462 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



such a degradation, which is universally consi- 

 dered as a disgrace to the family. 



The writers of the accounts of the different pa- 

 rishes frequently reprobate in very strong terms 

 the system of English assessments for the poor, 

 and give a decided preference to the Scotch mode 

 of relief. In the account of Paisley,* though a 

 manufacturing town, and with a numerous poor, 

 the author still reprobates the English system, 

 and makes an observation on this subject, in which 

 perhaps he goes too far. He says, that, though 

 there are in no country such large contributions 

 for the poor as in England, yet there is no where 

 so great a number of them ; and their condition, 

 in comparison of the poor of other countries, is truly 

 most miserable. 



In the account of Caerlaverock,| in answer to 

 the question, How ought the poor to be supplied? 

 it is most judiciously remarked, " that distress and 

 " poverty multiply in proportion to the funds 

 " created to relieve them ; that the measures of 

 " charity ought to remain invisible, till the mo- 

 " ment when it is necessary that they should be 

 " distributed ; that in the country parishes of 

 " Scotland in general, small occasional voluntary 

 " collections are sufficient ; that the legislature has 

 " no occasion to interfere to augment the stream, 

 " which is already copious enough ; in fine, that 

 " the establishment of a poor's rate would not only 



* Vol. vii. p. 74. 

 f Id. vi. p. 21. 



