to be their pariſhioners, they cannot be removed merely becauſe likely to become chargeable, but only when they become actually chargeable[1]. But ſuch certificated perſons can gain no ſettlement by any of the means above-mentioned; 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 ſervant to ſuch certificated perſon gain a ſettlement by ſuch their ſervice[2].
These are the general heads of the laws relating to the poor, which, by the reſolutions of the courts of juſtice thereon within a century paſt, are branched into a great variety. And yet, notwithſtanding the pains that have been taken about them, they ſtill remain very imperfect, and inadequate to the purpoſes they are deſigned for: a fate, that has generally attended moſt of our ſtatute laws, where they have not the foundation of the common law to build on. When the ſhires, the hundreds, and the tithings, were kept in the ſame admirable order that they were diſpoſed in by the great Alfred, there were no perſons idle, conſequently none but the impotent that needed relief: and the ſtatute of 43 Eliz. ſeems entirely founded on the ſame principle. But when this excellent ſcheme was neglected and departed from, we cannot but obſerve with concern, what miſerable ſhifts and lame expedients have from time to time been adopted, in order to patch up the flaws occaſioned by this neglect. There is not a more neceſſary or more certain maxim in the frame and conſtitution of ſociety, than that every individual muſt contribute his ſhare, in order to the well-being of the community: and ſurely they muſt be very deficient in found policy, who ſuffer one half of a pariſh to continue idle, diſſolute, and unemployed; and then form viſionary ſchemes, and at length are amazed to find, that the induſtry of the other half is not able to maintain the whole.
