PAUPERISM AND THE POOR LAWS; OK, OUR SlffilNG POPULATION RAPIDLY INCREASING PUBLIC BURDENS PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED. JAMES BEGG, D.D. EDINBURGH: JOHN JOHNSTONE, 15 PRINCES STREET; AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. M.DCCC.XUX. SCRIPTUBE TEXTS H REGAED TO PAUPERISE PEEFACE. The time is surely come when a bold effort must be made to reach, and if possible, by the blessing of G-od, to remedy, some of our more prominent social evils, and especially the evil of our rapidly increasing pauperism and crime. Various opinions have prevailed in regard to the true origin of such evils, some tracing them exclusively to moral, and others to physical causes. The truth is, that they spring from both, which plainly act and react on each other. Moral degradation leads to physical, and physical again plunges its unhappy victims into deeper moral debasement, and both causes working together, soon destroy the very foundations of the social fabric, and involve the industrious classes in enormous and yet unavailing expense. Our late modes of dealing with our social evils have only aggravated them, whilst nothing effectual, nothing sufficiently comprehensive, nothing that goes deep enough towards the roots of the evil, has been seriously attempted. The plans proposed in the following pages have been justified by the ex¬ perience of other lands, and if there is not wisdom or energy to attempt something effectual here, it requires no prophet to predict that our day of prosperity is nearly closed. But I trust that God, in his great loving-kindness, may jmt have mercy in store for this land of martyrs and of many prayers. When we think of our noble ancestors, of “ poor peasant Covenanters vTestling”—as Carlyle says, “battling for very life in rough, miry places”—to secure the freedom of Scot¬ land, and her temporal and spiritual elevation, in other and darker days, shall we, to whom this rich legacy has been bequeathed, tamely surrender our birthright in a time of PREFACE. peace and “ merciful visitation,” by hesitating to promote such measures as the extraordinary circumstances of the nation both imperatively require and may assist us to se¬ cure ! The base of our social pjTamid requires greatly to be widened, and the hands of the giant to be guided to the pillars of corruption, lest they seize on the pillars of the social temple itself. I know that some of our very worthy people reckon such subjects to be beyond the scope of a minisfer’s province. I am not careful to answer such; let them retain their opinion. But he must be a hard¬ hearted minister who does not s 3 Tnpathize with the temporal sufferings and difficulties of his people at such a time as this, or who can subscribe unmoved so many emigration certifi¬ cates to some of the best of them, driven most reluctantly into unnecessary exile; and he a very ignorant minister who knows not that it is his duty to “ do good to all men as he has opportunity,” and that in the very temporal prospe¬ rity of his people, the absence of many obstacles in the way of his work, and their ability to aid, in advancing the cause of Grod, are essentially involved. The statesman-like Pres¬ byterians of the past, Knox and George Buchanan, Hender¬ son, Rutherford, and Carstares, Chalmers with his civic economy, and Duncan with his Savings’ banks, all knew' this, although it may be a mystery to some of our smaller men. The following pages are not a reprint of the letters which lately appeared in the IFiVaess. Some of the matter there published is incorporated, especially in the Appendix; but a large portion of this Pamphlet will be found to be new, and to contain a more systematic discussion of our social problems. CONTENTS. The importance of the question of Pauperiem, . . . 7 Recent rapid progress of Poor’s-Eates in Scotland, and at present also in England, 8-10 The Tastly increased Assessment destroys the Industrious Classes with¬ out enriching the Poor, . . . . . . 11 Importance of considering the Origin of the Evil instead of mere Details, 12 Sir George Sinclair’s Scheme for cutting the knot at once will not do, . 13-14 The Division of the Subject,.14 I,— Causes tending to make Men Paupers and Criminals—Inefdciency of our present Means of Religions Instruction a great Cause of Pauperism—Means of Cure—the West Port and Aberdeen Ex¬ periments—The prevalence of Whisky Shops and Drunkenness a fruitful Parent of Pauperism and Crime—Means of Cure, . 15-18 Frightful physical state of the Poorer Districts of Large Cities a cause of Crime, Pauperism, and Fever—Sanitary measures— New Tradesmen’s Houses—Restoration of ancient Public Pri¬ vileges, . ... 18-27 The looking up of the Land of the kingdom by the Laws of Entail and Primogeniture a very great Cause of Pauperism—History of Scotland in this respect—Experience of America, Greece, &c., 27-29 Actual state of the Land of Scotland at present—Immense quan¬ tity uncultivated, ....... 30-31 A vast quantity of this would be cultivated if Entails were abo¬ lished—Polly of banishing the People, .... 32-33 The Cultivation of our own Country the surest Basis of Temporal Stability,.34 The Law of Entail makes crowds of Beggars—Law of Primogeni¬ ture also very injurious, and the Feudal System of Convey¬ ancing, . 35-36 Facts to illustrate the practicability of profitably absorbing our Waste Labour upon our Waste Lands—Sutherland, Selkirkshire —Dr Duncan’s Glebe—Robert Haldane’s Estate—Waste Land improved near Aberdeen—in Caithness—Ayrsbire—Islay, . 36-43 CONTESTS. The Soeial Adrantagee of Land getting into the hands of the real SatiTes of the Country, and of multiplying Proprietors, . 43 The Improvement of Fisheries—Moss as Fuel—and the making of Peats—additional sources of profitable Employmeut, . 44-45 The enormous iraste of Manure in all Cities, by which our Waste Lands might he enriched, ..... 