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own to live upon; then to be whipped, and burnt through thepar with a hot iron, unless any householder would consent totake him into his service, under bond to present him again atthe end of twelve months, or bring proof of his death ; and ifthe vagrant should escape from his service, he was immediatelyto be punished as before mentioned ; and if, after sixty' days, heshould be found again at his old trade, be was to suffer death asa thief. This sanguinary law, homologated in many subsequentenactments, has been superseded by the milder general BritishStatute against vagrants.
The various enactments in regard to the support of real oh-jects of charity, arc not very consistent; and, had some pf thc«qenactments been carried strictly into execution, Scotland mightnow have laboured under the same grievance as England, fromthp oppression of her poor’s laws. The present existing systemhas been matured by repeated decisions of our Supreme Court. ,founded partly on Scots acts of Parliament , partly on the autho-rity of Royal proclamations, and the reason of the thing. It mayhe proper to state, 1. Th e 'funds of supply : 2. The providers ifRefunds ; 3, The administrators ; and, 4. The rights of the poor.
!• Thp funds consist, sometimes, in part, ot mortifications(bequests), in money or in land, destined for that purpose, by.persons probably more well disposed than enlightened. * Theother ordinary funds are, voluntary' collections given at church-doors, with some small clues {standing merely on the authorityof custom) at marriages and baptisms, or for the hire of a litter,a hearse, or a pall or mortcloth (kept by'the kirk sessions), atfunerals. When these funds are found inadequate, the defici-oncy is made up by an assessment upon the lands,—the one halfpaid by the proprietor, the other by the tenant. In towns, stent-jnasters assess the inhabitants for that purpose; sometimes (as,n Edinburgh ) the assessment being proportioned to the house-fent of the occupier, or (as in Glasgow ) according to supposedwealth.
2. The providers of the funds to supply deficiencies, are, in, country parishes, the heritors. The tax is therefore exclu-sively imposed by those who, immediately, and through theirtenants, bear the burden, f
From the had tendency of such bequests in begetting reliance, independ-°r personal exertion, the propriety has been suggested of rendering all such^Pptopriations illegal.
+ It would seem that, in England, landed proprietors, when they do pay any^ poor’s rates, pay only a certain fixed sum, tenants who have leases he-’s taken bound to pay all extra assessments, and those who have no leases notog to reluse. As the landholders do not immediately feel the pressure ofr s rates, this may account for the want of redress. The old English ba-S / 1S) (hough extremely reluctant to submit to taxation themselves, were littlepulous in allowing their sovereigns to levy taxes upon the occupiers of theirs i not perceiving that these must fall ultimately upon themselves, in dimi-nution