An important new provision (s. 12) authorizes the co-option of non-elected persons to any committee or sub-committee of a town or county council (other than an education or school management committee under s. 3 of the 1918 Act) to an extent not exceeding one-half of the members, and the first poor relief and education committees to be appointed must include one or more members of the outgoing bodies. Education committees must provide for a majority of the members of the council, the inclusion of women, and the appointment of persons of experi ence in education and in the needs of the area, including in all cases at least one person "conversant with the custom which has prevailed in the public schools of Scotland of giving instruction in religion to children whose parents do not object to the instruc tion so given," and including also in the case of any "transferred" or denominational school at least one representative of the church or denominational body. The derating and exchequer grant clauses in the Scottish Act are similar to those in the English Act. (See Poor Relief.—Before the Reformation, relief of the poor had been the duty of the Church, for early legislation aimed at sup pressing rather than aiding poverty. Those who were absolutely dependent on alms might receive a licence to beg within the bounds of their own parish, but the able-bodied poor were severely dealt with. The act of 1579 directed the magistrates in towns and the justices in rural parishes to prepare a register of the aged and impotent poor and to levy a tax on the inhabitants of every parish for their support. One consequence of the denial of relief to the able-bodied was that the workhouse of the English poor-law system was not established in Scotland, though almshouses are found in many towns, and poorhouses, where those indigent who are alone in the world without any one to care for them find food and shelter, began to be general in the 19th century. Hence arises the prevalence of out-relief, one of the distinctive features of the Scottish poor law. The act of 1579, however, proved largely in operative, and even in 1842 about half of the parishes were yet unassessed to the poor. The inadequacy of the voluntary system to cope with genuine distress, in respect both of contributions and of the dispensing of alms, led in 1845 to the passing of an Act which made the parish the poor-relief area, substituted the parochial board for the kirk-session where recourse was had to a rate, made the appointment of inspectors of the poor and medical officers compulsory, and set up a system of central ad ministrative control known as the Board of Supervision for the Relief of the Poor. In 1894 a change in the governing body was effected, the Local Government Board for Scotland replacing the Board of Supervision, while the parochial boards made way for parish councils. As the authorities could not give relief to those able to work, there were no casual wards in Scotland, vagrants having to pay for their night's lodging, or find it in the police station or elsewhere, but this was altered in 1922. A Scottish Board of Health (now the Department of Health for Scotland) was created in 1919, and took over the powers and duties of the Local Government Board, the Scottish Insurance Commissioners, etc. It was entrusted with all measures concerning the health of the people, including the supervision of local housing schemes under the Housing (Scotland) Act of 1919. The district lunacy boards (practically joint-committees of the county and burgh councils) were reconstituted in 1913 as a General Board of Con trol, charged with the upkeep of mental hospitals, the poor-law authorities defraying only the maintenance of their own patients.
For the extensive changes in the administration of public as sistance effected by the Local Government Act, 1929, see POOR LAW. Responsibility for the general administration of relief, and for the provision, maintenance and management of all public insti tutions for the cure of disease was placed on the county and county borough authorities.
Police.—It was not till the middle of the 19th century that a regular police force was established in Scotland. Till then dwellers in rural districts had practically to provide for their own safety as best they could, while some towns maintained a paid watch and others enrolled volunteer constables, every citizen being expected to take his turn in patrolling the streets to protect introduced, under and property. At first an adoptive Act was ntroduced, under which the commissioners of supply, who then managed county business—resident landowners in possession of landed estate to the annual value of £Ioo—were empowered to raise a police force in the counties ; but the want of common policy and initiative led in 1857 to the compulsory institution of a police force throughout the country. Burghs having a population of more than 7,00o might furnish their own police, and smaller burghs were policed as part of the county to which they belonged.
The police forces, of which there were 31 county and 27 city and burgh in 1927 (excluding Orkney and Shetland which do not come under the Act of 1857) are paid for partly from the county rates and partly by Government subsidies.
(b) Secondary Schools.—Records of the existence of schools in the chief towns occur as early as the 13th century. They were under the supervision of the chancellor of each diocese, and were mainly devoted to studies preparatory for the Church. Before the Reformation schools for general education were attached to many religious houses, and in 1496 the first Scottish Act was passed requiring substantial householders to send their eldest sons to school from the time they were eight or nine years old until they were "competentlie founded and have perfite Latin." In 156o John Knox propounded in his First Book of Discipline a comprehensive scheme of education from elementary to uni versity, but neither this proposal nor a School Act passed by the privy council in 1616 for the establishment of a school in every parish was carried into effect. In several burghs grammar schools have existed from a very early date, and some of them, as the Royal High School of Edinburgh and the High School of Glas gow reached a high standard of proficiency. They were largely supported by the town councils, who erected the buildings, kept them in repair, and usually paid the rector's salary. By the Act of 1872 their management was transferred to the school boards. There were in 1928, 252 secondary schools, including higher class public schools, such as the old grammar schools and the liberally endowed schools of the Merchant Company in Edinburgh. In 1885 the Scottish Education Department was reorganized. It was separated from the English Department, and undertook the inspection of higher class schools (public, endowed and volun tary), and two years later instituted a leaving certificate examina tion, the pass of which is accepted for most of the university and professional authorities in lieu of their preliminary exam inations. In 1923 new regulations were made for secondary schools. A Technical Schools Act, passed in 1887, was applied by a few local authorities; but in 1890 funds' were by chance made available from an unexpected source, and devoted to the purposes of technical and secondary education. Parliament had introduced a measure of public-house reform along with a scheme for compensating such houses as lost their licences. This feature was so stoutly opposed that the bill did not pass, although the chancellor of the exchequer had provided the necessary funds. Government proposed to distribute this money among local authorities and expend the balance in relief iof rates, but a clause was inserted in this bill giving burgh and county councils the option of spending the balance on technical education as well as in relief of rates. Advantage was largely taken of this power, and the grant came to be succinctly described as the "residue" grant. There were in 1928 II Central Institutions under the Scottish Education Department and 5 under the Department of Agricul.• Lure for Scotland, including the Glasgow Veterinary College, which is not in receipt of a government grant. Among the more important are the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh; the Royal Technical College, Glasgow; the West of Scotland Agricultural College; the Edinburgh and East of Scotland Agricultural College; Robert Gordon's Technical College, Aberdeen; and the Dundee Technical College. A new system of continuation classes was brought in under the 1918 Act, and nearly a thousand classes were in existence in 1928.