46 To make our Alle-hodied Men Landlords and Farmers, far better than to constitute their right of being Beggars—such a right PAUPERISM AND THE POOR LAWS. It is long since Fletcher of Saltoun remarked with great force, that “ there is not perhaps in human affairs any thing so unaccountable as the indignity and cruelty with which the far greater part of mankind suffer themselves to be used under pretence of government.For though man¬ kind take great care and pains to instruct themselves in other arts and sciences, yet very few apply themselves to consider the nature of government, an im^uiry so useful and necessary both to magistrate and people, . . ’Tis very strange that they should think study and knowledge neces¬ sary in every thing they go about, except in the noblest and most useful of all applications—the art of government . . . . . The generality of all ranks of men are cheated by words and names, and provided the ancient terms and out¬ ward forms of any government be retained, let the nature of it be never so much altered, they continue to dream that they still enjoy their former liberty, and are not to be awakened till it prove too late.” * The spirit of these re¬ marks is most applicable to the present state of Britain, and especially of Scotland. We are in the process of a social revolution, which threatens to swallow up the middle classes of society, and beggar and ultimately enslave the lower. The middle classes feel the evil keenly, but do not seem to be aware of its cause. The aristocracy look on with * Fletcher’s Political Works. quiet indifference, contenting ttemselves, before the storm, with clearing their ample estates of human beings, to make way for sheep and deer, which will neither become paupers nor politicians. Let the swarms thus driven into the cities eat up the shopkeepers and merely industrious classes, what does that matter? Meantime Scotland has really no voice in the government of Britain, and, insulted by the midnight legislation of St Stephen s, is more thoroughly trampled up¬ on than at any previous period of her history. It is high time for every man to speak out who have any thing to propose. And as, having had a small share in managing the poor of one of our parishes for eight years, and haring travelled a little both in Europe and America, and as a minister of a church which, from the days of Knox to those of M‘Gill and Chalmers, has always struggled at once for the tem¬ poral and spiritual interests of the “ commonalty of Scot¬ land,” I make no apology for candidly and freely stating my opinion. It is well that there is at present a prospect of being listened to. The question, What shall be done with the masses of our mendicant and criminal population? is growing in im¬ portance and urgency everj' day. It presses on the atten¬ tion of the managers of the poor,—of ragged schools,—of criminal establishments,—of all classes that are called to pay our rapidly increasing assessments and taxes. The pauperism question ought also to be deeply interest¬ ing to the poor themselves, and those trembling on the brink of beggary, or about to be driven by despair to banish themselves from their native land as a means of saving their little all from ruin. The progress of poor’s rates in Scotland is worth glancing at. It appears from the First Bool: of Discipline, that when Scotland emerged from Popery at the Keformation, there were in it, as in all Popish coun¬ tries, crowds of beggars. John Knox says—“Fearful and horrible it is that the poor, whom not only God the Father in his law, but Christ Jesus in his evangel, and the Holy Spirit speaking by St Paul, hath so earnestly commended to our care, are universally so contemned and despised.” And he declares, concerning the “ labourers and manurers of the ground,” that “ their life to them hath been dolorous and bitter.” The attempt to make a just provision for them, however, was defeated until the statute 1579, cap. 74, was enacted, which. Lord Ouninghame says, “ has often been referred to as the charter of the poor in Scotland.” This seems to have met the evil for a time; but at the Kevolu- tion, after the wasting persecutions of Charles and James, Fletcher of Saltoun tells us that there were 200,000 “ beggars wandering from door to door,” whilst the popula¬ tion was scarcely one-third of its present amount. The evil was, however, again overcome by the application of Chris¬ tian and economic means; and we hear little more of it till after the breaking up of the clans in 1748, which began to throw the Highlands into sheep pasture, and drive the people down to starve on the bleak sea-shores, and till manufactures began to crowd our cities and increase our wealth, but not our Christianity. Assessments for the poor slowly began to enter the very seats of wealth and com¬ mercial enterprise. It appears from Sir John Sinclair’s statistical report, that from 1792 to 1798, the number of parishes assessed in Scotland for the poor was only 92. In 1820, it appears from a report by the General Assem¬ bly to Parliament, that whilst the wealth of the country had greatly advanced, the number had increased to 192. In 1836-7, another report from the Assembly to Parliament shows that the number of assessed parishes had increased to 238; whilst by the last report of the “ Board of Super¬ vision for the Relief of the Poor in Scotland,” it appears that “ the number of parishes now assessed is 602,” proving that the last remains of our Scottish system is just vanishing away. The sum collected in the days of Sir John Sinclair, by a public tax for the poor, must have been merely nominal. From 1807 to 1816, the average amount of assessment for all Scotland, was only L.49,718 :10: Sfs. Even so late as 1835-6-7, it was only L.77,239 :19:0. Last year the as¬ sessment amounted to no less than L.464,867 : 3 : 8, and the total expenditure was L.544,334 : 7: 6|. 10 During the year before last, the rates increased by the immense sum of L.138,683, or L.14,493 more than the whole increase for the precious ten pears. And it is expected that this j-ear the outlay will exceed L.600,000, and, in the na¬ ture of things now, it must be ever increasing with gigantic strides, unless some effectual means can be discovered of ar¬ resting the progress of the evil. This has been the case in England, where, notwithstanding its immense wealth, whole parishes have been swallowed up in the vortex; and, although some slight arrest was laid upon the evil by the recent amended law, the poor’s-rate is advancing again with steady pace—pressing with crushing effect on industry—and driving intelligent men of capital to their uits’ end. A meeting has just been held in Manchester, of practical men from, several parts of England, from which it appears that the state of England in regard to pauperism is deplorable, and daily becoming worse. The following, amongst other statistics, are given as illustrating the rapid increase of poor’s rates:— Poor Bate for average of Amoant of Poor Totos. S years before 1847. Bate for 1848. £ £ Blackburn. 10,000 16,000 Bolton. 17,000 27,000 Burnley. 11.000 18,000 Burv. 11,000 20,000 Chorlton-on-.Mcdlock. 9,000 . 21,000 Liverpool. 47,000 110,000 Manchester. .50,000 125,000 Oldham. 10,000 19,000 Preston. 15,000 33,000 Rochdale. 9,000 15,000 Salford. 9,000 22,000 .Stockport. 13,000 .;. 18,000 Warrington. 8,000 16,000 WestDerbv. 8.000 25.000 AVigan. 