CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



secrecy. This was so burdensome, that a rough- 

 and-ready criterion was adopted wherever it was 

 possible. In rural parishes, half the assessment 

 fell on the heritors, according to their real or 

 valued rents, and half on the other householders, 

 in whose case the rent of the houses occupied 

 was generally made the criterion. In burghal 

 parishes, the value of the tenements was the 

 criterion ; and sometimes the assessment was 

 laid altogether on the tenants, sometimes al- 

 together on the proprietors, and sometimes half 

 on the one and half on the other. In mixed 

 parishes, the grievous plan of stenting seems to 

 have been continued. Often, however, the assess- 

 ment was entirely voluntary, and in the majority 

 of cases there was no assessment at all. Relief 

 was given from the collections at the doors of 

 the parish churches, half of which had to be paid 

 into the general fund, the other half remaining at 

 the disposal of the kirk-session. 



The administrators of this fund were in 

 burghal parishes, the magistrates ; in landward 

 parishes, the heritors and kirk-session ; and in 

 the latter, when vacant, the heritors alone. 

 These bodies had almost despotic power over 

 the pauper the mode and extent of relief being 

 in practice at their discretion. The only authority 

 competent to review their decisions was the 

 Court of Session ; and it refused to interfere 

 with the amount of relief given, unless it was 

 altogether illusory. On coming into that court, 

 the pauper, if an agent of the poor reported that 

 he had a probable cause of action, was put upon 

 the poor-roll, and had counsel assigned to him. 

 Practically, the parochial boards could do as it 

 seemed good to them : there was no central 

 administrative board of any sort. 



This state of matters gave rise to great dis- 

 content and many complaints, and ultimately a 

 commission of inquiry was instituted, whose 

 Report filled eight quarto volumes, and contained 

 a vast amount of interesting information. This 

 Report was laid before parliament in May 1844. 

 It presents a very vivid picture of the state of 

 the paupers throughout Scotland at and previous 

 to that date. Their condition varied much in 

 different parishes and in different parts of the 

 country. In Glasgow and some other places, 

 they were comparatively well off; and even in 

 districts where the allowances were wretchedly 

 inadequate, they were not so utterly miserable as 

 they seemed, when considered in reference to 

 local circumstances and the condition of the inde- 

 pendent poor. Still, the operation of the law was 

 far from satisfactory. To take, first, the Edin- 

 burgh parishes : the weekly allowance to a widow 

 with one child was is. ; the very highest to a 

 widow with six children was 35., which was 

 considered extraordinary ; to a married couple 

 the allowance was at the utmost 75. 6d. in six 

 weeks. The poor-house was overcrowded ; there 

 was no classification of the sexes ; and the deaths 

 for five years averaged 80 every year out of 

 420 inmates. In St Cuthbert's, a widow with two 

 children received is. a week. In the Highlands, 

 things were much worse. In Shildag, in Ross- 

 shire, the general yearly allowance was 53. to 

 6s. ; in Kirkwall, a widow with children received 

 2s. 6d. a quarter ; in Poolewe, a widow with four 

 children received from 45. to 8s. a year ; and in 

 Gairloch, 2s. 6d. to 53. a year. Often the whole 



506 



sum annually divided in a parish was two or 

 three pounds, as in Kilchoman, in Islay. Of 

 course, begging was the natural and necessary 

 supplement of the allowance. In many instances 

 the pauper made a livelihood by continually 

 roaming in quest of a settlement that never 

 came, and this imposture had become intolerable. 

 Maniacs were allowed in general to rove as they 

 chose, or were boarded in unlicensed and unregu- 

 ! lated houses. In short, an immediate change was 

 necessary, and the commissioners reported to 

 that effect. 



The Poor-law Amendment Act of 1845 was the 

 consequence of this Report. Its great feature was 

 the creation of a Board of Supervision, ' to in- 

 quire into the management of the poor in every 

 parish and burgh of Scotland,' and to report 

 annually to the Home Office on everything con- 

 nected with the state and management of the 

 poor. It was to fix the number and qualification 

 of the elected members of parochial boards ; 

 divide parishes into wards, and allot to each its 

 : proportion of representatives ; dismiss inspectors 

 I and medical officers ; and exercise other powers 

 i of the most extensive kind. The Act sanctioned 

 three modes of assessment ; the first of which has 

 been almost universally adopted ; namely, one 

 half the rate is assessed on owners, and the other 

 half on tenants or occupiers of lands and heri- 

 tages, rated according to the annual value of such 

 lands and heritages. 



In the event of no legal assessment, the old 

 administrators were to remain. In assessed 

 burghal parishes, the boards consist of three 

 elements : (i), Four members sent by the magis- 

 trates ; (2), Four by the kirk-session ; and (3), 

 Members elected by the ratepayers. In rural 

 assessed parishes, the boards consist of four 

 elements : (i), Owners of heritable property of 

 the yearly value of 20 and upwards ; (2), Magis- 

 trates of any royal burgh within the parish ; 

 (3), Not more than six members of the kirk- 

 session ; (4), Members elected by the rate- 

 payers. 



The Board of Supervision entered on its duties- 

 on the 4th of September 1845, an d gave in its first 

 annual Report in August 1846. At that date, all 

 the parishes had elected inspectors, and more or 

 less willingly provided funds. The working of the 

 new system will be best illustrated by a few 

 leading facts. In August 1845, 230 parishes in 

 Scotland were assessed, and 650 unassessed ; in 

 August 1873, the number of parishes having 

 become increased to 885, the number remaining 

 unassessed had fallen to 81. In assessed parishes 

 the whole of the church-door collections were left 

 at the disposal of the kirk-sessions. In the year 

 ending ist January 1836, the sum expended on 

 the poor did not exceed ^171,042 ; in the year 

 ending ist February 1846, it amounted to ,295,232 

 an increase of 124,190 in ten years; in the 

 year ending i4th May 1847, it was ^433,915; 

 and in the year ending I4th May 1848, it was 

 ;544,334- From 1848 to 1853, the annual expen- 

 diture averaged ,550,000; from 1853 to 1873 it 

 , has been annually on the increase, and in the last- 

 mentioned year amounted to ,873,075, IDS. lojd ; 

 the average expenditure during each of the ten 

 preceding years being ^845,593, los. lid. 



In 1845, the number of registered poor was 

 63,070, or about i in 42 of the population ; in 



