and therefore endeavour to settle themselves in those parishes where is the best stock, the largest commons and wastes to build cottages, and the most woods for them to burn and destroy; and when they have consumed it, then to another parish, and at last become rogues and vagabonds, to great discouragement of parishes to provide stock, when it might be destroyed by strangers." By the 1st of James II. c. 17. forty days were to be accounted after notice given. By the 3d and 4th of William and Mary, c. 11. it was further required that notice should be had at the church, and a statute of the 8th and 9th of the same reign enacted the machinery of certificates, that has since in a great measure been done away. The recent act of Mr. East, or the 35th of George III. restrains removal till the party becomes actually chargeable. Extending the power of requiring settlements was calculated at the moment to benefit both individuals and the public. Inconveniencies have arisen from it that were not foreseen, so true is it that political wisdom changes with the state of society. This is now become one of the most prominent evils of the system. I should propose to bring back settlements to their original simplicity, that of birth and residence; and in case of marriage the husband’s settlement to become that of the wife. Nothing surely can be more reasonable, that a life spent in active labor should convey a right of settlement: it is to be supposed his services have contributed to the wealth and prosperity of the spot. At the close of life to separate him from all his connexions and acquaintances, and transport him to a place where all memory of time is lost, is an act of unjustifiable cruelty.
In order to remedy a great evil arising out of the present system of settlements, I would propose a power should be given to parishes to purchase settlements for their supernumerary hands, so that when from a change of circumstances
