PROVISION FOR THE POOR IN SCOTLAND.

A niscossioN took place in the Presbytery of Glasgow, not long ago, respecting an assertion publicly made by a gentleman who advocates a reform of the Poor-laws of Scotland, that an old woman in one of the lanes of Glasgow had supported nature for several days on a few leaves of cabbage. One or two of the clergy- men sought to demonstrate that the story could not be true; but no attempt was made to prove that it was not true, or even that it was materially exaggerated. This horrible story is in strict keeping

with the revelations regarding the condition of the poor in Edin- burgh, and the facts elicited by Mr. BAILEY'S Committee on Emi-

gration illustrative of the state of the poor in the Hebrides. It is characteristic of Scotch coolness, that notwithstanding the extent of suffering proved to exist North of the Tweed in consequence of the inefficacy of the Poor-laws, no serious effort has yet been made to bring the subject fairly before the Legislature. For several sessions the discussion of the English Poor-law has en- grossed a large proportion of the business hours of both Houses of Parliament. The insufficient allowance made to English paupers has excited intense sympathy : the no allowance of Scotch paupers is passed over in silence. The English Poor-law was altered be- cause paupers got too much—that was an abuse which called for immediate reform : in Scotland they get nothing—that is an abuse that can be amended at leisure.

The necessity of Poor-law reform in Scotland having been esta- blished by concurring testimony from many different quarters as to the inadequate working of the existing system, the next step is to ascertain what that system really is. So much delusion has been propagated regarding the management of the poor in Scotland, that while some English readers will be surprised to learn that it is not absolute perfection, others will be equally surprised to learn that there is any thing like a poor-law in that country. The character and efficiency of the law will best be shown by inquiring, in suc- cession—What parties have in Scotland a legal claim to relief? upon whom have they a claim ? how are the funds required to meet such claims raised? and what means are provided for enforcing attention to the claims of the poor, and the equitable distribution of the burden throughout society ?

I. What parties have a legal claim to relief?—There are three classes of poor acknowledged by the law of Scotland; vagabonds and " sturdy " beggars, unemployed persons, and persons entitled to parochial relief. Vagabonds may be imprisoned for a short period and laid under surety for their good behaviour. Unem- ployed persons have no legal claim to have work found or suste- nance provided for them. The persons legally entitled to relief are—poor persons of seventy years or upwards, or under that age if too infirm to gain their livelihood; orphans and destitute chil- dren, whether legitimate or illegitimate under fourteen years of age ; all who from permanent disease are unable to work ; idiots and in- sane persons. When the mothers of children, legitimate or illegiti- mate, cannot by their own exertions, or from other sources, support their children in addition to themselves, an allowance is given them for the support of the children. It has been the practice in some districts to afford relief to persons labouring under temporary sick- ness; but this is not imperative. To entitle any of these classes of poor to relief, they must be destitute of any funds of their own. Parents who are not paupers are bound to maintain their children : if the parents are dead, the obligation ascends; first in the paternal

line—that failing, in the maternal. Descendants are bound to

maintain their progenitors. Relations in the descending line are liable preferably to those in the ascending line. Brothers, sisters, or other collateral relations, are not bound to support each other, unless in the case of their succeeding to the property of an ancestor or descendant of the pauper. The heir is bound to support the widow of the deceased; and liferenters of property to support the proprietors in fee.

II. Upon whom have the poor a claim ?—Upon their pariah. This

claim they obtain by settlement ; and settlement is acquired by re- sidence, parentage, marriage, or birth. Foreigners as well as natives can acquire a settlement by residence. Mere residence for three years without the interruption of any one year is sufficient. Constant residence is not required; nor is it necessary that the party applying for relief should have at any time supported him- self by his labour. In one case a common vagrant was found to have acquired a settlement in the parish she had "most haunted" for the last three years, to the effect of making the parish liable for the support of her natural child. There are some exceptions. A married woman, during the subsistence of her marriage, cannot obtain a settlement independent of her husband. Children under fourteen years of age cannot obtain a settlement by residence. Idiots, and persons who are proper objects of parochial relief, can- not acquire a settlement by residence. By marriage, a woman imme- diately acquires the settlement of her husband. A woman loses her maiden settlement by marriage, even though her husband have none ; nor does she regain it by the dissolution of the marriage. Children under fourteen years of age have their settlement determined by that of their parents : legitimate children inherit their father's set- tlement, illegitimate their mother's. When a pauper has no other settlement, he is entitled to be supported by the parish of his birth.

