the overseers, such charges and expenses to be specified in detail;-and at the foot of every such account, the overseers shall insert, before each audit, a "memorandum" in respect of each rate made and allowed by justices during the half year, containing the particulars of the amount of the rate allowed, and the amount not received.

Receipts and payments.] By the same order, Art. 2, the overseers of every parish shall make out, in the Form numbered 3, a Balance Sheet of the Receipts and Payments for every half-year, according to the said receipt and payment book; and the overseers shall deliver such balance sheet to the auditor, at the audit of their accounts, to be by him examined, signed and delivered to the clerk of the guardians as hereinafter directed.

Art. 3. In every case in which there are more than thirty ratepayers on the rate book and in which there is no collector, the overseers shall, and in other cases the overseers may, use the following receipt check books :—

1. A Rate Receipt Check Book, the leaves of which shall contain the Form numbered 4. The receipts and notes thereof shall be numbered consecutively with numbers corresponding with those in the rate book, and whenever the amount paid shall not require a stamped receipt, the receipt shall be detached from the said book, and issued to the ratepayer of such parish, as and when he shall pay such rate, and the note shall be retained in the said book.

2. A General Receipt Check Book, the leaves of which shall respectively contain the Form numbered 5, to be used for any payments made on account of such parish other than in respect of rates; the receipt, when the amount paid shall not require a stamped receipt, shall be detached and issued to the person who shall make such payment, and the note shall be retained in the said book.

If the amount paid by any one person for rates, or in aid of the poor rate, require a stamped receipt, the receipt directed to be given shall be retained, and a stamped receipt substituted; and a memorandum shall be made on the note of the receipt so retained that a stamped receipt has been given.

No receipt shall be detached from either of the said books until the payment of the money, in respect of which such receipt is to be given, shall have been actually made.

Inventories, &c.] By the same order (8), Art. 4, the overseers of every parish shall, whenever they are required so to

(8) Ord. 17th March, 1847.

do by the auditor for the time being, or by the poor law commissioners, accurately and truly make out a Terrier of the lands and tenements, and an Inventory of stock, monies, goods, and effects belonging to such parish, or given or applicable in aid of the poor rates thereof, according to the Forms numbered 6 and 7 (8).

2. Their Duties in single Parishes or Townships where there are no Guardians.

The power and duties of overseers of the poor, are thus defined by stat. 43 Eliz. c. 2, s. 1:-" They or the greater part of them shall take order from time to time, by and with the consent of two or more such justices of the peace as is aforesaid, for setting to work the children of all such whose parents shall not, by the said churchwardens and overseers of the poor or the greater part of them, be thought able to keep and maintain their children;-and also for setting to work all such persons, married or unmarried, having no means to maintain them, and using no ordinary and daily trade of life to get their living by ;-and also to raise weekly or otherwise (by taxation of every inhabitant, parson, vicar, or other, and of every occupier of lands, houses, tithes impropriate, propriations of tithes, coal mines, or saleable underwoods in the said parish, in such competent sum and sums of money as they shall think fit,) a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread, iron, and other necessary ware and stuff, to set the poor on work ;— and also competent sums of money for and towards the necessary relief of the lame, impotent, old, blind, and such other among them being poor and not able to work, and also for the putting out of such children to be apprentices, to be gathered out of the same parish, according to the ability of the same parish; and to do and execute all other things as well for the disposing of the said stock, as otherwise concerning the premises, as to them shall seem convenient." In fact the whole relief and management of the poor in their parish or township devolves upon them; and they must use the best means in their power for those purposes, subject of course to the control and direction of the poor law commissioners. They may also bury the dead body of any poor person within their parish, and pay the expense out of the poor rates (t). But they cannot borrow money for the use of their parish or township (u), unless authorized to do so by some Act of parliament. If there be a workhouse in such parish or township, the commissioners will make rules, orders and regulations for the

(8) Ord. 17th March, 1847.
(t) 7 & 8 Vict. c. 101, s. 31, ante,

(u) Leigh v. Taylor, 7 B. & C. 491.

government of it (v), thereby relieving the overseer from perhaps the most burthensome part of his duties. The commissioners may also regulate the relief (if any) to be given to able-bodied persons, and their families, out of the workhouse (w); to which regulations the overseers must strictly conform; and they must, if required, make a register in a book of the names of such persons, with such particulars as to their families, settlements, relief, and employment, as the commissioners shall order (x).

In performing these several duties, and in keeping their accounts, &c., the overseers in a single parish or township cannot do better than to conform to the several rules and orders of the poor law board, regulating the conduct of overseers of parishes in unions, as stated under the last head.

It is also a duty of the overseers to make the poor rate, get it allowed and published, and then collect and levy it; out of which they will have to pay the proportion of the county rate allotted to their parish or township, when required to do so, and to make the other necessary disbursements of their office.

The stat. 43 El. c. 2, s. 2, also requires the overseers to meet together, at least once every month, in the church of the parish, on a Sunday, in the afternoon after divine service, there to consider of some good course to be taken, and of some meet order to be set down in the premises; and if they absent themselves, without lawful excuse, they shall forfeit for every default the sum of 20s. (y).

Any act required to be done by churchwardens and overseers, may legally be done by a majority of them (z); ou the other hand, if a notice is to be served upon them, a service upon any one of them will be sufficient (a).

