XXXV. The guardians shall ascertain and assess the value of the rateable property in such unions. Rates grounded on such assessment are to be allowed as poor rates.

XXXVI. The expenditure for the poor of such unions to be in common.

XXXVII. No union shall be formed without the previous consent of the commissioners, testified under their hand and seal.

XXXVIII. In every union, a board of guardians shall be constituted and chosen, by whom the workhouse shall be governed, and the relief of the poor administered. The guar dians shall be elected by the rate payers and owners of property in the united parishes. XXXIX. The regulation is similar for single parishes.

XL. Owners as well as occupiers are entitled to vote at elections of guardians. Votes are to be taken in writing. Votes may be taken by proxy. No rate payer is entitled to vote unless he has paid rates for one year.

XLI. Elections of guardians, visitors, and other officers, under the act 22 Geo. IIL c. 83, or any local act, are to be made according to the provisions of this act.

XLII. The commissioners may make rules and regulations for any present or future workhouses. They may vary by-laws already in force or to be hereafter made. Rules which affect more than one union are to be considered as general rules.

XLIII. Justices are empowered to see by-laws enforced, and to visit workhouses, in pursuance of the act 30 Geo. III. c. 49. But where the commissioners' rules are not in force, justices, parish clergymen, &c., are not restrained from visiting, examining, and certifying the state of the poor therein.

XLIV. Buildings taken for workhouses are to be within the jurisdiction of the borough, &c., to which they belong, although the parish may not be within the jurisdiction of the borough.

XLV. No lunatic, insane person, or dangerous idiot, is to be detained in any workhouse more than fourteen days.

XLVI. Commissioners may direct overseers and guardians to appoint paid officers for parishes or unions. They may fix their duties, mode of appointment, dismissal, the security required, and regulate their salaries.

XLVII. Overseers are directed to pass quarterly accounts. Balances may be recovered in the same manner as penalties and forfeitures. But no such proceeding shall exonerate or discharge the liability of the surety.

XLVIII. Masters of workhouses and parish officers are placed under the orders of the board of guardians, and are removable by them.

XLIX. No contract shall be valid unless it be conformable to the rules laid down by the commissioners.

L. Repeals the 45 Geo. III. c. 54, respecting contracts.

LI. The penalty imposed by 53 Geo. III. c. 177, on persons having the management of the poor being concerned in any contract, is extended to persons appointed under this act. LII. Commissioners are to regulate the relief to able-bodied paupers and their families out of the workhouse. Whatever relief overseers or guardians may give contrary to such orders is declared to be unlawful and invalid, and shall be disallowed. Under special circumstances, guardians may delay the operation, and report to the commissioners. If the commissioners disapprove of delay, they may fix a day from which all such relief shall be disallowed. In cases of emergency, guardians may grant relief in food, temporary lodging, or medicine, but must report to the commissioners within fifteen days, when such relief shall be lawful.

LIII. Repeals 36 Geo. III. c. 23. 55 Geo. III. c. 137, s. 3 and 4, and 59 Geo. III. c. 12, s. 2 and 5.

LIV. The ordering, giving, and directing of all relief to the poor of any parish shall be under the government and control of any guardians of the poor. Any justice may give order for medical relief in dangerous illness.

LV. Masters of workhouses and overseers shall keep a register of the name of every poor person in the receipt of relief out of the work house.

LVI. All relief given to the wife, or children under the age of sixteen, shall be considered

as given to the husband. All relief given to children under sixteen of any widow shall be considered as given to the widow.

LVII. Every man who shall marry a woman, having a child or children before marriage, whether such children be legitimate or otherwise, shall be liable to maintain them as part of his family.

LVIII. Such relief as the commissioners may direct to be given to any poor person above the age of twenty-one, or to his wife, or to any part of his family under the age of sixteen, they may direct to be considered as a loan.

LIX. Justices are empowered to summon any labourer, and to attach his wages in the hand of his employer for the recovery of such loans. Any master or employer neglecting or refusing to pay the guardian the balance of wages, justices may enforce such employer, by penalties.

LX. Repeals so much of the 43 Geo. III. c. 47, as requires relief to be given to wives and families of substitutes, hired men, or volunteers of militia.

LXI. Justices are required and empowered to certify that the commissioners' rules have been complied with in binding poor children apprentices.

LXII. Owners of property and rate payers are empowered to raise money on security of rates, for the purposes of defraying the expenses of emigration.

LXIII. The commissioners are empowered to make advances of money from exchequer bills to guardians, for purchasing, building, altering, or enlarging, any workhouses, or for purchasing land whereon to build the same, upon the security of the poor rates.

LXIV. No settlement shall hereafter be acquired by hiring and service, or by residence under the same, or by serving an office.

LXV. No person, under any contract of hiring and service not completed at the time of the passing of this act, shall acquire or be deemed to have acquired any settlement by reason of such hiring and service, or of any residence under the same.

LXVI. No settlement shall be acquired or completed by occupying a tenement, unless the person occupying the same shall have been assessed to the poor's rate, and shall have paid the same for one year.