III. How are funds required for the support of paupers raised?— These funds arise from two sources ; voluntary contributions, and assessments. In the greater number of Scotch parishes, the prin- cipal fund for the support of the poor is the collection made every Sunday at the door of the parish-church. By law, one half of this collection ought to be paid over to the general fund for supporting the poor : the remaining half is left at the disposal of the Kirk- Session ; and along with sums accruing from a variety of fines for trifling offences, is applied to afford relief in cases of sudden distress, and to meet certain items of the expenditure of the Session. The half paid into the general fund for the poor is placed at the disposal of the Magistrates in the royal burghs, and of a board composed of the Heritors and Kirk-Session in what are called landward parishes. The Heritors and Kirk-Session, or if the parish be vacant the Heritors alone, have the power of imposing, apportion- ing, and levying any amount of assessment which they may think necessary for the support of the poor, in addition to the fund de- rived from the collection at the church-door. Heritors, whether resident or non-resident, are liable to be assessed in proportion to the amount of the landed property they possess in the parish ; other inhabitants or householders " according to the estimation of their substance, without exception of persons." The amount of each in- dividuals "means and substance" may be ascertained at the plea- sure of the board, either by direct estimate, or indirectly by in- ferences drawn from the rents they pay for their farms or houses ; but whichsoever rule be adopted, it must be applied to all the in- habitants of the parish. The Magistrates in royal burghs are di- rected by law " to stem (Anglice, assess) themselves conform to such order used and wont as may be most effectual to reach all the inhabitants." The consequence is, that there are not two of these burghs in which the mode of imposing and levying the assessment agrees in every particular. In general, however, the "means and substance " of each individual furnish the standard for estimating his quota : in some burghs one half of the assessment is laid on the proprietor, the other on the tenant.

IV. What means are provided for enforcing attention to the claims of the poor, and an equitable distribution of the burden among those who pay the assessment ?—The administration of the Poor-laws has been intrusted on the one hand to the Heritors, Kirk-Sessions, and Magistrates of burghs ; ou the other, to the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace. An appeal lies to the Supreme Civil Court ; and some powers are also vested in the Court of Justiciary, the supreme criminal court. The board composed of Heritors and the Kirk-Session has the power, in landward parishes, to take up lists of the poor, to levy funds for their support, and to order and dispose of the maintenance of the poor. In these matters no power of control over them is expressly granted to any court whatever. By King Wiaatast's proclamation of 11th August 1692, the Heritors and Kirk-Session are appointed to hold meetings on the first Tuesday of August and the first Tuesday of February in each year, to " order" all matters relative to the support of the poor. They have also a discretionary power of meeting at all times. The Minister is entitled to call meetings of the Heritors and Kirk- Session : if he neglect this duty, or if the parish be vacant, meet- ings may be called by the Heritors. Meetings for taking up lists of the poor must be intimated to the IIeritors from the pulpit on the Sunday preceding the meeting: when any important matter is to be considered, notice must be given from the pulpit ten days before the meeting is to be held. Each member present at a meeting has only one vote ; proxies have been sent to meetings, but the legality of this practice is questionable; it is not necessary that one of each class should be present. The collection of contributions at the church-door is the province of the Kirk-Session ; but should they neglect the duty, the Heritors may officiate. In making up lists of the poor, it is the duty of the Kirk-Session to investigate the circumstances of the claimants for relief, and to lay the result before the meetings of Heritors and the Kirk-Session. In the majority of parishes every question is determined verbally, and no record kept; and where a minute-book or record is kept, it is intrusted to the Session-Clerk, appointed by the Kirk-Session, paid out of the poor's funds, and remov- able by the Session at pleasure without cause shown. In royal burghs the whole power of administration in these matters rests with the Magistrates; but they are in the habit of delegating the management of the poor to the Kirk-Sessions, in so far as relates to the investigation of the circumstances of the poor, the distribu- tion of money to them, or the charge of providing for their resi- dence and maintenance. The Sheriff of the district and Justices of the Peace have no administrative power ; but upon complaint being made to them they are entitled to impose upon the Heritors and Kirk-Session who neglect their duty, fines to the amount of 2001. Scots monthly while they continue to neglect it. Inhabitants and householders refusing to pay their quota may be prosecuted in the Sheriff's Court, and tined to the amount of double the sum they have refused to pay. Questions of disputed settlement may be brought by a pauper against his parish, or by one parish against another, in the Sheriff's Court. The execution of the laws against vagabonds is intrusted to the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace. The Sheriffs and Justices of Peace are amenable to the Court of Justiciary for neglecting or refusing to put in execution the acts of Parliament relative to the poor ; but only to the effect of being subjected to the statutory penalties. The decisions of the inferior jurisdictions may be carried by appeal to the Court of Session ; which has also authority to revise the determinations and control the proceedings of meetings of Heritors and the Kirk-Session. In the Court of Session, (and we believe also in the Sheriff's Courts,) a number of practitioners of the law are appointed to admit pauper clients to the benefit of what is called "the poor-roll," and to conduct their causes for them.

