REMOVAL or PAUPERS, in the law of England, is the technical term applied to the compulsory removal of paupers from a parish in which they have become destitute, to the parish or union settlement, and which, therefore, is bound to maintain them. The right of parochial officers to remove paupers in such circumstances has long been con sidered as one of doubtful wisdom, and the propriety of continuing it has latterly been much discussed. As the law stands, wherever a person becomes destitute in a parish in which lie was not born, or in which he has not acquired a settlement (q.v.), as it is called, the overseers may apply to a justice of the peace at once to remove him to his own parish. In such a case, notice must be given by the removing parish to the parish of settlement, so that the latter may oppose the proceeding; and this gives rise to frequent litigation, for the point turns on the antecedent history of the pauper, or it may be of the pauper's father or grandfather. The right of removing paupers is as old as 13 Charles II. At first, it was in the power of the overseers, whenever a poor person came into the parish who was likely to become chargeable, to apply for a warrant to remove him after 40 days. But this was thought too great a restriction on the natural liberty of
poor persons to go where they like in the hope of bettering themselves, and the power of removal was restricted to cases where they have already become actually destitute, and apply for relief. Even that limitation was thought to be too oppressive on the poor man; and by a statute of 1840, whenever a poor man had lived in any parish, where he had no settlement previously, for five years, it was not allowed to remove him thereafter at all, but the expense of his maintenance fell upon the common fund of the union. By a later statute of 1865, this period was reduced to one year, and he is now irremovable not only if lie has lived one year in it parish not his own, but iu any one union; so that now the removability of paupers is greatly checked, and made less oppressive.