CHAPTER XI

.

_The First Poor Law Act, pages 125-132._

First Poor Law Act, 125. Total annual revenue of all the monastic estates, 125. Cromwell’s advice to the King, among whom to divide the monastic properties, 121. Owners of monastic lands to maintain hospitality, 126. Blackstone on the support of the poor prior to 27 Henry VIII., 127. Blackstone quotes the “Mirror” in support of the common law claim of the poor to a part of the tithes, 127. Lord Selborne’s argument answered, that the part allotted to the poor out of tithes would now be insufficient for their maintenance, 127. Sir Simon Degge says: “The poor have a share in the tithes.” Lord Selborne’s criticism on this statement, 129. Who _Anthony Harmer_ was, 129. Sir Simon Degge’s legal position and antecedents, 130. Lord Selborne quotes from a garbled edition of the “Parson’s Counsellor,” 130, 131. The Acts which gave poor a portion of the tithes, 131. Elizabeth’s Act, 131. How rectors closed upon all the tithes, 132.

##