Now, the reader who is sufficiently interested in the question to have laboured through these dry details, will probably feel in- clined to say, here is a tolerably complete and well-organized system of Poor-laws. Unfortunately, however, it is almost entirely elusory.

In the first place, the statutes upon which it rests are vaguely expressed, and have reference to a state of society totally different from that which now exists in Scotland, (the most recent statute having been enacted in 1698); and the decisions of the law-courts leave many questions undetermined. The Poor-laws of Scotland are better calculated to insure employment to lawyers than main- tenance to paupers.

In the second place, the machinery is inadequate. The task of inquiring into applications is devolved upon the Kirk-Sessions. Populous towns now stand where there were formerly rural dis- tricts, and yet the parochial subdivisions are not altered. It would be unjust to increase the number of Established churches, for, owing to the great multiplication of sects, the congregations of' the Establishment have not materially increased; but the Kirk-Sessions are too few to attend to the business of the poor in their districts. Nor have the parish-ministers and elders the same access to know the condition of the poor which they had before Dissent became so frequent.

In the third place, the power of imposing assessments is vir- tually in the hands of the Heritors. Either they are more numer- ous than the Kirk-Session, or they are the lay members of the Kirk-Session, or they have the members of the Kirk-Session com- pletely in their power. The right of appeal from their de- cisions exists only in name. They, and the Heritors of other parishes having identical interests, are the Justices of the Peace. The Sheriff can only decide that a pauper is entitled to sup- port ; he is not entitled to fix the amount of that support : the Heritors and Kirk-Session can evade a decision against them by giving nominal support. The determinations of the Heritors and Kirk-Session can only he brought under the review of the Court of Session by a process which is called advocation : but as few parishes keep a record of such proceedings, it is doubted by law- yers whether advocation would be competent. That the doubt is entertained, shows that no one has thought it worth while to make the experiment. The interest of the Heritors, thus invested with the absolute power of granting or refusing relief to the poor, is to keep the assessment as low as possible, in order to starve paupers out of their parishes. This has been the consequence of thei? management : the poor have everywhere been driven from the rural districts into the towns, to increase the pauper population, already far too great for the management of the Kirk-Sessions.

Still, the framework of the Scottish Poor-law is one which might be made efficient ; and it has this recommendation, that its forms being familiar to the people, it could be well worked from the beginning. The existing parishes afford tolerably manageable districts : where population (as in great towns) or superficial extent require further subdivision, that could be easily effected. The first reform would be to substitute for the present boards of management in each parish, boards which have no sinister interest to starve the poor either into towns or out of the world, or to im- pose the burden of their support unequally. This would be best effected by substituting elective boards for the management of the poor, chosen by popular election. This board ought to be elected for the sole purpose of raising and applying the funds for the poor, and there ought to be no ex officio members. The members of Kirk-Sessions have sufficient employment in the discharge of their spiritual duties: they ought to be relieved from this secular task, and also from the invidious duty of sitting in judgment on the claims of members of other churches. One general assessment, upon equitable principles, ought to be sub- stituted for the varying customary assessments which at present prevail; and the collections at the doors of the Established

churches ought to be left to the disposal of the congregations, in the same manner as those made at the doors of Dissenting con- gregations. Lastly, the difficulties which lie in the way of a pauper claiming his right to be supported, or an assessment-payer his right not to be overcharged, might be removed, by obliging all the boards for managing the affairs of the poor to keep accurate records of their transactions, and by such reforms in the practice of the local and supreme courts as would render law processes more expedi- tious and less expensive. The embodying of these provisions in two well-arranged and clearly-worded statutes—the one providing for the maintenance of the poor, the other for the reform of the law courts—is all that is required to place the law of Scotland on a satisfactory footing.

The obstacles iu the way of this reform are—first, the majority of the Heritors are prepared to resist the change, in order to save their purses : second, the Established clergy wish to retain the old system, with all its imperfections, because it gives them influence, and affords them a plea for church-extension : third, there seems to be at present an utter prostration of energy in the public mind of Scotland, and a callous apathy to every thing but Nonintrusionism. So, instead of a simple and satisfactory remedy at once, we shall have, first, Commissioners appointed with handsome salaries to institute inquiries into a matter respecting whirls sufficient infor- mation has already been obtained ; and then, an extension of the English Poor-law, with its Commissioners, Unions, &c. &c.—all new and unintelligible to the Scottish people, and likely to give rise to much costly litigation before it can be brought by decisions of the Court of Session into a workable shape.