The government appears to have been struggling with these evils ever since the beginning of this century. The first ordonnance which has been forwarded to us is that of the 22d December, 1807. The following are its most material enactments (pp. 191, 192):-- The parishes and parochial corporations (bourgeoisies) in the town and in the country are required, as heretofore, to afford protection and relief to their needy fellow-citizens. No one can claim parochial relief unless he is without property, and either physically incapable of work, or out of employ without his own fault. Parishes may continue their previous modes of regulating and fixing their accounts with respect to the poor. They may likewise relieve their poor as they think fit, by regular money relief, by putting them out to board, by collecting them in a single establishment, or placing them in hospitals, or distributing among themselves the children of the indigent. But it is forbidden for the future that, except in cases of emergency, and with the sanction of the district authorities, they should be sent round from house to house to be maintained. Persons arrested for begging, and taken to their parish, shall be sentenced by the parochial authorities, after having given notice to the district judge. The punishment may be eight days’ imprisonment on bread and water, or fifteen days’ hard labour[8]. _An equally rigorous treatment is to be applied to those who, being in the receipt of parochial relief, are disobedient, or give rise to well-founded complaint. They may be forbidden to enter inns, or drinking-shops, and punished in the above-mentioned manner if they disobey._ Parishes may require their overseers to watch the conduct of those who, from extravagance, drunkenness, debauchery, or other misbehaviour, are in danger of poverty, and to proceed legally to have them placed under restrictions. Such persons may be forbidden by the prefect, on the application of the parish, to frequent, for a certain period, inns and drinking-shops. If a person who has received relief subsequently obtains any property, his parish may demand to be reimbursed their expenditure on his behalf, but without interest; and though they may not have exercised their right during his life, they may proceed against his estate after his death. _No pauper can marry without the consent of his parish, nor without having reimbursed it for the relief which he has received._ The same law applies to widowers, who, while married, had received relief for themselves or their children. None who are relieved in consequence of sickness or infirmity should be allowed to marry, except in extreme cases.