The public were first awakened to the imperfections of the Scottish Poor Law by Dr. IV. P. Alison, a physician in Edinburgh, and pro fessor of the practice of medicine in the university. Having frequently administered professional services to the poorer classes, he showed from hia own experience that the titter inadequacy of the provision afforded to those who, by inability to work, or bad seasons, or revulsions in trade, were reduced to want, was an extensive cause of disease, vice, and misery. The city population speedily answered to this appeal, and associations were formed, and inquiries made in various directions. It was shown that the amount expended on the relief of the poor in Scotland amounted to little more than a sixth part of the sum dis tributed throughout an equal population iu England by the economised poor law. In England, the expense of supporting the poor amounted to Gs. 10ad. per head of the population ; in Scotland, to Is. aid. In some of the Highland parishes, whence the most destitute objects emigrated over the rest of the country, the allowances were ludicrously small ; and a report made to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1839, enumerated instances where sums averaging from 3s. to Is. yearly were solemnly awarded to destitute people, as the pro vision which the Poor Law made for their wants. In the meantime the discussion of these matters haul a tendency gradually to increase the amount of the provision for the poor. The practice of assessments made considerable progress, and a return to parliament in 1843 shows that between 1836 and 1841 the sums raised by assessment had increased from 89,1011. to 128,858/.; while the sums raised by volun tary assessment had risen from 15,829/. to 22,3S51. A commission was at last appointed to inquire into the whole state of the subject ; and after hearing much evidence, they presented a report, accompanied by a voluminous appendix, in 1843. The amendments proposed in this report were supposed to be of a somewhat narrow nature; the country expressed dissatisfaction with them ; and is 1845 a measure was passed embodying alterations considerably more extensive.
By this Act, 8 & 9 Viet., c. 83, a board of supervision is appointed, consisting of persons connected with the municipal bodies and the administration of justice in Scotland, with one salaried member, who gives constant personal attendance. The office of the board is in Edin burgh. This board is endowed with ample means for ascertaining, in all parts of the country, the condition of the poor, and the method in which the system of relief is administered. The board has, however, no directory or prohibitory control over the proceedings of the local boards. Thaw bodies are, however, re-organised by the Act. In the rural parishes seller° there is an assessment, the local board is to con sist of landowners to the extent of 20/. annual value, the kirk session, and certain elected representatives of the ratepayers, according to the number fixed by the board of supervision. In city parishes, the boards are each to consist of four persona named by the magistrates, deputies not exceeding four from each kirk session in the city, and certain elected persons according to a number and qualification fixed by the board of supervision. In parishes where there is no assessment, the
management is to continue under the old system. There is thus in this Act no machinery for levying or exacting a rate for the poor. unless in those parishes where the persons more immediately concerned agree to such a measure. It is held, however, that the facilities which the statute gives the poor for exacting from the respective parochial authorities the relief to which they are entitled, will render it neces sary to put more extensive funds at the disposal of the distributors of relief, and this can only be accomplished through the system of assessment. When persons apply for relief, it is provided that, though they have no settlement, if the claim would be just in the case of their having one in the parish where it is made, subsistence must be afforded them till it is determined what parish is liable. When relief is refused, the applicant may apply to the sheriff, who may grant an order for temporary relief, and then hear parties, and decide whether the appli cant is or is not entitled to relief. In this form, however, neither the sheriff nor any other judge can decide on the adequacy of relief. The initial step to any judicial appeal against the amount of the relief afforded, is by an application to the board of supervision; and on that body reporting its concurrence, the applicant is placed on the poor-roll of the court of session, where he has the of the question being discussed gratis. By this Act, provision is made for medical attend ance and medicines, being part of the system of pauper relief, and for the education of pauper children. It is provided, that for the purposes of the Act, parishes may be united into " combinations." By a special clause, nothing in the Act is to be construed as entitling the able-bodied to relief, and their claim is thus left in the state of doubt in which it stood before the passing of the Act. Men deserting their wives and children are made liable to punishment as vagrants, a provision which it is hoped may afford a remedy to a defect which has long charac terised the law of Scotland—the absence of any meat's by which deserted wives can make effectual claim on their husbands for suste nance to themselves and their children, without a regular action in the court of session. By the new Act, a new and more specific mode of apportioning the assessment between landed and other property has been attempted to be established ; but this provision is already a fruit ful source of dispute and litigation. The time necessary to acquire an industrial settlement is increased from three to five years.
POPE (Papa, in Latin) is the title assumed by the bishop of Rome as head of the Roman Catholic Church. The word papa, or papas, meaning " father," is used by the Greeks to denote a presbyter. In the early ages of the church it was given to the bishops in general. (Ducange, ' Glonsarium; ' DIoreri, Dictionnaire Ilistorique.') Gregory VII., in a council held at Rome, A.D. 1076, decreed that the title Papa should be :given only to the bishop of Rome, as a mark of superior respect.