "If the husband and wife have a house, and either of them rogue about, they must be sent to the town where that house is; and so of inmates." The verb may explain what the noun leaves doubtful. To "rogue about" was to be living from hand to mouth, even if that living was derived from occasional labour; to be without regular service under a master; to be without a settled abode and a permanent occupation. The old definition of " a rogue" is, "an idle sturdy beggar that wanders up and down from place to place without a licence." One statutory definition of the class is, "Persons whole and mighty in body, but having neither land nor master, nor able to give an account of how they get their living." § Shakspere's Autolycus is a specimen of the clever species of the genus. When the chronicler describes "a great parcel of rogues encompassing the queen's coach near Islington one evening, when she was riding abroad to take the air, which seemed to put her in some disturbance," we must not conclude that they were thieves who contemplated an attack upon the queen. They were "masterless men," some "valiant and sturdy rogues," but the greater number having no permanent occupation, and gradually swelling the army of professional beggars and robbers. The rogue, as distinguished from the mere vagabond and beggar, was perhaps more particularly comprised in the busy-idle classes which are

* See these, and numerous other instances, in Roberts's "Southern Counties," pp. 179–184. These articles, as addressed to the constables of Swanbourne, Bucks, are given in the "Verney Papers," published by the Camden Society, p. 88.

Phillips "World of Words," 1696.

§ 14 Eliz. c. 5.

Stow.

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LABOURERS REFUSING TO WORK AT USUAL WAGES.

271

minutely recited in the Statute: "All persons calling themselves scholars, going about begging; all seafaring men pretending losses of their ships and goods on the sea; all idle persons going about either begging, or using any

The valiant rogue and the mendicant. (From "Caveat for Cursitors.")

subtle craft or unlawful games and plays, or feigning to have knowledge in physiognomy, palmistry, or other like crafty science, or pretending that they can tell destinies, fortunes, or such other fantastical imaginations; all fencers, bear-wards, common players and minstrels; all jugglers." But the poor itinerant tradesman came under the same definition. "Tinkers, pedlers, and petty chapmen" were consigned to the constable by this sweeping statute. Necessary as the severities might be for "all persons that wander abroad begging, pretending losses by fire or otherwise; and all persons pretending themselves to be Egyptians," there was a bitter relic of the old tyranny of capital over labour when those severities were applied to "all wandering persons and common labourers, able in body, and refusing to work for the wages commonly given." The Statute of the 5th Elizabeth, entitled "An Act touching divers orders of artificers, labourers, servants of husbandry, and apprentices," repeals all previous statutes, chiefly because the wages limited are in many instances too small, and not answerable to that time, on account of the great advancement of prices. The rates of wages were therefore to be settled annually by the justices in sessions assembled. The rate so settled, having been approved by the Privy Council, was to be proclaimed by the sheriff; and the payer and the receiver of higher wages were subjected to fine and imprisonment. The Act which declares all able-bodied labourers, wandering through their refusal to work for the wages commonly given, to be "rogues and vagabonds," and subjects them to cruel punishments, was an outrage upon the freedom of labour, which was as certain to be ineffectual as the obsolete statutes for an invariable determination of the rate of wages. The general