The Scottish poor laws : their history, policy and operation / by Robert Peel Lamond.

  • Lamond, Robert Peel.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Scottish poor laws : their history, policy and operation / by Robert Peel Lamond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    THE SCOTTISH POOU I.A\VS. CHAPTER I. Introductory. It was one of the sublime sayings of the great moral teacher whose precepts and example have transformed men’s conduct and revolutionised society throughout the civilized world, “For ye have the poor always with you.”^ Eigliteen centuries later a profound philosophical and political thinker, who illumined everything that he touched, Edmund Burke, wrote— “ To provide for us in our necessities is not in the power of Government. It would be a vain presumption in statesmen to think they can do it.” The truth of the first quoted statement has been proved by the experience of the ages that have passed since it was uttered. It is proposed in the following pages to prove that Burke’s statement is not true; and that the experience of Scotland, limited as it has been, not only establishes this, but also disproves the assertion so frequently made that a secure legal provision for the poor—that is, “the power of Government ” applied to the relief of the poor—tends to demoralise and pauperise society. To an intelligent understanding of the question of pauperism in modern times, and why there should be found in existence a complex legal machinery forming a distinct department of civil government, maintained at a heavy charge, it is necessary to take a brief review of the gradual development of society and of ethical and political progress.