11,000 16,000 2.38,000 507.000 Ao doubt this enormous increase during the past year was partly caused by the stagnation of railway labour and the unprecedented mercantile distress; but it may give our Scotch people an idea of what awaits them, when they find 11 fifteen English towns paying upwards of half a million an¬ nually of poor’s rates, being nearly as much as all Scotland, and this increasing in one year by L.269,000. Meantime other burdens are heavy, and especially crime, which is also attended with vast expense, is increasing in the same propor¬ tion. In 1836, the number of criminals in Scotland was 2922; in 1847 it was 4635. And if to all this frightfully increasing local expense be added the disclosures which have been made by the Times newspaper, of the plunder committed by begging letter impostors and other traders in mendicancy, amounting, it is supposed, to “ not less than L.1,500,000 a yearand by the Financial Association, in regard to the wasteful public expenditure of the country,—it will be seen that the middle and industrious classes are being rapidly eaten up both from above and below. A great flight of aristocratic pensioners from above, and a growing swarm of paupers and criminals from below, have gradually placed the middle classes between two fires, which equally threaten to consume them. Self-defence, if no higher motive, loudly calls on them to arouse, ere tlie confiscation of their property and the downfal of the nation be complete. What makes the necessity of a careful examination of the whole question, and of altering our present system, still more clear, is the admitted fact, that with all this enormous outlay, the state, both moral and physical, of the population, is manifestly getting daily worse. The lean kine are not only eating up the fat, and not getting fatter; but are leaner in proportion to the growing voracity of their appetite. Dr Chalmers and otlier far-sighted men predicted this, but were not listened to at the time. This fact, how¬ ever, is now quite clear and universally admitted. It is well expressed in a recent article in Chambers's Jonrnal. Speaking of the enormous and fruitless expense lavished on criminals, the writer says,— “ During the same period, the regulated expenditure for the relief of poverty in all the various ways has increased enormously; and yet the number of beggars have not been lessened; neither has there been a dminution of the numbers of those poor people who., we are 12 told, pine unrelieved. On the contrary, human patience is woni out with the importunities of ragged men, women, and children, in the streets of every large town j and the meaner parts of each city are now as much crammed with hopeless destitution as ever. About fourteen years ago, one hundred and forty thousand pounds was the outlay for the poor in Scotland through the regular channel: now the expenditure in the parishes is approaching half a million; there is a vast increase of beneficence in other ways; and yet there is more obtrusive mendicancy, and more obscure unreached wretchedness, than formerly. It follows that either society is going through a rapid course of demoralization from causes independent of poverty, or that our late solicitude to take the burdens of individuals upon the public shoulders has resulted in this demoralization, notwithstanding, it may be, an increase in the general resources of the community.” The state of the case, therefore, is very serious and alarm¬ ing ; and it is satisfactory to find that, at an approaching meet¬ ing of delegates of Poor’s Boards from ail parts of Scotland, it is to be considered in all its bearings. In considering this question, it is earnestly to be desired that the evil itself and its causes may be fairly looked in the face, before the mere details of the present Poor-law are considered. If the evil itself could be clearly seen and greatly abated, that would be of paramount importance, whilst mere details are, in comparison, scarcely worth atten¬ tion at alt. If the assessment must continue to increase at the rate of P100,000 a-year, it is not difficult to predict the result, no matter who pa3’S the money in the first instance. And yet little attention has been paid to the first of these subjects. The previous debates which have taken place in various districts about mere modes of assessment— each one trying to shift the burden from his own shoulder-— are surely contemptible in comparison of the grand ques¬ tion—Can we relieve the rich, and at the same time elevate the poor \ If the stripes must still be inflicted, the debates referred to are little better than the drummer’s controversy with the soldier as to what part of the back should bear them first, or the controversy of the prisoners in a wreck as to who should be first eaten. But the question as to how the physi- 13 oal and moral state of our country may be elevated, is obe of the first importance, and deeply interesting to e^ery Christian and patriot. / One scheme has no doubt been proposed, by wmch to bring the whole question to a close at once, botll in its essence and details, viz. by abolishing all laws which give the poor any right to relief. This is the plan of Sir George Sinclair, who in a pamphlet of much eloquence, and con¬ taining a number of valuable facts (but I fear containing little practical wisdom), gives the following as his mature opinion:— “ I am, therefore, of opinion, that Scotland can only be saved from ruin, both in a moral and economical point of view, by abro¬ gating the r'ylit of the pauper to demand relief, whilst leaving to every parish the authority to raise an assessment (whenever they deem such a plan indispensable for the maintenance of the destitute and infirm), and allowing to the rate-payers the unfettered right of laying out their own money in their own way, without control or interference from any other quarter. Unless such a measure be speedily adopted, Scotland will, erelong, be reduced to the condi¬ tion of distress, or rather of despair, which is now overwhelming Ireland; and to which some districts of Scotland are already be¬ ginning to approximate.” Such a proposal is of course entirely inadmissible, and not worth reasoning about. A right on the part of the “ impotent poor” to be relieved, which has stood in Scot¬ land for three centuries, and which is as good both in reason and law as that of the proprietors to their estates, cannot and ought not to be done away. But suppose it were done away, how would that cure the evil? It might enable (unless the very attempt caused a revo¬ lution) the wealthier classes to escape from the poor rates—it might enable Dives to “ clothe himself in purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day,” heedless of the groans of Lazarus; but it would not abolish pauperism. No doubt it is alleged that this is the old Scotch system, and that this was Dr Chalmers’s plan. This is a complete mistake. There has been a law in Scotland for the relief 14 of the poor precisely the same with that of England (with one important exception) since 1579, and that law was only rendered practically inoperative by the diffusion of Christian instruction. And this is the point in which our Scotch aristocracy—although in this I would except Sir George Sinclair — willingly misunderstood Dr