1804. On the Poor Lcnvs 0/ Scot hind. 23 



in commission with the heritors, v/hcn thej meet to assess 

 themselves and tlcir tei'ants, tor maintai-i^jng t'le poor ; and 

 in that act there is this impoiiant clause, ,' Wliocver shall 



* give alms to any beggarnot of the parish, and shall not seize 



* (or cause to be seiz(?d) the beggar, to be sent back to liis 



* own parish, shall -be fined in 203. to be applied to tlic use 



* of the poor.' Thi.s, and several other acts and proclama- 

 tions of Privj Counc'l, are confirm.ed and ratified by acts 1695, 

 cap. 43, and 1698, cap. 21. So that this power of ministers, 

 ciders, and heritors to meet, when necessary, and stent them- 

 selves and their tefiants for maintaining the poor of the pa- 

 rish, who are unable to v/ork, stands unrepealed in the sta- 

 tute-book, as a part of the statute-law for the management 

 of the poor; and by these laws the heritors can only claim the 

 one-half of the contributions collected at the church, to be 

 publicly applied for that purpose. 



Notwithstanding that the larcst unrepealed acts of our Scots 

 Parliaments evidently authorise this stenting or taxing, when 

 absolutely necessary, yet the good sense of the nation seems 

 to have declined this pernicious system, at least in a)untry 

 parishes ; and it may be now said to have nearly gone into 

 disuetude, as a measure of common and ordinary regulation. 

 There are only a very few parishes in Scotland, Vv^here this 

 system of taxation for the poor prevails ; and these, to 

 their sad experience, feel the bitter consequences of it, in the 

 increase of their poor and poors rates, and all the consequent 

 idleness, profligacy, and want of foresight and frugality, which 

 must ever accompany a too liberal provision for the poor in 

 any parish. 



So little is it now supposed that there is any law existing, 

 for obliging heritors and tenants to assess themselves, for 

 maintaining the poor, that when a farm is to be let in lease, it 

 never once enters into the head of either the one or the other, 

 that they will have a single shilling to pay on that account, 

 during tlie curren-cy of the tack A tenant takes the farm as 

 dear as if there never had been a law made to that purpose, 

 and he sits secure, that nothing, but some extraordinary pub- 

 lic calamity, v.'ill ever oc.casioa these laws to be executed. 



Kxcept in the cases to be afterwards mentioned, tliere is, 

 perliaps, no country in the world, where the poor are more 

 humanely and carefully attended to, than in Scotland, and at 

 less expence. For time immemorial, the contributions col- 

 lected weekly, at the parish churches throughout the coun- 

 try, have been their only fund of support ; and this fund is 

 almost, if not altogether, left under the management of the 

 ministers and elders of the country parishes, who receive tlie 



B 4 collections, 



