POOR'S rate, an assessment raised throughout England and Wales, for the temporary relief, or permanent main tenance, of all such persons, as, from age, infirmity, or poverty, cannot them selves procure the means of subsistence. The first statute, or law made in Eng land, which gives any particular direc tions concerning paupers, was 11 Henry Yll. c. 2. It directs, " that every beg gar, not able to work, shall resort to the hundred where he last dwelt, is best known, or was born : and shall there remain, upon pain of being set in the stocks, three days and three nights, with only bread and water, and then shall be put out of town." The insuf ficiency of this regulation soon became evident, and in 1531 an act was passed, whereby the justices of every county were empowered to grant licences to poor, aged, and impotent persons, to beg within a certain precinct ; but if they were found begging without li cence, or beyond the limits specified, they were either to be whipped or set in the stocks. This, however, was a very inadequate mode of providing for the poor ; and in 1536 an act was passed, di recting the governors and magistrates of counties, towns, and parishes, to provide for every aged, poor, and impotent per son, who should have dwelt three years in any place, by means of the voluntary alms of charitable persons, which were to be collected for this purpose, in every parish. The act likewise directed, that sturdy vagabonds should be compelled to work, and that chidren from five to four teen years of age, who lived in idleness, and were found begging, should be put to service.
Upon the destruction of the monaste ries, from the charities of which the poor had derived their principal support, some further ineffectual attempts were made for their relief, by means of voluntary donations; but it was at length found ne cessary to stimulate public charity by a compulsory clause, in an act passed in 1563. This act directed, that if any parishioner shall obstinately refuse to pay reasonably towards the relief of the poor, or should discourage others, the justices of the peace, at their quarter-sessions, might tax him to a reasonable weekly sum, which if he refused to pay, they might commit him to prison. This may
be considered as the origin of the poor's rate, which was rendered more general by an act passed in 1572, which directed that assessments should be made of the parishioners of every parish, for the re lief of the poor of the same parish ; which was the first regular and effectual parochial assessment for the poor in England. In 1601, further regulations were adopted on this subject ; it being enacted by 43 Elizabeth, c. 2, that every parish should be bound to provide for its own poor, and that overseers of the poor should be annually appointed, who, with the church wardens, should raise, by a parish rate, competent sums fbr this purpose : the mode in which the assess ment was directed to be made was, that the justices of the peace of every county or place corporate, or the ma jor part of them, at the general ses sions to be held after Easter following, and so yearly, as often as they should think fit, should rate every parish to such a weekly sum of money as they should think convenient ; which sum, so taxed, was to be yearly assessed by an agree ment of the parishioners within them selves, or in default thereof, by the churchwardens and petty constables, or by an order of the justices of the peace : and if any person refused or neglected to pay the portion of money so taxed, it might be levied by distress, and in default thereof, the person to be com mitted to prison till the money was paid. In this mode, or with very little variation, the poor's-rate has continued to be annually levied ; but as, from the increase of population, the advanced price of all the necessaries of life, and other causes, the number of the poor has been greatly augmented, the sum raised for their support has progressive ly advanced to a very important magni tude.