Chalmers. They clutched at the idea of paying nothing for the poor, hut they forgot the means by which this result was to he reached. Because of the hardness of men’s hearts, there must needs be a poor law. As Mr Shiel once said in the House of ■ Commons, it is easy to speak of the “ fountains of charity,” hut they are often “ frozen, and require to he broken up by the hammer of legislative authority.” Dr Chalmers wished to change, by Christian means, the briers and thorns of our depraved human nature into vines and fig-trees, and then he promised our landlords good fruit; but they forgot this part of the process altogether, and, driving him and his plans out of the Establishment, expected to gather the grapes off the thorns, and the figs off the thistles; and now, unless a speedy change takes place, they bid fair to receive a dread¬ ful punishment for their folly and wickedness in not knowing the time of their visitation. The great matter is to force our way through all these details, and get at the essence of the evil. 'WTiy are the people sinking in beggary and crime ? That is the question. Now, it is plain that whilst there are great moral causes powerfully operating to pro¬ duce pauperism—there are causes of a physical and legisla¬ tive kind also at the root of our social evils. There must, amongst other plans, be a bold movement on the part of the middle classes to undo certain erroneous legislation, which has had the effect of weighing down our vessel to the water’s edge, and threatening to sink her, but which must be removed if our country is to be saved. Let us, then, consider;— I. Causes tending to make paupers and criminals. II. Causes tending to induce men to continue paupers and criminals when they are once made so. III. Evils of the recent Scotch poor law. 1. Causes tending to make men paupers and criminals. 15 Under this head, I include— (1.) The inefficiency of onr present means of religious mtruc- tion, especially in the crowded districts of the land. I speak not now merely as a Free Churchman, but as a man interested in the prosperity of our common country. This branch of the subject, however, has been so fully expounded by Dr Chalmers, that I shall not dwell upon it. A very good little treatise upon it has also just been published by Mr Tasker. From the best statistics I can obtain, I am per¬ suaded that, whilst we are debating, one half of our youth are growing up in brute ignorance. We need a vast increase of schools, and the whole hospital property of Scotland, amount¬ ing in Edinburgh alone to perhaps ^£*2,000,000, ought to be devoted to this object. Great masses in all our cities are also living and dying in heathenism, and heathenism and beggary are s 3 'nonymous terms; and although it has been proved that, by the energies and contributions of Christian men, much may, by the blessing of God, be done to reclaim them, very little is being done for the purpose. I am delighted, however, to observe, that our brethren of other denomina¬ tions are taking up the matter in earnest, and that a success¬ ful effort, on the Westport plan, for reclaiming one of the worst districts of Aberdeen, has been made by our Inde¬ pendent brethren there.* The place seems to have been previously a den of iniquity, and yet the following testi¬ monies are given to the success of the effort. Sheriff Watson, at a meeting of the Aberdeen Prisons’ Board, held lately, said:— “It was an interesting fact, that in Albion Street, where there had been a theatre of the lowest description, and which did great evil, a neat chapel had been built on the very site where the theatre once stood, Sabbath-day services and week-day meetings wgre con¬ ducted in the chapel, and great good had been done.” Mr Barclay, superintendent of police, says:— “ I am happy in being able to state, that since it was erected in that most depraved and destitute locality, the moral character of * See an interesting tract, entitled City Missions and how to Worh Them, by James H.'Wilson, Editor of the North of Scotland Gazette. 16 the district has been very much improved. Numerous instances are known at this office, in which persons who were habitually given to intemperance, debauchery, and crime, have been reelmmed, [Here Mr Barclay gives the particulars of several remarkable cases.] Taking the whole matter into consideration, and especially the fearful scenes that occurred in the low theatre that occupied the site where the chapel now stands, I cannot but conclude that the institution has been of the greatest public benefit, reflects the highest honour on its promoters, and well would it he for the community if twenty such chapels were established in Aberdeen. To the origi¬ nators of this unpretending but most important scheme of moral and religions improvement, the poor people in this district express them¬ selves as being under the most lasting obligations; and I have only to add my own high sense of the value of such a cause, the benefits of which we have so signally felt, and to express my hope that it may long be blessed to do yet greater things for the vicious and destitute of this city." And a Police Officer, who had formerly borne testimony to the degradation of the district, observes;— ■ “After taking a view of the past, and looking to the present state of things in Albion Street, how cheering is the contrast! On that very spot [referring to the theatre] now stands a neat little chapel, where God is worshipped, where prayer is offered, and praise sung by the lips of one of the most orderly, qniet, and attentive set of people that ever assembled within the walls of any church; ay, in not a few instances, by Ups, too, that bad formerly, on the same gronnd, blasphemed the name of God. How gratifying is this to the mind of every Christian and lover of humanity! ” It is most refreshing to find a catholic-spirited man of another denomination, like Mr Wilson, exclaiming— “Let John Wesley be our model now, and Dr Chalmers our preceptor. TTe want to see the sagacity of the one, and the large¬ heartedness of the other, predominating in every Christian church.” Were this spirit to spread amongst the Dissenters of Scotland, the axe would be laid to the root of many of our social evils, and especially to the root of pauperism; and without this all other means will prove abortive and vain. 17 (2.) A leading cause of the present rapid increase of pauperism is undoubtedly the prevalence of whisky shops and of drunkenness. This view of the subject has also been fully explained of late, and I do not intend to dwell upon it. “ The drunkard shall come to poverty,” says the Scrip¬ ture, and the following statistics- are surely sufficiently alarming as regards Scotland.* Consumption oj British Spirits in 1841, when the last Census teas taken. In England, 0'5I gallon, or upwards of half a gallon per head. In Ireland, 0*80 „ ,, three-fourths of a gallon per head. In Scotland, 2'28 „ „ two and a fourth gallons per head.’ The cost, at ten shillings a gallon, being to each family in Scotland, upwards of five pounds nineteen shillings. II. —The number of Spirit-dealers and Retailers during the same year. In England, nearly one for every fifty-two families. In Ireland, „ „ eighty-four families. In Scotland, „ „ thirty-one families. III. — The number of Houses under iAO of rent Licensed to retail Spirits. In England, nearly one for every hundred and ninety families. In Ireland, „ „ hundred and twenty families. In Scotland, „ „ forty-eight families. Drunkenness is pre-eminently the curse of Scotland—the amazement of all foreigners—the manifest parent of many of our social evils. Bailie G-ray tells us, that of 2700 paupers in Edinburgh, 2000 were made so by drink; and the same thing will be found true of crime. When one of the managers of the poor at Libei'ton, I got from the Excise an account of all the whisky sold annually in the parish. I found that it amounted to 9000 gallons, being nearly 2^ gallons to each individual, or about L.4500 spent in drink—proving that an assessment of that amount would only have supplied the people with drink. * See Dr Macfarlan’s BiWe Temperance, p. 6S. 18 without gimg them any food or clothes at all—and that as long as such an enormous source of waste exists, the pouring in of money will no more cure the evil than the pouring in of oil will quench a fire. Apart from other plans of remedy, and especially of a great change in our “ drinking customs,” I am convinced that two things would do great good—the sweeping away of a vast number of whisky shops altogether, and the annual publication of the statistics of drinking. In regard to the first, its efficacy has been proved on a large scale in America, where public drinking has been nearly banished. One blushes for his country in returning from America,—temptation and drunkenness at every door. It is vain to say, as long as men want drink they will get it. The great matter is to get quit of a vast amount of’ active temptation created by the existence of hundreds of families whose very maintenance depends on the sueeessof their efforts to sell drink. If men are sent abroad with pitfalls in every direction, no wonder if many of them fall in. Let the pits be filled up as fast as possible. And, in regard to the statistics of drinking, they could be easily procured, and would be of great importance. Every gallon of whisky that enters a whisky shop is marked by the Excise, and Parliament could order an annual return to be published, and probably would do so if our rulers were not wickedly anxious to swell up drunkenness for the sake of revenue. There ought to be a public whisky barometer, if I may so speak, like a public rain gauge, by which men could mark the rise and fall of the tide, and trace the connexion in any particular district between drinking, pauperism, and crime. Meantime, I am happy to find the friends of temperance becoming more practical in their measures. The efforts of magistrates to diminish the number of low tippling-houses are worthy of all commendation. (.3.) Another leading cause of pauperism and crime is the present frighiful phjdcal state of the poorer, districts of our large cities. This is a matter which seems to have at¬ tracted the benevolent attention of Dr M'Gill nearly forty years ago. I find, in his Remarks on Prisons, the following 19 passage:—“ Will I not be pardoned for expressing my ardent wishes, that those who may be able to remedy the evil would give attention to the condition of those wretched hovels which the labouring classes in great towns are obliged frequently to inhabit? Pent up in the narrowest and dirtiest lanes, in houses damp, confined, airless, crowded and huddled to¬ gether, more like places for cattle than men, they breathe a foul and putrid air, and lose all spirit and desire for cleanliness, decency, and order. The effect of such circum¬ stances, not only on the health and comfort, but morals and character of the people, is great. Those habits of decent neatness, so important not only to comfort but to dignity of mind and a maintenance of character, are lost because the opportunity of forming or maintaining them is not given. The woman loses the desire to please, and sinks into a slattern. Home affords few inducements to a hus¬ band after the labours of the day. His family presents a scene of filth and disorder—spiritless and unhappy, he is tempted to seek abroad the comfort which his own dwelling cannot give, and habits of drinking not unfrequently com¬ plete the wretchedness of his condition. If such be the effects on the parents, need I enlarge on what must be the state and comfort of children ?” The effect of great physical degradation in producing pauperism is also noticed by Dr Charters, a vigorous minister of the last generation, who says, “Affection, both parental and filial, is chilled by want —‘the hind calveth and forsaketh her calf, because there is no grass.’ Under the pressure of poverty, a mother may for¬ get her sucking child—the child that is forsaken, or sent out to beg, or to wander, or forced to labour prematurely, re¬ tains no affection for a destitute parent.” Now, any one who will candidly examine the state of the poorer districts of our crowded cities, will see that, making all allowance for other causes, there is a great physical cause at work, pro¬ ducing wholesale the evils of which we complain, and that, in connexion with all the efforts of Chi’istian Churches, this evil must be removed if we would elevate the masses. Pauperism, crime, fever, are just so many streams from 20 the same foetid marsh of crowded and neglected human beings piled and huddled together in the centres of our large cities. It is but a poor philosophy which, with its mop, would try to stem and dry up these streams, whilst nothing is done to drain the marsh itself. We must go boldly to the root of the evil. We must try to dry up, or at least to cast salt into the fountains of bitterness them¬ selves, and thus heal the waters. ^Ve must clear and thin out the tangled forest which harbours the obscene owls and venomous serpents, and then there will be some likelihood of securing the object at which we aim. And, having done something in this direction, let us at the same time be en¬ deavouring to direct the victims of crime and poverty to nobler views and sources of profitable emplo)'ment, and, by bringing our waste land and our waste labour into contact, let us at once diminish the poverty and increase the resources of the nation. Thus we shall, in so far as mere material means can, assail the whole evil at both ends, in its root and branches, in its fountain and streams, and we shall effectu¬ ally pave the way for more hopeful efforts on the part of the Church of Christ. From the Eeport on the sanitary condition of the la¬ bouring population of Britain, it is stated, that “ THE MOST WRETCHED OF THE STATIONARY POPULATION OF WHICH HE (Mr Chadwick) has been able to obtain any account, or THAT HE HAS EVER SEEN, WAS THAT WHICH HE SAW IN COMPANY WITH DR ARNOTT AND OTHERS IN THE WYNDS OF EDINBURGH AND GLASGOW.” Now it is a striking fact, that the great seats of poverty, disease, and crime, are precisely the same—viz., the festering and crowded centres of our cities. To begin with fever in Edinburgh. The following is an extract from the Eeport of the Directors of the Infirmary, lately published “Confining themselves to Edinburgh, they find that the total number of fever patients of the previous year amounted to 2952; that of these there were 274'9 on the south side (or in the Old Town), 21 and only 203 in the New Town. In the Canongate, and streets and closes adjacent, there were.251 In the Cowgate, and closes and wynds adjacent . . 