The statute 17 Geo. IL, c. 5, was by no means a well-considered or a well-expressed law.. It has been justly said that " in the long cata logue of actions which it holds up, many are of a dubious nature, and nice legal acumen would often be required to distinguish whether a person had incurred any and what penalty under the statute." (Eden's State of the Poor,' vol. L, p. 306.) The courts too complained of tho inaccuracy of its expression and the consequent difficulty of under standing its meaning. (Rex r. Rhodes, 4 Term Reports,' 222.) Repeated attempts were made in parliament to modify and improve its provisions. A committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1775 to review and consider the Poor Laws and the laws relating to vagrants, resolved " that the stet. 17 Geo. IL, c. 17, should be explained and amended in such a manner as to enforce tho execution thereof, and prevent the practice of begging in the streets and highways, per nicious in its consequences and highly disgraceful to this country." Nevertheless this statute continued in force until the year 1822, when a temporary set, stat. 3 Gee. IV., c. 40, passed, repealing all former laws and re-enacting most of the provisions of the stat. 17 Geo. II., c. 5, with many additions and modifications. The provisions of the stat. 3 Geo. IV., c. 40, were however entirely superseded by the stat. 5 Geo. IV., o. 83, which now constitutes the law respecting vagrants. By the third section of this statute the following persons am declared to be idle and disorderly persons, and may be committed by a single magistrate to hard labour in the house of correction for any time not exceeding one month :—L Every person able to maintain himself and his family, refusing or neglecting to do so, whereby ho or his family become chargeable to the parish; 2. Every person returning and be coming chargeable to a parish from which he ha.s been legally removed by order of two justices without having a certificate of his settlement in some other parish from the officers of such parish ; 3. Petty chap men or pedlars wandering abroad and trading without licence; 4. Proetitutes wandering in the streets or highways, or in any place of public resort, and behaving riotously or indecently ; 5. Every person wandering abroad or placing himself in any public place to beg and gather alms, or procuring any child to do so. To which other statutes have since added :-6. Paupers in workhouses, not doing task-work when required, or injuring their clothes or damaging the property of the guardians ; 7. Women neglecting to maintain their illegitimate children; and, 8. Persons applying for relief as paupers, having pos session of money, &c., of which they do not make disclosure. These offenders are punishable by a single justice with one month's imprison ment and hard labour.
The 4th section of the 5 Geo. IV., c. 83, declares the following per sons to be rogues and vagabonds, and empowers a single magistrate to commit them to hard labour in the house of correction, for any time not exceeding three months :-1. Every person committing any offence which would constitute him an idle and disorderly person ; 2. Every person pretending to tell fortunes, or using any device, by palmistry or otherwise, to deceive and impose upon the people ; 3. Every person wandering abroad and lodging in any barn or outhouse, or in any deserted building, or in the open air, or under a tent, or in any cart or waggon, not haring any visible means of subsistence, and not giving a good account of himself ; 4. Every person wilfully exposing to view in any street, road, highway, or public place, any obscene print, picture. or other indecent exhibition. (By 1 & 2 Viet., c. 38, this provision is declared to extend to exposing such articles in a shop window.) 5.
Every person wilfully and obscenely exposing his person in any street or highway, or in the view thereof, with intent to insult any female; 6. Every person wandering abroad and endeavouring by the exposure of wounds or deformities to gather alma ; 7. Every person going about as a gatherer or collector of alms, or endeavouring to procure charitable contributions under a false pretence ; 8. Every person running away and leaving his wife actually or probably chargeable to the parish; 9. Every person playing or betting in any street, highway, or public place with any table or Instrument of gaming, at any game of chance ; 10. Every person having in his possession any picklock-key, crow, jack, bit, or other implement, with intent feloniously to break into any house, &c., or being armed with any gun, pistol, hanger, cutlass, bludgeon, or other offensive weapon, or having upon him any instru ment with intent to commit any felonious act ; 11. Every person, being found In any dwelling-house, warehouse, coach-house, stable or outhouse, or in any inclosed yard, garden, or area for any unlawful purpose ; 12. Every suspected person or reputed thief frequenting any river, canal, or navigable stream, dock, basin, or any quay, wharf, or warehouse near or adjoining thereto, or any street, highway, or avenue loading thereto, or any place of public resort, or any avenue leading thereto, or any street, highway, or place adjacent, with intent to com mit felony ; 13. Every person apprehended as an Idle and disorderly person, and violently resisting any peace-officer so apprehending him, and being subsequently convicted of the offence for which lie shall have been so apprehended.
Incorrigible rogues are-1. Persons brealcin5 or escaping out of any place of legal confinement before the expiration of the term for which they shall have been committed, or ordered to be confined by virtue of the statute ; 2. Persons committing any offence against the statute which subjects them to be dealt with as rogues and vagabonds, such persons having been at some former time adjudged so to be and duly convicted thereof ; and, 3. Every person apprehended as a rogue and vagabond, and 'violently resisting any constable or other peace-officer so apprehending him, and being subsequently oonvieted of the offence for which ho shall have been so apprehended. These offenders are to bo committed to the next sessions, and kept to hard labour in the interim; and the sessions may further punish them by imprisonment with hard labour for one year, and if males, with whipping.
The statute, besides the definition of the facts and circumstances which are to constitute offences in the several classes above enumerated, contains various provisions for the prosecution of vagrants and the regulation and disposal of them. Thus it is enacted that any person may apprehend a vagrant and bring him before a magistrate. The persons as well as the carriages or luggage of the several descriptions of vagrants may be searched, and money or goods found upon them may on their conviction be applied towards the costs of apprehending them and maintaining them in prison. If proceedings at the sessions are contemplated, either by reason of an appeal against a summary conviction or the commitment of an incorrigible rogue, the committing magistrate may bind over witnesses to prosecute, and the justices at sessions may order the payment of costs to persons so bound. And an appeal is given to the next sessions to any person aggrieved by an act or determination of any magistrate out of sessiona concerning the execution of the act.
(See Blackstone's Commentaries, by Kerr, vol. iv.)