by any rate or assessment, or shall object to any person's being put on or left out of the rate, or to the sum charged on any person therein, or by anything done or omitted to be done by the churchwardens and overseers, or by any justice of peace, such person, on giving reasonable notice, may appeal to the next quartersessions, which is empowered to receive and finally determine the same. Succeeding overseers are empowered to levy arrears of rate, and the goods of persons assessed, and refusing to pay, may be distrained for the amount. Overseers are moreover protected against vexatious actions, on account of want of form, or irregularity of procedure. And as persons frequently remove out of parishes without paying the rates assessed on them, and other persons enter and occupy the premises during part of the year, "by reason whereof great sums are annually lost to such parishes"-it is enacted that the person The person coming into occupation shall be liable to pay the rate occupation that was due by his predecessor when he quitted the the rate premises. Parish officers refusing or neglecting to obey the Act are, on proof thereof before two justices of the peace, to forfeit not less than twenty shillings, nor more than five pounds, to the poor of the parish. entering on is liable for due. 1744. 17 Geo. II. cap. 37. reclaimed The amount at which property is rated should obviously be open to revision whenever a change takes place in its actual value, whether arising from improvement, deterioration, or any other cause; and 17 George II. cap. 37, was passed for preventing disputes with regard to the rating, etc., of "improved wastes, Rating of and drained and improved marsh-lands." It recites, and imthat "in divers counties great quantities of waste and lands, etc. barren lands, and lands which were formerly fen or marsh ground, or covered with water, have been of late years improved or drained, and are now of very considerable value, and the inhabitants and occupiers thereof ought to pay a proportionable part of the rates VOL. II.-3 1744. 17 Geo. II. for the relief of the poor, in like manner as other inhabitants and occupiers, and likewise to bear and pay a proportionable part of all other parochial rates: but great difficulties frequently arise in determining to what parish such lands belong or ought to be rated,"— wherefore it is enacted, that the occupiers of all such improved lands, etc., shall be rated to the relief of the poor and other parochial charges, within the parish which lies nearest to such lands, etc., and in the same way as any other description of property is rated. And if any dispute or difference should arise therein, it is to be determined on appeal by the persons interested, at the next general quarter-sessions of the peace. We here see evidence that great improvements had been effected, and were in progress, in the drainage and reclamation of waste lands, a sure proof of the growing prosperity of the country. The 17 George II. cap. 5, is entitled "An Act to cap. 5. amend and make more effectual the Laws relating to Rogues, Vagabonds, and other idle and disorderly Persons." This is the well-known Vagrant Act, which has substantially remained in force to the present day, although not without receiving considerable modifications. The subject had been previously twice legislated upon in the present reign, first by 10 George II. cap. 28, and next by 13 George II. cap. 24, each of these Acts being, however, based upon the statute 13 Anne, cap. 26.1 The present Act takes a more comprehensive view of the question than was done in any preceding statute, although it begins as usual by reciting that "the number of rogues, vagabonds, beggars, and other idle and disorderly persons daily increases, to the great scandal, loss, and annoyance of the kingdom." It then divides the several offenders into three classes, namely, the disorderly, the rogues 1 Vol. i. p. 377. This is 12 Anne, statute 2, cap. 23, in the common octavo edition of the Statutes. and vagabonds, and the incorrigible rogues, and assigns specific punishments to each. The first class comprises-all persons who threaten to run away, and leave their wives or children to the parish; all persons who unlawfully return to a parish, from whence they have been legally removed; all persons who, not having wherewith to maintain themselves, live idle without employment, and refuse to work for the usual wages; all persons going about from door to door, or placing themselves in streets, highways, or passages, to beg or gather alms-persons so offending are to be deemed idle and disorderly, and may be committed by a justice of peace to hard labour in the house of correction, for any time not exceeding one month. Any person may apprehend such offenders and carry them before the justice, and thereby be entitled to a reward of 5s.; and if an offender shall resist, or