Poorhouses in Scotland in reference to a proposal to establish one in Berwickshire / by David Milne Home.

Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Poorhouses in Scotland in reference to a proposal to establish one in Berwickshire / by David Milne Home. 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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    well as persons of better character whose connections were quite able to support them, they were resolved, by way of compensation, to throw upon ' the public' their own relatives, whom they would otherwise have continued to support—(page 12). The Poor-law may be regarded as an enormous and annually- increasing avalanche, which, if allowed to gain strength, will at length burst every barrier, and annihilate the moral welfare and economical prosperity of Scotland—(page 20). I thmk I may fairly lay claim to some acquaintance with this subject, as I have (for the last twenty-six years) employed no small portion of my time, and of my means also, in endeavouring to re- lieve the sufferings and promote the comfort of the indigent who dwell around me. I have resided here (Thurso) without intermis- sion since the Poor-law came into operation, and have, as Chair- man, attended every meeting of the Parochial Board, and watched the working of the new system with great attention and anxiety. I was myself not hostile to the assessment principle, for although impressed with a deep sense of the evils to which it was likely to give rise, I hoped they might be in some measure counterbalanced by concomitant advantages which its advocates had taught us to expect—(page 5). I am of opinion that Scotland can be saved from ruin, both morally and economically, only by abrogating the right of the pauper to obtain relief, while leaving to every parish authority to raise an assessment (when they deem such a plan indispensable), and giving to the ratepayers the unfettered right of laying out their own money in their own way, without control or interference by any other per- son. Unless such a measure be speedily adopted, Scotland will ere long be reduced to the condition of distress or despair which is now overwhelming Ireland, and to which some districts in Scotland are already beginning to approximate—(page 6).