either affirmed or quashed, according to the law on the facts given in evidence at the sessions (m).

If a casual has no known place of settlement in England, and was not born in Scotland, Ireland, or other part of the United Kingdom, then he must remain of necessity in the place where he has become chargeable; and he may claim relief there, so long as he continues to be in want, upon the same footing with its settled poor, unless and until some place be afterwards discovered wherein he may claim a settlement. There are also some particular cases in which the removal of a casual pauper to his or her place of settlement or birth is illegal; for the wife of such a pauper cannot, if her husband has no settlement, be removed to her place of maiden settlement, so as to separate her from her husband, unless by mutual consent (n), nor can a child (whether legitimate or otherwise) be taken away from its mother during its time of nurture, that is, until the age of seven years. And even though an order of removal be duly made, still if the pauper, by reason of sickness or infirmity, is not in a fit state to travel, the execution of the order must be suspended, till the justices are satisfied that it may be safely executed (0), such suspension extending also to any others of the pauper's family included in the removal order (p). Also, persons in legal custody cannot be removed, under the poor laws, from the parish where they are confined. It is of particular importance to remember, that, in general, no person may now be removed from a parish (or union) in which he has resided for one whole year (q), next before

(m) Poor Law Procedure Act, 1848, s. 7.

(n) R. v. Eltham (1804), 5 East, 113; Re Ethel Brown (1884), 13 Q. B. D. 614.

(0) Poor Removal Act, 1795, s. 2; Poor (Settlement and Removal) Act, 1809, s. 3; R. v.

Llanllechid (1850), 2 El. & EL 530.

(p) Act of 1809, s. 3.

(q) Union Chargeability Act, 1865, s. 8; cf. Machynlleth v. Pool (1869), L. R. 4 Q. B. 592; R. v. St. Olave's (1873), L. R. 9 Q. B. 38.

the application for a warrant for his removal, such period of residence sufficing to ensure his irremovability, although it should not confer on him a settlement (r). This is called a status of irremovability. Further, a pauper may not be removed for becoming chargeable in respect of relief made necessary by sickness or accident, unless the justices shall state in the warrant that they are satisfied that the sickness or accident will produce permanent disability (s); and a woman residing with her husband at the time of his death cannot be removed till twelve calendar months afterwards, if she shall so long continue his widow (t), nor a woman deserted by her husband, if after the desertion she reside for one year in such a manner as would, if she were a widow, render her irremovable (u). And a child under the age of sixteen, whether legitimate or illegitimate, residing with his or her father or mother, stepfather or stepmother, or reputed father, may not be removed, unless the person with whom such child is residing may lawfully be removed (a).

II. As regards the Administration of the Poor Law, and the Assessment and Collection of the Poor Rate. The duty of administering relief, where a parish is under the government of guardians, or of a select vestry, belongs to those

(r) By the Poor Removal Act, 1846, s. 1, any time passed in prison, or in military or naval service, or as an in-pensioner in Greenwich or Chelsea Hospitals, or in confinement in a lunatic asylum, or as patient in a hospital, or during which parochial relief shall have been received, is to be excluded from the computation; and so also the time during which any person is detained under the Habitual Drunkards Act, 1879 (42 & 43 Vict. c. 19, s. 32), or in a school under the Industrial Schools Act, 1866 (29 & 30 Vict.

c. 118, s. 31), must be excluded from such computation.

(*) Poor Removal Act, 1846,

s. 4.

(t) Ibid. s. 2.

(u) Poor Removal Act, 1861, s. 3; R. v. St. Mary, Islington (1870), L. R. 5 Q. B. 445; R. v. St. George's-in-the-East (1870), L. R. 5 Q. B. 364; R. v. Cookham (1882), 9 Q. B. D. 522.

(2) Poor Removal Acts, 1846, s. 3; 1861, s. 2; R. v. St. Mary Arches, Exeter (1862), 1 B. & S. 890; Mitford Union v. Wayland Union (1890), 25 Q. B. D. 164.

authorities, according to the provisions of the Acts under which they have been respectively appointed, and subject to the superintendence of the Local Government Board. Liverpool, however, is the only place where the poor law is now administered by a select vestry; fifteen other parishes or places are, for poor law purposes, managed by authorities established under local Acts (y); and all other parishes are now managed by separate boards of guardians, or else form part of some union managed by a board of guardians for the union. Also, with some very rare exceptions, there are now no extra-parochial places for civil purposes; for all places which before 1857 were extra-parochial were to be deemed parishes of themselves for civil purposes, and power was given to appoint overseers for such places (2), and all such places for which in 1868 no overseer had been appointed, or for which no overseer was then acting, were for all civil parochial purposes incorporated with the next adjoining parish (a).

