VAGRANT 'I his term, which simply denotes " a wandering person," is derived from the Latin vapor. It was probably introduced into our law language from the Norman French ; for the phrase " ea gerantz de lieu en lieu currants per paiis," occurs in our early statutes in the sense in which the word "vagrant" is used in common language at the present day. Stat. Rich. II. c. 5.) The persons to whom it is applied in ancient documents are usually classed with " faitours " (a word of doubtful origin, but meaning an idle liver or slothful person : Cowell's Interpreter; Kelharn's Dictionary), " tra velyng-men," and " vagabonds." The latter expression, " vagabundus," was known throughout Europe iu connection with feudal law, and is interpreted to mean " crebro vagans, cui nee certum do micilinm, nee constans habitatio est." (Calvini Lezic. Arid.) It was used in this sense in English law as early as the reign of Henry II. (Cowel's Interpreter.) Modern laws have however given to the word " vagrant " a much more extended meaning, in the application of which the notion of wandering is entirely lost.
In the course of the transition made by the lower classes of society from the con dition of feudal villeins to that of free labourers, vagrancy and mendicity ensued from the unsettled state of the poor ; and in most countries where feuds had pre vailed, severe laws were made to repress the evils which sprang from this source. In England various statutes and ordi nances were passed to obviate the incon veniences arising from wandering mendi cancy. These statutes were very numerous from the 23 Edward III. (1349) to the end of the reign of Henry VIII. But notwithstanding these laws vagrancy ap pears to have greatly increased at the beginning of the reign of Edward VI., and a severe enactment (1 and 2 Edward VI. c. 3) against vagrancy was passed in that reign, but it was repealed by 3 & 4 Edward VI. c. 16.
About the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, a description of persons called rogues first appear in the general class of vagrants. The derivation of this word is variously given. Horne Tooke derives it from a Saxon word signifying " cloaked," or covered. (Diversions of Purley, vol. ii., p. 227.) Webster takes it from another Saxon word, and Dr. Johnson admits its derivation to be uncertain. Lambard says, " The word is but a late guest in our law ; for the ancient statutes call such a one a valiant, strong or sturdy beggar or vagabond, and it seen.eth to be fetched from the Latin • rogator,' an esker or beggar." (Eirenarcha, book iv., chap. 4.) Dalton also says, "A rogue may be so called quia ostiatim rogat." (Country Justice, chap. 83.) It is be lieved that the word does not occur in the English language before the middle of the sixteenth century ; and if so, it is pro bably one of those numerous cant words by which, at that period, vagrants, in counterfeiting Egyptians or gipsies, began to designate different classes of their own " ungracious rabble," and of which Harri son enumerates twenty-three degreft.
(Harrison's Description of England, pre fixed to Hollinshed's Chronicles.) In the course of the reign of Elizabeth the evils of vagrancy increased to an alarming extent; and although the ac counts given by historians of the multi tude of vagabonds in England are founded upon rude estimates, and are probably somewhat exaggerated, there is undoubted evidence that the numbers and attitude of these persons at that period constituted an evil of dangerous magnitude.
In 1597, after experience had shown that temporary expedients and ill-directed charity only increased the amount of va grancy, and that severe punishments and penalties were wholly ineffectual in pre venting it, the House of Commons ap pointed a committee to whom most of the existing laws relating to the condition of the poor, as well as certain bills for their amendment, were referred. (D'Ewes's Journals, p. 561.) This com mittee, of which Sir Francis Bacon was a member, and which was composed of all the practical men of the House, seems to have perceived and to a certain extent acted upon the principle that, in order to justify severity against vagrancy and mendicity, it was necessary to provide the means of relieving that destitution which was the ready and plausible excuse for both. They therefore prepared the statute 39 Eliz. c. 3, which for the first time organized that machinery for the legal relief of the poor, which was a few years afterwards completed and made perpetual by the stat. 43 Eliz. c. 2. The same committee also recommended mea sures for encouraging the building of " hospitals, or abiding and working houses " for the poor, and for improving and reforming such as were already in existence, but had been misapplied or abused. And at the same time they in troduced a more rational enactment for the correction and suppression of fraudu lent vagrancy. (Stat. 39 Eliz. c. 4.) "Many statutes," says Sir Edward Coke, (2 Inst., 728), "have been made for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars, but very few to find them work and to enforce them thereunto." The statute 39 Eliz. c. 4, supplied this deficiency by providing houses of cor rection, with stocks and materials for the employment of the inmates, and by en forcing the use of the means thus placed in the hands of the poor by severe penal ties against the idle. The provisions of this statute, with some alterations made by the stat. 1 Jac. I. c. 25, continued in form during the 17th century ; and, when repealed by the stat. 12 Anne, stat. 2, c. 23, still served as the model and foundation for future acts. It declared that a great variety of persons, who are described in the act, should be deemed rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars.