Fourthly, Mode smuggling, whose wife or family is or shall become chargeable to any parish of relief, &c. or place, shall from and after the passing of this act be distributed as follows; (that is to say,) a proportion, not exceeding one half, of the wages at which such seaman is rated in the ship's books shall be made available for the support of his wife and family; and in order to effectuate the said purpose, it shall be lawful for any one or more of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of such parish or place where the wife or family of such seaman shall be or become chargeable, to make complaint thereof on oath to any two justices of the peace acting for the county in which such parish or place shall be situate, and upon the transmission by the said justices of a certificate thereof to the commissioners of his Majesty's navy, specifying therein the proportion (not exceeding one half) of the wages they shall deem necessary to be paid for the relief of the parish, according to the circumstances, having regard to the number of the family; and the said commissioners shall thereupon take the requisite measures for causing payment thereof to such person as shall for that purpose be named in the justice's certificate, in the same manner and under similar regulations as allotments of seamen's wages are now or shall be payable, and that the monies so paid shall be applied towards the relief and indemnity of the parish; and all payments to be made by the treasurer of the navy, under the authority of this act, shall be deemed good and valid payments, and shall be allowed as such in his accounts."

Such seamen to be deemed to be in full pay within the meaning of the act 22 Geo. 2,

c. 33.

Scamen so serving to be sent home when en

charge.

Sect. 3. "That notwithstanding such provisions for the limitation and distribution of wages as aforesaid, every seaman whatsoever, now serving or who shall hereafter be adjudged or entered to serve in the said naval service, under and by virtue of any act made or to be made for the prevention of smuggling, shall be deemed and taken to be in actual service and full pay within the meaning of an act made and passed in the twenty-second year of the reign of his late Majesty King George II., for amending, explaining, and reducing into one act the laws relating to the government of his Majesty's ships, vessels, and forces by sea, until such seaman shall be paid off, or receive a ticket of discharge from the said service."

Sect. 4. "And whereas it frequently happens that the ships to which such seamen as aforesaid belong, are absent from the kingdom at the time at titied to their dis. Which by law such seamen are permitted to receive their discharge from his Majesty's naval service; be it enacted, that the lord high admiral, or the commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral, shall cause orders and instructions to be given to all admirals and other officers in command of his majesty's ships, that about the time at which any seaman now serving, or who shall hereafter be entered to serve in his Majesty's naval service, under or by virtue of any act made or to be made for the prevention of smuggling, shall by such act be permitted to receive his discharge, the said seaman shall be sent home by the earliest convenient opportunity.'

Regulations as to the discharge of such seamen.

Setting up trades for benefit of the poor.

Sect. 5. "That if the time at which such seaman is permitted by law to receive his discharge as aforesaid shall expire before the arrival of the ship in which he is sent home, or to which he belongs in any port of the United Kingdom, he shall be entitled to receive his discharge within ten days after her arrival in such port; and if the said time shall expire whilst such ship is within any such port, he shall be entitled to receive his discharge forthwith provided always, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to exempt any such person from the performance of the duties of such service until he be actually discharged."

By 3 Car. I. c. 4, s. 22, the churchwardens and overseers may, by the consent of two justices within their respective limits, wherein shall be more justices than one; and where no more shall be than one, with the assent of that one justice, set up and use any trade, mystery, or occupation, only for the setting on work and better relief of the poor.

By 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 5, the churchwardens and overseers or the greater part of them, by the leave of the lord of the manor, whereof any waste or common within the parish is parcel, and on agreement with him made in writ

Fourthly, Mode

of relief, &c. Erecting houses

maintenance and

ing, under his hand and seal; or otherwise, according to any order to be set down by the justices in sessions, by like leave and agreement of the lord in writing under his hand and seal, may build in fit and convenient places of habitation in such waste or common, at the charge of the parish, or otherwise for the poor. of the hundred or county as aforesaid, to be rated and gathered in manner before expressed, convenient houses of dwelling for the said impotent poor. By 9 Geo. I. c. 7, s. 4, "it shall be lawful for the churchwardens and over- Overscers may seers in any parish, town, township, or place, with the consent of the major contract for the part of the parishioners or inhabitants, in vestry or other parish or public employment of meeting for that purpose assembled, of so many of them as shall be so the poor. assembled, upon usual notice thereof first given, to purchase or hire any house or houses, in the same parish, township, or place, and to contract with any person or persons for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing any or all such poor in their respective parishes, townships, or places, as shall desire to receive relief or collection from the same parish, and there to keep, maintain, and employ all such poor persons, and take the benefit of the work, labour, and service of any such poor persons, who shall be kept or maintained in any such house or houses, for the better maintenance and relief of such poor persons who shall be there kept or maintained. And if any poor person of any parish, &c., where such house shall be, shall refuse to be lodged, kept, or maintained in such house or houses, he shall be put out of the parish-book, and shall not be entitled to ask or receive relief from the churchwardens and overseers."

