vagrancy by compelling every one wandering without employ ment to return to their former place of abode, to be there relieved if unable to earn their living by labour, but, if capable of labour, there to obtain employment. Above all, the strong and able-bodied vagrant, known in the language of the time as 'the sturdy' or 'valiant beggar' was to be dealt with with a strong hand, and restrained by a merciless severity (a).

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The primary object of this legislation being to suppress vagrancy, it was thought that the best mode of effecting the purpose was to localize poverty with reference to relief, and labour with reference to employment, in the parish or district to which each individual belonged, or, as it was called, the place of his settlement; which was taken to be the place where he was born, or had last resided for a certain period. The misery and want occasioned by the sudden withdrawal of the assistance to the poor, previously supplied by the bounty of the monastic institutions, could not but be sensibly felt, and a sense of the duty of preventing the needy, aged, and infirm from perishing from want appears to have been awakened. As yet, indeed, the idea of taxing the wealthier portion of the community for the maintenance of the poor— afterwards embodied in the statute of the 43rd of Elizabeth (6) —had not occurred to the Legislature; but statutes were passed calling upon those in authority to endeavour to induce persons having sufficient means to contribute to a common fund, for the relief of the impotent, and the employment of

(a) See 22 Hen. 8, c. 12; 27 Hen. 8, c. 25; 28 Hen. 8, c. 6; 33 Hen. 8, c. 10 ; 1 Ed. 6, C, 3; 14 Eliz. e. 5 ; 35 Eliz. c. 7 ; 39 Eliz. c. 4 ; 43 Eliz. c. 9 (Ed.).

(b) Cap. 2, A. D. 1601 (Ed.).

the able-bodied. To the latter, if he refused to accept employment and to labour honestly, no mercy was to be shown; the scourge and prison were the alternative of labour. And, while employment was thus to be found at the place of their settlement, for those who had no other means of living, all wandering in search of employment was rigorously interdicted and punishable as vagrancy. Such, under a succession of harsh and cruel statutes, passed in the reigns of Henry 8, Edward 6, and Queen Elizabeth (c), continued to be the law to the commencement of the last century, when the evil against which these laws had been directed having long since in the main passed away, the earlier statutes were repealed and superseded by a more liberal and enlightened policy. It is obvious that while this earlier legislation lasted, it must, by shackling the freedom of labour, have seriously interfered with the interest of the capitalist, and still more so with that of the labourer, by circumscribing the sphere within which the latter might exercise his industry.

"The statute of the 5th Elizabeth, commonly called 'The Statute of Labourers' (d), and which repealed all prior statutes relating to labourers in husbandry and artificers or labourers engaged in particular trades, though not directed primarily against vagrancy, had for its object to make labour at once compulsory and local. In addition to which it proposed in many respects to regulate the terms of employment as between the employer and the employed. The policy of leaving masters and men to make their own terms with one another was not at that time understood. The statute makes a main distinction between artificers and servants in

(c) Ante, p. 10 (Ed.).

(d) Ante, p. 9 (Ed.).

husbandry. Of the former it enumerates seriatim all the various sorts then known, and then 'provides that every person brought up in any of the said arts, crafts, or sciences, or who has exercised any of them for three years, unless he has an estate of the clear yearly value of forty shillings, or has goods of his own to the clear yearly value of ten pounds, or is retained with any person in husbandry, or in any art or science, or lawfully retained in the household or any office of any nobleman, gentleman, and others, or unless he has a farm or holding in tillage whereupon he may employ his labour, shall, if required by any person using the art or mystery wherein he has been exercised, be retained and shall not refuse to serve under the penalty of imprisonment.'

"Similar provision is made in respect of service in husbandry. Every person between the ages of 12 and 60 is in like manner bound to serve in husbandry, unless possessed of property of specified amount, or employed as a fisherman or mariner, or in mining, or in any of the arts and sciences previously mentioned, or unless born a gentleman, or unless a member of a university or school. Minute regulations are made with reference to the rights and obligations both of master and servant. No master in any trade is to retain a servant for less than a year; the master is not to dismiss the servant, nor the servant to leave his service, before the end of the term agreed upon, unless upon reasonable and sufficient cause to be allowed by one or more justices; and, unless a quarter's notice is given before the end of the term agreed upon, the service is to continue. If a servant should quit the service without reasonable and sufficient cause so allowed, or quit at the end of his term without having given notice, or if any person compellable to serve and required to

serve under the statute should refuse to serve for the wages to be appointed under it, or having agreed to serve, should not serve according to the tenor of his agreement, the party so offending is to be committed to ward, there to remain without bail or mainprize until he shall be bound to the party to whom the offence shall be made, to serve and continue with him for the wages so appointed.

"No person so retained in husbandry or trade is to quit the city, town, or parish, or lath, rape, wapentake, or hundred, or to go out of the county or shire where he last served, to serve in any other, without a testimonial from certain specified authorities of the place declaring his departure to be lawful, and stating the name of the shire and place where he has last dwelt. No person leaving such service shall be taken into another without showing such testimonial to the authorities of the place in which he is about to serve. If he does, he is to be imprisoned till he can procure a testimonial, and unless he does so within 21 days, he is to be whipped by the common hangman. Every person retaining such servant without showing such testimonial is to forfeit £5. If the person is taken with any counterfeit or forged testimonial he is to be whipped.

"The statute goes so far as even to fix the hours of labour, and the forfeiture of wages which shall be consequent upon failure to work for the appointed time. In the time of harvest, for the avoiding of the loss of any corn or hay, justices or constables or other head officers may require artificers and persons meet for labour, to serve by the day in mowing, reaping, shearing, getting or turning of corn, grain, or hay, according to the skill and quality of the person, and upon refusal, to put him in the stocks for two days and one night.

"Even women between the ages of 12 and 40, being unmarried, might be compelled to serve in such employment as the justices might direct, under pain of imprisonment.

"The statute of the 20 Geo. 2, c. 19, introduced a new principle into this branch of the law, and laid the foundation for the existing legislation on the subject by giving summary jurisdiction to justices of the peace in the matter of disputes between masters and servants of the classes we are speaking of.

"It provides that all complaints, differences, and disputes arising between master and mistresses and servants in husbandry, who shall be hired for one year or longer (extended by 31 Geo. 2, c. 11, s. 3, to those hired for less than a year), or which shall arise between masters and mistresses and artificers, handicraftsmen, miners (extended by the 10 Geo. 4, c. 52, to labourers of every sort), are to be determined by one or more justice or justices having local jurisdiction, who, upon complaint of the servant, may determine any dispute as to wages, and order payment of such sum as they shall find due, not exceeding £10 in case of a servant in husbandry, and £5 in case of artificers and other labourers; and, in the event of non-payment, may levy the same by distress on the goods of the master or mistress.

"In case of complaint by the master or mistress, the authority of the justice was still larger. He had power to entertain a complaint by the master or mistress of any misdemeanor, miscarriage, or ill-behaviour of the servant in his or her service or employment,' and to hear, examine, and determine the same. If the decision was adverse to the servant, the justice might either abate some part of the wages due to such servant, or discharge him from the service,