866 In the Grassmarket, Westport, &c. .... 734 And in the High Street, and closes and wynds adjacent . 512 Making in all . 2363 and leaving only 386 for the remaining parts of the south side of the town.” Let my readers ponder this remarkable extract. Here we have forty-eight more fever patients produced by the Canongate alone than by the whole New Town put together. We have more than four times as many produced by the “ Cowgate, and closes and wynds adjacent,” than by the whole New Town, We have 2363 fever patients in the cen¬ tral mass of heathenism, and only 589 in all the rest of the city put together. This not only amply confirms our state¬ ment, and exposes the community to great public expense in upholding the Infirmary; but the great mass of these vic¬ tims of disease who die, leave children or others destitute. Hence also a fruitful source of ragged and neglected chil¬ dren, and of a rapidly-increasing pauperism. For it is quite certain (although, unfortunately, there are no exact statis¬ tics kept with this view at the Workhouse) that the great mass of pauperism is generated in the same district. Dr Adams, chief inspector of the city poor, Glasgow, in a recent pamphlet, says, “ I was for many years physician to the Canongate Public Dispensary, an extensive medical charity, hamg for its field of operation the foci of Edinburgh pauper- 'ismfvk., the Goicgate, Canongate, High Street, and Grassmar¬ ket," The same results I have discovered in regard to crime. On going to the prison, I found a map of the city with a black patch over the districts referred to, like the darkness of Egypt, whilst all the surrounding districts were light, like the land of Goshen; and I found that for 1846 there were no fewer than 1864 criminals from the High Street, Castle Hill, Lawnraarket, Canongate, Netherbow, Cowgate, Grassmarket, Westport, Candlemaker Row, with the closes adjacent, being more thin 60 per cent of the entire crminak. Here, of course, is again an enormous source of expense and evil of every kind. So that the same district might be marked upon the map with the yellow shade of disease, the grey shade of pauperism, and the black shade of crime; and to illustrate the expense of this, it may he ; stated, that the Infirmary of Edinburgh costs about L.l 0,000 a year, the poor L.27,000, the prisoners about L.ll each per annum. Bailie Gray calculates that every male head of a family that dies of fever, subjects the poor s-fund to an expense of L.50. Now, let any one go into this region and examine it, and he will see what a frightful mass it is. Let him take any close at random. I went the other day with a friend to re¬ fresh my recollection of a scene with which at one time I was more familiar. We entered a very narrow and filthy wynd. We plunged into a black opening, more like the mouth of a coal-pit than the entrance to human habitations; and, after forcing our way up a dark, ruinous staircase, re¬ dolent of damp and pestilential vapour, we reached the up¬ permost flat, and opened a door. We were nearly knocked down by the horrid vapour by which we were assailed, and were glad to get a bundle of rags torn out of the broken window, to secure a mouthful of fresh air. AVe found two mothers and a number of children inhabiting this miserable apartment, for which Is. weekly was paid. There was one bed of rotten straw in the corner for the whole inmates; and we found that this was only one of six houses of a similar kind on the same stair-head, and that each flat had as many, making the whole population of this wretched and ruinous tenement to be greater than that of a considerable coun¬ try village. Besides, this was only one of multitudes of simi¬ lar receptacles of filth and fever, crowded and wedged to¬ gether in the same narrow and dirty lane, and that lane only one of many. From an evening inspection, along with Dr Belt and Dr Gunning, of the low lodging-houses also, I saw still more clearly the amount of this frightful source of 23 The first idea that must have struck any one was, that there could be no wonder if crime, fever, and pauperism spread in such localities. And yet it is only a sample of what is found in abundance in all the large cities of Britain. These human beings were in far more uncomfortable and wretched circumstances than any sensible farmer’s cattle. My pigs at Liberton, luxuriating in clean straw, and breath¬ ing the pure air of heaven, were as gentlemen in comparison. No man in his senses would force his cow into such a pes¬ tilential den. And then, when disease enters such dwellings, how horrid to think of the sick and the sound huddled to¬ gether ! When death cuts off a member of the family, how dreadful to think of all the rest forced to eat and sleep be¬ side the dead body! We drag a dead horse out of the stable of the living; but here such a separation is impos¬ sible. How can we wonder that human nature, in such cir¬ cumstances, is found at the lowest point of degradation, defying ordinary means of cure, and spreading moral as well as physical evil like a pestilence ! A decent man comes from the country, driven, perhaps, by want of work. He is obliged , to take one of these wretched houses. Let us suppose that he has been accustomed to the decencies of society, or even that he is a true Christian. How dreadful to have his children, like Lot in Sodom, exposed to the sound of blas¬ phemy, and the example of every form of wickedness! There society is corrupted to its very core. City mission¬ aries go their rounds in despair. Oceans of soup and floods of water are lavished in vain. The managers of infirmaries, the keepers of prisons, the masters of charity workhouses, stand aghast at a tide flowing from such a corrupted mass, and which, instead of being driven back, is continually rising, like the prophetic waters, and threatening to sweep all that is sound and healthy in