LXVII. No settlement shall be acquired by being apprenticed in the sea service, or to a householder exercising the trade of the seas as a fisherman or otherwise, nor by any person now being such an apprentice in respect to such an apprenticeship.

LXVIII. No person shall retain any settlement, gained by virtue of any possession of any estate or interest in any parish, for any longer time than such person shall inhabit, within ten miles thereof. In case such person shall cease to inhabit within such distance, and become chargeable, he shall be removed to the parish wherein he may have previously been legally settled.

LXIX. Repeals so much of any act of parliament which enables any single woman to charge any person with having gotten her with any child of which she shall be then pregnant, or as renders any such person liable to be apprehended or committed, or required to give security, on any such charge, or as enables the mother of any bastard children to charge or affiliate any such child or children on any person as the reputed or putative father thereof, or as enables any guardian to charge or make complaint against any putative father, and to require him to be charged with or contribute to the expenses attending the birth, sustentation, or maintenance, of any such child or children. Also repeals so much of any act as renders an unmarried woman with child liable, as such, to be summoned, examined, or removed, or as renders the mother of any bastard liable, as such, to be imprisoned or otherwise punished, so far as respects any child which shall be likely to be born a bastard.

LXX. Securities and recognizances to indemnify any parish for child or children likely to be born bastards, whereof any single woman shall be pregnant at the time of passing this act, are declared to be null and void. Persons in custody for not giving security, &c., to be discharged.

LXXI. Every child which shall be born a bastard after the passing of this act, shall have and follow the settlement of the mother until such child shall attain the age of sixteen, or shall acquire a settlement in its own right. Such mother, so long as she shall be unmarried

or a widow, shall be bound to maintain such child, as a part of her family, until such child shall attain the age of sixteen. All relief granted to such child while under the age of sixteen shall be considered as granted to such mother, provided that such liability of such mether shall cease on the marriage of such child, if a female.

LXXII. When the mother of a bastard child is really unable to maintain it, the guardians of the parish or union may apply to the general quarter sessions, for an order on the putative father, to reimburse the parish or union for its support. No money, however, is to be applied to the relief of the mother.

LXXIII. Fourteen days' notice must be given to the putative father. If the court grants the application, the costs may be calculated from the birth of the bastard child, if within six months.

LXXIV. If the putative father or his attorney does not appear, the court may give judgment nevertheless.

LXXV. If suspicion arise that the putative father intends to abscond, he may be required to enter into a recognizance for his appearance.

LXXVI. When the putative father falls into arrear, he may be proceeded against by distress or attachment of wages.

LXXVII. Persons employed in the administration of the poor laws are not to furnish goods or provisions for their own profit in parochial relief, under a penalty of five pounds. LXXVIII. Sums payable by father, grandfather, grandmother, child or children, of any poor person, for the relief of poor persons, shall be recoverable in like manner as penalties and forfeitures are recoverable under the provisions of this act.

LXXIX. No poor person shall be removed or removable till after notice of his being chargeable has been sent to the parish to which the order of removal is directed. If the parish agree to receive such poor person, it may then be lawful to remove him; but not in case he should appeal.

LXXX. In case of appeal, the overseers are entitled to have free access to the person to be removed, for the purpose of examining him touching his settlement.

LXXXI. Grounds of appeal must be stated in the notice, and sent to the respondent parish, and the appellant parish shall not be heard in support of such appeal, unless the notice is regularly given.

LXXXII. The parish which loses the appeal to pay such costs as the court shall direct. LXXXIII. The party making frivolous and vexatious grounds of appeal, shall pay the whole or part of the costs incurred by the other party in disputing them.

LXXXIV. The parish to which the poor person shall be finally adjudged to belong, shall be liable to pay the cost and expense of their relief and maintenance.

LXXXV. The commissioners may require trustees of rates on property for the relief of the poor, to produce true and detailed accounts in writing; which accounts, or a copy, shall be open for the inspection of the owners of property and rate payers.

LXXXVI. Advertisements in the gazette and local newspapers are not liable to stamp duty. LXXXVII. Bonds and securities made pursuant to the act 22 Geo. III. c. 83, and assignments thereof, are exempted from stamp duty.

LXXXVIII. All letters to and from the board of commissioners to be free of postage, if marked on the corners with the words, " Office of poor law commissioners pursuant to act of parliament, passed in the fifth year of the reign of his majesty king William the fourth." Letters transmitted under these covers, which do not relate solely to the business of this act, to be transmitted to the post office to be charged with postage.

LXXXIX. All payments, charges, and allowances, made by the overseers or guardians contrary to the provisions of this act, or at variance with any of its rules, orders, or regulations, shall be illegal.

XC. A summons left at the usual or last known place of abode shall be sufficient.

XCI. Repeals so much of the act 6 Geo. IV. c. 80, as relates to the prohibition of spirituous liquors in workhouses.

XCII. Persons introducing spirituous liquors into workhouses are liable to a penalty not exceeding ten pounds.

XCIII. Masters of workhouses allowing the use of spirituous liquors, inflicting corporeal punishment, or otherwise ill using any adult person, or guilty of any other misbehaviour or misconduct themselves towards any poor person in the workhouse, on conviction, shall pay any sum not exceeding twenty pounds, as the justices shall direct. And justices may order salaries, &c., to be stopped till such penalties are paid.

