acquiring the domicile of their parents. Third, the wife by marriage obtained the domicile of the husband. Fourth, domicile was acquired by notorious and public residence of forty days in a district or parish.

In the following cases the residence need not be notorious :Whoever, for one whole year has, in a certain spot, paid £10 rent and resided forty days in the parish. Second, whoever has paid the public taxes and has remained forty days in the parish. Third, whoever has discharged for one whole year a parochial office in the parish. Fourth, unmarried persons having no children who, for one whole year, have remained in one and the same service. Fifth, whoever has an estate of his own there, of whatever value, and whether the interest be legal or equitable. Sixth, by being bound apprentice, or a servant who has worked or served respectively in the same place forty days successively.

Within the said forty days, however, apprentices and servants, when out of work, as well as other persons likely to become a burthen to the district, at the suit of an overseer of the poor, may be sent back to their own parish on an order from two justices of the peace, unless they have a settlement in the parish arising from £10 rent or lease. If the parish assumed to be the native parish, by appeal to a court of law, rejected the certificate, the pauper was again sent back to the parish which obtained the order.*

"The common people of England are indeed very jealous of their liberty, but like the common people of most other countries, never rightly understanding wherein it consists, have now for more than a century together suffered themselves to be exposed to this oppression without a remedy. Though men of reflection, too, have sometimes complained of the Law of Settlement as a public grievance, yet it has never been the object of any general popular clamour, such as that agitated against 'general warrants,' an abusive practice undoubtedly, but such a one as was not likely to occasion any oppression. There is scarce a poor man in England of forty years of age, I will venture to say, who has not, in some part of his life, felt himself most cruelly oppressed by this ill-contrived

Pashley, Pauperism and Poor Law. 242. Lond., 1853.

+ This statute was certainly a great infringement of Magna Charta and the liberty of the subject. There is nothing which can be more cruel or impolitic than

to prevent a person from residing in that situation where, by his industry and occu pation, he can best procure a competent provision for himself and his family.Bl., i., 362. Note by Christian.

F

Law of Settlement. To the removal of other abuses let that of the Law of Settlements be added, so that if a poor labourer be out of work, he may betake him to some other calling, or some other spot, without fear of being troubled or removed."*

"The poor man, only nominally free, again becomes the mere slave of the land, and the agricultural labourer has hardly a better place assigned to him, in the political and social organization of England, for the last two centuries, than that which he possessed, throughout the greater part of Europe, during the feudal age. The name of serf or villein has, it is true, fallen into disuse, but the spirit of serfdom and villeinage has been preserved by the legislation of Charles II., the practical effect of which, from the very first, has been to retain every labouring man within the parish where accident may have given him a settlement. The serf or villein of feudal barbarism effectually acquired his freedom if, escaping from the bondage of his original settlement, he resided for a year and a day within the walls of a town, but no term of mere residence, even if it endured from generation to generation, could destroy the poor man's liability to removal to the original place of his derivative settlement."+

Under James II. these enactments were confirmed, and remained unchanged down to the Revolution of 1688. Under William III., the first slight modifications were introduced. The first substantial advance was made in the 18th century, by requiring that, as soon as a person had been recognised by a certificate as a resident of a certain parish, he should only be subject to removal in the event of his becoming chargeable to the parish where he happened to be. This last limitation, viz., the actual burthen to the community in which a pauper resides, was extended by 35 Geo. III., c. 110, sec. 1, to all strangers in any parish. In future, therefore, a person must really be a burthen to the parish, to admit of his being removed.

Finally, the new poor law of 1834, following always on the track of the law of Charles II., has newly regulated the system of domicile. Relationship, apprenticeship, marriage, and residence accord domicile as formerly. Bastards, however, now follow the domicile of the mother until they attain the age of sixteen or gain a domicile for themselves. Anyone paying the ordinary municipal

Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations.

+ Pashley, 233.

taxes need not have resided in the place of his domicile in order to avail himself of his rights. The Law of Settlement is independent of municipal law, and may also be acquired by foreigners. It accords to all who acquire it a right to relief. The fact of hiring and service no longer gives domicile. The most recent substantial reforms have been introduced during the present reign. By 9 and 10 Vict. c. 66, no person can be removed from a parish in which he has resided for five years next before the application for a warrant for his removal.

A later enactment restricts the settlement to a five years' residence within any poor law union. A statute of the year 1853 has extended this provision to a settlement of three years duration in such union.

