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246

SCOTTISH GIPSIES.

in Roxburghshire, their temporary kraal of huts on the green, formed by their whomled carts and straw bedding, with the ensigns of their trades scattered around, form a scene of great interest. Their propensity to thieving is now much suppressed. Another class of beggars, now extinct, were old infirm women and men, who were carried about from door to door on hand barrows. These persons, among whom, we are of opinion, there were a number of impostors, used a sort of privileged insolence, sometimes compelling the inhabitants to carry them, and supply their wants. Meal was their common amous. The farmers sent them gratuitously in carts from one town to another. Bluegown beggars have been so well described by the author of Waverley, as to require no notice. All these and every other class of mendicants have, as above stated, been suppressed to a tenth of their former amount; but it is not to be imagined that the sum of poverty is thereby lessened. What was once exposed is now hid, or suppressed by judicial interference.

From the preceding remarks on the state of the poor in Scotland, the observant stranger will perceive that the country is in such a situation, relative to assessments, that, by the application of certain efficient measures, the increase of rates might not only be checked, but their amount very much lessened. Some statistical writers have asserted that means might safely be adopted to abolish assessments altogether, and that the nation could, with little trouble, be brought to its original happy condition. Dr Chalmers has given it as his opinion, that the division of towns into sections, in a way already hinted at, under local superintendencies, and the collateral institution of schools, with a sufficiency of religious instruction, would be nearly all that would be required. But while assenting to such propositions, it is impossible not to see that the state must simultaneously revise many of its laws, at present tending to subvert the attempts of local beneficiary_systems, before any actual good can be expected. First

PROSPECTS OF THE POOR.

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of all, Irish immigration must be stopped, otherwise every expedient must decidedly go for nothing. The laws relative to the sale of spiritous liquors must also be amended, else we fear little change will take place in the prospects of the poor. So far as regards local measures, a total revision of the civic and ecclesiastical economy of large towns should go foremost. So long as the magisterial and clerical system at present working goes on, little can be done satisfactorily. We are not so sanguine, however, as to expect that any thorough and proper remedial measures will be adopted. There are too many persons whose interest it is that the present bad system should continue, for any alteration of consequence to be made. All experience shows that it has been the misfortune of Great Britain to be governed by supreme and local authorities, who, by not identifying themselves with the people, have ever been the last to see the propriety of taking active and sound measures to cure mischiefs before they become too overwhelming for their management. Writers have in vain admonished them of the consequences. Lessons which might be drawn from the struggles between an overgrown wealthy class of persons, and one sunk in pauperism or overloaded with burdens, as exhibited in the history of mankind, are despised. No experience no reasoning, will induce the institution of timely correctives.

The dreadful situation and prospects of the poor in cities, such as Edinburgh, might excite the liveliest emotions of philanthropy, and quicken the activity of those who had any latent desire to be foremost in accomplishing the great work of reformation. On the occurrence of sudden violent outbreaks of crime, the rich, the educated, and the comfortable classes are startled from their complacency, and go the length of holding public meetings for the discussion of what ought to be done to arrest the evils, arising so obviously from an excess of neglected pauperism. Sometimes the institution of a single school is condescended upon, but more ordinarily nothing is really done worthy of being men

248 tioned. This is an age of words, both in speaking and writing, more than of actions. The philanthropy of the community too often evaporates in prayers, speeches, compliments, and grimace, and the great cause of the poor, after being talked about and paragraphed to pieces in newspapers, dies away for a season, until a similar outbreak of vice induces the same procedure to be again enacted.*

HOPELESS CONDITION OF THE poor.

It would be tiresome to expatiate further on this momentous subject, the minutiae of which too many are acquainted with. The historian of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, in after times, will be amazed by the present peculiarity in national character. Were it possible to convey a whisper to him through the intermediate vista of ages, we would bid him describe how a little well-timed activity might have saved the country from ruin; but that such was the remarkable inconsistency in the charities of the people, that while they zealously devoted millions of pounds sterling, with much mental disquietude and bodily fatigue, to the comforting and cultivation of savages at the most distant quarter of the globe, they were almost stoically blind to the encouragement of virtue at home, and left their nearest neighbours in worse than the lowest heathen depravity and misery.

* In cases of great emergency, collections of money by means of subscriptions are made, whereby soup kitchens are set on foot, which give much temporary relief to the destitute. We do not condemn these expedients; but we argue the propriety of doing away with the necessity for having recourse to such humiliating remedies.

PROMINENT AND PECULIAR LAWS AND USAGES
CONTINUED.

THE LICENSING SYSTEM.

Daughter of chaos and eternal night,
Fate in their dotage this fair idiot gave.

PORE's Dunciad.

By way of corollary to the foregoing observations on the poor laws of Scotland, it will be very appropriate to introduce here a word of explanation on one of the observable causes of poverty and misery, namely, the abuse of ardent spirits. The legislature, by abrogating the duties on beer, and slightly enhancing those on spiritous liquors, may be allowed to have done a little, and but a very little, to remove the temptation to deep drinking by the lower classes. It is incumbent upon it, if it would wish to repress demoralizing habits, to go much farther. Without in any way increasing the duties, and consequently the prices of British spirits, which, besides encouraging an extensive system of illicit distillation and smuggling, would injure the home manufacturer in favour of a foreign distiller, it ought to attain its object by entirely changing the present process of licensing publicans.

In England, the restrictions under which this class of traders are laid, are severe and frequently tyrannical, but when placed in comparison with those in this country, they are perfection itself. Between the laws

250

THE LICENSING OF

of the two countries, in application to licensing, there is hardly any resemblance. The one code is vigorous to the last degree, and supports a stern monopoly in trade: the other is far more injurious by the absence of these distinctions; and while it encourages the most infamous abuses, it is not divested of that portion of cruelty which has uniformly characterized every act in conjunction with the excise laws. To sum up in a single sentence, the prominent distinctions of the two systems:-In England, no person will be licensed to retail liquors unless it is clearly seen that the district or city in which the proposed settlement is to be made, requires the establishment of a house of the kind, and the project otherwise meet with the approval of the justices; while in Scotland, any poor creature who can pay the license fee-which can be got at all prices, will be privileged to sell liquors, always providing that he or she be of good character, and the justices be satisfied of the propriety of the measure.

The process followed in Scotland in securing licenses, it baffles us to unfold. There prevails some remarkable and unintelligible connexion between, and yet separation of, ale and spirit licenses; and to get the complete license from the excise, a certain ceremony of application must be gone through six months before, by order of the magistrates. We believe this formula has a reference to exhibiting certificates of character, and that the piece of paper which is then got, expressing the authority of the justice to license, is kept and shewn to the excise; but why the certification and approval of character should be expeded six months prior to the time they are to be used, it would defy the three estates in the British constitution, and all the civic authorities in Scotland to boot, to explain satisfactorily. The annual licenses are moreover issued at a very inexpedient period of the year. The great season of removals and entry upon houses is Whitsunday in Scotland, while the licenses are not issued till October, and the inconvenience resulting from this practice is beyond all description. But it would be fatiguing

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