spect of property in the ward; and a party having property in more than one ward, may, by notice, elect in which ward he will vote, and in default of such notice he shall vote only in that ward in which he resides (q).

SECTION III.

Guardians under Local Acts.

By stat. 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 64, the guardians of every parish or union acting under any local Act for the relief of the poor, shall hold their meetings once in every fortnight, or oftener, and in all matters concerning the relief of the poor shall act as a board at a meeting, and not individually; and whenever under any such local Act there is no person particularly designated or authorized to act as chairman, such guardians shall elect and appoint annually, and from time to time, as vacancies may occur, a chairman and vice-chairman of such board, and shall, at any meeting at which no chairman or vice-chairman is present, elect a temporary chairman to preside at that meeting: provided always, that when the re lief of the poor has been hitherto administered in any parish by guardians appointed under a local Act, and not by overseers of the poor, if such parish, according to the last enumeration of the population published by authority of parliament, contain more than twenty thousand persons, it shall not be lawful for the said commissioners, after the passing of this Act, without the consent in writing of two-thirds at least of such guardians, to declare such parish to be united with any other parish for the administration of the laws for the relief of the poor, any thing in the said first-recited Act to the contrary notwithstanding; provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent the said commissioners from including any such last-mentioned parish in a district for providing and managing an asylum for the temporary relief of and setting to work of destitute houseless poor, or from including such parish in a district for the audit of accounts, under the provisions of this Act, except as hereinafter enacted.

(g) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 21.

CHAPTER III.

Overseers of the Poor.

Sect. 1. Appointment of Overseers, p. 33.
2. Power and Duties of Overseers, p. 43.
3. Actions, &c., by or against them, p. 49.
4. Offences by Overseers, p. 52.

By stat. 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 1, the churchwardens of every parish, and four, three, or two substantial householders there, as shall be thought meet (having respect to the proportion and greatness of the parish), to be nominated yearly [on the 25th March or within fourteen days next after (r)], under the hands and seals of two or more justices of the peace in the same county, whereof one to be of the quorum, dwelling in or near the same parish or division where the same parish doth lie,-shall be called overseers of the poor of the same parish.

Who may be appointed.] The churchwardens are overseers of the poor ex officio. But it is as to the appointment of the "four, three, or two substantial householders," above mentioned, who are to be overseers conjointly with them, that we shall treat of in this place. In the first place, not more than four, nor less than two shall be appointed: if more than four be appointed, the appointment will be bad (8); or if less than two be appointed, the appointment will be bad (t). And they must be householders (u): but a person occupying a house in a parish, as a place of business merely, attending there daily, and his clerk living there, but he himself residing with his family elsewhere, has been holden to be a householder within the meaning of the statute (v). And the statute men

(r) 54 G. 3, c. 91.

(8) R. v. Loxdale, 1 Burr. 445.

R. v. Harman, 1 Bott, 19.

(t) R. v. Clifton, 2 East, 168.

tions substantial householders: but where a township or vill contained but three houses, and the occupiers of all three were appointed overseers, the appointment was holden good, though two of them were but labourers and poor (w). There is no objection also to a woman being appointed to the office (x).

But peers and members of parliament,-justices of the peace (y),-aldermen of London (z),—clergymen (a),—dissenting ministers (b),-practising barristers and attornies (c), -members of the college of physicians (d),-members of the college of surgeons (e),-apothecaries (f),-officers of the courts of law (g),-officers of the army and navy, even on half pay (h),―officers of the customs and excise (i),—are exempt from serving the office. And persons concerned in contracts to supply goods to the workhouse, or for the use of the poor, are disqualified to be overseers (k).

Formerly, the overseer must have been a householder within the same parish. But now, justices of the peace, in their respective special sessions for the appointment of overseers of the poor, upon the nomination and at the request of the inhabitants of any parish in vestry assembled, may appoint any person who shall be assessed to the relief of the poor thereof, and shall be a householder resident within two miles from the church or chapel of such parish, or (where there shall be no church or chapel) shall be resident within one mile from the boundary of such parish,-to be an overseer of the poor thereof, although the person so to be appointed shall not be a householder within the parish of which he shall be appointed overseer; and it shall be sufficient, in every such appointment, to describe the person appointed by his name and residence provided that no person shall be appointed to or be compellable to serve, the office of overseer of the poor of any parish or place in which he shall not be a householder, unless he shall have consented to such appointment (1).

Where overseers are thus appointed for a township or place where there are no churchwardens, they may alone perform all the duties assigned by law to churchwardens and overseers (m).

(w) R. v. Stubbs, 2 T. R. 395. (x) Id.

(y) R. v. Gayer, 1 Burr. 245; 1 Ld. Ken. 492.

(2) R. v. Abdy, Cro. Car. 585. (a) Anon., 1 Bott, 9.

(b) 1 W. & M. c. 18, s. 1; 52 G. 3, c. 155, s. 9.

(c) R. v. Prouse, Cro. Car. 389. (d) 32 H. 8, c. 40.

