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.

    59/322 (page 43)
    William Gibson, Esq., Surgeon, Dairy. *« I could get no relief for patients in fever here, who ha'l no set- tlement, and could not point out a place where they had a settle- ment. I was obliged to beg for them; three-fourths of the men « working in the works in this neighbourhood have no settlement *• here ; and probably no settlement anywhere except by birth. Per- sons of this class are often exposed to much more severe distress than paupers on the roll, who are generally known to persons in the town. Labourers from a distant parish, of whom nobody knows any thing, sometimes suffer extreme privations. The same applies to wandering beggars and hawkers when taken ill at the houses where they stay.—Vol. iii. p. 508, I have still to observe, in regard to this matter of disputed settlements, that, as there has been, for many- years past, practically, no appeal to any accessible court from the decisions of kirk-sessions or managers of the poor, these bodies can dispute luhat settlementsi they choose; and in many instances, I have not the smallest doubt that they have denied relief, on this ground, which was strictly due. One simple proof of this, is, that it is a very general principle to require evidence of industrial residence of three years before allowing any one to be placed, on the roll. I brought before the Commissioners two disabled men, of good character, with families, living on charity (and one of whom has since died in great misery), to whom relief was refused by the Charity Workhouse here, because the managers were not satisfied with the evidence that they had supported themselves three years without begging. I have had reason to believe, on subsequent inquiry, that the residence of these men had been really industrial; but supposing it were not, we have the dis- tinct statement of Mr Dunlop (on Parochial Law), and other authorities, that it is not industrial residence, but