Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe: Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law ReportSenior, Nassau William
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Statement of the Provision for the Poor, and of the Condition of the Labouring Classes in a Considerable Portion of America and Europe: Being the preface to the foreign communications contained in the appendix to the Poor-Law Report
Senior, Nassau William
Poor -- Europe; Poor -- United States; Working class
If any person acquires the right of citizenship in a town,
or a possession (house or lying-ground) in the country, or
if he is permitted by the local authority to form a regular
domicile by becoming a householder, he then is considered as an
expressly accepted member of the community, and the obligation
to support him, when reduced to want, immediately commences. So
soon, therefore, as any person shows an intention to settle,
or to become a householder, in a place, it is the business of
the community, or of those interested, to ascertain, through
the medium of the proper local authority, whether or not the
emigrant possesses sufficient means to maintain himself there.
Should this not be the case, and he is evidently unable to
earn a livelihood, then must the support of the individual
(or family) be borne by the community where he has previously
dwelt, and it is not advisable to permit the change of
domicile. Thence is the rule justified, that upon any person
being regularly received as member of a community, with the
express consent of its magistracy, that community becomes
bound to render him support, when his situation requires it.
Minors belong to the community in which their parents were
settled, even after the death of these. With regard to other
inhabitants, only that town or village community is bound to
maintain a pauper where he last contributed to its public
burthens.
A person who is of age, and has resided three succeeding years
in a place (for instance, as servant,) acquires by that the
right of settlement, but which he again loses by leaving the
place for one year. Privileged corporations, that possess a
particular poor-fund, or raise among themselves, pursuant to
their laws, the means to provide for their needy members, are
specially bound to maintain them.
In conformity with the rules before stated, must also the
wives, widows, and destitute children of paupers be supported
by the communities or corporations, or the owners of the
estates.
Paupers for whom communities, corporations, proprietors of
estates, or relatives are not bound to provide, according to
the foregoing rules, or when these are unable to do so, have
to be maintained in provincial poor and workhouses. These are
established at the expense of government, and supported by
contributions from the whole province.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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