Page:Economic History of Virginia Vol 1.djvu/603

 at the quarter sessions. The rapid growth in the number of the poor led to the passage of the 43 Eliz., C. 9, which provided for the indigent under certain conditions at the public expense, and this statute was still in force in 1662, when the 13 and 14 Charles II, C. 12, became a law. It had been enlarged in the interval only so far as to allow poor children to be bound out as apprentices in different trades by the local authorities, a power which, as we shall see, was exercised in connection with Virginia, especially during the existence of the Company.

Although 43 Eliz., C. 9, provided for regular assessments for the benefit of the poor, yet during the first forty years which followed its passage, either no rates were levied for this purpose, or the amount collected was so small that many individuals among the working classes perished from want. Indeed, the burden imposed was so heavy that the taxpayers were slow to accept it. In 1622, a number of English parishes turned loose upon the country so great a swarm of idle or disabled laborers as to threaten a dangerous pestilence of vagabonds, who, however willing to work, were unable to find employment. The evil was not confined to one or more communities, but was in various degrees common to all England. Each parish, as a means of self-protection, was compelled to adopt the most stringent measures to prevent such persons, belonging to other parts of the kingdom, from overflowing into its own boundaries. The statute 13 and 14 Charles II, C. 12, was passed to give legal sanction to these measures, and this statute was supplemented by 1 Jas. II, C. 17, to make its provisions more effective. By the terms of these laws, two justices of the peace, on complaint of the church wardens or the overseers of the poor, within forty days after the arrival of a new comer, were empowered to require of him security that he would not become