Clark v. King, 2 Younge & J. 525. The consent of a select vestry for the care and management of the poor, constituted and established according to the provisions of the 59 Geo. III. c. 12, is sufficient to render valid a contract under 9 Geo. I. c. 7, s. 4, for the lodging, keeping, and maintaining the poor of a parish. (See of Select Vestries, post.)

9 Geo. I. c. 7, s. 4. "And where any parish, town, or township shall be too Two or more small to purchase or hire such house or houses, it shall be lawful for two or places may join. more such parishes, towns, or townships, or places, with the consent of the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants of their respective parishes, &c., in vestry or other parish or public meeting for that purpose assembled, or of so many of them as shall be so assembled, upon usual notice thereof first given, and with the approbation of any justice of peace dwelling in or near any such parish, &c., signified under his hand and seal, to unite in purchasing, hiring, or taking such house, for the lodging, keeping, and maintaining of the poor of the several parishes, townships, or places so uniting, and there to keep, maintain, and employ the poor of the respective parishes so uniting, and to take and have the benefit of the work, labour, or service of any poor there kept and maintained, for the better maintenance and relief of the poor there kept, maintained, and employed; and if any poor in the respective parishes, &c., so uniting, shall refuse to be lodged, kept, and maintained in the house hired or taken for such uniting parishes, townships, or places, he shall be put out of the collection-book, and not be entitled to ask relief."

Sect. 4. "And it shall be lawful for the churchwardens and overseers of any parish, &c., with the consent of the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants of the said parish, &c., where such house or houses shall be purchased or hired for the purposes aforesaid, in vestry or other parish or public meeting for that purpose assembled, or of so many of them as shall be so assembled, upon usual notice thereof first given, to contract with the churchwardens and overseers of any other parish, &c., for the lodging, maintaining, or employing of any poor person or persons of such other parish, township, or place, as to them shall seem meet; and if any poor person of such other Pauper refusing parish, &c., shall refuse to be lodged, maintained, and employed in such to go into workhouse or houses, he shall be put out of the collection-book, and not be entitled to have relief: provided that no poor person, his apprentice or child, Not to acquire a shall acquire a settlement in the parish, town, or place, to which he shall be settlement. removed by virtue of this act; but his and their settlement shall be and remain in such parish, town, or place, as it was before such removal." The above-mentioned stat. 9 Geo. I. c. 7, hath been very beneficial in practice; but the matter seems at length to have been carried too far: the

house.

Fourthly, Mode of relief, &c.

No contract to be valid unless the contractor reside in the parish in which the poor shali be maintained, &c.

overseers in many places having found out a method of contracting with some obnoxious person, of savage disposition, for the maintenance of the poor; not with any intention of the poor being better provided for, but to hang over them in terrorem, if they will not be satisfied with the pittance which the overseers think fit to allow them. And one such task-master oftentimes undertakes for the poor of several parishes or townships. But the justices have power, by withholding their assent, to prevent any bad use being made of this kind of traffic; and such power cannot be exercised with too much vigilance.

By 45 Geo. III. c. 54, it is enacted, that no contract to be entered into and made by the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any parish with any person for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, or employing of the poor of such parish or parishes where two or more are united, and for taking the benefit of their work, labour, and service, for their better maintenance and relief, by virtue of 9 Geo. I. c. 7, or of any other law, shall be valid, unless the persons contracted with shall, and during the continuance of the contract, be resident within the parish contracting, or the particular parish within which such poor shall be lodged or maintained; or who, in the case where parishes are united, shall be so resident in one of such parishes, or in the parish in which such poor shall be lodged and maintained, and unless one or more responsible householders resident in such particular parish, or in one of the parishes, and to be approved of by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of such parish or united parishes, as the case may be, shall, at or before the time of signing such contract, by their joint and several bond, with a penalty in not less than the amount of one half of the assessment to the poor's rates of such parish or united parishes, for the year next but one preceding the year in which such contract shall be entered into, give security to the said churchwardens and overseers, as the case may be, for the Contract must be true and faithful observance of such contract on the part and behalf of the person so to be contracted with as aforesaid: nor unless such contract shall be approved of and signed by two justices acting for such county, &c., where such parish or united parishes, or one of them, shall be."

approved, and signed by two justices.

Contracts entered into otherwise, void.

Removal of con.

cate the security.

