Observations on the epidemic fever of MDCCCXLIII in Scotland, and it's connection with the destitute condition of the poor / [by W. P. Alison].

  • Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the epidemic fever of MDCCCXLIII in Scotland, and it's connection with the destitute condition of the poor / [by W. P. Alison]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    “ The expenditure in one year, 1838, appears to have been— For support of 4987 persons and families. L.14,723 0 0 For medical attendance, medicine, food, bandages, and sick expenses, 6,161 0 0 Extraordinary or occasional assistance with money. 4,853 0 0 Firewood, turf, &c., distributed, .... 1,559 0 0 Support of poor belonging to Berlin in other places. 151 0 0 Education of depraved or morally neglected infants, in a particular school established for that purpose, . 181 0 0 Total out-door relief, L.27,631 0 0 The House of Correction or Workhouse, Orphan Hospi- tal, and several hospitals for decayed poor, and liaving funds in part for their support, and also the Infirmary, . Total in-door relief. 26,801 0 0 L.54,432 0 0 “ Of this sum, applied to the support of the poor, part comes “ from permanent funds left for the endowment of the hospitals, “ or from legacies left to the poor, part from Government for the ‘‘ House of Correction and police, and also as occasional, gifts ‘‘ from the king, part from voluntary contributions of the inhabi- “ tants, and from gifts of benevolent persons, but the greater part “ of it, in 1838, about L.35,495, out of the general chest of the city “ taxes. These municipal taxes are extremely heavy. They are “ levied on the value of the house, and the supposed value or “ income of the trade carried on by the householder, as estimated “ by the commissioners for charging it. “ To the actual efficiency of the system in the two great points “ of relieving fully, humanely, and economically, all real distress “ —and in the suppression of all street begging, and much vice “ and idleness—the most hasty traveller who inquires at all into “ the state of the poor, or who even contents himself with his per- “ sonal observation as a stranger walking about the town, must “ bear the fullest testimony. ‘‘ The whole, according to the sketch given above, consists of “ a board of poor directors, and of local boards of poor commission- “ ers ; the former having the general control, superintendence, “ and finance, under its charge ; the latter being in the immediate “ contact with the poor, dispensing relief, each board in its own circle or division of the city, and each commissioner in his own “ section or sub-division of that circle only, and under the checks D