THE FATE OP BEGGARS.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3586, 24 June 1880, Page 3

THE FATE OP BEGGARS.

After the Reformation stern measures were adopted by EdwardJVl. of England for the repression of beggars. A statute was passed, enacting that any person who lived idly for thtfee days might be brought before the justices of the Peace, marked with a hot iron, and made the slave of him who brought him for three years. Other equally rigorous laws were made. Some excuse may be found in the fact, at this time the " sturdy beggars " were becoming a danger to the rest of the community. The roads were infested with bands of men nominally mendicants, really plunderer?. The beggars were no longer picturesque but troublesome, and summarily dealt with. Later on the pressgang came djtauton them. Statutes less cruel thari^lTOse cf the Tudors, but inconvenient to the professional beggar, inasmuch as they forced woi'k — the thing he most loathed—upon him, was enacted, and in those days, with all our innumerable charities, the professional mendicant is looked down upon and assisted grudgingly, with qualms of conscience, even by the tender-hearted. Beggars fared better in Scotland. There up to the present century, the licensed " blue-gown " was permitted to make his regular rounds, secure from molestation by the most zealous of constables. He received annually a blue "coat or cloak of course cloth, to the arm of which was affixed the pewter badge which conferred on him the privilege of asking alms throughout Scotland, also a purse containing as many pennies as the reigniag sovereign was years old. Indeed, all beggars, licensed or unlicensed, are treated with tolerable kindness north of the Tweed.