Sect. 2. “That all such contracts as aforesaid, which shall be entered into otherwise than according to the regulations and restrictions herein before contained, shall be absolutely null and void to all intents and purposes; and every such contract which shall be entered into conformably to the directions of this act, by any churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any parish, with any person or persons who shall remove from and cease to reside in the particular parish, or in one of the united parishes wherein such peor shall be lodged and maintained, before the expiration of the whole term or time for which such contract shall be intended to have continuance, shall also from the time of such removal cease and determine: provided always, tractor not to va- that the removal of such person or persons as aforesaid, shall not vacate the security entered into by any householder or householders as aforesaid, for the true observance and performance of the contract of such person or persons so having contracted and removing, but that the same shall continue in full force for the indemnification of the churchwardens and overseers of such parish or united parishes against any loss or expence incurred in consequence of such non-performance of such contract and of such removal: provided always, that nothing in this act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to any parish, township, or place where the poor are maintained under any special act of parliament: provided also, that nothing in this act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to make void any contract that shall have been entered into before the passing of this act, with any person or persons for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, or employing of the poor of any parish, by virtue of or in pursuance of the said act of the 9 Geo. I. aforesaid; any thing herein contained to the contrary notwith

Contractors for

providing for the

poor shall be subject to the juris

diction of the jus

standing."

50 Geo. III. c. 50, s. 2. "Persons contracting for the maintenance of the poor of any parish or place shall, with respect to all such things as they shall contract to perform and provide for the poor, be subject to the jurisdiction and orders of justices of the peace in like manner in all respects as

Fourthly, Mode

of relief, &c.

tices as overseers

overseers of the poor are subject thereto; and that every order of any such justice to or upon any person so contracting, may be enforced and carried into execution by such means as the same might have been enforced and carried into execution against any overseer of the poor; and that every per- of the poor. son so contracting for the maintenance of the poor, who shall refuse or neglect to obey any such order, shall be punishable by the like forfeitures and penalties, to be levied in the same manner as in cases of disobedience or neglect of the orders of justices by overseers of the poor."

By 55 Geo. III. c. 137, s. 7, it is further enacted on this subject," that from and after the passing of this act, when and so often as any contract or contracts shall be made or entered into for the providing, furnishing, or supplying any articles, materials, or things for the use of the poor in the workhouse or workhouses of or belonging to any parish or parishes, township or townships, hamlet or hamlets, place or places, or for the erecting of any building or buildings, the expence whereof is to be defrayed out of any rate or rates, or other monies applicable to the relief of the poor, the churchwardens and overseers of the poor, or other person or persons having the management, control, or direction of the poor in such parish or parishes, township or townships, hamlet or hamlets, place or places, shall cause notice of their intention to enter into such contract or contracts, and of the time and place, when and where they shall assemble and meet for such purpose, and of the security which will be required for the performance of such contract or contracts, to be affixed in a conspicuous manner on the outer door of the church or respective churches to which such parish or parishes, township or townships, hamlet or hamlets, place or places, shall belong, or to be inserted in one or more of the public newspapers most generally circulated in the neighbourhood, seven days at the least previous to such meeting, in order and to the intent that any person or persons willing to undertake the supplying or furnishing the same, may make proposals for that purpose to such churchwardens and overseers, or other person or persons as aforesaid, at the time and place mentioned in such notice."

The Churchwardens and Overseers.] In Rex v. Beeston, 3 T. R. 592; 1 Bott, 473; 2 Nol. P. L. 376. On a rule to shew cause why a mandamus should not issue against one of the overseers of the poor of the parish of Drayton in Hales, for refusing to pay his proportion of parish money in his hands to the person who had contracted to maintain the poor: the question was, Whether it was necessary that all the churchwardens and overseers should concur in making the contract, or the majority of them would bind the rest? It appeared that the churchwardens and overseers, with the consent of the major part of the parishioners or inhabitants in vestry assembled, in pursuance of public notice for that purpose given, had contracted for the keeping, maintaining, and employing the poor, with one Atherton, but that three churchwardens and two overseers only agreed to the contract, and one overseer refused to join. But the Court ordered the rule to be made absolute, to compel that overseer to pay his proportion to Atherton.

It will be observed that by the latter part of 9 Geo. I. c. 7, s. 4, (ante, 185) if a pauper refuses to go into the workhouse, he shall not be entitled to relief. See the following cases on this subject.

