The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-03 00:00:00

of Scotland appointed a Committee to inquire into the
condition of the poor, and the provisions for their relief,
and that Committee reported that the provision was in
most of the parishes utterly inadequate. In 1843, a
Commission was appointed by the Crown to inquire into
the same subject, and the report was to the same effect.
(The Right Hon. Gentleman then read extracts from
the report of the Commissioners, which were to the
effect that the provision for the poor ar.d
the infirm was lamentably insufficient.) From

no inconsiderable experience of his own, he was able to
say that the statements were undeniably correct.—llear,
hear.) lie wouftl not delay the House by reading over
the evidence, as be thought the coincidence of the re-

ports was conclusive.—(Bear, hear.) The first Act,
relating to the support of the poor in Scotland, was that
of James VI , passed in the year 1571, and it provided
only for the relief of the aged and infirm, or of those
who were either pal tially or totally incapable of sup-
porting themselves. There were four kinds of settlement

ntitlirig the pauper to relief—birth, parentage, resi-
dence, or marriage. A settlement once obtained could
not be lost, except by the acquirement of a settlement in
another parish. The funds which existed for carrying
that law into (fft ct were contributions at the parish
church, other voluntary contributions, and when

necessary a general assessment of the parish.
In Scotland, there was a full power of relieving the

poor ve. itd in the parochial authorities, which—they
could do by assessment. The statute which gave them
that full power was passed in the year 1579. It was an

unlimited power as they were enaLled by that statute to
procure as much as was required for needful sustentation
of the poor. It hid been the law ever since 1759, and was
now the law, in several parishes the law was stil acted
upon to a large extent. The assessment was laid on in
this manner—the proprietors of land paid one-third and
the inhabitants and householders paid the remainder ;
the former paid it according to the rents and profits, and
the latter paid the rates, as a property and income-tax.
Ile (the Lord-Advocate) was an are that there were
parties who objected to this mode of assessment ; but
though he had many circumstances on that point, he had

not received any authenticated case from any party that
he had been assessed beyond his circumstances. In
boroughs, ther3 was not one-half the assessment laid as

in other parishes, where the tax generally fell upon the
landlords. The law made a full provisioa for the sup-
port of the poor ; it put in the hands of
certain parties a discretionary power of as-
sessing as fully as it required. In towns,
the assessment was voluntary with the magistrates, and
the ministers of the Kirk Sessions could not interfere

with the administration of the law. In the parishes
which were not towns the administration belonged to

the proprietors of the land. As to the nature of the
relief given to the poor, it was not prescribed by the
statute that it should be afforded in any particular form.
The statute required that there should be needful sus

tentation. It may be given in money, or in any way
that may be considered advantageous for them, and the
amount depended upon the opinion of the administrators
of the law. It should, however, depend upon the condi-
tion and stile of living of the labouring classes in that
part of the country in w hich the poor exist. It could
not be contended that in any place the support given to
the poor should be greater than was given to and re-
quired by the labourers in that district., who supported
themselves. That discretion existed in reference to the

amount of relief. It may, however, happen that a poor
person is denied relief, and the parish may refuse to
hear his case, or listen to his application, as it often
occurs; but thin the local judge has power under the
law to require that the local authorities should meet and
take his case into consideration. If, having met, those
parties denied his right to be admitted into the list of
the poor of the parish, or if they gave him what was too
stood, then he had the power of applying to the Supreme
Court, which could compel the local authorities to do their
duty honestly and faithfully. That being the state of
the law, every poor person had a right to relief, there
was a body' armed with the power and charged with the
duty of administering that relief, and if they neglected
doing their duty there was the Supreme Court to compel
them to do it. There was the right, there was the ob-
ligation, there were the parties to perform the obliga-
tion, and the parties to compel them. It could not be
said that the state cf things found in the report arose
from the circumstance, that the law was formed whets
the country was in a different condition, and that the
improvements of the country had outstripped the law,
for the law had been most full, perfect, and efficient in
those districts which had advanced most. Not that the
improvements had outstripped the law, but that the law
had received assistance from those improvements. He
almost forgot to mention that the law of Scotland went
further, it provided for the education of the poor. It was
strange that extemporaneous enactments similar in both
the countries should have such different results. It
arose out of the poverty of one country and the wealth
of the other. At the same time they were not desirous
iu Scotland of obtaining such a law for the administra-
tion of relief to the poor as existed in England. He
thought that the state of things described in the report
was mainly to be attributed to the effects of the
machinery of the law, it was not owing to any
unwillingness to disburse for the maintenance of the
poor, or to any hardheartedness. There Here several
cases where exceedingly small sums were given, not suffi-
cient to afforded relief. The relief afforded ought to be
in accordance with the habits and mode of life of

