The facts bearing on the claim of the poor to 1. The Poorhouse grounds and buildings; 2. Paul's work mortification; and 3. Trinity Hospital : and dissent from the report of the Law Committee of the Council refusing the poor's claims / by Councillor Curror.

  • Edinburgh (Scotland). Parochial Board.
Date:
1862
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The facts bearing on the claim of the poor to 1. The Poorhouse grounds and buildings; 2. Paul's work mortification; and 3. Trinity Hospital : and dissent from the report of the Law Committee of the Council refusing the poor's claims / by Councillor Curror. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    and that not one feature in the legal poor is awanting in the charter of erection, or in the confirmation thereof; all three being self-evident descriptions of one class—the common poor. And while the beneficiaries under the foundation of Trinity Hospital, and the beneficiaries under the Poor-law Acts then in operation, were thus identical, the trus- tees were the same in both, and hence the foundation was just one for the benefit of the common poor then in the city parish of Edinburgh. Both were aged, poor, impotent, and indigent indwellers within the same bounds, as shall be found to be fit objects of charity, or who of necessity must live by alms. Trinity Hospital has existed and been administered from the date of the foundation to the present time. The Poor- law Act of 1845 transferred all property held by the Magistrates and Council for the benefit of the poor to the Poor’s Board. I cannot doubt that Trinity Hospital and its funds were so transferred; and that the Parochial Board of the city parish have now the only legal right to administer that fund; and hence, assuming that the revenues of Paid’s Work have been properly paid over to Trinity Hospital, that is no reason why the claim of the Board to these revenues should be refused, seeing that the hospital itself and its revenues have, since the passing of the Poor-law Act in 1845, been the property of that Board. But this is a matter in which the Corporation, as such, have really no interest. The question is between Trinity Hospital and the Board ; and the Law Committee, in my opinion, ought to have reported in favour of the Board’s suggestion, to remit the claim of the Poor’s Board for the mortifications to Trinity Hospital Committee, for adjustment and settlement; but not having done so, and without reason or rational inquiry having point-blank refused the claim—and thereby sent these public trusts into what cannot fail to be a lengthened and expensive litigation—to be conducted on both sides at the expense of the community of the city of Edinburgh—I respectfully but decidedly dissent from the report. Sensible of the importance of the questions at issue to the