Remarks on the report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Poor-Laws of Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1844, and on the dissent of Mr. Twisleton from that report / by William Pulteney Alison.

  • Alison, William Pulteney, 1790-1859.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on the report of Her Majesty's Commissioners on the Poor-Laws of Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1844, and on the dissent of Mr. Twisleton from that report / by William Pulteney 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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    almost all parts of the country, on which that Report was founded; and of the Reasons of Dissent from the practical conclusions of the Report, which have been ajDpended to it by Mr Twisleton; the only Member of the Commission, I believe, who had been formerly employed in official Inquiries into the condition of the Poor, and the operation of the Poor-Laws, in other parts of the country. Having been one of the first of those who have of . late years endeavoured to fix the attention of the Public and of the Government on this subject, I have naturally been led to consider, as attentively as I could, those different documents; and it appears to me that all the representations previously made by myself and others, as to the irregularity, and gene- ral inadequacy of the provision for the Poor in Scot- land, and the evils thence arising, are substantially confirmed,—the evidence on some points, indeed, being stronger than I had anticipated; that the majority of the Commissioners, admitting the evils of the pre- sent state of things, have gone just about half the length which I had formerly represented as necessary, in advising measures of improvement; and that Mr Twisleton has gone the whole length of those practical improvements which I had ventured to suggest,—in two particulars, indeed (as to compulsory assessments and workhouses), a little farther than my suggestions, although, in another (as to appeals to the Sheriff' Courts), he does not go quite so far.