The rate was to be made un the profit, which was defined to be not the whole profit, but the excess after payment of debts,. Thus it was nearly impossible to ascertain the rateable amount of such Property, and the proprietor might always evade the tax by re siding out of the parish. So long however ns personal property was rateable by law, the omission of it in the rate was a ground of appeal, because all persons liable are to be rated equally according to their ability. The inconvenience of this state of things induced the legis lature to enact by 3 & 4 Vice c. 89 that no inhabitant should be rated for his stock in trade or other property. The word " inhabi may now be considered as struck out of the statute of Eliza beth ; nobody will have to contribute henceforward to the poor rate except us his character of occupier. Personal property therefore is no longer rateable ; but nevertheless the exemption depends upon the passing annually of an act of parliament continuing the exemption.
If a parish ie unable s. sufficient sum for the maintenance of its poor, any other parish in the same hundred, with the sanction of wo justices, or in any other part of the county, with the sanction of the justices at quarter-sessions, may be called upon to assist the less solvent parish. This is called rating parishes in aid.
The overseers are to collect the rate from the persons rated. If a person rated do not pay when called upon, the overseers may obtain a summons, requiring him to show cause why a warrant should not issue to levy the rate by distress and sale of his goods; and, if no sufficient cause is shown, the payment is enforced accord ingly. The party so summoned may show for cause that the rate itself is void, or that he is not liable ; he may also, with the con sent of the overseers, be excused, if it appear that he is unable to pay through poverty. He may also appeal against the rate, and notice of appeal deprives the magistrates of their jurisdiction to distrain until the appeal is decided, unless the objection is solely on the ground of over-charge, in which case the warrant may issue for such a sum as the property was rated at in the last valid rate. The appeal against the rate on the ground of inequality, unfairness, or incorrectness in the valuation of the property rated may be to justices at special sessions, from whose decision a second appeal lies to the general quarter-sessions. The appeal, on the above grounds, may also be taken to the quarter sessions in the first instance. If the objection be to the principle of the rate itself, or it is intended to dispute the liability of the property to be rated, the appeal lies to the quarter-sessions only. In all these cases of appeal, notice of appeal and of the precise objections to the rate must be given to the parish-officers, and also to any rated inhabit ants that may be interested in opposing the appellant, as, for instance, where his ground of complaint is that they have been under-rated.
The overseers who in some parishes acted under the direction of a select vestry, and are assisted by assistant overseers, were to apply the poor-rate to the relief of the poor of their parish. The poor of the parish are, in one sense, all those who happen to be in the parish at the time of their being in distress : for the parish in which they happen to be is bound to afford such paupers immediate, or, as it is called, casual relief. The 13 & 14 Car. H. c. 12, is the foundation of the present law of settlement, which determines the parish to which a pauper belongs, and gives the power of removing him to it. This law is called the law of settlement. The statute enables two justices, upon complaint made by the churchwardens or overseers of the poor of any parish, to any justice of the peace, within forty days after a person coining to settle there, in any tenement under the yearly value of 10/., by their warrant to remove such person to the parish where he was " last legally settled, either as a native, householder, sojourner, apprentice, or servant, far the space of forty days at the least." Later statutes have greatly modified the heads of settlement here enumerated, and have added others; they have also made a pauper irremovable, until he has become chargeable to the foreign parish by receiving relief from it, either in person or through the hands of his wife or children.
The following are the settlements that subsisted at the passing of the Poor-Law Amendment Act :—settlement by birth, parentage, marriage, hiring and service, apprenticeship, renting a tenement, estate, office, payment of rates. Settlements may be divided into two general classes ; being, first, natural or derivative settlements, as by birth, parentage, or marriage, to the perfection of which residence in the parish is unnecessary; secondly, acquired settlements, including all the remaining settlements above mentioned, and to these residence for forty days in the parish is necessary. The following were the modes
of acquiring the various settlements which have been enumerated :-1, settlement by birth.—In order that children may not be separated from their parents, the settlement of the father during his life, and the settlement of the mother after his :death, is the settlement of the children. But legitimate children who have no known settlement are settled in the place of their birth; so also are illegitimate children, for they can derive neither settlement nor anything else from their parents. Children, however, during the age of nurture, which continues till they are seven years of age, must not be separated from their parents, and are therefore to be supported in the_parish where their parents happen to be, at the expense of the parish of their birth settlement. 2. Settlement by parentage.—The settlement of the father, or, if he have none, the maiden settlement of the mother, is communicated to legitimate unemancipated children. After the Lather's death their settlement shifts with that of the widow, until she marry again, in which case the settlement of her new husband is not communicated to them. A child is said to be unemancipated so long as be forms part of the parent's family. A child is emancipated when be gains a settlement of his own, or, being of the age of twenty-one, lives apart from and independently of the parent, or contracts some relation inconsistent with his continuing a subordinate member of the parent's family, as by marrying or enlisting as a soldier. Any settle ment of the parent acquired after the child's emancipation is not communicated to him. 3. Settlement by marriage.—To prevent the separation of husband and wife, the settlement of the husband is com municated to the wife ; she can acquire no settlement during marriage ; and, if he have no settlement, she cannot be separated from him by removal to her maiden settlement. 4. Settlement by hiring and service is acquired by a person unmarried, and without unemancipated children, hiring himself for a year into service, abiding for a year in the same service, and residing for forty days in any parish within the year, and with a view to the service. A general hiring, that is, a hiring where nothing is said as to the duration of the contract, is con sidered a hiring for a year. The service for the year need not be wholly under the hiring for a year, it is sufficient if part of the service be under such hiring ; the residue may be either under another hiring, or under no hiring at all. The settlement is gained in the parish where the servant last completes the residence of forty days—the forty days need not be consecutive days; if the servant reside thirty-nine days in parish A, then forty days in parish B, and finally another day in A, A, where he last completed a residence of forty days, will be the place of his settlement. All the forty days must be within the compass of a single year, but it is sufficient if the residence for any part of the forty days be under the yearly hiring. 5. Settlement by apprenticeship is gained in the parish where a person bound by deed as an apprentice last completes a residence of forty days in his character of apprentice. No service is required, hut the apprentice during the necessary period of residence must be under his master's control. 6. Settlement by renting a tenement is acquired by hiring and actually occupying a tenement at the rent of at least 10/. a year, payment of rent to that amount, and residence for forty days in the parish where the tenement is. By actual occupation is meant that no part of the tenement must be underlet. 7. Settlement by estate is gained by the possession of any freehold, copyhold, or leasehold property, and resi dence for forty days in the parish where the estate lies. If the estate come to a party in any way except by purchase, the value of the estate is immaterial ; but a purchased estate confers no settlement if the price given was under 30/. But a person residing on his estate, what ever may be its value, is by Magna Charta irremoveable from it while so residing, although he may have gained no settlement in respect of it. 8. Settlement by office is gained by executing any public office in a parish, such as the office of constable, sexton, &c., for a year, and residing there forty days. The office need not be of a parochial nature, but it must be at least an annual office. 9. Settlement by payment of rates.—In order to acquire this settlement a person must have been rated to and have paid the public taxes of a parish, in respect of a tenement hired at a rent of 10/. a year, and have paid that amount of rent, and resided forty days in the parish of the tenement. This head of settlement therefore includes all the requisites of settlement by renting a tenement, except the requisite of actual occupation.