Weekly relief when due. No appeal against order for relief. continued till 31st July. On 6th May, two justices of the borough of Colchester, within whose jurisdiction the parish of L. is, took the pauper's examination, and made an order for removing him and his wife from L. to Coggeshall, in Essex, and at the same time endorsed a suspension on the order of removal; and on 31st July, the order was executed by their permission. The parish officers of Coggeshall not paying within three days, the magistrates of Colchester issued a warrant of distress, and Coggeshall not being within their jurisdiction, the parties applied to the defendant to back it, which he refused. In shewing cause against the rule, it was observed, that the order of removal was illegal, as the pauper had not come into L. to inhabit or settle, but was detained by an unavoidable accident, and fell within the description of casual poor. The court, however, upon the reasoning before stated, thought the defendant had no discretion, and made the rule absolute for a mandamus, commanding him to sign the warrant. (1) Where an order directs, that a certain sum shall be paid to the pauper weekly, and every week, it is due at the beginning of the week, and the parish officers should pay it then. (2) The jurisdiction to make orders for the relief of the poor by the sessions, and by a single justice, are concurrent. No appeal, therefore, lies against an order of maintenance; and the reason is, lest, while the point is litigating, the poor should starve. (3) (1) Rex v. Kynaston, ante, 373. (2). (2) Rex v. John Fearnley, 1 Term Rep. 316. SECT. II. Concerning relieving the Poor in Workhouses. The statutes regulating this mode of administering relief will be classed under the three following heads: 1st, As to the provisions relating to the building, altering, and enlarging workhouses; and selling old ones. 2dly, As to the provisions relating to contracts to be made for supplying goods for the use of the poor; and, 3dly, The enactments which regulate the conduct of the masters and inmates, and provide for the internal economy and management of workhouses. Parishes are not compellable to erect workhouses, but may maintain and employ their poor at their own homes. (1) be erected fo By 43 Eliz. c. 2. s.4. In order that necessary places of habit- Houses may ation may be more conveniently provided for poor impotent the poor on persons, the churchwardens and overseers, or major part the wastes. of them, by agreement under hand and seal of the lord of the manor, or according to any order of justices in sessions, by like agreement, may build in fit and convenient places in the waste or common, at the charge of the parish or otherwise of the hundred or county, convenient houses of dwelling for the impotent poor. By 9 Geo. I. c. 7. s. 4. the churchwardens and overseers, Houses may with consent of the majority of parishioners in vestry, may for the poor by purchase or hire any house or houses in the parish, &c. and parishes, (1) Per Buller J., Rex v. Wetherell, Cald. 432. contract for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing their poor; and there keep, maintain, and employ and contracts them, and take the benefit of their labour; and any poor made for their refusing to be lodged, maintained, &c. in such house, shall maintenance. Parishes may poor. not be entitled to relief. The concurrence of all the parish officers is not necessary to make the contract valid; the assent of the major part is sufficient, although the rest refuse to join. (1) The section further provides, that if any parishes, townunite in pro- ships, &c. are too small to purchase or hire such houses, viding houses for lodging the two or more of such parishes, &c. with the like consent of the parishioners, and with the approbation of any justice, under hand and seal, dwelling in or near such parishes, &c. may unite in purchasing or hiring such houses for the lodging, keeping, and maintaining their poor, and there Poor refusing keep and maintain them, and take the benefit of their work and labour; and any persons refusing to be so not entitled to lodged, kept, and maintained, shall not be entitled to relief. to be main tained there relief. Extends only to those actu ally asking relief. This provision being, as was before mentioned (2), productive of many harsh consequences, notwithstanding the decision of the judges, that it extended only to compel Discretionary those persons of a family to go there who were in actual power given to want of relief; a discretionary power is given to magistrates justices to order relief to by 36 Geo. III. c. 23., to order relief to the poor at their the poor at dwelling houses in cases of illness, &c. for a certain period, and by 55 Geo. III. c. 13. s. 3. for a still further time. (3) home. But not where there are It is, however, expressly enacted by sect. 4 & 5 of 36 Geo. III. c. 23. that such power shall not extend to places (1) Rex v. Beeston, 3 Term Rep. 592. 1 Bott, 408, Pl. 510, (2) Ante, 357. (3) See the statutes, ante, p. 357., for the remedy to enforce obedi. ence to orders of maintenance, post, chap. xxxvi. 14 where houses of industry are provided under 22 Geo. III. houses of inc.83., or any other special act. Nor to hundreds incorporated by a particular act. (1) The same section still further provides, that the churchwardens and overseers of any parish where a workhouse has been established under this act, may, with the like consent of the parishioners, contract with the churchwardens and overseers of any other parish for the lodging, maintaining, and employing the poor of such other parish; and any poor refusing to be so lodged and maintained in such workhouse shall not be entitled to relief. But no person shall acquire a settlement by reason of his removal to such other parish, but it shall be the same as before such removal. dustry. Two united parishes may hire workhouse in a third, and if the poor reThe side there un in der a certificate they cannot be re Two justices by an order removed W. H. from the parish of Lyncombe to the parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, in the city of Bath; to which parish they adjudged him likely to become chargeable. The sessions on appeal confirm the order, and state the following case: parishioners of the parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, conjunction with the parishioners of the parish of St. James, in the city of Bath, some time since purchased a piece moved. of ground, situated in the parish of Lyncombe, and built thereon a house for the reception and maintenance of the poor of the several parishes of St. Peter and St. Paul, and St. James there. In September last, the pauper W. H. being impotent and unable to work, was, together with all the other paupers of the said parish of St. Peter and St. Paul, removed from thence to the said new erected house, in Lyncombe, where he and the rest of the poor have been maintained at the expence of that parish, without being any expence to Lyncombe. The pauper, and all the other poor who went into the said house, carried with them regular certificates signed by the officers of St. Peter and (1) Rex v. Keer & Rich, 5 Term Rep. 159. 1 Bott, 410. Pl. 501. ante, p. 358. St. Paul, and which were delivered to the officers of Lyn combe. Notwithstanding which, the officers of L. obtained an order for his removal, as not being an object of the certificate act, and therefore unprotected by it. But by Lord Mansfield; after stating the object of the certificate act: "The want of workhouses was soon felt as an inconvenience. They were not long after (i.e. the certificate act) introduced by the legislature; and if well regulated, a most desirable mode of relief they are. They supply comfort and accommodation for those who cannot work, and employment for those who can. In many instances which have chanced to fall within my knowledge, particularly on the midland circuit, they have reduced the annual amount of the poor rates one half. But this benefit could not within itself be received by every small district; for where parishes were small, the expence of the necessary buildings was too heavy for them. This obstacle was foreseen by Single parishes the legislature, and provided against accordingly. Though must contract single parishes could only contract for these buildings withhouses within in their own limits (1), yet where two unite, no restrictions were imposed; the power is general. It is obvious that the workhouse of a single parish must be most conveniently situated in that parish. Upon a similar principle, where many parishes were jointly concerned, the legislature did not require that the buildings should be raised in either of the confederate parishes; because, in such a case, a spot might be found in some other parish more centrical and better accommodated to their general convenience than any part of their united district. The act, therefore, authorizes the purchase any where; and when once the joint purchase is made, wherever it be, it becomes a part of the local system of each contracting parish; and if the poor will not go there, they are not entitled to relief. The same narrow spirit that has impeded the progress of this beneficial plan now starts up again to limit this power, and almost to overthrow the act itself, which was calculated ultimately to for work their limits. United parishes may in a third. (1) Vide 59 G. III. c.12. s. 10. infra. 380. |