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

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

KNIGHT & Co., 90, FLEET STREET.

1856.

The right of Translation is reserved.

HV 249 .54 N6

"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.

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

AND CHARING CROSS.

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.