Sanatory inquiry - towns in Scotland : report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire / made to the Poor Law Commissioners by S. Scott Alison.

  • Alison, Somerville Scott, 1813-1877.
Date:
1840
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sanatory inquiry - towns in Scotland : report on the sanatory condition and general economy of the town of Tranent, and the neighbouring district in Haddingtonshire / made to the Poor Law Commissioners by S. Scott Alison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    case of this kind was accidentally discovered. About a year and a half ago, when Scotland was threalencd with charlism, jnany weak-minded and ill-informed people believed the country was on the point of re- volution, and that tiie banks were unsafe ; one of the colliers, partaking in this fear, went to Edinburgh, withdrew a considerable sum of money from one of the banks, and had his case made public by his being robbed of it by a loose woman in whose company he had been. A very large pr oportion of the colli'ers is generally involved in debt, r'obt. sometimes to their employers, and almost always to their tradespeople : I may w'ilh safety say that eight-tenths of the colliers are never out of debt. The money which they receive on Saturday night is not spent in the purchase of articles to be consumed next week, it in general goes to liquidate part of the debt which has been owing perhaps for months and years. I understand the tradespeople to whom this debt is due charge hiijh, in order to meet the loss of interest on the money and to compensate for the many bad debts which they incur by this system of giving credit even to the dissipated and unprincipled. When the debts of the collier become very great, and when his creditors become clamorous, he avails himself of his migratory capa;bilities, and goes off to some distant part of the country with his family and furniture, bidding defiance to his creditois, and to commence the same iniquitous system in a new field. I have known people to be encouraged to get into debt by tradespeople and others. A publican gave almo.st unlimited credit to two women actually in a state of derangement from drinking whiskey. A bond was procured on a house belonging to these persons. These women continued to run to the shop of the publican, devouring whiskey voraciously. It was suspected that the publican wished to get the house altogether, but this was prevented by the interference of a respectable party, who assured me that the case was one that would not bear inves- tigation. A man died not long ago who had amassed a large fortune, perhaps 20,000^. or 30,000^. He rented a colliery, kept a store at which he sold provisions and whiskey to his colliers, and used a coin peculiar to himself in his dealings in the shop with his men. The domestic condition of the great mass of the colliers may be un- Pomestic derstood from what preceded, and from what will be said under the head of conditiou. destitution in Tranent. This account of their destitution and wretched- ness will apply to the greater part of the colliers, perhaps to three- fourths. On the other hand, I am glad to have it in my power to say, that the internal economy of the houses of several colliers is very good ; that I have observed great order, cleanliness, and the appearance of plenty and comfort in the houses of some in receipt of the ordinary wages only. I have had occasion to observe that medical men, judging from internal appearances of the dwelhngs of the labouring classes, are liable to be led into erroneous inferences as to the extent of destitution.—The appear- ance of the place or of the person is no test of the want of means or of the highness or lowness of wages. Filth is more frequently evidence of depravity than of destitution; indeed, in places where the wages or means are really scanty, there is very frequently considerable cleanliness. If any person went into the house of a collier, he might exclaim, What extreme wretchedness and destitution of these poor people ! when in fact, on the Saturday they had received 30?., which before the Tuesday had all been squandered. I think medical men, who are not intimately acquainted with the character of people, are often drawn into mistakes. The dress of the great mass of the colliers, of perhaps three-fourths, Drosii. and more especially of the women and children, is extremely dirty, ragged, and highly disreputable, liko that of beggars. Many of the men, on the other hand, dress tolerably well, when off work, and there are several, indeed a good many, who dress like respectable master