escape from the person so apprehending him, he is to be subjected to the higher punishment of a rogue and vagabond. The second class comprises-all persons who run away, and leave their wives and children chargeable to the parish; all persons going about as patent gatherers, or gatherers of alms, under pretences of loss by fire or other casualty, or as collectors for prisons, gaols, or hospitals; all fencers and bearwards; all minstrels and jugglers; all common players of interludes, and persons who for hire or reward act or perform, or cause to be acted or performed, any interlude, tragedy, comedy, opera, play, farce, or other entertainment of the stage, not being authorised by law; all persons pretending to be gipsies, or wandering in the habit or form of Egyptians, or pretending to have skill in physiognomy, palmistry, or like crafty science, or pretending to tell fortunes, or using any subtle craft to deceive and impose, or playing or betting at any unlawful games or plays; all petty chapmen sion of and pedlers, wandering abroad, not being duly licensed; all persons wandering abroad and lodging in alehouses, barns, outhouses, or in the open air, and not giving a good account of themselves; all persons wandering abroad and begging, pretending to be soldiers, mariners, seafaring men, or pretending to go to work in harvest; and all other persons wandering about and begging-persons so offending are to be deemed rogues and vagabonds. The third class comprises-all persons apprehended as rogues and vagabonds, and escaped from the persons apprehending them, or refusing to go before a justice, or to be examined on oath, or refusing to be conveyed by a pass as herein directed, or giving a false account of themselves; and all rogues and vagabonds who shall break or escape out of any house of correction; and all persons who, after being punished as rogues and vagabonds and discharged, shall again commit any of the said offences-all such are to be deemed incorrigible rogues. Apprehen- Any person apprehending a rogue and vagabond, or rogues and an incorrigible rogue, and carrying him before a justice, etc. will thereby be entitled to a reward of 10s., and the vagabonds, justice is required to examine the offender as to his circumstances and place of settlement, and make a written record of such examination, and transmit the same to the next quarter-sessions to be there filed. The justice is likewise empowered to order any such offender to be publicly whipped, or to be sent to the house of correction until the next general quartersessions, or for any less time, and, after such whipping or confinement, to pass such offender to his place of settlement in the form prescribed. If the defender be committed until the next general quarter-sessions, and if the justices there assembled adjudge him to be a rogue and vagabond, or an incorrigible rogue, they may order the former to be kept at hard labour for any further time not exceeding six months, and the latter for any further time not exceeding two years nor less than six months, with such whipping as they in their discretion think fit, and afterwards pass him to his place of settlement. If any incorrigible rogue break prison, or make his escape before the time limited, or if he again commit a like offence, he is to be deemed guilty of felony, and may be transported for seven years. search for vagabonds. The justices are moreover empowered, once a Privy quarter, or as often as need be, to direct a general rogues and privy search in one night, throughout their several divisions, for finding and apprehending rogues and vagabonds; and every justice may, on information of rogues and vagabonds being within his jurisdiction, issue his warrant for their apprehension. The justices are likewise empowered to regulate the passing of rogues, vagabonds, and incorrigible rogues, and to direct how they are to be conveyed, whether "by horse, cart, or on foot," and what is to be allowed for the same; and if, on searching a vagrant, it be found that he has money or effects wherewith to pay the whole or any part of the charge for apprehending and passing him to his place of settlement, the justice is to order the same to be so applied accordingly. Justices may also direct masters of ships bound to Ireland, or to the Channel Islands, to take on board and convey thither any vagrants belonging to these places, and the master refusing or neglecting so to do, is liable to a penalty of £5. vagabonds prehended at work. The 19th section directs that "the parish or place Rogues and to which any rogue, vagabond, or incorrigible rogue is when appassed, shall take care to employ in work, or place in to be kept some workhouse or almshouse, the persons so conveyed to them, until they betake themselves to some service or other employment. And in case they refuse to work, or shall not betake themselves to some service |