assaulting him in a house in the Gallowgate; he was convicted and fined four merks, and ordered to ask the offended party's pardon. On the 6th of September, Elspet Smith, a servant of a maltman, was convicted "for assaulting Elspet Craig, a tailor's wife, by tearing down her hair about her eyes, bruising her face, and then dragging her to a sellar and almost wirred her'"; therefore Smith was sentenced to pay a fine of four merks to the dean of guild, and also to crave pardon from God and the offended party, and further, she was bound not to trouble Craig again, under the penalty of banishment. On the 17th of the same month, Peter Crombie, merchant, was accused of going to John Scot's house and assaulting his wife, by striking her on the breast and throwing her down; he was fined eight merks. On the 20th of November, James Smith, a weaver, and Alexander Kemp, a wright, were both convicted, for going to the house of Alexander Sangster, a weaver, in the silence of night, and breaking up the door with a forehammer, and then entering the house with drawn swords in their hands; for this they were sentenced to be imprisoned for eight days, and thereafter banished from the city. The same day, William Duncan, a servant of Thomas Walker, shoemaker, was convicted for going to the house of James Hall, shoemaker, at night, and drawing a sword and threatening to attack him, and also uttering most abusive expressions towards him, because he would not allow his servant to go out of the shop with him to eat a lamb's leg as he desired. Duncan was sentenced to imprisonment for eight days, and to find caution for his good behaviour in future. The same day, Robert Gordon, a tailor, was convicted for drawing a sword to William Walker, and threatening to strike him, both of them being drunk; Gordon was sentenced to imprisonment till he relieved himself by the payment of his fine. The 11th of December, Sara Fowler was convicted for scolding and defaming Andrew Birnie, merchant, by "calling him a cankered carle, exclaiming on the streets and saying to his wife that she was as gentle a

woman as herself". Sara was sentenced to be imprisoned for eight days, with an intimation that if ever she should be again convicted, she would be put in the jougs.14 Of course this enumeration is not complete, it does not include the higher class of crimes which were tried before the sheriff and the circuit court.

:

Theft was not so prevalent in the boroughs as it had been at an earlier period. In Glasgow, on the 23rd of November, 1611, there were two men banished for theft. The magistrates, in August, 1613, passed an act for preserving the growing crops from thieves it was proclaimed by sound of drum, "that no person be found bringing to this borough any kind of stuff, as peas, beans, corn, barley, wheat, or rye, upon horseback in burdens, after the hour of four in the afternoon during the harvest; and any one found contravening this, shall be held as a thief and an oppressor of his neighbour, and shall pay a fine of five pounds and be placed in the stocks". It was stated in 1642 that the city was abused by thieves, who escaped punishment.15

In preceding chapters the attempts of the government to provide for the poor and helpless were noticed,16 and parliament continued to pass acts touching the poor, and the repression of beggars and idle vagabonds. These classes were numerous in Scotland, and great difficulty was experienced in dealing with them. By a short act passed in 1597, the administration of the poor-law was entrusted to the kirk-sessions; and by an act of 1600, the sessions were to be assisted by one or two of the presbytery. The common aim of all the early acts relating to the poor was to prevent begging, as much as to make provision

14 Burgh Records of Aberdeen, Vol. III., pp. 255, 256, 259, 261, 264, 265, 267, 269, 271, 272-274. In 1662, the town council of Aberdeen agreed to give the town's scourger thirteen shillings and fourpence of weekly wages; and also gave him the two little houses under the Gallowgate Port to dwell in, while he continued scourger. - Burgh Records, Vol. IV., p. 203.

