No address, no vote, no voice: why are beggars singled out?

IT is a little known fact that beggars are frequently charged under the Vagrancy Act of 1847.

Their crime is begging. The same act specifies that fortune-tellers and any person who willfully displays any obscene print should be arrested. Sleeping in the open air is also illegal.

With regard to beggars, section 3 of the act says: “Any person wandering abroad and begging or placing himself in any public place, street, highway, court or passage to beg or gather alms shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one month.”