§ Lord Althorprose to more for leave to bring in a bill to abolish Settlement by hiring and service. The noble lord referred to the great evils which prevailed at present from the facilities given for procuring settlement by hiring and service. Though the weight of this grievance was sometimes averted by hiring for 51 weeks and by other devices, yet these cases were met by the judgment of courts, which frequently made the contract void. It might safely be asserted, that a change in the law was necessary, were it only to cut off the enormous and expensive litigation which sprung out of this particular claim of settlement. Another evil arising out of the law, as it now stood, was the difficulty which a poor man found in getting work out of his own parish. This would be, in a great measure, removed by his bill. At the same time, he was aware that some evil must arise from any change. It was, therefore, on a balance of the advantages and disadvantages, which he thought to be decidedly in favour of his plan, that he took leave to propose the present motion.
Colonel Woodsaid, he did not mean to oppose the motion for leave to bring in the bill, but, as an isolated measure, he 33 could not help feeling that it must be attended with considerable difficulty. If the bill should be brought in and go to a committee, he would propose a clause to obtain for the poor a mode of gaining a settlement which the noble lord had not provided in his plan. The mode he would propose was, to give a settlement to all persons who paid poor-rates, in the parish in which they had paid them. As the law now stood, no person could obtain a settlement who did not pay rent to the amount of ten pounds a-year; but he would have the right allowed, without any consideration of rent whatever. It was his intention to have introduced a bill founded on the resolutions which he had proposed last year; but having consulted the opinions of the great manufacturing towns, he found them so averse to the plan, that he feared it would be impossible to carry the measure. The great grievance which the agricultural parishes had to contend with was, that their people were enticed away to the large manufacturing towns. There the young women were seduced and impregnated; and then they were sent back, and became incumbrances upon their former parishes.
Mr. Crippsobserved, that more litigation was occasioned by the claim of hiring and service than by any other ground of settlement, and as far as the noble lord's measure operated to remove that cause of dispute, it was likely to have a beneficial effect. He thought the fairest principle was, that the parish which had enjoyed the labour of the pauper should have the onus of his support when he could labour no longer. His great fear was, with respect to the noble lord's bill, that, as it went on birth and the paying of poor-rates, it would appear still more objectionable to the manufacturing towns, than the bill intended to have been brought forward by his hon. friend.
§ Mr. Lockhartapproved of the bill, because it went to encourage residence, and to cut off one great head of litigation, which now thrived upon the uncertainties of settlement by service.
§ Leave was given to bring in the bill.