322 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. 



a still more extensive and ruinous public pauperism. The 

 avoiding of both of these opposite evils is the very test of 

 a successful treatment of the poor. 



IX. Because, although the persons entrusted with the 

 care of the poor in Scotland have, in support of their 

 claims upon the public for contribution, a law which em- 

 powers them to obtain a compulsory assessment in aid of 

 voluntary contributions, and although the fear of such 

 compulsory assessment may, and probably does, in some 

 instances, increase the amount of voluntary contributions, 

 yet we conceive that the offer of public aid to voluntary 

 contributions is more than an equivalent for the want of 

 such a law. 



X. Because a voluntary contribution is more likely to 

 be economically administered than a compulsory assess- 

 ment : the voluntary contributions are administered under 

 the eye of the contributors, who have it in their power, if 

 they disapprove of the administration, simply to withhold 

 their contributions ; a check upon profusion much more 

 effectual than the power of preferring complaints against 

 an official person. This inference is borne out by the ex- 

 ample of Scotland, where there is the most marked dif- 

 ference, in point of expenditure, between those parishes 

 which are under assessment and those in which the poor 

 are relieved solely by voluntary contributions. 



One of the most remarkable features of the Scottish 

 system is the effect of very small sums in keeping parishes 

 free from mendicancy; the Elders, who administer the 

 parish fund, are expected to take into account whatever 

 means applicants may possess of contributing to their own 

 maintenance, whether by their own labour, or by just 

 claims on relatives ; they are expected merely to aid such 



