" C. E. T." (which signifies, we suppose, Sir Charles
"Trevelyan) writes to Monday's Times to propose a virtual re- -enactment of 19th Henry VII., c. 12, the statute which
punished " vagabonds and those who relieve them." He points out that beggars are not more guilty, hardly so guilty, as those idly charitable people who relieve them to get rid of importunity or of an unpleasant sensation, and justly remarks that with a charitable Association willing to investigate all cases of alleged want, even the idlest can have no excuse for giving without investigation. But does he not -forget that any statute giving the police power to apprehend givers as well as beggars would put almost every one into the power of the beggars, who would extort alms from the busy under threat of feigning to receive it from them and swearing that they
had so received it And even if the beggars' evidence in the -matter could not be legally tendered, the police would be invested with a new and very objectionable power of alarming quiet people by a charge that would be exceedingly difficult to disprove.
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