Rex v. v. Carlisle, (cited in Rex v. Haigh, 3 T. R. 637); 2 Nol. P. L. 357. The defendant was indicted for disobeying an order of sessions. The case was :-Jane Carr, the pauper, having been delivered of two bastard children, was taken into the poorhouse of the parish of St. Mary's in Carlisle, which had been there established according to the 9 Geo. I. c. 7. There she and her children were maintained for a year and a half. Then the parish officers agreed to allow her 1s. a week towards the maintenance of herself and children. After six months they refused to continue the payment, but offered to take her and her children again into the poorhouse. She prayed them to take one child, and said she would take care of the other. That being refused, she offered to take 6d. a week. But the parish officers persisted in giving her no relief, unless she would come again into the poorhouse. Whereupon she applied to the general quarter sessions for

Notice of con

tracts for supplyto be given.

ing workhouses

A contract made by a majority of

the churchward

ens and overseers will bind the

rest.

Paupers wanting relief, and refusparish workhouse, the parish

ing to go into the

officer may refuse giving weekly allowance.

Fourthly, Mode of relief, &c.

Whether parishes are obliged to relieve persons

into the work

house?

the county of Cumberland, who made an order on the churchwardens and overseers to pay her 1s. a week towards the maintenance of herself and her two bastard children, until further order. She served the defendant, being one of the overseers, with the order, and demanded payment, which he refused, but at the same time offered (as he had done several times before the obtaining the said order) to take her and her children into the poorhouse. The question reserved at the assizes for the opinion of the judges was, Whether, under these circumstances, the defendant was by law empowered to refuse payment of such weekly allowance? And the case being laid before the judges, they were all of opinion, upon considering the words of the statute, that, under the circumstances of this case, the defendant was by law empowered to refuse payment of such weekly allowance.

Rex v. Winship and Grunwell, Overseers of the Poor of the Township of Corbridge, in the County of Northumberland, 5 Burr. 2677; Cald. 72; who refuse to go 1 Bott, 466; 2 Nol. P. L. 368. A regular poor house had been erected at Corbridge three years before the order stated in the indictment; and the several persons who received allowances from the said township had one month's notice given them "to go into the said poorhouse," to be maintained and provided for therein; and that from the expiration of the said month, the allowance to the said several persons from the said township should be no longer payable. Margaret Richlieu refused to go into the poorhouse, and the overseers refused to pay her the allowance. She applied to the sessions, but it did not appear she had made oath before the sessions, pursuant to 9 Geo. I. c. 7, s. 4. Afterwards, at a general quarter sessions of the peace holden in and for the said county, an order was made in the words following; that is to say, "Margaret Richlieu having an allowance of 2s. a week payable to her out of the township of Corbridge, of which the sum of 67. 4s. is now in arrear, it is ordered, that the same be immediately paid to her: and it is also ordered, that the said allowance of 2s. a week be continued to be paid by the said township of Corbridge to the said Margaret Richlieu; the said township appearing, and not showing sufficient cause to the contrary." The overseers refused to pay the allowance, insisting that she should go into the poorhouse according to the order of suspension. Whereupon they were indicted; and a verdict was given against them, subject to the opinion of the Court of K. B. Upon hearing the cause, the Court thought the general question of vast consequence, but gave no opinion upon the merits; holding the sessions' order to be bad and illegal upon the face of it: "the sessions cannot make such an original order." Judgment for the defendants. It is said, however, in a note to the next case as reported by Mr. Caldecott, that certainly the Court made no such determination as that expressed in the words marked by inverted commas. (See Cald. 71 n.; and Mr. Douglas's observations cited in next page.)

Quere, Whether

a mother asking relief for her

children be compellable to go

with them to the

poorhouse? See

R. v. Haigh and

another, post, p. 193.

Rex v. North Shields, Doug. 331; Cald. 68; 1 Bott, 468; 2 Nol. P.L. 357. By order of a justice of the peace the churchwardens and overseers of North Shields were directed to pay to Ann Irwin of that township, wife of Thomas Irwin, the sum of 2s. 6d. weekly, until such time as they should be otherwise ordered, for the support of her three children by her said husband; one aged six years, one three, and one fourteen months. The parish officers appealed to the quarter sessions, where the order was confirmed, and a special case stated to the following effect:-There was, at the time of making the order, within the township, a poorhouse, established according to the 9 Geo. I. c. 7, into which the parish officers were willing to receive the pauper, with her three children, and offered so to do; but she refused to go into the house with her said three children, who were of the ages above-mentioned. She had another child of eight years of age, for whom she did not seek relief; neither did she seek relief for herself, nor was there any order for her. Her husband was a mariner, and prisoner in France, and the order stated her inability to provide for the said three children. The case concluded, that these children, being nurse-children, the opinion of the Court was, that they ought not to be separated from their mother, and that the mother, not seeking relief herself, was not compellable to go into the workhouse. Upon a certiorari,