432. Inquiry into the Effects 
above scale, the middle by 98°, and the 
higher class by 160°; in Scotland the lower 
by 45°, the middle by 110°, and the higher 
by 180; and in England the lower by 65°, 
the middle by 130°, and the higher class 
by 200°. 
In Treland, I believe, there are no poor laws. - 
In Scotland those laws exist nearly as in 
England, though they are rarely acted upon. 
But the poor, in every country, must be sup- 
ported by some means, when want or misery, 
from whatever cause arising, reduces them 
below that degree, which indicates their na- 
tural situation upon the scale, relatively to 
the class above them. 
Of the earliest establishment of the poor 
laws in England, we have but a very uncer- 
tain account, and it is difficult to determine, 
with any degree of accuracy, the exact pe- 
riod of time, at which they were first intro- 
duced. In all probability it was not much 
later than the decline of the feudal and mo- 
nastic establishments; and we may conclude 
that consequences then ensued, in England, 
similar to those which took place in Scotland, 
at a later period, under like circumstances. 
It is well known that, in Scotland, great mi- 
sery was produced when the lower orders were 
cast off by their chiefs, and deprived of the 