the labourers who live in the district. The expense
was different in one place from what it was in another.
For instance, they did not possess the same wealth in
Scotland as they did in this country. Why was it
that the Scotch proprietors had parted with
their property and that English proprietors
purchased it ? Because one was poor and the
other was rich. The power of assessing was in accord-
ance with the wants of the poor, and if they facilitated
the mode of administering to the relief of the wants of
the poor, what could be more desired ? He thought
that, in the first place, the means of obtaining relief
should be facilitated in the parish where the poor man
became destitute ; for, very frequently it occurred that
the. pauper was very far away from the parish
in which he could claim a law settlement.— (Hear.)
He proposed that each parish should have the power of
ascertaining and establishing its own liability, and by
that means the pauper not only got relief in the parish
in which he applied for it, but he got it immediately.
Then suppose the parish in which a poor person was
found refused to give him relief, at present his only
remedy was to appeal to the superior courts. Instead
of that lie proposed that the sheriff should
have the power to decide the right of the party
to relief, and if it should be in favour of the appli-
cant, then the relief should be immediately granted, and
the parish should be liable until a decision to the con-
trary should be had from the local court. The next
point he wanted to draw attention to was as to the
amount of relief to be given, and who were the parties
whose duty it should be to see that duo relief had
been admmis:ered. At present the obstacles to
this were, that there was a want of some
central power or authority for this purpose. The
remedy ho proposed for this evil was, that there should
be in each parish a person to attend to the claim, made
by the poor. and to keep a list of them ; and that, in ad-
dition to the central authority, there should be local
boards in each parish, who should make constant re-
ports to the central board of all applicants for relief; and
in this way a knowledge of all the poor of each parish
would, in a short time be acquired, and of those who
had and who bad not received relief. Then came the
question of what was to be done by those local authori-
ties in cases of parties complaining that they had not suf
ficient relief afforded them. At present, in such a case,
the poor applicant had the superior court opened to him
as a court of appeal ; but then it was often at a great
distance, and it had many other disadvantages ; beside,
which the expense was great, and before a decision could
be had, perhaps the applicant might starve ; and even
if he did get redress, it should be considered that the
money expended in defending the complaint would be
much better applied in affording relief. These were
evils which the Commissioners had recommended should
be done away with ; and they further recommended that
the amount of relief to be given was a matter which
should be entirely left to the local board ; they also said
that there should be a board of supervision sitting
in Edinburgh. He agreed with them in that sugges-
tion ; but it should be a board composed of men who
should have some inducement to attend it, and who
should be also possessed of legal knowledge, as well as
a general knowledge of the affairs of the world and of
the country. He proposed that this board should con.
sist of nine men, three of them to be appointed
by the Government and to be paid, and to give
their constant and daily attendance. The other six
should be ex officio members, and the Lord
Provost of Glasgow should be one of them.
The other ex officio should be the Solicitor- General for
the time being, he being a lawyer whose advice on all
questions of law would be of value and importance. The
three other ex-officios should be the three sheriffs of the
three most important counties; and their services should
be commanded by some small addition to their salaries.
One of those should be the sheriff of what was called
the Yorkshire of Scotland ; another should be the
sheriff of the Highland county of Ross, in which there
was great agricultural distress ; and the third should
be the sheriff of Renfrew, as it was an agricultural
county and came almost on the verge of Glasgow. All
these were men, who from their education and position
in the country were such as would render useful services
to the board. With this board, thus constituted, he
would now state how he proposed to dispose of all ap-
peals made to it. He proposed that all appeals should
be referred to it, and in such a case as that of a poor
man appealing on the ground that the relief he bad had
was not sufficient, then the decision of this
board on the case he proposed should be final.
He proposed to give the power to the board, where they
saw just cause for relief, to determine what was a rea-
sonable amount of relief for a pauper, and to afford that
relief. He proposed that the board should have the
power of inquiring and investigating into all matters
connected with this subject. He also proposed to give
the board the power of dismissing inspectors who might
neglect their duty. lie proposed also that the parochial
boards should be elected by the rate-payers ; and
he proposed that the term for giving a legal settlement
in a parish should be extended from three to six years.
With regard to the manner of raising the necessary
funds, he did not think it requisite to make it compulsory
on the parochial boards to make assessments. He
thought that if the funds were provided, and the poor
received adequate relief, it was a matter of no general
importance in what manner the funds were provided.
This was the substance of the Bill which he was about
to introduce. It would give speedy and effectual relief
to the poor, and give the power to parishes to proceed
against other parishes whose poor might be thrown upon
the former. It would also give the power of removal to
parishes; and it gave the power of providing medical
relief, and also of providing education for the pauper
children. Provision had been made in the Bill with re-
gard to lunatics. Ile did not propose to deal generally
with the law relating to that subjcct, although the law
Was not altogether satisfactory to him at present. Ile
proposed in this Bill to provide for pauper lunatics, and