Poorhouses in Scotland in reference to a proposal to establish one in Berwickshire / by David Milne Home.
- Date:
- 1868
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Poorhouses in Scotland in reference to a proposal to establish one in Berwickshire / by David Milne Home. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
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![The population of Ireland to that of Scotland is as 5 to 3; and yet the expenditure for Poor-law relief in Scotland is greater than in Ireland ! In fact, a compulsory system for the relief of the poor, adminis- tered chiefly by a salaried agency, is regarded now, by all competent and unbiassed authorities, as having utterly failed. How long is this state of matters to continue 1 How long are we quietly to submit to a tax so enormous, which but perpetuates and increases the evil it was imposed to relieve]—(Report, p. 42.) This Eeport, drawn up by a committee composed of men of the highest intelligence in the capital of Scotland, and ap- proved of at a public meeting presided over by the Lord Provost, pronounces a condemnation upon our whole Poor-law system, which will be ratified by the general voice of Scotland. Even Mr Walker of Bowland, the talented Secretary of the Board of Supervision, notwithstanding his official position, is obliged to admit that Poor-laws have a tendency To foster paupej^ism,—increase expenditure for the relief of the poor,—and deteriorate the character of the popidation.'' He adds that the only known check is the system of Workhouses, as they are termed in England and Ireland, Poorhouses as they are called in Scotland. It must be admitted, it is not a perfect contrivance ; nevertheless, being the only method yet devised, capable in any degree, of stemming the current of deterioration, it concerns us to ascertain, whether we are better with it than without it. If it has caused any considerable improvement, we must be content to main- tain it, tiU some better expedient is discovered. * There is thus, from almost all quarters, evidence of general dissatisfaction and alarm at the progress of pauperism in Scot- land. The measures now proposed in our own border counties for arresting the evil arise from a similar feeling:—and if the dangerous character of a disease is generally inferred from the desperate remedy prescribed, and the confession that, should that remedy fail, the disease is incurable, there may well exist the utmost apprehension for the issue, Mr Walker, it will be observed, speaks in no confident * ' The Effects of roorliouses in Scotland,' by W. S. Walker, 1864, p. 6.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21962339_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
