caused much additional pressure on the poor-rates, and would render legislation with a view to check the growth or lessen the weight of the burthen, extremely difficult. This was repeatedly stated in parliament, as a reason for doing less than might otherwise have been attempted; and although the alarm caused by the rapid increase of the rates was no doubt great, the dread of making any sudden change or effort at reduction in the then circumstances of the country was equally so; and we ought perhaps to wonder that so much was at that time done, rather than that so little was accomplished as appears in the present Act. We have seen the views expressed by the committee of 1817 on the subject of settlement. In the following year a Bill embodying those views was introduced by Mr. Sturges Bourne, which gave rise to much discussion at the time, and continued to excite great attention throughout the country. Almost every parish was more or less affected by it, and a good deal of local influence was consequently brought to bear on the question in parliament. The Bill was eventually reduced to a single clause, and passed under the title of "An Act to amend the Laws respecting the Settlement of the Poor, so far as regards renting Tenements." By this Act (59 George III. cap. 50), it is directed that cap. 50. thenceforth no person shall acquire a settlement by residing forty days in a parish in a tenement rented by him, unless such tenement be a separate and distinct dwelling-house or building, or land within such parish, or both, bona fide hired by him for a whole year, and at a rent of not less than £10,"nor unless such house or building shall be held and such land occupied, and the rent for the same actually paid, for the term of one whole year at the least, by the person hiring the same." This extension of the term of residence from forty days to a whole year, and requiring the rent to be actually Ante, p. 176 et seq. 1819. 59 Geo. III. 1 paid, would increase the difficulty of acquiring a settlement, and might also tend in some degree to check litigation; but it amounted to little as a remedial measure, and left settlement (which Mr. Huskisson designated a "cruel and unfeeling restraint on the poor man's labour") untouched, and it left the power of removal (which Sir Samuel Romilly "viewed as the greatest cruelty") unamended. The Act was, in short, altogether of little moment, and chiefly deserves notice. as showing that the public were so entangled in the meshes of the old system as to be afraid of making an effort for extrication. The magnitude of the evil was generally admitted, but all appeared to dread a change, the possible consequences of which were so magnified by their fears, and possibly also by the misrepresentations of interested parties, that nothing effectual could be done in the way of remedy; and settlement, and the power of removal, the two great blots of the English Poor Law, remained as before. George III. 29th Jan. 1820. We have now arrived at the termination of the Death of reign of George the Third, who died on the 29th of January 1820, in his eighty-second year. He had long been disabled by mental infirmity from attending to the business of government, which was conducted by his son (now George the Fourth) under the title of Regent; so that there was no other change beyond the change of title in the actual occupant of the throne. Yet the death of the aged sovereign was deeply felt by the people. His personal character, and the sad affliction with which he was visited his long reign of sixty years, and the extraordinary events which had occurred within the periodall served to awaken tender emotions at his removal, and to surround his memory with affectionate regrets. 1 See Hansard's Debates, May 10, 1819, and April 30, 1818. END OF PART THE THIRD PART THE FOURTH FROM THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE THE FOURTH, TO THE CHAPTER XIV A. D. 1820-1834 Accession of George IV.--Savings banks-Servants and apprentices- 1820-1830. THE accession of George the Fourth took place at a George IV. time when public opinion was much divided on certain questions of domestic policy, especially on the subject of Parliamentary Reform, without which, it was with some reason asserted by a large section of the people, it would be vain to expect other ameliorations. Tumultuous meetings were held in the manufacturing districts, and at Manchester a large assemblage had been dispersed by the military. Conspiracies were said to be secretly concocted, and a general feeling of apprehension prevailed, without any very definite cause, excepting that there were great complaints of distress in all parts of the country. It is not necessary, however, to give a detail of these circumstances, as they are sufficiently recent for remembrance. Indeed it must have been noticed that as we approached modern times, 1817-18. The Sav Atcs. reference to details not immediately connected with the Poor Law have been less frequent, as they were less necessary for a right understanding of the condition of the people; and hereafter attention will be altogether confined to poor law measures, and to matters more or less immediately connected therewith. In the Report of the Select Committee on the Poor Laws in 1817, the establishment of Savings Banks is noticed in terms of deserved commendation. These institutions were not altogether unknown, but England is indebted for their legal organisation to Mr. George Rose, who in February 1817 introduced a Bill for the purpose. The measure gave rise to considerable conflict of opinion at the time, and as first framed was certainly open to objection in parts, the most prominent of which was the provision, that a person having £30 deposited in a savings bank, should nevertheless be entitled to relief from the poor-rates; but this proposition was soon abandoned. The two Acts constituting and regulating these ings Bank receptacles for the small savings of the industrious classes are 57 George III. cap. 130, and 58 George III. cap. 48. These Acts, taken together, empowered trustees and managers "to receive deposits of money for the benefit of the persons depositing the same, and to accumulate the produce in the nature of compound interest, and to return the whole or any part of such deposits and the produce thereof to the depositors, deducting only so much as shall be required for defraying the necessary expenses of management." The trustees and managers are not themselves to receive any profit or advantage from the institution, for which they are required to frame rules, which are to be entered in a book open at all times to the inspection of the depositors. The rules are also to be enrolled at the sessions, and the justices may reject any that are |