they refuse to be bound.

The 14th Elizabeth, cap. 5, requires the justices of the peace to
register all aged and impotent poor born or for three years resident in
the parish, and to settle them in convenient habitations, and ascertain
the weekly charge, and assess the amount on the inhabitants, and yearly
appoint collectors to receive and distribute the assessment, and also an
overseer of the poor. This act was to continue for seven years.

The 18th Elizabeth, cap. 3, provides for the employment of the poor.
Stores of wool, hemp, flax, iron, etc., to be provided in cities and
towns, and the poor set to work. It empowered persons possessed of land
in free socage to give or devise same for the maintenance of the poor.

The 39th Elizabeth, cap. 3, and the 43d Elizabeth, cap. 2, extended
these acts, and made the assessment compulsory.

I shall ask you to compare the date of these several laws for the
relief of the destitute poor with the dates of the enactments against
evictions. You will find they run side by side.

[Footnote: The following tables of the acts passed against
eviction, and enacting the support of the poor, show that
they were contemporaneous:

Against Evictions.
4 Henry VII., Cap. 19.
7 Henry VIII, Cap. 1.
21 Henry VIII,
24 Henry VIII, Cap. 14.
25 Henry VIII, Cap. 13.
27 Henry VIII, Cap. 22.
5 Edward VI., Cap. 2.
2 and 3 Philip and Mary, Cap. 2.
2 and 3 Philip and Mary, Cap. 3.
2 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.
31 Elizabeth, Cap. 7.
39 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.

Enacting Poor Laws.
22 Henry VIII., Cap. 12.
37 Henry VIII., Cap. 23.
1 Edward VI., Cap. 3.
5 and 6 Edward VI., Cap. 2.
2 and 4 Philip and Mary, Cap. 5.
5 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
14 Elizabeth, Cap. 5.
18 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
39 Elizabeth, Cap. 3.
43 Elizabeth, Cap. 2.]

I have perhaps gone at too great length into detail; but I think I could
not give a proper picture of the alteration in the system of landholding
or its effects without tracing from the statute-book the black records
of these important changes. The suppression of monasteries tended
greatly to increase the sufferings of the poor, but I doubt if even
these institutions could have met the enormous pressure wh