towns, and poorhouses, where those indigent who are alone in the world without any one to care for them ind 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 inoperative. The provision of relief passed from the justices to the ministers and kirk-sessions, who by an edict of the Privy Council, in 1692, were required to draw up a list of the poor twice a year, and rates were levied only when collections in the church “plates” were insufficient. For 150 years nothing was done to systematize poor relief, and even in 1842 about half of the parishes were yet unassessed to the poor. The total inadequacy of the voluntary system to cope with genuine distress, in respect both of contributions and 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 administrative control known as the Board of Supervision for the Relief of the Poor, with headquarters in Edinburgh. The act did not provide for compulsory assessment, but this was virtually accomplished by the vigilance of the Board, which demanded of local authorities increased care and more liberal relief, with the result that in 1894 only 46 out of 848 parishes remained unassessed. In this year a change in the governing body was affected, the Local Government Board for Scotland being constituted and replacing the Board of Supervision, while the parochial boards made way for parish councils. As the authorities cannot give relief to those able to work, there are no casual wards in Scotland, vagrants having to pay for their night's lodging, or find it in the police station or elsewhere. Every parish has to support its own poor, that is, natives or those who have acquired a settlement by living in it for five years, but relief is given in the parish in which it is applied for, the cost being recovered from the parish of birth or settlement afterwards. For the sick poor the larger towns provide hospitals and dispensaries, besides medical attendance at the homes of the poor, while in rural districts there are cottage hospitals, village sick-rooms, and sick wards in the poorhouses. The mentally afflicted are sent to the asylum if they are dangerous, or kept in the licensed wards of poorhouses, or, if they are harmless or imbecile, boarded out. The expense of pauper lunacy is only partially borne by the parish. The district lunacy board (practically a joint-committee of the county and burgh councils), aided by a parliamentary grant, is charged with the provision and upkeep of the asylums, the poor-law authorities only defraying the maintenance of their own patients. Orphan or deserted children, or the children of paupers, are boarded out and reared like ordinary children, attending the public schools and growing up without the “pauper taint.”
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 person and property. At first an adoptive act was introduced, under which the Commissioners of Supply, who then managed county business—resident landowners in possession of landed estate to the annual value of £100—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 7000 might furnish their own police, and smaller burghs were policed as part of the county to which they belonged by the standing joint-committee (composed equally of Commissioners of Supply and members of the county council), but no new police burgh the population of which was under 20,000 was to be free to police itself. All the constabulary forces, excepting the Orkney and Shetland police, are annually inspected as to efficiency and reported on to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Education. (a) Elementary Schools.—The system of schools which prevailed till the Education Act of 1872 dated from 1696, when the Act for Settling of Schools was passed—one of the last but not the least of the achievements of the Scots Parliament—providing for the maintenance of a school in every parish by the kirk-session and heritors, with power to the Commissioners of Supply to appoint a schoolmaster in case the primary authorities made default. The schoolmaster held his office for life, co-education was the rule from the first, and the school was undenominational. The various religious secessions in Scotland led to the founding of a large number of sectarian and subscription schools, and at the Disruption in 1843 the Free Church made provision for the secular as well as the religious instruction of the children of its members. The Education Act of 1872 abolished the old management of the parish schools and provided for the creation of districts (burgh, parish or group of parishes) under the control of school boards, of which there are 972 in Scotland, elected every three years by the ratepayers, male and female. Since that date the most important changes effected in the elementary education system were the abolition, in 1886, of individual inspection of the lower standards—afterwards extended to the whole of the standards, the inspectors applying a collective test, the “block-grant” system, to the efficiency of a school—and the abolition of school fees (1889) for the compulsory standards, the loss being made up principally by a parliamentary grant, and partly by a proportion, earmarked for the purpose, of the proceeds of the Local Taxation (Customs and Excise) Act 1890, and the Education and Local Taxation Account (Scotland) Act 1892. The capitation grant in relief of fees is at the rate of 12s., of which 10s. is furnished by the parliamentary grant and 2s. by the other sources. King's Scholars, trained at one of the training colleges, and King's Students who attend one of the universities, form the chief source of supply of certificated teachers.
(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 1560 John Knox propounded in his First Book of Discipline a comprehensive scheme of education from elementary to university, but neither this proposal nor an 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, such as the Royal High School of Edinburgh and the High School of Glasgow, 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, and they may be conveniently classified into higher-class public schools, such as the old grammar schools and the liberally endowed schools of the Merchant Company in Edinburgh, and higher grade schools, with a few years' preparatory course for the universities, while some of the ordinary schools have earned the grant for higher education. In 1885 the Scottish Education Department, of which the secretary for Scotland is the virtual head, was reorganized. It was separated from the English Department, and undertook the inspection of higher class schools (public, endowed and voluntary), and two years later instituted a leaving certificate examination, the pass of which is accepted for most of the university and professional authorities in lieu of their preliminary examinations. In 1898 the functions of the Science and Art Department, as far as Scotland is concerned, were transferred to the Department, which makes substantial grants for instruction in those subjects for which science and art grants were formerly paid. A Technical Schools Act, passed in 1887, was applied by a few local authorities; but in 1890 funds
