Illustrations of the practical operation of the Scottish system of management of the poor / by W.P. Alison, M.D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.

  • Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859.
Date:
[1840]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Illustrations of the practical operation of the Scottish system of management of the poor / by W.P. Alison, M.D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. 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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    ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PRACTICAL OPERATION OF THE SCOTTISH SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT OF THE POOR. By W. P. ALISON, M.D., Professor of the Institutes of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh. [ Read before the Statistical Section of the British Association,on ISth September, 1840.] In laying some statements on this subject before this Section of the Association, I am perfectly aware that this is not the tribunal by which the question either of the religious obligation, of the humanity, or the policy, of a uniform and fixed provision for the poor is to be tried. I am well aware of the restrictions which have been wisely imposed on the discussion of any such questions here; and it is only in so far as I shall have it in my power to lay numerical statements before this meeting, illustrating the efficacy or inefficacy of the system now in force in Scotland regarding the management of the poor, that the subject can be properly brought under the view of the Section. I may state it, however, as a matter of fact, that the Scotch Law on this subject differs from the English, and from the laws of the greater part of Europe, chiefly and most essentially in this, that it is a law con- tinually and avowedly neglected or disobeyed; whereas in these other countries, the law on the subject is practically and uniformly enforced. The Statute Law of Scotland requires the heritors, ministers, and elders of parishes, and the magistrates of burghs, to make provision for the “ needful sustentation of all aged -poor and impotent persons, to enable them to live unbeggared,” and “ to tax and stent the inhabitants” when necessary, for this purpose; but I need hardly say, that in practice this law is not strictly executed in any parish in Scotland; that in many hardly any attempt is made to execute it, and that the practice under it is exceedingly irregular, and bears no fixed relation either to the num- ber or the degree of destitution of the poor; the sums applied in the way of legal provision, for their relief, varying from Jd. to 3s. 6d. a head over the population of different parishes, and the smallest of these sums being awarded, not where the destitution is least, but on the con- trary, according to the testimony of impartial observers, in districts where the condition of many of the poor is “ as wretched as is com- patible with human existence.”* * Fullarton and Baird on the Highlands and Islands. A