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payment of the just balance: or, if he fails to do so, that he should be decerned to pay such a sum, as the estimated balance due by him.

The precise sum thus concluded for, is generally double or triple, perhaps quadruple, of what is justly due; a circumstance introduced by custom, probably with a view of inducing the de ender to exhibit a candid account, though the effect has been the reyerse.

By the first interlocutor, the defender is usually ordained to give in an account, charge, and discharge, of his intromifsions. But after many inrollments, and a great lofs of time, he often exhibits a very imperfect account, or one unsupported by the proper vouchers.

Objections are made in writing; and written answers, replies, &c. follow. And after an interlocutor, finding the account insufficient, and ordaining the defender to give in a new state, a second state is lodged, not more satisfactory, perhaps, than the first. But it serves to drag the pursuer over the same ground of tedious and expensive litigation, a second time. And thus a space of two, perhaps three, years may elapse before any thing material is got done in

the cause.

When the Lord Ordinary at length decerns, in terms of the libel, which is the only vigorous measure he can pursue, the defender gives in one representation after another, almost without end; which are the more readily listened to, because the extravagant sum libelled is so much beyond what the pursuer himself can say is justly due to him.

In short, the pursuer, however anxious and keen he may at first have been, comes to be almost wearied out, and so to neglect his own cause before it is pofsible for him to obtain from the defender the best account that he can render in the circumstances of the case.

The evil here is very great, and cannot perhaps be removed, but may, I think, be alleviated. A suitable regulation may compel the pursuer to be more scrupulous and attentive in libelling the sum due to him; and his oath may be required on the real amount of it; at least according to the best of his knowledge and belief.

By the same interlocutor that ordains the defender to give in a state of accounts, the pursuer may bę appointed to give his oath of verity or credulity, on the just amount of his claim. The sum being thus ascertained, the Lord Ordinary will fall to decern for it, if the defender fhall fail to give a state of accounts, within the time afsigned to him; or if the state given in by him fhall be found defective; for he ought not to be allowed to give in any new or supplementary state after the interlocutor rejecting the first state is once become final.

In case the pursuer fhall neglect to to make oath, his action ought to be dismissed, and expences awarded against him, reserving the power to him to bring a new action on the same grounds. And not even the consent of parties fhould afterwards render it pofsible to revive or take a single step in the old action.

I would not have the pursuer's oath of credulity held as final evidence of the sums really due; and

therefore I would reserve action of repetition to the defender against him, in case of mistake.

But, on the other hand, care ought to be taken that a defender, by witholding information, fhould not have it in his power to involve a pursuer in perjury, or even to tax him with false swearing, unless upon an accusation in the criminal court.

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ON THE POOR LAWS, LETTER II.
Continued from p. 29.

Method of providing for the poor in Scotland. THE same circumstance which gave rise to the poor laws in Britain, occasioned new arrangements in Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Switzerland, and those parts of Germany where the reformed religion took place. An exact account of these different institutions, and the effects that have resulted from them, would form a very useful and interesting publication but this cannot at present be attempted. In the present essay I fhall content myself with giving a distinct account of the system that has been adopted on this subject in Scotland, in hopes that others who are equally well acquainted with the institutions in other countries, may publish similar accounts of them.

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At the reformation in Scotland was adopted a system of church government which affords the most perfect model of a pure democracy that ever was known to exist for an equal length of time (now

Νου. 17. above 200 years) in any part of the world. Every member of the Scottish church is on the most perfect equality with all others in every respect; nor can an individual pofsefs any influence in it, but that which is derived from respect to his talents or purity of conduct. The influence of this government extends only to spiritual affairs, for unless it be the share it has in the administration of the poor's funds, and the power of representing, when repairs of churches or manses are wanted, the clergy can have no interference with temporal affairs whatever.

In regard to church government, Scotland is divided into parishes; presbyteries, including several adjoining parishes; synods, including several presbeteries; and the general afsembly, which is supreme over the whole.

Each parish, as to spirituals, is put under the care of a clergyman, who is called the minister of that parish. Upon that minister and the elders, who collectively are called the kirk sejsion, devolves the care of the poor; and to them, in the first instance, are entrusted the management of the poor's funds. The elders are laymen chosen from among the most respectable inhabitants to afsist the minister in the discharge of his religious duty to the parish. They are generally chosen, in country parishes, from among the clafs of farmers; a respectable order of men, who for sobriety of mind, regularity of moral conduct, decency of deportment, and attention to the punctual discharge of religious ordinances, cannot perhaps be exceeded by any persons on the globe. These generally reside in different parts of the parifh, and have of course

each of them a district around him entrusted peculiarly to his charge; and as one principal part of their business is to see that the really infirm shall not suffer want, while at the same time the poor's funds fhall not be squandered away upon improper objects, no application for charity can ever be made in which the sefsion has not an opportunity at once of being satisfied, on the best authority, of the propriety of granting or refusing the claim, and of knowing exactly the amount of the supply that the case requires. This, together with the scantinefs of the sums that can in general be afforded, has introduced into practice, in this department a system of rigid economy which has been attended with the happiest effects; and such practical checks have been adopted for preventing abuses in this line, as seem to promise that they cannot soon be overcome.

The poor's funds in Scotland arise almost entirely from voluntary alms, and pious donations of individuals. It is the universal practice, each Lord's day, in every parish, for such of the audience as are in easy circumstances, to give to the poor such an offering of alms as they fhall deem proper. In old times this offering was collected in the church itself, after divine service was over in the forenoon, by the elders going through the church in person, who by presenting a small box fixed to a handle into each seat, gave every one an opportunity 'of dropping into the box whatever piece of money they chose, or allowing it to pafs by where they do not find it suits their circumstances or inclination to give. This practice still prevails in some remote places;

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