OF THE

SCOTCH POOR LAW.

IN CONNEXION WITH

THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

BY SIR GEORGE NICHOLLS, K.C.B.,

LATE POOR LAW COMMISSIONER, AND SECRETARY TO THE POOR LAW BOARD.

HY249
•S5NG

"Time is the great innovator, and if time alters for the worse, and wisdom and counsel do not labour to alter for the better, what will be the end?-A stiff and froward retention of custom is as turbulent as an innovation, and they that reverence ancient usages too superstitiously are the scorn of the present age. It were prudent therefore, if men in their innovations would follow the example of time itself; for time innovates more than anything, but does it quietly, and by degrees scarcely to be perceived."-BACON.

30675

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,

DEDICATION.

To the members of the several Parochial Boards, in

the hope that the account given in the following pages of the rise and progress of the Scotch Poor Law, may be found useful to them in its administration, this Work is

dedicated

September 1856.

By their faithful servant,

THE AUTHOR.