“Why, then,” said Mr. Conly, “couldn’t you go and work for yourself and support yourself?”
“Because there’s no work to be had. Why, sir, there are five men to do one man’s work. People are so plenty a man can only get a day’s work once in a while, and get so little for it that it will barely keep him alive, and when there’s no work he must fall back upon the parish or starve. The farmers don’t generally like to hire the parish poor, and then the settlement hurts poor people.”
“What’s that?”
“If a man gets a settlement in a parish, and can’t maintain himself, that parish must help maintain him.”
“How does he get a settlement?”
“If a man was born in any parish, his settlement is there. If he is bound for an apprentice forty days in a parish, his settlement is there. If he has been hired for a year and a day, he gains a settlement. If he has rented a house that is valued at ten pounds a year he gains a settlement.”
“I understand; it’s something like what we call gaining a residence.”
“Well, sir, the settlement act works very badly for a poor laboring man. Some of the parishes are quite small, and if in the parish where a poor person belongs, and has got his settlement, there is no work he can’t go into the next parish and get work, though there may be plenty of work there.”
“Why can’t he go?”
“He can go, sir, but he will get no work, for nobody will hire him for fear he will get out of work or fall sick, and stay long enough to gain a settlement; they will say: ‘Get you back to where you came from,’ and hustle him right out. Sometimes the farmers will hire a man for a few days short of a year, lest he should gain a settlement. They will take a boy out of the workhouse, keep him all summer till after harvest, and then quarrel with him and drive him off.”