The speech from the throne with which the session of 1854 was opened, promised ample reforms of the Laws of Settlement, but until now they have remained mere words. Viewed in theory, however, the enactments have been condemned by all parties. "That they still endure," says Pashley,* "is a memorable example of the slow progress of reason and justice among the rulers of a just and reasonable people." The interminable difficulty of the question should not be kept out of view; whether these laws can be abolished without a fundamental reform of the entire poor-law system is a question that can neither be safely affirmed nor denied.

Pashley, p. 315.

CHAPTER V.

FREEDOM OF COMMERCE.

Restraint of Trade unknown to the Common Law.-Regulations affecting trade under the Tudors.-Introductions of freedom of Trade.-Restriction on certain callings. -Hawkers.-Factory Workers.-Physicians.-Apothecaries.-Boarding Houses. -Granting of Beer and Spirit Licenses.—Political Influences affecting the Grant of Licenses. Withdrawal of Licenses.-Public Companies, Railways, Canals. By the common law all trades were free. Restrictions were first introduced by statutes and grants of corporate rights to "mysteries," and guilds. According to the trade-regulations under the Tudors, the pursuit of any trade depended on seven years' apprenticeship. The practice of the courts interpreted all these privileges very narrowly and strictly. In the country parts the pursuit of trade remained unfettered. An interesting insight into the statutory restraint of trade is afforded by a previously-mentioned statute of July 21, 1856, whereby a hundred antiquated laws affecting trade were at one stroke abolished. Amongst them we meet with a statute characteristic of the earlier restrictions to trade; viz., 10 William III., forbidding the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of buttons. The guilds began to decline under the Stuarts, becoming mere associations, or companies, for the purposes of common revelry.

The statute 54 George III. c. 96, gave force of law to that which had long obtained, viz., that the pursuit of trade should be wholly free apart from all guilds. Notwithstanding the general freedom of trade, strict police regulations are in force touching certain callings; for instance, bakers, brewers, butter-dealers, coal dealers, millers, manufacturers of arms, apothecaries, knackers, sellers of gunpowder, brokers, pawnbrokers, pilots, chimneysweeps, marine-store dealers. For the greater part of these trades the permission of inspectors must be obtained previous to taking a factory or place of business. Dealers in, and manufacturers of, guns and pistols, can only sell arms which have been officially tested. Pedlars are specially subject to manifold restrictions; if met with not having their trade licenses, they are liable to one

months' imprisonment with hard labour. Only licensed manufacturers and retailers of tobacco can deal in tobacco and snuff. Whosoever contravenes these regulations (5 and 6 Vic. c. 93, s. 13) is punishable by forfeiture of the property, and a penalty of £100, or three months' imprisonment with hard labour. All infractions may be proceeded against by way of indictment, the informer receiving a portion of the penalty. These enactments are milder in practice than in theory. Justices of the peace in all such cases are very lenient, which is all the more possible as the English law refuses to the prosecutor any appeal.

Later legislation has exhibited special solicitude for workers in factories. By 6 George IV. c. 129, the Tories abolished the laws which punished peaceful strikes for the purpose of obtaining higher wages, and the enactments of the first two Georges owe their origin to the Whigs. The truck system is forbidden under penalty by 1 and 2 Will. IV., c. 36, 37. The Factory Bill, 3 and 4 Will. IV., c. 103, enacts that young children shall not be allowed to work at night in factories. To carry out its provisions, special inspectors of factories are appointed, under the control of the Home Office. They may inflict a penalty ranging from £1 up to £20, and from their sentence there lies no appeal.

Many persons can only follow their calling by virtue of a license obtained from a magistrate, amongst whom may be mentioned persons who let to hire carriages and hackney coaches. By the London Cab Act (1 and 2 Will. IV., c. 22), every cabdriver must be provided with a certificate of good conduct, otherwise he is not allowed to follow the calling, but strict attention can scarcely be paid to this requirement, seeing that London cabdrivers are very rough-spun, and take especial advantage of foreigners. By the act of July, 1853, parliament reduced the cabfare from eightpence to sixpence per English mile. A grand strike was the consequence, but after holding out for three days, the cabmen surrendered to the omnipotence of parliament.*

In former times doctors drove a free trade. Since the Medical Act (21 and 22 Vic. c. 90), a registration has been introduced for all doctors having a degree and who have passed an examination. Only doctors so registered can bring an action for their

A capital description of the conse quences of this strike, in a metropolis

like London, is to be met with in the Annual Register of 1853, p. 91.