86 



POOR. 



Poor. 



by assess- 

 mem. 



introduced, which, though commonly not excessive in 

 a degree beyond the increase of land rents and popu- 

 lation, and therefore not making an increasing burden, 

 are yet so liable to become regular pensions, thus re- 

 laxing industry, or to be given under mechanical forms 

 without sufficient attempts to discriminate, that great 

 attention is required in order to render this mode of 

 provision perfect ; and, after all, it has the regular 

 effect of diminishing the public charities of the people, 

 including even those who are not assessed. In the 

 central districts, and in some parishes, the landholders 

 generally contribute what is wanting for the support of 

 the poor, over and above the collections and other 

 funds, without assessing ; but here many heritors re- 

 fuse, or neglect to give any thing; and the burden 

 devolves with unequal pressure on the liberal, while 

 others very improperly escape. There is also com- 

 monly another great evil throughout this part of Scot- 

 land, (which is not permitted in the border districts 

 where assessments are made,) and which is caused by 

 swarms of common beggars from all quarters infesting 

 the country, and raising contributions, in amount often 

 far exceeding what would support the poor of the dis- 

 trict. These undeniable facts discover too evidently 

 that the practical administration in Scotland is capable 

 of great improvement. There is in reality a tendency 

 towards ipmrovement; but certainly the most equal 

 and efficient administration is in the way of regular 

 assessment, notwithstanding the objections against it ; 

 nor is there any reason to dread that this mode should 

 go to an extreme, while the dangerous example of the 

 system in England is close in view ; and the power is 

 vested conjunctly in the minister and elders, who know 

 the claimants, and in the landholders, who have an in- 

 terest in preventing extravagant or improper grants. 

 In point of fact, many of the parochial assessments are 

 in the way of being gradually reduced. In the princi- 

 pal cities and towns of Scotland, a great deal more at- 

 tention is now given to the claims and conduct of the 

 poor ; but the system of exclusion of all improper per- 

 sons from these only drives them out into the country, 

 where the practice of common begging has arrived at a 

 great and burdensome he'ght, and is really an almost 

 intolerable evil. 



Bad effects Perhaps this mode of supply by common begging is 

 of common one o f t e ver y worst wa y s j n which the poor are, or 

 -have been supported in any country ; and yet it conti- 

 nues even in France, where the revenues of the state 

 are sparingly applied in aid of the funds of charity. 

 Under the old ecclesiastical establishments, largesses 

 were distributed to crowds of beggars with little or no 

 discrimination ; and still, at this day, it is impossible 

 to distinguish correctly among vagrants from all quar- 

 ters, of whom nothing can be certainly known, who 

 employ all the acts of fraud and falsehood, conjoined 

 with the habits of idleness and low profligacy, and who 

 are suffered to perpetuate these evils by training child- 

 ren in the same habits. England alone, and some of 

 the border districts of Scotland, have got rid of this 

 great evil ; as in some degree an alleviation of the bur- 

 dens entailed by assessment ; and a great relief it cer- 

 tainly is. 



It would swell this article too much to go into de- 

 tails of the management of {he poor in other European 

 states. We have laws in Great Britain to regulate this 

 administration ; and the statute laws are in principle 

 similar in the two united kingdoms, though in most 

 parts of Scotland the common law has established a 

 practical and superior influence. An approximation is 



begginj 



making in respect of administration, by the silent pro- 

 gress of statute law in Scotland, and by the new sta- 

 tute 1819 in England. In Ireland, it seems barely pos- 

 sible to go on, without some poor laws, for any length 

 of time ; but indeed better principles of economy ought 

 to precede these, in order to give them effect. In other 

 kingdoms and states, there is little to remark, and less 

 to commend ; only that the poverty, misery, and vice, 

 which have overrun some of the finest and most fertile 

 nations, are truly astonishing. And on this point it 

 seems unnecessary to say more than merely to name 

 France and Spain, Portugal and Italy ; and to refer to 

 the t<x> well authentieated facts connected with the 

 Poissards, the "Sans Culottes, and the Lazzaroni. It 

 is refreshing to cross the sea to the new world, to the 

 United States, where land is in abundance, labour pro- 

 ductive, industry almost unrestrained, and the condition 

 of poverty seldom and little known. 



The causes of poverty ought to be well considered, 

 in order to arrive at any certainty with regard to the 

 best and safest means of alleviating its pressure : now 

 these causes may be either natural or artificial ; and in 

 some cases these may be conjoined. 



Among the labouring classes, whatever incapacitates 

 from productive industry, may be the cause of poverty, 

 such as befalls the blind, maimed, lame aged, and per- 

 sons under diseases of body or mind ; and also persons 

 burdened with the charge and support of others in any- 

 similar condition. These are, by the common consent 

 of all nations, considered as " the poor ;" and many 

 seem to look upon these as almost the only persons en- 

 titled to be so considered. Accordingly, most of the 

 lists of regular poor are made up of persons in such a 

 state as these ; and it is for persons in that state that 

 provision is ordained to be made, under the statute 

 laws of England, and Scotland also. They are what 

 the people call " seen objects ;" and every one admits 

 that they ought to be supported, though it is not quite 

 agreed upon what is the best mode of so doing. If the 

 administrators of the poor laws of England had found 

 it safe to confine the public bounty to such as these, no 

 country in Europe would have been less pressed than 

 England would now have been in maintaining its 

 poor. 



But other causes may and do operate in extending 

 poverty, besides old age, diseases, and bereavement. 

 One bad and unproductive season has red need numbers 

 of the labouring classes to poverty, and the subsequent 

 years have distinctly shown that such has been the 

 consequence ; as may be too well established by re- 

 ferring to 1783, 1800, 1817, and other times of dearth 

 and scarcity following unpropitibus years. The last of 

 these years was followed by a great want of labour ; 

 and the impoverishing consequences among labourers 

 and tradesmen in many country districts are still felt 

 among them to the present day. 



Yet the many artificial causes of poverty are not 

 commonly so well marked and understood, although 

 their effects are equally, or even more extensive. We 

 do not here allude particularly to the waste and ravages 

 of war, though frightful ; nor to governments founded 

 in ignorance and tyranny, such as those of Turkey, the 

 states of Barbary and Egypt, which have reduced to 

 poverty and misery the inhabitants of some of the most 

 fertile parts of the earth. Neither do we allude to those 

 losses which occur in trade, nor to that misfortune, from 

 which not even the most industrious are exempted, 

 nor the most prudent. These ocnsional causes of po~- 

 vertv are neither uncommon nor unknown. But there 



Poor. 



General 

 bad ma- 

 nagement 

 in foreign 

 state?. 



Causes of 

 poverty. 



Natural. 



Accidental. 



Artificial. 