15 Burgh Records of Glasgow, pp. 325, 338, 437.

16 Mackintosh's Hist. of Civilis. Scot., Vol. II., pp. 290, 321-324.

for the aged, the helpless, and the infirm. It was therefore provided that strong beggars and their children-terms which were meant to include all the able-bodied poor-should be employed at common labour. But it seems this arrangement was not effective, as vagrancy still prevailed. An elaborate act was passed in 1617, entitled "An act anent the Justices, for keeping of the King's peace, and their Constables". The object of this statute appears to have been to establish a more complete local system of police organisation. The various duties of the justices of the peace are minutely described. They were directed to hold a session quarterly, and to put the law into full execution against all wilful beggars and vagabonds, against idle men and women, without any trade or certain occupation, lurking in ale-houses, and reputed as vagabonds, and against all those persons commonly called Egyptians. They were also enjoined to punish and to fine those who received or let houses to such persons, and not to permit innkeepers to receive masterless men, rebels, or persons guilty of known crimes. They were empowered to rate every parish for a weekly portion not exceeding the sum of five shillings Scots, for the support of poor parishioners, who might otherwise starve before their trial came on. They were ordered at their quarter sessions to appoint constables to every parish, two or more according to its extent; but in the royal boroughs the constables were to be appointed by the magistrates. Anyone named as a constable, who refused to accept the charge, was to be imprisoned and fined at the discretion of the justices. The duties of the constables were to arrest all vagabonds, sturdy beggars, and Egyptians, and to bring them before the nearest justice of peace. They were further directed to apprehend all idle persons, whom they knew to have no means of livelihood, or who would not betake themselves to any honest labour; they might also arrest any suspected person, "who sleeps all day and walks all night," and convey him to the nearest justice of the peace.17

17 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. IV.

At the same date an act directly touching the poor was passed, differing from previous ones, inasmuch as it proposed to educate poor children and train them to labour. It recommended that the children and orphans of poor and indigent parents might be taken into families and brought up and educated, and put to learn honest callings. The children to be thus treated were to be certified by a magistrate or the kirk-session in boroughs, and by the kirk-session in county parishes, to be poor and without any means of living. When they were under the age of fourteen, they were, with the consent of their parents, if they had any, and if above that age, with their own consent, to be delivered to their masters with a testimonial, which was to be a warrant for receiving them, and for their masters partaking of the benefit of the act. To encourage people to receive such poor children, it was enacted, "that they should be bound and restricted to their masters, their heirs, and assignees, in all kinds of service which should be enjoined until they be past the age of thirty, and that they should be subject to their master's discipline in all sorts of punishments, except torture and death ".18 As this act was permissive it had little effect; but it was objectionable in principle, as it sanctioned a kind of modified slavery. Still, begging and vagrancy were great social evils in Scotland, and any means which promised to check them would appear to have been justifiable to the legislators of those times.

In 1649, parliament took into consideration the great number of poor and distressed persons throughout the kingdom, exposed to misery, because there was no general and regular mode of granting them relief, which was a reproach to their christian profession. Therefore, it was enacted that each parish and presbytery should be bound to entertain their own native poor. It enacted that a list of the poor in every parish should be made up twice a year, on the 1st of December and the 1st of June, at which time parties were requested to intimate to the parish what sum of money or quantity of victual they were willing to

18 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. IV.

give per month, as a charitable contribution for the support of the poor in every parish. But if the common good and this yearly contribution proved insufficient to support the poor, then the act authorised a rate to be imposed, to make up the requisite amount. A part of the act was directed against beggars and other vagabonds and idlers, and power was given to any one "to take and apprehend such idle and sturdy beggars and to employ them, or dispose of them to others to be employed, in working for their meat and clothes only" 19

In 1661, another act was passed authorising the erection of manufacturing companies, and with the view of reaching the children of the idle and vagabond class, it was directed that in each parish one or more persons should be appointed at the expense of the heritors for instructing poor children, vagabonds, and other idlers, in mixing wool, spinning worsted, and knitting stockings. The execution of this act was entrusted to the heritors of each parish, but it does not appear to have been put into operation. The same year an act was passed giving instructions to justices of peace, being mainly a repetition and extension of the act of 1617, touching the local organisation of police and the administration of the law in petty offences and crimes. The clause concerning the poor enacted that the justices should, twice in the year, on the 1st of December and the 1st of June, make up a roll of the poor in every parish, including those only who were unable to work or incapable of gaining their own living. They were then to appoint two or more overseers in every parish, who should inquire and ascertain the state

19 Acts Parl. Scot., Vol. VI., pp. 389-391. Touching the levying of the rate for the poor, the following occurs in the act :-"The same shall be imposed on the heritors and others by the elders and deacons of every parish respectively, with as much equality as is possible; wherein they are to have special regard to lay the greater proportion on those masters that deal rigorously with their tenants, and thereby impoverish and put them to beggary, and to deal the more favourably with those masters who endeavour to maintain their tenants, and deal charitably with them: and in distributing of the alms, special regard is to be had to the pious, and a distinction to be made between such and the profane debauchee or drunken sort."