SECTION III.

Actions, &c. by and against them.

Actions, &c., by them, 49. Recovery of parish houses, &c., 50.

Actions against them, 51.

Actions, &c., by them.] The property in all goods, furniture, provisions, clothes, linen and wearing apparel, tools, utensils, materials and things whatsoever, had, bought, procured or

(e) 4 & 5 W. 4, c. 76, s. 15.

(r) Id. s. 52. See post, tit. "Re

lief of the Poor."

(x) Id. s. 55.

(y) See R. v. Harman, 1 Bott,

VOL. III.

(z) R. v. Beaston, 1 Bott, 420. R. v. JJ. of Warwickshire, 6 Ad. & El. 878.

(a) R. v. JJ. of Warwickshire, supra.

d

provided for the use of any parish, township, hamlet or place, are vested in the overseers of the poor of such parish, &c., for the time being, and their successors in office, who are empowered to bring any action, or prefer any bill of indictment, against any person who shall steal, take or carry away, or buy or receive any such goods, &c.; and in every such action and indictment, the said goods, &c., shall be laid or described to be the property of the overseers of the poor for the time being of such parish, &c., without stating or specifying the names of any of them: this, however, is not to be deemed to repeal the provisions in local Acts, whereby such property may be vested in other persons (y).

In all other cases, overseers of the poor must sue as ordinary individuals.

Recovery of parish houses, &c.] If any person who shall have been permitted to occupy any parish or town house, or any other tenement or dwelling belonging to or provided by or at the charge of any parish, for the habitation of the poor thereof, or who shall have unlawfully intruded himself or herself into any such house, tenement or dwelling, or into any house, tenement or hereditament belonging to such parish,— shall refuse or neglect to quit the same, and deliver up the possession thereof to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of any such parish, within one month after notice and demand in writing for that purpose, signed by such churchwardens and overseers or the major part of them, shall be delivered to the person in possession, or, in his or her absence, affixed on some notorious part of the premises, any two justices of the peace, upon complaint to them made by one or more of the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of the parish in which such house, tenement or dwelling shall be situate, may issue their summons to the person against whom such complaint shall be made, to appear before such justices at a time and place to be appointed by them, and to cause such summons to be delivered to the party against whom such complaint shall be made, or, in his or her absence, to be affixed on the premises, seven days at the least before the time appointed for hearing such complaint; and such justices shall, upon the appearance of the defendant, or upon proof on oath that such summons hath been delivered or affixed as hereby directed, proceed to hear and determine the matter of such complaint; and if they shall find and adjudge the same to be true, then by warrant under their hands and seals, they shall cause possession of the premises in question to be delivered to the said churchwardens and overseers, or to some of them (z).

(y) 55 G. 3, c. 137, s. 1.

(z) 59 G. 3, c. 12, s. 24. See

Wildbore v. Rainford et al., 8 B. & C. 4, and see Doe v. Hiley, 10 Id.

And if any person to whom any land appropriated, purchased or taken under the authority of this Act for the employment of the poor of any parish, or to whom any other lands belonging to such parish, or to the churchwardens and overseers thereof, or either of them, shall have been let for his or her own occupation, shall refuse to quit and deliver up the possession thereof to the churchwardens and overseers of the poor of such parish, at the expiration of the term for which the same shall have been demised or let to him or her ;-or if any person shall unlawfully enter upon, or take or hold possession of, any such land, or any other land or hereditaments belonging to such parish, or to the churchwardens or overseers, or to either of them, it shall be lawful for such churchwardens and overseers, or any of them, after such notice and demand of possession as is by this Act directed in the case of parish houses (supra), to exhibit a complaint against the person in possession of such land before two justices of the peace, who shall proceed thereon, and hear and determine the matter thereof; and if they shall find and adjudge the same to be true, they shall cause possession of such land to be delivered to such churchwardens and overseers, or some of them, in like manner as by this Act is directed with regard to parish houses (a).

These provisions have been extended to the guardians of unions and parishes, by stat. 5 & 6 W. 4, c. 69, s. 5.

Actions against them.] Overseers may be sued in the same manner, and for the same causes of action, as any other individuals. If all the churchwardens and overseers join in an order for goods to be supplied to the poor, they are all jointly liable; and even where an assistant overseer also joined in such an order, he was holden to be jointly liable with the others (b). But if the order be given by one only, then it must depend upon the particular circumstances of the case, whether the others are jointly liable with him (c); if the goods were furnished upon the credit of the overseer alone who ordered them, he alone would be liable; but if the credit were given to the parish, then his co-overseers, &c. would be jointly liable with him (d). So, where at the request of one overseer, but without the knowledge of the others, a party paid several sums to a pauper residing out of the parish, and no demand of repayment was made upon the overseers generally until after they were out of office: it was holden to be a question proper to be

885. Doe v. Terry, 4 Ad. & El. 274. R. v. JJ. of Middlesex, 7 Dowl. 767. Smith v. Atkins et al., 8 Mees. & W. 362. R. v. Botton, 1 Q. B. Rep. 66.

(a) 59 G. 3, c. 12, s. 25.

(b) Kirby v. Bannister, 3 B. & Ad. 1069.

(c) Eaden v. Titchmarsh, 1 Ad. & El. 691. (d) Id.