In L.56093 8 0 . L.20643 1 5i 56775 15 3 . 22964 18 1815-16, 66735 8 6 . 31180 12 10a 1819-20, 00000 0 0 . 80585 5.10hThe sum raised in Glasgow for the maintenance of the poor is assessed upon the supposed property and income of the inhabitants residing within the royalty, and the valuation of these is made up by a jury of fifteen citizens, appointed annually. Pro perty belonging to an inhabitant, if lying out of the royalty, is not included in the sum to be assessed ; and the amount of each individual's estimated wealth or income is taken below what is thought to be its real value ; the attention of the assessors being prin cipally directed to maintain the relative proportions to be paid by the parties.. No person whose valued property is under L. 300 is included in the assess. went.
The assessment for the poor In per L. 100 1785 was L. 1,092, levied on L.2,096,600, at 113.21d.
1795 . 3,387, 2,540,200, . 2 8 1805 . 5,265, 4,857,250, . 2 5 1815 . 9,940, . - 6,447,900, . S 1 1820 . 13,120, 6,174,400, . 4 3§ There is, in the information given in this table, matter for the consideration of the political econo mist. From 1785 to 1820, the assessment for the poor advanced from L.1092 to L.13,120, and the rate, notwithstanding the increase of the wealth of the town within that period, from la lid. to 4s. Sd. per L.100. And, it is to be observed, that the t proportion of the increase of the population of gow, which took place within this time, as shown in the population tables, was in those parts of the town lying without the royalty, the poor of which receive nothing from this fund.
The assessment of 1819 and 1820, amounting to L.13,120, was levied from 2759 persons, whose as sessable property was valued at L. 6,174,400. We give the particulars of this assessment, as an import ant document in an account of Glasgow, to show in what proportions the valued wealth of the inhabit ants, living within the royalty at the time, was dis tributed among them.
It will be observed, that the highest sum assessed in the above table is L.60,000, but there are many
people in Glasgow whose fortunes are greatly above this sum, and some who are possessed of three or four times its amount. A gentleman who died last year left above L. 800,000, made in the cotton ma nufacture.
In an account of the progress of Glasgow, it may be proper to take some notice of the effect produc ed on manners, by the great increase of its popula tion, and the employment of a considerable propor tion of it, at an early period of life, in large fac tories. Although the injurious influence of these circumstances on the moral feeling and habits of the lower orders has been great, we do not think they have yet suffered so much as the people of the larg er manufacturing communities of England ; and we can only attribute this to the greater attention that is still bestowed here upon the education of this por tion of society. But the progress of demoralization, latterly, has been greatly accelerated ; and this, we think, is a consequence of the reduced and wretch ed circumstances of the operative class, acting in conjunction with the causes we have before men tioned. By Mr Cleland's Tables, the number of delinquents, incarcerated in the jail of Glasgow, in the year 1815, was 944. In 1819, the number was 1323. The average number of prisoners in bride well, for the year 1810, was 90, while the average number in 1819 was 220.
In reviewing the circumstances of a large manu facturing community, this melancholy consideration forces itself' on the mind—that the discoveries in mechanics, and improvements in 'the various pro cesses of production, intended by nature to increase the sum of man's comforts, should, in the way the af fairs of the world are conducted, terminate always in lowering his condition. The end seems to be every where sacrificed to the means; and we find manufac tures valued, not as they enable those employed in them to add to the amount of their enjoyments, but as they serve to increase the general revenue of the country. ( T. T.)