(e) 18 G. 2, c. 15, s. 10; and see

R. v. JJ. of Oxfordshire, 16
Shaw's Justice, 309, 340.

(f) 6 & 7 W. 3, c. 4, ss. 2, 3.
(g) Ex p. Jefferies, 6 Bing. 195.
(h) R. v. Gayer, 1 Burr. 245; 1
Ld. Ken. 492.

(i) R. v. Warner, 8 T. R. 375.
(k) 12 & 13 Vict. c. 103, s. 6.
(1) 59 G. 3, c. 12, s. 6.
(m) 17 G. 2, c. 38, s. 15.

For parishes.] By the stat. 43 El. c. 2, already mentioned (n), overseers were to be appointed by parishes only. At the time of the passing of that statute, however, there were several places in England, which were parishes by reputation, that is to say, parochial chapelries, entirely independent of the mother church as to sacraments, sepulture, &c.; and these were holden to be parishes within the meaning of the statute (o). But they must be proved to have been so reputed at the time of the passing of the statute (p); and they must have appeared to have had all parochial rights, and therefore to be entirely independent of the mother church (q). Where it appeared that in the parish of Whaplode, in Lincolnshire, there was a district called Whaplode Drove, having a chapel, which, previously to the stat. 43 El. c. 2, had all parochial rights, and its own churchwardens separately from the parish; the clergyman of the chapel was maintained by the rents of certain lands with which it was endowed, but the tithes of the district were paid to the vicar of the parish; the district had its own overseers of the poor, had a separate poor rate (the amount in the pound, however, being always the same as in the rest of the parish), and it maintained its out-of-door poor separately, but there was no workhouse in the district, and the poor of the district requiring in-door relief, were sent to the workhouse of the parish; and at the end of the year, the overseers of the district and those of the parish compared accounts, and those who had a surplus beyond their expenditure paid it over to the others; the court held that a separate rate for the district was bad; the fund for the relief of the poor of both districts was in substance a joint fund, and there was only one workhouse, which showed that the district had not been separated from the parish under stat. 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 12; and the district could not be deemed to be in itself a parish or reputed parish at the time of the passing the stat. 43 El. c. 2, for in that case it must have had the entire separate maintenance of its own poor (r).

For townships, hamlets, &c.] There were several parishes in England however, to which, from their great extent or other cause, it was found extremely difficult to apply this statute; although it might be applied conveniently and profitably to the different townships or villages comprised in each of them. And therefore, by stat. 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 12, s. 21, after reciting that "the inhabitants of the counties of Lan

(n) Ante, p. 33.

(e) Nicholas v. Walker, Cro. Car. 394.

(p) Hilton v. Parle, Cro. Car. 92.

(q) Rudd v. Foster, 4 Mod. 157. (r) R. v. Clayton, 18 Law J. 129, m.

cashire, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Northumberland, the bishoprick of Durham, Cumberland, and Westmorland, and many other counties in England and Wales, by reason of the largeness of the parishes within the same, have not, or cannot reap the benefit of stat. 43 El. c. 2," it was therefore enacted, "that all and every the poor, needy, impotent and lame person and persons within every township or village within the several counties aforesaid, shall, from and after the passing of this Act, be maintained, kept, provided for and set on work, within the several and respective township and village, wherein he, she or they shall inhabit, or wherein he, she or they was or were last lawfully settled, according to the intent and meaning of this Act; and that there shall be yearly chosen and appointed, according to the rules and directions in the said Act of the three-and-fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth mentioned, two or more overseers of the poor within every of the said townships or villages, who shall, from time to time, do, perform and execute all and every the acts, powers, and authorities for the necessary relief of the poor within the said township or village, and shall lose, forfeit, and suffer all such pains and penalties for non-performance thereof, as is limited, mentioned and appointed in and by the said in part recited Act (8)."

And the justices of the peace within the said counties, shall have and enjoy such and the like powers and authorities to raise and levy monies, and to do and execute all and every such other act and thing whatsoever, within every township or village within the said county where they are justices, as is given, limited and appointed unto and for them to do and execute within any parish or parishes in and by the said stat. 43 El. c. 2, under such and the like pains and penalties, for the non-performance of their duties, to be levied and disposed of as is expressed in the said Act (t).

And since this statute, in a great number of parishes, divided into townships or villages, overseers have been appointed for each township and village, instead of being appointed for the parish generally, as under the statute of Elizabeth; and such townships, &c., have ever since respectively maintained their own poor. The statute has been holden to extend to all the counties of England and Wales (u), and to an extra-parochial place (v), provided it be a township or village (w).

What is a township or village, was often a question of some difficulty to determine. A township always has a constable

(4) 13 & 14 Car. 2, c. 12, s. 21. (t) Id. 8. 22.

(u) Dolting v. Stokelane, Fol. 98, Fort. 219. Clifton v. Churcham, 1 Nol. 10, Andr. 314.

(v) R. v. Rufford, 1 Str. 512. (w) R. v. Denham, Burr. S.C. 37. R. v. Welbeck, 2 Str. 1143.