XCIV. The two preceding clauses are to be hung up in a conspicuous place in each work house, and renewed when soiled.

XCV. Overseers or their assistants disobeying guardians are liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds.

XCVI. No overseer, &c., shall be liable to any penalty or prosecution for disobeying illegal orders.

XCVII. Overseers, &c., purloining, embezzling, wilfully wasting, or misapplying, any of the monies, goods, or chattels, belonging to any parish or union, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds, and forfeit treble the amount so embezzled, &c.

XCVIII. Every person wilfully disobeying the rules, orders, and regulations, or are guilty of contempt of the board of commissioners, shall forfeit and pay a sum not exceeding five pounds for the first offence, any sum not exceeding twenty nor less than five pounds for the second offence, and for the third and every subsequent offence he shall be indicted for a misdemeanour, and, on conviction, pay not less than twenty pounds, and suffer imprisonment with or without hard labour

XCIX. All fines and forfeitures are leviable by distress and sale, and when recovered shall be applied for the use of the parish or union where the offences were committed. C. Owners and rate payers are declared to be competent witnesses in proceedings for the recovery of penalties, &c.

CI. Justices may in all cases proceed by summons for the recovery of penalties.

CII. Want of form in the proceedings shall not be deemed unlawful in recovering damages by distress, nor shall the party distraining be deemed a trespasser ab initio on account of any irregularity which shall happen in making the distress; but the person aggrieved may recover full satisfaction in an action on the case. But no plaintiff shall recover for irregularity, if tender of amends be made.

CIII. Aggrieved parties may appeal to the quarter sessions against any order or conviction of parties, within four calendar months after cause of complaint.

CIV. No action or suit shall be commenced against any commissioner, &c., until twentyone days' notice has been given in writing to the party to be prosecuted. In such action, the defendant may plead the general issue.

CV. The commissioners' rules, &c., may be removed by certiorari to the court of King's Bench, but they shall continue in force until they are declared to be illegal.

CVI. Notice, in writing, must be left at the office of the commissioners, ten days before application be made for a writ of certiorari.

CVII. Previous to issuing a writ of certiorari, the parties applying for it must enter into recognizance with sufficient sureties in the sum of fifty pounds. If the rule, &c., be declared legal, the commissioners shall be entitled to costs.

CVIII. If rules are quashed, the same shall be notified to parishes or unions to which such rules have been directed.

CIX. This clause relates to the interpretation of the words: "auditor," "general rule," "guardian," "justice or justices of the peace," "oath," "orders and regulations," "officer,"

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"overseer," "owner," "rack rent,' parish," person," poor,' poor laws" or "laws

for the relief of the poor," "poor rate," "general quarter sessions," "union," "united workhouse," "vestry," "workhouse." In describing any person or party, matter or thing, whenever the word importing the singular number, or the masculine gender, only is used, the same shall be understood to include, and shall be applied to several persons or parties, and females as well as males, and several matters or things, respectively, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction.

CX. Provides for the alteration, amendinent, or repeal, of this act in the session wherein it was made.

TITHES.

On this subject we will be extremely brief. From the beginning of the world, God himself consecrated a seventh of our time, for the purposes of rest and worship. For the support of his worship, it was also necessary to consecrate a portion of our worldly substance. In the first act of public worship which we find recorded in holy scripture, Cain and Abel each brought a portion of their wealth, as an offering to GOD. Our time is uniformly the same in all nations and climates, and therefore the law which claims a seventh is clearly laid down: Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. But our substance varies, according to the circumstances of time and place, of wealth and ability, of soil and climate, of manners and customs; and all these, again, are subject to innumerable changes and revolutions. All these circumstances cause a vast variety in proportioning the part to be separated to the support of God's worship; and therefore God, of his infinite mercy and goodness, charged mankind with the general duty only of setting apart for his worship such a proportion of our substance as may be sufficient for its support. Abraham, on his return from the conquest of the four kings, paid a tithe of all that he had to Melchizedek, the priest of the Most High God. When Jacob avouched the Lord Jehovah to be his God at Bethel, he bound himself to pay tithes: "And this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee;"* which shows that the worship of God, and the payment of tithes for the support of that worship, invariably went together. Under the law, tithes were part of the offerings unto the Lord, and they are called his inheri tance: "But the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer as an heave-offering unto the Lord, I have given to the Levites to inherit; therefore I have said unto them, among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance."+ "The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi, shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel; they shall eat the offerings (tithes) of the Lord made by fire, and his inheritance." Among the heathen, the same thing was done for the support of their idol worshippers. Mr Selden, a great lawyer in the time of Oliver Cromwell, and a decided enemy of the church, shows that the Syrians, Phenicians, Arabians, Ethiopians, Greeks, Romans, and almost all other nations, paid tithes and offerings to the priests of their false deities. This knowledge they could only have acquired by traditionary accounts, floating down the stream of time, from the first institution of revealed religion in our great

Gen. xxviii. 22.

Num. xviii. 24.

Deut xviii. 1.