the community away. Every one who reflects on the changes which have recently taken place in Edinburgh, must see one great cause of the evil. Multitudes of houses have been swept away at the top of the Lawnmarket, at George IV. Bridge, and especially at the Low Calton, and yet scarcely one new tradesman’s house 24 has been built. There is the same population, but, of course, linng in far less room, wedged and crowded into filthy cellars and windowless garrets—festering masses piled and heaped together, and spreading disease and crime in ever)' direction. I was lately reading the journal of an American traveller, who, after seeing the most degraded districts of the filthiest cities on the Continent, declares that he saw nothing any where like some of the closes of the High Street and Canongate of Edinburgh. The state of Grlasgow is not better. And yet the people pay large rents for this miserable accommodation; but the result is most ruinous in every respect to soul and body; and especially it seems a kind of triumph of Satan to surround a multitude of human beings with circumstances so repulsive as to deter the systematic approach of any but the most Howard-like benevolence. Now I do not say that the mere breaking up of these festering masses will cure the evil; but most assuredly it will greatly alleviate it, and it is essential to the hopeful appli¬ cation of any probable means of cure. Let large openings be made; let, for example, the one side of every one of these dense closes, running out of the High Street, Oowgate, Oan- ongate, &c., be torn down, and in its stead let a decent and comfortable tenement of tradesmen’s houses be erected in the suburbs, and an immense step in the right direction will be taken. Even the old tenements that are left would be greatly improved by this process. But the mere taking down of old buildings would make matters worse, without the erection of new and better ones. The result of demolishing old buildings hitherto has just been to crowd and wedge the population into smaller space, and thus in¬ crease the evil; but if new and better houses were at the same time erected in the pure air of the suburbs, and if poor men could get good houses at moderate rents,—if character were the test of admission, and not mere money,—if no drunkard or Sabbath-breaker were admitted,—there would be an opportunity of doing what a shepherd does in a simi¬ lar case—separating the diseased from the sound, as well 25 as holding out an efficient premium to good behaviour on the part of the sober, struggling, working man. We would stud the outskirts of the city with such home colonies of working men, and thus effectually break up the central mass of vice and crime. Besides, we have on all sides of the city open spaces for the health and recreation of such colonies, and for bleaching their clothes—a great desideratum in the present narrow closes, and the want of which is, no doubt, a cause of increased disease. We have the Meadows on the south side, which ought assuredly to be thrown open ; and Princes Street Gardens on the north, plundered from the poor without compensation,* but which, as the period of prescription is not expired, they may as certainly reclaim as the road through Glen Tilt. We have the Heriot grounds between Edinburgh and Leith, a portion of which should un¬ doubtedly be set apart for the benefit of the community; and we have also the Oalton Hill, and the Royal grounds, encir¬ cling the whole masses of the Oanongate and Pleasance. Let the matter only be perseveringly gone about as already begun, and as there is no city in the world with a fairer outside and a more loathsome interior than Edinburgh, so it will be found that there is none with more splendid sanatory capabilities. Other cities are labouring hard, and at great expense, to get what Edinburgh possesses as her own property, if our citizens had only justice. In London they are buying up parks at the public expense; in Manchester similar efforts are being made; English noblemen have been giving parks to some of their most crowded manufacturing cities; and at Glasgow a plan has just been started for buying 150 acres of land in addition to their noble Green. Suppose, as soon as these advantages are obtained, that some one attempted to deprive the citizens of those places without compensation, how would such a proposal be met 2 The question requires no answer. Why, then, should we tamely allow the labour¬ ing classes of Edinburgh to be jostled aside to make way for cattle, or to be excluded from gardens unquestionably their own by iron gates 2 If these rights belonged to any indi- * See Appendix, No. L, p. 65. 26 vidual, would lie thus simply surrender them 2 Why, then, should this great body called “ the public” of Edinburgh, with its thirty-three guardians, allow itself to be worse treated than a single man would be without a guardian at all 2 The whole community are interested in the restoration of those rights; and, if they are not restored soon, they are in danger of being lost altogether. The health of the poor and working classes is involved, and in that their social well-being. The rich know what is necessary for health to their families, and provide gardens and means of clean¬ liness accordingly. Go to the richer portions of any city—see the open spaces of our New Town, for example —and, though it be only at present through the iron bars, see the children enjo)’ing themselves in Princes Street and Queen Street Gardens, and you will behold what is equally necessary for the children of the poor. It would be well to see the decent tradesmen’s wives and children again admitted to the same advantages. Mr Chadwick affirms that the w}Tids of Edinburgh are amongst the filthiest he “has ever seen or heard of;” and yet many of these formerly opened on the now enclosed gardens of Princes Street. It is proved that for every case of fever in the richer districts of the town there are six in the poorer, and that, humanly speaking, this could be cured by sanatory means. Humanity cries aloud, therefore, for their adoption. It has been proved that if men were as anxious about the health of human beings as of cattle, the evil would he cured. No sensible farmer would have his stable in such a state as the houses of some of our people; but then, fortunately, when a horse dies a new one must be bought, whereas when a man dies a new one can be got for nothing. And yet the present is a most extravagant as well as intensely cruel system. By perpetuating filth in the houses, men are driven to the bright and shining whisky shops. Decent women, who might make their bread by washing, are driven to the poor’s funds. The present 0'stem is the parent of fever; and as men cut down by disease leave their children on the parish, fever is the 27 parent of pauperism; It cankers the very roots of society, by placing an unnecessary gulf between the rich and poor; it presents a most formidable obstacle in the way of missionaries and Christian men in exploring the dens of ignorance and cruelty; and, as contrasted with the sweet and pleasant abodes of criminals and “ sturdy beggars,” it operates as a direct bounty upon crime and idleness. There are many senses in which “cleanliness is next to godliness.” In regard to the miserable homes of the poor, I am confi¬ dent it would he cheaper not only to pull down some of the wretched pest-houses of which I have been \vriting, but to build others at the public expense. But the new houses would pay well as a pecuniary speculation, especially if built at present, as is clear by the example both of London and Glasgow.