In all cases of sudden and urgent necessity arising in a parish under the government of guardians or of a select vestry, any overseer is empowered and required by law, whether the applicant for relief is settled in the parish or not, to give him or her such necessary temporary relief as the case may require; and if the overseer refuses to give such necessary relief, and the pauper is not settled or usually resident in the parish to which the overseer belongs, any justice of the peace may, by an order under his hand or seal, direct such necessary relief to be given, the overseer who disobeys such order incurring a penalty not exceeding 51. (b). And whatever may be the settle

(y) Act of 1844, ss. 64, 65; Poor Law Audit Act, 1848, s. 12; and Poor Law Amendment Act, 1867, s. 2.

(z) 20 Vict. (1857), c. 17, s. 1. (a) Poor Law Amendment Act, 1868, s. 27.

(b) Act of 1834, s. 54; and see Att.-Gen. v. Merthyr Tydfil, W. N. (1899) 38, for the powers of guardians to grant relief to able-bodied persons in cases of sudden or urgent necessity.

ment or residence of the pauper, any justice of the peace is empowered to order medical relief in all cases of sudden and dangerous illness, the overseer here also being subject to the penalty of 5l., in case of disobedience (c). Also, in unions formed under the Poor Law Amendment Acts, any two justices of the peace usually acting for the district may, at their discretion, order any adult person, who is unable to work and is entitled to relief, to be relieved, if he desires it, without residing in the workhouse; but in such a case, one of the justices must certify, of his own knowledge, that the person is unable to work (d). And it is now made lawful for the guardians to permit, at their discretion, a husband and wife admitted into a workhouse to live together, provided either of them shall be infirm, sick, or disabled by any injury, or shall be above the age of sixty years; but every such case must be reported forthwith to the Local Government Board (e).

The duty of making and levying the poor rate or parochial fund for the relief of the poor belonged, and, subject (as regards rural parishes) to the provisions of the Local Government Act, 1894, still belongs, to the churchwardens and overseers of the parish; and the concurrence of the inhabitants at large was not, and is not, necessary (f). For the better execution of these duties, the statutes authorize the appointment of collectors and assistant overseers for the parish or (it may be) for the separate townships therein (g). And here it is convenient to observe, that the office of overseer is, in general, compulsory, excepting in the cases of the persons enumerated in the foot-note below (h); and a woman may fill the

(c) Rex v. Kerr (1793), 5 T. R. 159.

(d) Act of 1834, s. 27; Act of 1848, s. 12; Poor Relief Act, 1894.

(e) Act of 1847, s. 23; Divided Parishes Act, 1876. s. 10.

(f) Act of 1601, s. 1; Act of 1844, s. 63.

(g) Poor Rate Act, 1839; Act of 1844, ss. 61, 62; Poor Law Amendment Act, 1866, s. 10; Local Government Act, 1894.

(h) Peers and members of parliament; justices of the peace ; aldermen of London; clergymen ; dissenting ministers; practising barristers and solicitors; registered

office (i). The appointment of overseers, and also of assistant overseers, is now (in the case of rural parishes) vested in the parish council, or in the parish meeting, created by the Local Government Act, 1894 (k). In urban parishes, however, they are still appointed by two justices of the peace, unless an order has been made by the Local Government Board authorizing the council of the borough or urban district to appoint or act as overseers, and to appoint assistant overseers (1). In the metropolis the new borough councils are the overseers. (London Government Act, 1899).

The poor rate is raised prospectively (m); and for some given portion (usually one half part) of the year. It is at so much in the pound, according to the parochial assessment; and upon a scale adapted to the probable exigencies of the parish (n). By the Poor Relief Act, 1601, it is directed to be raised by taxation of every

occupier of lands, houses, tithes impropriate, propriations "of tithes, coal mines, or saleable underwoods" in the parish; and a man is rateable for all that he occupies in the parish, whether he is resident there or not, for example, in respect of a box at a theatre, or in respect of moorings in the river, or in respect of land used for advertising (o), or in respect of a tunnel, sewer, and the like. Corporate property (e.g., the railroad of a railway company) is deemed for this purpose to be in the occupation of the corporation (p); but Crown property (q)