other of the following concomitant circumftances. The next method therefore of gaining a fettlement, is, 4. By forty days refidence, and notice. For if a stranger comes into a parish, and delivers notice in writing of his place of abode, and number of his family, to one of the overfeers (which must be read in the church and registered) and refides there unmolest→ ed for forty days after fuch notice, he is legally fettled thereby. For the law prefumes that such a one at the time of notice is not likely to become chargeable, else he would not venture to give it; or that in fuch cafe, the parish would take care to remove him (27). But there are alfo other circumstances equivalent to fuch notice: therefore, 5. Renting for a year (28) a [ 364 ] tenement of the yearly value of ten pounds, and refiding forty days in the parish, gains a settlement without notice *; upon the principle of having fubftance enough to gain credit for fuch a house. 6. Being charged to and paying the public taxes and levies of the parish; (excepting those for scavengers, highways, and the duties on houses and windows) and, y Stat. 9 Geo. I. c. 7. § 6. w Stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12. 1 Jac. 11. c. 17. 3 & 4 W. and Mar. c. 11. Stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12. z Stat. 21 Geo. II. c. 10. 18 Geo. III. c. 26. (27) I apprehend this notice is never given. It will not be given by a perfon not likely to become chargeable; and a perfon likely to become chargeable would be fure to be removed. (28) It is not neceffary that the renting fhould be for a year; if a tenement of the yearly value of 107. be taken for two months or 40 days only, it will be fufficient to give a fettlement. (Bur. S. C. 474) Nor is it neceffary there fhould be any house upon the premises, even a renting of the after-grafs or pafturage will be fufficient. (4 T. R. 348.) A perfon gains a fettlement by refiding in the parish in which part of the premifes lies, but not by refiding elsewhere. (2 T. R. 48.) It need not be one entire tenement; for if he takes one tenement in one parish, and another in a different parish, if together they are of the value of 10l. a year, he will gain a fettlement by refiding in either parish; the value only is material it will be fufficient to give a fettlement, if the enjoy ment of the tenement is gratuitous, or if no rent is to be paid for it. 17. R. 458. Book I. 7. Executing, when legally appointed, any public parochial office for a whole year in the parish, as church-warden, &c. are both of them equivalent to notice, and gain a fettlement, if coupled with a residence of forty days. 8. Being hired for a year, when unmarried and childless (29), and ferving a year in the fame fervice; and 9. Being bound an apprentice, give the fervant, and apprentice a settlement without notice, in that place wherein they serve the last forty days. This is meant to encourage application to trades, and going out to reputable fervices. 10. Laftly, the having an eftate of one's own, and refiding thereon forty days, however fmall the value a Stat. 3 & 4 W. and M. c. 11. b Stat. 3 & 4 W. and M. c. 11. 8 & 9 W. III. c. 10. 31 Geo. II. c. 11. (29) A widower or widow with children emancipated is confidered as childless, for fuch children cannot follow the settlement gained by their parent's fervice. 3 Burn. 445. If an unmarried man is hired for a year, but, before he enters upon the fervice, or during the service, marries, he may gain a fettlement. 3 T. R. 382. But this will not extend to the continuance in the fervice a fecond year; for he was married when this new contract was exprefsly or impliedly entered into. Cald. 54. Hiring for any time certainly less than a year will not be fufficient; but from Whitfuntide to Whitfuntide is confidered a year, though it will frequently happen to be a period less than 365 days. To gain a fettlement as a fervant there must be a hiring for a year, and a continued service for a year; but it is not neceffary that the fervice fhould be fubfequent to the hiring; for if there is a continued service for eleven months or any other part of a year, by any number or modes of hiring, or with any difference of wages, and afterwards a hiring for a year and a fervice to complete the year, a fettlement is gained. Cald. 179. There feemed to be great reafon to think that the fervice fubfequent to the hiring for a year fhould at least be 40 days; but it is now decided that that is not neceffary. (5 T. R. 98.) The fettlement of a fervant and an apprentice is where they laft refide 40 days in their mafler's employ; and where they do not refide 40 days