Remarks on the report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Poor-Laws of Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1844, and on the dissent of Mr. Twisleton from that report / by William Pulteney Alison.

  • Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Poor-Laws of Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1844, and on the dissent of Mr. Twisleton from that report / by William Pulteney Alison. 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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    « increase of vice and pauperism, and requiring an adaptation of tlie Poor Laws to the altered econo- mical condition of the country. They state far- ther, that in many parishes the poor are adequately provided for; they refer to the border parishes, and others throughout Scotland, in which the allow- ances are high, and the condition aPthe poor on the roll little inferior to that of the independent la- bourers (pp. 14, 15), as instances of satisfactory administration. They refer to the too small allow- ances to impotent paupers, as an evil, to which they have applied a remedy, which, they trust, will be effectual; and by these means they hope, that a large mass of the wretchedness which becomes at present the prey of epidemic disorders, and through which such disorders are more widely diffused, will be taken out of the way; and the sanatory condition, and, to a certain extent, the moral tone of the community, be improved proportionally; and they state, as one of the modes in which these measures will ameliorate the condition of the operative classes, that they will thus be in a great measure relieved of the ueces- sity of contributing to the support of relatives, ren- dered by infirmity or age, proper objects of parochial relief (p. 53.) All this is so strictly in accordance with the views which I have taken upon me, at different times, to lay before the public, that it may be thought that the only question to which I can advert, on this part of • the subject, is the practical one, Whether the remedy proposed by the Commissioners for these admitted evils, is adequate or satisfactory. But, as preliminary to the consideration of that practical question, I think it quite necessary not only to reflect a little on the bearings of this admission of the evils, but to recapitulate some of