7. Failure of administration in Scotland.
But during the seventeenth century even the relief given to the old and to the young in Scotland was not thoroughly administered. Not only do the frequent enactments of the legislature show that the governing class were not satisfied with the result of the existing laws on the subject, but the fact that the Scotch poor laws were on the whole ineffectual is also indicated by the response made by the justices to the Scotch Privy Council, by the hardships which the poor suffered in the time of dearth at the close of the century, and by the continued existence of beggars, licensed or unlicensed, not only in the seventeenth century but until the beginning of the present reign.
7 a. Responses of the Scotch justices to the Privy Council in 1623 show that they were unable or unwilling to enforce the poor laws themselves, and left it to the kirk sessions.
In Scotland as in England the Privy Council endeavoured to induce the justices to secure a better administration of the poor laws. But the Scotch justices possessed less legal authority than their English colleagues, while they also were less inclined either to obey the Council or to impose taxation. Consequently the efforts of the Scotch Privy Council failed while those of the English Privy Council succeeded. The effect of the Council's interference in Scotland can be seen in the events of the year 1623.
This was a time of great hardship. "Mony famileis and tennentis and labouraris of the ground who formarlie wer honnest houshalderis ... ar now turned beggaris thame selffis and of all siort of beggaris thair estate and conditioun is most miserable, becaus thay for the most pairt being eshamed to beg underlyis all the extremiteis quhairwith the pinching of thair belleis may afflict thame[681]." In consequence of this distress the Council issued an order that the destitute poor of each parish should be adequately supported, and that constables should be provided to apprehend and punish vagrants. The expense of both proceedings was to be met by a tax levied upon all the inhabitants of the district.
The replies of the Scotch justices to this order bring out the difference which existed between England and Scotland in law, opinions and practice and the consequent difficulty in enforcing in Scotland a thorough organisation of poor relief. Thus the justices of Haddington and Lothian write that in regard to the tax which was ordered by the Council for apprehending and keeping of idle beggars they "doutt if ane simple proclamatioun be ane sufficient warrand unto us to sett doun stent upoun every man"; with regard to the relief of the poor they thought the general contribution beneficial, but "becaus every contributioun is odious and smellis of ane taxatioun they could not undertak how to proceid thairin, being ane matter beyond thair capacitie[682]." The justices of Edinburgh reply that "thair is no jaillis nor warding plaices within the parochins nor touns of this sherefdome that is able to conteine a tent pairt of the pure beging in the same," order was therefore given in Edinburgh that every landed gentleman should sustain his own poor, and that the ministers should exhort their parishioners to refrain from giving alms to the able-bodied beggars[683]. Other justices arrange meetings to discuss the best means of relieving the destitution which existed; they nearly all report that it is best for the kirk sessions to "stent" their own parishioners, and for each landlord to support the poor on his estate[684].
Again in 1631 and 1632 there are signs of greater care for the poor in Scotland, and this may be due to the action of the Council, but in Scotland it seems clear that the justices left the administration almost entirely in the hands of the kirk sessions, and that the kirk sessions were not induced to enforce an adequate system of poor relief for a long term of years. Consequently Scottish poor relief remained in the seventeenth century in much the same condition as it had been in both England and Scotland in the preceding period.
7 b. Inadequate relief given by the kirk sessions of Banff.
In Scotland, as in both countries before 1597, assistance was given to the poor by the parochial officials, and the money was raised by collections at the church doors.