90 



POOR. 



ters. 



Poor 

 tenants. 



Poor, for improving the laws and the circumstances of the 

 c..- y ~.J poor, it is hardly to be supposed that by far the great- 

 est and most hurtful restraints on their industry will 

 be suffered much longer to remain, however conse- 

 crated by antiquity the system of tithes drawn in kind, 

 entails, and rights of common may now be. 



Collections It may be considered of minor, yet it is not of small 

 of di&sen- importance to remark, that all dissenting congregations 

 ought either to apply their collections to the mainte- 

 nance of their own poor, or to put in the whole, bona 

 Jide, among the funds of the parish poor without dis- 

 tinction ; and it may seem to have escaped the no- 

 tice of the legislature, but it was placed by a special 

 application in the view of the board of treasury, that 

 legacy duty is exacted for bequests made in behalf of 

 the poor, and no exemption granted. 



The tenure by which the poor hold their cottages 

 and small allotments of land, is by far too short and 

 uncertain at present ; and unfeeling or capricious land- 

 lords, or their agents, expel them frequently and force 

 them into the towns, where their health and morals, 

 together with their comfort and usefulness, are all im- 

 paired, and many rural districts are left in a state of 

 desolation. It ought to be in the power of landholders 

 to remove either tenants or cottagers at the end of their 

 respective contracts or leases ; but far longer previous 

 notices ought to be given them, and perhaps also a rea- 

 sonable compensation for improvements to which they 

 were not bound, and of which the landholders at their 

 removal enter into the fruits. There is also a degree 

 of distress attending general removals of bodies of te- 

 nants and their families, and thus throwing them on 

 the public in a state of want of employment and sub- 

 sistence, for which there is no remedy in the present 

 law ; but for the necessity of some ameliorating act, 

 the many removals of bodies of people, which have 

 even of late occurred in Scotland, the interests of hu- 

 manity, and the dictates of public justice and policy 

 appear to plead. Connected with this humane and 

 wise attention to the state and feelings of poor tenants 

 Education, and cottagers, is that which is due to. the education of 

 their children, especially in remote situations. This 

 object, in many of the vast parishes of Scotland, is evi- 

 dently impracticable by one school and teacher; and, 

 therefore, under the new act, 1803, two parish schools 

 are in some cases allowed ; but a clause was permitted 

 to be inserted in this case, relieving the heritors of all 

 obligations to build or uphold the teachers' dwelling- 

 houses ; which in effect was to render the above allow- 

 ance oi' little use, and the accommodation it conferred 

 of rare occurrence. 



In addition to these matters, which cannot be reme- 

 died without legislative authority, and are yet of great 

 importance to the comforts, the usefulness, and the 

 loyalty of the poor tenants and cottagers of Scotland 

 it is believed that few things would be of more essen- 

 tial service to the real and deserving poor, than a more 

 vigorous enforcement of residence and prohibition of 

 common begging ; and a stronger call on the heritors 

 and kirk sessions of remote parishes to give correct 

 and regular attention to the state and wants of their 

 own poor ; to attend to their employment also, and to 

 recommend and enforce the duty of industry in their 

 own parishes, prohibiting the too common practice of 

 wandering as mendicants. 



Perhaps in return for any information collected in 

 "Scotland, and communicated to the two houses of par- , 

 liament, this generous attention to what is most in need 



Residence 

 of the 

 poor- 



of remedies in the laws and practice of Scotland, rela- I'oor. 

 tive to the poor, might be viewed as worthy of the S ""~V~"^' 

 legislature of this enlightened kingdom. 



With respect to Ireland, until the field of productive Ireland. 

 industry has been fairly opened for the labouring classes, 

 it appears difficult to suggest any thing likely to im 

 prove the state of her innumerable poor. But if the 

 tenure by which land is held were duly improved, and 

 land itself, as a subject of improvement, cleared of tithes 

 in kind and other fetters ; and then if capital were em 

 ployed in commercial and manufacturing industry, 

 with liberal attention to the state of the people ; and 

 if the children were trained in habits of good conduct, 

 and educated so as to qualify them for greater useful- 

 ness, the next generation might see Ireland advancing 

 with a rapid and steady pace towards comfort in its 

 own population, and kindly and beneficial influence as 

 one of these united kingdoms. 



The legislature of France has rejected all assessments Franc*. 

 for the poor, and sanctioned common mendicity over 

 the land. The despotic governments of other nations 

 appear slow and reluctant in giving their people eman- 

 cipation from a state of servitude. Little hope of 

 amelioration for the state of the poor in these nations 

 appears therefore at present. Perhaps it is reserved for 

 this island to give the tone and example in this great 

 branch of policy and humanity, as it has done in the 

 abolition of the trade in slaves, and the propagation of 

 religion over the world. The United States of Ame- 

 rica have evinced both a liberal and profound policy, 

 in providing for the poor already, by allotments of 

 land, even before their state of population and society 

 had arrived at such a point as to bring this burden 

 into existence. 



The numerous widows' fund societies now establish- Widows' 

 ed in Britain, and the companies formed for life as- ^ und s cie- 

 surance, have produced great and beneficial conse- ties and 

 quences in warding off poverty from individuals ; but 

 perhaps the attention of the legislature is more wanted 

 in order to watch over these institutions, and to render 

 them safe depositories of the public contributions, than 

 has yet been given to them ; or than any other public 

 institution of the present time now requires. 



In order to administer to the necessities of the poor Suppres- 

 on correct and legitimate principles, it may be stated sion of 

 negatively, that common begging ought at once and mendicity. 

 entirely to be suppressed throughout the whole of 

 Scotland. A moderate and seasonable degree of atten- 

 tion on the part of the several ministers, is quite suffi- 

 cient to draw the conjunct attention of heritors and 

 elders; and if this were generally and simultaneously 

 done, and passes given to convey the poor to their 

 own parishes, the whole arrangement might be ren- 

 dered effective in less than a single year ; and it might 

 then easily be kept in that state. The funds of charity Attention 

 would then fall of course to be first applied ; and so to th e 

 long as landholders in general agreed voluntarily to wants of 

 put in what was necessary in supplement, no assess- the real 

 ment could be necessary. This, however, though the P 

 last resource, might still be so managed, as to be at- 

 tended with very little harm ; and it is the only and 

 the legal instrument for compelling those who neglect 

 the poor to attend to them. Some wanderers indeed 

 have no right, or pretend to have none, in any particu- 

 lar parish ; but these might be accommodated in work 

 and poor houses ; and Scotland would then be cleared 

 of a pest that has annoyed and oppressed her since the 

 union of the kingdoms, and probably long before it. 



llfe as " 



