tatutes for the repairs of the highways; that is, of ways leading
from one town to another: by which it is enacted, 1. That they may
remove all annoyances in the highways, or give notice to the owner to
remove them; who is liable to penalties on noncompliance. 2. They are
to call together all the inhabitants of the parish, six days in every
year, to labour in repairing the highways; all persons keeping
draughts, or occupying lands, being obliged to send a team for every
draught, and for every 50_l._ a year, which they keep or occupy; and
all other persons to work or find a labourer. The work must be
completed before harvest; as well for providing a good road for
carrying in the corn, as also because all hands are then supposed to
be employed in harvest work. And every cartway must be made eight feet
wide at the least[i]; and may be increased by the quarter sessions to
the breadth of four and twenty feet. 3. The surveyors may lay out
their own money in purchasing materials for repairs, where there is
not sufficient within the parish, and shall be reimbursed by a rate,
to be allowed at a special sessions. 4. In case the personal labour of
the parish be not sufficient, the surveyors, with the consent of the
quarter sessions, may levy a rate (not exceeding 6_d._ in the pound)
on the parish, in aid of the personal duty; for the due application of
which they are to account upon oath. As for turnpikes, which are now
universally introduced in aid of such rates, and the law relating to
them, these depend entirely on the particular powers granted in the
several road acts, and therefore have nothing to do with this
compendium of general law.

[Footnote i: This, by the laws of the twelve tables at Rome, was the
standard for roads that were straight; but, in winding ways, the
breadth was directed to be sixteen feet. _Ff._ 8. 3. 8.]

VI. I PROCEED therefore, lastly, to consider the overseers of the
poor; their original, appointment, and duty.

THE poor of England, till the time of Henry VIII, subsisted entirely
upon private benevolence, and the charity of welldisposed christians.
For, though it appears by the mirrour[k], that by the common law the
poor were to be "sustained by parsons, rectors of the church, and the
parishioners; so that none of them dye for default of sustenance;" and
though by the statutes 12 Ric. II. c. 7. and 19 Hen. VII. c. 12. the
poor are directed to be sustained in the cities or towns wherein they
were bor