fucceffively at one place, but alternately in two or more parishes, and more than 40 days upon the whole in each in the course of a year, the fettlement is in that parish in which they fleep the last night. Doug. 633. may ཟླ་ may be, in cafe it be acquired by act of law or of a third ALL perfons, not fo fettled, may be removed to their own parishes, on complaint of the overfeers, by two justices of the peace, if they fhall adjudge them likely to become chargeable to the parish into which they have intruded: unless they are in a way of getting a legal fettlement, as by having hired a houfe of 10l. per annum, or living in an an[365] nual service; for then they are not removable. And in all other cafes, if the parifh to which they belong will grant them a certificate, acknowleging them to be their parishioners, they cannot be removed merely becaufe likely to become chargeable, but only when they become actually chargeable '. But fuch certificated perfon can gain no fettlement by any of the means above-mentioned (30); unless by renting a tenement of 10l. per annum, or by serving an annual office in the parish, being legally placed therein: neither can an apprentice or fervant to fuch certificated person gain a settlement by fuch their service 3. THESE are the general heads of the laws relating to the poor, which, by the refolutions of the courts of justice thereon within a century paft, are branched into a great variety (31). f Stat. 8 & 9 W. III. c. 30. Salk. 524. Stat. Geo. I. c. 7. e Salk. 472. 8 Stat. 12 Ann. c. 18. (30) See note (24) of this chapter. (31) For a full and complete knowlege of this extenfive fubject, recourse must be had to Burn's Juftice, and Mr. Conft's valuable edition of Bott, and the reporters there referred to. And And yet, notwithstanding the pains that have been taken about them, they still remain very imperfect, and inadequate to the purposes they are defigned for: a fate, that has generally attended most of our ftatute laws, where they have not the foundation of the common law to build on. When the fhires, the hundreds, and the tithings, were kept in the fame admirable order in which they were disposed by the great Alfred, there were no perfons idle, confequently none but the impotent that needed relief: and the ftatute of 43 Eliz. seems entirely founded on the fame principle. But when this excellent scheme was neglected and departed from, we cannot but obferve with concern, what miferable shifts and lame expedients have from time to time been adopted, in order to patch up the flaws occafioned by this neglect. There is not a more neceffary or more certain maxim in the frame and conftitution of fociety, than that every individual must contribute his share, in order to the well-being of the community: and furely they must be very deficient in found policy, who fuffer one half of a parish to continue idle, diffolute, and unemployed; and at length are amazed to find, that the induftry of the other half is not able to maintain the whole. 1 T CHAPTER THE TENTH. OF THE PEOPLE, WHETHER ALIENS, H AVING, in the eight preceding chapters, treated of perfons as they stand in the public relations of magiflrates, I now proceed to consider such persons as fall under the denomination of the people. And herein all the inferior and subordinate magistrates, treated of in the last chapter, are included. THE first and most obvious divifion of the people is into aliens and natural-born fubjects. Natural-born subjects are fuch as are born within the dominions of the crown of England; that is, within the ligeance, or as it is generally called, the allegiance of the king: and aliens, such as are born out of it. Allegiance is the tie, or ligamen, which binds the fubject to the king, in return for that protection which the king affords the fubject. The thing itself, or fubftantial part of it, is founded in reason and the nature of government ; the name and the form are derived to us from our Gothic ancestors. Under the feodal system, every owner of lands held them in fubjection to fome fuperior or lord, from whom or whose ancestors the tenant or vafal had received them: and there was a mutual truft or confidence fubfifting between the lord and vasal, that the lord should protect the vafal in the enjoyment of the territory he had granted him, and, on the other hand, that the vafal fhould be faithful to the lord and [367 3 defend him against all his enemies. This obligation on the part of the vafal was called his fidelitas or fealty; and an oath of fealty was required, by the feodal law, to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, which is couched in almoft |