* If the rich will not attend to these things, they must just be content to pay for their criminal neglect. (4.) But one of the greatest causes of pauperism in Scot¬ land has been the locking up of the land of the kingdom in a few hands by artificial laws, so that we see at once an enor¬ mous accumulation of WASTE land, and at the same time of WASTE LABOUR. This has long attracted the attention of the politicians of surrounding nations, who have con¬ fidently predicted, that unless an immense change in this respect took place, Britain would in the long run sink in pauperism. The nobles of Scotland contrived at the Eeformation, after using the influence of Knox to upset the Popish Church, to seize on the whole Church property except in so far as new noblemen were created out of those enormous spoils. This land they retain to the present day, and all their struggles have been for the purpose of retain¬ ing it. Their hollow support of the Covenanters turned out to be merely for the purpose of saving their Church lands, with which Charles I. was anxious to endow the hierarchy. The common people of Scotland hated Episcopacy on the ground of principle—the nobility on the ground of pelf; and hence, at the restoration of Charles II., the old nobility all turned round except Argyll. Lauderdale, who had * See Appendix, No. III., p. 79. 28 been appointed a Commissioner to the Westminster Assem¬ bly, was ready to wade knee-deep in the best blood of Scotland. Not only have these men always retained their power, but by the laws of entail and primogeniture, they have made it impossible that their lands should be alienated from their posterity, and even till 1748 the power of “ pit and gallows,” of imprisoning and hanging without judge or jury, existed on every Scottish barony. Hundreds of thousands of acres still belong to single families, and of course the resources of the kingdom are not half developed, for “ a great proprietor,” as Adam Smith says, is seldom “ a great improver.” Nay, the smalt proprietors are being swamped by a rapid process, and their lands swallowed up by a few leviathan landlords. The soil of England, which in 1815 was held by about 80,000 proprietors, belonged to EIGHT TIMES AS MANY ONLY FORTY YEARS BEFORE. Mr Laing estimates the number of estates in Scotland at about 3000; but were entails put an end to, and the laws of suc¬ cession altered, and the property divided according to the ratio of Norway, the nv.rnier voiild he nbout 90,000. What a noble race of resident proprietors would this make! And a sensible writer has justly remarked, that “ in countries where land is held by a great number, the government has nothing to dread from revolution; but in those where the property is in the hands of a few', the danger is always im¬ minent.” The experience of America, of Hungary, and even of Greece, illustrates the vast social importance of abolish¬ ing all restrictions on the transference of land. Professor Masson of Belfast, who spent twenty years in Greece, has kindly given me the following statement “ The kingdom of Greece, in proportion to the number of its in¬ habitants, contains as few paupers as any country in Europe. Per¬ haps it is the only country in the world in which it may ivithout exagaeration be said, that it has more Minstrels than Mendicants. The right of primogeniture has no existence in Greece, and the idea of introducing it would appear to the Greeks monstrous. The pea¬ santry are sober, cleanly, industrious and provident The eagerness with whieh they avail themselves of the existing facilities to become proprietors of even a smallportion of land, is very striking. The Presi¬ dent Capodistrias showed that he knew the true and only source of national tranquillity and national prosperity, in saying that he hoped to see the day when every Greek citizen should be a landed proprie¬ tor, as well as the possessor and reader of a Bible. That is true con¬ servatism. A Greek cottage is usually a home of peace, comfort, and moral propriety—it is also a school of industry, but certainly not a ragged school. In regard to the sobriety of the Greek people, it is with feelings of no ordinary nature that I add, that, in return¬ ing to my native land, I beheld within one month more hideous displays of drunkenness in our own Presbyterian Scotland, than I had seen amongst the Greeks for twenty long years.” Such important experience ought not to be lo.st upon us, and every effort ought to be made to bring abont a similar result in our own land. This would be worth all other previous temporal reforms put together. It is utterly preposterous to listen to short-sighted proposals for sweeping the land of its inhabitants. If our affairs were well managed, we have too few people. A great cry is got up in favour of emigration, and that there arc too many people in the country, and some of our great proprietors, being also jobbers in Colonial land, do every thing in ■ their power to clear away the people, so as both to rid themselves of the fair duties of landlords here, and improve the gains of their speculations yonder. The, monstrous evil of our present home arrange¬ ments was not much felt so long as we had a trade with foreign nations continually progressing—so long as capital was employing labour on a vast scale in the making of rail¬ roads, and especially so long as Europe was at peace. But no sooner has the foreign market begun to fail—the making of railroads ceased, and the distant sound of war both deranged our commerce and threatened to interrupt the importation of corn—than it is plain either that our own soil must be set free from the fetters of an old feudal sys¬ tem, which has all along been a curse to the country, or our middle classes must be eaten up by masses of paupers. Every thing has been done to conceal this fact; but it is one of the most important that the people can know, and to every intelligent man it is plain as noonday. Scotland has in great abundance the very same unde¬ veloped sources of wealth with Canada, or most of our colonies; her vast peat-mosses might be turned into as fertile a s